“For over 60 years, Cuba has stood for a better future for the majority of humanity. Now, we must stand with Cuba.”
By Matt Willgress
This May Day in Cuba will come at a time when the island that has inspired millions and withstood US imperialism for decades is under intense attack from the Trump regime, and the threat of war has been put on the table.
Specifically, on April 13, Trump said that his administration could “focus on Cuba” once the war with Iran is over, adding, “It’s possible we’ll make a stop in Cuba after we finish this.”
Additionally, speaking with USA Today, US Government officials said the Pentagon is awaiting orders from the war-happy Trump to attack Cuba and is finalising plans for a military strike.
As the people of Venezuela, Iran and Lebanon can tell you, these threats are very real. The estimated death tolls from these wars (all in this year alone) were as follows:
- In Lebanon, as of April 15, at least 2,167 people have been killed in Lebanon since attacks resumed across the country on 2 March, according to the health ministry, with 7,061 wounded and over 1 million (more than 20 percent of the population) displaced.
- In Iran, as of April 19, state-linked sources said over 3,400 people have died from the US war. On April 12, the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization 3,375 had been killed. On April 7, the US-based Human Rights Activists news agency said at least 3,636 people had been killed, including over 254 children.
- In Venezuela, January’s attack killed over 100 people. Additionally, on April 19th, The New York Times carried an article with the cumulative figure of 180 killed this year in US naval strikes in the Caribbean against people it claims are smuggling drugs, and which was a ‘justification’ for the illegal war on Venezuela.
Previous to these recent threats of war, Trump had announced the US would sanction any nation that “sells or supplies” oil to the Caribbean country, in effect an energy blockade. Earlier in his second Presidential term, he had also re-added Cuba to the so-called “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list, which enabled a wide range of further sanctions and interventions against the island, in addition to the decades-long punitive and illegal blockade.
Through these increasingly harsh, illegal and inhumane measures, there can be no doubt that the Trump administration is seeking to cause a humanitarian crisis in Cuba and will lead to great human suffering, including civilian deaths. Dramatically undermining the Cuban energy system, for example, inevitably greatly impacts Cuba’s ability to provide healthcare and other essential public services.
Cuba’s Government and massive trade union and social movements, though, remain defiant – and in need of maximum international solidarity.
When asked what Cuba and Cubans would do if attacked by the US during a recent interview on NBC news, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said, “We will defend ourselves, and if we have to die, we will die… If that happens, there will be battles, there will be fighting; we will defend ourselves and, if we have to die, we will die, because, as our national anthem says: ‘To die for the fatherland is to live’.
The following week, in his speech at a mass gathering of Cubans to mark the 65th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s declaration of the socialist character of the revolution, he explained the situation further, explaining that “Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic war, an intensified blockade, and an energy blockade, [but] Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender!”
For over 60 years – from showing that revolution is possible, to being central to the defeat of apartheid in Southern Africa, to the health internationalism that continues to inspire to this day – Cuba has stood for a better future for the majority of humanity. Now, more than ever, we must stand with Cuba.
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- Join the Cuba Solidarity Campaign here and sign the urgent call for peace and sovereignty here.
- INTERNATIONAL ONLINE EVE OF MAY DAY RALLY: Trump’s War Drive – Globalise the Resistance! Thursday April 30, 6.30pm UK time, with the Cuban Ambassador H.E. Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter, Diane Abbott MP, CND, Stop the War and guests from India, Palestine and South Africa. Full details and register here.
- Read Fidel Castro’s famous internationalist May Day speech from 2001 on this site here.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
