Cubans march against the U.S. blockade and the country’s designation as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” by the U.S. government. Credit: X/@DiazCanelB
Today, on the 66th anniversary of the victory of the great Cuban Revolution, we in the Party for Socialism and Liberation send our warm greetings and solidarity to the Cuban people.
The Cuban Revolution changed global politics. The internationalism of the revolution provided great assistance to the struggling people in Southern Africa who were fighting against the forces of apartheid and colonialism. Cuba’s people-first social system, prioritizing healthcare and education, became a material factor in the support of other peoples and countries who had suffered the ravages of colonialism.
Since Day One of the Cuban revolution, U.S. imperialism has waged a non-stop war designed to crush the aspirations of the Cuban people to be free and self-determining.
The suffocating U.S. blockade of Cuba is one of the cruelest crimes of U.S. empire. Today, Cuba is experiencing the most difficult time since the dawn of the revolution. The Trump and Biden administrations have cut off virtually every possible source of Cuba’s foreign income, including tourism, medical services abroad and much more. Imports of essential goods, medicines and medical supplies, food, oil to run the country’s electrical power plants, access to international banks — they are all effectively blocked.
This is compounded by the absolutely false designation by Washington of Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” The deaths of 3,478 Cubans by U.S.-backed terrorism is proof of who is the real terrorist.
The incoming Trump government threatens even more attacks on Cuba, with arch enemy Marco Rubio named as Secretary of State along with other ultra-right, anti-Cuba nominees pushing for more sanctions. They are fanatics in the campaign to crush the embers of Cuba’s socialist revolution.
In the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 1, 1959, U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba as he realized his days of police-state rule were over. Fidel Castro’s rebel forces had successfully routed Batista’s army in just two years and one month of guerrilla warfare, with the support of the people in cities and the countryside. Almost immediately after the victory, Cuba began to build a new society that soon would declare itself a socialist revolution. Housing, health care, education, land reform and industrial development, social peace, sovereignty, and internationalism were the hallmarks of Cuba’s new reality.
U.S. imperialism immediately began its aggression against revolutionary Cuba, with terrorist attacks, economic war and the Bay of Pigs invasion. It wanted to return Cuba to its control, and prevent the revolution from inspiring others across Latin America to rise up. Ever since then, the economic blockade — solely intended to create hardships and deprivation in the hope of fomenting counterrevolution — has never let up. In fact, in recent years, the economic war has intensified.
People in the belly of the beast who believe in justice will never stop fighting for Cuba’s right to live, the right to be free of the blockade and political attacks. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is committed to building the movement in solidarity with Cuba during these challenging days.
