Defend Cuba Against U.S. Imperialism!

U.S. imperialism is hell-bent on beating Cuba into submission. The oil blockade, economic sanctions and military buildup have left the Cuban people with no fuel, no medicine and food priced out of reach. Blackouts extend well past a day at a time as the country teeters on the brink of collapse. Trump and Rubio will keep tightening the noose until the imperialists establish an iron grip on the island. This would be an unmitigated disaster for the Cuban masses and a major milestone in the transformation of Latin America back into a fiefdom of the U.S. empire. It is urgently necessary to do everything possible to defend Cuba from within the belly of the beast.

To begin, the Marxist left and organizations that solidarize with Cuba should combine forces in united-front action in defense of Cuba against the U.S. ruling class. Doing so would maximize the impact of our stand on behalf of Cuba and the international proletariat. It would also broaden the reach of our message and do far more to encourage other anti-imperialist fighters to step forward than separate protest activity. Sectarian divisions have greatly contributed to the erosion of the left’s ability to influence the course of events. This can and must change, but only if we set aside secondary concerns to advance the fight for common objectives.

There is no time to waste. U.S. imperialism under Democrats and Republicans alike has been gunning for Cuba ever since the 1959 Revolution, using every means at its disposal: covert action, military intervention, economic warfare and more. Now, it is on the verge of finishing the job. As Trump delights in telling it, after many decades Cuba “is coming our way.” This is no idle boast, but the alarming reality. The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) government recently approved a series of economic reforms that will dismantle what remains of the planned economy and state monopoly of foreign trade and throw the door wide open to private ownership and imperialist economic penetration. The immediate U.S. response was to pile on even more sanctions.

We might have differences over these reforms and the PCC leadership’s general course in the face of unrelenting imperialist hostility. But one thing should be obvious to all: giving the Wall Street vultures and counterrevolutionary gusanos unfettered access to the Cuban economy is a very bad development. The reduction of Cuba to a neocolony must be fought against from here by rallying wider layers of the U.S. working class to the anti-imperialist struggle.

United-front action would facilitate this vital task. This country’s workers and oppressed minorities have a direct interest in defending Cuba. Counterrevolution on the island would only give fuel to the imperialists to demand more not only from the Caribbean and Latin American masses, but also from workers here. The successful kidnapping of Maduro emboldened Trump to unleash ICE terror in Minneapolis and put the chokehold on Cuba. If Cuba were to fall under U.S. control after more than a half century, the consequences would be even more far reaching, including by giving the bosses a stronger hand to attack the conditions of the multiracial working class at home.

Notably, National Nurses United (NNU), the country’s largest nurses union, held a press conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this week to demand an end to the oil blockade. Many nurses, who experience firsthand the human toll of domestic healthcare cuts, want to do something about the health crisis engineered by the U.S. rulers in Cuba. However, the NNU leadership organized this protest not to draw a line against U.S. imperialism, but rather to appeal to its liberal wing to do more to get Congress to oppose Trump. This will not save Cuba. While “progressive” Democrats might criticize Trump’s methods, they welcome his results.

What can make a real difference is protest that instills class consciousness among workers, pointing the way toward actual labor action in defense of Cuba and an anti-imperialist alliance of workers in the U.S. with the working and toiling masses of the Caribbean, Latin America and beyond. The international proletariat has the power to break the blockade and get oil to Cuba. Any worker who sympathizes with Cuba should come out to the protest, where we can discuss what to do to advance the defense of the unions and the defense of Cuba in the concrete. Join us in much-needed united-front protest on July 17! All out to defend Cuba against U.S. imperialism!