Break the Blockade

Immediately following the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Maduro and the U.S. takeover of the Venezuelan economy, Trump & Co. targeted Cuba. They shut off oil deliveries from Venezuela and announced that tariffs would be imposed on any country that sought to deliver oil to Cuba. The Sheinbaum government of Mexico, the other major supplier of oil to Cuba, quickly capitulated and stopped deliveries, leaving Cuba in desperate straits.

There are widespread power blackouts, lasting 16 or more hours a day. People must walk long distances, or even ride horse-drawn carts, and public transportation is at a standstill. Food imported to the country is rotting in the ports because there is no way of transporting it. Food prices are surging. Lack of fuel means hospitals call off surgeries, schools cancel classes and water pumps can’t run. Some airlines have suspended service to the island because there is no aviation fuel. Cuban doctors who worked throughout Latin America have been sent home by their host governments doing the bidding of the imperialists.

Trump has stated that Cuba is “next on the agenda” after Iran. The Cuban regime has now agreed to open up the country to investment by U.S. businesses as well as to Cuban exiles, with “no limitations,” apparently on condition that it be allowed to remain at the political helm, for now.

The oil embargo comes on top of years of a steadily worsening economy. This is primarily due to the decades-long U.S. sanctions under both Democratic and Republican regimes. But the situation was made worse by the mismanagement of the economy by the Cuban Stalinist leadership, which plowed huge amounts of scarce resources into the tourist industry while underfunding agriculture and infrastructure. Social differentiation has increased: those with access to dollars via the black market or relatives in the U.S. are in a much better position than most Cubans.

Why Workers Should Defend Cuba

The Cuban Revolution expropriated the blood-sucking American imperialists, who exploited the masses and drained the country of its wealth. Despite material scarcity and the deformities introduced by the Cuban Stalinists, the planned, centralized economy provided housing, jobs, free medical care, including abortion, and education for all. Moreover, the revolution inspired many black militants in the U.S. who were fighting for their own liberation. Cuba offered asylum to Robert F. Williams, who organized armed self-defense against KKK terror, as well as to Assata Shakur, a Black Liberation Army member.

Capitalist restoration would be a return to the situation that existed prior to the Cuban Revolution, when the imperialists totally lorded it over the island, as they do elsewhere in the Caribbean. Moreover, the gains that remain from that revolution, such as public health, education and women’s rights, would inevitably be wiped out.

Counterrevolution in Cuba would only encourage the imperialists to demand more, including from workers in the U.S., just as the removal of Maduro emboldened Trump to escalate ICE terror in Minneapolis and go after Cuba and now Iran. Wielding the “Donroe Doctrine,” Trump wants to trample all of Latin America, and every step taken to reinforce U.S. hegemony will put the bosses in a stronger position to dictate terms to workers here. This is especially true in the case of Cuba, whose defeat would be a major milestone in the transformation of the region back into a fiefdom of the U.S. empire. Using the pretext of combating drug cartels, Trump has also threatened military action in Mexico. The Latin American masses face increased oppression at the hands of the imperialists, while in the U.S. it will be the working class that will pay for wars with their lives and through increased repression, inflation, and other attacks on their living standards.

Beware Liberal Democrats

The U.S. ruling class has relentlessly sought to overturn the Cuban Revolution and restore imperialist domination to the island. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have combined economic blackmail with everything from terror attacks and assassination attempts to military intervention, namely the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion ordered by Kennedy. And just last month, heavily armed counterrevolutionaries launched from Miami attempted an incursion into Cuba. Confronted by Cuban security forces, the invaders opened fire. Appropriately, the Cuban forces defended themselves, killing four and arresting the other six.

Liberals laud Obama because he re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba and eased some economic and travel restrictions. However, he continued to apply heavy military and economic pressure to Cuba, keeping U.S. forces in Guantanamo and maintaining trade sanctions that cripple the Cuban economy. In his first term, Trump reversed Obama’s “opening” to Cuba; Biden kept Trump’s measures in place.

The DSA, while organizing some humanitarian relief, is orienting to liberal Democrats. The DSA International Committee is asking people to sign a “call to conscience” that praises Obama’s “important effort to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba.”

The liberal Democrats have the same goal as the Republicans—to overthrow the Cuban state. Only their tactics are different. Trump emphasizes a blockade and brutal shock treatment. The liberals prefer slightly more subtle tools, using trade and economic relations to develop a class of entrepreneurs and foster counterrevolutionary forces within.

Of course, socialists must oppose sanctions and travel restrictions imposed on Cuba and support the right of the Cuban state to enter into diplomatic and economic relations with any country it chooses. However, no trade or investment treaty will halt U.S. aggression against Cuba. This is based on the class hostility of all the U.S. bourgeoisie, including its liberal wing, to the Cuban Revolution and the desire of the imperialists to reconquer the island for exploitation.

Trade policy can be and is used for purposes of economic coercion, as Trump has shown with his tariff wars. He has now announced that he will permit sales of fuel to private businesses in Cuba, while banning such sales to government entities, the military and labor unions. Trump seeks to build up private enterprise while totally subjecting the Cuban economy to the U.S.

What Workers Should Do

As opposed to worthless appeals to the Democrats and other bourgeois forces, we must look to the working class to mobilize in solidarity with Cuba. To withstand the U.S. onslaught, Cuba urgently needs massive material aid. To help break the blockade, the Partisan Defence Committee/Britain has launched a campaign to raise funds to provide urgent aid, such as food, medicine, solar panels, generators and more (see ad). We encourage workers and socialists to donate generously to this fund or others organized to aid Cuba, and fight for their unions and other organizations to do the same.

In Latin America, in particular, there is sentiment among class conscious workers in support of Cuba. In Brazil, one of the oil worker unions organized a protest demanding that President Lula ship oil to Cuba to break the blockade. In Mexico, our sister section has called on the oil workers to organize shipments to Cuba, pointing out that this would be an act of defense of Mexico, which is on Trump’s hit list. But left-talking leaders like Sheinbaum and Lula, hoping to appease Trump, have not lifted a finger to provide Cuba with oil. This display of weakness will only encourage Trump to go after them.

In the U.S., the working class clearly has the power to grind Trump’s war machine to a halt through hot-cargoing weaponry, strikes, etc. To do this, however, means a fight against the union bureaucrats, who have mainly ignored Trump’s imperialist depredations or outright supported them. At best, some officials have expressed humanitarian concerns about Cuba, without mobilizing their members in its defense. Militants should work to organize union contingents in antiwar protests that take a side with Cuba and Iran against imperialism. This can be an initial step in building class consciousness, pointing the way to stronger labor actions against the war while uniting workers here with the oppressed around the world in a common fight against U.S. imperialism.