FIDEL CASTRO never asked to be remembered through statues or anniversaries. If his centenary means anything today, it is as a reminder that the struggle for Cuba’s sovereignty did not end with the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 or the defeat of US-backed mercenaries at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. It continues every day.

For more than six decades the United States has sought to achieve through economic warfare what it failed to achieve through invasion, sabotage and 648 documented assassination attempts against Fidel himself.

Today the US blockade has reached unprecedented levels. The oil siege and tightening of sanctions has produced critical shortages of medicines, fuel and essential goods, not because Cuba lacks the will to provide for its people, but because the world’s most powerful nation continues to use hunger and suffering as instruments of policy.

It is precisely because of this assault that Fidel’s legacy has become so relevant.

Speaking on May Day in 2000, Fidel defined revolution as “a sense of the historical moment; it is changing everything that must be changed.” Those words were not simply about Cuba. They were a challenge to everyone who believes that another world is possible. They remind us that solidarity cannot be passive. It must be organised.

That is why thousands of people across Britain continue to stand with Cuba today.

Trade unionists, MPs, campaigners and local CSC groups have transformed solidarity into practical action. Through the Cuba Vive Appeal they have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to send medical equipment, medicines and food to Cuba at a time of acute need. They have lobbied Parliament, won growing support across the labour movement and challenged the lies used to justify the blockade.

None of this is charity. Cuba has spent decades sharing its doctors, scientists and teachers with the world. During the pandemic, while wealthy countries competed for vaccines and equipment, Cuba sent medical brigades overseas. As Cubans often say, we share what we have, not what we have left over.

But aid alone is not enough. Every container of medicines delivered to Cuba underlines the absurdity that those medicines are needed because the blockade exists. Every successful fundraising appeal points to the political task that remains unfinished: ending the US economic war against the Cuban people.

Fidel often argued that “the battle today is above all a battle of ideas.” That battle is being fought today in workplaces, trade unions, Parliament and communities across Britain.

It is fought every time someone challenges the false narrative that Cuba’s difficulties are simply the result of a failure of the Revolution rather than the declared objective of US policy to create “hunger, desperation and the overthrow of government.”

The Cuba Solidarity Campaign exists because international solidarity has always been one of the Revolution’s greatest strengths. Every new campaigner, every affiliated trade union, every parliamentary intervention and every donation to Cuba Vive sends a simple message: Cuba is not alone.

The greatest tribute to Fidel’s life is to ensure that the country whose sovereignty he defended has the opportunity to determine its own future, free from blockade, coercion and aggression.

A century after Fidel’s birth, the task of solidarity has not diminished. If anything, it has become more urgent than ever.
 

Visit www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk to find out more.