by Ben Chacko
at Hamilton House

ACTIVISTS held workshops and “intercambio” meetings with Cuban trade unionists at the weekend’s Unions for Cuba conference to learn about Cuban trade unionism and the country’s socialist political system.

Cuba Solidarity Campaign activist Lauren Collins described the three pillars of Cuban politics as the elected assemblies (national, regional and local), mass organisations such as the trade union federation CTC and the Federation of Women and the Communist Party, which does not participate in elections.

The interaction between these three  shaped Cuban politics, she said, pointing out that policy in Cuba is decided through mass consultation which are “not like consultations in Britain where it’s over before you realised it’s happening. Everyone takes part.”

Havana province CTC regional secretary Luis Castanedo Smith said such mass consultations had fed into the Cuban Labour Code as well as the new constitution.

In a plenary on health, Labour NEC member and medical student Lara McNeill praised Cuba’s free training of medics — when British medical and nursing students rack up tens of thousands of pounds in debt — and its pursuit of cheap generic medicines to stop giant pharmaceutical companies ripping off the health service, noting that a Labour election win would see a similar approach to drug production introduced here.

But the shadow of the crippling US blockade loomed over the conference, with speakers denouncing the way it deprived Cubans of vital resources from radiotherapy equipment to braille machines.

Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller listed fines of hundreds of millions of dollars levied by the US Office of Foreign Asset Control on British banks and companies for trading with Cuba despite Britain and Cuba enjoying full diplomatic and trading relations.

“This is not just an affront to Cuban sovereignty — it is an affront to British sovereignty,” he said.