“I CAN do anything I want with Cuba,” President Donald Trump told the media this week as the US and Cuba entered negotiations, after more than three months without a single drop of oil reaching the Caribbean Island due to the US blockade and sanctions.

Britain’s communists are calling on the millions across Britain who defend socialist Cuba to act now. Step up the fight to beat Trump’s imperialist arrogance with real material solidarity.

Material Solidarity

This weekend, the Communist Party of Britain will launch Aid for Cuba, a fundraising campaign to supplement the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s Cuba Vive! appeal, which has already reached over £250,000.

Cuba Vive! was originally launched by Britain’s largest trade union, Unison to provide essential medical aid to defend Cuba’s healthcare system, which remains the envy of the world despite US sanctions.

In recent years, strangulation of Cuba’s economy by the US’s 60-year illegal blockade and the spurious inclusion of Cuba on the US list of “state sponsors of terrorism” has threatened Cuba’s renowned public health system. Medicines became unavailable. Cuba experienced shortages of syringes and other essential medical equipment.

The Cuba Vive! appeal has united Britain’s labour movement. Trade unions and individual trade unionists are donating generously, showing that British workers will always support Cuban socialism and sovereignty.

The Communist Party’s Aid for Cuba appeal will provide non-perishable items and send solar technology and battery units to Cuba to help Cubans achieve energy sovereignty by 2027.

Cuban engineers and scientists are the best in the world. With practical and material solidarity of communists and the socialist countries, they can vanquish imperialism and maintain Cuba’s sovereign path to development.

Cuba’s call for peace and sovereignty 

The struggle for Cuba’s sovereign right to exist free from US interference, blockades and sanctions is key to raising the political understanding of our own people here in Britain. The Communist Party supports the work of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign to build the broadest possible front against US aggression towards the island, and for peace and sovereignty.

The Cuba Solidarity Campaign calls for peace and respect for Cuba’s sovereignty and demands the British government and international community uphold international law and oppose US threats of military intervention against Cuba. All socialists should sign the Cuba Solidarity petition here: https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/peace-and-sovereignty/

Already, general secretaries across the trade union movement, and activists in workplaces, community groups and organisations have signed the petition. This is an instrument to educate our movement on Cuba’s socialist achievements, about the criminal US blockade and Trump’s vindictive denial of Cuba’s sovereign right to peaceful development.

Solidarity with Cuba’s Communists

The Communist Party of Britain is proud of our longstanding links with the Communist Party of Cuba.

Our party maintains consistent support and ideological alignment with Cuba’s communists rooted in our shared Marxist–Leninist outlook and long history of solidarity with the Cuban people’s revolution.

Our relationship is not merely symbolic: Britain’s communists visit Cuba regularly to meet with the Communist Party of Cuba, reinforce co-operation and international communist coordination. We encourage communists to support the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s May Day Brigades, and we were pleased to attend the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties held in Havana in 2022.

The Communist Party of Britain’s former general secretary Robert Griffiths met Cuban representatives for political dialogue through the International Meeting in 2022, highlighting ongoing mutual engagement between our parties. As Rob Griffiths’s successor as general secretary, I will attend the International Meeting in Havana in August this year, along with our party chair Lorraine Douglas.

Deepening practical and material ties between British and Cuban communists is our priority. Cubans are our comrades.

Words into action

The Communist Party of Britain has successfully argued for over 60 years for our labour movement to support the Cuban people’s revolution. Now is the time for us all to do more.

The Aid for Cuba appeal will go live in coming days. All those who stand with Cuba’s socialist revolution and against Trump and Marcos Rubio’s barbaric blockade are urged to donate generously via the donate button on the Communist Party’s website: https://communistparty.org.uk/

The Cuban people need us to dramatically step up and strengthen our longstanding solidarity. For the Communist Party, defending socialist Cuba is an overriding priority. Viva Cuba! Venceremos!