ON WEDNESDAY September 16 2026, TUC Congress welcomes Osnay Miguel Colina Rodriguez, general secretary of the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba (CTC) — the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba and Dr Santiago Badia Gonzalez, general secretary of the National Union of Health Workers (SNTS).

Comrade Colina’s historic first international address by a leader of Cuba’s four million trade unionists to the parliament of Britain’s trade unions takes place as the Cuban people suffer the continuing impact of the illegal US blockade that has lasted for over 60 years, as well as new sanctions imposed since January 2026 by President Trump, which, as Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz Canel has said, constitute “a collective punishment amounting to genocide.”

In August this year, I visited Cuba to deliver 40kg of medical supplies to Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health and met the deputy director Dr Henry Lopez Jiminez, who explained the real-life consequences that Trump’s attempt to strangle Cuba is having on public health.  

Cuba is suffering critical shortages of supplies of essential medical supplies — from antibiotics and analgesics to cancer treatments — which is having a severe impact on Cuba’s ability to deliver health care. 

Dr Jimenez told me that waiting lists for surgery and treatment had reached nearly 100,000, of whom 12,000 are children. On an island with a population of fewer than 11 million people, that means nearly 1 per cent of the population is waiting for urgent medical treatment. Infant mortality has doubled, from a world-leading 4.5 per 1,000 to over 9 per 1,000 because of a shortage of neonatal and paediatric supplies. 

The reality of US imperialism’s war on the Cuban people in 2026 is a mask-off genocide. 

No longer do US State Department officials even bother to pretend their goal of reinstalling a compliant mafia regime in Havana is about “freedom.” Now, the US government focuses solely on causing the maximum damage to the health and social solidarity of Cubans in the hope that by increasing their misery they can bully them into surrendering their sovereignty. That’s the meaning of the Donroe Doctrine. 

There is no chance that their genocidal campaign will succeed, for three reasons. 

First, as one of the best educated populations in the world, Cubans understand what is at stake in resisting US attempts to destroy their revolution. The Cuban revolution based on sovereignty and socialism, which emerged triumphantly with Fidel Castro Ruz, Celia Sanchez, Che Guevara and Camillo Cienfuegos from the Sierra Maestra mountains to sweep the mafia dictatorship of Batista out of the island in 1959 was not an event; it was a step in a process that began years before and is continuing today. 

Cuba’s continuing revolutionary process has undergone many phases in its 67 years, from setbacks to astonishing triumphs, including Cuba’s military victory in 1987 at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale that destroyed the myth of military supremacy of the South African Defence Force and brought about the end of Apartheid South Africa. 

Those, such as Trump and Marco Rubio, who underestimate the Cuban people’s attachment to their own sovereignty — to their own chosen path of development — misunderstand the continuing process of revolution in Cuba. 

This brings us to the second reason that their counter-revolution will fail. Faced with a crisis that few other countries in the world could withstand, Cuba has embarked on the most ambitious path to achieving energy sovereignty of any nation in the world. 

The cutting of oil supplies to Cuba from Venezuela, following the US kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on January 3 2026, plunged the island into an energy crisis causing collapses of the national power grid and blackouts lasting up to 20 hours a day. 

Born out of necessity, Cuba has embarked on the most radical energy transition programme in world history. With technical backing, financing, and equipment from socialist China, Cuba has quietly pulled off one of the fastest solar rollouts in the world for a developing nation.
This year, Cuba has connected 49 new solar parks to its grid, adding over 1,000 megawatts (1 gigawatt) of solar capacity. Renewables, which contributed 3-4 per cent of Cuba’s electricity in 2024, surged to hit 10 per cent of total generation, with a target of 17 per cent by the end of 2026. Monthly investments in solar equipment jumped from about $1 million to $37.8m. 

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines has outlined a roadmap for absolute energy sovereignty, reaching 37 per cent by 2030 and 40 per cent by 2035, which will eliminate the need for all fuel imports. Cuba plans for 100 per cent (total carbon neutrality) by 2050 and is also importing large-scale battery storage banks. Because the sun doesn’t shine at night. 

This world-beating energy transition project shows developing countries an alternative to dependence on US-owned, oil multinationals. It is a revolutionary project for our times. 

Finally, US imperialism’s project to recolonise Cuba will fail because Cuba has friends all over the world. Thousands of shipping containers with food, medical and other essential supplies for Cuba are currently held in harbours around the Caribbean (Jamaica) and Latin America (Mexico, Panama) because of US sanctions threats against shipping companies. The international trade union movement must coordinate an international response by dockers and maritime trade unions to break the US blockade.

It is important to avoid catastrophising Cuba’s future. The Cuban people’s clear determination, and the strategy of the Communist Party of Cuba to resist and defeat Trump’s economic blockade and war on the Cuban people are lessons for the whole world. 
 

As trade unionists in Britain, we must do whatever we can to help defend the Cuban revolution and supporting the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s Cuba Vive! appeal.