DELEGATES to the TUC Congress gave a standing ovation to Cuban trade union federation leader Osnay Miguel Colina today and demanded an end to US aggression against the island.

Mr Miguel Colina told Congress the Cuban people would never surrender to US bullying.

“And resistance does not mean simply enduring. We will work, create, develop alternatives,” he said.

The Cuban trade unionist detailed the horrific impact of the US blockade, which has intensified this year with a siege cutting off all oil supplies, leading to blackouts, disrupting transport and shuttering many workplaces.

But he also described Cuba’s response, including an accelerated push to install solar power capacity to make up for the loss of oil. “They cannot blockade the sun,” he said, to deafening applause.

Congress overwhelmingly backed a Prison Officers’ Association motion demanding the TUC push the government to oppose the extraterritorial application of US sanctions on Cuba in this country, deliver humanitarian assistance to Cuba and for affiliated unions to support the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

Moving, Phil Hannant of the POA said the US was waging “economic warfare to make everyday life unbearable, to create hunger, desperation and suffering in the hope that this will produce political change.”

US President Donald Trump had even said the only way Washington could inflict more suffering on Cuba would be “to go in and smash the place up,” and the threat of military aggression against Cuba was real, he warned.

Seconding, Unison vice-president Micaela Tracey-Ramos noted that Mr Trump had also boasted he could “do anything I want” with Cuba.

“This disgraceful comment is entirely reflective of the US policy in Latin America, at a time when the US is escalating aggression in ways that should alarm all of us,” she said.

The US siege in practice meant “22-hour-a-day power cuts, surgery by torchlight, hospitals unable to function, food unable to be transported or kept fresh.”

Equity’s Sam Swann said the need for solidarity with Cuba was political: “This is actually existing socialism facing existential threats from the global superpower. The Cuban people’s existence, every day, is a challenge to capitalism and imperialism.”