Walter Smolarek

May Day in Havana: International solidarity to resist the U.S. blockade

This year’s May Day celebration in Cuba was interrupted by severe storms that knocked out electricity in much of the country. Authorities had no choice but to postpone the traditional mass marches. But for over 150 young grassroots organizers from the United States who had traveled to the country to mark the holiday, this turn of events was just more reason to deepen their efforts to end the U.S.-imposed blockade of the country.

This article was produced in partnership by Peoples Dispatch and Globetrotter.

Miya Tada, a brigade participant from New York, explained how this showed that “the biggest obstacle the Cuban people are facing is the repression and economic warfare of our own government, and that just inspires me to further the struggle against the blockade back in the United States.”

This wide range of activists from nearly 30 states and dozens of organizations was brought together by the International Peoples’ Assembly, a network of left movements and parties around the globe. Members of the solidarity brigade had spent the preceding week taking part in educational panels, discussions with Cuban activists, and youth exchanges as they sought to deepen their understanding of the Cuban Revolution.

May Day Amid a Tightening Blockade

The country is currently grappling with a range of severe difficulties that boil down to a single tremendous challenge—surviving amid a blockade that seems to tighten every day. The U.S.-imposed blockade has been in effect for over six decades, but a series of developments in the past several years has taken its cruelty to new heights.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused havoc in every country on the planet, but the coercive measures on Cuba magnified the crisis dramatically there. The country was able to avoid the kind of catastrophic loss of life experienced in the United States thanks to its world-renowned health system that produced five different vaccines, but the economic consequences were grave. Tourism is a principal source of foreign currency—essential to import vital goods since Cuba is locked out of the dollar-dominated world market—but this industry effectively disappeared overnight. Many other sectors of the economy were severely impacted as well.

“The other pandemic we faced,” Dr. Damodar Peña Pentón of the Latin American School of Medicine explained to brigade members earlier in the trip, “was the administration of Donald Trump. He imposed 243 new measures and used COVID-19 as an ally.”

Over the course of the Trump administration, the mild thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations that took place at the end of the Obama years was completely reversed. Aiming to suffocate the revolution, Trump imposed 243 new restrictions on Cuba designed to totally isolate it from the world economy.

Towards the end of his term, the State Department officially labeled Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism”—because it had hosted successful peace talks between the Colombian government and the rebel movement FARC! Colombia’s president at the time was celebrated for his efforts with a Nobel Peace Prize, but Cuba’s reward was to be slandered as terrorists in an effort to further deter potential trading partners. This is a prime example of what Johana Tablada, Deputy Director for U.S. Affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told brigade members the prior week: “The U.S. government has been permanently telling lies to justify its policy.”

Last August, a massive inferno broke out at the country’s main fuel storage facility in the province of Matanzas. A lightning strike sparked a fire that exploded one of the facility’s massive tanks and then spread to three more. Fourteen firefighters tragically died as they heroically battled the blaze.

Such a disaster would badly affect any country, but for Cuba, the blockade had already made it extraordinarily hard to meet its energy needs. Severe fuel shortages ensued, which persist to this day. This disrupts daily life in innumerable ways and makes it extremely difficult to respond to situations like the storm on the eve of May Day.

Just a few weeks after the fire, on September 27th, Hurricane Ian made landfall in the western province of Pinar del Río. The powerful storm destroyed over 50,000 homes and damaged 60 percent of the housing in the province. Construction materials desperately needed for reconstruction efforts could not be imported due to the economic siege of the island.

Ian also had a profound effect on agriculture. Pinar del Río is known for its tobacco production, and Cuba’s cigars are an important way to acquire foreign currency through exports. Food crops being grown in the region were almost totally destroyed.

The cumulative effect of all this was to create an economic crisis that—contrary to the presentation in the major corporate media outlets—is the consequence of the limitless cruelty of the U.S. government, not a failure of socialism.

The United States seeks to cover up this criminal behavior by preventing its own citizens from traveling to Cuba to see the reality firsthand. Despite traveling as part of a licensed, completely legal trip, members of the youth brigade were harassed and held in secondary questioning upon their return home at the Miami and Newark airports. Several young activists had their phones wrongfully searched and seized in a blatant violation of their civil liberties.

Moving Forward Despite Great Obstacles

The slogan of this year’s May Day in Cuba was “Hands and Hearts for the Homeland!” It reflects the urgent need for every Cuban to contribute all their abilities to overcome any challenge.

Any easing of U.S. pressure on the country will be an immense relief as they pursue this task. The blockade of the country has been almost unanimously condemned at the United Nations on an annual basis for three decades. But even short of the full lifting of the blockade, steps like the revocation of the 243 Trump-imposed measures or the outrageous designation by the State Department that Cuba is a “state sponsor of terrorism” would improve the situation greatly.

“Being here in Cuba has opened my eyes to the dire need in the United States to raise awareness about what’s going on with this blockade and to end it,” explained brigade member Sarah Brummet of Pensacola, Florida. “I’m very inspired to see the solidarity and the struggle of the Cuban people, and it’s our responsibility to take that same energy home and fight the blockade,” she said.

Author Bio: Walter Smolarek is a Philadelphia-based journalist and activist, covering both political developments inside the United States as well as the international activities of U.S. imperialism. Since becoming involved in the movement against the Iraq War as a high school student, he has also participated as an organizer in social movements ranging from Occupy Wall Street in 2011 to the 2014-2015 wave of the Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing mutual aid relief efforts in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. He is a contributor to BreakThrough News, currently serves as the editor of Liberation newspaper, and is the managing editor of LiberationNews.org.

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Workers suffer as US pandemic relief bill stalls in Congress

Not only has the coronavirus pandemic taken a staggering toll in terms of loss of life in the United States but has also caused social and economic dislocation for the working class on a massive scale. The impact of this crisis is likely to last far beyond the distribution of a vaccine.

When the pandemic began to spiral out of control in March, Will Harris was one of the millions of retail workers who lost their income. Harris, who worked two part-time jobs, said that as the months of unemployment dragged on, "I couldn't afford all my groceries when I needed them… I felt bad for spending on anything even if it was absolutely essential," and he had to start rationing medical treatments like testosterone.

Between his employers and the government, assistance was minimal or nonexistent. "I got the first stimulus check for $1,200 but that only lasted me a week or two. I was asking for money from friends and was fortunate enough to be able to find help, but not everyone has that luxury," recalled Harris. He was able to return to work at one of his jobs in August, but it was impossible for him to return to his other job with the multibillion-dollar department store chain Ross because of the company's lack of adequate communication over health precautions.

Ted Kelly, an organizer with the Philadelphia Unemployment Project (PUP), said, "Put simply, the U.S. federal government has completely failed the working class during this crisis." In response, PUP "has formed an organizing group of unemployed workers that we're calling the unemployed organizing committee. These are people who have not necessarily been activists or organizers before they lost their jobs [during the pandemic] but who have been inspired to take action by the tremendous failure of the state to help take care of workers' needs," added Kelly.

The ultra-rich, on the other hand, are doing just fine. Between the beginning of the pandemic in March and the end of July, U.S. billionaires managed to increase their total net worth by $637 billion. Stock indexes hit record highs over the summer, and the job market for higher-paid professionals had fully recovered by then, according to an August report by the Washington Post. And in a single day in July, Jeff Bezos—the richest person on the planet—made $13 billion.

"Inequality was already at historic levels before the pandemic," noted Karla Martin, a member of the board of directors of the pro-labor advocacy group Working Families Partnership, "but coronavirus has pushed the gap between the rich and the poor to unthinkable levels."

Deadlock in Washington Over Relief Bill

One of the clearest examples of the U.S. elite's complete indifference to the plight of tens of millions of unemployed workers is the inaction of the U.S. Congress as "Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked on the new package all of them claim to want," stated a December 11 editorial in the Washington Post. After passing emergency legislation in the spring, when the virus first hit—which included a bailout package for big banks and corporations about the size of the economy of Germany, which has a $4 trillion GDP—the U.S. Congress has done essentially nothing to relieve the immense suffering of the poor and working-class people.

For months, people have been anxiously awaiting new stimulus package measures being crafted by Congress. Perhaps the most closely watched element of the negotiations between legislators is the relief for the unemployed. A renewal or replacement is desperately needed for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program, a $600 per week enhancement to existing unemployment benefits that was passed in March but expired in August. "The enhanced payments to unemployed workers was an absolutely vital lifeline—in many cases [it was] the only thing allowing families to meet their most basic needs," explained Martin.

Kelly holds both major parties responsible for its demise. "Instead of extending and expanding FPUC, both the Democrats and Republicans allowed that program to expire at the end of July and left Washington before implementing a new program."

The Democratic Party controls the House of Representatives, one of two chambers of the U.S. legislature. In May, they passed a bill that would enact a series of stimulus measures totaling $3 trillion. A majority in the Senate, controlled by the right-wing Republican Party, passed their own bill in September that funds approximately $500 billion worth of programs. The Republican bill would cut FPUC in half and give companies a large degree of legal immunity from lawsuits filed by their employees over unsafe working conditions. These measures have primarily been financed through the unique ability of the U.S. treasury to print dollars, pushing the federal government's budget deficit for 2020 alone to $3.3 trillion.

To come into force, a bill must be passed by both the House and the Senate, and then be signed by President Trump. The Democratic Party has taken a formal position in favor of an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits, but they have taken no serious steps to place the kind of pressure necessary on Republicans in the Senate to force the passage of a bill ensuring such benefits. And many of the programs that social movements have been demanding are not even under consideration by either party. "What workers really need are moratoria on rent, mortgage, and utility payments. Bills are stacking up and the cost of living was too high even before COVID," Kelly said.

As the political system grapples with even greater turmoil in the aftermath of the November presidential election, prospects for a major relief package addressing these urgent needs are becoming even dimmer. With the death toll in the United States climbing rapidly amid a new wave of COVID-19 infections, the pressure will be immense to act swiftly when a new Congress convenes in January 2021.

This article was produced by Globetrotter. Walter Smolarek is a Philadelphia-based journalist and activist, covering both political developments inside the United States as well as the international activities of U.S. imperialism. Since becoming involved in the movement against the Iraq War as a high school student, he has also participated as an organizer in social movements ranging from Occupy Wall Street in 2011 to the 2014-2015 wave of the Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing mutual aid relief efforts in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. He is a contributor to BreakThrough News, currently serves as the editor of Liberation newspaper, and is the managing editor of LiberationNews.org. He is a Globetrotter/Peoples Dispatch fellow.

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