Since last month, Cuba has been experiencing one of its deepest crises ever as a result of a U.S.-forced oil embargo. The goal is to deepen the social and economic crisis in Cuba so that the U.S. can coerce the country into bowing to imperialist interests and to pave the way for a full-on restoration of capitalism.
Trump has threatened tariffs against any country that supplies oil to the country. Mexico has completely cut off critical oil deliveries, and Brazil has made steep drops in their shipments. Recently, the U.S. blocked Venezuelan oil shipments to the island. These moves make these countries’ complicit in Trump’s imperialist aggression, which demonstrates the need for an urgent anti-imperialist response organized by the working class and masses around the world.
Amid this crisis, several organizations have announced the Nuestra América flotilla to sail to Cuba with food, medicine, and other essential supplies. The flotilla is set to sail next month from ports across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, with the aim of reaching Cuba in March as a living challenge to the U.S. blockade and a concrete act of solidarity with the Cuban people.
The flotilla is inspired by the Global Sumud aid flotillas to Gaza, which set out to break Israel’s illegal blockade with civilian ships carrying food, medicine, and activists in a direct challenge to the use of siege warfare as a tool of imperialist subjugation. One of the most powerful actions that emerged out of the flotilla movement were the general strikes organized by dockworkers in Italy, against both the repression of the flotilla and the genocide in Gaza.
This working-class intervention, in alliance with youth and broader sectors, showed that when when workers “block everything,” they can make imperialism pay a real cost for its wars and blockades.
Now more than ever, internationalist youth and workers around the world need to organize and mobilize against Trump’s broader imperialist offensive which includes the revived “Monroe Doctrine” that has resulted in military intervention in Venezuela as well as threats to invade Greenland. At the same time, Trump is also escalating in the Middle East with the deployment of even more military forces that are encircling Iran to force the country into submission. Even at home, Trump has been escalating his attacks against immigrants in cities like Minneapolis and working to undermine any opposition to his policies.
Unconditional support for the fight against Trump’s siege on Cuba does not — and must not — require political support for the bureaucratic Cuban regime. We can stand firmly with the Cuban people against imperialist aggression while also defending the democratic rights of the Cuban masses. This means opposing policies meant to restore capitalism while advocating for the broadest freedom to organize for those who want to defend and deepen the social gains of the revolution.
Against Trump’s repression and his criminal attempts to reassert U.S. dominance, especially in Latin America, we must organize a campaign in solidarity with the flotilla and the mobilizations in countries like France in support of Cuba. This campaign is especially significant from the heart of imperialism, where building visible, coordinated action can both amplify these international efforts and directly target the bipartisan imperialist regime that is orchestrating the siege against Cuba.
The labor movement can play a key role, in uniting with other workers’ movement across the region — some of which have been calling for a continental strike against imperialist aggression in Latin America — to be a leading force in the struggle against the imperialist offensive targeting Cuba.
Down with Trump’s blockade and imperialist aggression against Cuba! All out in solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela, and all oppressed nations fighting imperialism!
The post As Nuestra América Flotilla Prepares to Break U.S. Blockade of Cuba, Let’s Build the Anti-Imperialist Movement in the Streets appeared first on Left Voice.
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