This article was written in Turkish at the beginning of March and published on 9 March on the web site of DIP https://www.gercekgazetesi1.net/uluslararasi/dunya-isci-sinifinin-mevzii-olarak-kubayi-savunmak. Now that Silvio Rodríguez, the legendary Cuban folk singer-composer has taken the initiative of taking up the combat rifle against US intervention, we think the analysis made in the article by our comrade has become more timely for international audiences than before.
As soon as 2026 began, US imperialism launched an attack on Venezuela. It then targeted Cuba, alongside a number of Latin American countries such as Mexico and Colombia. The US’s intensification of pressure and the blockade against Cuba is not a development that can be dismissed with the complacency of ‘there has been an embargo for years’ or the simplistic notion that the embargo is merely being tightened. The US is attempting to strangle Cuba and force it to capitulation by cutting off its fuel supply. Following the US attack on Venezuela on 3 January and the abduction of Maduro, the US seizure of Venezuela’s oil flow has severed one of the lifelines that has kept Cuba afloat for years. Trump then expanded the blockade to strangle other countries capable of meeting Cuba’s oil needs. On 30 January, Trump signed an executive order enabling the imposition of additional customs tariffs on countries supplying oil to Cuba, either directly or indirectly. The target is the daily lives of the Cuban people. The US aims to sever Cuba’s energy lifelines and paralyse daily life, to block access to the most basic essential services such as healthcare, and to condemn the people to darkness and deprivation.
While Trump was cutting off Cuba’s energy lifelines in this manner, the US Treasury Department announced that it would facilitate the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba. In this statement, they shamelessly claimed it was “to support the Cuban people”. Of course, this support came with a condition: Venezuelan oil could be sold to the private sector in Cuba, but “any person or entity associated with the Cuban military, intelligence services or other state institutions, or organisations listed on the US State Department’s sanctions list regarding Cuba” would be excluded from this scope! On the one hand, you strangle an entire country with a blockade; on the other, you open its lifeline through the private sector—the very seed of capitalist restoration—whilst completely excluding the state. On the one hand, you intensify the pressure, attempting to force a country to its knees; on the other, you embark on an engineering scheme aimed at organising political and social disintegration from within. Every move presented under the guise of “supporting” the Cuban people—whom they themselves have suffocated with blockades and embargoes—is an attempt to force Cuba into the mould of the system, to eliminate the gains of the revolution and undermine the workers’ state.
Indeed, following the US attacks on Iran, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, appearing on a television programme on 3 March, stated that “the Iranian regime, the flagship of international terrorism, is on the verge of collapse”, and then, referring to Cuba, declared that “the days of this communist dictatorship are numbered”, thereby clearly revealing the true intentions of the Trump administration. Yes, US imperialism seeks to create a thornless rose garden for itself in Latin America and the Caribbean, but its hostility towards Cuba carries a significance that goes beyond the hostility it feels towards countries in Latin America that oppose the US. The US’s hostility towards Cuba is not directed at those currently in power in Cuba, but is a hostility to the fact that it is a workers’ state. It is hostility towards a workers’ state built on the gains of a revolution, which still manages to stand firm in the face of every kind of hardship and embargo, and which serves as an example to all humanity of a path different from the barbarism of capitalism and imperialism. Even while besieging Venezuela, its ultimate goal is to bring Cuba to its knees.
Precisely for this reason, defending Cuba is not merely a matter of defending an island in the Caribbean; it is the world’s working class defending its own position against the onslaught of imperialism. If imperialism, led by the US, is forcing Cuba into capitalist restoration, attempting to dismantle the workers’ state, and threatening Cuba with “I’ll cut off your fuel and crush anyone who stands by you”, then we must respond with the same clarity. Despite all the bureaucratic degeneration that has taken place in Cuba over the years, the Cuban people are defending the gains of the workers’ state. We must stand alongside the working people of Cuba to prevent capitalist restoration, which is being driven by US pressure and the collaboration of the private sector. Defending Cuba also requires an uncompromising stance against US imperialism and the rollback of imperialism on every front. Therefore, to defend Cuba, we must also defend Iran against imperialist attacks today. To defend Cuba, we must never leave the Palestinian people alone in the face of attacks by imperialism and Zionism. The flagship of international terrorism, mentioned by the US senator, is not Iran or any other country, but the US and NATO themselves. Therefore, our slogan must be “Exit NATO! Smash NATO!” Both to defend Cuba and to open the way for humanity’s salvation in the face of the barbarism into which imperialism is dragging the world!