Cargando...This May Day, Havana will once again become the epicenter of international solidarity. Hundreds of activists from various nations, political affiliations, and unions will travel to Cuba in open defiance of prohibitions and threats of military aggression from the administration of Donald Trump.
One of the delegations that has made its presence at Cuban May Day celebrations a tradition is the U.S. Labor and Youth Activists group. It consists of 50 representatives from different unions, organizations, and political parties, as well as political activists from 12 cities.
Among the union leaders and members are representatives from the Teamsters, Amazon Labor Union, Service Employees International Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, United Union of Roofers and Waterproof Workers, United Domestic Workers (California), Hawthorne Federation of Classified Employees, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In addition, delegates from more than 20 political groups are included. For most of them—especially Cuban Americans and trade unionists—this will be their first visit to Cuba.
Another component that has become a regular part of the delegation are members of About Face, a U.S. pacifist organization made up of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have a parallel program that allows them to attend scheduled activities and also meet with Cuban internationalists who participated in military missions in Angola, Ethiopia, and Syria, and who today are part of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution.
Beyond the symbolic gesture of arriving on the island despite the difficult circumstances the country is facing, the group brings valuable material aid: portable solar chargers, medicines (painkillers and antibiotics), supplies they usually deliver to the Calixto García Clinical-Surgical Teaching Hospital, as well as various materials destined for mass organizations, unions, newspapers, and schools.
The delegation will arrive in Cuba on April 22 to take part in the Trade Union Internship organized by the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba (), an initiative that fosters meetings with trade unionists, mainly from the Global South, with whom they will share experiences about living and working conditions in their respective countries and coordinate how to better organize solidarity with Cuba within the international labor movement.
The delegation’s program also includes exchanges with representatives of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the People’s Power, the Federation of University Students, the Union of Young Communists, the editorial teams of Granma (newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba) and Trabajadores (CTC daily), as well as the Center for Sexual Education Studies (CENESEX), the Federation of Cuban Women, the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, the National Aquarium, and U.S. and international students from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
Representatives of several U.S. media outlets will also be part of the delegation to report on their experience and “produce materials aimed at international education.” Each participant has also committed to organizing activities in their own spaces—whether within their organizations or new ones they establish—in which they will spread information about Cuban reality and denounce the impact of the U.S. blockade.
The delegation will speak before other international guests about the LetCubaPlay campaign (LetCubaPlay.com), which demands that U.S. visas be granted to Cuban Olympic athletes. Many have been denied the opportunity to participate in qualifying tournaments, effectively preventing them from competing in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
According to Mark Friedman, representative of the International Association of Machinists and one of the organizers of the delegation, “the visit would not be complete without a stop at the Fidel Castro Center, participation in the massive May Day march, and the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba scheduled for May 2 at the Convention Palace.”
