In May 2025, I traveled as part of the L.A. Hands Off Cuba Committee on a delegation that brought over $500,000 worth of medical supplies and solidarity to the Cuban people. As visitors, we observed millions of workers marching on May Day, sat in classrooms with trade unionists, shared space with war veterans and exchanged visions with women leaders and young people shaping their nation. What we encountered was not just a society under siege by U.S. imperialism, but a people transformed by revolution, determined to defend their hard-won freedom. This reflection offers a glimpse into Cuba’s living example of liberation and the urgent lessons it holds for those of us still fighting under colonial capitalism.
The vision of a liberated Africa
In his 2017 “Political Report: Putting Revolution Back on the Agenda!” Chairman Omali Yeshitela asked and answered the question: What will a liberated Africa look like? In it, he says: “Liberation under the leadership of African Internationalist-informed workers, organized in the African People’s Socialist Party, will mean the end of economic exploitation. Once the imperialists and African petty bourgeois neocolonialists have been crushed, it will mark the end of all exploitation.”
“This means that African women, who will play a fundamental role in the liberation of our Africa, will rise to full stature, with all the rights and authority this implies. This means a major assault will be made against all restrictions on the rights of women that hide under the flimsy and, in most cases, false mask of ‘tradition.’”
“Nor will African liberation under the leadership of the African working class tolerate social, economic, or political oppression of sectors of the African nation and working class because of spurious bourgeois morality.” “The liberated African workers’ state will only oppress the imperialists and the neocolonialists who have surrendered Africa’s future. We will call on the entire African working class and all African patriots to rise up against anyone who would divide the nation and the working class based on the false contradictions of sexual identity, ethnic identity, and regional or religious differences.”
Cuba as a living example
For 67 years, since Fidel Castro toppled the Batista regime, the Cuban people have been the only people on the planet to come close to achieving the beautiful liberation Chairman Omali Yeshitela described in his report. Since the defeat of colonial capitalism on the island, all areas of life have improved. From healthcare to education to governance, Cuba has achieved a true workers’ state.
Our delegation and mission
I represented the African People’s Socialist Party as part of the L.A. Hands Off Cuba Committee, organized by unionist and political activist Mark Friedman. Our contingent included participants from around the U.S., with the most participants from California which included students, unionists, and members of political and social organizations. Importantly, our delegation carried over $500,000 worth of medical supplies to support the Cuban people.
I personally carried donations from the Pan African Sisterhood Health Initiative (PASHI), based in Philadelphia, which makes reusable pads and panties—donations I delivered to the Karibuni Community Center and the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC).
Union organizing and internship
During our first week, we participated in an internship hosted by the Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC)—the federation of trade workers representing nearly the entire population (11.2 million people) across 15 unions. Other delegations that participated came from Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic and Chile. The CTC, one of Cuba’s “mass organizations,” elects 75 delegates to the National Assembly—the highest legal body of Cuba, making Cuba a true workers’ state. Over four days, we attended two daily classes led by union members, some of whom are also members of the vanguard Cuban Communist Party.
During those classes, ideas were exchanged about union organizing. Common concerns included declining membership, low participation of women, the impact of new technology and collaborators working with bosses against workers’ interests. Struck by their concerns and how confined it was to their union and/or industry I posed my burning question: What role will your unions play in the destruction of capitalism? Because no matter how much problem-solving occurs, if the ruling class controls the means of production, these issues will persist. The system must change.
Hands Off Uhuru, international solidarity
I also distributed Hands Off Uhuru fliers widely—including to members of our own delegation, many of whom were unaware. The Cuban people were outraged when they learned about it, recognizing clear parallels between what the U.S. is doing to them and what African people face under domestic colonialism in the U.S.
Employment, housing, and social guarantees
Almost every Cuban is employed and belongs to one of the 15 unions. If someone loses a job, the union and employer work together to reassign them, ensuring continued income. In addition to employment rights, every Cuban has free education, healthcare, housing, and pays no taxes.
Determination amid blockade and sanctions
Despite devastating U.S.-led sanctions, embargoes and Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SSOT), the Cuban people remain committed to their socialist economy. Cuba is an ultra-democracy where citizens actively shape governance through councils, unions, and civic organizations, making a return to capitalism highly unlikely. But Cuba is no utopia. The 62-year U.S. Imperialist blockade prevents access to international banking, loans, imported goods like oil, and the export of Cuba’s renowned doctors. Ships that dock in Cuba must wait 180 days for U.S. entry approval.
This has left hospitals and clinics struggling to access medications and equipment—relying instead on international solidarity and underresourced government support. Though employment and housing are guaranteed (through inheritance, reappropriation or rare new construction), older buildings are crumbling, and shortages of food and essential items persist. People generally have what they need—but not always enough. Yet the people have the will—and where there is will, there is a way.
International Conference Against Fascism
In our second week, we joined all delegations visiting Cuba for the International Conference in Solidarity with Cuba Against the Resurgence of Fascism, where the President of Cuba was present.
Delegations hung their banners and flags from the rafters, looped them over their table and wore shirts in support of Cuba. Delegation representatives spoke from South Africa, Brazil, China, Colombia and the U.S.
Center for Sexual Education: “Two different realities”
During conversations with students, civic, and social organizations, we raised questions about structural racism, gender violence, and LGBTQ+ discrimination—issues that shape life under colonial capitalism. We visited the Center for Sexual Education (Cenesex), where we learned about their work and how they work with communities to educate them on issues of family and sexual health. Here, I learned more about the Families Code—the groundbreaking update to the Cuban Constitution which defines what families can be and guarantees equality for all types of family structures.
It underwent 25 revisions before approval in 2022. At this meeting, participants shared the various struggles we are involved with in the U.S. The speakers looked back at us with concern but also in confusion. A young, lesbian, Afro-Cuban lawyer, sensing our frustration when they couldn’t provide advice on certain questions, gently said, “We are living in two different realities.” For them, life under a socialist democracy—where people are empowered to defend and transform their government—has shielded them from the struggles we endure. Their society, born from the armed struggle of 1958 that ended the tyrannical reign of Batista, had already overthrown the capitalist oppression and exploitation that maintains all of the issues we are still battling in the U.S. and beyond.
Karibuni Community Center and honoring veterans
At the Karibuni Community Center, we participated in a vibrant cultural program that included veterans of Cuba’s internationalist missions, a youth fashion show, soccer players, Cuban dance lessons, food and art. It was an especially emotional moment when we met the veterans—mostly women—who recounted their service in Angola, South Africa, Namibia and Cuba. For the first time, we were able to thank veterans for their service against imperialist wars of aggression. Many of us cried, myself included, as they shared their experiences and affirmed they would do it all again, despite the hardships.
It was also here that I delivered the reusable pads and panties donated by PASHI, which were warmly received. Labor Day March (May Day) On May 1, we woke at 3 a.m. to join observers for May Day. Before dawn, we gathered in the Plaza of the Revolution. Millions of workers, civic organizations, the military, and students filled their contingents. Music and parties had filled Havana the night before, but as the sun rose, they had assembled to participate in the most organized demonstration I have ever witnessed. Here, we met delegations from Ghana, South Africa, and the U.S.
Federation of Cuban Women (FMC)
We met briefly with FMC leaders, whose membership includes 4.4 million Cuban women and girls from age 14 up.
They described their work to ensure women’s rights and gender equity in Cuba and how they engage globally with women’s movements. Their priorities include achieving equity, protecting families, and defending the revolution’s gains. Internally, they use social and civic policies; internationally, they oppose transnational corporate interests, resist the impacts of war and advance Cuba’s interests.
Visit to Granma newspaper
It was a joy to be recognized and welcomed by the staff of Granma (named after the yacht that carried 82 fighters from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 to overthrow Batista), who had first met Secretary General Mwezi Odom the year before. We exchanged publications and agreed to exchange articles.
A new kind of human
What I take most from this trip is that the Cuban people forged this society through struggle and sacrifice. They took up arms, fought and won against imperialist aggression. In doing so, they not only transformed society—they transformed themselves. They are a new kind of human, one that those of us still bound by colonial capitalism have yet to become. They stand on the other side, and though they are still fighting, they are a blade of steel, forged from the blood of their past, cutting through every effort to return them to subjugation.
