Message from the Cuban president to the workers and the people, prior to May Day.
Dear compatriots:
May Day, International Workers’ Day, is approaching, in honor of those who produce and sustain life.
More than 30 year ago, after the fall of socialism in Europe, the massive celebrations of this day were limited to a few countries, Cuba among them.
With legitimate pride, today we can say that, amidst the most severe hardships, we never stopped raising the flags of socialism.
During the following years, delegations from all over the world arrived and continue to arrive to celebrate the day in this small and exceptional nation where workers rule.
They want to witness and share the strength of our difficult, yet joyful, resistance.
They don’t want to miss the impressive example of this people, capable of celebrating the rights they have won, even under the worst economic conditions, and at the same time, criticizing and demanding that, along with the blockade, we be capable of defeating our own shortcomings and mistakes.
This is what the working class was empowered to do since the triumph of 1959, and that power was strengthened when Cuba declared itself the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere.
These days are no better than those, when utopia was an invisible horizon under the weight of the defeat of socialism in other latitudes.
Just as we marched then, celebrating the sustained power of workers and peasants, creators and artists, we are here today, ready to march to continue celebrating.
The hurricane-force winds of the imperial power have blown and continue to blow over our economy, stronger than ever, determined to erase this example of daring creative resistance from the universal political map.
Let us demonstrate once again that we are not alive and standing because the greatest enemy of the Cuban people wanted us to be. We are alive, standing, resisting and creating, by the will of Cubans.
And this time with a special inspiration. May 1st marks 25 years since Fidel’s historic speech in the Plaza overflowing with people, when he called on us to act with a “sense of the historic moment,” to “change everything that must be changed,” and to “emancipate ourselves and with our own efforts.”
As Fidel then stated: “Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world.”
Let us march on May 1st, showing the strength of unity. For our independence and our dreams of justice.
Against the blockade and against the returning fascism. Against the genocide in Gaza and against the silent genocides caused by the sea of injustices that threaten our species.
Let’s march for the better possible world that Cuba wants and deserves.
See you on the 1st in the Plaza!
