By Bill Sacks
February 23, 2026

The Venceremos Brigade has been breaking the travel blockade against Cuba for over 50 years, bringing thousands of people from the U.S. to Cuba, to see Cuban society and Cuban life for themselves, and to come back and challenge all the lies of the U.S. media and U.S. government about Cuba. The next Brigade trip will be this summer.

Clearly, Cuba is now once again directly in the sights of U.S. imperialism. And while Cuba has been the victim of over 60 years of a U.S. economic and financial blockade, resulting in shortages of goods and services, Cuba has withstood all the attacks by imperialism, including military attacks.

But now, this latest inhumane U.S. policy blockades Cuba from getting any fuel, any oil, and threatens every country in the world with high tariffs, if they assist Cuba.

When delivery trucks can’t bring food to a school, that’s attempted murder.

When agricultural workers can’t be transported to farms and fields, that’s attempted murder.

Why this policy of tariffs? Why is Cuba viewed as a national security threat?

There’s a sense in which U.S. imperialists are correct with this view due to Cuba’s political ideology.

The fact is Cuba has been able to develop a socialist society – in spite of the blockade and all the pressure and all the attacks – that has been able to provide basic needs for the people.

Cuban society is based on providing for the people, not corporations, not corporate profits, which is a serious threat to capitalism, and a serious threat to U.S. imperialism. We have to take this threat seriously; we have to fight imperialism.

On Feb. 15, the Cuban Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Gala López, speaking to a podcast of U.S. and Canadian activists, said that surrender is not in the Cuban vocabulary. Again, Cubans will not surrender.

They’ve withstood every other attack against them, and will continue to do so.

What Cuba has been able to do is actually a success of socialism.  The Cuban society is so well-organized that they are now able to ration what limited fuel they have. They are able to ration food, and there will be no starvation in Cuba. And the rest of the world is now stepping up with humanitarian aid and fuel.

Defy U.S. imperialism; world solidarity with Cuba

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, just announced that airplanes can refuel in Mexico on their way to Cuba. She has said that there are talks to deliver oil as part of humanitarian aid.

China has now stepped up its delivery of solar panels to Cuba. And so, the world is standing up for Cuba, and paying Cuba back for all the international solidarity that this Caribbean island has provided.

International solidarity is a bedrock principle of the Cuban Revolution, and Fidel said that for many years.

From the military intervention in Angola that ended apartheid in South Africa to the medical brigades that are now all over the world, it is incumbent on us to also pay Cuba back.

Many organizations are raising money to purchase smaller solar panels that can be used for a building, or a hospital, and transporting them down there. Every trip that people make, they take material aid with them. There’s a big container ship of medical supplies that left Los Angeles in the fall, and another one will be leaving in April for Cuba.

There are a few events coming up, because we need to also be in the streets to show our opposition to this new anti-Cuban policy.  A March 14-15 action conference will take place in New York City to coincide with the meeting at the United Nations on the Commission of the Status of Women where representatives from the Federation of Cuban Women come and take part. They also make themselves available for activities to speak at other meetings to get out as much information as they can about Cuba.

There’s a May Day brigade that the Venceremos Brigade and the National Network on Cuba are organizing. It’s a way to get as many people down to Cuba to interact with the international brigades which will be there to celebrate May Day from other parts of the world, and come back and tell people here what’s really happening in Cuba.

Long live the Cuban Revolution!

The writer is a lead organizer with the Venceremos Brigade.