August 28, 2026
A State Department report of July 20 claims the US is upholding democracy and protecting humanity from Cuba, the alleged center of global terrorism.
Subpoenas issued by the House Ways and Means Committee the next day directly target three peace and justice organizations and further put the democratic rights of all of us at risk.
Four days earlier, Trump and Rubio convened an international Ministerial Conference on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism with officials from 66 countries to call for a machinery of counterterrorism to “crush” left-wing movements worldwide. Building solidarity with Cuba, Palestine, Iran, and those targeted by ICE raids was declared a crime.
We condemn these actions and call for defense of those attacked at home and for solidarity with countries and movements under US attack.
The State Department report – Cuba: the Capital of 21st Century Communism – inverts reality by blaming the victim. Washington has waged a hybrid war against Cuba for 64 years, including the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and current threats of military intervention.
The report correctly observes that “ordinary Cubans suffer…severe shortages for the most essential necessities.” Omitted is the fact that the US is primarily responsible, and this is the intention of US policy.
The report is a double-edged sword, threatening solidarity activists at home while providing further regime-change propaganda against Cuba.
We commend the subpoenaed groups for their noncompliance with the Congressional committee’s orders: The People’s Forum, BreakThrough News, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
Over 43 organizations are explicitly named in the State Department report. This encompasses many tens of thousands of individuals and projects. The Trump administration lumps genuine leftists, legal defense organizations, environmental groups and even the Democratic Party under the rubric of a communist threat.
“An injury to one is an injury to all.”
This repression is part of an effort to paint all forms of dissent with a broad brush; nearly anything critical of government policy can be labeled as terrorism rather than as protected First Amendment speech.
The immediate repressive threat is coming from the Republicans. However, Trump’s designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) draws on a bipartisan authoritarian current, including Bill Clinton’s 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
Domestic repression won’t reverse the US’s global economic decline. Coercive measures are increasingly promoted to keep the popular will in check. Reverting to the old McCarthyite ruse of anti-communism creates a faux external enemy to mask the rot within.
We call for a collective defense, support for resisting the subpoenas, and a unified opposition.
