May Day: “Congratulations workers! What has been done to survive the pandemic under a tightened blockade, and nonetheless advancing, is monumental,” tweeted Party First Secretary and President Miguel Díaz-Canel, May 1.

“Congratulations workers! What has been done to survive the pandemic under a tightened blockade, and nonetheless advancing, is monumental. A hard-working, creative people like ours deserves a great tribute,” tweeted Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, May 1, who attended a simple commemoration of International Workers Day at Havana’s José Martí Plaza de la Revolución, with reduced participation given the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the National Anthem was played and the national hero honored with white roses, Political Bureau member and Secretary General of the Federation of Cuban Workers, Ulises Guilarte Nacimiento, congratulated the nation’s workers for their commitment and critical contribution to the construction of a living, united and victorious homeland.

Also in attendance were Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and other members of the Party, Political Bureau, government and trade union movement.

Cuban workers and families celebrated May Day virtually, on social networks, and in small gatherings in accordance with sanitary measures established, reaffirming the people’s majority support for the Cuban Revolution, and our continuing struggle for equality and social justice.

Another celebration of Cuban workers

Cuban workers- The fact that this May Day Cubans will remain behind closed doors, once again, with the same desire to march we felt in 2020, does not mean in any way that we renounce the celebration of International Workers’ Day, a universal century-old commemoration, which in Cuba is a massive event, to share with family and co-workers.

Faced with the impossibility of filling plazas and quenching our thirst for gathering and festivity, the Cuban Workers’ Central Union (CTC) has called for creative virtual celebrations in every home and workplace to reaffirm our support for the Revolution.

May Day commemorations called in our living, united, victorious homeland

Imagen: Santiago Romero Chang
May Day– The Secretariat of the Federation of Cuban Workers (CTC) calls for the celebration of International Workers’ Day with virtual events and activities

The convocation issued by the CTC Secretariat states, “The Federation of Cuban Workers and its national unions call on our people to celebrate International Workers’ Day, preceded by the historic days of the Communist Party of Cuba’s 8th Congress, which will be another resounding demonstration of our unwavering decision to advance the Revolution with the united efforts of all Cuban patriots. Its agreements will constitute a compass guiding the action of workers who continue to move forward in the implementation of the profound changes we have proposed, as part of the updating of the Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development.

There are many reasons to celebrate: the country continues to resist the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the U.S. government, tightened by the Trump administration, which adopted 242 hostile measures – all remaining in force today – and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has weakened even the most powerful economies.

Cuban Communists have just held the 8th Party Congress, a transcendental event, securing continuity, passing the political organization’s principal responsibilities to a generation that grew up admiring the rebels in the Sierra who now continue «with their foot in the stirrup,» alongside us on the paths they taught us.

One of these paths, that of innovation and sovereignty, that of empowering internal forces, that of learning to produce what we need with our own hands – perhaps a mandate from Fidel and Raul that remains pending – is the one that workers in health and the sciences have been following, in this struggle for life, as necessary and Cuban as that of tobacco and sugar of which, 80 years ago, Don Fernando Ortiz spoke about.

Author: Juan Antonio Borrego | informacion@granmai.cu