Madrid/The island’s only union, the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), will adapt once again to the circumstances and on May 1 will celebrate again his act of revolutionary reaffirmation, this time “with parades and events in each work group, towns, municipalities and provinces, rationally assuming the imposed restrictions.”
The call has been going through years of ups and downs in which the pandemic, the lack of fuel and the limited capacity to gather have made the traditional parades to the Plaza of the Revolution disappear. What remains unchanged is the distance with the international labor movements, which dedicate the day to making demands to the Governments, and not to applauding their own, with the exception of China, North Korea or Vietnam.
The statement was released at the end of the most recent “volunteer work day”, held this Sunday with the focus on food production. The union leaders, present at the event, highlighted that these activities, called by the CTC on weekends this year, “have become a demonstration of unity together with other organizations, resuming the creative idea raised by Che Guevara in the 1960s as a powerful weapon to produce and sustain the vitality that the country needs to grow and move forward in the face of the genocidal blockade.”
The union leaders, present at the event, highlighted that these activities, called by the CTC on weekends this year, “have become a demonstration of unity together with other organizations, resuming the creative idea raised by Che Guevara in the 60s
Last week, precisely, Miguel Díaz-Canel participated in one of these eventsin Artemis. The president was photographed removing the earth in a furrow with a hoe, along with fifty people, including 18 young people to whom he gave the Young Communist League card. The CTC has asked that these voluntary works focus, in addition to “food sovereignty”, on the installation of solar panels and the sugar harvest, although the milling is stopped in all the country’s plants due to the lack of fuel.
Liván Izquierdo Alonso, first secretary of the Communist Party in Havana, and Yanet Hernández Pérez, governor of the province, accompanied by other members of the UJC and the PCC, flanked Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, president of the organizing commission of the XXII Congress of the CTC, who was in charge of stating the purpose of the event on May 1, 2026. With the motto “the Homeland defends itself,” the objective will not differ from the traditional ones, although with the varnish of each year, which on this occasion is the energy blockade.
The statement underlines the importance of “working together and growing as a country (…) in the face of the growing threats from the US Government, reinforced with the executive order of January 29, which added an energy siege to the already intensified economic, commercial and financial blockade, which for more than 65 years has been imposed on us just for wanting to build a dignified, sovereign and independent nation.
Nor does the call – as the appointment traditionally does – differ in the use of those considered fathers of the country. “To celebrate May Day (…) is to once again ‘break the corojo’ as Maceo did in Baraguá when he did not accept a peace without independence; it is to evoke the ideas of José Martí in his speech Los Pinos Nuevos, a transcendental declaration of unity of several generations of Cubans around the independence project; it is to defend, in the year of the centenary of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, his concept expressed on May 1, 2000.”
The organization calls on workers to “defend the country from the furrow, the factories, the classrooms, the scientific centers, thermoelectric plants, hospitals, culture, sports; from every combat trench” and invites “Cuba’s friends in the world” to accompany the celebration. Last year, according to the organizers, nearly a thousand activists from 260 organizations related to the regime in 39 countries came to the Island, including 211 Americans, the largest delegation per country. Now, with a large number of international flights suspended, it will be necessary to see what happens with these delegations of foreigners, who normally attend the event in Havana and usually make a tour of activities.
Now, with a large number of international flights suspended, we will have to see what happens with these delegations of foreigners, who normally attend the event in Havana and usually take a tour of activities.
The CTC, in any case, thanks in its statement the solidarity of those who want to support them “in the midst of a real military threat” and repeats the idea that Díaz-Canel brought up last week during his interview on the American channel NBC: “To die for the country is to live.”
The document continues to urge workers to comply with “the priorities defined by the Party,” whether it be the change in the energy matrix, food, education or health, “not out of dogma or fanaticism, but out of conviction, ideas and work.”
He last year, the regime He claimed to have gathered a million people in the May 1 parade, which was again held in the Plaza de la Revolución. Enthusiasm, however, was conspicuous by its absence once again, as in the last decade. According to official data, in 2018 800,000 people attended, but a year later, during the so-called energy ‘conjuncture’, the gaps were absolute evidence of the lack of motivation –despite the pressures–. After the suspension of the celebrations due to the pandemic and the last minute cancellation in 2023, the situation was such that in 2024 the march was convened in the Anti-imperialist Tribunewith 13,000 square meters and the attendance of, supposedly, about 200,000 people.
