BREAKING NEWS: A first-hand report from Cuba by Lars Bertling, Russell McClain and Sharon Black, reporters for Struggle-La Lucha, members of the Socialist Unity Party and representatives of the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly, participating in the 31st IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan.

Havana, Nov. 16 — It was an all day ordeal on Monday, Nov. 15, on the U.S. side. We waited in grueling airport security lines and spent hours checking in. Two of our representatives barely got their passports. We had to get up at 5 a.m. and drive to the passport office in Miami and keep our fingers crossed.

But when we got to Cuba it was all worth it.

On landing our spirits soared and our energy returned. Cuban people and their leaders were waiting at the airport, along with a bevy of news media. Our group was literally the first delegation to travel to the newly opened Cuba, which had been closed to international visitors because of the pandemic. Nov. 15 was the opening of schools and services in Cuba and is also a day celebrating the anniversary of Havana.

By Ben Gutman

On Nov. 13 and Nov. 15, Washington D.C.-area activists gathered in front of the Cuban Embassy on 16th Street Northwest to reaffirm a core revolutionary anti-imperialist demand: an end to the murderous blockade and continuous U.S. interference in Cuban affairs.

By Lars Bertling, Russell McClain and Sharon Black 

We were honored to be the first delegation to visit the Fidel Castro Ruz Center in Havana. 

To the Honorable President Miguel Diaz-Canal and the Government of the Cuban People:

The Socialist Unity Party, based in the United States, sends our deepest solidarity to the Cuban people and renews our commitment to ending the criminal U.S. blockade that seeks to strangle the Cuban people in an effort to dismember, control and create chaos.

Cuba has remained a beacon of hope for people around the world who cherish peace and justice.  The perseverance and spirit of the Cuban people and it’s government continues to shine bright.

For those of us living in the Belly of the Beast, the U.S. blockade is a cruel reminder that our government does not want us to see the gains of Cuba, including free medical care, education and social programs, that have been stripped in the United States.

There are no words to describe what Cuba means and symbolizes for us.  It shows that another world is possible.

We will not rest until the U.S. war on Cuba is ended.

The Pentagon and the wealthy corporate rulers in the United States would like to plunder and exploit Cuba again.  This is not possible.  We pledge that we will join the Cuban people in saying no!  End the U.S. blockade now.

By Leticia Martínez Hernández

The Red Bandanas are "a communion of those of us who feel and think about the homeland. We are black and white, students and workers, free women and men. We are artists, campesinos and guajiras, from the countryside and the city, from fields and towns. We are of different genders and sexual orientations, believers and non-believers."

They describe themselves as "social network activists, members of projects, collectives and civil society organizations, who on the basis our own self-organization and self-convocation seek to express ourselves."

Several collectives and civil society leaders came together via Telegram to organize an anti-imperialist action, as Cuba enters a new normality, to demonstrate their opposition to the unconventional warfare methods being used to disrupt the peace in Cuba and the continuing blockade, along with their support of all emancipatory struggles.