International Workers' Day in Cuba: A powerful display of resistance and solidarity

On May 1, 2025, more than 600,000 people filled the streets of Havana, and over 5 million marched throughout Cuba, in a powerful display of resistance and solidarity. The international community, including CUPE members, joined the rally as part of a week-long delegation to renew and deepen ties with Cuba’s workers, students, women’s groups, trade unionists and other supporters of the Cuban Revolution. 

 

“To gather in the Plaza de la Revolución, in a rally led by the trade union movement with hundreds of thousands of workers was an extraordinary experience,” says Ashley Clark, delegation member and CUPE regional vice-president for Prince Edward Island.

 

For more than 20 years, CUPE – through CUPE BC’s leadership and in partnership with CoDevelopment Canada – has worked closely with the National Union of Public Administration Workers in Havana (SNTAP Havana). Inspired by the revolution’s spirit of international cooperation and solidarity, the two unions have forged a long-lasting partnership. 

 

Over the years, there have been many worker-to-worker exchanges and opportunities to share expertise. Moreover, CUPE BC sponsors a Global Justice Fund project that helps SNTAP members share strategies and improve health and safety practices, while also delivering much-needed supplies made scarce by the U.S. embargo.   

 

The past year has been one of the most difficult in Cuba’s history. Cubans face daily hardship and scarcity because of the illegal U.S. embargo that has lasted more than 60 years. It blocks access to the basics of daily life – everything from medicines and medical equipment to school and office supplies like paper and computers, vehicles and automotive parts, and assistive technologies for persons with disabilities and seniors.

 

The Cuban people rose up to overthrow a miliary dictatorship in 1959. When the new government nationalized U.S.-owned oil refineries, Washington responded with sweeping economic sanctions that remain in force today. The embargo’s goal is to break the Cuban people’s spirit and undermine their socialist society. 

 

In this context, international solidarity matters more than ever. 

 

“They are trying to achieve the complete siege of Cuba, making it too difficult to maintain the achievements of the revolution and undermining the morale of Cubans,” affirms CUPE National Global Justice Committee member Nadia Revelo. Revelo is a CUPE 1004 member and the labour and human rights program director at CoDevelopment Canada.

 

The embargo is the world’s longest-running economic sanctions regime in recent history. Restrictions deepened in 2021, after outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump listed Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, imposing 240 additional sanctions that both Republicans and Democrats have upheld. 

 

When Arisleydis Hidalgo Leyva, secretary-general of SNTAP Havana, addressed CUPE’s 2023 National Convention, she called it “perhaps the cruellest blockade that has been imposed on any country in history – one that has had not only an economic impact on Cuba, but that has also become a social blockade because the economic limitations impose a very difficult social and political dynamic.” 

 

Today, Cubans are living with daily power outages, wages that lag far behind soaring prices, chronic food and fuel shortages, difficulty accessing clean water, and shortages of critical medicine. The inflation rate is over 30%, and emigration continues to climb. 

 

Despite the challenges, the people persist. SNTAP is committed to strengthening labour’s foundations through member education, workplace health and safety and a better understanding of the equity issues its members face. 

 

The delegation met with several leaders from the labour movement and attended an International Gathering of Solidarity, hosted by the secretary-general of the Workers Central Union of Cuba (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, CTC) and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. During the event, CUPE received the Corazón Abierto (“Open Heart”) award from the CTC in recognition of our union’s deep and longstanding solidarity with Cuban workers. 

 

“Meeting with the CTC, SNTAP and other union leaders was amazing, we have so much to learn from them,” says CUPE National Global Justice Committee member Clay Gordon. Gordon is the president of CUPE 40, representing the Calgary Board of Education workers.

 

Canadian unions, churches, and civil society organizations are pushing the Canadian government to increase humanitarian aid to Cuba and demand the United States lift punitive sanctions. Until that day comes, CUPE and its partner unions will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cuban workers to build a stronger, more inclusive labour movement for the challenges ahead and to prove that solidarity knows no borders.

 

“Despite their difficult conditions, the Cuban people continue to offer support and solidarity to others around the world. Expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people and calls for Israel to end the genocide were everywhere. It was truly inspiring,” underscores Ashley Clark.