10/08/2026
🇨🇺 Ideas expressed by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, at the 24th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties:
🔴 ON CAPITALISM
“We are going through a period of extreme exacerbation of the contradictions of capitalism: excessive concentration of wealth in the hands of a minority, inequalities in its distribution, destruction of the environment, and wars over markets, resources and spheres of influence.”
“Marxist-Leninist analysis remains fully relevant in affirming that these crises are not accidents, but rather the result of the laws governing the development of monopoly and imperialist capitalism.”
“Capitalism, consumed by its own contradictions, has unleashed a perfect storm: wars of aggression in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, an open genocide in Gaza, a climate crisis that is no longer a warning but a reality, structural famine devouring millions of people, and an external debt that the peoples of the Global South will never be able to repay, because it was designed to enslave us, not to develop us.”
🔴 ON SOCIALISM AND THE CUBAN MODEL
“Cuba is advancing along this path through the unfamiliar process of building socialism, as Army General Raúl Castro once also expressed. Even the great thinkers of Marxism could never have imagined how to achieve this on a small island threatened by the greatest empire in human history and subjected to a total blockade, with the State deprived of all sources of resources, financing and trade.”
“I know that the issue of economic and social transformations has been the subject of information and debate, but I would like to insist on certain key concepts: this is a process aimed at revitalizing the economy, not at establishing capitalism; there will be no wholesale privatization; the fundamental means of production remain in the hands of the people; and national sovereignty and independence are preserved.”
“The Party will remain the vigilant guardian of the interests of the people, the working class, the social achievements and the social justice that have guided the Revolution since its beginnings. It is not, and will never be, a party of elites or lobbies. Its role as a single party obliges it to become increasingly democratic and representative, as Raúl has repeatedly called upon us to do, without ever losing sight of the people, the Revolution and socialism.”
“In a world where attempts are made to convince us that ‘there are no alternatives’, our common task is to demonstrate through facts that alternatives do indeed exist, and that socialism remains the only realistic and humane way out of capitalist barbarism, as scientific Marxism has taught us.”
🔴 ON THE SITUATION IN CUBA
“Cuba, an island of dignity and historic resistance in the face of the empire, and today also in the face of fascism, welcomes you with open arms and thanks you for your courage and determination in having come here, despite so much pressure, blackmail and lies.”
“Not content with the genocide in Gaza and its shameful public dissemination, an attempt is being made to reproduce it in Cuba through an aggressive and criminal policy that contradicts itself, denies reality and intensifies without any concealment.”
“The total strangulation to which we are being subjected constitutes collective punishment aimed, through the deprivation of the most basic resources and services necessary for survival, at fostering fatigue, discouragement and social fragmentation, with the purpose of destroying the Cuban socialist project.”
“Those who deliberately design an energy blockade against an entire nation, causing a humanitarian toll of alarming proportions that deprives Cuban children of life from the moment they are born, reduces the life expectancy of cancer patients, and denies our people access to medicines, food, electricity, water, transportation and many other resources necessary for a fulfilling life, can only be described as criminals and fascists.”
“Faced with this meticulously calculated genocide, wherever relief is foreseen or attempts are made to provide it, the guardians of this disgraceful policy will be there to tighten the suffocating stranglehold even further, if such a thing is possible.”
“Alongside the economic war, Cuba is subjected to a high-intensity unconventional war conducted through digital subversion, the financing of internal mercenaries, media discrediting campaigns and networks of influence that seek to disguise as ‘humanitarian aid’ what is nothing more than blatant intervention.”
“We are absolutely not surprised by the revelations made in recent days by major U.S. media outlets concerning an intensification of CIA operations in Cuba aimed at subverting the internal order. These are not accidental leaks, as has been claimed, but rather an element of the deliberate plan of the U.S. regime’s psychological warfare against Cuba.”
“The U.S. blockade only works thanks to the complicity of those who fear Washington’s power more than the judgment of history.”
“The world cannot become complicit in another genocide.”
“The Cuban people have also been able to count on the solidarity of men and women with a strong sense of justice and morality, aware that reason and truth are on our side; many of whom are now being persecuted or threatened because of their commitment to solidarity.”
“Yes, we suffer from many hardships. Power outages, water shortages, inflation and long lines weigh heavily upon us. But no material deprivation has extinguished the flame of solidarity, to which Fidel taught us, and we do not renounce Martí’s principle: ‘The homeland is humanity.’”
“Faced with this asphyxiation, Cuba has not yielded. We have responses that prove it: COVID-19 vaccines, food production through agroecological techniques during times of scarcity, progress in clean energy, popular participation in communities, and the defense of the entire territory by a people transformed into militias and prepared to defend their self-determination, independence and sovereignty.”
“The response of the people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba, has been one of firm and creative resistance, unity, defense of its achievements and modernization of its economic and social model, without ever renouncing the principles of socialism and without yielding to pressure or blackmail.”
“To defend Cuba with strength and urgency is to curb the advance of supremacist, racist, xenophobic, elitist and exclusionary ideas, hostile to true freedom and human emancipation! To defend Cuba is to fight against 21st-century colonialism, against hegemonism, against the claim that a single country should decide the destiny of all!”
🔴 ON U.S. POLICY TOWARDS CUBA
“Their plans consider the Cuban people merely as an instrument, an ailing society that would turn against its government in order to serve their sinister plans to overthrow the Revolution. This is not something we have invented; it is how it has been written and conceived for more than 60 years by the State Department.”
“At the height of cynicism and perversity, the Secretary of State recently declared that U.S. sanctions against the Cuban regime would only be tightened. ‘What we are trying to make them understand is that there is no way out’: this is an unequivocal admission that there is a difficult situation in Cuba as a consequence of an unprecedented economic war. This constitutes an open threat to exterminate an entire people if it does not submit to the designs of the empire.”
“There is no more cynical act than that of the executioner portraying himself as the victim, when his crimes have been public and notorious for decades. The United States has neither the moral authority nor the right to point fingers at Cuba, which is arguably the nation it has spied on the most and against which it has devoted the greatest resources to economic and ideological subversion.”
“Cuba does not need to indoctrinate anyone. It does not need to export ideas. It is history that teaches lessons, showing how far the perversity of empires can go in satisfying their insatiable appetite for domination and possession of the material and human resources of other nations.”
“At this meeting and before you, we denounce the criminal policy of the United States against Cuba, as well as those who remain silent and tolerate the excesses of the emboldened American fascist far right, which lies, steals, kills and seeks to set itself up as the god of all destinies.”
🔴 ON FIDEL CASTRO RUZ
“Fidel understood, as few others did, the need to combine ideological firmness with tactical flexibility. He taught us that ‘Marxism-Leninism is not a dead doctrine, it is not a catechism, but a method, a guide, an instrument for concretely solving the problems of life.’”
“What legacy did the Commander leave us? He left us the certainty that dreams can be realized by defending ideas; he left us the lesson that internationalism is not a ready-made formula, but an attitude that must distinguish us; he instilled in us the conviction that socialism is the only path to saving humanity from the abyss.”
“He taught us that the struggle to preserve the environment and the human species is a socialist battle, that science must serve the people, and that the unity of revolutionaries is more important than any tactical disagreement.”
“In Fidel, we find not only a historic leader, but also a school of revolutionary work: to study, analyze, anticipate, listen to the people and act with courage and honesty.”
🔴 ON THE MISSION OF COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ PARTIES
“The present moment demands more than mere statements of principle. It requires a qualitative leap in our international coordination and articulation. We, the Communist and Workers’ parties, have a historic duty to weave an effective network of solidarity, one that is not limited to communiqués but translates into concrete actions.”
“It is not enough to condemn the empire; we must build popular power at the grassroots, win the streets, neighborhoods, factories and schools. The unity of Communists must be strong, but also flexible, with Fidel’s intelligence in engaging with all progressive sectors. Unity is not uniformity; it is the determination to struggle and achieve victory together.”
“Faced with the imperialist offensive and the structural crisis of capitalism, Communist and Workers’ parties are called upon to play a vanguard role.”
