The following is the speech by Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Organizing Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), during the main May Day rally in Havana, Cuba, at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribunal.

An eyewitness report on the rally can be found here.

We publish the speech below for the information of our readers. The translation from the Spanish-language original, as it appeared in the CTC weekly newspaper Trabajadores, is by World-Outlook.

— World-Outlook editors

*

By Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez

General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz,^[1] leader of the Cuban Revolution. Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the [Communist] Party [of Cuba] and President of the Republic.

Comrades of the Presidency, workers, people of our capital.

Down with the blockade! Down with imperialism! Long live peace and solidarity! Long live the Cuban Revolution!

Our enemies have rehearsed and tried everything. They thought they would see us strangled, submissive. And here we are, committed and firm, with our foot in the stirrup and fighting.

These four marching fronts in which we have paraded arise from history.^[2] They are guerrilla fronts. This massive, colorful and patriotic rally of more than half a million habaneros [people of Havana] is Fidel’s May 1st in the year of his centennial.^[3] It is the resounding response of workers all over Cuba who have filled our streets and plazas, demonstrating that socialist and anti-imperialist Cuba will be around for a long time. Without surrender or disregard for history.  Without betraying the glory witnessed.

That is why General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz is here, at the head of our people, our capital, and all of Cuba, together with the generation continuing his work, defending our homeland with loyalty, conviction, and ideological firmness, with that sense of the historic moment that Fidel defined in the concept of Revolution on a day like today 26 years ago. In the 21st century, where the extreme right and neofascism intend to dominate without facing any resistance, we reaffirm our Mambí^[4] and rebel lineage.

Against all odds, we will continue to defend our essence and our principles, raising our voices in defense of peace and solidarity and for a world in which human beings, not capital, are the true horizon.

We are not a people who attack or sow hatred, fanaticism or confrontation. We are a kind and good-hearted people, ready to defend our conquests.

While the rich world accumulates weapons and builds walls, we the peoples of the global South cry out for a glimmer of humanity.

In the middle of this storm, Cuba, the rebellious island, continues to stand as a moral beacon, without armies for invading or digital algorithms for lying. This country has sent doctors where others send bombs; it has provided literacy education where others impose functional illiteracy; and it has shared the little it has where others hoard wealth. Our greatest weapon is not a missile, but a conscience, and our certainty that another, better world is possible.

While there is a single Cuban child learning how to read, a single doctor in a remote village of the world, a single voice denouncing injustice from this island, Cuba will continue to be the example that so bothers our historic enemies. The impact of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States government on Cuba has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. The accumulated material and financial cost is billions of dollars, and it constitutes the principal obstacle to our country’s development.

But the human damage caused, now heightened by the energy siege, is impossible to translate into statistics. The human face of this strangulation constitutes the greatest damnation of this crime. To describe it as it is and to denounce it on any platform: it is merciless collective punishment. 

However, against all predictions of that war machine, which includes media intoxication and social media lynchings, and against the countless limitations intended to suffocate us and make us surrender to irrational threats of war and death, this May 1st confirms that we are here — that not only are we resisting, but we are also creating, growing and triumphing in the face of adversity. Every day that goes by is a victory for Cuba, a victory for peace, and a new epic is being woven, one that is admired by the dignified peoples of the world. This is our trench — it is our response to “the end of history” proclaimed by obsolete capitalist ideologues.

History has not ended. We continue to write it by hammering away with revolutionary ideas, using digital platforms to defend truth and denounce barbarism. That also is our Girón [Bay of Pigs victory]^,[5] today and always.

Compatriots, in recent days, since April 19th, we have felt the pride and commitment of imprinting our signatures for our homeland.^[6] Cuban women and men, we thus reaffirm it. We sign for peace against the blockade; for the right to develop, which is to defend life; for the dreams of children, adolescents and young people; for the history of grandparents and families.

It is signing against war, bombs and deaths. It is signing because reason, truth and justice break down walls. It is defending the path we have chosen, with all and for the good of all, without pressure or threats, and with sovereignty and independence.

For Cuba, together we create. It is the workers’ slogan, and with the guidance charted for us by the priorities defined by the Party, we strive despite the difficulties in production and services. And before all, in preparing for the defense of our socialist homeland, as our General of the Army affirmed; for us, avoiding war is equal to winning it, but to win it by avoiding it, we must prepare correctly.

By sweating rivers, which is preferable to rivers of blood. Inspired by the legacy of our Commander-in-Chief, and the teachings of the General of the Army, we are summoned by a cardinal idea. The homeland is defended, including with rifle in hand if so needed.  

With these convictions, we will continue forward in our goal of perfecting and developing our economy, in changing our energy matrix, in producing food, and in seeking every day more efficient solutions to our problems. May 1st in Cuba will always be a genuine expression of unity around the Revolution and Party. It is a trench of the international working class, and living proof that workers are the essential link in building the history of a people that is still standing and fighting, that will never surrender, and that is determined to struggle ever onward to victory.

Long live the workers of the world! Viva!

Long live our Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz! Viva!

Long live our General of the Army! Viva!

Long live the Cuban Revolution! Viva!

Homeland or death!

We will win!

NOTES

[1] Raúl Castro is a central leader of the Cuban revolution. He is a general in Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. He served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, from 2011 to 2021, and as Cuba’s president between 2008 and 2018, succeeding his brother Fidel Castro.

[2] This is a reference to the four rallies held in Havana on May 1, 2026. For more details see Millions of Cubans March on May Day, Denounce Threats of U.S. Invasion.

[3] Fidel Castro was the central leader of the Cuban revolution. He served as Cuba’s president from 1976 until his retirement in 2008. He died in 2016. The year 2026 marks the centennial of his birth.

[4] The Mambí were guerrilla independence fighters who fought in the 19th-century wars to liberate Cuba from Spanish colonial rule and to abolish slavery. Primarily active between 1868 and 1898, they formed the Ejército Libertador de Cuba (Cuban Liberation Army).

[5] On April 17, 1961, 1,500 mercenaries armed, trained, supported, and deployed by Washington invaded Cuba near the Bay of Pigs . In less than 72 hours of combat, Cuba’s revolutionary militias, police, and armed forces crushed the assault, setting an example for workers, farmers, and youth around the world.

[6] This is a reference to the “My Signature for the Homeland” petition signed by more than 6 million Cubans this spring. For more details see Millions of Cubans March on May Day, Denounce Threats of U.S. Invasion.

If you appreciate this article, subscribe to World-Outlook (for free) by clicking on the link below.

Type your email in the box below and click on “SUBSCRIBE.” You will receive a notification in your in-box on which you will have to click to confirm your subscription.