How Can the Broadest, Most Effective Movement Be Built?

On June 7, 2026, the Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee (SCFC) voted “to remove the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) participants from membership in our committee,” as the organization announced.

“We are doing this because of ideological differences with the SWP Middle East policy, specifically their support of Israel in the face of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. This action is not aimed at the individuals, but firmly rejects the policies they support,” the SCFC explained.

Others active in Cuba solidarity work across the United States have expressed opposition to this decision, even though a number of them also decried the SWP’s position on Israel/Palestine as a “wretched, counterrevolutionary position on Zionism,” as Pete Seidman, a leader of the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba, put it in a letter reproduced in the first installment of this debate.

“The expulsion of the SWP in Seattle is a dangerous precedent,” said a letter signed by 14 Cuba solidarity activists, also reproduced in Part I. “It establishes a rule that we cannot unite in action with those whom we disagree with on other matters. It erects barriers to uniting growing numbers in a live and actual anti-imperialist fight against Washington’s war on Cuba — which should certainly include those who are not ‘anti-imperialists’ themselves.”

The full introduction to this debate can be found in Part I.

We publish for the information of our readers materials related to this debate, which we think involves important considerations for winning new forces to the movement to oppose Washington’s relentless and increasingly brutal economic war against Cuba. This is especially the case as the people of the Caribbean nation are confronting the most severe economic and social crisis since the victory of the Cuban revolution on January 1, 1959, largely as a result of the cruel and inhuman policies of the U.S. government.

These materials have been circulating in recent weeks among Cuba solidarity groups and individuals.

They include the announcement by the SCFC of its June 7 decision to expel the SWP; a letter signed by 14 individuals active in Cuba solidarity work expressing opposition to the SCFC action; a letter by SCFC leader Cindy Domingo supporting the expulsion of the SWP; and a letter by Pete Seidman on this issue cited above. These four items were published in Part I of this debate. Another letter by Cuba Sí NY-NJ Coalition leader Ike Nahem on this matter is published below.

The headline and text of the item that follows is from the original, with light editing by World-Outlook to improve readability. It is published with the author’s permission. Photos are by World-Outlook.

Due to the length of the dossier that includes documents on both sides of this debate, we published these materials in two parts, the second of which can be found below.

— World-Outlook editors

*

(This is the second of two parts. The first can be found in Part I.)

Thoughts on Building a Cuba-Centered United Front in this Period

(The following is a letter that Ike Nahem, a leader of the Cuba Sí NY-NJ Coalition, sent on June 26, 2026, to the broader movement demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. It has been lightly edited by World-Outlook for readability. It is published with the author’s permission.)

By Ike Nahem

In a recent vote, the Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee (SCFC), which is the main Cuba solidarity/anti-blockade Coalition in the Seattle area, decided to formally (“after a great deal of discussion and soul-searching”) expel individuals who are members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) from the Committee, on the basis of the political and programmatic position of the SWP on Gaza-Palestine-Israel. Prior to this vote, I understand that the SWP has participated in SCFC activities, more or less, since the early 1990s.

In a public Addendum Announcement, the SCFC said, “The Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee voted on June 7, 2026, to remove the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) participants from membership in our committee. We are doing this because of ideological differences with the SWP Middle East policy, specifically their support of Israel in the face of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. This action is not aimed at the individuals, but firmly rejects the policies they support. We want to acknowledge that our inclusion of SWP and the distribution of their materials during SCFC events has caused harm to our organization and our ability to cooperate with our sister organizations engaged in solidarity and anti-imperialist work in our area.” 

It is, of course, the right of the SCFC to regulate their membership and affiliates. These thoughts are not meant to step on any group’s prerogatives per se in regard to membership and perspectives. The recent adopted changes in the Bylaws of the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) also opens the door to the exclusion of groups and individuals based on political positions on highly contentious world and domestic U.S. questions. This has simmered for some time — and perhaps now boiled over — over Gaza-Palestine-Israel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-Islamic Jihad- PFLP attacks; the subsequent full-scale Israeli genocidal war against the Palestinian Gazan population; and again in the February 28, 2026, US-Israeli war on Iran and the still-unfolding consequences of the Trump-Netanyahu debacle from that war.

The questions posed by this action in Seattle and the new National Network on Cuba (NNOC) bylaws are relevant and politically unavoidable for every Cuba-centered united front coalition in every city where Cuba solidarity and anti-blockade work is done in the United States. And that work is expanding and growing nationally, as the economic and social situation on the ground grows more dire.

This work takes place on many fronts: street protests; legislative initiatives; solidarity material aid; webinars; labor and other outreach and Resolutions; and regular solidarity travel and brigades directly to the island.

Inevitably what happened in Seattle has set off a discussion in the broader national forces and movement in the U.S. and in the many cities where Cuba solidarity and anti-blockade work is carried out. 

Letters are being circulated that oppose the SCFC decision from prominent local and national activists and organizers. This opposition is not motivated by agreement with the SWP’s distinct line on Gaza-Palestine-Israel, which rejects Palestinian self-determination, but is rather in support of the principle of defending a non-exclusionary united front that is Cuba-centered in its demands, despite even the sharpest differences on other burning issues.

The most important context to view these issues is from the point of view of the interests of the growing solidarity and anti-blockade movement in the United States. 

Our starting point has to be the U.S. economic and political war on Cuba. That is the accumulating, real-time economic and social (which means human) catastrophe unfolding in Cuba flowing from the Trump-Rubio-U.S. oil blockade and what that means for our concrete work. 

This is highlighted by the most recent economic measures from the Extraordinary Plenum of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, which proposed and passed extensive and comprehensive economic measures that were subsequently ratified by the Cuban National Assembly. 

Cuba solidarity activists and all friends of Cuba must study and reflect on these measures in the coming weeks and months ahead. There will be a major webinar initiated by the International US-Cuba Normalization Conference Committee in the coming weeks with prominent Cuban economists, diplomats, and other prominent figures that will discuss these developments.

This deep crisis in Cuba has gotten exponentially worse since the January 3, 2026, U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. Today we are witnessing nothing less than the public lynching of revolutionary Cuba while the world offers fine words and some important but far from decisive deeds. The very peace and stability of Cuba is directly threatened as Trump issues bombastic military threats while the electrical outages, transportation paralysis, great blows to mass medical and education access, shortages, wholly avoidable deaths of children and others awaiting surgery, and so on continue to accelerate.

Trump and Rubio — with little opposition on Capitol Hill from either capitalist party — are aiming to create the conditions that would expedite — in their calculations — a direct U.S. military intervention. This might involve the activation of Washington’s counter-revolutionary cells as the summer months and increasingly unbearable conditions from the oil blockade set in or perhaps in the development of a new mass emigration dynamic. 

In this context what are the responsibilities and interests of movement building as a whole? How do we broaden the movement beyond the (relatively) politically conscious, “anti-imperialist” forces in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution to actually have an impact in weakening and defeating the U.S. war on Cuba in U.S. politics? How do we maintain unity? What is the basis for united action? 

The SWP has a line on Gaza-Palestine-Israel (extended in the current US-Israeli war on Iran and the murderous Israeli bombing and ground operations inside Lebanon) and they have to live (or not) with it. It is politically and morally indefensible and even appalling to many — myself included. 

Nevertheless, it coexists in the organization with a consistently pro-Cuban Revolution and anti-blockade position. Additionally, Pathfinder Press, which is under the political direction of the SWP, has among the best library and catalogue of Cuba-related books and testimonies from Cuban revolutionaries, including speeches by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Is this a contradiction? No doubt in my view. But my view is really not relevant here. 

In principle there will be many forces, groups, and tendencies in the U.S. that are prepared to speak out and be active in opposition to U.S. anti-Cuba policy, that will have other positions unpalatable to others. This will no doubt, if we do the work properly, include many anti-blockade Cuban Americans who, for now at least, are opposed to the Cuban government and the socialist Cuban Revolution. These are all contradictions that anti-blockade activists need to embrace if our work can have the greatest impact. Scooting off into our “anti-imperialist” corner is not an option.

It is inevitable and necessary that everywhere where Cuba solidarity and anti-blockade work is done well, and where we gain new supporters and allies, that new forces will take positions or have political orientations on any number of issues that may be jarring to others. Local anti-blockade coalitions are not political parties with necessarily detailed programmatic positions on burning domestic and international questions, from the Middle East and West Asia to the upcoming midterm elections in the United States. 

It seems to me that the case for expulsion would be stronger for a definitionally multi-issue group or anti-war/anti-imperialist formations and coalitions like CODEPINK or UNAC, which have a clear position on Israel-Palestine, for example, and certainly for any political party with detailed programmatic positions. 

In Cuba Sí NY/NJ Coalition and in many other cities, there is a plethora of socialist and self-identified Marxist groups, tendencies and parties e.g. CPUSA [Communist Party USA], DSA [Democratic Socialists of America], PSL [Party for Socialism and Liberation], SWP, Struggle/La Lucha, WWP [Workers World Party] — as well as groups rooted in African-American, Central American, Dominican, Puerto Rican and other Caribbean communities, which includes and overlaps with immigrant working-class communities. All speak out and work to end Washington’s bipartisan war on Cuba.

Leaving aside the SWP’s singular position on Gaza-Palestine-Israel, supporters of Palestinian freedom also have a range of views on one-state or two-state solutions, UN 242, Hamas vs the Palestinian Authority, and Zionism and antisemitism today in the U.S. and the world.  

More recently there are certainly sharpening political differences among and within our local coalitions and activists on such questions as the current Venezuelan government and its relations with the U.S., the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, the developments in the Russia-Ukraine-NATO war, and so much more to come in this period of intensified world political instability. 

The thoughts expressed here are my personal views, but it is useful to refer to the experiences of Cuba Sí NY/NJ and to the “Mission Statement” of the Cuba Sí NY/NJ Coalition of which I am a longtime central organizer and coordinator.

This is the original “Mission Statement” of Cuba Sí NY/NJ Coalition first published on our website in 2018. I think in the next weeks Cuba Sí will move to update this document, especially our Cuba-centered demands in light of the concrete situation in Cuba now:

About New York-New Jersey Cuba Sí Coalition

Cuba Sí Bloqueo No!

New York-New Jersey Cuba Sí Coalition is a united effort of dozens of organizations and independent activists that works with similar groups in the US, Canada, across the Americas, and worldwide.

For many years, we have organized actions and campaigns against the bipartisan, extraterritorial Washington economic and political war — the blockade — against our Caribbean neighbor. We are in the long tradition of solidarity with Cuba in the New York-New Jersey area, and across the United States since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Cuba Sí is organized to be a broad united front that is Cuba-centered in our demands and activities. Our goal is defeating US anti-Cuba policy and achieving genuine US-Cuba Normalization. We support:

1) Taking Cuba off the State Department’s spurious “State Sponsors of Terrorism” (SSOT) list; 

2) Legislating an end to all US economic and travel sanctions against Cuba; 

3) Returning the illegally occupied Guantanamo Territory to Cuban sovereignty; and 

4) Ending funding for covert, subversive “regime change” programs. 

Cuba Sí NY/NJ is not a political party or multi-issue organization with a broader political program or orientation. We do not endorse political candidates, but we welcome elected officials, political, and solidarity organizations to participate in Cuba Sí actions and events. Cuba Sí is non-sectarian and inclusive. We reach out to all organizations and activists — whatever the inevitable different ranges of views on other burning US and international questions — to build a mass united front against the brutal US anti-Cuba blockade and the obscene placement of the Cuban state on the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” (SSOT) list without even a pretense of facts or evidence. 

Cuban Sí NY/NJ was founded in 2015 following the release of the remaining Cuban Five political prisoners and the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. Our Coalition initiated and hosted the 1st National Conference for the Full Normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations in March 2017; helped organize groundbreaking international webinars and hybrid conferences during the most isolating and difficult COVID-19 pandemic periods; hosted the March 2023 International Cuba Conference, the March 15-16, 2025, International U.S.-Cuba Normalization Conference, and the March 14-15, 2026, Action Conference for US-Cuba Normalization, all held in New York City.

Cuba Sí NY/NJ Coalition Experience

In Cuba Sí NY/NJ, SWP members have participated in the meetings and actions our coalition has organized over many years in a relatively consistent way. This is true of numerous other groups, coalitions, and other political parties. Cuba Sí presents itself publicly as a coalition of organizations and activists. Cuba Sí aims to unite otherwise disparate organizations around concrete events, e.g. July 26 Celebrations, International US-Cuba Normalization Conferences since 2017 including March 2026 during UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) events that bring the a Federation of Cuban Women-led delegation to the UN in New York; regular street actions; the annual UN General Assembly (USGA) vote against the blockade, and much more under the general auspices of Cuba Sí NY/NJ.

After the October 7, 2023, attacks and consequent Israeli war, mass protests in support of Palestinian self-determination and for a cease-fire broke out in NYC and across the U.S. Numerous Cuba Sí activists participated in these. Early on we decided to invite Palestinian speakers to an upcoming rally in a meeting by a vote of 18-3 with SWP supporters voting no and adopted the position which went on our website and was in a booklet we published that compiled Cuban statements on Gaza-Palestine-Israel:

Cuba Sí does not take a formal political and programmatic position on Gaza-Palestine-Israel in any detail. The component organizations and activists that make up our united Coalition have a range of political and programmatic views and historical perspectives on this and other burning issues in world politics. Cuba Sí will continue to promote on our website —  www.cubasinynjcoalition.org — and distribute widely at actions for Palestinian self-determination, official statements and documents from the Cuban government and Foreign Ministry; the Cuban Institute of Friendship With the Peoples (ICAP); and Cuban media which express Cuba’s detailed positions of solidarity. This booklet is presented in that spirit:

https://www.us-cubanormalization.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gaza-israel-palestine-booklet.pdf

The political consensus among the activists and forces at Cuba Sí meetings at the time was that our anti-blockade work overall would not benefit from taking a detailed programmatic position on Gaza-Palestine-Israel even though most of our individual activists and component organizations support Palestinian self-determination in principle, with various detailed programs, e.g. 1-state-2-state; UN 242, Hamas vs the Palestine Authority; antisemitism and Zionism today, and so on. 

Cuba Sí moreover is committed to publicizing the political and diplomatic views of the Cuban government and the mass organizations inside Cuba in support of Palestinian self-determination and freedom. It should be noted of course that the Cuban diplomatic and political line continues to promote UN 242 and a contiguous, sovereign, independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, that is Israel’s retreat to its pre-1967 borders as the basis for its legal existence and membership in the UN. Cuba also supports in principle the right-of-return for generations of Palestinian refugees in the vast Palestinian diaspora. 

Cuba Sí’s demands are Cuba-centered but we consciously reach out to all progressive and national liberation groups, including Palestinian solidarity organizations (who overwhelmingly identify with Cuba and the fight to defeat the US blockade). 

It should be noted moreover that there have been significant shifts in U.S. public opinion that register a sharp disapproval of the Israeli murderous war on Gaza and sympathy for Palestinian freedom since the October 7, 2023, attacks. This unprecedented shift has been deepened since the US-Israeli war on Iran and Israel’s actions in Lebanon. 

Nevertheless, although hostility to Israeli policies and sympathy for Palestinian self-determination have spread rapidly in U.S. public opinion since the aftermath of October 7, 2023, the major forces we need to reach out to and collaborate with on all the fronts of anti-blockade work: 1) organized labor and the trade-union movement and 2) local, state, and Congressional elected officials will be more difficult if we make embracing a detailed position on Israel-Palestine any kind of precondition in collaboration and work together around defeating US anti-Cuba aggression.

Cuba Sí NY/NJ has a policy of reaching out to Palestinian organizations and activists and inviting them to speak and bring their literature and materials to our actions and gatherings. Like any other organization that endorses Cuba Sí activities the SWP can display their books and newspaper at Coalition events, rallies, and Conferences which presents their views and program including their politically isolated defense of Israeli government and state policies. Let the chips fall where they may. 

All Hands on Deck!

The next weeks and months may very well be a turning point in the future course and path of the Cuban Revolution. 

The summer months in Cuba will be fraught with immense challenges for the revolutionary government. The current situation of massive electrical outages, transportation crisis, and medical and educational breakdowns and disruption all flow from the US oil blockade, in particular. Breaking that is the central task the Cuban state and government face in politically unraveling and defeating the entire US economic war in real-time now and in the future and reviving production, trade, transportation, and distribution in Cuba.

Washington’s spooks and domestic Cuban clients are undoubtedly looking to exploit and direct any popular turmoil and discontent over unbearable conditions in the hot summer months that are now here. The upcoming date of July 11, the anniversary of 2021 protests in Cuba during the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated Cuban tourism even as US sanctions deepened under the Biden White House, are likely to be to exploited by Washington’s propaganda and anti-Revolution, pro-blockade forces among Cuban Americans. 

Restoring electrical power and busting Trump’s oil blockade is the key right now to moving forward and reversing the dynamics that set in after the January 3, 2026, U.S. military assault on Venezuela, which ended Venezuelan oil deliveries to Cuba. These nefarious forces are especially looking to create a “false flag” to justify direct US intervention. Cuba, of course, is preparing to implement its military doctrine of the “War of the Entire People” and ferociously defend the homeland.

In the fall we will see the opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), which will bring a major Cuban delegation to NYC and then (likely before the November 4 US midterm elections) the annual UNGA vote against the U.S. anti-Cuba policy. Cuba Sí NY/NJ will be organizing and mobilizing with our allies to preparing a powerful welcome for our Cuban friends and visible actions and gatherings in this important period ahead.

It really is incumbent on the broader Cuba solidarity and anti-blockade forces to learn — it is not easy! — to navigate the difficulties of forging a united front that can be most effective in shifting U.S. public opinion to the point where a U.S. kinetic strike against Cuba is pushed off the agenda as a near-term threat and Cuba gains time to revive its battered-by-the-blockade economy.

Insofar as SCFC is the Cuba-centered coalition in Seattle, I feel the SCFC vote, as well as the change in the bylaws of the NNOC, are setbacks in principle to the inclusive united-front approach we need at this point, independent of the SWP’s appalling line on Gaza-Palestine-Israel which continues to reject Palestinian self-determination. Defending this principle should be explainable to forces who are repelled by the SWP line. 

People and groups within the struggle to end the U.S. economic war on Cuba should be allowed to exist with their own contradictions and programs and let political developments unfold that will test them in practice. Let’s maintain the principle of an inclusive united front against the blockade in our local coalitions and national and cross-border formations.

Ike Nahem
ikenahem@gmail.com
June 26, 2026

(This was the second of two parts. The first can be found in Part I.)

If you appreciate this article, share it with friends and 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.