Hands Off Cuba: Campaigners prepare for the challenges ahead
Campaign News | Friday, 10 July 2026
CSC members and supporters at the 2026 AGM
With US aggression against Cuba intensifying, delegates at the Cuba Solidarity
Campaign AGM committed to expanding political campaigning and humanitarian aid, before joining the Hands Off Cuba rally to hear first-hand from Cuban guests about the urgent need for international solidarity
CSC Vice-Chair Carole Regan welcomed members, supporters and activists from across the Cuba solidarity movement to the 2026 AGM, warning that as US threats against Cuba escalate, the movement must “triple our efforts” and “stand ready to respond” in the event of military intervention.
Bringing greetings from the National Education Union, Executive and International Committee member Lucy Coleman reaffirmed the union’s “unwavering support” for CSC. Reflecting on her participation in a 2018 delegation to Cuba, she explained how the experience inspired her to remain in the teaching profession.
CSC Director Rob Miller presented the annual report, highlighting the campaign’s key achievements and priorities for the year ahead. Alongside the continuing success of the Cuba Vive appeal, now approaching the £500,000 milestone, he stressed the importance of strengthening political campaigning in Parliament and with the British government. He also reported that following CSC’s parliamentary lobbying and supporters’ campaigning, 117 MPs had signed EDM 2379.
The AGM welcomed special guest Elizabeth Ribalta from the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), who thanked CSC for decades of solidarity. Praising the Cuba Vive appeal, she said it was “impossible to quantify the impact” of Trump’s economic siege on the Cuban people and warned that, with further escalation looming, international solidarity was “more urgent than ever.”
During the meeting, Elizabeth presented CSC National Secretary Bernard Regan with the ICAP Friendship Medal on behalf of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. The award recognised “his support for the strengthening and deepening of ties with our people, founded on brotherhood and solidarity.” She paid tribute to Bernardʼs decades of work, from leading solidarity delegations to building support across the British labour movement, helping embed “the defence of Cuban sovereignty into the DNA of the labour movement.”
Moving the annual plan, Bernard placed the current crisis within the wider context of rising US militarisation and Washington’s attempts to reassert its dominance across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Executive Committee members Micaela Tracey-Ramos and Bob Oram moved and seconded a motion reaffirming CSC’s commitment to the Cuba Vive appeal, while Francisco Dominguez and Gawain Little proposed an emergency motion on the escalating political situation. Supporting the motion, Francisco warned that “the US is ready to go to war” and urged supporters to intensify solidarity with Cuba. Both motions were carried unanimously.
The AGM concluded with the election of 36 members to CSC’s Executive Committee to implement the agreed programme for the coming year.
The afternoon programme began with a screening of the new Breakthrough News documentary Cuba After Castro: The Island in the Crosshairs, featuring an extended interview with President Miguel Díaz-Canel reflecting on the Cuban Revolution’s resilience after nearly seven decades of US hostility.
Addressing the packed rally, Dr Mitchell Valdés-Sosa from the Cuban Centre for Neuroscience warned of the scale of the current US offensive. “If we look at the script of the US government for the immediate future, it’s a horror movie,” he said. “They want to dismantle our public health system, our public education system... and replace a system that serves the people with one driven by private profit.”
He also underlined the importance of international solidarity. While “the United States wants to put us in a prison, isolated from the world,” he said, “you canʼt have solitary confinement if there’s solidarity and hands reaching out to us from around the world.”
Cuban Ambassador Ismara Vargas Walter said that although Cuba had endured the US blockade for more than six decades, “something different is happening in 2026,” describing the Trump administration’s strategy as one of deliberate “energy starvation.” She spoke of “blackouts of up to twenty hours a day, surgeons operating when the lights go out, and neonatal nurses squeezing resuscitators by hand because mechanical ventilators have gone dark.”
Thanking the audience for their continued support, she said: “We have survived because in rooms like this one people chose solidarity over convenience, truth over silence, and action over hand-wringing.”
Closing the rally, Rob Miller challenged everyone to ask: “What can I do to help Cuba?” While acknowledging that CSC alone could not solve Cuba’s economic crisis, he stressed that collective action makes a tangible difference.
“We should all be really proud of the great achievements of the Cuban Revolution,” he said. “But we should also be proud of what we have already done, and what we will continue to do in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Cuba. Together we can, and together we will, win.”
