European Left Youth Network declaration: Youth of Europe rise up with Cuba!

[Ljubljana, Slovenia] The European leftist youth organizations gathered in the Summer University of the Party of the European Left (6-9 July 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia) welcome and greet the Union of Young Communists of Cuba in a spirit of mutual brotherhood.

The Assembly turns its thoughts to the people of Cuba and expresses its support in the fight against the blockade imposed by the United States for over sixty years.

The blockade imposed on Cuba is an “act of war”. For thirty years, the United Nations General Assembly has continued to condemn the unilateral blockade that violates human rights and international law, suffocating the island’s economy and conditioning the future of Cuban youth. Nevertheless, the US government disrespectfully ignores the international community, the millions of people who are standing up against the blockade and the effects on the Cuban people.

The US government tightened the blockade against Cuba in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic. It imposed 243 measures and included Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Despite the economic limitations due to the tightening of the blockade policy, Cuba intensified its solidarity.

Our commitment is aimed not only at demystifying the toxic narratives propagated by the Western media and aimed at putting the Cuban revolutionary experience in a bad light, but also at supporting concrete actions that continue the decisions taken at the VII Congress of the Party of the European Left.

Therefore, the European Left Youth Network:

– Demands the US government to lift the blockade against Cuba, and remove Cuba from the list of the State Sponsor of Terrorism.
– Calls on the governments of EU countries to take concrete measures against the blockade imposed by the US against Cuba, highlighting the extraterritorial effects as a violation of the trade and economic relations between the island and European countries.
– Calls on the European Commission to lodge a complaint with the WTO against violations of international trade law caused by the US-imposed blockade; Calls on the European Commission to intensify political dialogue and cooperation between the EU and the Republic of Cuba.
– Opposes any measure that violates the sovereignty of Latin American countries, upholding the right to self-determination of peoples and condemning the unilateral coercive economic measures affecting Latin American peoples; It calls on all progressive forces in the world to protest against the blockade and expand the international movement of solidarity with Cuba.
– Calls on the member parties of the European Left and the MEP group The Left to increase pressure on the European Parliament to take a stand against the blockade.

Supporting Cuban youth in their struggles means uniting in the global struggle for peace and against imperialism, struggles that also have the common goal of preserving the environment and the planet in which we live.

The political will to welcome the Union of Young Communists of Cuba into the Summer University of the Party of the European Left and into debates organized in various European countries is an expression of renewed international youth solidarity with Cuba, its people and its organizations.

We consider essential to disseminate information in our countries about the real conditions of Cuba, informing about the efforts made by the island in the economic, scientific and international solidarity fields. This event is for us a starting point that aims to solidify relations with Cuba and its youth organizations, making them stable and lasting.

Let us fight together for a world of social justice, where young people can advance together in a spirit of internationalist brotherhood and rise up following Cuba’s revolutionary example.