CPS Remarks to the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties (IMCWP), Havana, Cuba 

by the General Secretary CdeThokozane Kenneth Kunene,

27-  29 October 2022

Theme: “Solidarity with Cuba and all the struggling peoples. United we are stronger in the anti-imperialist struggle, together with social and popular movements, in the face of capitalism and its policies, the threat of fascism and war; in defense of peace, the environment, worker’s rights, solidarity and socialism”

Dear comrades 

I bring revolutionary greetings to you all from the Central Committee and the entire membership of the CPS. 

It is a great honour to address this 22nd IMCWP and a privilege to be amongst you in this historic land of heroes and heroines of class struggle and revolutionary life, Cuba. 

The living, existing presence of Cuba and the great record of the achievements of its people are one of the few remaining inspirations for people struggling today to rid themselves of capitalist and feudal oppression. This is especially so for us, the CPS, in our struggle for democracy and freedom in our country, Swaziland. 

And we are constantly mindful of the oppression Cuba itself faces, especially in the form of the illegal US blockade, which acts as both a material and ideological force against Cuba’s efforts to take socialism to new levels of development. There is a constant threat from US and other sources of imperialism against socialist Cuba, which is why solidarity with Cuba is so vital. 

Cuba, despite this, stands as a beacon for peace in a world now more than ever torn by imperialist war and aggression. The world is now more dangerous because of this than ever. The threat of a new, more devastating world war is now a deeper reality that we all have to face and to try in every way we can to avert. 

Solidarity with Cuba is one way to stand against that threat, a struggle against imperialism. But solidarity is all too often merely rhetorical, filled with passion and sentiment but lacking substance and unable to change the actual situation facing Cuba. 

What can small communist parties such as the CPS do to try to change this? Rhetorical solidarity is often the only recourse when material circumstances make it almost impossible to do more. But as the CPS we can do more. One way is to make the story of Cuba known to our people, to our comrades. We need to transform simple expressions of solidarity into something more tangible. One way is to develop information and education on Cuba’s achievements to give not just our committed members by also a wider audience a real understanding of how socialism in Cuba works, on how precisely it improves the lives of the Cuban people – often against apparently insurmountable odds. 

To develop our solidarity work on Cuba we need to conduct effective education campaigns so that the lessons of Cuba become actual tools in our own struggle. I hope that during my visit to Cuba I can start to develop the basis for this, to take back to my Party concrete plans for developing a new level of solidarity work on Cuba and to develop a detailed education campaign that we can run both in Swaziland and among our compatriots in exile. Foot prints of such lessons are abundant in the history of the Cuban Revolution to this date. 

Solidarity with Cuba needs to be far more robust and visible, more than a few gatherings on 26 July each year and solidarity statements. We need to root information and education on Cuba in our actual work and ensure that within our ranks we become Cuba experts. This is one small step that we can take right now to create a new and more vibrant internationalism in our work, instead of leaving it as an afterthought or appendage. We need to harness all the possibilities that better technological communications offer – and they are not very expensive – to better develop our internationalism.

We wish IMCWP continuity and successes

VIVA Cuba

VIVA Solidarity

VIVA Socialism

VIVA IMCWP

Thank you