Activists at Socialism Conference Discuss Building Opposition to US Blockade — CHICAGO, September 6, 2026 — Chants of “¡Cuba Sí, Bloqueo No!” opened the round table session "Cuba Under Siege" during the Socialism 2026 Conference held here over the Labor Day weekend. The conference, sponsored by Haymarket Books, was attended by approximately 2600 people. More than 100 conference attendees took part in the discussion on Cuba, hosted by the Chicago Cuba Coalition, and another 50 online.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53005249

September 17, 2026

Helen Yaffe, professor of Latin American Political Economy at Glasgow University and author of We Are Cuba! How A Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, also joined the meeting online. She described in detail the “tightrope” Cuba is walking with the 176 economic reforms it is undertaking, emphasizing that they must be seen in the context of Cuba as a small island that is dependent on trade. The Cubans also need capital for infrastructure and social welfare, she added.

Yaffe said the new measures “are referred to quite rightly as liberalizing reforms. They are an economic imperative, but they do constitute a political risk.” The challenge, she emphasized, is how to get foreign capital without undermining sovereignty, or the project of building socialism. “Cubans are not for restoring capitalism!” she declared.