On Wednesday, 22 May, the South London Group of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign hosted a powerful evening of reflection, resistance, and revolutionary culture at SET Social in Peckham. Entitled Viva Cuba! Viva Palestina!, the event brought together members of the local community, solidarity activists, and representatives of the Cuban and Palestinian peoples to explore over eight decades of shared anti-imperialist struggle.
The event offered a rich programme of discussion, performance, and testimony, highlighting the deep-rooted historical, cultural, and political bonds between Cuba and Palestine, two nations that, despite facing relentless aggression from imperial powers, continue to inspire global movements for justice and liberation.
Among the speakers were representatives from the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Black Liberation Alliance, and the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in the United Kingdom, who each offered insight into the legacies and present-day realities of struggle in their respective contexts.
Orestes Martínez García, Press Counsellor of the Cuban Embassy, addressed the audience with a forceful and clear-eyed update on the current situation facing Cuba under the renewed aggression of the U.S. government.
“Cuba is not a sponsor of terrorism,” he declared, “Cuba is a victim of terrorism, more than 3,400 of our citizens have lost their lives in terrorist attacks, most planned and executed from U.S. soil.”
Orestes denounced the continuation and deepening of the U.S. blockade under the new Trump administration, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as a deliberate act of economic warfare designed to suffocate the Cuban people. He emphasised that the unjust re-inclusion of Cuba on the U.S. list of so-called State Sponsors of Terrorism on the very first day of Trump’s second term is not only defamatory but has devastating real-world consequences, cutting off Cuba’s access to vital financial systems and hindering trade and humanitarian assistance.
Yet, he reminded the audience, Cuba is not alone: “Thanks to you, to movements like the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, and to our partners in the Global South, we continue to resist, to build, and to dream.”
Speaking on behalf of the Cuban Embassy’s consular section, First Secretary Rafael Rodríguez offered a moving and resolute reaffirmation of Cuba’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom.
“What is happening in Gaza is not a conflict, it is a massacre. It is ethnic cleansing,” he said. “It is enabled and funded by the same imperial powers that blockade Cuba and destabilise nations across the Global South.”
Rodríguez traced Cuba’s principled position of support for Palestine from before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution to the present day, including the 1947 vote against the UN Partition Plan, Che Guevara’s visit to Gaza in 1959, and the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973.
He highlighted Cuba’s concrete acts of internationalist solidarity: training Palestinian students in Cuban universities, providing medical treatment to Palestinian patients, and advocating for justice in international forums.
“Our struggles are linked. Our liberation is intertwined,” he affirmed. “Cuba stands with Palestine because we know what it means to be blockaded. To be demonised. To be told your dreams are too big. But the dreams of our peoples are not too big. They are just. They are necessary. And they will not be stopped.”
The evening served as a powerful reminder that internationalism is not only about words, but about shared histories, concrete action, and enduring bonds of friendship between peoples.
The Embassy of Cuba in the United Kingdom expresses its deep gratitude to the South London Cuba Solidarity Campaign, SET Social, and all those who participated in this act of unity and resistance.
