On April 15, at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), the "debate" between the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, on Iran, "defence spending" and "welfare spending", further revealed the fraudulent and undemocratic nature of the warmongering cartel party system of government in Westminster [1].

Demonstration against US/Israeli bombing of Iran, US Embassy, March 7, 2026

The lead-in question from Labour MP Lauren Edwards tried to enhance the Prime Minister's posture as if he were against the Iran war and gloss over the reality that he continues the government's reckless warmongering path for the economy and in the world. In her question Lauren Edwards said that he "was right to resist us being drawn into an ill-conceived war in the middle east with apparently no clear plan for how it may end". However, she did not ask if the government had a plan to help stop this illegal attack by the US and Israel on Iran so that it really "may end". She then commented that "we are all rightly angry that our constituents will feel the impact of this war in their pockets and in their daily lives", but then went on to ask a completely different question: "Will he outline what steps he is taking both to support our armed forces and plan for all future contingencies?"

In his reply to the placed question, Starmer referred to "investing a record £9 billion to deliver the quality homes" for the armed forces. This when the government continues to refuse to deliver quality social housing available for all. Then with a usual parliamentary back and forth accusation to provoke the opposition leader he declared: "My principles are clear. That is a sharp contrast with the Leader of the Opposition, who wanted to jump into the war with both feet without thinking through the consequences." Yet the Prime Minister has himself jumped with "both feet" into this illegal US/Israeli war against Iran. He revealed this further himself as he tried to justify his credentials as supporting the attack on Iran when he declared that British pilots "within two hours" of this conflict starting "were up, risking their lives, taking missiles out of the sky". Also, not forgotten are the air base in the Chagos Islands and bases here in Britain that he and the government have allowed the US to use to bomb Iran.

The Leader of the Opposition in turn framed her question to Starmer by referring to a speech made the day before on April 14 by Lord Robertson - ex-NATO leader, former Chairman of BP Russian Investments Ltd and Senior Counsellor at the Washington DC based Cohen Group (USA) and currently the "special advisor to British Petroleum (BP)". Badenoch's reference was to the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) [2], of which Lord Robertson was both the chair and lead contributor. The review had been concluded for the government in June 2025. Robertson's speech was aimed at continuing to put Britain's economy and war industries on a war footing as highlighted by the SDR, with the false claim that Russia threatened war with Europe. However, Robertson himself is on record as openly representing BP oil interests in Russia before Britain and the US provoked the war with Russia in Ukraine in 2022 with the aim of seizing Russian oil assets along with those of Ukraine. Robertson criticised the government, saying that it has yet to provide a 10-year plan to fund the SDR in what he described as "vandalism" by "non-military experts in the Treasury" [!]. He also deliberately spread misinformation about welfare spending, claiming that Britain spends "five times as much on welfare" as it does on defence and that this was "jeopardising people's future safety and security" because Britain was not spending enough on weapons and war preparations.

Badenoch utilised this speech by saying that "these were Lord Robertson's criticisms of the Prime Minister, and that he had said that Britain's national security is 'in peril' and that our armed forces are at the end of their tether, waiting for this Government to fund the strategic defence review".

Starmer in replying to Badenoch then used the opportunity to justify the government's measures in further militarising the economy under this SDR in his remarks to "remind the House that we have put in place the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War". He declared: "Let me spell that out: that means we are spending £270 billion over this Parliament. That is £5 billion more this year, with defence funding increasing every year. These are record amounts - decisions of a Labour Prime Minister, a Labour Chancellor and a Labour Government."

Protest at RAF Fairford against US bombers taking off to bomb Iran, March 7 2026

Starmer also used this opportunity to champion the government's cuts to the welfare budget. He said that the government is "reforming welfare and spending more on defence" and claimed that the Conservatives did neither. On this Badenoch played her role as leader of the cartel party in opposition, declaring, "the Prime Minister will not fund our military, because he wants to fund more welfare. That is why he has a welfare plan to 2031, but no defence investment plan at all." She said, "Now that the Chagos surrender deal [3] is dead, will the Prime Minister put the billions saved from ditching Chagos into defence, or is that going into welfare as well?"

Following PMQs, the Secretary of State for Defence was asked to make a statement on his plans to fund the recommendations of the SDR, which continued in the same vein with the Minister for Defence Readiness, Luke Pollard. There was no attempt to discuss the SDR from the point of view of what peace and security for the British people entails. Any reading of the SDR reveals that it is disinformation to say it is about the defence or security of the country.

In this way, the fraudulent, dangerous and undemocratic nature of this pro-war cartel party exchange in Parliament whole-heartedly throws its weight behind the implementation of the government's SDR whatever the cost to the people. It demonstrates that these cartel parties attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the working class and people, when the reality is that these parties are united in their drive to militarise the economy and society. It reveals further the warmongering nature of the SDR and the cartel party system of government as one of supporting warfare and not the claims of the people on the social wealth that is produced by them.

As Workers' Weekly reflected on the content of the SDR [4] when it was published: "The premise of the Strategic Defence Review is that Britain must maintain its nefarious role in the world at all costs even if this threatens further wars that Britain cannot win and further impoverishes the British people. The SDR defends the arming of Israel by lauding the 20% of the US F-35 that is manufactured in Britain. It lauds the asset of the Akrotiri and Dhekélia sovereign base area of British overseas territory in Cyprus, from which it sends its cargo of death and its spy planes to Israel and Gaza as well launching its joint bombing attacks on Yemen that the SDR supports."

The Strategic Defence Review also blamed Hamas for the deaths in Israel and Gaza and not the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. This when Britain had always refused to recognise the national rights and resistance of the Palestinians with Britain being a major perpetrator of the occupation of Palestine and the suffering of the Palestinian people since the 1948 Nakba. The SDR claimed that Britain's security guarantees are linked to the US, NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), AUKUS and declared that the cause of peace is threatened by China, Russia, Iran and the DPRK, as well the resistance movements of the peoples of the world who are fighting for their right to be and to realise their aspirations for peace, freedom and democracy. The SDR labels them "non-state" actors against Britain's interest saying "the armed forces remain optimised for conflicts primarily fought against non-state actors on Europe's periphery and beyond".

The call to condemn the cartel parties and their support for the SDR

The SDR must have no takers among the working class and people if there is to be peace and not more war. It is necessary to take heed of the aims of the SDR and to organise against it and what it stands for. Starmer and the government's attempts to further step up its militarisation and support for Israel's daily war crimes against the Palestinians and in Lebanon, its support for the US/Israeli aggression against Iran, are unacceptable and must continue to be opposed. The attempt of Starmer and the government to involve Britain further in NATO's proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is totally unacceptable and it too must continue to be opposed.

The call of the times is for the people to speak out in their own name for all that serves their own interests for peace and security. The context is the fight for a new direction for the economy and society that meets the needs of all and defends the rights of all. The context is for political renewal against the police powers of the state, against the cartel party system in Westminster and for modern democratic arrangements which empower the people. The aim for the working class and people must be always to prepare to establish an Anti-War Pro-Social Government in Britain that resolves conflicts in a just and peaceful way and fully recognises the rights and claims of the working class and people in society.

Notes
1. Hansard, Commons Chamber, April 15, 2026
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-04-15/debates/45e2fd46-eba3-4bf0-bfe0-408f66c688ce/CommonsChamber
2. Policy paper - The Strategic Defence Review 2025 - Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad, June 2, 2025
Full document 144 pages:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-strategic-defence-review-2025-making-britain-safer-secure-at-home-strong-abroad
Two Page document:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683dbe63d23a62e5d32680de/The_Strategic_Defence_Review_2025_-_two-pager.pdf
Document in Welsh: Adolygiad Amddiffyn Strategol 2025: Adolygiad Amddiffyn Strategol 2025:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-strategic-defence-review-2025-making-britain-safer-secure-at-home-strong-abroad/adolygiad-amddiffyn-strategol-2025-gwneud-prydain-yn-fwy-diogel-yn-gadarn-gartref-yn-gydnerth-dramor
3. The British Government has dropped/paused the Chagos sovereignty deal that would have transferred sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while leasing Diego Garcia back to Britain for military use. Badenoch refers to the funds spent by the UK Government to lease back Diego Garcia from Mauritius when it was handed over. That now does not have to be paid. The US State Department initially backed the deal. Trump then publicly attacked it as a "big mistake" and an act of "weakness". The government had repeatedly said it would only proceed if the US supported it. Once Trump withdrew support, the British government cowardly gave in and refused to give Mauritius sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
4. Strategic Defence Review: Starmer's Attempt to Put Britain on "War-Fighting Readiness" Cannot Be Accepted, Workers' Weekly June 7, 2025
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-13/ww25-13-01.htm

On April 23, the government announced a new £662m multi-year partnership with France to tackle what is being called "irregular migration".

Alex Norris, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, in announcing in a written statement what he called the "landmark" deal, outlined that it will see an expansion of "enforcement activity" in northern France [1].

Under the partnership, the number of frontline officers in northern France will be increased, alongside enhanced surveillance capabilities using drones and aircraft, and an expansion of maritime operations to intercept vessels at sea. The deal also provides for additional specialist policing units and greater intelligence sharing to target smuggling networks.

According to BBC News, the number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel this year is down by over one-third. Between January 1 and April 18, 2026, 6,077 people crossed the Channel by small boat, a 35% decrease compared with the corresponding period in 2025.

The Humans for Rights Network, which works in solidarity with people forced to migrate, said in a statement that the new deal between Britain and France is an "abhorrent escalation in tactics that have already produced record violence and fatalities".

Maddie Harris, Director of Humans for Rights Network, said that the deal signifies a new "all time low" with regard to the government's attempts to prevent people from claiming asylum in the UK. She said that it includes "further horrific tactics that will only result in further death and violence, for example an expansion of maritimes tactics - tactics that have in recent months resulted in boats arriving to collect people further out to sea, forcing people to swim to and in some cases being unable to reach these boats causing near drowning and death".

The Minister's statement is characteristic of the way successive governments have been treating people desperately seeking asylum as things and not as human beings. They have done so under cover of bringing "people smugglers" to justice, claiming that "people smuggling" is undermining Britain's border security and putting lives at risk. In the context of tackling illegal migration, the Minister says, "We must restore order and control to our borders."

According to the statement, the deal includes:

" A significant uplift in frontline law enforcement, front-loading deployment in time for the summer. Numbers will increase by 42% to nearly 1,100 law enforcement, intelligence and other frontline officers in Northern France to track down illegal migrants and stop them boarding boats.

" Five specially trained police units, including a new riot police unit, specially trained in the use of riot and crowd control tactics and equipment will be deployed to deal with violent tactics.

" The French will roll out millions of pounds of state-of-the-art worth of drone surveillance, two new helicopters and a new camera system surveillance to track down and intercept people smugglers and illegal migrants.

" Expanding maritime capability to intercept taxi boats at sea. In the last two months, the French have stopped six migrant taxi boats, returning all migrants to France and sentencing five smugglers to prison and deportation. The British government is backing these tactics with a new vessel and an increase of more than 20 additional maritime officers.

The statement boasts that the government's "work with France is complemented by the most far-reaching overhaul of the asylum and migration system in modern times. This programme of reform outlined in Restoring order and control: a statement on the government's asylum and returns policy (CP 1418) is reshaping the UK's protection and settlement offer to make the system faster, firmer and significantly less open to abuse. This government is closing every asylum hotel, moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation including ex-military sites.

There is not a word on the well-being and rights of people seeking asylum in Britain. Instead the Minister dismisses the problems that people who are seeking asylum face - of war, conflict, imperialist aggression, inhuman conditions - in saying, "We have already removed or deported nearly 60,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals since this government took office." This, according to the statement, is delivering "a transformed, results-based partnership with strong safeguards for taxpayers".

The Law Society, for its part, on April 22 called on the government to abandon its plans to replace the First-Tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber with a new, independent appeals body staffed by adjudicators. These are plans which the government first announced in November 2025's major policy statement Restoring Order and Control: A statement on the government's asylum and returns policy [2].

"Asylum and immigration reforms should focus on the Home Office getting decisions right first time," said Law Society president Mark Evans. "By replacing the experienced professional First-Tier Tribunal with a lay appeals body, with no indication of how it will be independent, the government would damage people's right to a fair hearing. This is particularly concerning as the proposal is being led by the Home Office, a party to the appeals with a vested interest. Previous appeals systems that relied on adjudicators without legal qualifications were ultimately abandoned because they were not fit for purpose. The government should drop these plans. Instead, they should tackle the true causes of delay. This can be done by stabilising asylum policy, raising the quality of Home Office initial decisions, improving efficiency in the current tribunal system and funding legal aid properly."

In related news, on April 14, the House of Lords held a debate on the latest changes to the Immigration Rules, which saw sustained criticism from peers across parties to the government's proposed measures [3].

Opening the debate, Liberal Democrat Lord German moved a motion to regret opposing the Statement of Changes laid on March 5. Among many other changes, the Statement reduces the duration of refugee and humanitarian protection from five years to 30 months and introduces restrictions on student visa routes for nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan to prevent asylum claims. Lord German argued that the measures lacked a coherent plan to reduce the asylum backlog or end the use of asylum hotels, while risking increased bureaucracy, higher costs, and negative impacts on refugee integration.

Lord German warned that reducing the standard period of refugee protection from five years to 30 months would create instability for individuals and families, potentially undermining integration and increasing administrative burdens. He argued that repeated reviews of refugee status could place additional strain on the Home Office and lead to significant costs, referencing external estimates suggesting millions of cases could require reassessment over time. He also raised concerns about the absence of expanded safe routes for refugees and the potential for increased destitution if support provisions are tightened.

The Liberal Democrat peer further questioned whether the proposals were consistent with Britain's obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, saying: "With these changes, the United Kingdom is undermining its international obligations and turning its back on people in need who could make a positive contribution."

(Source: EIN)

Notes
1. Illegal Migration: Small Boat Crossings
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-04-23/hcws1540
2. Drop plans for new appeals body focus on Home Office decision making
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/contact-or-visit-us/press-office/press-releases/drop-plans-for-new-appeals-body-focus-on-home-office-decision-making
3. Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules
https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2026-04-14/debates/C29402F7-2444-4DA1-85EF-EE1173799E62/StatementOfChangesInImmigrationRules

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez , launched the "My signature for the Homeland" movement with his signature from the Bay of Pigs on April 19.

The initiative supports the call made by the president at the event commemorating the 65th anniversary of the declaration of the socialist character of the Revolution, to organisations in Cuba and the world so that the truth about Cuba is known in every corner of the planet, and also constitutes a way of making evident the Declaration of the Revolutionary Government, published by the newspaper Granma.

In the signature campaign, the Cuban people are signing against military aggression and in support of the Cuban Revolution. From one end of the country to the other, millions of compatriots are demonstrating, as the signature campaign unfolds, the sentiment of an entire people who, despite imperial harassment, will not renounce their right to build their own history.

Squares and parks across the country experienced a unique day on Sunday, April 19, which will continue to be repeated, so that men and women of all ages, sectors and creeds, can express with their signatures that, despite the increasingly frequent threats from the US administration, the Cuban nation will not be intimidated or bow down.

As expressed in the Declaration of the Revolutionary Government, the Bay of Pigs is today and forever:

"We are a nation with a great history and convictions to defend; of peaceful, supportive men and women; a people who every day with their work carry out a Vindication of Cuba; and who, as on the sands of Bay of Pigs, 65 years ago, under the cry of Homeland or Death!, will obtain victory in defence of sovereignty and socialism."

(Granma International)

Speech by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the socialist character of the Cuban revolution,Havana, April 16, 2026

Posted below is the speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, on April 16, at the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, at 23rd and 12th Streets, Plaza de la Revolución municipality.

Long live free Cuba! (Shouts of: "Long live!")

Down with the blockade! (Shouts of: "Down with it!")

Heroic combatants of Bay of Pigs here present;

Dear friends of solidarity with Cuba participating in the 5th International Patria Colloquium;

Beloved and heroic Cuban people;

Compatriots (Applause):

Sixty-five years ago, women and men who were as young or younger than all of us filling these streets today - possibly many grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, or fathers of some of us - gathered here to write a truly epic chapter in contemporary world history.

That day changed history, and not just for Cuba. With an invasion on the verge of our shores, with no certainty yet as to where they would land, but aware that behind the invaders stood the full backing of the powerful United States government, the voice of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, nearly broken by the strain of hours of sleeplessness and tension, rose above the crowd overflowing this historic corner to declare that we were what we continue to be: a socialist revolution right under the empire's nose! (Applause.)

That declaration is momentous in the history of Cuba, as it set the definitive course of the revolutionary process that began with the triumph of 1959 and which, by 1961, had become deeply radicalised in favour of the traditionally dispossessed.

The mercenaries were preparing to launch themselves against the nation that gave them birth, convinced that nothing could stand against the protection guaranteed to them by the empire. But history would be relentless with them.

They expected fear and found courage. They bet on betrayal and were confronted by a united people. They believed their own lies, and the truth awaited them, with rifles at the ready and singing the notes of the Bayamo Anthem.

The Cuban people marched from here into battle, and from battle to victory! A small nation, fresh from war, would, less than 72 hours later, deal imperialism its first major defeat in the Americas. (Applause.)

From that fateful April onward, all the peoples of the region would be a little freer.

Cuba changed forever. The people who fought for socialism on the sands of Bay of Pigs had, by then, already begun their cultural transformation with a Literacy Campaign that carried the dreams of the humble all the way to university classrooms.

Human development would reach heights that only a just society can guarantee. This Revolution of the humble, with the humble, and for the humble would go so far that a shoe-shiner under capitalism would become Latin America's first cosmonaut; that young people from Africa and throughout the Third World would become professionals in Cuban schools; that we would share our blood and our fate with those who had always been forgotten and reviled. (Applause.)

And we defeated apartheid, illiteracy, and curable diseases in other parts of the world to which we would send doctors, not bombs; teachers, not bombs. That is socialism: a society where man is a brother, not a wolf to man! (Applause.)

When, in the fateful 1990s, the socialist experiment self-destructed in Europe, through vile conspiracies by its imperialist adversaries, Cuba resisted and transformed itself until it rose again through its own strength and the support of international solidarity.

Chávez had not yet triumphed in Venezuela, and the decade of integration sparked by the Bolivarian Revolution was just beginning.

Fidel - Fidel once again, just as he had done at Bay of Pigs, directing the fighting and advancing atop a tank at the vanguard - led that superhuman struggle to preserve Cuban socialism in an era of feverish neoliberal advance and unipolarity.

While others privatised even the cemeteries and parks, blindly believing in the fairy tale of the market as the omnipotent ruler of a wealth that never existed, this country built a monumental achievement, using the science and the human labour and scientific potential forged in the Revolution, and with the heroism and creative resistance of the Cuban people. (Applause)

And our people's army went out to sow and to build, to demonstrate, as Raúl said, that yes, we can! That we can always do it! And we did! That is socialism! (Applause.)

Many times over the years, while the country strove to correct, refine, and adapt the battered economy besieged by the blockade, countless silent invasions took place: laws to codify the blockade, terrorist attacks, smear campaigns, and constant sabotage of all projects of integration, solidarity, and co-operation.

Every silent bomb that fell on development projects has left a wound in Cuban society. A particularly painful one has been the migration of promising young people educated for free in our schools and universities, from whom capitalism steals the skills and talent it did not invest in, while accusing the society that shaped them of failing to guarantee what the predatory market offers them.

Let the truth be told: That human potential, which impresses and gains ground and relevance in any country it reaches, was shaped by socialism! (Applause.) Only socialism turned the children of workers and peasants into top-tier professionals - not in exceptional cases as under capitalism, but on a massive scale. (Applause.)

To hide the genocidal and multidimensional nature of the six-decade blockade that suffocates the entire people - and can only be called an "embargo" on paper by those who impose it - a deceitful and highly cynical narrative has been constructed: Cuba as a failed state.

The impacts of decades of blockade and financial persecution are very visible in our homes, industries, in the lack of goods - even the essentials - in the scarcity of almost everything, even the most basic and indispensable necessities of life.

Also visible are our own mistakes in this process of social construction with unique and very Cuban characteristics, in which we strive, against the tide, overcoming countless obstacles; but as long as the blockade remains a noose tightened around the neck of the economy, no one can deny - and I repeat, no one can deny - its absolute culpability in the suffering of Cuban families! The main cause of our problems is the genocidal blockade imposed by the United States government against our people! (Applause and shouts of: "Down with the blockade!")

Liars also rely on the numbing effect induced in the minds of a world polluted by prejudice and poisoned by anti-communism ever since the October Revolution brought the creators of wealth to power.

Brutal attacks and blockades have been waged against all socialist experiments, and yet it will be impossible to deny all that they contributed to humanity in terms of balance and well-being. Nor can the colossal contribution of the USSR to the defeat of fascism and the conquest of space be erased from history; nor can the dazzling development of a gigantic nation - such as the People's Republic of China - which emerged from famine and widespread poverty, and of a small country, yet brave, that endured three wars and today wins the admiration of the whole world for its dynamic growth, the heroic and brotherly Vietnam. (Applause.)

Socialism is the only guarantee of social justice, the only path to the real emancipation of all people, and in our case it has been and remains, moreover, the real possibility of providing a collective response to the collective punishment that has been imposed upon us all these years.

No, gentlemen of manipulation and lies, Cuba is not a failed state; Cuba is a besieged state, Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic war, an intensified blockade, and an energy blockade. Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender! (Applause.) And despite everything, and thanks to socialism, Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and - make no mistake - a state that will prevail! (Applause.)

Comrades:

Today, April 16, we commemorate fundamental milestones in our recent history: the heroic and massive popular response to the prelude of the mercenary invasion, with the criminal bombings of the 15th, and the declaration of the socialist character of the Revolution, made by Fidel at the funeral of the first victims of the ongoing aggression, and on that very same day, although many did not know it then, our Communist Party was born, as has been explained here.

Fidel put it this way: "At Bay of Pigs, the socialist nature of our Revolution was proclaimed; at Bay of Pigs, our Party was practically forged." That is why we consider April 16 the founding date of the Party, the Party of unity, the Party of the Cuban nation, the Party that organises and directs the efforts of all for the good of all (From the audience: Long live the Communist Party of Cuba!) (Shouts of: "Long live!") But history would be of little value if we did not heed its lessons, if we did not take note of its patterns and transform them into definitive lessons.

The attacks on the airports of Ciudad Libertad, Santiago de Cuba, and San Antonio de los Baños in the prelude to the invasion, with surgical strikes, using aircraft bearing false Cuban insignia; the sustained use of disinformation and deception through media outlets aimed at confusing the population, along with the economic war, diplomatic pressures to isolate the Revolution, and constant threats, reveal cunning practices and methods never abandoned by those who attack and who continue to repeat them around the world today.

They have repeated their aggressive and interventionist tactics so often, and so many nations and processes have been threatened and attacked over the years, that despite the technological, military, and media resources they throw around indiscriminately, a wave of solidarity with Cuba continues to rise as proof of the isolation of the imperialist policy that seeks to bring us to our knees through suffocation.

From this historic podium, where Fidel's words still echo, calling on the people to take their place in the coming struggle, and where today we pay a well-deserved tribute and homage to the heroes and martyrs of that day when the homeland resolutely donned the militia uniform, we call for a national and international solidarity movement to carry the truth of Cuba to every corner of the planet - the suffering of the people due to the actions of the blockade and multidimensional economic war, exacerbated by the energy blockade, which constitutes genocide given the extreme levels of deprivation to which all Cubans are subjected.

Daily life in Cuba is painful, from the vital rest interrupted first by the blackout and then by the return of power after long hours - which has shifted domestic work to the early morning hours - to the paralysis of industries, transportation, vital services, and production because there is an absolute lack of fuel for almost everything.

The list is very long, and all of this stemmed from a single executive order that declared us an "unusual and extraordinary threat" - exactly what we are not.

Compatriots:

This is an extremely challenging moment, and it calls on us once again - as it did on that April 16, 1961 - to be ready to face serious threats, including military aggression. We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to prevent it and, if it is unavoidable, to win! (Applause.) We have the faith in victory that Fidel instilled in us.

We believe in dialogue and in the extraordinary power of peace to sustain life on the planet. The history of the dispute between Cuba and the United States has shown that this is possible. We must consider all the human suffering it would cause our two peoples if they were dragged into a senseless, illogical conflict for which there are neither pretexts nor justifications when there is so much we can do together.

To Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, whose centennial we will celebrate in 2026, we pay the highest tribute on this 65th anniversary of the great epic. (Applause.) (From the audience: Long live Fidel!) (Shouts of: "Long live!")

Fidel did not merely lead the Battle of [the] Bay of Pigs. Fidel was and is [the] Bay of Pigs!! (Applause.) Fidel embodies the conviction that a united people can defeat an empire! (Applause.)

Resisting the onslaught of daily invasions is the epic we are writing today, the best legacy to the fallen, to those who gave their lives in that April of 1961 for independence and socialism. As long as there is a woman and a man willing to give their lives for the Revolution, we will be victorious! (Applause.)

The socialist nature of our Revolution is not a phrase from the past; it is the shield of the present and the guarantee of the future! (Applause.)

[The] Bay of Pigs is today and forever!

Cuba will not surrender! (Applause.)

No one here will surrender! (Applause.)

We will fight here!

Here, as the song says: We're going to set it on fire! (Applause.)

Long live the rebellious dignity of our people! (Shouts of: "Long live!")

Long live Socialism! (Shouts of: "Long live!")

Homeland or Death!

We shall overcome!

(Ovation.)

(Granma)