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, at the closing of the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, at the Convention Center, on May 2, 2026, "Year of the Centennial of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz."

Cuba: May Day Speech Delivered at the Closing of the International Meeting of Solidarity! (3.5.2026)

When it is said that we are an extraordinary and unusual threat to the United States – and we are sure that this is not the feeling of the American people, that is the pretext used by the American government to attack us – one wonders: What is the threat, what is extraordinary about that threat, what is unusual about that threat, when Cuba is a country of peace, when Cuba is a country that has served as the setting for the main peace dialogues in the Latin American and Caribbean region, when Cuba was the place where the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church came to meet to resolve the schism they had maintained for more than fifteen hundred years?

I try to answer that question every day, but, as Bruno explains, there is no pretext, there is no reason to justify military aggression against Cuba. Well, that “extraordinary and unusual threat” may be the example of resistance and creativity of the Cuban people.

When we talk about solidarity, I think we are talking about three elements that distinguish the value of international solidarity:

One is the tenderness of the peoples, because among all of us we have learned to share something that Fidel taught us, and that is that we do not give out of solidarity what we have left over, but we give what we have to share it among all.

International Workers' Day - 2026

China: May 1st – International Workers’ Day – Celebrating the Empowerment of Women & Girls! (1.5.2026)

Zhong, 49, who is also a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, and an inheritor of the She ethnic martial arts, said: “Only a thriving village can preserve the She ethnic martial arts.”

Under her leadership, roads were repaired, streetlamps installed, and tourism facilities upgraded. Instead of moving away, many villagers became homestay hosts or martial arts performers. Thanks to rural tourism centered on the She ethnic martial arts, the village’s revenue jumped from 200,000 yuan ($28,000) in 2021 to 500,000 yuan in 2024.

According to the 2022 progress monitoring report of the Outline for Women’s Development in China (2021-30), women accounted for 54.3 percent of neighborhood committee members and 41.3 percent of neighborhood committee directors, as well as 26.1 percent of village committee members and 10.9 percent of village committee directors.

Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that in 2022, there were 489,000 village committees, with a total of 2.154 million village committee members. And there were 118,000 neighbourhood committees, comprising 663,000 neighbourhood committee members.

Meerkats at Hobbledown - Epsom!

Hobbledown: May Bank Holiday! (6.5.2025)

On Bank Holiday Monday (May 5th 2025) we spent most of the day at the local petting farm known as Hobbledown (in Epsom). For about four-years (2005-2099), I taught Taijiquan at a nearby leisure centre twice a week – so I know the area well. Furthermore, throughout the years, we have regularly took our children to interact with the animals and for them to have fun in the huge soft play hosted in-doors. Of course, there has been a massive investment and restructuring at Hobbledown which has been very successful at a time when the economy is in melt-down and political incompetence is at an all-time high. It is well designed, with plenty of different animals living in wide open well-managed spaces.

Workers of the World Unite!

May 1st – The US Origins of Labour Day! (1.5.2024)

In 1890, May Day “reached” the Russian Empire, where it was first marked by a strike of 10,000 Warsaw workers. Since 1900, various demonstrations and strikes have been held annually on May 1st, but it became possible to freely celebrate May Day only after the victory after the February Revolution (February 1917) – before this date, the holiday was considered “Sedition” and was officially banned by the Czarist government. And already on May 1st, 1917, under the Bolshevik slogans “Down with the Imperialist War” and “All Power to the Soviets,” millions of workers marched along the streets of Russian cities!

East Germany Guards JV Stalin!

JV Stalin Says “Happy Workers’ Day”! William Shakespeare Says Soviet Beauty Shines On! (1.5.2024)

Toppled statues lay in deconstructed heaps – but the meaning such devices represent carries-on regardless into the uncharted future. Objects can be smashed – that is easy – but equally new objects can be designed and constructed – this is a matter of collective action and progressive thought. It does not really matter what William Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote Sonnet 55 – when I heard it today in both Old and New English – it struck me that he had perceived a deeper (hidden) meaning in passing outward structures. Structures that by there very nature, must, at one point or another, pass away into oblivion. But there is hope of a re-birth – even if the Bard couches this reality in the terms of “Judgement day”!

May Day is “Love” – Such is Working-Class “Internationalism”! (1.5.2023)

The workers of America and the Ukraine should overthrow their oppressive governments, put an end to their support of Neo-Nazism – and join Russia (and a ‘free’ Ukraine) in a bright, new tomorrow! This has been our intention since this particular battle started in 2014! This is why we salute Syria and North Korea for recognising the Donbass Republics! China, one of our beloved Motherlands has been brokering a ‘Peace’ – as workers we must make this a reality! Long Live the British Republic (1649-1660)! Long Live Oliver Cromwell and Mao Zedong! Long Live Thomas Sankara and Huey Newton! Long Live Lenin and Stalin! Long Live Ho Chi Min and Fidel Castro! Long Live the Laos Buddhist-Socialist Republic! Long Live the Palestinian People! Long Live the Democratic Republics of Malaya and Kampuchea! Long Live the Workers’ Institute! Long Live Aravindan Balakrishnan! Love, Peace and Respect to the International Working Class!

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