By Max Reed.
In May 2024, I attended the 8th International Meeting of Psychology Students in Havana, Cuba as a delegate from the American Student Union. The conference was hosted and organized by the University Student Federation (FEU), a mass organization of Cuban university students. The meeting was attended by students from throughout the Americas, particularly Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador, and some students from as far away as Italy and Vietnam. The conference was attended by professors from all over the Americas and Europe who presented their ideas to all the students. Unlike conferences in the West, the students were the primary organizers of this conference.
Cuban students ran the conference and its day-to-day operations, allowing all foreign delegates to participate and present their findings. The energy and internationalism of the Cuban students who organized this conference knew no bounds. All foreign guests were helped with transportation, housing, food, and any other assistance needed in Havana. In this, the Cuban youth have demonstrated with this conference their solidarity and national spirit. The conference itself was diverse in topics and discussion. Subjects and discussions included women’s health in capitalist vs anti-imperialist societies, mental healthcare in the West, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, and how psychology in the West is distorted through individualism.
The conference was not merely an academic event. Students and community members were involved in other parts of the conference. This included a theater performance at the Bertolt Brecht Theater (named after the German anti-fascist playwright), a tour of Old Havana, a community fair involving the Jose Marti Pioneers, and more. I, among other foreign students, ate Cuban food, learned dances, and visited historic sites. What impressed and touched me as an American, was the welcoming and warm solidarity that Cuban students felt towards me despite my nationality. With the United States government’s vicious attacks upon the Cuban people and government, I found this heartwarming.
In Cuba, I found a society that despite all US sabotage through a UN-condemned vicious blockade, sanctions, militarist aggression, and isolation, has endured and continues to grow. Cuba compared to comprador regimes in Latin America, is a safe country. It does not have narco gangs, rampant prostitution, gambling, violence, and other problems seen throughout the Americas. The people have access to the internet and cell phones (despite US propaganda), cars, public transit, walkable cities, and healthcare. The accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution and its endurance were visible to me throughout my trip to Cuba.
However, what most impacted me at this conference was during the opening ceremony of the conference, all of the flags of every nation were presented, including even the American flag. I found this amazing. It is clear that the Cuban people understand the difference between the American people and the American government. The flag was nonetheless respected and hoisted by the Cuban organizers of this conference out of the recognition that that flag is not only the flag of the US government but primarily the banner of the American working class. This act of internationalism is a slap in the face to the national nihilists (in the words of Georgy Dimitrov) who in the name of Communism, condemn the working class of America as “unique” or America’s history as only evil and reactionary, thus inversely committing a mirror mistake of Jay Lovestone’s “American exceptionalism”.
Cuba is a socialist country with a working-class government. Despite its history of colonialism, slavery, and racial division, Cuba under socialism has overcome this history and embraced a socialist patriotism centered around its revolutionary working class tradition. This tradition is alongside a continuing internationalist position with support for anti-imperialists, the exporting of doctors around the world, international development, and aid for the peoples of the world.
If Cuba can build socialism under US blockade, sanctions, and imperialist aggression, there is no reason American Communists cannot likewise build a new America under socialism. We must when building a revolutionary movement in the United States draw upon our tradition of the defeat of the British, the abolitionist movement, the Second American Revolution, Reconstruction, and the movements for labor, civil rights, and socialism.
Cuba and the United States have a deep tradition and history. Jose Marti lived in New York City, Cubans and Americans fought side-by-side in the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, American political prisoners were given refuge in Cuba, and Cuba repeatedly offered to export doctors, and send relief to Americans (for example during Hurricane Katrina). When the American people overcome the imperialist monopoly-capitalist controlled US government, Cuba and America will have a deep fraternal relationship.