DSA delegation to Cuba, October 2023
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DSA delegation to Cuba, October 2023 was the first Democratic Socialists of America delegation to Cuba.
Delegates
The DSA international Committee (IC) sent a 44 member delegation to Cuba in October 2023 - including 6 NPC members.
Known delegates included:
- Andrew Hairston Austin DSA member and former Justice of the Peace candidate.[1]
- Aron Ali-McClory National Co-Chair of the Young Democratic Socialists of America[2]
- Kristian Hernandez
- Maria Franzblau Reform & Revolution[3]
- Matt Miller
- Sarah Hurd Bread and Roses[4]
- Tanya Vyhovsky
A Report from My Participation in DSA’s Delegation to Cuba
By Maria Franzblau:
- In late October, I traveled to Havana with over forty comrades as part of the Democratic Socialists of America’s first official, national delegation to Cuba. For five days our delegation, which was hosted by the ruling Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), met with government ministries and mass organizations, visited Havana neighborhoods, and donated medical and school supplies for a local hospital and a primary school...
- This delegation still represents a positive step for DSA’s international work, and I’m confident that the resulting discussions, debates, and follow-up actions which arise from it will lead to a growth in activity and consciousness around ending the embargo. But the campist, diplomacy-first approach of our IC places important limitations on the effectiveness of our work in three major ways.
- The first weakness is in our analysis and understanding of Cuban socialism. There is no shortage of inspiration we can draw from positively appraising the Revolution’s gains in literacy, healthcare, education, and more. We should not deemphasize the role of the brutal US embargo in the country’s crises. But one simply cannot understand the full picture of Cuba this decade without also understanding the political repression of independent organizing, the threats that private business and austerity pose to the socialist economy, or the crisis of legitimacy the government faces. If one were to attend this delegation and fully accept the party line put forward in our itinerary, the political side of this crisis would go completely unmentioned.[5]