Navendu Mishra
Navendu Mishra(born 22 August 1989) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockport since 2019.
Socialist Campaign Group
In 2021 Navendu Mishra was member of the Socialist Campaign Group in the House of Parliament.
Labour Party
Before entering politics, Mishra was a shop-floor trade unionist in Stockport, before becoming an organiser for Unison and helping to organise care workers in precarious employment.
Mishra was one of the founders of Stockport Momentum and supported Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 and 2016 Labour leadership elections.[6]
He was a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee from September 2018 until December 2019.As he was one of the nine representatives for Constituency Labour Parties, Mishra was ineligible to remain a member of the NEC upon his election as a Member of Parliament
Cuban connections
Navendu Mishra is very close to Cuba.
Labour Party conference Cuba 'fringe' event
Kevin Courtney, Barbara Montalvo Alvarez, Frances Leach, Coll McCail, Navendu Mishra MP.
Guests at a busy Cuba Solidarity Committee fringe event on the final night of the 2023 Labour Party Conference heard about the current difficulties Cuba is facing, how Cubans are continuing to resist in the face of overwhelming pressure and what people across the labour movement can do to help bring about an end to the blockade. Frances Leach, the Young Members representative on Unite’s Executive Committee, chaired the meeting, which saw Labour Party members and trade unionists from affiliated unions show their solidarity with Cuba.
Navendu Mishra, MP for Stockport and Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Cuba, opened the meeting by detailing the impact that Cuba’s inclusion on the US Government’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list has had on the island. Navendu, who visited Cuba on CSC’s Young Trade Unionists’ May Day Brigade back in 2017, praised the island’s internationalist health brigades who continue to respond to natural disasters and health emergencies around the world.
Another of our former brigadistas, Coll McCail, spoke next, recalling his time in Cuba earlier this year. “What we saw in Cuba was a different way of organising society”, Coll said. “One that prioritises upholding people’s dignity.” Coll told attendees how the trip strengthened his belief in, and commitment to, international solidarity, after seeing the impact it could have. “Nestled on a quiet street corner in the Playa district of Havana sits the Miramar Theatre…re-opened in 2012, a £350,000 renovation was funded entirely by solidarity donations from the UK through the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Music Fund for Cuba. Miramar has no other spaces like it… and it serves as a testament to the strength of British-Cuban solidarity.”[1]
Cuba Solidarity at Labour Party Conference
Cuba Solidarity Campaign Monday, 4 October 2021.
After eighteen months and twenty online public meetings CSC was delighted to participate in and host our first face-to-face public meetings, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in September.
At the Labour Party Conference in Brighton we were invited to speak at ‘The World Transformed’, the Young Labour rally, as well as organising a fringe meeting as part of the main conference fringe programme.
CSC’s conference exhibition stall was extremely busy all week. Several MPs had their photographs taken with our ‘End the US blockade, 60 years too long’ poster, and it was great to see many existing CSC members visit to say hello and give their support, as well as Labour Party delegates who came to ask questions, buy gifts and join. More than 20 new members were recruited during the week.
On Saturday 25 September, CSC’s Natasha Hickman spoke at two events. Joining speakers from Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia at The World Transformed Festival running concurrently with the Labour Party Conference, she contrasted the lack of mainstream media coverage for the mass demonstrations against imperialism and right-wing governments that had been taking place in these countries for many months compared to the way that the same media had responded to localised and much smaller events in Cuba. The meeting, ‘Latin America Rising: Imperialism, Resistance and Solidarity,’ hosted by Alborada attracted more than 100 people. Later the same evening, Natasha told a crowd of 200 at the Young Labour Rally that there was nothing controversial about standing up against the US blockade whose aim was to starve the Cuban people into submission. Other speakers at the rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burgon and Zarah Sultana.
On Monday 27 September a further 150 people listened to Cuban Ambassador Barbara Montalvo Alvarez speak at her first fringe meeting since arriving in the UK in March 2020. CSC’s meeting ‘Solidarity and resistance: Cuba’s fight against COVID and the US blockade’, was sponsored by Unite the Union, and chaired by the union’s Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner.
Grahame Morris MP told the audience about the measures taken both in and out of parliament by MPs to pressure the Biden administration to reverse sanctions imposed by Trump including allowing Cuban Americans to send family remittances to the island.
Labour NEC youth representative and junior doctor Lara McNeill shared her first-hand experience of training as a doctor in Havana and told the audience what it was like to work in Cuba’s world class healthcare system. She compared the cost of training to become a doctor in the UK and the debts students would rack up here with Cuba where medical training is free and as a result doctors came from much more diverse backgrounds than in Britain.
CSC Director Rob Miller closed the meeting with a call for solidarity given the current difficulties the island faced. “Cuba has given so much to the world, it is time for us to give something back” he said.
Labour MPs Mick Whitley, Navendu Mishra, Paula Barker, Rachel Hopkins, Kim Johnson and Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard and Mickey Brady attended the meeting and expressed their ongoing support.[2]
Virtual event of solidarity with Cuba
London, 13 September 2021- The Cuban Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Barbara Montalvo Alvarez, participated this Monday in a virtual event of solidarity with Cuba, in the context of the 153rd British Trade Union Congress (TUC), which is taking place from 12 to 14 September.
During her speech, the Cuban diplomat reiterated her deep gratitude to the TUC and the British trade unions for their support and solidarity with the Cuban people and workers, especially during the pandemic.
During the meeting, a message was delivered by the Secretary General of the CTC (Cuban Workers Central, by its Spanish initials), Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, who addressed the impact of the global pandemic on the world of work. He added that in the case of Cuba, they have also had to face the effects of the tightening of the blockade, as well as the media manipulation campaign financed by the US government calling for civil unrest and acts of vandalism against the national economic infrastructure.
Niurka Gonzalez Obera, General Secretary of the National Union of Education, Science and Sports Workers of Cuba, and Santiago Badía González, General Secretary of the National Union of Health Workers, reaffirmed their solidarity with their British counterpart unions.
Also speaking at the event were Navendu Mishra (Labour), Member of the British Parliament; Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU); Dave Ward, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU); Mariela Kohon, Senior International Officer of the TUC; Tony Woodhouse, Chair of the Unite Executive Committee; Zita Holbourne, Vice President of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS); Diana Holland and Rob Miller, Chair and Director respectively of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.[3]
Cuba Solidarity Campaign greets Ambassador
Manchester Cuba Solidarity August 29 2021·
We raised £595 for the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s medical appeal yesterday!
Great speeches form Barbara Montalvo Alvarez, Tracy Delaney, Bob Oram, Kevan Nelson and Navendu Mishra MP. Susan Piper, chair of the Manchester Cuba Solidarity Campaign also spoke.
Manchester Cuba Solidarity connection
Manchester Cuba Solidarity 5 2021·
Len McCluskey, Navendu Mishra, Karie Murphy.
Webinar with Cuban officials
Her Excellency Barbara Montalvo Alvarez, Jose Ramon Cabanas, Navendu Mishra MP, Rob Miller, Paula Barker MP.
Cuba Covid letter
April 15 2020, fifty one British members of parliament have written to Dominic Raab, the UK Foreign Secretary and acting Prime Minister to call for the US blockade of Cuba to be temporarily suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Grahame Morris MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cuba, coordinated the letter which asks the British government to make a public statement and to raise the issue directly with its counterparts in the United States’ government.
The letter from the British parliamentarians cites examples from around the world where governments and international organisations have demanded that humanitarian aid be allowed in to Cuba to help the country fight COVID-19. It quotes Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Arancha Gonzalez, Spanish Foreign Minister, and Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, who have all publicly called for sanctions to be suspended to Cuba and other sanctioned countries to allow for the delivery of essential supplies and medicine to stop the spread of the virus.
Yours sincerely,
Grahame Morris MP, Chair, APPG Cuba.
Dan Carden MP, Vice Chair, Kate Osborne MP, Vice Chair, Kim Johnson MP, Vice Chair, Paula Barker MP, Vice Chair, Alison Thewliss MP Allan Dorans MP, Amy Callaghan MP, Andy McDonald MP, Apsana Begum MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Beth Winter MP, Carol Monaghan MP, Chris Law MP, Chris Stephens MP, Claudia Webbe MP, Clive Lewis MP, Dave Doogan MP, Diane Abbott MP, Geraint Davies MP, Ian Byrne MP, Ian Mearns MP, Ian Lavery MP, Imran Hussain MP, Joanna Cherry MP, John McDonnell MP, Jon Trickett MP, Kate Osamor MP, Kenny MacAskill MP, Kirsten Oswald MP, Kirsty Blackman MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP, Margaret Ferrier MP, Marion Fellowes MP, Martyn Day MP, Mary Kelly Foy MP, Mick Whitley MP, Mike Amesbury MP, Mike Hill MP, Navendu Mishra MP, Olivia Blake MP, Owen Thompson MP, Rachel Hopkins MP, Richard Burgon MP, Ronnie Cowan MP, Sam Tarry MP, Sarah Champion MP, Stephen Bonnar MP, Stephen Flynn MP, Yasmin Qureshi MP, Zarah Sultana MP[4]
Pro-Cuba
Unions for Cuba conference
Saturday 2 November 2019, 10am-5pm.
NEU Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9BD.
Join Cuban leaders from across the island, representing workers in health, education, transport, communications, energy, mining and public administration at the Unions for Cuba Conference in November.
Heading the delegation is Carmen Rosa Lopez Rodriguez, Cuban MP and Deputy General Secretary of the CTC, on her first visit to Britain. She is accompanied by 14 trade union leaders from Cuba’s SNTS (health), SNTAP (public administration), SNTECD (education) SNTCIE (communications), SNTTP (transport and ports) and SNTEM (energy and mining) unions.
From Britain speakers include Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite the Union, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, Dave Ward, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union, and Karen Lee MP.
The line up of speakers from Cuba and Britain at this historic conference includes:
Gilda Gilberta Chacon Bravo, Europe Officer, CTC // Luis Castanedo Smith, CTC Regional Secretary // Santiago Badia Gonzalez, General Secretary, SNTS (Health union) // Miriela Padron Macías, Regional Secretary, SNTAP (Public Administration union) // Mykeyly Ramirez Guevara, National executive, SNTEM (Energy and mining union) // Neisy Pino Lago, National executive, SNTAP (Public Administration union) // Alba de la Caridad Estevez Novo, National executive, SNTCIE (Communications union) //Nayda Elisa Diaz Luis, National executive, SNTECD (Education union) Katia Labrada Vidal, National executive, SNTTP (Transport union) // Gloria Petronila Martinez, Regional Secretary, SNTS(Health union) // Iris Maite Lorenzo Silva, CTC Regional Leader// Evelina Torres Acosta, SNTS (Health Workers’ Union ) Regional Secretary // Enma Avila Tarrago, SNTS (Health Workers’ Union ) Regional Secretary // Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary, Unite //Maggi Ferncombe, Regional Secretary, UNISON Greater London Region // Lilian Macer, Regional Convenor, UNISON Scotland // Pete Kavanagh, Regional Secretary, Unite London and Eastern Region // Marcus Barnett, International Officer, Young Labour // Lara McNeill, Labour NEC // Navendu Mishra, Labour NEC // Tracy Delaney, Regional Chair, International Committee, UNISON North West Region and more![5]
Morning Star event
More than 100 people attended a Burns Night supper organised by Greater Manchester Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group January 2020.
The event at Stockport Labour Club attracted supporters from across north-west England and as far afield as Yorkshire.
Stockport Labour MP Navendu Mishra and Bob Oram, chair of the People's Press Printing Society which publishes the Morning Star, both addressed the audience.
The audience raised their glasses in a toast to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Barrie Eckford of the Readers and Supporters Group said: “It was a tremendous evening. We’ll be announcing the amount raised later this week.”
Mr Oram spoke about the founding of the Daily Worker, as the Morning Star was originally known, in 1930.
He told the gathering: “We have no big advertisers. The government refuses to place government advertisements in the Morning Star. We rely on people like those here tonight to continue to be the daily voice of the labour and trade union movement.”[6]
JC9
Yasmine Dar, Huda Elmi, Rachel Garnham, Ann Henderson, Jon Lansman, Navendu Mishra, Claudia Webbe, Darren Williams, Pete Willsman.
Momentum
Lauren Townsend, Leigh Drennan and Navendu Mishra were part of Momentum (UK).
Unite comrades
Navendu Mishra, Leigh Drennan, Marcus Barnett.