Presentation to the 24th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties on August 10, 2026, in Havana, Cuba by Anita Waters, Organizational Secretary, Communist Party USA.

Dear Comrades. I bring you heartfelt greetings of solidarity from your sister party, CPUSA. It is a deep honor for me to represent us here in socialist Cuba, in this year, the centenary of Fidel Castro, hero of working people everywhere. Thank you to the Communist Party of Cuba for hosting us.

The 24th International Meeting of this body takes place in fraught times. Donald Trump won the election telling voters he was pro-peace and pro-worker, but he dropped those ruses immediately. He supplied and supported the brutal and genocidal war against the people of Gaza, where over 73,000 Palestinians have been murdered, and he allows his proxy Netanyahu to continue his ultra-nationalist and racist agenda.

War, repression, and deportations

Trump then began an illegal, deadly and destructive war in the Middle East, causing thousands of deaths and injuries. He unleashed federal troops on our major cities and ripped hundreds of thousands of law-abiding immigrants from their families and communities, and detained and deported them. He’s on the brink of sending more than 300,000 Haitian nationals back to Haiti, a country so plagued by crime, kidnapping, and terrorism that no commercial flights operate to or from Port-au-Prince.

Following more than a hundred extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea, Trump kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores from their home, seized control of Venezuela’s resources, and initiated in turn an energy blockade against Cuba that is causing suffering, hardship, hunger and death.

The war on the ‘danger within’

To assist the Trump administration in pursuing international adventurism of the worst kind, he has surrounded himself with a collection of fascist-minded ideologues and billionaires. Threats against Cuba are paired with a war against “the danger within,” targeting progressive and left wing forces in the United States. A new report from the Department of State falsely claims that Cuba alone is responsible for all protest movements in the United States.

At home the Trump administration promotes white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and fascist ideas. His deployment of federal troops has created a police state in Washington DC and other cities.

While he, his family, and his cronies are enriching themselves and enjoying total immunity, MAGA corporate policies have given trillions in reduced taxes to the rich, while they have left millions without access to health care. In one fell swoop, the Trump regime took away the labor rights of more than a million federal workers, and pardoned the crimes of those who perpetrated violence on his behalf or have contributed to his personal wealth.

The tide is turning

The good news is: the tide is turning in the U.S., and our party, and socialism itself, are on the rise. There is a wave of intense anger and frustration against MAGA, against genocide, against war and against fascism. Our co-chair Joe Sims declared at the National Committee meeting last month that the idea of socialism is reemerging. “Socialism” is an increasingly popular concept especially among youth, and young people have been joining our party in record numbers, from all parts of the country. The popularity of socialism is reflected in the victories of progressive candidates in New York City, Colorado, Washington DC, and now Michigan.

Organized labor is resisting in completely new ways, with the AFL-CIO endorsing May Day for the first time in history and unions anchoring coalitions of faith, community, civil rights, and Communist Party forces in solidarity against the MAGA agenda. The old tactic of red-baiting to defeat their opponents isn’t working for MAGA these days. Last year, seven members of the CPUSA were elected to local offices across the country, and more are preparing to run this year and beyond.

The Communist Party USA is fully engaged in the fight against the fascist threat. Comrades are demanding fair housing policies, tenants’ rights, and housing the unhoused, in cities across the country. They are demanding “ICE Out” of their cities. In Minneapolis, for example, where immigration officers arrested hundreds of law-abiding residents, community members who had never been active were organizing neighborhood brigades, helping their neighbors who were afraid to leave their homes, watching and recording ICE activity, warning their neighbors with whistles to alert them to an ICE presence, and protesting the inhuman treatment in privately run prisons. Faith organizations, labor unions, and communists have been holding “No Kings” marches and rallies in hundreds of cities, including Minneapolis, mobilizing 8 million people across the country for “No Kings III.” Many of them had never been to a protest before. But they are ready to fight back now.

Trump’s approval rating among voters now is the lowest since Richard Nixon’s in 1974, and as we approach the midterm elections of 2026, many of his former allies in the legislature are running scared. It’s predicted that MAGA will suffer a severe setback in the elections, with the Democratic Party taking control of the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate. The U.S. ruling class, with Donald Trump as its instrument, seems ready to toss out even the trappings of bourgeois democracy rather than cede power to the people. Trump is threatening to use every ploy to overturn election results that don’t go their way.

Crippling MAGA is crucial. The arenas in which workers fight the class struggle will be wider. Key areas of the MAGA agenda could be blocked. They won’t be able to further pack the Supreme Court and other judicial offices with loyalists who think they are above the law.

Merely trading out one bourgeois party for the other does not, of course, mean a decisive defeat of the fascist forces, who are locked into firm control and benefitting from the advantages granted them by their government.

In many aspects of international policy, the two parties are extremely alike. They are similarly anti-communist, staunch defenders of capitalism, and happy to see the United States wield imperialist power throughout the world. Representatives from both parties have supported the bloated military budget, at the expense of ensuring that basic human needs are addressed. Last fall, the CPUSA held a peace conference to address questions of fighting for peace in the face of the fascist danger looming in the United States. Protests over the war in the Middle East, against ICE, against voter suppression, and for workers’ rights are growing in militancy.

International solidarity against imperialism

Workers across the world face the same enemies: the reactionary transnational capitalist ruling classes and the governments that they dominate, with U.S. imperialism being the most belligerent and warlike, the most destructive to our planet, and the most dangerous to all humanity. The Communist Party USA rejects and opposes terrorist methods and capitalist wars against weaker nations everywhere. We support international solidarity with peoples and movements fighting for freedom from exploitation and domination everywhere.

For this reason, we are honored to be in this body today, standing in solidarity with our sister parties, to whom we express our sincere solidarity. We pledge to continue our efforts to end the blockade against Cuba. We pledge to continue fighting to end the U.S. war on Iran. We pledge to stand against the imperialist threats against China and other countries. We pledge to fight U.S. imperialism to the end, when, we are convinced, a better, socialist world is possible.

Build the anti-fascist front

But Comrades, the fascist danger is real and is now threatening to empower the most reactionary forces in the imperialist ruling class. The time for a worldwide anti-fascist front and greater cooperation among all Communist and Workers’ Parties is now.

Image: Closing ceremony of the 24th IMCWP / International Communist Press