Cuban Dream Dies by Cuban Hands

Long after the Soviet Union sacrificed its romantic appeal among enthusiasts for Marxian revolutionary struggle — what with its Stalinist crimes, its own imperial ambitions, and its skepticism toward the “liberationist” movements of the 1960s — Communist Cuba remained an object of the global left’s affections. You can still hear some of that old tenderness in the bluster deployed by the regime’s last defenders. But there is an increasingly elegiac quality to their table-pounding.

There can be no denying the hardships that Cubans face, all of which are attributable to machinations in Washington, according to the “socialist newsweekly,” The Militant. Sure, there are a misguided few who would welcome market-oriented reforms. And yet, the newsweekly says, “The big majority understand that there is no future for working people in Cuba without fighting along a course of working-class solidarity against the U.S. rulers’ attempts to reimpose its domination and plunder of the country.”

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Long after the Soviet Union sacrificed its romantic appeal among enthusiasts for Marxian revolutionary struggle — what with its Stalinist crimes, its own imperial ambitions, and its skepticism toward the “liberationist” movements of the 1960s — Communist Cuba remained an object of the global left’s affections. You can still hear some of that old tenderness in the bluster deployed by the regime’s last defenders. But there is an increasingly elegiac quality to their table-pounding.

There can be no denying the hardships that Cubans face, all of which are attributable to machinations in Washington, according to the “socialist newsweekly,” The Militant. Sure, there are a misguided few who would welcome market-oriented reforms. And yet, the newsweekly says, “The big majority understand that there is no future for working people in Cuba without fighting along a course of working-class solidarity against the U.S. rulers’ attempts to reimpose its domination and plunder of the country.”

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.