Cubans Face Endless Blackouts, Collapsing Salaries and Empty Shops – but They're Refusing to Give Up

Empty Shelves and Silent Streets, Inside Havana's Struggle Between Survival and Defiance

Cubans in Havana are organising their daily lives around when the electricity comes back on, not the clock. That is according to Sky News, which spent a week reporting from the Cuban capital. The broadcaster's lead world news presenter, Yalda Hakim, found empty petrol stations, uncollected rubbish and hospital wards short of medicine during her time there. She also found a population that, despite everything, had not given up. Blackouts Now Dict…

Cubans face endless blackouts, collapsing salaries and empty shops – but they're refusing to give up

Defiance. It is the word I heard more than any other during my week in Cuba.

In Cuba, blackouts and resilience

I joined the Building Relations with Cuban Labor delegation traveling to Cuba between April 25 and May 3. This organization, based in northern California and endorsed by 35 unions, including the California Federation of Labor, has been organizing delegations to Cuba for more than 10 years. During our visit we met with Cuban workers at various entities, including a cigar factory and Hotel Nationale, as well as participated in a seminar with leade…