The medical aid provided by Cuba to Italy to face the COVID-19 was highlighted here at the opening of the 18th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).

Rome.- “We continue together. To meet our contemporary needs. Against imperialist-capitalist barbarism” are the three main ideas of the main slogan of the event inaugurated by Paolo Leonardi, on behalf of the Grassroots Union of Trade Unions (USB), the only Italian group of its kind attached to the WFTU.

In his speech, Leonardi mentioned the limitations imposed on the meeting by the pandemic, a context in which he acknowledged Cuba’s help to Italy in what he considered an example of how “a small country subjected to an infamous blockade” came to the aid of one of the eight most industrialized countries in the world.

Never before it was evident that capitalism is the bearer of death and socialism of life, he said, specifying that in gratitude to Cuba for the assistance provided to Italy against COVID-19, the USB supported the campaign in favor of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve Contingent.

Solidarity with Cuba was the common denominator of other interventions during the opening day of the three-day congress, in which a delegation headed by the secretary-general of the Cuban Workers' Federation (CTC), Ulises Guilarte, is participating.

On the other hand, the member of the national executive of the USB recalled that this is the second world trade union congress held in Italy after the one held in 1949 in Milan, where the then leader of the Italian General Confederation of Labor, Giuseppe Di Vittorio, was elected president of the WFTU. (PL)