The Havana Times newspaper reported recently that like every year, this May 1 was yet another opportunity for Cubans to reaffirm their support for the revolution and its leaders.

This time around, however, they had the additional incentive of having the Miami Five — anti-terrorist heroes who served unjust sentences in the US and whose release required a 16-year struggle — back home and among them, leading the rally.

Recently, Cuba held its municipal elections, where 90 per cent of voters capable of participating in these elections cast their ballots.

Those currently travelling, abroad or away from their municipality were unable to cast their vote — thus, the 90 per cent attendance speaks of truly massive support for Cuba’s political system.

It will be a lot more than today’s British general election, or council elections.

The rallies and activities for International Workers’ Day were carried out throughout the country. They were most visible at all provincial capitals, but they were also organised at municipal capitals.

Hundreds of thousands of workers and their relatives paraded through Havana’s Revolution Square holding Cuban flags and banners expressing support for the Revolution in front of the country’s leaders and a considerable number of guests, including the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro.

The parade in Havana was headed up by a contingent of 5,000 health workers, led by members of the Henry Reeve International Work Brigade who fought Ebola in western Africa saving many lives.

They contributed — next to other volunteers — to halting the spread of this deadly epidemic, showing the real nature of solidarity and Cuba’s exemplary record in responding generously to major disasters worldwide.

All this activity takes place against the backdrop of US defeat in trying to marshal a regime change in Cuba by lifting some economic sanctions.

But 30 days after Obama’s official declaration to remove Cuba from its State Sponsors of Terror list — as a precursor to loosening the 55 year old economic sanctions — the final decision has to be made by Congress by the end of May.

The Obama administration strengthened the original legislation passed in 1960 shortly after US banks and companies were nationalised by Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government.

The Trading with the Enemy Act has been extended to ensure that with the original Torricelli Act and the Helms-Burton Act, together with the official State Department listing of Cuba as “a state sponsor of terrorism,” it provides the legal backbone of US policy against Cuba.

Bill Clinton, for his own narrow electoral purposes, rescinded the Presidential Absolute to change this policy by handing it over to Congress.

Since Obama took office in 2009 fines against embargo violators, domestic and foreign, have dramatically increased and totalled $2.5 billion to date. The economic and financial embargo, which is vigorously enforced, is the longest against any country in the world.

Cuba estimates that to the year ending April 2015 the blockade will have added over $45 million to their health costs as a result of being forced to buy essential medical equipment and medicines from distant suppliers or through costly intermediaries.

Meanwhile, despite the consequences for the Cuban people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to confirm that Cuba will shortly be the first country in the world to have eliminated entirely Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) from mother to child.

In order to qualify for this recognition a country must have a transmission rate in less than 0.5 per cent of live births in the case of syphilis and less than 2 per cent in the case of HIV.

In addition medical care for pregnant women and access to HIV tests must exceed 95 per cent of those affected.

Also a new report from Unesco has revealed that Cuba spends 13 per cent of its GDP on education — the highest rate in Latin America. Only a third of nations worldwide achieved Unesco targets for improving access to education.

Another story you will not find in the British press and media is that Cuba has been nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for its outstanding contribution of medical teams to the sites of natural disasters and serious epidemics.

The nomination was made by the Annual Conference of Norwegian Trades Unionists in recognition of Cuba’s achievements on various continents with the participation of more than 10,000 of its health professionals.

In June the new Cuban ambassador to Britain Her Excellency Teresita Vicente will host the third Friends of Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC) garden party to be held at her official residence in London. Since the release of the Miami Five earlier this year Cuban ministers and other officials have warmly acknowledged the support and solidarity in Britain.

• Steven Walker is CSC member and author of: Fidel Castro: From Infant to Icon (Kindle Books). You can obtain further details of this event and details of local CSC groups around Britain at: office@cuba-solidarity.org.uk.