BY JASON ALESSIO AND DAVID ARGUELLO
This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists
(YS), an international organization of young workers,
students, and other youth fighting for socialism. For more
information about the YS write to: Young Socialists, 3284
23rd St., San Francisco, California, 94110. Tel: (415) 824-
1429. E-mail: 105162.605@compuserve.com
SANTA CRUZ, California - Itamys García Villar and Luis Ernesto Morejón, two youth leaders from Cuba, spoke at the University of California at Santa Cruz on the evening of April 22. This was one of their last stops on a five-week tour of universities, factories, farms, and community centers across the United States (see coverage on back page).
The meeting here was organized by the Santa Cruz Student Coalition for the Cuban Youth Tour, composed of five members of the Young Socialists and several other student activists. It drew an estimated 240 people to the public forum, primarily students. This was the largest turnout so far on the entire tour. The meeting was publicized ahead of time in a campus newspaper and a student-run magazine. To build the event, members of the Student Coalition for the Cuban Youth Tour went to meetings of different student organizations to explain the program and personally invite them to participate.
Before the public forum, an informal reception was held to bring together student organization leaders from the University and the two Cuban youth leaders. Members of the Black Men's Alliance, Student Alliance of North American Indians, Radical Action Students Against Lies and Suppression, United Farm Workers Student Committee, Jewish Student Union, Santa Cruz Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Asian Pacific Islander Student Alliance, Brigada Zapatista M3, Young Socialists, and the Student Union Assembly discussed their involvement in their respective political struggles. García and Morejón were excited to learn about the current issues facing students and youth in the United States. They demonstrated solidarity by inviting the student leaders from Santa Cruz to the International Youth and Student Seminar about Neoliberialism to be held in Havana, Cuba, this summer.
The meeting in Santa Cruz was sponsored by Outreach Administration and Student Academic Services, the Chicano/Latino Student Life Resource Center, Latin American/Latino Studies, Student Academic Affairs, Language Studies Department, Student Union Assembly, Crown and Stevenson Colleges, the Student Alliance of North American Indians, and the Young Socialists.
Manuel González, a member of the Young Socialists, chaired the campus meeting and introduced former mayor of Santa Cruz Mike Rotkin and student body president Heliana Ramírez to welcome García and Morejón.
The speakers talks and following discussion period covered a broad range of questions, from the internationalist example of the Cuban revolution to the rights of homosexuals there today. A handful of right-wingers were unable to prevent a civil political exchange from taking place.
In the process of helping to build and put on this public forum, the Young Socialists chapter in Santa Cruz opened a new space where more youth are interested in initiating and engaging in political discussions. In order to take full advantage of the large response to the Cuban Youth Tour meeting, the Santa Cruz chapter has organized a series of classes beginning this week with the Second Declaration of Havana, to be followed by a class on the truth about Yugoslavia.