Vol. 81/No. 15 April 17, 2017
Join May Day brigade, learn about the Cuban Revolution
Washington is “against our revolution’s example,” he said. “Your solidarity, being part of the May 1 celebration in Cuba, we appreciate.”
Fifty people have signed up for the first ever U.S. contingent of the brigade. “Interest has exceeded expectations and applications are still coming in,” Steve Eckardt, co-coordinator of the Chicago Cuba Coalition, which is organizing the U.S. contingent, told the Militant, April 3 “One highlight will be taking part in the massive May Day rally in Havana.”
The Federation of Cuban Workers is organizing working people across the island to turn out May 1 “in defense of socialism,” dedicating this year’s mobilization “to Cuban youth, who today, more than ever, stand as the continuators of those who, almost 60 years ago, changed the course of our homeland’s history to make Cuba a free and independent nation, an example of sovereignty, dignity and heroism for the world.”
Brigade members will spend the first week at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp in Artemisa province, joining Cubans in agricultural work, meeting with activists in Cuba’s mass organizations, and traveling in the area to learn more about the revolution. They’ll go to Havana for May Day and an International Meeting in Solidarity with Cuba the next day. Then they’ll visit Villa Clara and Cienfuegos provinces, meeting with Cuban groups and touring revolutionary historical sites.
“We’re encouraging brigade members in Chicago to read about the revolution before they get there,” Eckardt said. “And on April 8 we’ll show the film ‘Maestra’ at another fundraiser.”
The movie interviews participants in the 1961 Cuban literacy campaign. Thousands of volunteers, many of them young women, traveled across the country teaching 700,000 adults how to read and write, transforming their capacities to participate in the unfolding revolution. The campaign also transformed the young people who led it.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to meet Cubans and hear what they say,” explained John Batres, a brigade member from Los Angeles at a fundraising event April 1 hosted by the Central American Cultural Center there. “It’ll put us in a better position to talk to others about the revolution when we come back.”
Organizers of the event showed the film “All Guantánamo is Ours.” Occupied against the will of the Cuban people since 1898, the Guantánamo base — now home to Washington’s most notorious military prison — has been used as a foothold against the revolution since 1959. Some brigadistas will spend their last week in Cuba taking part in the Fifth Seminar for Peace and for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases in Guantánamo province. Participation is both a protest against the U.S. base and opportunity to discuss how to build the fight to demand the U.S. get out.
To find out more, contact the Chicago Cuba Coalition at (312) 952-2618 or email: ICanGoToCuba@gmail.com .
Deborah Liatos and Arlene Rubinstein contributed to this article.
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