BY GEORGE ROSE
TORONTO - "Canadians fight for Cuban rights" was the lead story on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) late-night television news August 27. Viewers across Ontario saw a report on a meeting of 75 people held in Toronto earlier that day to hear eyewitness accounts from the Cuba Lives International Youth Festival.
Fifteen students, workers, and other activists from Ontario were among the more than 1,300 participants from around the world who attended the festival, held in Havana and other Cuban provinces August 1-7. Back in Canada, they have begun efforts to talk to as many people as possible about their experiences.
Two were interviewed for an hour on CKLN radio, an alternative, non-commercial station in Toronto. Another festival participant, who is originally from Iran, wrote an article for a Persian-language newspaper.
The CBC-TV report included an interview with Sylvie Charbin, a Toronto-area factory worker, who voiced the determination of the festival-goers to get out the truth about Cuba and to rally wider opposition to the U.S. trade embargo.
The news report concluded by announcing that Canadians will join a demonstration against the blockade planned in New York October 21, as well as protests in other U.S. cities in October. It also included video footage of the massive march along the Havana waterfront August 5, at which festival participants joined half a million Cubans in support of Cuba's sovereignty and its socialist revolution.
Lena Fung, a community activist in Toronto and member of the Worker to Worker/Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Committee, chaired the August 27 report-back meeting. She explained that the march marked the first anniversary of "a political watershed for many in Cuba"-the attempted riot against the revolution in August 1994. At that time, Fung described, "Thousands of Cubans came out into the streets in support of the revolution and subdued the riot without resorting to weapons."
Brent Patterson, a Toronto church worker, told how his emotions had shifted during the course of the trip. The first few days in Cuba, he said, he felt depressed because, "I wasn't prepared for the state of economic crisis, such as seeing housing that was falling apart." He described hours of discussion with a professor in Havana, who told him that many colleagues had left the university to be waiters because they could get higher pay and tips in U.S. dollars in the tourist industry.
Patterson went on to explain that his attitude changed profoundly after an in-depth discussion with a group of Cuban steelworkers. "They had such a strong sense of consciousness of the gains of the revolution, what it meant for the rights of workers. They were looking toward the future and seeing the difficulties now as part of a transition to better times ahead."
Finally, Patterson said, his mood shifted to one of anger on returning home and learning of the Ontario government's plans to cut funding for municipalities by 20 percent-"which means closing homes for the aged, losing 4,000 day-care spaces, losing emergency dental care for people on welfare. Given all the problems and barriers Cuba faces, they still haven't closed a hospital or school or lost a single day-care space. That's the lesson I learned-when you view problems from the human aspect, resources can be found and solutions can be struggled for."
The experience in Cuba, Patterson concluded, taught him "many lessons that I will take into my work, not only to defend the Cuban revolution but also to build a more humane life here in Toronto."
Ronald Chavez, a student originally from El Salvador and now living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, said that every minute in Cuba he was "comparing what's going on in the rest of Latin America to what's going on in Cuba," seeing Cuba as an example of struggle.
Charbin, a member of the International Association of Machinists at the Ford Electronics plant in Markham, Ontario, and a member of the Communist League, said she has had many discussions with co-workers about her trip to Cuba. She stressed that "the fight of Cuba is not separate from the fight of workers and youth around the world" against the effects of the capitalist crisis. She urged those present to defend Cuba by joining protests against cuts in social services, by going to Detroit in solidarity with newspaper strikers there, and to "take to all these fights the message that Cuba lives and that there is another road."
Alfredo Marroquin, who came to Canada as a refugee from El Salvador and is now the director of a center for immigrants in London, Ontario, also pointed to Cuba's example "as we enter a new century that will be characterized by struggles all over the world.
"Some people might think, faced with the power of capitalism, faced with the power of the multinationals, that there is not much you can do," Marroquin said. "But the Cubans are teaching us that there is a lot you can do if you believe in socialism, if you believe in justice. We see Cuba not as an island, but as a shining sun that gives us an idea of what people can do."
The meeting was organized by the Cuban Youth Tour Organizing Committee, which had publicized and raised funds for the international youth festival. The committee is now preparing for a fall tour of Canada by two Cuban youth leaders. Those present were encouraged to join in organizing this tour.
Leaders of the Canadian Cuban Friendship Association and the Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Committee also participated in the discussion and announced upcoming events of their groups.
In the discussion, some people questioned what will happen "after the blockade is lifted," whether the Cuban revolution can withstand an onslaught of capitalist investment and trade. Others responded that winning an end to the U.S. trade embargo-which is far from happening- would be a historic victory that would strengthen the workers and farmers of Cuba.
While there are no guarantees of what will happen in the future, they said, it will be the consciousness and organization of Cuban workers and farmers, the fact that they exercise governmental power, and their connection to other working-class struggles worldwide that can defend and advance the Cuban revolution under whatever conditions arise.