BY CATHARINA TIRSÉN AND LARS JOHANSSON
STOCKHOLM - Jonathan Manuel Quirós Santos, a leader of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba (UJC), is schedule to arrive in Stockholm October 11 for a month-long tour of four Scandinavian countries.
Quirós will meet with youth organizations and speak at universities, colleges, and high schools. He has been invited to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland by the friendship associations in the respective countries.
The youth leader is also scheduled to speak at a national demonstration on October 14 in Stockholm against the U.S. government blockade of Cuba. The protest is the first such demonstration in 15 years and will coincide with similar demonstrations in other countries that were called at an international solidarity conference in Havana in December 1994.
Since the decision by the Sweden-Cuba Friendship Association earlier this spring to initiate the demonstration, a work group from different organizations has met three times to organize and build the demonstration. Some 50 solidarity organisations and parties have endorsed the demonstration.
Apart from Quirós, the speakers list for the October 14 action includes Eva Bjorklund, chairperson of the Friendship Association, Hans Andersson, member of parliament from the Left party, and Hans-Goran Franck from the Social Democratic Party.
Local groups of the friendship association are organizing buses from Malmo, Goteborg, Norrkoping, and Vasteras to bring people to the Stockholm demonstration.
After the rally participants will meet at a "Solidarity Forum" to exchange ideas about work in defense of the Cuban revolution. Participants from all over the country will get a chance to meet with Jonathan Quirós and prepare for visits he will make in the following weeks in their cities. A tour around Sweden will take Quirós to Sundvall, Jonkoping, Vasteras, Goteborg, and Malmo, as well as Oslo in Norway and Copenhagen in Denmark. Qioros' stay in Scandinavia will wind up in Iceland in a tour organized by the friendship association there.