BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN AND ROBERT CREASY
LONDON - "At every meeting at which I've spoken, people ask `what will happen in Cuba when Fidel Castro dies?' But the Cuban revolution is more than one man. It couldn't have survived otherwise," said Cuban student leader, Kenia Serrano. Serrano was addressing a spirited 1,200-strong protest against the U.S. economic blockade here at the conclusion of her month-long tour of Britain. (See article facing page.)
"A majority of Cubans are under 30 years of age," Serrano went on. "The continuing support for the revolution shows that millions of young people in Cuba - not just the government, let alone one man - are committed to defending the revolution.
"What's so important about Fidel Castro are his ideas, his example, his leadership. These will never die. In this sense, great revolutionaries never die. Che Guevara will never die! José Martí will never die! Julio Antonio Mella will never die! Malcolm X will never die! Fidel Castro will never die!"
In the course of her tour, organized by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC), Serrano addressed college and public meetings and conducted interviews with the media. She attended the Labour Party conference and addressed a meeting there that attracted 70 people. In Sheffield, South Yorkshire, she was the featured speaker at a regional gathering that drew 60 people for in-depth discussions about the Cuban revolution.
Serrano spoke in Aberdeen in the north of Scotland, in Birmingham in the Midlands, and in Brighton on the south coast. She met with thousands, including members of parliament, trade unionists, Latin Americans living in Britain, and fighters for democratic rights.
As international relations secretary of the Federation of University Students in Cuba, she said she was particularly pleased to be able to make contact with student leaders. On October 20 she will meet with Jim Murphy, president of the National Union of Students. At South Bank University, where Serrano spoke to a meeting of 50 hosted by the college Afrikan Society, she was able to meet with local student union vice-president Ruhul Tarafder. Following the meeting, Tarafder said he would seek to deepen links between their two organizations, and will support an international youth brigade to Cuba scheduled for the summer of 1996.
Lively question-and-answer sessions were a feature of all the meetings at which she spoke. Many people wanted to know if young people were as committed to defending the revolution as the older generation. At the first meeting of the tour on September 22, hosted by North-West London CSC, Serrano explained that young people were not ignorant of conditions in the world. By word of mouth, films and TV, people were aware. Through internationalist missions, hundreds of thousands of Cuban volunteers have worked abroad as doctors, teachers, and soldiers.
During the tour, news of the new foreign investment law adopted by the Cuban national assembly in September hit Britain. Several people asked about the implications of this law - giving foreigners the right to own real estate and enterprises in most sectors of the economy.
At a meeting hosted by North-East London CSC, Serrano said that she didn't anticipate a rush of foreign capital into the country to buy the place up. "Fidel Castro has explained that the problem isn't too much but too little," she said, emphasizing that many Cubans were aware of the risks involved. "That's why the Cuban government retains the right to decide on each and every proposal. Every case of foreign investment is scrutinized at the highest level before proceeding. The Cuban labor code must be respected. The state will continue to defend the interests of working people.
"There is a big discussion around this in Cuba. A recent conference discussed the problem of corruption involving Cubans working in joint ventures," she noted. "There is also a lot of discussion around measures to cut excess labor in attempts to make enterprises more efficient."
The student leader said that discussion continues on the introduction of taxes on wages as part of a new tax system. "This decision has not yet been implemented because most working people are not ready for it," she said. "There are many suggestions about what a tax system would be like. Personally I believe the country is not prepared for any system, and I don't think one should be implemented - after all the workers produce all the wealth, all the goods and services."
At each meeting, Serrano appealed for the maximum pressure on the U.S. government to defeat the measure.