BY RÓGER CALERO
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - Two Young Socialists from the United
States are currently on a speaking tour of Cuba hosted by the Union
of Young Communists (UJC). Diana Newberry from Minneapolis-St.
Paul, and the author of these lines, from Newark, are visiting
factories, schools, and farms throughout the island, speaking about
the conditions facing youth and working people in the United States
and learning about the Cuban revolution. This is the second time
the UJC has extended such an invitation to members of the YS.
The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, has denied visas to two Cuban youth, Maika Guerrero and Iroel Sánchez, to enter the United States. The two researchers at the Center for Studies of Youth in Havana had been invited by faculty and students at dozens of universities to speak about Cuba today.
"In the United States, young people always know what they are fighting against," Newberry told students at the Tranquilo Sandalio Polytechnical Agricultural Institute in Pinar del Río province. "But it is not always clear what they are fighting for. The YS presents an alternative of the kind of society we want to build," and points to the socialist revolution in Cuba as an example of how this is possible, she said.
The first leg of the tour began in this province. The Young Socialists will also join in the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the victory by the Cuban people over the U.S.- organized mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs, the congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), and the commemoration of May 1, international workers day.
The agricultural school here has trained more than 3,000 agricultural technicians since the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship in 1959. Students from Angola, Mozambique, and Nicaragua have studied side by side with Cuban students, as part of Cuba's commitment to aid people in struggle throughout the world.
Much of the discussion so far has focused on the response of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces in shooting down two hostile planes from the United States over Cuban waters February 24. The Young Socialists have found a common reaction to the incident among workers and youth here. Nineteen-year-old polytechnic student Yosleny Galvez Leal explained that Cubans rejected the entry into Cuban airspace "because we are not going to allow an invasion under any circumstances."
"In Cuba there is not a diversity of opinions about the shooting down of the planes. There is only one: we shot them once and we will do it again," said tobacco farmer Eugenio Ramírez. He was part of a group of a dozen small independent tobacco farmers at an experimental center here receiving technical assistance to help them increase production for one of Cuba's main export crops.
The Young Socialists described conditions facing working farmers in the United States, which increasingly includes the threat of foreclosure on their land.
"The government here in Cuba doesn't apply the straightjacket that the capitalists used to have on us," responded farmer Bacilio León Sánchez. "Our production is not for the monopolies but for the benefit of society as a whole. There is a great difference in the farmers in the U.S. and farmers in Cuba: our government always supports us. My father had that problem before the revolution. For every 1,000 pesos he received, the capitalist received millions of pesos. The economic situation is very hard, but clearly we do not need capitalism."
The Young Socialist's delegation also addressed a congress of the National Union for Scientific Workers in preparation for the upcoming congress of the CTC. They described there how the Militant has serialized the theses for the CTC congress in its pages, in order for fighters in the U.S. labor movement to be able to study it.
The socialists also visited a factory where tobacco leaves are selected for the next stage of cigar production. Most of the workers in this facility are women. Newberry reported that in the United States, women are paid less than men. She described that as part of the government-employer offensive against the working class, affirmative action is being targeted, one of the gains that emerged from the Black and women's rights movements.
"In the United States there is a different appreciation of the work men and women do," said 28-year-old Moraina Muñoz, who has worked in the factory for seven years.
Many of the workers were interested in the so-called Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity act, recently signed into law by U.S. president William Clinton. The legislation tightens Washington's 36-year-long economic and trade embargo against Cuba. Lazara Hernández wanted to know what North American youth think about the law.
"The majority of young people in the United States don't know about the law or what it is," responded Newberry. "Under capitalism, the government wants to keep us out of politics. But we get a good response when we explain the facts, like around the shooting down of the planes. Many agreed that Cuba had the right to shoot down the planes - even in Miami," she concluded.
The YS members passed copies of the Spanish-language socialist monthly Perspectiva Mundial around at different worksites and schools, along with books containing the writings and speeches of revolutionary leaders published by Pathfinder Press. They were met with intense interest, especially the new English-language edition of Ernesto Che Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War.
Cuban workers and youth particularly wanted to know how revolutionaries in the United States are able to sell this literature at factories, schools, and on the streets.