BY BRIAN TAYLOR

HAVANA, Cuba - Union of Young Communists (UJC) leaders Victoria Velázquez and Rogelio Polanco left for a week-long trip to Brazil and Chile May 5 to publicize the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students, set for August 1997 in Cuba. Velázquez, first secretary of the UJC, and Polanco, head of the organization's international relations, said prior to their departure that the UJC plans to send many of its leaders and cadres all over South America and the Caribbean, as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. They will meet with youth organizations, visit universities, and invite everyone to assemble in Cuba the summer of next year.

Velázquez announced the call for the festival at the million- strong May Day march here, which was dedicated to Cuba's youth. "In 1997 we will meet in socialist Cuba," Velázquez said, where "nothing has been impossible for Cuban patriots since we got rid of capitalism through a genuine revolution."

Among other topics, the UJC leader said, the international youth gathering will discuss democracy, peace, the struggle for sovereignty, women's rights, employment, the environment, and "how to raise our voices to condemn racism, xenophobia, and imperialism."

The first international preparatory meeting for the festival took place April 23 in Brussels, Belgium, said Polanco, who represented the UJC at the meeting along with Ibis Alvisa González. Several organizations were present, including the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY). There, it was decided to hold the event in Cuba in the summer of 1997. The UJC initiated the process of consulting other organizations around the world immediately after the Cuba Lives international youth festival in August 1995. Since then, some 90 organizations from nearly 50 countries have expressed interest in participating.

"The Festival will be self-financed with the support of each participant and with the creation of an international solidarity fund that will give financial assistance to delegates from the Third World," said Velázquez, in her comments at the May Day mobilization.

In addition to tours by UJC leaders around the world, Cuban youth organizations are hosting brigades and other trips to Cuba, leading up to the 1997 festival.

In the United States, for example, the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange, organized by the National Network on Cuba and hosted by the UJC, is organizing a few hundred youth to go to the Caribbean country in July to see the reality of the Cuban revolution and take the experiences back to the United States, encouraging more young people to check it out. A similar exchange is being organized by young people from Mexico. The UJC is hosting many other international solidarity brigades this summer as part of the efforts to build the 1997 world youth gathering.

Festival participants will be divided among 14 provinces throughout the island. They will stay with Cuban families and, for some portion of the trip, will be issued bicycles to get around. Massive preparations are under way to be able to host such an event with thousands of young people. Translators and translation equipment will have to be acquired, paper for the materials given out will need to be obtained, and the political preparation for the topics to be discussed must be organized. There is much excitement among Cuban youth about this event.

Scheduled to coincide with the World Festival of Youth and Students is an international gathering of trade unionists. Tentatively called the International Conference of Workers for Unity in Action against Neoliberalism, it was called by a May 2 gathering of unionists from around the world who attended the 17th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers.

To help coordinate efforts to organize and build the world youth gathering, a second international preparatory meeting will take place in October in Cuba.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home