BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
NEW YORK - Some 75 students and other youth have applied to go to Cuba July 24-August 6 with the U.S.-Cuba Youth exchange, reported Lorena Gaibor, a student from New Brunswick, New Jersey. Gaibor was attending a meeting of the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), which is sponsoring the trip. The gathering took place here May 18-19.

"Reports from around the country indicate there are at least 90 young people committed to go on the Youth Exchange so far," Gaibor said in an interview. One of the national coordinators of the NNOC task force organizing the trip, Gaibor is a member of the New Jersey Network on Cuba, which is working with students in New Brunswick and elsewhere in northern New Jersey to build participation in the exchange.

Leslie Cagan of the Cuba Information Project, which is organizing travel for the exchange, reported that the deadline for submitting applications has been extended to July 1. The Federation of University Students (FEU) in Cuba is fully hosting the trip, covering accommodations and other expenses on the island.

"The trip will make it possible for young people from this country to meet fellow students and workers in Cuba and find the facts about the Cuban revolution for themselves," Gaibor said. "Many of these youth will come back to report on their trip, write articles, speak on the radio, and get more involved in activities to oppose the U.S. economic war on Cuba."

Fifteen youth from 10 cities across the United States participated in the NNOC meeting, among the 80 people there representing many local and national affiliates of the Network.

Ty Moore, an activist in the Seattle-Cuba Friendshipment, said 10 youth from Seattle have expressed interest in going. He brought seven applications to the NNOC meeting. His group has organized a garage sale, a music concert, and a film festival with the movies Gay Cuba and Cuba Va. The funds raised will help young people who want to go on the trip but can't afford it.

Multitude of youth activities
The largest number of applicants come from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. "We have signed up 21 people to go on the trip so far," said Damon Tinnon, a student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. As a result of the work on the exchange, activists on that campus recently formed All Students for Cuba, a university-based group whose main purpose is to build the youth exchange. The group is now planning a fund-raising concert on campus along with the Africana and La Raza student cultural centers, Tinnon said.

María Alejandra Rincón from the Cuba Friendship Committee at the University of Houston reported that three students are going on the trip from that school so far. Sandra Collado, who just graduated from Florida International University in Miami, said several youth from that city have also applied. "Building the Youth Exchange is one of the main activities of the Miami Coalition to End the Embargo on Cuba this summer," she said. The coalition is affiliated to the NNOC.

Organizers are also making efforts to reach out to national groups such as MEChA, which organizes mostly Chicano students on campuses across the country, youth in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, young farmers in the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, young feminists in the National Organization for Women, and the NAACP.

"We are also seeking to recruit young workers to go," said Brock Satter, an airline worker and member of the International Association of Machinists in New York. Satter is also an activist in the New York U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange Committee, which holds weekly meetings at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC).

Mayra Matos, a student at BMCC who attended the NNOC meeting, said the group is planning a Poetry Slam and Open Mike featuring Latino poet Jack Agueros at a gallery, as well as a Hip Hop, R&B, and Reggae Benefit to raise funds for the trip. Reaching out to Latino youth in Washington Heights and other neighborhoods will be a feature of recruitment efforts in New York, said Noah Smith of the Venceremos Brigade, who is also taking part in the outreach efforts of the BMCC group.

Youth activists from around the country have selected regional coordinators to help with building efforts and are producing a national flyer and outreach letter. "With hard work we may be able to get over 200 youth on the trip," Gaibor said.

Other Cuba solidarity actions
Participants at the NNOC meeting also agreed to back the Fast for Life by Pastors for Peace. The organization has come under attack from Washington because of its effort in January and February to organize a shipment of medical supplies and computers for hospitals in Cuba.

Three leading Pastors for Peace activists, including its director, Lucius Walker, have been on a fast for more than three months demanding the government release the 400 computers it confiscated from the group. Walker reported that a fourth activist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Brian Rohatyn, ended his fast May 17 after the U.S. government released the 70 seized computers that originated in Canada.

The NNOC agreed to donate $1,000 to the Pastors for Peace and join the group in its efforts to fight a government subpoena demanding the Pastors hand over to a grand jury records of its project, called the U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment, which has sent several humanitarian aid caravans to Cuba since 1992. The next hearings on the subpoena have been postponed to June.

Ignacio Meneses, of the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange and one of the national coordinators of the NNOC, chaired a public forum on the evening of May 18 at Casa de las Américas. His group organized a delegation of 53 U.S. trade unionists who attended the 17th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) in Havana at the end of April. Some 50 people, including many of the participants at the NNOC gathering, attended the forum, a report from the CTC congress.

In addition to Meneses, Joel Schwartz, president of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 446; Shelley Beth Ettinger, member of the National Writers Union; Cleve Andrew Pulley, a steward for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149; and Brian Taylor, member of the International Association of Machinists, spoke on the panel.

Meneses said his group is planning another delegation from the United States to Cuba to participate in an international conference of trade unionists there in the summer of 1997. The conference was called by a May 2 gathering of unionists from around the world who attended the CTC convention.

The National Network also decided to urge affiliates to organize teach-ins and other educational activities on U.S. policy toward Cuba and the facts about the Cuban revolution during the fall, focusing on the first week of October, said Andrés Gómez, one of the four national NNOC co-chairs. These events can broaden opposition to U.S. policy at a time when Washington has qualitatively escalated its economic squeeze on Cuba, he said. They can also serve as building activities for the October 12 immigrant rights march in Washington, D.C.

The next meeting of the Network was set for September 28-29 in Pittsburgh.  
 
 
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