With six weeks left to get in an application, one of the most important things for readers to do over the next month and a half is to talk to every person you know: classmates, coworkers, fellow political activists, and friends, about the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange in July. Workers on picket lines, youth fighting police brutality, defending Mumia Abu Jamal, or linking arms to keep abortion clinics open, and those who take to the streets demanding equal rights for immigrants are the ones who need to find the facts about the Cuban revolution first hand.

It's not an accident that Washington intensifies its attacks on working people inside the United States at the same time it steps up its economic war on Cuba's socialist revolution. Why?

As Cuban president Fidel Castro eloquently explained in a speech at the United Nations in 1960, "The government of the United States cannot be on the side of the peasants because it is an ally of the landowners. It cannot be on the side of the workers anywhere in the world because it is an ally of the monopolies. It cannot be on the side of the colonies because it is an ally of the colonizing powers."

And Cuba is among the most important trenches of freedom in the world. "We are situated only a few steps away from U.S. imperialism," said Ernesto Che Guevara in another speech to the United Nations in 1964, "but we have shown by our actions, by our daily example, that in the present conditions of humanity the peoples can liberate themselves and keep themselves free." (These speeches are published in the Pathfinder book To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's `Cold War' against Cuba Doesn't End.)

For 37 years Cuban working people have lived up to this accurate assessment by the most authoritative representatives of the Cuban revolution. It is their example that the masters of Wall Street aim to destroy and in the meantime hide from young people and workers with their travel ban to the island.

So go to Cuba and see for yourself. Organizers of the youth exchange urge everyone interested to fill out an application and send it in now. This will greatly reduce chances of not being able to go because of late filing, or last-minute problems with passport information and other details. It will clear logistical problems so that real time can be devoted to political preparation, raising money, and recruiting others to the Exchange. Filling out an application is also a way to make a minimal but serious commitment to the trip.

This Youth Exchange is organized by the National Network on Cuba for all youth, from those who have heard very little about Cuba, but are open to seeing it firsthand, to those who have been steadfast defenders of the Cuban revolution. In city after city, the best tool to win new people to the Exchange is joining other activities and hooking up with those taking a stand in struggles on the side of the exploited and oppressed. They are attracted to the Cuban revolution because it, like them, refuses to kneel down at the feet of Yankee imperialism.

Youth Exchange participants should also seize the moment to begin to study the history of the Cuban revolution. Reading books and pamphlets such as Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, To Speak the Truth, and the Second Declaration of Havana, and the article Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution by Mary-Alice Waters is the best preparation for the trip (see ad on page 6). These very same educational activities can be made public to draw more people into the Youth Exchange.

Organizing such classes, while carrying out a barrage of fundraisers, video showings, speaking engagements, and, where possible, getting media coverage, will maximize the possibility of building a sizable and broad delegation.

As part of these organizing efforts, participants can begin laying the groundwork to report back the truth about Cuba to any and all that will lend an ear. Political forums, house meetings, and panel discussions to share experiences from the trip, are powerful tools to build support for the next set of activities in defense of Cuba coming up in the fall.

All out to build the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange!  
 
 
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