BY JOSHUA CARROLL AND MARIA ISABEL LEBLANC
GUINA DE MELENA, Cuba - "Given the economic reality of our country," explained Carelis Díaz, "we have taken responsibility for work that used to be done by someone else. Now we, the students, organize to clean the school, paint the facilities, and we have had to learn how to do repairs." As a result, she said, "when we see a student mistreating the facilities, it's different; we remind him or her of who is responsible and who is going to be fixing things if they are broken."

Carelis is a senior at the Batalla de Ayacucho secondary school, where supporters of Pathfinder Press had been invited to bring a display of books and meet with students on February 13. Batalla de Ayacucho is a type of boarding school that is a cornerstone of the Cuban educational system. In addition to their normal curriculum, studying to become teachers, its 436 students work for three to four hours a day in a nearby cooperative farm cultivating crops. The co-op in turn supplies the school with food for the students' meals.

These reporters and Francisco Picado came to Batalla de Ayacucho, located some 13 miles southwest of Havana, at the invitation of Rafael Iglesias, a mathematics teacher here. He was eager to have the students talk with revolutionary workers and youth from the United States and Canada. Iglesias explained that "students would benefit more from two hours" of this sort of discussion, "than they would from 20 courses in philosophy."

Iglesias is a communist whose teaching credentials go back to when he volunteered at age 11 for the massive literacy campaign of 1961, when 100,000 young Cubans took to the fields, mountains, and working-class neighborhoods in every corner of their island to teach all those who wanted to learn to read and write. That campaign began to wipe out illiteracy in a matter of months. Iglesias later joined the newly formed Revolutionary Armed Forces. He became a political instructor and teacher, responsibilities he carried out until he was 19. He then went to school in Havana, where he graduated as a teacher in mathematics.

On the way to the school we had seen some brand new houses, and asked Iglesias who owned them. He explained that "some private farmers in the area are doing really well selling produce for dollars," and that some people call farmers in Guina de Melena "los ricos" (the wealthy ones).

Iglesias also pointed out the entrance to the "Los Perros" farm. As a leader of the Union of Young Communists, he headed the contingent that nationalized that farm on the outskirts of Havana in 1968. "The young people you are about to meet," he said, "I am convinced they can be every bit as revolutionary as the generations that preceded them."

Francisco Picado, a former garment worker in New York and Miami who is a reporter for Perspectiva Mundial, kicked off two discussion sessions attended by a total of some 80 students. Picado talked about the work of communists in the factories, the trade unions, and among the youth in the United States, and pointed to a number of books that, along with participation in a range of social struggles, were essential to carrying out communist work. Copies of Spanish- language editions of The Communist Manifesto, Opening Guns of World War III, The Changing Face of U.S. Politics, February 1965: The Final Speeches by Malcolm X, and other titles were circulated as examples of the books used in this effort. The students eagerly looked over copies of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial as well.

"The main task facing communists today," Picado explained, "is to confront the impending criminal assault against Iraq by telling the truth about imperialism and campaigning to win youth and workers to the fight to do away with all imperialist regimes, beginning with the United States." He stressed that the opportunities to build communist parties that can eventually lead millions to follow the example of the Cuban revolution are greater today than they have been for decades.

Questions about capitalist society
In the lively discussion that followed, the students had many questions that went to the heart of the crisis of the capitalist system and its consequences for working people.

"What is the United States trying to do in Iraq?" asked one.

"What is the reason for racism in the United States? Why are there so many divisions?" another wanted to know.

"What is the situation with the francophones and the anglophones in Canada?" asked a young woman, aware that Maria Isabel Le Blanc, one of the visitors, was a worker from Quebec.

Students were also interested in discussing the role of the Young Socialists in building revolutionary youth organizations today in the United States and Canada.

Although the great majority of students clearly enjoyed the discussion of working-class politics and the opportunity to ask questions about life in the imperialist countries, that was not true for everyone. One student took issue with Pathfinder's publishing of speeches by Fidel Castro. "I can understand your wanting to publish the speeches of [Ernesto] Che Guevara," he said, "99 percent of Cubans like him too. But why would you want to publish Fidel Castro for people to read?"

While some students expressed disagreement with the questioner, Picado thanked the student for raising this because it allowed him to clarify what he thought. "I share the views of the editors at Pathfinder Press on this," he said. "I think Che Guevara was correct when he pointed to Fidel as his teacher. Che became a communist through his combat experience in the Rebel Army and his participation in the July 26 Movement, under the leadership of Fidel." Picado told the class, to this student's further dissatisfaction and the smiles and approval of others, that Pathfinder plans to publish two new volumes of speeches by Fidel Castro.

Another student asked, "I have heard that all workers in the United States can have their own houses and cars and everything they need. Is that true?"

"No," said Picado, "and it is less and less true with each passing day. What you are talking about is called the `American Dream.' It was true for a layer in the working class in the decades that followed World War II, when Wall Street completely dominated the world economy and the crumbs that fell from the bosses' table were more plentiful. But those days were over a quarter century ago, and since then the bosses and their government have been driving down wages, working conditions, and the overall standard of living of us all.

"Most workers in the United States do not come close to making the kind of wages that would enable them to buy a house of their own," Picado explained. He pointed to the fact that in the United States, many young workers, including layers of working-class Blacks and immigrants, spend what little money they have to buy sports shoes, designer jeans, or a CD player. "But," he continued, "most of these same young people have nothing to look forward to but an unemployment line, an uncertain, low-paying job, being drafted for a war, or the bullet of a racist, anti-working- class cop."

Discussion of Pope's visit
"What do you think about the Pope's recent visit to Cuba?" the visitors asked the Cuban students.

Most students expressed approval and enthusiasm for the visit. One explained that when the Pope visited, "we became the center of the world for a few days."

"Everything was right, we showed everyone we could welcome him the right way," said another young woman.

When asked what they thought about what the Pope had to say, Ligia Lara, the president of the local chapter of Student Federation of Middle Level Schools (FEEM), said, "It was very nice; he spoke of peace and fraternity, and spoke against the [U.S.] blockade." None of the students who voiced opinions were aware of, or ascribed any weight to, the fact that the Pope had spoken out against women's right to choose abortion and contraception.

As the formal part of the meeting ended, students crowded around each of the Pathfinder books that were circulating, and applauded the announcement that several of the titles would be donated to the school library, including The Communist Manifesto and an issue of Nueva Internacional containing the article "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War."

Discussion continued as students viewed a display of photographs depicting how Pathfinder books, the Militant, and Perspectiva Mundial are sold to workers, including through street-corner tables and factory plant-gate sales.

"In your opinion, what is going to happen in Guantánamo?" asked one student. He was referring to the U.S. military base that illegally occupies a piece of Cuban territory at the easternmost end of the island, in Guantánamo. "Is there any possibility of change?"

"Do you think something will change with the blockade?" asked Oscar M. Peña.

"The U.S. ruling class will not stop the economic embargo unless they think the revolution is weakening and the Cuban people can be bought off," said Picado. "They will never forgive the Cuban people for your revolution nor for the fact that you have been independent for 40 years. They will never forgive the example of resistance to imperialist domination you are setting."

"Well, if that is the case," said Peña, "we will fight them, like Martí and Maceo and Fidel and Che have done before us."

"And that's how it will be," said José García, "because everybody is going to fight them here. Even the dogs, pigs, and chickens."  
 
 
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