More than 5,200 delegates from 36 countries were at the opening session. They included 1,000 students from Cuba and 1,500 students from around the world who attend the Latin American School of Medical Sciences in Havana. Hundreds of additional delegates from countries other than Cuba arrived in subsequent days, bringing attendance to 6,300 by April 3.

Virtually every single country in the Americas is represented. Among the largest delegations outside Cuba are 600 from Venezuela and 400 from Mexico. For the first time in the history of these congresses, large delegations from North America--more than 250 from Canada, including 90 from Quebec, and over 80 from the United States--are present.

The gathering is sponsored by the Continental Latin America and Caribbean Students Organization (OCLAE). Student congresses in Latin America began in 1908. OCLAE was founded in 1963, inspired by the triumph of the Cuban revolution four years earlier and attempting to give the student movement in the Americas an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist direction.

OCLAE president Yosvani Díaz Romero opened the gathering. The statement by Cuban national hero José Martí that "our country is the Americas" is the framework of the deliberations of the congress, he said. Students in Latin America, he added, are united by a common struggle against neoliberalism and globalization. These are terms commonly used in Latin America to describe the imperial arrogance and domination and brutal assaults on human dignity the world over by Washington and other imperialist powers.

Other speakers at the opening session, which included a varied cultural program, were Evangelina Maldonado, speaking for the students of the Latin American School of Medical Sciences, and Ramón Cuadra, representing the University Federation for the Independence of Puerto Rico. Cuadra said that the colonial domination of Puerto Rico is the most "naked and brutal expression of U.S. imperialism." He got a standing ovation when he called on delegates to organize solidarity with youth and the vast majority of the people of the Caribbean nation in their struggle to prevent the U.S. Navy from resuming its bombing practices in Vieques.

Cuban president Fidel Castro and other representatives of the Cuban government and leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba attended the opening of the conference.

The delegates are housed in the dormitories of three schools--the Polytechnic Institute José Antonio Echevarría (CUJAE), the Lenin School, and the Salvador Allende Academy of Teachers. More than half arrived one or several days prior to the opening of the congress. Coming from different countries, or a number of cities in the same country, they took the opportunity to get to know each other and have a variety of political discussions.

At the CUJAE, for example, delegates from Quebec took the initiative to hold a roundtable open forum on Quebec independence over two nights March 29-30. More than 200 students took part, mostly from Canada, but also from Cuba, Angola, Mexico, the United States, and other countries. The debates were organized after a few delegates from Canada vehemently objected to the widespread use of the Quebecois flag that delegates from Montreal had hung visibly from several dorm rooms.

Delegates began work in six commissions on April 2 for three days. They are discussing and adopting resolutions, among others, extending their solidarity to revolutionary Cuba, defending public education and opposing race and sex discrimination in school admissions, condemning destruction of the environment, and supporting struggles to advance equality for women.

Editora Abril, the publishing house of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) in Cuba, has made a special effort to make widely available and promote the Spanish-language edition of the book Che Guevara Talks to Young People at the congress. The book is sold at the special price of $6 from UJC literature tables and Editora Abril booths at all school facilities where delegates are staying and at all the conference sessions. The title, containing speeches by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine-born leader of the Cuban revolution, was published in January by Pathfinder Press in collaboration with Editora Abril.

On April 2, Editora Abril distributed to delegates attending three of the commissions that meet every day at the convention palace a brochure featuring this title and advertising a promotional presentation of the book after lunch that day.

More than 1,000 delegates were present for that event. Armando Hart Dávalos, a founder of the July 26 Movement and leader of the Cuban revolution who wrote the preface to this book, spoke about Che Guevara Talks to Young People. "Even though the world has changed from the early 1960s, and Che might have spoken differently to youth today, one is struck by how relevant these talks are to what you are discussing at this congress," Hart said.

During the gathering, delegates are also visiting hospitals and schools, the pioneers center, Expo Cuba, and other sites in Havana. One of the most interesting parts of the program was visits to Cuban neighborhoods one evening and dinners with hundreds of Cuban families, organized by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

On April 3, delegates joined thousands of Cuban students, workers, and others in a 15,000-strong rally on the Malecón, opposite the U.S. Interests Section. The event was held as part of a series--often daily--protests demanding Elián González, a six-year-old Cuban boy be returned to his father in Cuba. Elián was rescued off the Florida coast last November after his mother and others on board a small boat drowned when it capsized after leaving Cuba.

The Cuban government has supported the demand of the boy's father and other relatives in Cuba that Elián be returned to his country. The boy is still in the United States, where distant relatives in Miami are trying to keep him with the encouragement and support of many among the U.S. rulers. The April 3 event also served as the inauguration of the José Martí Open Anti-imperialist Tribunal. It is a plaza built over the last two months as a byproduct of the protests demanding Elián's repatriation. The congress concludes April 5.

'Militant' staff writer Brian Taylor contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home