"If you add to that accomplishment the education in principles of human solidarity the people in our country have received," he said, "then the capitalists cannot come back. This is the fear of the U.S. capitalists: people will realize it is possible to have a different social system. They are worried about the Movement of Rural Landless Workers in Brazil, the Indian movement in Ecuador, and the struggle in southern Mexico." With the example of the Cuban revolution, Dueñas said, "the people of other countries will begin to say, 'We can do it too.'"

The meeting was part of an April 9–14 tour in Minnesota by Dueñas and Yanelis Martínez, who addressed more than 500 students and faculty at eight universities. Martínez is a fifth-year law student at the University of Havana and a member of the National Secretariat of the Federation of University Students (FEU) in Cuba. Dueñas is a professor of journalism at the University of Havana and a leader of the Union of Young Communists in Cuba. Their talks were part of a three-week tour of universities in the United States sponsored by the Cuban Youth Lectures committee based in Chicago.

Dueñas's comment was an answer to a participant in the meeting who asked, "Why is the U.S. government so hostile to Cuba? Is it because of the example it sets for working people in Latin America and the rest of the world?"

"Some years ago there was a debate here in the United States," Dueñas said. "A renowned Cubanologist presented the idea that Cuba had a revolution because it was the wealthiest country per capita in Latin America. Before 1959 Cuba had the highest head of cattle per capita in Latin America."

"According to this idea," the Cuban youth leader said, "my grandfather, who was continually hungry and suffered all kinds of discrimination, owned 27 head of cattle. In fact, he was only able to own land and work it for the first time as a result of the revolution. He told me time and again never to forget that reality."

At a meeting at Hamline University, Martínez said many young people she met during the tour have asked her whether or not what they read about Cuba in the major U.S. media is true. "I want to clarify," she said, "that the only crimes we have committed since the triumph of the revolution in 1959 are giving the land back to the farmers and teaching everybody to read and write. Maybe our crime is to build a society that is more just; one that has its own identity."

At the St. Olaf College meeting, Martínez described the depth of the revolution and the involvement of masses of working people in it. "How is it possible that a small island, subject to such pressure from Washington, has been able to survive for four decades?" she asked. "What has been shown over the 40 years of the revolution is the possibility of building human values among people. This is what has made possible the participation of 40,000 Cuban youth who volunteered to go fight in Angola to defend that country against the invasion by the apartheid South African armed forces. We have many achievements. It is unthinkable that they could have been attained under a dictatorship or by the efforts of one man."

"We have been able to overcome the economic difficulties and other obstacles of the past decade only with the efforts of all of us," Martínez said. "Last year, many tens of thousands of Cuban youth helped to take the lead in organizing demonstrations demanding the return of Elián González to Cuba. The revolution is not just the revolution of [Cuban president] Fidel [Castro]. It is the revolution of the Cuban people." Martínez said many young people are being appointed to government posts, pointing to the example of Cuba's foreign minister who is 35 years old. "After surmounting the obstacles of the Special Period we are more confident than ever that our revolution will continue."

The Special Period is what Cubans call the decade following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s, which resulted in the collapse of trade and aid with Russia and countries in Eastern Europe. To ratchet up the pressure, Washington tightened its embargo, threats, and propaganda against Cuba.  
 
'We can never let down our guard'
"After 1989, we faced shortages in basic necessities," Martínez said. "Even though we didn't close a single school, hospital, or child-care center, the tasks of the teachers, doctors, and child-care workers became more difficult because of a lack of resources. The enemies of our revolution in the United States were happy with our difficulties. Surmounting them gave us more strength and today we have more knowledge of what our people are capable of doing to defend the revolution. This decade was for us a second Playa Girón," she said, referring to the 1961 U.S.-backed mercenary invasion of Cuba, which was routed by militias of working people together with the Rebel Army in less than 72 hours. "As it was said at Playa Girón, our best teacher has been imperialism. We have been taught that we can't let our guard down for a minute."

Members of the Student Coalition against Racism (SCAR), a group of students who have been fighting racist attacks against faculty and students at St. Cloud State University, organized a meeting for the Cuban youth leaders that was attended by 110 people. The group is currently part of the fight to defend Laurynda Stryker, a teacher at the school who is Jewish and who has been the object of anti-Semitic attacks. This struggle was covered in a front-page article in the Washington Post two weeks ago. Last fall SCAR organized a conference on racial profiling attended by 250 students and faculty.

The event with the Cuban youth was covered by the St. Cloud Times, the major newspaper in the area (see article below).  
 
'Our homeland is all of humanity'
One participant in the meeting asked about Cuba's internationalist missions. Dueñas said that there are currently more than 1,000 Cubans in other countries, including in Africa. "We help also in the training of teachers, doctors, and athletes. One and a half years ago Fidel Castro spoke at a meeting in Harlem inviting young people from poor communities in the United States to come to Cuba to get medical training. The only condition is that after graduating they stay in their communities and practice medicine," he said. "A few days ago we received our first group of medical students from the United States to begin their training. We have many teachers helping in other Latin American countries."

Following up the discussion, a student said, "I am Cuban. I left Cuba 15 years ago. Cuba is helping other countries. How can we help others when we don't help ourselves?"

Martínez replied that the "U.S. government will never stop us from acting this way, according to human values. They will never stop us from becoming more complete human beings. It is better to save a life than to make money from practicing medicine. Our people do have a spirit of solidarity, which is shown by the fact that we go to other countries to help." In addition, Dueñas added, "Other countries that help Cuba could ask the same question of themselves. But for us, our homeland is all of humanity."

"Can you say some words about Cuba's progress in combating racial discrimination?" another person asked. "Before 1959," Dueñas said, "Blacks in Cuba were among the very poor. There were many barriers to having equal access to farm land, jobs, and a university education. Today those barriers have been torn down."

Many of the members of SCAR stayed after the question-and-answer period to discuss more politics with the Cuban youth leaders.  
 
Union organizing drive
Dueñas and Martínez also met with a dozen meat packers from the St. Paul area. Nine have been part of the fight to organize a union and win a first contract at Dakota Premium Foods, a beef slaughterhouse in South St. Paul. The union drive was initiated by a seven-hour sit-down strike last June to protest working conditions. A month and a half later the workers voted by a big majority to join the union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. Since then the company has been fighting against the workers' victory in the National Labor Relations Board, refusing to recognize the union or negotiate. However, the workers continue to act collectively through their union to beat back the company's attacks.

Dakota workers told the Cuban youth leaders of several of the fights they have waged against the company over the last several months. A worker in the packaging department explained how union members organized a delegation to the office of the plant manager to demand better conditions in their area, including the right to bathroom breaks.

A worker in the kill department gave an example of the daily test of strength that goes on between the union and the company. He recently put a union sticker on his hard hat. The company responded by requiring supervisors and other salaried personnel to wear company stickers on their hard hats in the area. Then other workers in the area began to demand union stickers, and the worker went to the union hall to get enough for everyone to wear on their hard hats. Soon the majority of workers in the kill were wearing union stickers. The "sticker fight" is now developing in the cut and packaging departments.

At the end of the narratives the meat packers presented Martínez and Dueñas with T-shirts inscribed with "Si, se puede" (Yes, we can!), the main slogan of their struggle. Most of the meat packers at the meeting had participated in a citywide public event April 11 at the University of Minnesota attended by 90 people. The meeting was sponsored by the Minnesota Student Association, Global Studies Program, Spanish-Portuguese Department, Afro-American Studies Department, Minnesota Cuba Committee, and Students for Cuba.

At each campus meeting an appeal was made for youth to come to Cuba for the second Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange, to be held July 22–30 in Havana this summer. Several dozen youth signed up for more information about the exchange and expressed interest in attending.

Tom Fiske is a meat packer and a member of the Cuba Youth Tour organizing committee
 

"The current generation carries in its hands, along the trail blazed by its forefathers, working America...the seeds of the new America!" --19th century Cuban revolutionary José Martí

Cuban youth are organizing an exchange that will give young people from Cuba and the United States time to join together in discussions and strengthen the solidarity between the people of both countries. The conference will challenge everything that keeps the youth of the two countries apart. It will be a way to stand together and show the world that unity is not a dream, and that if we fight with all our hearts to unite the divided peoples of the Americas, we can turn the dream of Martí into reality. -- Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange Organizing Committee

For further information contact the Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange Organizing Committee. Telfax: (537) 60 0225 or 67 0225. E-mail: ujcri@ujc.org.cu or ri@ujc.org.cu

Or contact the Young Socialists, Times Square Post Office, P.O. Box 33, New York, NY 10108. Tel.: (212) 695-1809. E-mail: youngsocialists@attglobal.net
 
 
Related articles:
Miami event discusses Bay of Pigs victory
'First we'll sink their ships, then we'll down their planes'
'Cuban youth have been main actors in struggle'
How the April 17-19, 1961, battle unfolded
Unions in Cuba fight social inequalities
 
 
 
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