The April 29–30 CTC congress in Havana was attended by 1,600 elected delegates and concluded with a May Day march of 600,000 Cuban working people. The congress proceedings were informed by a five-month discussion period organized in workplaces across the country. International delegations from across the Americas and many other countries participated in the events along with visits to factories and other worksites to learn more about the Cuban Revolution.

Nicole Garst, Dan Packard, Eduardo Gabrieloff, and Julie Weitzer, all students at Colorado College here, presented a slide show depicting various aspects of what they saw in Cuba. A lively discussion took place throughout the evening. An hour after the meeting had ended many of the participants were still in the room informally discussing the Cuban Revolution.

The speakers explained that there are problems in Cuba today but they are not like those that exist in the United States. One slide showed four young people who had been roller blading on the stairs at the University of Havana talking to a policeman. "It was not like the United States where a cop just says I am the boss and you have to do this," Nicole Garst said. "We saw a discussion taking place between these young people and the policeman. Then the young people just skated away."

Another slide was of a street in Havana that had been closed so that young students could paint on it. "It was good to see people rule the roads instead of cars," Garst said. Dan Packard told the audience that while walking on the street some people approached the group asking for U.S. dollars. They spoke about an experience where they were taken to a police station after being stopped while riding in an unlicensed taxi.

After seeing a slide of people playing bagpipes and flutes in a park, several participants asked about arts and culture in Cuba. One of the students said there are cultural centers throughout Cuba where students, workers, and farmers can get musical instruments and training. In addition, artists receive subsidies from the government so they can continue their work.

"What other leaders are being developed in Cuba?" one person at the meeting asked. "There is a big movement to promote new leaders," Garst said. She pointed to the leadership and the elected delegates at the CTC congress where "there were several younger leaders and the delegates were multiracial."

Eduardo Gabrieloff explained there is a shortage of child care available in Cuba and this was an issue at the CTC congress. Many delegates pointed out that access to child care had declined given the economic difficulties the country had confronted over the past decade. Given the shortage of spaces, having only six months of paid maternity leave was a problem. An exchange on this question with delegates included Cuban president Fidel Castro who attended sessions of the congress. Gabrieloff said he was surprised when the congress decided to give workers one year maternity leave as a way to help solve the problem and that the decision was implemented by the government the next day. "You'd never see action that fast in the United States," he said.

Packard explained that the trip had helped them take a closer look at socialism. "One of us was an anarchist but now is a socialist," he said. Gabrieloff ended the meeting by saying, "I used to be pessimistic, but now I am not."

A number of participants expressed interest in helping to form a Cuba solidarity committee to organize students and other youth to go to the Second Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange, scheduled for July 22–30 in Havana.
 
 
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