The World Youth Festival is an anti-imperialist youth gathering drawing together young workers, farmers, and students involved in movements for national liberation, protests against imperialist-backed austerity drives in semicolonial countries, fights by peasants for land, and other social and political struggles. A large number of participants have come from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, representing the fight for Palestinian self-determination, for the independence of the Western Sahara, and other national liberation struggles.

At the opening ceremony delegates from each country marched into the stadium, many carrying flags and banners. One of the largest delegations hails from Cuba with 750 participants, including 223 youth from 56 countries who are studying in Cuba.

Members of the multinational Cuban delegation marched with T-shirts and portraits of revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara, "one of the highest symbols of the internationalist spirit of the [Cuban] Revolution and as an expression of the ties that bound the Heroic Guerrilla with Algeria," as the Cuban daily Granma put it. One of those marching was Guevara's daughter, Aleida Guevara.

The Cuban delegation includes farmers, soldiers, workers, technicians, and other youth selected for their outstanding work. According to Granma, Otto Rivero, head of the delegation and first secretary of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), stated that they will describe how Cuban youth are involved today in a "battle of ideas" to "mobilize youth and strengthen their vanguard role in the battle for the best causes of humanity, at a time when capitalism is seeking to demobilize many people." The Cuban delegates include many of the leaders of the UJC and the Federation of University Students.

Among the participants in the ceremony was a U.S. delegation that carried signs reading, "U.S. Hands Off the Middle East," "Free the Five Cuban Patriots in U.S. Prisons," "U.S. Navy Out of Vieques," and "Cancel the Third World Debt."

The campaign on behalf of the imprisoned Cubans refers to an effort to win justice for five framed-up Cuban citizens who were recently tried and sentenced by a U.S. court on "espionage" charges. They had been working to expose U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary groups responsible for terrorist attacks against Cuba.

A variety of forums and workshops are now being organized on topics such as neoliberalism and globalization, solidarity with the people of Palestine, and the fight against Washington's Plan Colombia, under which the U.S. military is increasing its presence in South America.

The festival will end with a three-day anti-imperialist tribunal where delegates from Puerto Rico, Cuba, North Korea, and other countries will make presentations about struggles against imperialism and present evidence of the brutality and crimes of the U.S., French, British, and other imperialist powers.  
 
 
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