Trejo, a hotel worker, had visited the Chicago Pathfinder Bookstore for the first time the week before.

Following the discussion with socialists there, Trejo decided to come to the conference. "I thought I knew about Cuba before, he said. "I thought it was a bad place that people want to leave. But I now realize how different it is than what I had been told." He said that now he is learning about the politics of the Cuban Revolution and how the revolution made it possible for working people to organize society so that basic needs, such as health care and education, are met. "With these books I'm starting to learn more about the politics of the Cuban Revolution," Trejo said, adding that he would be attending more events in the weeks ahead.

A number of workers and young people at the meeting were attending their first socialist event, and the relaxed atmosphere and working-class political caliber of the conference sessions contributed to the extent and quality of the informal discussions throughout the weekend. Fifteen of the 146 attendees were college and high school students, while five were among the illegally terminated meatpacking workers from American Packing (AMPAC) in Chicago.

Nate Swenson, a student at the University of Minnesota, decided to come to the conference after attending a meeting for Fernando Garcia of the Cuban Interests Section on April 5. He had subscribed to the Militant earlier when the U.S. government launched its war on Afghanistan. Swenson said that he reads the paper cover-to-cover every week and has gotten some of his friends to start reading it. "I couldn't have done anything better this weekend," he said after the conference.  
 
Young Socialists meeting
On Sunday morning more than 20 young people attended a meeting organized by the Young Socialists. The meeting discussed reports outlining YS campaigns and involvement in struggles such as the opposition to the Israeli war against the Palestinian people and the fight for a democratic, secular Palestine.

YS leaders Romina Green and Olympia Newton arrived at the conference Saturday night straight from Cuba, where they had participated in events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Union of Young Communists (UJC). Participants at the meeting heard reports from this trip and on plans for the YS to work with students and professors in the months ahead to plan a U.S. tour in the fall of two UJC members.

Brendon Mills-McCabe, a YS member in Seattle, thought that the conference helped him draw the links among the international struggles of working people. "Imperialism is responsible for wars and devastating the lives of workers and farmers around the world," he said. "It can only be stopped through revolution."

Eddie Moreno, one of the illegally terminated AMPAC workers, said that he had never been in a fight such as that being waged by workers at the plant and that it helped him think differently about many political and social questions. Before the AMPAC fight he would not have considered attending a socialist conference, he said. "It really gives you something to think about with what is going on in the world today like with the Palestinians and in Pakistan."  
 
Coming American Revolution

On the second day of the conference Natalie Corvington, a YS member in Ohio, and Osborne Hart, the 2001 Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Detroit, presented a class on Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes. More than 40 people attended the event.

"To realize the second part of the title--the coming American revolution--youth and workers have to realize the human solidarity that is necessary to stave off the effects of capitalism," Corvington said. "Through their own life experiences workers and farmers in the United States are being brought closer to workers and farmers in Cuba. Acts such as the widows' walk, where ordinary people are taking action to defend themselves, are how it starts."

Hart explained that "the Cuban revolution sets an example. As the resistance of working people in the United States grows, vanguard layers of workers and farmers are becoming more confident. By working together to build a revolutionary party today we will be ready for coming class battles."

A series of attractive displays lined the conference facilities, showing the resistance by workers and youth around the world. They depicted the Havana International Book Fair and presentations of the new book. From the Escambray to the Congo by Víctor Dreke; protests across the United States in solidarity with the Palestinian fight and the rich political legacy contained in Pathfinder books on the anti-imperialist struggle in the Middle East; how the widows' walk for black lung benefits is rooted in decades of struggle by coal miners; and the defense of five Cuban revolutionaries framed up and imprisoned by Washington.
 
 
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Socialist conference is gathering point for workers and youth involved in resistance
Brisk sales of books that workers need  
 
 
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