About 5:00 a.m. the skies opened, dumping several inches of rain on central Havana in just an hour. As I approached the plaza about 6:30 that morning, it was clearly a badge of honor to be soaking wet. A young elementary school teacher laughed off her drenched state. "What’s a little rain," she asked, "when we are struggling for the future of our children and all the children of the world?"

A member of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution--neighborhood groups that organize the population for security and other tasks--who was old enough to be the teacher’s grandfather, said he was there to show "that the people are united in the demand to bring the five patriots home." He was referring to five Cuban revolutionaries imprisoned in U.S. jails on frame-up charges brought by the FBI, including conspiracy to commit espionage for Havana (see Cuban patriots in U.S. prisons write about fight to release them from 'hole').

¡Volverán! (they’ll be back) was a popular chant at the rally. A banner six stories high depicted the five Cuban patriots with the message: "We have the invincible strength of the revolution. They’ll be back!" Covering the side of another immense building was the banner: "The time has come for humanity to write its own history."

The theme of this year’s May Day demonstration was "In Defense of Socialism." Tens of thousands of red T-shirts bearing this slogan were distributed by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) and the Union of Young Communists (UJC). I asked one CTC leader standing near me why I didn’t see banners and placards identifying workers by union or industry or raising particular demands. "We raise our demands and platforms in union meetings and congresses," she explained. "Today is a time for coming together and reconfirming our commitment to the revolution. There are compañeros in my workplace who don’t agree with me on this or that issue, but we are all here today."

The day before the demonstration, a worker I met at the CTC national headquarters told me that in Cuba May Day was not just a labor demonstration but a giant "festival of the people."

Although the tone of the speeches was serious, the mood at the rally was festive. The police seemed concerned primarily with the logistics of bus parking. A flimsy unstaffed barricade kept an area clear in front of the speakers’ platform for emergency vehicles, and the enormous crowd entered and left the rally from all directions with no problems. It could not have been more different from the atmosphere at recent demonstrations in New York City against the war in Iraq, where our every move was controlled by thousands of heavily armed and sometimes brutal police.

"We don’t want Cuban and American blood to be spilled in a war," Cuban president Fidel Castro told the rally. "But there has never been a people with more sacred things to defend or more profound principles to struggle for--a nation that would rather be wiped off the face of the earth than give up the noble and generous accomplishments for which many generations of Cubans have paid a high cost in the lives of their best children."

Fidel Castro’s 45-minute speech followed short greetings by international guests. He contrasted the foreign policy of Cuba with that of Washington, giving special emphasis to the aid Cuba has sent to defend national liberation struggles in Africa--from Algeria to Angola.

Castro also answered the plea that was part of the greetings brought by U.S. Pastors for Peace leader Lucius Walker asking that Cuba eliminate the death penalty. "The day will come," Castro stated, "when we can comply." Right now, he said, the choice was between "stopping cold" an ongoing wave of plane and boat hijackings thereby "protecting the lives of millions of Cubans by applying the death penalty law to the three main hijackers of a passenger ferry" (which the crowd applauded) or "standing with our arms crossed" (which was met with shouts of "No!").

The rally ended with the singing of the Internationale. The experience of hearing the international communist anthem sung by a million people was not something I will quickly forget.  
 
 
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