Maldonado was addressing a public meeting here that discussed the new Pathfinder book Our History Is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution.

The meeting, which featured Mary-Alice Waters, editor of the new book and member of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party, drew 75 people from the Twin Cities area and Austin, Minnesota; as well as Chicago; Des Moines, Iowa; and Detroit. The event followed similar regional meetings in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Among those in attendance were Seyon Nyanwleh, president of the University of Minnesota-based African Student Association, and other members of the group; August Nimtz of the Minnesota Cuba Committee; and Marty Knaeble, a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1833 and Northwest Airlines worker who built union solidarity with mechanics on strike against Northwest.

Rebecca Williamson, a leader of the Young Socialists here, opened the meeting by urging those in the audience to join the ongoing protests by millions of workers to demand legalization of undocumented immigrants. The spirit of those actions, which drew 30,000 in St. Paul the next day, marked the entire meeting. Williamson also encouraged those present to build the May 20 march in Washington to demand “Hands Off Venezuela and Cuba,” and welcomed supporters of the demonstration who had a table in the back of the room to distribute information about this action.

“My generation has never seen demonstrations of the size and character we see today,” noted Jacob Perasso, a national organizer of the Young Socialists (YS). “Our History Is Still Being Written is for the thousands of young people leading many of the immigrant rights protests, like the ones we have seen in Chicago and Los Angeles,” he said. “They are writing their own history.”

Fidel Maldonado, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 9 in Austin, Minnesota, talked about the pride the Cuban people have in the participation of thousands of volunteers in missions of internationalist solidarity, particularly the role of doctors and literacy workers in Venezuela.

He pointed to a chapter in the new book titled “Cuba, Venezuela, and Latin America” and described the success of Mission Robinson, which utilizes teaching methods and materials developed in Cuba and has revolutionized the speed at which Venezuelan students of all ages learn to read. Maldonado contrasted the Cuban government’s promotion of education for all to the approach of the U.S. capitalist rulers, who deal with problems of high dropout rates in schools by building more jails.

Gabriela Moreano, organizer of the YS here, pointed to the way Moisés Sío Wong, one of the generals interviewed in the book, described the “selfless leadership qualities” of Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara. How Guevara put the interests of Cuban working people first, above personal concerns, she said, had a big impact on her.

YSers are actively building the May 20 march in D.C., Moreano said, and will be in the streets tomorrow selling Militant subscriptions and revolutionary books and pamphlets to the tens of thousands of immigrant rights fighters.

“Above all, Our History Is Still Being Written is an introduction to the Cuban Revolution,” said Waters. “It shows what making a socialist revolution is all about. The U.S. rulers don’t understand it because they are incapable of understanding the capacities of the Cuban people, just as they are incapable of understanding the capacities of working people in this country.” She pointed to the quote by Fidel Castro printed on the back cover of the Pathfinder book Cuba and the Coming American Revolution: “There will be a victorious revolution in the United States before a victorious counterrevolution in Cuba.” This statement, made a month before the defeat of U.S.-backed mercenary forces at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, is just as accurate today as it was then, she said.

Most of those at the event stayed to continue discussion for another couple of hours over a Mexican dinner. “One thing I got from the meeting,” said Sam Wegner, a Young Socialist, “is that lessons from the book can be applied here, including the fight today for immigrant rights and unionization.” Wegner, 20, works at Wal-Mart. He said most of his co-workers are originally from East Africa.

Christian Castro, 27, from Chicago, said the best way to absorb the book is to study it with others. He is participating in a class series on this title in Chicago. Young people at the St. Paul event met the following day to discuss the work of the Young Socialists.

Audience members contributed $740 to help promote the book in the United States and around the world.
 
 
Related articles:
Sudanese doctors in Canada discuss what they learned in Cuba
Bay of Pigs showed imperialists ‘always arrive late’  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home