HAVANA — Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched here May 1, expressing their ongoing support and determination to advance Cuba’s socialist revolution. Contingents of trade unionists and members of the mass organizations of women, youth and others paraded past the reviewing stand, celebrating the May Day international working-class holiday.
Members of the 13th May Day International Brigade — some 290 people from 31 countries — joined the throngs in Revolutionary Square. Similar mobilizations were held in Santiago, San José and elsewhere.
“What impressed me was the different organizations of workers walking by together,” Samantha Hamlin told the Militant. From Knoxville, Tennessee, Hamlin is one of the 74 U.S. participants on the brigade.
“Their enthusiasm, all there in the square together — I have never seen that type of passion, that type of parade of proud workers,” she said.
The mobilization is “an expression of the historic legacy of struggle that makes us proud to be Cubans,” Ulises Guilarte, general secretary of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), told the crowd.
“It was exciting to see so many people celebrating a holiday for workers,” said Chris Brook, one of the 27 young trade unionists on a brigade from the United Kingdom. Brook works at Asda, a chain of supermarkets owned by Walmart.