“It’s important to learn about our revolution firsthand. I encourage you to go” on the 2020 International May Day Brigade to Cuba, Daniel Menocal, third secretary of Cuba’s embassy in the U.S., told more than 60 people at a D.C. Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution event Jan. 11. You will see “there is nothing like the May Day march of over 1 million Cubans” in Havana to understand their strength and determination to defend their revolution.
This will be a central highlight of this year’s April 26 to May 10 May Day Brigade. The Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) has issued an invitation for people in the U.S. and around the world to join the brigade.
“Over the next two months building the May Day International Brigade of Volunteer Work and Solidarity with Cuba will be one of our main activities,” Omari Musa said, for the D.C. coalition.
Brigadistas will meet and work with Cuban working people while discussing the impact of their revolution. Their 1959 triumph in a popular uprising against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista led to the opening of the socialist revolution in the Americas.
Last year 65 people from across the U.S. made up the largest contingent among 320 participants from 21 countries. The brigade gives participants the chance to share experiences about the class struggle in the U.S. and activities of supporters of the Cuban Revolution.
ICAP says the brigade will visit the provinces of Havana, Artemisa and Pinar del Río, in western Cuba. This will include 10 days based at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp outside Havana, working in the fields with Cuban farmers and meeting with Cuban workers, farmers and representatives from the country’s mass organizations.
Brigadistas will take part in exchanges on the Cuban economy, the legacy of Che Guevara and the truth about political rights in Cuba. They will visit factories and farm cooperatives, universities and health care centers, museums and cultural venues to learn more about what Cuban workers and farmers have accomplished through their revolution.
Brigade members’ firsthand experiences on the trip will put them in a stronger position to explain the revolution and to build broader opposition to the U.S. rulers’ decadeslong economic war. This embargo has been carried out, Menocal said, by Democrats and Republicans alike, from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump, for over 60 years.
The National Network on Cuba, a coalition of groups in solidarity with the Cuban people, is organizing the U.S. delegation. Despite new U.S. government restrictions, this trip meets all legal guidelines. Travel arrangements are being handled by Marazul Tours.
Total cost, not including airfare to Cuba, is $725, which covers all room, board and travel in Cuba. Applications are due by March 27. For an application and more information, contact www.nnoc.info or email ICanGoToCuba@nnoc.info.