The 15th May Day International Brigade of Voluntary Work and Solidarity with Cuba will bring working people and youth from around the world to Cuba April 26 to May 10. The brigade is sponsored by Cuba’s Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
It takes place as the U.S. rulers are carrying out a series of new moves against the Cuban Revolution, seeking to isolate Cuba and punish the Cuban people. The brigade provides a unique opportunity for supporters of the revolution in the U.S. and elsewhere to meet and talk with Cuban workers, farmers and youth, to become better armed to return home and counter Washington’s lies.
A number of the events are co-sponsored by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), Cuba’s national labor union.
Participants will be based at the Julio Antonio Mella camp in Caimito, outside Havana. They will join in volunteer labor alongside Cuban farmers in the fields and meet leaders of Cuba’s women, youth and trade union organizations. Brigadistas will visit health care centers, factories, universities, farm cooperatives, museums and cultural venues in a number of cities to learn more about the revolution.
A highlight of the brigade will be joining the million-strong May Day mobilization celebrating the 61st anniversary of the triumph of the revolution. It’s a mass outpouring of support for a living revolution and a powerful way to tell U.S. imperialism, “Hands off!” This year the international brigade will help lead the march.
The May Day mobilization will be followed by an international solidarity conference in Havana.
Supporters of the Cuban Revolution in the U.S. are getting out the word about the brigade. In Louisville, Kentucky, Walmart worker and Socialist Workers Party member Kaitlin Estill has been invited by Bishop Dennis Lyons of Gospel Missionary Church to speak about the brigade on his “Voice of Louisville” radio program.
She met Lyons last year while campaigning for the SWP gubernatorial candidates. “We reconnected this year when Bishop Lyons wrote a letter to Indiana prison authorities supporting prisoners’ right to receive the Militant after it and some other publications had been impounded,” said Estill.
The brigade is also an opportunity to bring to Cubans the reality of the class struggle in the U.S. and political activities participants have been part of. Last year 320 people from 21 countries, including 65 from the U.S., joined the brigade. The National Network on Cuba, a coalition of groups in solidarity with the Cuban people, is organizing the U.S. delegation.
Travel arrangements are being organized in accordance with U.S. guidelines by Marazul Tours travel agency. Total cost, not including airfare to Cuba, is $725. You can sign up through March 27, so get your application today. Get the forms and more information at www.nnoc.info or email iCanGoToCuba@nnoc.info.