This year’s May Day International Brigade of Voluntary Work and Solidarity with Cuba — an opportunity for workers, farmers and youth to see Cuba’s revolution for themselves — has added a new program to its April 26 to May 10 schedule. Already planned by the sponsoring Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) is voluntary work on a farm; meeting with representatives of Cuba’s revolutionary youth organization, women’s federation and other mass organizations; and participation in the million-strong mobilization in Havana May 1.
The new feature is a three-day International Solidarity Meeting from April 30 to May 2, sponsored by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers and ICAP. This will include visiting the “Evelio Prieto Guillama” Bus Production Company and meeting with workers there; attending a panel presentation by workers describing the effects of Washington’s decadeslong economic war against the island’s people; and participating in a May 2 International Conference of Solidarity with Cuba.
Prieto Guillama was killed as a participant in the March 13, 1957, assault against the presidential palace of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, led by the Revolutionary Directorate.
The 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution — led by Fidel Castro and the July 26 Movement — overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. Cuba’s workers and farmers took power, opening the door for the socialist revolution in the Americas. Brigade participants will be able to learn firsthand about that revolution and its living reality today.
The U.S. rulers are stepping up their economic and political war against the revolution, seeking to isolate Cuba and punish the Cuban people.
As part of their attack on Cuba, the rulers have launched a worldwide smear campaign against over 50,000 Cuban internationalist medical volunteers, who serve in more than 60 countries around the world. Washington slanders them as “slave labor,” while claiming they foment social unrest wherever they go.
A new book from Pathfinder — Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa — tells the inspiring story of the more than 250 Cuban medical personnel who helped lead the fight to stem that epidemic in 2014-15. Brigade members will meet with some of Cuba’s medical internationalists. This is an invaluable opportunity in the midst of today’s health crisis — deepened by the for-profit medical industry that predominates in the capitalist world — as the coronavirus spreads worldwide.
The brigade is also a real opportunity for participants to describe to Cubans the reality of the class struggle in the U.S., Canada and other capitalist countries, and the political activities they have been part of.
The U.S. brigade is being coordinated by the National Network on Cuba and travel arrangements are being organized to meet U.S. guidelines by Marazul Tours. Applications are due by March 27. Total cost, not including airfare to Cuba, is $725. For the forms and more information go to www.nnoc.info or email iCanGoToCuba@nnoc.info.