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U.S. youth
discuss defense of revolution with Cubans
BY
MARTIN KOPPEL AND PAUL PEDERSON, (Perspectiva
Mundial)
HAVANA—"I’ve
heard a lot about Cuba. I wanted to see it for
myself," said Agustín Cheno Eichwald, 23, a
student at East Los Angeles College. Many of the
nearly 300 youth from the United States who took
part in the Third Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange gave the
same reason for why they took part in the one-week
visit to the island.
The
trip, which took place July 23-31, was sponsored by
the Federation of University Students (FEU), the
Union of Young Communists (UJC), and other Cuban
youth organizations. They organized an itinerary
designed to address some of the questions
participants had about the Cuban Revolution today.
Many returned home identifying more strongly with
the revolution and its example for all those around
the world fighting exploitation and oppression. They
went back anxious to win others to their
convictions. In Havana the U.S. delegation met with
members of a municipal assembly of People’s Power,
Cuba’s legislature; with leaders of the Federation
of Cuban Women (FMC); and with young revolutionary
social workers in a local community (see coverage in
the last two issues). They visited the Latin
American School of Medicine, the University of
Havana, the Museum of the Revolution, and a number
of scientific research centers.
They
also visited two eastern cities, Santiago de Cuba
and Guantánamo, where a U.S. naval base occupies
Cuban territory against the will of the people of
this Caribbean nation. In Santiago they joined a
July 26 rally of 10,000 people, addressed by Cuban
president Fidel Castro, to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks.
The 1953 attack on the Moncada and the nearby Bayamo
garrisons of the Batista dictatorship launched the
mass revolutionary struggle—led by what became the
July 26 Movement and the Rebel Army headed by Castro—that
overthrew the U.S.-backed regime in January 1959.
The
revolutionary victory led to the replacement of the
capitalist government with a new power—a workers
and farmers government—that opened the door to the
first socialist revolution in the Americas. Four
decades later, millions of Cubans throughout the
island celebrated their success in standing up to
Washington’s unceasing economic war and continuing
to set an example for workers, farmers, and the
oppressed around the world.
The
U.S. delegation was the largest of the three Youth
Exchange trips organized so far; the last one, two
years ago, numbered about 180. It included students
from university campuses around the country, as well
as some high school students, workers, artists, and
others. The delegates came from 23 states, with the
largest groups from Los Angeles, Chicago,
Minneapolis, Miami and Tampa, Philadelphia, and New
York. More than 80 came from the Los Angeles area
alone, where the group was sponsored by the Los
Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba. Many were
Chicano or Mexican, and a substantial number were
children of Latin American or Asian immigrants,
Black, or Puerto Rican.
Many
of the delegates, eager to learn about the Cuban
Revolution, had spent weeks preparing for the trip,
organizing events to raise funds for the travel
costs as well as reading books and holding meetings
to study and discuss more about revolutionary Cuba.
On the
first full day of activities, the U.S. participants
heard presentations by UJC first secretary Otto
Rivero and FEU president Hassan Pérez. Rivero
described what is known here as the "Battle of
Ideas"—a political campaign that Cuba’s
revolutionary leadership has been waging since the
year 2000 to deepen the involvement of working
people and youth in Cuba’s revolution. It aims to
counter the imperialist ideological drive promoting
capitalism and its cutthroat reality and morality of
"looking out for number one."
Such
values tend to be reinforced by Cuba’s increased
exposure to the world capitalist market since the
early 1990s, when Cuba lost its favorable terms of
trade with and aid from the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe. The resulting economic crisis is
known here as the Special Period. To obtain the hard
currency needed to import vital goods and to finance
social priorities—such as education, health care,
and food subsidies—Cuba took a number of steps
such as decriminalizing the use of the U.S. dollar,
developing tourism, encouraging family remittances
from abroad, establishing "dollar" stores
where many goods can be purchased only with foreign
currency, establishing joint ventures with foreign
capitalist firms, and allowing self-employment in
more than 100 occupations, like hairdressers, street
vendors, and family-run restaurant operators. These
measures have led to widening social inequalities
between those who have even minimal dollar income
and those who don’t, and alienation among some
layers. The mobilization of youth around the Battle
of Ideas seeks to address these challenges.
‘A revolution in education’
At the heart of the revolutionary political
offensive being waged in Cuba today is an effort to
expand access to culture and education for the
entire population. "We are carrying out a
revolution in education," Rivero said.
He
outlined some of the 70 new educational campaigns,
most of which are led by UJC and FEU cadres. These
include, he said:
Putting
a television, VCR, and computer in every school,
even in the most remote areas, using solar
panels where necessary to provide electricity—including
in some 400 rural schools that have fewer than
five students each. This is complemented by a
national network of local computer centers for
youth and video clubs that host film showings
and discussions.
Accelerated
training of new elementary school teachers to
reduce the classroom size to 20 students per
teacher and to give more individualized
attention to the needs of each student.
A
crash program to build and repair schools
throughout the island.
Fifteen
new schools—one in each province—to train
30,000 art instructors over a 10-year period,
with the goal of establishing cultural centers
in every community.
The
University for All, a national TV program
offering courses for people of all ages and
occupations, in everything from English and
French to world geography and art criticism.
A
drive to expand book publishing. This includes a
"family library" program to provide
every Cuban family with the classics of Cuban
and world literature, published in boxed 25-book
sets of inexpensive newsprint editions, and the
broadening of the annual Havana International
Book Fair to more than 30 cities across the
island.
Four
schools that are training thousands of teenagers
as revolutionary social workers, who go to the
economically hardest-hit neighborhoods to help
address acute social problems and work with
youth to get them involved in school or jobs.
Through this program the young social workers,
most of whom are themselves from such
neighborhoods where they had dropped out of
school and work, are able to gain admission to
the university.
During
the discussion period, in response to a question by
a U.S. delegate about problems facing youth such as
unemployment and crime, Hassan Pérez said,
"Our approach is that all problems have
solutions." The social workers "visit each
youth in the neighborhoods one by one, to find out
what problems they face and to integrate them into
the work of the revolution. The response has been
very good. It’s hard work, and it’s a bigger
challenge here in the capital—because of the
greater influence of the dollar—where sometimes we
have to visit young people not once but 10 times,
working patiently to achieve results."
Rivero
described the Schools for the Comprehensive
Upgrading of Skills for Youth, aimed at youth who,
after graduating from ninth grade, as required in
Cuba, neither get a job nor continue studies: from
young women who face the unexpected burden of being
single mothers, to youth who have family problems or
get in trouble with the law. "Through this
school young people receive a stipend—they get
paid to go to school as an extra incentive. We have
been very successful with this program," he
said.
"The
problem with crime is not simply material, but also
a matter of self-esteem," he added. "In
countries like the United States, human beings are
denigrated. Prisons do not ‘reeducate.’ What is
needed is not reeducation but true education."
Pérez
said, "An educated people can defend and argue
for their views. As Fidel said, the revolution doesn’t
say ‘Believe.’ The revolution says, ‘Read.’
Our aim is for the Cuban people to be the bearer of
universal culture. That requires an education that
goes from cradle to grave.
"We
seek to involve all youth in the educational
programs—including those in prison, so that even
they will be able to graduate from the
university," he stated. "Our goal is to
build a socialist society, one where there is no
unemployment, no prisons. This is a goal that is
impossible in capitalist countries."
Later
that day, the youth from the United States visited
the Latin American School of Medicine, where 7,200
students from 24 countries are currently enrolled—most
from Latin America but a number from African nations
and 52 from the United States. Juan Carrizo, the
school’s director, explained that the students
there, most of them from working-class and farm
families, study for free.
"This
school is part of the solidarity of our
revolution," Carrizo said. He noted that Cuba’s
internationalist solidarity is also seen in the
5,300 Cuban doctors and other health-care volunteers
who are currently serving in 93 countries around the
world, mostly in Africa. "Our greatest capital
is our human capital," he said.
U.S. base at Guantánamo
One of the high points of the Youth Exchange was the
visit to Guantánamo, where the participants met
members of Cuba’s Border Brigade and were able to
view from a lookout point the U.S. military base.
Lieutenant Colonel Prieto and Major Santiesteban
briefed them about the history of the U.S. base,
imposed on Cuba in 1903 when the country was a
virtual U.S. colony. Prieto noted that since the
revolutionary victory in 1959, U.S. troops on the
base have carried out more than 13,000 provocations
against Cuba, including incidents in which eight
Cubans—two of them border guards on duty—have
been killed. From the beginning, he said, the
revolutionary government "has maintained our
inalienable and sovereign right to have this
territory returned."
In a
gesture of solidarity, Camilo Matos, a student from
New York, gave the guards a flag of Vieques, a
Puerto Rican island where three months earlier a
victory had been won in the battle to get the U.S.
Navy out. "Just as you are fighting to get the
U.S. military out of your land—a struggle that we
support—the Puerto Rican people are fighting to
get the U.S. military out of our country," he
said. Throughout the trip, a number of Puerto Rican
delegates highlighted the common struggle against
U.S. imperialism by the peoples of Cuba and Puerto
Rico, and Cuba’s unflagging solidarity with the
Puerto Rican independence struggle.
From
the lookout post the visitors were able to see
details of the base, including Camp Delta, where
Washington continues to hold more than 600 men
indefinitely, with no charges or legal protections,
under the label "enemy combatants."
Many
of the youth from the United States reacted strongly
to this sight. As several of them put it, the
experience reinforced their conviction to return
home and tell the truth about why "we stand in
solidarity with our Muslim brothers who are being
held in the occupied territory of Guantánamo."
Cuba’s
resistance to Washington’s 44-year-long economic
war and attacks against the revolution was the theme
of a conference session following the group’s
return to Havana, where they heard a presentation by
Rafael Dausá, head of the North American desk of
Cuba’s foreign ministry.
Dausá
outlined recent events in the U.S. policy of
aggression against Cuba, including Washington’s
refusal—until recently—to prosecute or return to
Cuba those individuals who hijack planes or boats to
the United States, a policy that has led to a wave
of armed hijackings over the last year.
"Cuba
has stood up to the U.S. empire just 90 miles off
its shores," said a student from Los Angeles
during the discussion period. "While we as
Chicanos are second-class citizens in the United
States and are denied our sovereignty, Cuba has
defended its sovereignty," he said, pointing to
why support can be won for the fight against the
U.S. embargo.
Another
delegate asked about changing attitudes among
Cuban-Americans. "Cubans in the United States
are not monolithic," Dausá pointed out, noting
that many among the younger generation especially
oppose U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
Nicole
Sarmiento, a University of Miami student, described
several recent actions organized in Miami against
Washington’s policies toward Cuba that involved
significant numbers of Cuban-Americans. "There
is more political space in Miami today to organize
actions in defense of the Cuban Revolution than in
the past," she said.
The
last two discussion sessions of the Youth Exchange
included presentations by Randy Alonso on U.S.
foreign policy and a panel of speakers on culture in
revolutionary Cuba.
Alonso
is the moderator of the nationally televised
Roundtable program, a popular show held several
nights a week that takes up a wide range of topics
on national and international politics.
The
evening before, Alonso had invited seven of the
Youth Exchange participants to speak on the
Roundtable program about what they had learned in
Cuba and their political work in the United States.
The seven were Graciano Matos from New York; Eddie
Torres, one of the coordinators of the group from
Los Angeles; Jessica Marshall from Chicago, a leader
of the Young Communist League; Alex Alvarado from
Miami; Olympia Newton from Los Angeles, a leader of
the Young Socialists; and Abdul Hassan and Celia
González of the Youth United delegation from New
York and Chicago, respectively.
Culture and the Cuban Revolution
The panel on culture included Abel Prieto, Cuba’s
minister of culture; Iroel Sánchez, president of
the Cuban Book Institute; and Omar González,
president of the Cuban film institute ICAIC.
Prieto
explained that the policy of Cuba’s revolutionary
government is "to defend our national culture
and to promote the people’s right to universal
culture." He added that the Cuban Revolution
has been marked by the expansion of access to
culture and education for the entire population,
from the literacy campaign at the beginning of the
revolution to today.
Defense
of Cuba’s national culture today includes
"fighting to prevent the laws of the market
from distorting culture, because the market
reproduces degrading stereotypes promoted by
imperialism."
Asked
by a U.S. delegate about his view of "socialist
realism," Prieto said that was the policy of
the former Soviet government "that dictated an
official style on culture, a dogma that did serious
damage to cultural expression and wiped out the
legacy of avant-garde culture that had prevailed in
the early years of the Soviet Union. There were
advocates of socialist realism in Cuba," he
added, particularly in the 1970s, but "in Cuba
there is no official style of culture. Our view is
that we need cultural creativity."
Prieto
pointed to the popular Cuban film Strawberry and
Chocolate, based on a short story by Senel Paz,
which uses humor to criticize antigay prejudice and
bureaucratic intolerance in general. That film
"had a huge impact in this country," he
said.
Several
students in the audience, noting the racist
character of U.S. society, asked how Cuba is
confronting the legacy of racism today.
"Fighting discrimination and marginalization is
at the heart of many of the educational campaigns in
Cuba, like the training of social workers," the
Cuban minister said.
He
noted that a growing discussion is taking place in
Cuba about Black organizations in the years prior to
the revolution and the history of the struggle
against racist oppression.
For
example, "a massacre of Blacks who had revolted
in 1912 was covered up for many years before the
revolution, and for many years after the triumph of
the revolution it was not discussed much, but some
books have recently been published that talk about
that history." The uprising was led by a Black
party called the Independents of Color.
Pointing
to another example, Prieto said, "In their
music, Black rap musicians react to the continuing
manifestations of racial prejudice in Cuba."
Another
highlight of the Youth Exchange was a meeting with
Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba’s National
Assembly, and with relatives of the five Cuban
revolutionaries serving draconian sentences in U.S.
prisons on frame-up charges of conspiracy to commit
espionage (an article on that event will appear in a
coming issue).
At the
concluding session, a statement was read that
highlighted what those taking part in the Cuba-U.S.
Youth Exchange would be doing on their return home.
The statement projected organizing public meetings
and other activities to tell the truth about Cuba.
It called for opposing the U.S. economic war on Cuba
and joining the campaign to demand that Washington
free the five jailed Cuban militants.
"We
need to educate other people in the United
States," said Leah Smith from Atlanta during
one of the final discussions. Her comment echoed the
sentiment of many participants about what they were
now committed to do in their respective cities.
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