http://themilitant.com/2017/8132/813205.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 32 August 28, 2017
(front page)
Workers, youth build Cuba ‘Che brigade,’ youth festival in Russia
BY ALYSON KENNEDY
In less than six weeks, delegations of workers and youth from countries
around the world will be heading to Cuba for the Oct. 1-15 “In the
Footsteps of Che International Brigade.” Others will be attending the
19th World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 14-22.
Both gatherings will bring together anti-imperialist fighters,
supporters of the Cuban Revolution and others who want to learn about
struggles of working people around the world and how to strengthen their
political work when they return home.
So far more than 60 youth, workers and others from the U.S. have sent in
applications, and people continue to sign up for the brigade.
Participants will visit places where Che Guevara led battles in the
Cuban Revolution and meet with veterans of those struggles. They will
talk with leaders of Cuba’s mass organizations and do agricultural work.
“I am a worker 100 percent,” Alex Calvo, 26, from Far Rockaway, Queens,
told Val Johnson, his neighbor, and Róger Calero, a leader of the
Socialist Workers Party in New York Aug. 15. “I am interested in seeing
what a group of people can do when they have mankind in their best
interest.” He was referring to the Cuban people’s internationalist
contributions, including providing free treatment in Cuba for more than
20,000 victims of the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion and the Ebola
epidemic in West Africa. Calvo filled out his application for the
brigade and sent $200 toward travel expenses.
Joel Britton, a member of the SWP from Oakland, California, who is going
on the brigade, told the Militant about the interest in the Cuban
Revolution he and other party members found when they went to Hollister,
California, in June to express solidarity with members of the Teamsters
union at San Benito Foods on strike there.
“When they first heard about it, two of the leaders of the militant
cannery workers’ strike were attracted to the idea of the brigade,” he
said. The strikers kept up effective picket lines for a week, won
solidarity from workers in the area and won a $1-an-hour wage increase.
“We explained how working people took power in Cuba nearly 60 years ago
and remain in power with a revolutionary leadership. And that workers
should emulate their example in order to be free of the exploitation and
oppression we live with under capitalism,” Britton said. “One of these
strikers has applied to participate in the brigade.”
Six people from western New England have joined the brigade. The Greater
Hartford Cuba Coalition organized an Aug. 15 fundraising picnic to help
cover airfare and other expenses. “A few years ago a friend of mine went
to Cuba and said I must go and see for myself,” Pat Fontes, who has been
active in anti-war and social justice fights for 40 years, told those at
the event. “I want to see how they are building a socialist society.”
So far $427 has been raised, nearly half the Coalition’s goal of $1,000.
The Che brigade is being organized by the Cuban Institute for Friendship
with the Peoples (ICAP). It is named for Ernesto Che Guevara, a central
leader of the Cuban Revolution and of efforts to aid workers and farmers
worldwide to follow its example. Che fell in combat 50 years ago helping
to lead a guerrilla struggle against the military dictatorship of René
Barrientos in Bolivia.
Some 20,000 delegates from over 120 countries are expected at the World
Festival of Youth and Students in Russia. One hundred have signed up to
go from the U.S. The festival provides an opportunity for
anti-imperialist fighters to meet each other, share experiences and
discuss and debate how to advance social struggles worldwide.
Those who join the Che brigade or the World Festival in Sochi will have
the opportunity to organize reportback meetings to share what they’ve
learned.
To sign up for the brigade, contact the Chicago Cuba Coalition at (312)
952-2618 or ICanGoToCuba@xxxxxxxxx.
Related articles:
1961 literacy drive key to advance of Cuban Revolution
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