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Vol. 82/No. 21 May 28, 2018
May Day brigade: “I saw power of Cuba's revolution”
Militant/Joe Swanson
LINCOLN, Neb. — "I never felt freer as a worker than the two weeks
learning about the Cuban Revolution on the May Day Brigade there," Carl
Tyler told a dozen people meeting at the Meadowlark Coffee Shop here May
8. Tyler, bottom right, a 78-year-old veteran fighter in defense of
Black rights and former trade union organizer, lives and works in Omaha.
Tyler was one of 290 participants from 31 countries on the 13th annual
May Day International Brigade to Cuba. The largest contingent with 74
people came from the United States. Brigade participants met with
leaders of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), the Federation of Cuban
Women (FMC) and other mass organizations, and joined in voluntary work
on farms near their camp outside Havana. A highlight of the trip was a
meeting with veterans of the Rebel Army who were at the forefront of the
revolutionary war that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of
Fulgencio Batista.
"The Cuban Revolution is an internationalist revolution, over 400,000
Cuban volunteers helped defeat the racist South African military in the
1980s," Tyler said. "That led to the freeing of Nelson Mandela and
victory in overthrowing apartheid." Participants included factory and
food service workers, a railroad conductor, a retired teacher, a retired
meatpacking worker and students. Discussion continued for over an hour.
Several said they wanted to go on the next brigade.
— JOE SWANSON
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