http://themilitant.com/2017/8127/812702.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 27 July 24, 2017
(front page)
Openings to join anti-imperialist fight
‘Che brigade’ to Cuba, Youth Festival in Sochi
Osvaldo Salas/Alamy stock photos
Cuban revolutionaries Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Brigade to Cuba is
named for Guevara, who fell in combat 50 years ago. Sochi youth festival
is dedicated to Castro, who died last year.
BY ALYSON KENNEDY
Young people and workers have two important opportunities to join with
people from around the world to advance the fight against imperialism
and war and express solidarity with revolutionary Cuba — the “In the
Footsteps of Che International Brigade” to Cuba Oct. 1-15 and the 19th
World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 14-22.
The Cuba brigade, set for Oct. 1-15, 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, of its
revolutionary government, and of efforts to aid workers and farmers
worldwide to follow its example. He was killed 50 years ago helping to
lead a guerrilla struggle against the military dictatorship of René
Barrientos in Bolivia.
“We have 26 people signed up so far, from ages 19 to 70,” Steve Eckardt,
brigade national co-coordinator, told the Militant July 9.
Eckardt explained that the brigade will meet with members of Che’s
family and combatants he fought with during the Cuban Revolution and in
Bolivia, and participate in a national mobilization to honor Che’s
legacy on Oct. 8. They will also do “voluntary agriculture work
alongside Cubans,” said Eckardt, as an expression of solidarity with the
Cuban people and their revolution.
Brigade members will visit a number of Cuban provinces where Che led
combat units during the 1956-59 revolutionary war. They will tour Santa
Clara, Cuba’s third-largest city, where Che’s column defeated the army
of Fulgencio Batista, sealing the fate of the U.S.-backed dictatorship.
They will have the opportunity to meet with members of the Federation of
Cuban Women (FMC), the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) and the Union of
Young Communists (UJC).
Joe Kapsner, 31, a warehouse worker at a valve manufacturing plant in
Minneapolis, will be making his first trip to Cuba on the brigade. “The
working class in the U.S. is getting the crap kicked out of it,” Kapsner
told the Militant. “Cuba is the one place where that is not happening.
We need to bring Cuba and its socialist revolution into the discussion
that is going on in the working class. To go to Cuba and bring that
experience back will help me do that.”
The World Federation of Democratic Youth has been organizing festivals
in different countries around the world since 1947, providing an
opportunity for anti-imperialist young people to come together, debate
politics and plan common actions against war, exploitation and oppression.
World Festival
Some 20,000 delegates from over 120 countries are expected for this
year’s festival. The motto for the gathering is “For peace, solidarity,
and social justice, we struggle against imperialism. Honoring our past,
we build the future.” It is dedicated to Fidel Castro, the central
leader of the Cuban Revolution, who died Nov. 25.
All across Cuba revolutionary-minded young workers, soldiers and
students have been meeting to discuss resolutions for the festival and
elect delegates. Overall, Cuba is organizing to send 250 young
revolutionaries to the gathering.
“It’s a high honor for me and a deserved recognition of the work of the
youth in the Border Brigade,” Yaisis Isaac del Río, a first lieutenant
in the military unit stationed outside the U.S. Guantánamo base and
notorious prison, said after she was elected delegate from Cuba’s
Eastern Army to the youth festival. “We are charged with keeping an eye
on the perimeter of the illegal naval base that the U.S. government
maintains on our territory since more than a century ago, against the
will of the Cuban people.”
The Union of Young Communists and other Cuban youth organizations
organized events in Granma and Cienfuegos provinces beginning July 10 to
discuss and debate proposals for the festival.
Yuliesky Pérez Navarro, a self-employed bicycle cab driver and member of
the UJC, was elected as the direct delegate from Cienfuegos.
The conference will be conducted in Arabic, Chinese, English, French,
Russian and Spanish.
The deadline for registration to attend the festival in Sochi is July
20. For more information and to get an application, contact the U.S.
National Preparatory Committee at usanpc2017@xxxxxxxxx. No money is
required to apply.
The deadline for the In the Footsteps of Che Cuba brigade is Sept. 10,
but since space is limited, those interested in participating are urged
to sign up as early as possible. The cost is $650, which includes
housing, food and transportation within Cuba. Travel costs to Cuba are
separate.
To sign up or get more information, contact the Chicago Cuba Coalition
at (312) 952-2618 or visit:
chicagocubacoalition.com/2017/06/30/in-the-footsteps-of-che-international-brigade-2/.
Related articles:
‘Every attack on our revolution destined to fail,’ Cuban unionist says
on US tour
Miami car caravan protest: ‘Yes to travel to Cuba!’ (photo box)
Sign up for Cuba brigade, youth festival
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