BY TERRY COOGAN
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Alejandro Herrera Agete began a 12-
day tour of New Zealand June 3 with a visit to a Maori land
occupation near Huntly, a coal-mining town south of
Auckland.
The Cuban youth leader is speaking on the challenges facing the Cuban revolution today. His six-city tour is being coordinated by the Cuba Friendship Society.
"Like you, the Cuban people have fought for their land and their independence," Herrera told 50 people who gathered to greet him. Leaders of the Ngati Whawhakia tribe had organized a formal Maori welcome ceremony for Herrera on their marae (meeting place) at Te Kauri Pa near Huntly. The meeting place is adjacent to land being occupied by members of the tribe to press their demand for its return.
The marae consists of a large carved meeting house, a dining facility, a Maori-language kindergarten, and a large grass area where the welcome ceremony took place. Many members of the tribe live in residential housing surrounding the marae.
Following the welcome speeches and songs, Herrera and his tour party presented their hosts with a copy of How Far We Slaves Have Come, a book of speeches delivered in Cuba by African National Congress president Nelson Mandela and Cuban president Fidel Castro.
After lunch, Herrera was escorted to the occupation site, a hill which commands views of the surrounding district. Local Maoris and supporters occupied the site April 26. The land was part of 1.2 million acres confiscated by the government in 1863. Coalcorp, a state-owned mining corporation in the process of being privatized, now controlls the land. Twenty of the young occupiers welcomed Herrera by performing a war dance.
"We have the same enemy, capitalism. It takes our land, labor, whatever it needs. The only thing that can stop it is us," Herrera told participants in the occupation. Robert Tukiri, a leader of the occupation, said, "It was capitalism that cost us our land last century."
An occupier was interested to learn that, while ownership title to land in Cuba can be held by individuals or cooperatives that work it, land is not a commodity that can be bought or sold on the market. "That's the way it should be," she commented.
Another occupier asked about raft-borne departure of people from Cuba seeking to reach the United States last year. Herrera reviewed the history of the U.S. government encouraging such illegal entry, including by hijacking, while refusing legal entry to Cubans who sought it. "That was an important weapon they used against our revolution, but now we have broken it," he said, referring to the recent agreement between Havana and Washington binding U.S. authorities to grant 20,000 visas for entry into the United States, and to treat Cuban emigrants by the same legal criteria as those from other countries.
On his return to Auckland that evening, Herrera met with representatives of the Latin American community at a social event attended by 500 people. The social was part of a two- day Latin American cultural festival, Fiesta Del Sol, attended by people from throughout New Zealand.
A stall at the festival promoted Herrera's upcoming meetings and the Cuba Lives International Youth Festival to be held in Havana August 1-7.
Terry Coggan is a member of the Meat Workers Union in Auckland.
BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - "The revolution was made by the people and its main ideal was justice and dignity for all. This is why the majority of Cubans support the revolution," said Alejandro Herrera Agete, when he spoke to some 60 people attending the Peace Movement Aotearoa National Workshops at the Riverside Community near Motueka. Herrera is a leader of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) in Cuba and was the featured speaker at the June 4 workshop.
In his presentation, Herrera explained some of the enormous difficulties facing Cuba today due to the collapse of trade with the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite the preferential trade agreements with the former Soviet Union, Herrera said, Cuba "did not take advantage of the opportunity when the resources were available to use them to build up industry as much as we could have." The Cuban youth leader added that the economic crisis is exacerbated by hostility from the U.S. government, "which has never forgiven Cuba for making the revolution."
Several participants in the workshop asked Herrera about individual freedom and human rights in Cuba. The youth leader issued an invitation to everyone to visit Cuba and attend the International Youth festival being organized by Cuban youth organizations August 1-7. He added that those who disagree with the revolution are free to do so by peaceful means, although they may be hotly debated by others. He contrasted Cuba's human rights record with the recent history of many Latin American countries where open dissent often led to people disappearing.
Once the session finished, about 20 people stayed on to continue the discussion. One participant had read a review of the Cuban film Strawberry and Chocolate. One of the main characters in the film is gay, and the questioner wanted to know what the revolution's attitude on homosexuality is. Herrera replied that while gay people have the same rights as everyone else, there continues to be prejudice on the part of individual attitudes.
Dean Hazlewood is a member of the New Zealand Meat Workers Union. Ruth Gray, a member of the Engineers Union, also contributed to this article.