BY FRANKIE TRAVIS
The article below appeared in the September 20 issue of the African-American Voice in Decatur, Illinois, under the headline " `Cuba Vive!' (Cuba Lives)." The paper also ran half a dozen photographs from the international youth festival.
BY FRANKIE TRAVIS
In early August, I visited Cuba as a delegate to the "Cuba Lives" International Youth Festival, which attracted some 1300 people from 67 countries to Cuba for a week of solidarity and education.
Along with three other central Illinoians, I travelled to Cuba to see the country for myself. Over the past couple of years, as a locked-out Staley worker who has travelled throughout the United States telling others about our struggle, I had met several Cuban trade unionists and youth leaders who had visited the U.S. seeking to improve their country's relations with this country.
One thing I've learned in our two-year struggle against Staley is that trade unionists in this country have to join together with others around the world who are fighting for the same human rights we are fighting for here.
For seven days I visited Cuban factories and trade unions, and talked with Cubans from all walks of life. I spent three days living with a Cuban family, and was not in any way restricted in where I went or whom I talked to. Based on a full week of listening to and observing the Cuban revolution, I was greatly impressed with the extent to which the Cuban people made Solidarity a way of life in their society.
Over 90% of Cuban workers belong to trade unions, which play an active role in the day-to-day governing of the society, from decision-making in the workplace to voting in free, multicandidate elections.
Although the legacy of several hundred years of colonialism and slavery cannot be completely eradicated in the three decades since 1959, when the Cuban revolution triumphed, the Cubans have eliminated institutionalized racism and have gone a long way towards building a society where people are not judged or treated according to the color of their skin.
African National Congress President Nelson Mandela told the Cuban people when he visited there in July 1991, the revolution's "consistent commitment to the systematic eradication of racism is unparalleled."
I had the opportunity to speak with several of the 300,000 Cubans who served in Angola between 1975 and 1988 to aid that country in defending itself against the invading South African apartheid army. Proud of the two years he had fought in Angola, one Cuban in his fifties explained to me that "the Cuban people are committed to fighting against racism everywhere in the world."
On the final day of the trip, I participated with 600,000 Cubans in a spirited march through Havana to protest the U.S. economic blockade on their island and in support of the revolution. Contrary to the charge you hear in the United States that Fidel Castro is a dictator who forces the Cuban people to participate in such events, it was clear to me that the march was a tremendous outpouring of Solidarity. It was one of the most spirited, voluntary and enthusiastic mobilizations I have seen anywhere.
The Cuban people need and want our friendship and Solidarity. Some day I hope to return to Cuba and to take other union brothers and sisters with me on another mission of solidarity.
Frankie Travis is a locked-out Staley worker and a member of United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU) Local 7837. (This trip was supported wholly by fund-raiser not UPIU).