During the rally at the Florida state capitol, the two farmers set up an information table with a display of photos from their February trip to Cuba. The one-week tour was hosted by the National Association of Small Farmers of that Caribbean country. Three other farmers from Georgia and one from New Jersey joined Butts and Williams on the trip. Material on their table included a press release by the Cuba Vive coalition based in Tampa about upcoming speaking engagements they are organizing in the region, T-shirts, and other information. Many workers and youth stopped by to talk with Butts and Williams about the gains of the Cuban revolution and the need for a worker-farmer alliance here in the United States.

"Cuba is an example of what happens when people take control of their society," Butts told several participants in the march and rally. If workers, farmers, and youth from the United States could see Cuba for themselves, he said, "they would say, 'It has to happen here. We need to make a revolution in this country.'"

Butts explained that in Cuba "all the wealth that is created by the labor of working people is used to the benefit of all society for human needs, not for a few billionaires."

Many people like Regina Ware, who works at a minimum wage job and is from Florida State University, said after meeting Butts and Williams: "All my life, up until now, I believed the Cubans' life was all bad. What Karl is telling me is the opposite of everything I've heard."

"In Cuba, farmers have already won the title to their land and no one can take it away. Here we have no security," Butts explained to a member of the electrical workers union in Pensacola, Florida. The divisions between city and country were lessened by the revolution, Butts said, as resources were directed to develop schools, housing, and health care in the countryside.

Butts said that workers and farmers he met in Cuba "have a social mentality that we don't have here. You always hear good guys finish last. What does that breed? In Cuba good guys are desirable citizens." After more discussion the electrical worker bought a copy of the Militant to find out more about Cuba.

Dozens of people signed up for more information about the farmers' speaking engagements in the United States.  
 
 
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