Lafourié, a leader of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba (UJC), and Alfredo Bárzaga, a leader of the Federation of University Students of Cuba (FEU), spoke to more than 450 people on "Youth and the Cuban Revolution" during a one-week visit here.

A student at the Concordia meeting had asked Lafourié what would happen if the U.S. government lifted its 40-year embargo against Cuba. Lafourié said the Cuban people do not expect Washington to end the embargo, since the conditions that Washington has set for doing so would mean the Cuban people would have to abandon the basic principles and accomplishments of their revolution, which are based on solidarity with working people around the globe and meeting human needs, including free and universal education and health care for workers and farmers in Cuba.

The tour here included meetings at university campuses, an immigrant workers center, a Haitian community center, and with youth who have organized several actions in support of the Palestinian struggle. The tour also included a visit to the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve, just south of Montreal, and participation in a two-day symposium organized by a Quebec teachers federation.

At a meeting of 60 people at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), the youth leaders said young people in Cuba are gaining confidence in the revolution and their ability to be part of solving social and economic problems resulting from what Lafourié called a "double embargo"--the collapse of trade with the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s and the continuing U.S. government embargo.

Lafourié explained that young people in Cuba are joining efforts to improve primary school education and raise the cultural level of the entire population. For example, in order to respond to the interest in the "University for All," a hugely popular program that offers English, music and literary appreciation, geography, history, and other courses, Cuban youth organizations helped to distribute tens of thousands of TVs and VCRs to schools and communities to ensure everyone could participate. Some 1,900 rural schools have been fitted with solar energy panels in order to provide adequate electrical supplies. These efforts also include FEU and UJC-sponsored youth brigades that go out into working-class neighborhoods, starting in Havana, to assess and help resolve the most pressing problems that families and children are encountering.

In answer to a question on primary school education in Cuba, Lafourié said that many teachers had left their jobs in order to work in tourism because of the sharp economic crisis that began in 1990. This has resulted in a shortage of teachers in primary schools. Recently, however, the FEU sent out an appeal to young people who had abandoned their university studies to replace these teachers. Three times more students volunteered to do so than the FEU had expected. The goal of reducing the teacher/student ratio in primary schools from up to 1 teacher for 42 students in some Havana schools, to 1 in 20 is widely expected to be attained by this September.  
 
Revolutionary leadership
At virtually every meeting the two Cuban youth were asked what will happen when Cuban president and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is no longer in active leadership of the revolution. At a meeting with mostly Filipino workers and youth at the Immigrant Workers Center, Lafourié, who is a doctor, answered: "We are materialists and we know that Fidel is human. He, like everyone else, will pass away one day. We hope that he will live as long as possible, because he is a symbol of our revolution. But if the survival of our revolution depends on just one man, it would not have lasted for 42 years. Our revolution is one of a whole people with many leaders, including among the youth. Many of our leaders have died, such as Ernesto Che Guevara, but their ideas live on."

Participants in a meeting of mostly Haitian workers told Bárzaga and Lafourié that Cuba is an example for the people of Haiti and thanked the two youth leaders for the unmatched aid that the Cuban revolution provides to the people of Haiti. For example, 600 Cuban doctors and nurses are now working in Haiti, with a goal of significantly lowering the infant mortality rate and attending to other vital health needs of those living in some of the country's most impoverished areas. In addition, 25 Haitian youth are presently being trained in Cuba to become doctors and have pledged to serve people in rural areas in Haiti. A Haitian worker at the event decided to donate $100 to help cover the cost of the tour.

During their visit, Bárzaga and Lafourié invited young people they met to participate in a November 4–11 Canada-Cuba Youth and Student Exchange that the UJC and other organizations are sponsoring in Havana. Several students signed up to participate in this exchange, as well as for the upcoming World Youth Festival in Algeria, August 8–16.

Sylvie Charbin is a garment worker and a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Montreal.  
 
 
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