Vol. 71/No. 14      April 9, 2007

Militant/Andrea Ellis

Speakers at March 17 meeting in Montreal on Our History Is Still Being Written. From left: Yvonne Lo, organizer of the Chinese-language team at Radio Centre-Ville; Mary-Alice Waters, editor of the book and president of Pathfinder Press; Janet Lumb, director of the cultural group Festival Accès Asie; and Armand Vaillancourt, a sculptor.

The meeting was sponsored by the Chinese Team at Radio Centre-Ville, Festival Accès Asie, the Table de concertation Québec-Cuba, and Pathfinder Books. A number of participants came directly from a street protest marking the fourth anniversary of the imperialist invasion of Iraq.

Michel Prairie welcomed the crowd on behalf of Pathfinder Books and introduced Sean O’Donahue, who spoke briefly about the work of the Table de concertation—the “Round Table” coalition of 13 groups that promote solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.

Yvonne Lo, the organizer of the Chinese Team from Radio Centre-Ville, then welcomed everyone in both Mandarin and Cantonese, and explained to the predominantly French-speaking audience that the meeting was being translated into Cantonese as well as English and French.

Janet Lumb, director of the cultural group Festival Accès Asie and the meeting’s moderator, opened the event with an all-too-short riff on her alto saxophone and stressed that she was “pleased to be participating in a gathering with so many people who fight for justice—thanks to a convergence of groups that don’t usually work together.”

Lumb noted that the three generals interviewed in Our History Is Still Being Written—Moisés Sío Wong, Gustavo Chui, and Armando Choy—are among those “who have helped bring about big changes in the world and are still alive and fighting.”

She extended a special welcome to Oscar Coet, the Cuban consul in Montreal, and invited him to say a few words. Coet expressed his appreciation for the book and the meeting, noting that “Chinese immigrants, like Blacks, have made enormous contributions to Cuban culture.”

Yvonne Lo said she had at first been reluctant to speak at the meeting, but in reading the section of the book on the “Chinese in Cuba,” she recognized that their history was in many ways similar to that of Chinese immigrants in Canada. Lo said she was impressed by the actions of the three generals as youth when they first “participated in the student movement and then the revolution.”

Sam Noumoff, former director of the Centre for Developing Area Studies at McGill University, congratulated Pathfinder Press for “its sound political judgment and tremendous contribution in publishing this book.” Noumoff talked about the developing trade and cultural relations between Cuba and China and noted some of the other material now being published on Chinese indentured labor in Cuba.

Armand Vaillancourt, a well-known Quebec sculptor who had brought some of his banners to help decorate the hall, paid homage to the “Cuban people who are a very powerful force in the world today.” He also donated several copies of his book Armand Vaillancourt: Mass Sculpture, proceeds from the sale of which helped cover the meeting’s expenses.

Mary-Alice Waters, the editor of Our History Is Still Being Written and the president of Pathfinder Press, began her remarks by extending “personal greetings from all three generals, and especially from Armando Choy who had expected to be here with us tonight.” Choy’s responsibilities for the port of Havana had prevented him at the last moment from coming, Waters explained.

The Cuban Revolution in which Chui, Choy, and Sío Wong all fought in as youth, Waters noted, was part of the great wave of national liberation struggles that swept Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the years during and after World War II.

“The workers, farmers, and young people who brought down the Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1959 did not start out to make a socialist revolution,” Waters said. “They just wanted a society with greater social equality. They fought for a land reform, to eradicate illiteracy, to uproot institutionalized racist discrimination, to provide employment for all, including women. And when their course clashed with the economic interests of U.S. imperialism they simply refused to back down. That is how the first socialist revolution in our hemisphere was born. And in the process of transforming Cuban society, they transformed themselves.”

Waters described the broad interest that Our History Is Still Being Written has generated. “Most people are surprised to learn of the scope of Chinese immigration to Cuba, and its weight in Cuban history. And they want to learn how the Cuban people have advanced the fight against racism,” she noted.

“As Moisés Sío Wong puts it so forcefully,” Waters said, “the greatest measure taken against discrimination ‘was the revolution itself.’ The Chinese community in Cuba is different from Peru, Brazil, Argentina, or Canada, he emphasized. And that difference is the triumph of a socialist revolution.”

Following a lively discussion period, participants stayed to talk with the panelists and look at the displays of photos and reviews, a number of which had been translated into French for the first time. Many signed a petition circulated by the Table de concertation demanding the release of five Cuban internationalists incarcerated in U.S. jails for their work in defense of Cuba.

Walter Tom told the Militant he came because he is “interested in immigration and involved in social justice issues.”

Simon Léveillé, a civil engineering student at the University of Montreal, said he came “to learn how the three generals became active in international politics.”

Participants bought more than 20 books from the Pathfinder table. In addition to nine copies of Our History Is Still Being Written, other titles included The First and Second Declarations of Havana, and Nouvelle Internationale no. 7—the French-language edition of the magazine New International, featuring in this issue “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun” by Jack Barnes.
 
 
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