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Vol. 81/No. 29      August 7, 2017

 

Meetings build ‘Che’ Cuba brigade, Sochi youth festival

 
BY ALYSON KENNEDY
In a little over two months, young people and workers from the U.S. and around the world will take advantage of the opportunity to join the Oct. 1-15 “In the Footsteps of Che International Brigade” to Cuba or the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 14-22.

Both the brigade and the youth festival will bring together anti-imperialist fighters, supporters of the Cuban Revolution and other political activists.

Affiliates to the World Federation of Democratic Youth from throughout the Americas met in Nicaragua July 18 and discussed plans for the youth festival, which will be honoring Fidel Castro (see article on page 6). Meetings have been held in workplaces and schools across Cuba that elected 250 delegates, who will join some 20,000 young people from over 120 countries in Sochi, including from the U.S. Applications to attend the festival have now closed, but discussions and debates preparing for the meeting are ongoing.

“I’ve wanted to go to Cuba and see it for myself,” said Frank Munoz, a member of United Auto Workers Local 551 at a Chicago-area Ford assembly plant, as he signed up for the brigade July 25 at the NAACP convention in Baltimore. In all, 16 people signed up for more information on the brigade at the Socialist Workers Party booth there.

The brigade will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Che’s death in combat in Bolivia in 1967, where he led Cuban volunteers participating in a guerrilla struggle against the René Barrientos dictatorship there. Participants will do volunteer agricultural labor, visit sites where Che led battles during the Cuban Revolution, and meet with leaders of Cuba’s youth, women’s and labor organizations. They will have the opportunity to meet and discuss with fellow brigadistas from across the country and around the world. Steve Eckardt, a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Chicago and brigade co-coordinator, told the Militant that over 35 people have signed up so far from the U.S. Eckardt urged people considering going on the brigade to get their applications in early.

“I want to go in October to celebrate a hero of mine — Che. He fought in Africa against colonialism,” Zakiyyah Muhammad, a caregiver for 19 years and member of Service Employees International Union Local 880 in northwest Indiana, told the Militant July 24.

Guevara became a central leader of the Cuban Revolution, along with current Cuban President Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, who died last November. Guevara, originally from Argentina, met Fidel in Mexico in 1955 and joined the Granma expedition to Cuba to relaunch the struggle to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and lead Cuba’s working people to take political power.

“What was that characteristic that gave the precise measure of Che’s spirit and soul?” Fidel Castro asked in a 1971 speech in Chile. “It was his moral qualities, his altruism, his absolute selflessness. He had met a group of Cubans; he became convinced of their cause; and from the very first moment he showed great selflessness and generosity. From the first moment he was absolutely willing to give his life, regardless of whether it was the first battle or the second or the third.”

Brigadistas will meet with combatants who fought with Che in the Cuban Revolution or in Africa, where he led a column of Cuban volunteers fighting alongside anti-colonial combatants in the Congo after U.S.-backed Belgian troops organized the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the country’s prime minister and independence fighter.

“I just saw “Cuba, An African Odyssey,” which shows how Cuba is clearly principled and how it values human development and life in action,” Samir Hazboun, 25, told the Militant July 22. He is one of seven people who have signed up to go with the Washington, D.C., Metro Cuba Coalition. “Now I’ll get to see the agricultural cooperatives, meet with the women’s organization and the Union of Young Communists, and hear firsthand about the strengths and challenges they have and how they organize together to solve problems.”

To sign up for the brigade or get more information, contact the Chicago Cuba Coalition at (312) 952-2618 or ICanGoToCuba@gmail.com.


 
 
Related articles:
Raúl Castro: ‘Cubans are free, independent and sovereign’
 
 
 
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