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International Worker's Day in CUBA

posted by F Espinoza | 03.05.2007 16:22 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Manchester

As takes place every International Workers’ Day, some six million Cubans marched throughout the country...

International Worker's Day in CUBA

Cuba’s Workers Protest against Terrorism

MARIA JULIA MAYORAL

As if on a battlefield with the national flag held high, a multitude of young people sang The Internationale. From the rostrum the voices of a thousand people sang together including representatives from 74 countries and 242 foreign organizations. It’s the end of a great march. More than a half million Cubans had just paraded through Havana’s Revolution Square.
They came to condemn terrorism and demand justice: prison for Luis Posada Carriles and freedom for the Cuban Five, who continue in US jails paradoxically for having saved countless lives in both Cuba and the US itself.
As takes place every International Workers’ Day, some six million Cubans marched throughout the country. In the capital’s Revolution Square a large contingent of the foreign press observed the impressive scene.
The march in Havana lasted two hours. It was presided over by First Vice President Raul Castro. Salvador Mesa, general secretary of the Cuban Worker’s Federation, gave a brief speech and summed up popular sentiment to mark the beginning of the march, began by the famous Blas Roca Calderio construction brigade.
Slogans, placards, huge banners, effigies, photographs and diverse flags showed the creativeness of the people who came out for this show of national unity and fighting spirit in the face of the outrages of the US empire.
Among the 1,600 foreign guests were personalities like Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of San Vincent and the Grenadines; George Mavrilkos, general secretary of the World Labor Federation; and modest workers who were able to travel to Havana thanks to their personal savings. Workers like Luis Delgado, Ana Viana and Ruben Ledesma from Uruguay who told Granma they had come "because it was a dream to be here."
After a procession of grade school children in their uniforms, more than 50,000 teenagers and young adults brought up the rear of the glorious Havana May Day march.
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A Conversation in Revolution Square

—Hey, will the commander be there today when we pass the rostrum? If he is, this will never end; it will be awful hard to keep the people from lining up to see him…
—I sure hope he’s there, comrade, I ‘m really longing to see him dressed in his commander in chief uniform. The Miami mafia will shit in their pants when they see him…
—Reporter, you from the Round Table program, Do you think we will see the Comandante today when we pass by?
When I respond with a smile, I felt a voice, like thunder, that catalyzed the group.
—Ladies and Gentlemen, it doesn’t matter if he is there or not. He must be taken care of so that he lasts a long time and acts like the wise man his is, with so many ideas like the ones published today in Granma newspaper. What’s important is that he is inside each one of us...

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Cubans Turn Out in Mass for Volunteer Labor Effort

GABRIEL DAVALOS

30 april

More than a million Cubans, around ten percent of the population, turned out Sunday for a day of volunteer work in salute to International Worker’s Day to be celebrated on Tuesday May 1.
Salvador Valdes Mesa, general secretary of the Cuban Labor Federation (CTC), reported that the nationwide volunteer effort Sunday took place in agriculture, social infrastructure projects prioritized by the Revolution, the energy-savings program and in the fight against mosquito breeding grounds.
Valdes went on to reiterate the call for massive worker participation at the different May Day marches, where he said the recent release in the United States of the notorious anti-Cuba terrorist Luis Posada Carriles will receive a resounding condemnation.
CTC leaders led by Valdes, joined construction workers and hospital staff for the day of volunteer work at the Manuel Fajardo Hospital in the capital, currently under expansion and modernization.

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Nothing Will Bend Our Will

May Day essage from Fernando Gonzalez on behalf of the Cuban Five

Fellow Compatriots:

We are honored to address you, the heroic people marching today in one of the few countries in which May Day, International Worker’s Day, is a date for genuine celebration.
Gerardo, Antonio, Ramon, Rene and I want you to receive our congratulations and revolutionary salute on this day of unity in defense of the Revolution and Socialism.
We are profoundly grateful that this year’s May Day March is also dedicated to the demand for our release.
The current US administration, with its lack of a political will to try Luis Posada Carriles for his horrendous crimes, and opening the path to his undeserved and unjust freedom, shows its immorality and hypocrisy and clearly demonstrates its complicity with the terrorism practiced against Cuba during nearly five decades.
We want to express our solidarity with the relatives of the victims caused by Posada Carriles’ criminal actions.
Together with all of Cuba and together with millions of voices around the world, including in the United States, we express our indignation at such an outrage and demand justice.
The revolutionary spirit that you demonstrate is always with us in our struggle. Nothing will bend our will and nothing will weaken our certainty of victory.
We will resist all the time that is necessary, and we will be part of that multitude of people in future marches that say YES to the Revolution, to the Party and to Fidel.

Long Live the Workers!

Long Live the Cuban Revolution!

Long Live Fidel!

Homeland or Death, We Will Triumph!

Fernando Gonzalez Llort