Cuba: May 1st Celebrations Show Support for the Revolution
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES – As if 86.85% of the referendum vote (in favor of the new socialist Constitution that was endorsed by the Cuban people on February 24th) wasn’t enough, this May Day, Cubans sent a clear message to their enemies about what they want when millions of workers and their families joined parades in every square and street across the country, reaffirming the overwhelming support for the Revolution and its leaders.
The main event took place in the country’s capital, like it always does, Jose Marti Revolution Square once again the setting for the parade that celebrates this day like a real workers’ party, year after year.
The parade began after listening to a recording of the late historic Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s “Concept of the Revolution”, in his own voice, at 7 a.m. It was headed by health professionals and the group of companies that are dedicated to researching, manufacturing and selling medical products, known as BioCubaFarm, which has some 20,000 workers on its payroll.
The presidential group, overlooking the parade, included Army General Raul Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, president of the State Council and Council of Ministers, as well as all the other high-ranking Party and government leaders, who greeted workers and their families.
Over 1400 representatives from 87 countries marched side by side with Cubans. The international guests come every year to this country to enjoy May Day and, according to some interviewees, to recharge their batteries and load up on optimism when it comes to the working class’ role in their own countries’ struggle against capitalist exploitation.
Guests of the presidential group included Ivan Melnikov, member of the Russian Communist Party’s Central Committee, who traveled to Havana to award Raul Castro with the Lenin Prize “for his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of Socialist ideals.” Michael Mzwandile Makwayiba, president of the Global Union Federation, was also present.
With the motto “Unity, Commitment and Victory”, Cuban workers marched, not to make demands, but to reaffirm their commitment to the Socialist Revolution and to fervently reject US Imperialism’s latest attacks by lifting the waiver on Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, a monster of a legal document that violates International Law and the UN Charter.
Cuban workers did ask, though, that the US, not the Cuban government, lift the genocidal blockade that is trying to stifle us and to let us work in peace, giving us back the land that was illegally occupied in Guantanamo Bay with a naval base, against our people’s wishes.
Raising the banners of Revolution and Socialism, and in support of the agreements made at the recent XXI Congress of the CTC, workers from every union branch marched, as well as representatives from every one of the capital’s municipalities, who carried placards of support for the legitimate and democratically-elected governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua. These governments are being attacked from abroad, with right-wing opposition groups’ complicity who won’t accept that they lost in democratic elections fair and square: Nicolas Maduro and Daniel Ortega both won with over 70% of the vote.
Closing the parade was a bloc of young people headed by a delegation from the Giraldo Cordova Cardin and Cerro Pelado sports universities with the best results. This bloc was defined by its fighting spirit and joy, made up of over 50,000 university and high school students, young workers and soldiers. They gave the world an idea of just how much Cuban youth are demanding the end of this genocidal blockade, and how much they reject the growing hostility of the Trump administration, with a clear message that the new generations are the continuity of the Socialist Revolution.
Over 700 Cuban, Young Communist League and student and youth movement and organization flags crowned the march of this youth bloc, a worthy end to a workers’ march on their biggest day each year of proletarian celebration.
Moses, you missed four word’s at the end of you comment!
“these Cubans take the rest of the day off ……………….to drown their sorrows.”
These May Day parades for the average Cuban are nothing more than a paid half day off. Most Cubans are required through their employment to attend the early morning March. For most, by 11am, having checked in with the person who keeps the list of employees that showed up, these Cubans take the rest of the day off.
As I understand it the constitution was changed to scrub out the bit about gay marriage becoming legal
This was at the behest of the new evangelical/fundamentalist Christian movement which is a somewhat disturbing development within Cuban Society.
Apparently a goodly proportion of the old diehards within The Party agreed with this change to the new constitution.
An unlikely alliance of new generation religious fanatics and old school communists conspired to keep Cuba behind the curve in this particular respect.
One of the interesting comments in Elio’s propaganda spiel is that 85.85% of voters in the referendum of February 24th voted “Si”. What he doesn’t report, is what percentage of those able to vote actually did!
The reason for that deliberate major omission is that Elio like the rest of the people of Cuba, doesn’t know!
Following the “new” constitution being paraded around Cuba for three months from September to public meetings, the Castro regime boasted in December, that 8.2 million Cubans had attended to contribute. They did not add that not a single word was changed as a consequence. To change anything written by Raul Castro being unthinkable. Voting turnout was low – I know few Cubans who voted, and my wife officiated at a Polling Station.
So when on February 27th, the regime announced the 86.85% figure given by Elio, the regime decided not to publish the number who voted which was obviously way way below 8.2 million. As I have commented previously, communists have developed expertise in how to manipulate figures. But, they have the gall to describe the “new” constitution as being developed by the people, rather than being the work of one man – Raul Castro Ruz.
I know for a fact that my friends had a hard time to get transportation into their nearby town to participate in the parade and “celebrations” . They would be punished by their bosses in some way if they did not appear. Weather , transportation, medical conditions, all must put this aside to honour the status quo.
Elio having diverted from his usual repetition of the spoutings of the Communist Party of Cuba Propaganda Department, by his article about an adopted stray cat, has now reverted to his normal function. The CTC commenced organizing trucking in members for the Revolution Square parade over a month ago. Just how does he know how many representatives from how many countries attended? Either he spent a busy day taking a census or he is merely repeating a bogus claim by the regime. I challenge him to list the 87 countries he claims!
Reporting that the Russian Communist Party attended to award Raul Castro Ruz the Lenin Prize is no surprise as Raul has worked assiduously with them since 1953. One can only hope that it wasn’t in the form of a medal, for there is little space left on the breast of his uniform which is overladen with awards.
The sad thing about Elio is that he obviously has swallowed the rhetoric of the Castro regime for so many years that he doesn’t realize that the free world – of which he obviously knows naught, has been moving on leaving Marxist 19th century thinking far behind in its wake. Living under dictatorship for most of his eighty years ( the last sixty being under communist dictatorship and prior to that under Batista) has left him ignorant of the meaning and understanding of freedom, individuality and democracy. Indoctrination has obviously worked and he is merely a victim.
Elio does not comment upon the even larger number of people on the streets of Caracas on May 1st – or their struggle to regain freedom from a tyrant.