May Day demonstration in Cuba where millions of workers and youth attended. The demonstrations called for the release of the Cuban Five and the lifting of the embargo against the Caribbean nation by the United States.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
FROM an early hour, millions of Cuban men and women invaded the principal plazas and avenues of the island’s municipal and provincial cities, where parades for International Workers Day took place Saturday.
Television footage and radio reports reveal the mass nature, enthusiasm, color and combativeness of these mobilizations, the first of which begins in Santiago de Cuba, whose General Antonio Maceo Plaza overflowed with tens of thousands of happy and patriotic people.
One of the central reasons and motivations moving the sons and daughters of the homeland of José Martí and Fidel Castro to turn out for the May Day celebrations is the imperative of sending a signal to the world of the unity of the people around their Revolution and leaders, at a time when imperialism and its lackeys are attempting to discredit it.
Workers, students, campesinos, housewives and combatants are all affirming that neither anti-Cuba media campaigns nor internal provocations by the counterrevolution can deter the advance of this social project.
They were accompanied in dozens of the island’s plazas and avenues by representatives of trade union organizations and solidarity groups who had come there from various parts of the world to confirm that Cuba is not alone, that its example is multiplying, and that its achievements and principles are defended worldwide.
Before the parades or events had even begun, the collective sentiment palpable everywhere here is, without any doubt whatsoever, that May Day would be a resounding demonstration of unity and response to this new escalation of international counter-propaganda on the part of the enemies of the Revolution.
Translated by Granma International
Raúl presides over central May Day parade
PRESIDENT Raúl Castro headed the central parade in Havana for International Workers Day, in which Cubans repudiated the media campaigns of the United States and the European Parliament against the island.
Students, elementary schoolchildren, housewives, combatants, artists and workers paraded in José Martí Plaza de la Revolución and other plazas, streets and avenues throughout Cuba in tight unified blocks forming a mass expression of the strength of a people who support their social project and their leaders, Fidel and Raúl.
President Raúl Castro was accompanied by leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba, of government, of the Union of Young Communists, of mass organizations, of the Central Organization of Trade Unions and invited labor delegations and social movements.
Television footage reaffirm that this was a distinct May Day because, throughout the island, its youth led and closed the parades, and a historic one on account of its mass nature, discipline, organization, color and for the ideals that are being defended, while demonstrations of solidarity for dozens of countries were also apparent.
The José Martí Plaza de la Revolución dawned beautifully adorned with multicolored flags, billboards, placards and giant allegorical graphics repudiating the new escalation of anti-Cuba propaganda, and demanded the liberation of the five Cuban anti-terrorists unjustly incarcerated in the United States and an end to the blockade of the island.
Those battles are at the center of the parades for International Workers Day, on a day when many labor collectives arrived with their production and services targets met and in a country with indisputable results in the People's Power elections, in which 95.86% of electors voted. (AIN)
Translated by Granma International
Text of the speech by Salvador Valdés Mesa, general secretary of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers, and member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba
General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, president of the Councils of State and Ministers:
Compañeros of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba:
Compañeros members of the Council of State:
Invited compañeros:
Compatriots:
Exactly 10 years ago, from this same scenario, Fidel called on us to raise the concept of our most beautiful achievement – the Revolution – to infinite planes.
It is a sense of the historic moment, he said then and, in a few minutes, this historical plaza and all the plazas of the country’s most important cities will vibrate to the booming force of millions of workers and their families, who will reaffirm their firm decision to defend and build socialism as the most energetic and resolute response to those who, from centers of power in the United States and the European Union, seconded by internal mercenary mini-groups, are attempting to discredit us with fallacious calumnies, fruit of their ancestral hatred.
Just a few days ago, more than 8.2 million Cubans, with our mass turnout at the polls and a conscientious vote, elected our People's Power delegates and were the protagonists of an exemplary lesson in genuine participative democracy and a resounding prelude to this massive celebration and the infinite capacities of the workers and the people united in an indestructible bond around the Party, Fidel and Raúl.
Sister and brother workers:
We are living in a complex era of dangers and risks that are threatening the planet and humanity. Steadily more frequent and devastating climatic disasters, together with the global and integral crisis of capitalism, characterize the international scenario. These are phenomena from whose impact we are not exempt, compounded by the effects of the genocidal blockade imposed on us by the United States, the consequences of the Special Period and our own shortcomings.
This panorama obliges us to confront highly complex realities, as compañero Raúl noted in the UJC Congress. And while, 10 years ago, the Comandante en Jefe aligned us with the concept that Revolution is changing everything that has to be changed and emancipating ourselves by ourselves and with our own efforts, we also have the duty to align ourselves with what was stated by our president, and I quote:
"We are convinced that dogmas have to be broken and that we have to assume, with firmness and confidence, the actualization – already in progress – of our economic model, with the proposition of founding the bases for the irreversibility and development of Cuban socialism, which we know constitutes the guarantee of national independence and sovereignty."
As workers, we know that the economic battle is, as never before, a vital task for preserving our social system, and to wage it successfully implies that every one of us is disposed to fulfill the part that corresponds to us, and is aware that the institutional and labor reordering already in progress involves all of us.
If we want to advance and raise the living standards of the population and maintain and even rationally improve what has been achieved in areas such as public health, education, social security and assistance, we will have to share the lack of resources and our efforts in order to overcome them.
We need to analyze in depth Raúl’s speech at the Youth Congress, not to insist on the problems that we have, but in order to understand those realities, identify what is holding us back and to propose solutions within and for every labor collective.
From this historic tribunal we call on the workers and people to support the actualization of our economic model, which will require extraordinary effort and sacrifice, aware that only by dignifying work as a creative source of material and spiritual wealth and a molder of conscience can we guarantee the country’s economic and social growth.
Cuban women and men:
Let us take advantage of the occasion to send our congratulations and recognition to all the compatriots who, in the most distinct confines of the world, are fulfilling beautiful internationalist missions that are multiplying the prestige of the Revolution.
We call on the labor and social organizations, and on all upstanding people in the world to promote the international movement to demand an end to the unjust and inhuman economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the people of Cuba for close to 50 years and, at the same time, to demand the liberation of our five heroes arbitrarily imprisoned in U.S. jails.
We ratify our solidarity with workers of the world and our gratitude for the gestures of support for us, in particular those of the more than 1,000 labor and social leaders who decided to accompany our people in this proletarian fiesta.
VIVA MAY DAY!
¡VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN!
¡VIVAN FIDEL Y RAÚL!
¡VIVA CUBA LIBRE!
Let the fighting and combative parade of the people begin!
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