Venceremos Brigade returns from Cuba
Group went with aid, came back with new insights
By Mike Shaw
The 34th annual Venceremos Brigade crossed the
U.S.-Canada border on the morning of Aug. 4. It was a
triumphant conclusion to a critical mission of solidarity with
Cuba.
More than 80 people from the U.S. had returned from Cuba via
Toronto, which, unlike the United States, has no travel
restrictions to the socialist island.
The trip was intended to draw attention to new Treasury
Department restrictions that have eliminated People to People
Educational Exchange licenses, the second-largest category for
Cuban travel after family visits, and to the four-decades-long
economic embargo.
"The embargo and travel ban policy of our country really
hurts them, as well as hurting us," said VB sub-brigade leader
Bonnie Massey, 22, of New York City. "It denies them a lot of
material necessities, and it denies us the opportunity to learn
about a whole other people."
Massey went on, "Cubans are a friendly people and the travel
restriction just doesn't make any sense. Cuba's economy is
suffering because the United States has had a blockade in place
for more than 40 years. ... This has been a life-changing
experience for many of us. We got to learn many things that we
don't get to learn at home. It makes us better people."
The U.S. government requires travelers to obtain a U.S.
Treasury Department licence before going to Cuba. Members of
the Brigade refuse to get the licence as a protest against the
travel restrictions.
Many of the contingent were getting their first taste of
political resistance by participating in what amounted to a
mass act of civil disobedience.
"Some of us are nervous," said Sierra Thaibinh, 29, prior to
the border crossing. "We are about to head back home and we are
here to take a visible stand. We know our rights and the rights
of Cuban people."
The crossing occurred without incident after authorities in
Washington, D.C., directed U.S. Customs to allow the protesters
to return without arrest. The U.S. government apparently did
not wish to draw attention to its unpopular travel ban to Cuba.
However, Brigadistas still face the possibility of civil
penalties from the Treasury Department, which they are prepared
to fight.
The large, racially diverse and predominantly youthful
contingent--one quarter were high schoolers--experienced what
amounted to a crash course in socialism. Many, including this
writer, were making their first visit to the revolutionary
nation.
The Venceremos Brigade, a friendship and solidarity
organization, began in 1969 when hundreds of young people
express ed solidarity with the Cuban government and people by
helping in the sugar harvest.
Annual, unlicensed work trips have followed. This year's
visit saw brigade members deliver over two tons of material
aid, paint a polyclinic outside Havana, and work side by side
with Cubans.
The travel challenge is a joint project with Pastors for
Peace, which delivered a caravan of food and medicine into Cuba
through Mexico last month.
"It was a wonderful experience," said Kathe Karlson of New
York City. "It's very important to make friends with people
around the world ... we want to be able to travel without
restrictions and find out the truth for ourselves."
The Cuban socialist revolution is very much alive. Immersion
in Cuban society had a consciousness-expanding effect on many
brigadistas who had had little experience with left
politics.
After discussions between brigadistas and Cubans about
various aspects of Cuban society, there was much political
discussion among Brigade members. Prejudices about Cuba
absorbed from the U.S. media were tested against the reality
they were seeing with their own eyes.
Moncada commemoration
Peoples' eyes really opened to class truth once the Brigade
made a field trip to Santiago de Cuba at the extreme eastern
end of the island. The group was honored to participate in the
50th anniversary commemoration of one of Cuba's most
significant dates: the July 26, 1953, attack by a group of
young revolutionaries on the Moncada garrison of dictator
Fulgencio Batista. The brigadistas were seated in a field
facing the Moncada during the event. There were impassioned
speeches, cultural performances and an address by Fidel Castro
himself.
While in that city, brigadistas were guests at block parties
of the neighborhood-based Committees to Defend the Revolution,
where they saw how enthusiasm for socialism permeates Cuba down
to the grassroots.
Two encounters with Cubans especially impressed the young
people from the U.S. The first was a meeting with four Cubans
who, at great personal sacrifice, had infiltrated and exposed
"dissident" groups of paid subversive agents organized by the
U.S. Interests Section in Cuba. This March, 75 people from
these groups were jailed after a trial exposed their work for
Washington.
The second meeting was with family members of the Cuban
Five--five Cubans imprisoned by the U.S. for having penetrated
right-wing terrorist groups in the Miami area. Many brigadistas
learned for the first time how the U.S. has directed these
groups in implementing violence against Cuba. Many of the
brigadistas will be making the liberation of the five--which is
now a priority of the Cuban people--one of their priorities as
well.
When the brigade finally crossed the border into Buffalo,
N.Y., those present to welcome and support them included
members of the Western New York Peace Center, Buffalo State
Students for Peace and the anti-war group ANSWER. Copies of the
latest Workers World newspaper were snatched up by brigadistas,
a signal of their greater openness to the perspective of
revolutionary socialism.
Reprinted from the Aug. 21, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page