May Day Celebrations Stress Unity, Firmness and Victory in Cuba
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- 05 / 01 / 2008
Leading the march will be the workers and students from the Havana-based Information Technologies University, followed by over 20, 000 construction workers, plus many other labor entities and enterprises, as well as neighbors of different Havana municipalities; the march will be closed by 40, 000 youths who are currently involved in the most recent social programs implemented by the Cuban Revolution.
In recent statements to reporters, the General Secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation, Salvador Valdes Mesa, called on workers to participate in the celebrations along with their families at the Revolution Square, which is ready to welcome the huge representation of the Cuban people.
May Day celebrations will run parallel in all Cuban provinces, where the people have been gearing up to the historic date for the past weeks. Enthusiasm about what has been achieved by Cubans over the past 50 years of Revolution and about the prospects ahead mark preparations for rallies and marches throughout the country.
After the triumph of the Revolution, Cuban workers celebrated May Day in 1959 for the first time.
Major scenarios of that celebration were the cities of Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba and Havana, where the people were addressed by Revolution commanders Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto Che Guevara and Raul Castro.
Some May Day-related events in Cuba
In 1890, Cuba joined May Day celebrations in homage to the Chicago Martyrs and in meeting an accord reached by the Congress of the Socialist International, held 1889 in Paris. The Havana Workers Guild organized a march, with some 3,000 participants, on the citys major streets.
In 1919, during a rally at the Havana-based Payret cinema, Cuban workers expressed their solidarity with the October Revolution and with the struggle waged by European workers.
In 1925, Over 4,000 Cuban workers, bearing red flags, marched along the members of the Havana Communist Organization. Cuban leader Julio Antonio Mella gave a speech in which he termed then Cuban president and dictator Gerardo Machado, as "tropical Mussolini."
In 1961, Cuba inaugurated the international short-wave radio station Radio Havana Cuba, in an effort to counter the information blockade against the Revolution. The radio station has broadcast in seven languages all these years in an effort to take the Cuban message and solidarity with different peoples of the world.
In 1964, Fidel spoke at the main rally at the Jose Marti Revolution Square where he stressed: "we will defend this flag, this sky, this land at any price."
In 1980, an impressing peoples demonstration took place at the Revolution Square, where local and Latin American personalities gave speeches. Fidel Castro closed the rally by reaffirming the position of the Cuban people against the US economic blockade of Cuba, against the American naval base in the Cuban territory of Guantanamo and against US spy flights over national territory. That same May Day, the Cuban media informed about a mobilization of Cuban troops in the face of military exercises by the United States.
In the 1990's, May Day celebrations took place amidst a very complex economic and political situation marked by the stiffening of the US economic blockade and the disappearance of the Socialist Camp and the Soviet Union.
Representatives of other nations join Cuban May Day Celebrations
Over 1, 100 unionists, parliamentarians, politicians and member of social and progressive movements from all continents confirmed their participation in May Day Celebrations in Cuba. Most of the visitors come from Europe and the Americas and they bring a message of support to the Cuban Revolution.
Unionists from Panama, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, who will be present at the celebrations, recently visited the Cuban Workers Federation building where they expressed their gratefulness to the Cuban people for their resistance against the cruel US economic blockade and for having preserved the example of Socialism in the world.
While workers and their unions take to the streets in other countries to claim for better working conditions and to protest capitalist and neo- liberal policies, Cuban workers celebrate as they openly voice their support of their Socialist Revolution, the only social and political project that has guaranteed the workers' legitimate rights.
)www.cubanews.ain.cu)
In recent statements to reporters, the General Secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation, Salvador Valdes Mesa, called on workers to participate in the celebrations along with their families at the Revolution Square, which is ready to welcome the huge representation of the Cuban people.
May Day celebrations will run parallel in all Cuban provinces, where the people have been gearing up to the historic date for the past weeks. Enthusiasm about what has been achieved by Cubans over the past 50 years of Revolution and about the prospects ahead mark preparations for rallies and marches throughout the country.
After the triumph of the Revolution, Cuban workers celebrated May Day in 1959 for the first time.
Major scenarios of that celebration were the cities of Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba and Havana, where the people were addressed by Revolution commanders Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto Che Guevara and Raul Castro.
Some May Day-related events in Cuba
In 1890, Cuba joined May Day celebrations in homage to the Chicago Martyrs and in meeting an accord reached by the Congress of the Socialist International, held 1889 in Paris. The Havana Workers Guild organized a march, with some 3,000 participants, on the citys major streets.
In 1919, during a rally at the Havana-based Payret cinema, Cuban workers expressed their solidarity with the October Revolution and with the struggle waged by European workers.
In 1925, Over 4,000 Cuban workers, bearing red flags, marched along the members of the Havana Communist Organization. Cuban leader Julio Antonio Mella gave a speech in which he termed then Cuban president and dictator Gerardo Machado, as "tropical Mussolini."
In 1961, Cuba inaugurated the international short-wave radio station Radio Havana Cuba, in an effort to counter the information blockade against the Revolution. The radio station has broadcast in seven languages all these years in an effort to take the Cuban message and solidarity with different peoples of the world.
In 1964, Fidel spoke at the main rally at the Jose Marti Revolution Square where he stressed: "we will defend this flag, this sky, this land at any price."
In 1980, an impressing peoples demonstration took place at the Revolution Square, where local and Latin American personalities gave speeches. Fidel Castro closed the rally by reaffirming the position of the Cuban people against the US economic blockade of Cuba, against the American naval base in the Cuban territory of Guantanamo and against US spy flights over national territory. That same May Day, the Cuban media informed about a mobilization of Cuban troops in the face of military exercises by the United States.
In the 1990's, May Day celebrations took place amidst a very complex economic and political situation marked by the stiffening of the US economic blockade and the disappearance of the Socialist Camp and the Soviet Union.
Representatives of other nations join Cuban May Day Celebrations
Over 1, 100 unionists, parliamentarians, politicians and member of social and progressive movements from all continents confirmed their participation in May Day Celebrations in Cuba. Most of the visitors come from Europe and the Americas and they bring a message of support to the Cuban Revolution.
Unionists from Panama, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, who will be present at the celebrations, recently visited the Cuban Workers Federation building where they expressed their gratefulness to the Cuban people for their resistance against the cruel US economic blockade and for having preserved the example of Socialism in the world.
While workers and their unions take to the streets in other countries to claim for better working conditions and to protest capitalist and neo- liberal policies, Cuban workers celebrate as they openly voice their support of their Socialist Revolution, the only social and political project that has guaranteed the workers' legitimate rights.
)www.cubanews.ain.cu)
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