A symbol of defiance: Cuban flags outside the US interests building in Havana.

Read comrade Annie Richards' speech from the Newcastle reportback meeting.

Our brigade spent its first week in a pre-university school for youngsters who want to be teachers in the rural municipality of Caimito.

For both weeks our guides were comrades from the Union of Young Communists (UJC), an extremely important organisation for Cuban youth and with whom we have made strong links over the last 12 years. We met and had discussions daily with the UJC comrades in Caimito and their political level was extremely high, helping us to better understand Cuban society.

Children are the future leaders of the Cuban revolution, and so even in the worst years of the US blockade education has remained a priority for Cuban socialism.

Even at a school for children with learning difficulties, education in the political theory of the new society is at the top of the agenda...

...the students welcomed the brigade's visit and the teaching staff spoke defiantly in opposition to the US/British occupation of Iraq.

After a morning of voluntary work on a new agricultural project we interviewed a farmer about democracy under socialism. When we told him about reactionary 'critics' in Britain who label Fidel Castro a dictator he responded that "We can say what we like and we want socialism... there is no-one behind me telling me to say that!"

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc came up in a lot of our discussions with Cuban workers and leaders. It is recognised that the survival of the Cuban revolution was greatly helped by the assistance given to it by the Soviets from the 1960s. The Soviet-designed buildings and much of the machinery are still in use in Cuba.

At one school in Caimito we met the headmaster, a 24 year old communist...

...he introduced us to some of the students at an 'emulation' rally...

...and we were given the chance to teach them some British protest chants. At one point 400 Cuban kids were shouting "1-2-3-4, deportation no more" in support of the struggle for asylum rights in Britain.

At a polyclinic we saw the famous Cuban health care system at work. While in imperialist Britain, Labour is systematically destroying the right to free treatment, in socialist Cuba the health of the people is extremely important.

During a visit to a citrus factory we asked the workers about their work and their rights. They said that despite the contradictions of the special period, especially in the tourism industry where much of Cuba's best produce goes, they recognise the significance of Cuba's economic growth - wages are rising and more progress is being made education and healthcare. All of the workers said they would be out in the streets for the Mayday celebrations.

We met Cuba's national olympic rowing team, who answered questions about capitalism and the fact that sportspeople from Cuba have been offered huge sums of money to go professional in the US and Europe. They answered that their motivations were for the Cuban people and socialism, not in getting rich and sacrificing their principles. The meeting was inspiring for the whole brigade.

Women have equal rights in Cuba, but this is not a closed book for the revolutionary process. At the Cuban Womens Federation (FMC) in Caimito the comrades explained that the fight now is focused on evening things out in all sectors of work, education and organisation so that men and women can truly be equal. Socialism is paving the way for this to happen.

At this university in Caimito students are doing voluntary work to renovate the buildings...

We had a meeting with a class of agronomy students, many from poor countries in Latin America such as Bolivia and Ecuador, studying in Cuba for free.

Comrade Kyle presented the student leaders with our campaign materials.

Also in Caimito we visited the veterans' association. These comrades took part in Cuba's internationalist missions in southern Africa, fighting alongside the liberation forces to bring defeat to the racist apartheid regime. The veterans spoke of the situation in Africa today, with the masses still suffering under the boots of the rich imperialist states and their corporations. Cuban socialism inspires hope in the struggles of oppressed people internationally.

The brigade met with teachers and students from a rural university...

...nowhere else in Latin America has the same high standards in education for all students as Cuba. This is something the revolutionary movements in Venezuela and Bolivia are striving to achieve.

Social care starts from birth. This creche in Caimito is one of many, with childcare readily available for all children.

In our discussions with Cuban Communist Party and UJC leaders, the Cuban comrades were not afraid to criticise and admit to huge problems facing their society. The debate initiated by president Fidel Castro in late 2005 on the future of the revolution has become widespread, with the focus on raising productivity and combating corruption and bureaucracy.

We interviewed and spoke with people from all walks of life. The domestic workers at the school we stayed in were open to all our questions and spoke about the democracy in their workplace. Unlike most workers in Britain they were all part of a union, with a say in how things are run and organised. They were all gearing up for International Workers' Day.

In Havana city all 14 members of the brigade were delegates to the First International Youth Conference to Free the Cuban Five, political prisoners in the US. The RCG was invited to speak on the platform on the first day and comrade Paul gave a well recieved speech on the tasks of revolutionaries in oppressor nations. Hundreds of people from anti-imperialist and progressive organisations from all over the world attended, with particularly militant delegations from Venezuela and Ecuador.

Listen to the speech (MP3)

At the closing ceremony of the conference we met the families of the Cuban Five and expressed our unconditional solidarity with the struggle to free the heroes of the Cuban revolution.

Comrades were interviewed and appeared on Cuban state TV, talking about RATB's caimpaign work in Britain.

On May 1st, International Workers Day, 6 million people (out of a population of just 11 million!) assembled across Cuba for Mayday marches and celebrations. Whereas in other countries around the world people demonstrate for their rights, people in Cuba demonstrate the rights they have earned through socialism. While in Istanbul, Turkey, fascist police brutally attacked hundreds of communist protesters, 1.5 million people marched in Havana against US imperialism and in defence of the Cuban revolution. The Social Workers (above) marched with placards of people killed by counter-revolutionary actions against Cuba. The theme was for the extradition of Luis Posada Cariles, a bourgeois CIA-backed terrorist in the US, and for the release of the Cuban Five.

The Social Workers are young Cubans at the head of the fight against corruption. They came out in their tens of thousands in Havana.

RCG/RATB comrades were part of the international contingent on the Havana march...

...with organisations from Venezuela to Palestine, Sri Lanka to Mexico standing together with the Cuban masses...

...and it was the Cubans, of course, who led the day's action.

Also in Havana city the brigade visited a hospital of the Operation Miracle programme which has helped bring important eye operations for free to tens of thousands of poor people in Latin America. Later in the week we had a meeting at the Finlay Institute, one of the centres for the study and production of vaccines. Around the world millions of people die of preventable diseases, but Cuba is showing that an alternative is possible.

We met journalists from the UJC's national newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth). The paper's editor, Rogelio Polanco, is coming to Britain in February next year for an RCG/RATB speaking tour.

It was very important for our group to build on the links we already have with Juventud Rebelde - the paper has already carried articles about our solidarity work in Britain.

Comrade Hannah with the national secretary of the UJC. After this, our tenth brigade to Cuba, the relationship between the Revolutionary Communist Group in Britain and the UJC in Cuba is growing more than ever.

We came back to Britain to a sham bourgeois democracy, presided over by an imperialist Labour party which continues to wage war on the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan; people seeking asylum in Britain are being systematically attacked, with destitution, incarceration and deportation the main weapons in the state's arsenal; low paid workers and young people are being criminalised by the police and media; and behind all of this British banks and corporations are roming the world like they own the place, making debt-ridden, poverty-stricken countries pay the price. Our trip to Cuba was inspiring. It showed that not only is another world possible, but it is already being built. As a young woman from Venezuela told the Conference to Free the Five in Havana, the choice facing the world's poor is simple: 'Socialism or death!'

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