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!'
RCG/RATB comrades were part of the international contingent on the Havana march...
Our brigade spent its first week in a pre-university school for youngsters who want to be teachers in the
rural municipality of Caimito.
At one school in Caimito we met the headmaster, a 24 year old communist...
...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.
...he introduced us to some of the students at an 'emulation' rally...
The brigade met with teachers and students from a rural university...
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.
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.
...the students welcomed the brigade's visit and the teaching staff spoke defiantly in opposition to
the US/British occupation of Iraq.
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...
Comrade Kyle presented the student leaders with our campaign materials.
At this university in Caimito students are doing voluntary work to renovate the buildings...
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