SEPTEMBER 2ND 2008
In this issue:
1. YCL IN ACTION
2. ELECTION ALERT
3. CUBA RESISTS HURRICANE
1. YCL IN ACTION
Way to go Durham YCL, who distributed over 200 Peoples Voice newspapers and
Rebel Youth magazines at their Labour Day parade yesterday. Comrades were
able to sell seven $2.00 subscriptions to marchers. They also were asked by
OPSEU Local 311 to cover in People's Voice a struggle they are fighting
about nurses shortages and closing down a mental health hospital.
YCLers in Toronto joined student leaders in staging an action outside a
military recruitment center this weekend. Protesters dropped to the ground
in the hot sun, in front of a recruitment table, shouting "Support our
Troops, Bring them Home!" The demo lasted for about ten minutes until they
were ordered to leave. The campaign "Operation Objection" has released a new
color flyer about counter-recruitment. Write jo...@ycl-ljc.ca to order some
for your club.
Members of the Central Committee of the YCL met last weekend to discuss the
way forward for the YCL in the current conditions, and with the prospect of
an looming federal election. A full report will follow. After the CC
meeting, seven YCLers from Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec joined in
a week-long Central School organized by the Communist Party. The school
covered Marxist Philosophy, Political Economy, the National Question, and
Strategy and Tactics. Participants had a great week!
Two delegates from the YCL attended the Canadian Network on Cuba convention
on Saturday and Sunday. The convention presented a new approach for the Che
Guevara work brigade, including discussion about the length, prices, and
organization of the brigade. An action report will follow up in October.
YCL BC helped organize a public forum on organizing young workers last week.
Two members of the YCL BC spoke at the forum, which was held by the
Vancouver Labour Council youth committee. A good crowd of young workers
attended and the discussion got out a message about the importance of
organizing the unorganized.
2. ELECTION ALERT
... the count-down is on! It look like the Federal election will be held in
FORTY TWO DAYS! Stay tuned for more information, as the situation
develops...
3. CUBA RESISTS HURRICANE
THE HURRICANE
In my last reflection of Tuesday afternoon, August 29, when hurricane Gustav
unexpectedly formed and started to threaten our country on the same day when
our Olympic delegation returned, I wrote: "We are lucky to have a
Revolution! It is a fact that nobody will be neglected…Our strong, forceful
and farsighted Civil Defense protects our people…The growing frequency and
intensity of these natural phenomena show that the climate is changing due
to the action of man. The current times demand ever increasing dedication,
steadiness and conscience. We don't mind if the opportunists and traitors
also benefit even if they do not make any contribution to the safety and
wellbeing of our people."
I know of the colossal efforts that the Revolution has to make after the
national territory is hit by a hurricane. I could add that Cuba counts with
keen and persevering scientists such as José Rubiera.
Hundreds of millions of working hours are lost in a brief period of time
when the wind gusts beat directly against economic and social centers in
broad areas of the national territory. Endless rains accompany these
natural phenomena. Rivers overflow and sweep away with anything they find
in their path and flood extensive areas. Thousands of facilities that
produce vegetables, milk, eggs, poultry meat and pork, as well as
sophisticated irrigation systems, are seriously damaged; tens of thousands
of hectares of sugarcane, food grains, cereals and fruit trees ready for
harvest are lost; schools, polyclinics, entertainment and cultural centers,
private housing, roofs, factories, warehouses, highways and bridges are all
damaged by the winds and the rain. This time those winds and rains affected
all provinces in a greater or lesser degree, since the hurricane made its
way through the seas nearby the southern part of the country and moved
across the westernmost province. Its eye's radius was 30 kilometers in
length, and strong winds blew over a diameter of more than 450 kilometers.
Nothing is as devastating as the damage and destruction left behind by a
hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of compatriots mobilize and work very hard
during the passing of the hurricane and afterwards during the recovery
stage. Reserves are reduced or depleted. Today, more than ever, the
damages caused on food supplies are costly and significant. But this is our
country; this is our rightful place in this planet, and we have to develop
and defend it.
The task we have ahead requires time and expertise. The true Cuba and its
noble people, which have been ready to share with others its knowledge and
even part of its resources including its own blood, were not built
overnight. That is why it has been an invincible adversary in confronting
the powerful empire that has tried all of its weapons against our country.
But there is hardly any information to the world about Cuba's merits and its
extraordinary struggle.
Two days ago, on Friday 29, none of the eleven cables published by the
international press on Cuba referred to the hurricane that was approaching
our island or the intensive efforts made by our Civil Defense, with the
generous support of millions of Cuban families led by a courageous political
vanguard.
One of the cables published by the German news agency DPA read:
"Popular Cuban Actor Arrives in Miami: 'I left because I grew tired.'"
Then it adds that a well-known Cuban television actor, Yamil Jaled, had left
Cuba for Miami to reunite with his Cuban American wife, according to a local
newspaper.
It also adds that Jaled featured in very popular TV series, theatre plays
and movies, including some blockbusters produced in France and Italy. Jaled
graduated as a performing actor at the Highest Art Institute (ISA) in 1997
and started to work as a professional actor in the Rita Montaner theatre
group, but one year later he started to work in television.
Afterwards the cable goes on to explain that he is 31 years old and
profusely describes his artistic qualities and his triumphant journey
through television, thus echoing a Yankee newspaper destined to launch a
media warfare and campaigns against Cuba. We, Cubans, could add: What
patriot! What democratic! What brilliant example is this prototype that they
presenting to us! This is the way in which they disseminate throughout the
world information about a guy far less known and important than hurricane
Gustav.
They want to turn him into a sacred cow. The deepest convictions, which
have successfully resisted the trials of time and the upheavals of life, can
not be acquired on a single day. Before that, it is necessary to surmount
many trends that we all bear in our inner self.
I do not hate other human beings, but I hate vanity, egocentricity,
selfishness, arrogance, smugness, the absence of ethics and other tendencies
human beings are born with. Only education and the example set by those who
excel in their battle to be better, will succeed and influence all of us. It
is necessary to make a minimal philosophical approach on the need to be
modest.
There are sacred cows who intend to put our Five Heroes, who were brutally
separated from their homeland and their closest relatives, on a level with
the mercenaries who have been justly punished for committing treachery and
were never submitted to personal and inhuman outrage.
What I explain in this reflection reaffirms one conviction that I would like
to convey to my compatriots, that only the just ideas defended with courage,
dignity and firmness will prevail.
Fidel Castro Ruz
August 31, 2008
7:32 p.m.