May Day 2015 in Cuba
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES — Like every year, this May 1st was yet another opportunity for Cubans to reaffirm their support for the revolution and its leaders. This time around, however, they had the additional incentive of having the Cuban Five – anti-terrorist heroes who served unjust sentences in the United States and whose release required a 16-year struggle – back home and among them, leading the rally.
I say yet another opportunity because, recently, Cuba held its partial (municipal) elections, where nearly one hundred percent of voters capable of participating in these elections cast their ballots. As these are municipal elections, all those who are currently traveling, abroad or away from their municipality were unable to cast their vote – thus, the 90 percent attendance registered speaks of truly massive support for Cuba’s political system.
The rallies and activities for International Workers’ Day were carried out throughout the country. They were most visible at all provincial capitals, but they were also organized at municipal capitals.
Before the country’s main leaders and a considerable number of guests, including the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro, hundreds of thousands of workers and their relatives paraded through Havana’s Revolution Square holding Cuban flags and banners expressing support for the Revolution.
The parade in Havana was headed up by a contingent of five thousand health workers, led by members of the Henry Reeve International Work Brigade who fought Ebola in Western Africa, where they saved many lives and contributed, next to other volunteers, to halting the spread of this deadly epidemic, evincing altruism, humanism and solidarity.
The downpour that began some minutes after the rally started didn’t manage to wash away the colors of the celebration and, spurred on by the cry of “no one will surrender!” the workers continued to parade until the rain stopped. No one abandoned the rally.
Young people, with their characteristic enthusiasm, ratified their loyalty and commitment to Cuban socialism and their support for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, sending a clear message to those who think they can confuse them and hope they will destroy the revolution and set back the clock of history.
More than two thousand foreigners from over 70 different countries also participated. These included trade union leaders invited to the Workers’ Celebration and the leaders of Cuba solidarity groups that didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see the enthusiasm with which Cubans celebrate the proletariat’s most important date. In most of their countries of origin, May Day is a day in which workers demand rights that are already guaranteed in Cuba, and their parades are often repressed by the police.
Now, we will start hearing the detractors and mercenaries of old try and explain to us that the millions of workers who took part in the rallies in Cuba, with their families and even small children, did so involuntarily, in order to preserve their jobs. Anyone who sees these rallies, in Havana and other provinces, will however note the enthusiasm and joy of the parades and be able to refute this tired accusation.
No one who is forced to rally can express such enthusiasm and unconditional support for the revolution and its leaders, hoisting up the main slogan of the gathering: “United for the construction of socialism.”
Elio Delgado Legon , Thank you for this story and the truth.Today in Alberta the labour party with the grace of GOD and his amazing grace has defeated the regime.
The courage of the Cuban people did cause obstacles to be wrongfully placed in it’s
way when the people took what was rightfully theirs, and I am certain these obstacles will be put in Albertas new Governments way as well.
I am disapointed that in all the congradulating not one representitive gave thanks to our savior the almighty GOD in the heavens.Perhaps the Great Flood of Calgary
a result of greed in allowing so many people to build in a known flood zone and proven to be the fault of poor government was not understood , the flood victims ended the regime for now. What follows will probably be more of the same from
where I am standing ,the last of my kind here.
I do know that the success and sacrifice of Cuba has helped many oil blessed jurisdictions , and Cubas victory should be celebrated with their true friends Russia
on their upcoming Victory Day May 9 , God bless Russia for their great sacrifice as well Cuba for theirs. Your Victory has inspired Alberta to be better and the Labour party should look to Cuba and other countries for help. I pray to God to give them the wisdom or their success may be only fleeting.
Thank You
Elio, as a broken record you sure score the most responses. My only suggestion is please take a look at a country which has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and how desperate and sad it now is. It’s called Venezuela and you have to be living in a cave not to know this. I’m sure you do but how blind can a man be…
I do support lifting the embargo. …as soon as the terms outlined under Helms Burton have been met. Don’t you want political prisoners released, freedom of the press, open and multiple party elections and no Castros? Who doesn’t want this for Cuba. I didn’t mention a market-based economy because Raul is already moving toward capitalism. As far as paying Cuba? Hahaha! Not in a million years.
Not anti-USA simply facts, and words by a former 5 star general and president. The economic embargo is the cause of the many problems Cuba and its citizens suffer. So presumably you would be in favour of lifting the embargo and repaying 100’s millions $ that has been robbed from the Cuban economy. How different would Cuba be?
The irony of Cuban beer. The brewery were Cristal & Bucanero is produced is run by the Canadian brewery, Labatts. The majority of shares of Labatts is owned by AB-InBev. As the largest brewery company in the world, ABInBev is owned by a consortium of the US beer giant Anheiser-Busch, Interbrew (the Belgian beer giant) and AmBev, the Brazilian beer giant. Among their many brands is the Mexican beer, Corona.
Through some clever stock holding trick which skirts the embargo regulations, the US corporation is able to invest in a Cuban brewery & profit from the tourists who drink Cristal & Bucanero. Of course, the Castro regime makes a big cut on the deal, too.
Arnold August is not an objective observer. He is a fanatically pro-Castro Marxist. His book contained not one interview with a Cuban dissident or member of the opposition. The result is nothing more than a propaganda piece straight from the Castro regime.
Using John’s reasoning. The citizens of North Korea support their government overwhelmingly
North Koreans vote 100% in favor and 100% go to vote. Do you think it is even possible that nobody disagrees?
Mr. Good…
You does not seem to read what they have explained to you. Cubans vote because they do not want to be marked negatively by the regime. The day your promotion in your job depends from you going to vote in the USA, you will see everybody voting in the USA but of course, it would be impossible to pass such a law in the USA.
You say Cubans like what they have more than the USA but the reality is tha before 1959 Cuba was receiving immigrants while now the Cubans are leaving in record number to any country (not only the USA). If you ask the young Cubans, 70 -80% will tell you that they want to leave the country and most would like to go to the USA. These are facts.
Open your eyes, or go to live in Cuba as a Cuban. Do not regurgitate the regime propaganda.
They are doing it. nearly 25% of the population is gone.
Actually I disproved your point. The 99%-100% turnouts and votes for the regime are typical for dictatorships.
These care the percentages the Soviet Union reported under Stalinism and North Korea under the Kim dictatorship.
On the “work” of Arnold August we clearly disagree. He calls the Stalinist repressive electoral system that even the UN rapporteur called ineffectual “democratic”. that says it all. Do you claim, as he does, that Cuba has a working democracy?
John, the diplomatic letters between Stalin & Mao in which they laid out their strategy for the war in Korea have been published. Stalin gave the order to invade South Korea. Kim was his puppet. Mao happily supplied the cannon fodder. When the UN voted to send a force to stop the invasion, the USSR could have vetoed it but did not because Stalin was hoping for the U.S. to get drawn in. Too bad it didn’t turn out the way Stalin & Mao had hoped, but what’s 5 million dead Koreans to those Communist dictators and their apologists?
I was in Havana visiting family last week. The parade was well choreographed, while well attended it was a short event soon forgotten for rest of the day. The revolution fervor has passed. Getting the crumbling infrastructure fixed while paying the bills is the main talk.
It is time to end the embargo. Let America see Cuba.
Hey John. Your so funny. A police state, where your every movement is monitored votes out of fear. You have no idea what Cuba is all about. Even if you were to visit you’d be just another outsider a Yuma looking for Che. Id ask you to join the conversation on havanatimes.org en Espanol to get a l better idea but you don’t speak Spanish
Firstly, Cubans go to vote so that they are recorded as having done so – and fearing the consequences if they fail to be recorded as doing so – that is what they tell me and I live there most of the year and am related to 67 of them. They do cast blank ballots, the regime chooses not to disclose the number and there is no independent election authority.
Secondly, it is not the embargo that prevents the military – I refer to GAESA – from importing necessary foods. We had no cheese, no margarine and no butter from the 2nd of March to the end of April and no Cuban beer. But there were supplies of Heinekin from Holland, Corona from Mexico, Presidente from the Dominican Republic and Prima from Portugal. These sell at a premium = from CUC 1.25 to CUC 1.65, whereas Cristal and Buchanero sell for CUC 1. As you may know, CUC 1 is more than the average Cuban earns in a day.
You are totally unqualified to express a valid view upon whether Cubans: “like their government, their revolution, their society”. Like the Emperor you have no clothes. Get off your backside and go and spend a month or more in Cuba talking to Cubans in the street or waiting patiently at the empresa for 40 minutes for a 200 gm loaf of bread – but be careful that you don’t do so where others can hear you or the CDR can watch!
I don’t wish to impose anything on Cuba, I want to allow the people of Cuba to openly express their views, openly elect a government of their choice, earn according to their abilities and be free from the grasp of “Socialismo”. Someday you may realise that there is a far wider choice of political systems than those of Cuba and the US. When Cubans gain freedom they will be able to choose their form of democracy and their are better models han the US.
I care because I am married to a Cuban and because I have a great love for Cuba as a country and of its people and live there at home for a very substantial part of the year. I am not an armchair academic sitting in the comfort offered by the free capitalist world and pontificating about things of which I actually have no personal experience.
Cuba has an imperial family already, just as Syria and North Korea do. You will say that none of them are practising communism or socialism as you imagine it. Time Mr. Goodrich to go and experience Cuba. If you need any help in where to go, where to stay, how to get around, I shall genuinely be glad to help you. When I am back in Cuba I will be unable to continue the offer as there is no access to the internet for us.
Wow that’s a lot of stuff you wrote there. Couple of cuestions for you John.
– How many Cubans do you actually know?
– Have you been to Cuba?
I know I have an unfair advantage as I’m Cuban, was born there, and return on occasion to visit. I can tell you that Cuban are natural born opportunists and Capitalists. They complain changes are two slow, and know very well that change won’t happen until the Castros are gone. Even if you may not be aware of it, there’s already a “middle class” that has access to tourist dollars. They go through the motions when it comes to voting. (I won’t trouble you with the Jokes Cubans have for it…it won’t translate and you won’t get it.
Like Moses said once. (I paraphrase) There is a difference between the Cuba you think or want to exist and the Cuba that actually exists.
Any Cubans landing in Jamaica are sent back because the “wet foot, dry foot ” clause only applies to Cubans landing in the USA.
In a word, bullshit.
The GOUSA has had an interventionist foreign policy which began roughly 100 years ago with the invasion of the nascent Soviet Union.
The U.S. has committed some 70 interventions since the end of WWII alone .
At the same time as the U.S. was tied down in Korea , it was also intervening in Vietnam , paying the cost of the French war there from 1950-1954 .
The war in Korea was waged for the same reason as the Vietnam war: to prevent a communist government/society and not to defend against any offensive moves on the part of the Soviets or the Chinese
In 1953 and 1954 the USG overthrew democratically elected governments in Guatemala and Iran.
Any moves the so-called commies made were in defense against U.S. interventions which you completely ignored and to the great detriment of your argument.
IC,
Of course if you think the Cuban government lies about everything and every statistic then you’re never going to be able to have any sort of reasonable debate because you’re being unreasonable and unrealistic
Being an anarchist , I am way ahead of you on knowing the almost certain trend of all governments, long enough in power, to become self-preserving, corrupt and totalitarian .
In Cuba that has manifested in the PCC exerting too much influence and power from the top , ditto the National Assembly . The system has ossified under the external threat from the U.S. which has the effect of creating a further negative image in the U.S. propaganda war against the revolution.
Again, the USA: the shining exemplar of democratic tradition can’t get its electorate to vote .
They KNOW it ‘s a waste of time while the Cubans, in large percentages, seem to retain some considerable civic responsibility for voting which the U.S. electorate lacks.
Let’s see what happens in and to Cuba once and IF relations between the USA and Cuba normalize.
That normalization is not a certain thing .
I’ll repeat myself in an attempt to get through to you .
Eligible Cuban voters CHOOSE to vote —or cast blank ballots or deface the ballots -in percentages that the U.S. government has never seen and never will see IMO.
Any Cuban voter fearing actions against them for not voting CAN vote and cast a blank ballot and because the vote is secret just like in the US, no Cuban official knows who voted in what fashion.
What better way to express dissent with a totalitarian government !
BUT THE CUBAN PEOPLE DO NOT DO IT and for reasons which are obvious to the objective among us.
They like their government, their revolution , their society much better than the one the USG and people like you wish to impose upon them.
Are many Cubans unhappy with conditions as they are ?
OF COURSE,
The embargo was set in place 55 years ago specifically to make them so unhappy that they would overthrow their own revolution. The embargo has cost Cubans US$1 trillion since then and it has indeed made life as difficult as intended .
What it did NOT do is provoke a counter-revolution because …try to understand reality at last .. the Cuban people prefer what they have , as bad as it is and was intended by the GOUSA to be to what the GOUSA wishes to IMPOSE upon them.
Fidel and the Revolution taught them what imperialism is
and they like it far less than their own government as might be expected.
People like you who wish to impose free-enterprise capitalism and all the societal ills it causes have no regard for the obvious wishes of the vast majority of the Cuban people to be allowed to choose freely and democratically what kind of systems they will live with.
Hopefully there will be normalization , democracy will come to Cuba and imperialism will admit defeat.
We shall see.
You make my points rather than invalidate them .
If Cuba were the horribly undemocratic and brutal state you claim it is, you would not get 88% to vote.
IMO , August’s book was entirely objective and dealt with Poder Popular’s development and structure for the most part with the first part of the book dedicated to pre-revolutionary Cuban history that helped to place Poder Popular into current context. .
The book is an excellent primer on Poder Popular and how it was INTENDED to work.
In response to your lowering my 95% figure for Cuban participation in elections, let me remind you that in U.S. off-year ( non-presidential ) elections that 50% figure drops down into the 30% area so my point remains valid. as to the rate of voter participation in both countries.
.
They occasionally land there on there rafts, so….
El colmo es que aestas altura todabia se arrieagan la vida escapandose de Cuba!
Do I detect envy?
You Dan have hit the nail on the head!! WELL DONE!!
The millions of dissatisfied Cubans would love to move elsewhere and many have risked their lives in order to do so. You make a false assumption that Cubans have the resources necessary to move. When receiving less than ONE dollar per day it is impossible to accumulate the funds necessary to move anywhere. The difference with those who are privileged to live in the free world is that we do have the funds necessary to move to Cuba. Analyser, Mr. John Goodrich and indeed you yourself can move to Cuba if you so wish. But you don’t!
As one married to a Cuban and with our home in Cuba, I travel backwards and forwards from the free world because I do not wish to become subject to the Castro family regime.
This year a colleague of my wife, obtained a Cuban passport and went to Venezuela as a teacher.(As you are probably aware Cuba supplies teachers to Venezuela). There having earned enough she obtained a false passport and flew to the Dominican Republic which jailed her for 28 days prior to deporting her to Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica an American family assisted her to get to Miami. She hope to get her two children there somehow. The fellow (university graduate) who sold air to the bici-taxis on our street – he made more money selling air at 2 pesos per tire than he could teaching – met a visiting US/Cuban girl and they after a few visits became engaged. He eventually managed to sell his casa, his mother having moved to ,live with other family members and managed to get to the US through Mexico under the “dry foot’ policy.
I give these examples to enable you to comprehend that there are indeed very many dissatisfied Cubans who wish to get out from under the communist yoke of “Socialismo” and move to where they not only have human rights under the UN charter, but can express their views openly without fear of incarceration. We who live in the free world are able to do so and the Havana Times and the various views we express on these pages proves that!
So yes!! You are right, if possible more millions of Cubans would like to move into the free capitalist world and enjoy the privileges we experience.
Here is the difference: Cubans have had the repressive and tyrannical Castro dictatorship imposed upon them with no legal means to change it. You, on the other hand, live in a country built for change yet you choose to bitch and moan and do nothing to improve conditions as you see it. It’s ironic that you would make this comment. Because Cubans see little hope for a better Cuba, they are leaving Cuba in record numbers. It’s precisely because you obviously believe that the US system, however flawed, can change for the better that you and people like you are not taking to the sea on makeshift rafts to Cuba.
“We hate injustice, and plutocracy”
The regimes of Castro & Kim are the most unjust plutocracies in the world.
An excellent rebuttal of Analyser’s nonsense. But I offer one small correction: the Korean War was between the UN vs the USSR & China. North Korea was Stalin’s puppet. Stalin started the war in Korea to keep the US tied down in Asia, so as to provide the Soviets with the opportunity to advance their control in Europe. Mao was willing to provide as many Chinese soldiers as canon fodder to bleed America for a decade or more. The US lead UN forces were able to bring the war to a relatively quick conclusion, thus spoiling Stalin & Mao’s plans.
El colmo. By that same reasoning, all the dissatisfied Cubans should just leave Cuba and move to Jamaica, right ?
Are your anti-US comments intended to justify the tyranny of the Castro regime or simply deflect the argument? We could debate the veracity of your comments but what does that have to do with shortages in Cuba? How does arming death squads in Honduras justify the lack of freedom of speech in Cuba? You should look for another blog. This is HAVANA TIMES. By the way, black folks know that there has been no increase in racism or police brutality only an increase in the media coverage.
Again, abandon the USA and move to Cuba. Why suffer under imperialism when paradise is so close?
Well Moses the allegations you make against Elio could be the mirror-image of your own highly selective opinion. If you are American then perhaps you need reminding that America has sponsored terrorism, provided CIA ‘trainers’ and invaded several countries illegally on the pretext of defending democracy (or as some see it preserving the strength of the US$). History has revealed that the American Military Industrial Complex is the biggest threat to World Peace (Dwight D. Eisenhower 1961) supporting South American dictatorships, arming death squads, and trading with feudal monarchies in the Middle East, ignoring Human Rights abuse in China and elsewhere if there is oil or lucrative trade. Cuba has sent health teams to Haiti, offered them in the Hurricane Katrina debacle, helped defeat Ebola in West Africa, and currently in Nepal. 40 million Americans rely on food banks and are living in poverty. Talking about slaves is a bit rich given the increase in racism and police brutality against the descendants of slaves. What a charming country the USA is 🙂
In the latest elections only 88% voted.
Add to that the fact that even with the government actions against the dissidents up to 19% voted for them.
That means a totally disenfranchised part of the population of over 30%.
Add to that those that go to the vote in order to avoid problems with the CDR, work, …. and it is clear that the majority of Cubans has no real vote.
As far as the “Canadian author” you refer to: he is a well known Castro apologist and a fervent supporter of the Castro regime. His “work” is hardly objective.
To see our own diminutive May Day here in Vermont, go over to YouTube, where the parade and demonstration are posted. Hope to march again in Cuba’s May Day (Last time was in Habana, in 2006).
Folks like Analyser, and me, don’t “hate” the U.S. We hate the plutocracy it is becoming, where 98%+% of all wealth gained during the last decade is going to the top 1%. What we hate is the system. As Alexander Cockburn used to say to his new interns at COUNTERPUNCH, “Do you hate enough yet?!” We hate injustice, and plutocracy, and the sham that U.S. politics is becoming.
Mr. Goodrich I can assure you that Cubans do cast blank votes and that they did so on April 19. The Castro family regime chooses not to record the number. Yes, I was there!
The Havana Times is an unsuitable venue for discussion of all matters American all the time, it gets boring for those of us who are not American.
Cubans are really compelled to vote as failure to do so is recorded on their computerised personal records held by the regime and built up with the information supplied through the CDR which I would remind you was established by Fidel Castro as:
“a collective system of revolutionary vigilance so that everybody (ie: the regime) knows who lives on every block, what they do on every block, what relations they have had with the tyranny, in what activities are they involved, and with whom they meet.”
Supervising all this is the Head of Cuban security services Alejandro Espin Castro Raul’s son.
The system performs a similar role to that of the Stasi in East Germany, maintaining control and a degree of fear of discovery in those who would prefer freedom.
The Korean war was between North Korea and the United Nations not the US.
Result:
North Korea GDP $589 per capita
South Korea GDP $22,590 per capita
North Korea armed forces: regulars: 1,190,000
(4th largest armed force in the world behind China, US and India)
South Korea armed forces: regulars: 655,000
The result of the attack by North Korea was that they although supported by the Chinese were driven back and South Korea became a thriving free democratic country rather than being under the heel of a typical Communist family dictatorship (I refer in this instance to the Kims, not the Asads or Castros). North Korea on the other hand has experienced people starving to death while the each of the Kims has in turn supervised massive military parades and pursued nuclear weapon ambitions.
Try analysing the above!
Incidentally the largest arms exporter in the world is Russia.
The problem with commenters like Analyse is that when Cubans don’t toe the Castro propaganda line, they quickly denigrate them as being mercenaries. They simply don’t want to accept that reasonable people can reasonably disagree without external influence being to blame.
Isn’t it interesting that all totalitarian states, including the old Soviet Union, enjoy near 100% voter turn out.
…but seriously John, how do you know 95% of Cubans vote? How do you know who does or does not deface a ballot or cast a blank vote. Unless of course you take at face value what the regime tells you. And besides, as I mentioned in previous statements on the Cuban rubber stamp parliament, what difference does it make. All decisions are made by decree and approval by the parliament is guaranteed.
So what you saying is that those who don’t agree with you are brain washed? I just want to be clear here. ….facts and Elio really go together. Come on over to havanatimes.com en Espanol. Let’s talk there. You’ll get a better picture of what Cubans really think.
I’m not sure what your statement has to do with Cuba.
You don’t really care about Cuba do you? It’s all about hating the US. We Cubans really don’t like your kind, armchair Bolsheviks who look on Cuba as the last bastion of Communism.
Now that Cuba is “updating” the Cuba model ( read going towards capitalism) there’s not much left to hang your hat on. Well I guess you have North Korea. I hear it’s quite the paradise.
First of all John, Cuba’s election data is self-reported and unreliable. You should actually ask a Cuban what they think about defacing or leaving their ballots blank. Second, your lack of faith in the US electoral system must weigh on heavy on your mind. Why torture yourself? You should move to that imaginary country where life is better.
You must really hate the US. Whenever I run across folks like you I can’t help but wonder how hard it must be for you to feel the way you do about the US and yet you continue to live here. Why continue to suffer? Why don’t you just move to Cuba and be happy?
Haha! We celebrate workers in the US on Labor Day. Isn’t that enough? Thanks for correcting my Emerald isle reference. I had green caiman on my mind and emerald came out. By the way, my relatives in Cuba do just fine thanks to my monthly “care” package.
MP- What Elio is fact, unlike your fantasy and propaganda.
The undeniable problem in the US and its citizens is that they are brain washed, fed the party line and live in a bubble.
Wake up and smell the coffee!
I.F.
The fact IS that something like 95% of Cubans vote .
They don’t have to.
They can go and cast a blank secret ballot or write in Obama or deface it and put it in the box .
In the book ” Democracy In Cuba ” The 1997-1998 Elections, Canadian writer Arnold August did a study of Poder Popular as it got into full operation and found that of the 95% of the people voting in those elections , less than 5% either defaced their ballots or cast a blank vote.
In the U.S. only 50% of the eligible voters choose to vote and my thinking is because they do not think their vote can change anything .
Indeed there is a famous saying about voting in the USA and that is :
” If voting could change anything, they would outlaw it ”
That goes for the free-enterprise capitalist system in the USA and the state capitalist system in Cuba both led by totalitarian governments.
To try to convince anyone that Cubans are any more or less free to change a well-entrenched power system than people anywhere else including the USA is a fool’s errand.
Given that May Day is international worker’s day and is deliberately not celebrated as such in the U.S. since the Cold War so as to prevent international worker’s unity and given that union busting in the U.S. since the end of WWII has destroyed the power of unions to fight for worker’s rights such that since around 2000 the working people of the USA have not gained in wages or benefits, I’d say that the pro-capitalist crowd has very little room to complain about life in Cuba being so hard
And then there is the matter of the now 54 year embargo set in place SPECIFICALLY to impoverish the entire island which permits you to hypocritically criticize Cuba while all the while calling for even more of the intensive economic deprivation on every Cuban including your relatives that is caused by the embargo.
( the successive GOUSAs since 1960 would not have kept it going if it did not work.) .
FYI, the “Emerald Isle ” is usually a term used in reference to Ireland.
Cuba, traditionally, is called the Pearl of The Antilles, I believe .
You have a hard time getting things correct…or moral…or democratic
.
Of course the US know quite a lot about North Korea, yet another Country where they got their rear ends kicked.
Elio continues to weave stories about the enthusiasm behind Cuban support of the annual May Day charade and Cuban municipal elections that would lead the unaware to believe that all is well in the emerald isle. Never mind the ever-present shortages, rampant corruption and crumbling infrastructure. Elio also deftly ignores the record out-migration of Cuban professionals. He writes in a style well-traveled by totalitarian propagandists. Just keep telling the same lies over and over again. The bigger the lie, the better. Nearly everyone is forced to attend the parade. Pressure from your employer and pressure from your neighbors is ever present. The smiling faces at the parade simply reflect Cubans capacity to make lemonade when given lemons. Black slaves in the US who managed to sing while picking cotton under sweltering skies should not be taken as having supported slavery. Elio alleges that workers in other countries use their May Day parades to demand rights already guaranteed in Cuba. Really? Like the right to demand higher wages and better retirement benefits? How about the right to strike? Cuban workers have no such rights. Elio should stick to writing about his memories of the events leading up to and during the revolution. At least then, these are his personal facts and when he stretches the truth, no one can dispute him.
The same old Stalinist show. Means nothing.
Wow Elio, nearly 100% or eligible voters participated? That is very impressive. Keep that up and you’ll be right up there with North Korea, where 115% of eligible voters agree with the government 210% of the time