CUBA, 2 May, 2007.- As if on a battlefield with the national flag held high, a multitude of young people sang The Internationale. From the rostrum the voices of a thousand people sang together including representatives from 74 countries and 242 foreign organizations. It’s the end of a great march. More than a half million Cubans had just paraded through Havana’s Revolution Square. They came to condemn terrorism and demand justice: prison for Luis Posada Carriles and freedom for the Cuban Five, who continue in US jails paradoxically for having saved countless lives in both Cuba and the US itself. As takes place every International Workers’ Day, some six million Cubans marched throughout the country. In the capital’s Revolution Square a large contingent of the foreign press observed the impressive scene. The march in Havana lasted two hours. It was presided over by First Vice President Raul Castro. Salvador Mesa, general secretary of the Cuban Worker’s Federation, gave a brief speech and summed up popular sentiment to mark the beginning of the march, began by the famous Blas Roca Calderio construction brigade. Slogans, placards, huge banners, effigies, photographs and diverse flags showed the creativeness of the people who came out for this show of national unity and fighting spirit in the face of the outrages of the US empire. Among the 1,600 foreign guests were personalities like Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of San Vincent and the Grenadines; George Mavrilkos, general secretary of the World Labor Federation; and modest workers who were able to travel to Havana thanks to their personal savings. Workers like Luis Delgado, Ana Viana and Ruben Ledesma from Uruguay who told Granma they had come "because it was a dream to be here." After a procession of grade school children in their uniforms, more than 50,000 teenagers and young adults brought up the rear of the glorious Havana May Day march. (Cubaminrex-Granma)
|