CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

International Workers' Day Celebrated in Havana.

CUBA, May 1, 2011.- Hundreds of thousands filled the Plaza de la Revolución José Martí in Havana Sunday morning to celebrate International Workers' Day.

Presided over by José Ramón Machado Ventura, Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, young and old -- but especially the young -- marched through the streets to reaffirm the unity of the Cuban people and their decision to further improve the socialist system.
Following the opening words of Salvador Valdés Mesa, Secretary General of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), repesentatives of the education sector opened the march, in commemoration this year of the 50th anniversary of Cuba's literacy campaign. In 1961, hundreds of thousands went into remote areas of the island to teach people how to read and write.
The massive May Day parade in the Plaza de la Revolución also paid homage to the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution and the defeat of U.S. imperialism at the Bay of Pigs.
This year, more than 1,600 guests from 63 countries joined the Cuban people in the streets of Havana as an expression of international solidarity.  Special guests to this celebration included Ivan Melnikov, Vice President of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, as well as family members of the Cuban Five, unjustly incarcerated in U.S. prisons for fighting against terrorism.
Marches and popular parades took place across the island Sunday morning, confirming support of the agreements at the recently held 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party and to denounce the U.S. blockade against Cuba and the incarceration of the Cuban Five.
Workers, intellectuals, teachers, construction workers, doctors, artists, housewives, engineers, farmers and soldiers marched together to celebrate this significant date, dressed in blue, red and white -- the colors of our national flag.
Sunday morning's parade in Havana ended after nearly one and a half hours with a group of thousands of young people to whom this International Workers' Day is dedicated. (Cubaminrex-RHC)

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