US Students Visit Cuba

From an article appearing in Workers World by Abraham Mwaura and Dante Strobino:

Twelve members of the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) from San Diego, Raleigh, West Virginia, Denver, Boston, Rutgers University and New York City—together with five members of Workers World Party—traveled to Cuba from July 18-28 to defy the travel ban and to witness the gains of the socialist revolution.

In Cuba, the FIST delegation observed how a planned economy and centralized government following the path of socialist revolution have provided the necessary material conditions to carry out the process of the withering away of racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of oppression, and for the building of a new human being.

U.S. activists from the Venceremos Brigade, Pastors for Peace, the U.S/Cuba Labor Exchange and FIST all traveled to the island to oppose the travel ban and participated in joint activities.

Surprising most in the FIST delegation, a Cuban representative told youth group members that FIST was the first socialist youth group from the U.S. in decades to officially travel to the island.

[...]

One of the major campaigns currently being organized by the UJC [Union of Young Communists] is the “Battle of Ideas.” Almost 80 percent of Cubans alive today have been born under socialism and many have come to expect free health care and education, while the struggles to defend these rights have begun to appear as things of the past.

The Battle of Ideas was designed in 1999 with more than 200 programs in education, health, construction and culture available to all children.

[...]

In their statement to the national and international media, the [ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine)] graduates said, “This is a dream come true: the dream of becoming doctors and helping people in need, helping those people who, like ourselves, don’t have enough money to access expensive health care service.”

Workers World: FIST youth visit Cuba