Three years after Fidel Castro's last May Day speech and two years after
his brother and successor Raul began raising still-unfulfilled
expectations for change, the official demonstration of worker power is
intended to convey a massive show of support. But what are they supporting?
By Ray Sanchez | South Florida Sun Sentinel
5:49 PM EDT, May 1, 2009
HAVANA - May Day festivities were over in a crisp two hours Friday –
less time than former leader Fidel Castro used for his anti-American
rants at such events in the past.
Raul Castro, in a straw hat and traditional long-sleeved guayabera, did
not address the crowds and left the viewing stand before the final rows
of banner-waving marchers had moved across sprawling Revolution Plaza.
Still, ailing brother Fidel, who has not appeared at a public event in
more than two years, didn't miss a chance to bash the United States. In
a May Day column he criticized Obama administration steps to ease
restrictions on travel and money transfers to the island and said
Washington "should not have any illusion that Cuba will give up."
Castro complained that the United States was "ready to forgive us if we
resign ourselves to returning to the fold of slaves who, after tasting
liberty, again accept the whip and the yoke."
For many among the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who marched at
Friday's festivities, what resonated most was the call by Cuba's top
labor leader for them to be more productive and efficient despite state
salaries of only $20 per month.
"How do we rebuild the half a million homes destroyed by the hurricanes
without sacrifice?" asked Juan Diego Nusa, who took his 10-year-old
stepson to the march. "That sacrifice falls on the workers. Many people
expect things to fall from the sky. They're used to the state resolving
all their problems."
Salvador Valdes Mesa, head of the Cuban Workers Confederation, said
three devastating hurricanes last season and the global financial crisis
had battered the island's economy. Valdes urged workers to raise
"production and productivity, for the reduction of costs and
expenditures, to increase exports and [reduce] imports." These goals
require Cubans to "work with more discipline, with more quality."
Giselle, a tourism employee who did not attend the march because she
worked a double shift, said Cuban workers couldn't make more
concessions. "We've made enough sacrifices," said Giselle, who is her
40s and asked that her full name not be used. "Coming to work and not
getting paid enough is already a huge sacrifice."
It was Raul Castro's second May Day appearance as president. He was
surrounded by his closest aides but notably absent were two leaders who
always stood nearby at events such as this: former Foreign Minister
Felipe Perez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage, who were recently
stripped of their posts.
Many Cubans sang and danced as they marched. Some waved Cuban flags, and
pictures of the Castro brothers and revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che"
Guevara. Others carried cardboard signs with familiar slogans such as
"Socialism or Death."
Nusa said it was his stepson's first May Day march. After the event, he
took the boy to a neighborhood park.
"You want him to grow up with this," he said. "You don't have to agree
with everything about Cuba, but people recognize most of what the
revolution has done for them."
Cuba May Day: Hurricanes and economic pressures bring a call for more
work and more discipline from government in Havana -- South Florida
Sun-Sentinel.com (3 May 2009)
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-may-day-043009,0,1344074.story
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