Dick Nichols
The Eighth Congress of Cuba's Union of Communist Youth (UJC) took place in Havana's Convention Centre, on December 3-6. At the centre of discussion was the Battle of Ideas: the campaign of cultural, educational and social work launched five years ago.
Under Che Guevara's slogan "Youth is the raw material of revolution", the congress reaffirmed the central role of Cuba's young people in the three life-and-death struggles facing Cuba: its military defence against the rising threat of US attack; containing the corrosive impact of capitalist consumerism; and ending the marginalisation and alienation of many young Cubans.
Cuba's internationalism was also a feature of the congress. Delegates heard direct from Haiti of the work of Cuban doctors and social workers; one delegate, a young doctor, spoke of the work of Cuban medical workers among Venezuela's poor and outcast; and the congress also saw the launch of a new Cuban publication, Our Chavez, an account of the life and contribution of the leader of Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution. Over the past five years, the UJC has grown by over 100,000 members to 560,000.
From Green Left Weekly, December 15, 2004.
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