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Dealing with youth
— Cuban style

By CATHY PLOWMAN

The Union of Young Com-
munists of Cuba held its Sth Con-
gress in Havana April Ist to Sth
Under the slogan ‘With the Party,
together with Fidel, Marching
Towards the Year 2000’. The
idea of the slogan is that the pres-
€nt generation of Cuban youth
will be the leaders of the country
in the next century. The Congress
Was attended by about 1,500 dele-
gates, 200 international guests
and many national guests.

It was easy to feel the excite-
ment of the convention. Before
€ach session opened, delegates
Would chant slogans, play drums
and other musical instruments,
and display banners and fans.
Most striking was the open, frank
and often self-critical discussion.
Fidel Castro, along with many
g0vernment ministers attended
Most of the sessions. It was not
Uncommon for Fidel to enter into
a long discussion with a delegate
about any issue, big or small. It
Was just as common for the minis-

CONGRESO

"CON EL PARTIDO
JUNTO A FIDEL
EN MARCHA HACIA EL 2000

ter responsible to be asked to re-
spond to the delegates’ com-
ments.

Most of the discussion centered
around production problems and
ways to improve efficiency and
quality control. One of the areas
that received the most attention
was the new decentralized em-
ployment system called the free
contract system. Under the new
law, managers can hire who they
want and workers can apply for
any job they want. This new sys-
tem led to some problems of pa-
tronage. Some managers refused
to hire youth because they said
they were too inexperienced, or
they thought they would not stay
long at their jobs. The solution
proposed by the minister of labor
was to make the appropriate
changes to the law. A committee
composed of the party, trade
union, management and UJC
representatives in each enterprise
would decide on hiring for 50 to 75
per cent of all jobs.

Many delegates were critical of

their own UJC branches for not

‘helping to integrate new young

workers into their factories. It
was decided that a member from
the UJC should talk to new work-
ers and find out what their con-
cerns or problems are so that they
will not become disgruntled and
leave their jobs in a few months.
They also discussed the extent to
which seniority lists discriminate
against youth. Many delegates
felt that skill and knowledge
should be included in the cri-
terion.

Fidel stressed that the way to
solve youth unemployment was
not by having swollen payrolls,
i.e.: more than one person doing a
job requiring only one. Overspe-
cialization also contributes to this
problem, he added. One solution
proposed was the people should
be trained to do more than one
job. These people should also be
paid more.

A bold new program of having a
family doctor in every community
has also been undertaken. The
state is providing houses for these
doctors to set up their practices
and residences in the community.
The idea is for the doctor to be
integrated into the community. As

Fidel stated, medicine is not pure-

ly a physical science but a com-
bination of the biological and so-
cial sciences. Doctors have to

The Youth Congress was
marked by its open and frank
debate with no room for routin-
ism.

deal with social problems as well
as physical ones.

The delegates discussed other
questions of interest to Cuban
youth, including military service.
Should it begin before or after
university? Other issues dis-
cussed were the need for more
sex education, planned recreation
for youth and a campaign aimed at
convincing the population to eat
better and exercise regularly. A
new initiative aimed at creating
more recreation for youth is the
establishment of video halls
where young people can go to
watch movies free of charge.

Following the Congress, the
World Federation of Democratic
Youth held a meeting of Latin

American and Caribbean youth
organizations to discuss ways of
improving the work of the Fed-
eration in these regions. In addi-
tion, there was also a full program
of activities for international
guests, such as visiting museums,
farms, hospitals and of course
going to the beach and dancing.
Although Cuban youth still
have problems, they do not have
to confront the poverty, discrimi-
nation and powerlessness that
many Canadian youth face. They
are also actively involved in eco-
nomic and political affairs of their
country.
Cathy Plowman was the YCL repre-
sentative at the UJC Congress in
Cuba.

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris

a

Protecting
Royal bloodlines

The rude multitudes have
always suspected that Royalty
Were a special lot. They're not
built like we mortals. That’s
why, we’re told, kings,
queens, dukes, princes and
Other assorted personages al-
Ways inter-marry.

Rumor says it has something
to do with bloodlines — like

reeding dobermans, fine race
horses or salamanders ...
Something called ‘‘blueblood”’

‘Oval condoms are next?

The Duke and Duchess of York on the road. Are w

is mentioned in hushed tones.
So it’s not surprising that the
Royal family will now travel
accompanied by a medical
back-up kit containing needles,
syringes, blood plasma (color
not mentioned) and other
goodies which will permit it to
survive 72 hours without blood
transfusion in case of emer-
gency. The reasoning here 1s
clear: that gives plenty of time
to hook up one royal arm to
another. :
The equipment is officially
described as an anti-AIDS kit,

e to assume

but obviously answers only
part of the problem. Are we to
assume there are Royal con-
doms as well?

Britain’s Princess Margaret
will be the first to know. She is
to be provided with the latest
Royal Protection kit on her
coming visit to China.

Garbage barge
is Brian’s chance

_ Mexico’s navy sent war-
ships to drive it off.

The state of Louisiana
threatened to call out the Na-
tional Guard. North Carolina
authorities refused it permis-
sion to land.

This orphan of the sea, a
huge barge loaded with 3,000
tons of smelly garbage, was
last seen steaming in circles in
the Gulf of Mexico, as the U.S.
State Department of the En-
vironment considered its fate.

The barge, Break of Dawn,
had left New York about four
weeks ago with the garbage, an
overflow from,a local dump,

but it seems neighboring states
weren't cooperating.

Here’s a chance for Mul-
roney.

Inasmuch as he’s content to
let Reagan ride out his last two
years without a deal on acid
rain, why not let Americans
dump their garbage here as
well?

Since we’ re now getting tons
of U.S. sulphur dioxide from
the sky and God knows what
directly into our waterways —
what’s a smelly little garbage
barge? We could allow it to
dump its load straight into the
St. Lawrence river, it’s cer-
tainly nice and close to New
York.

What about dumping the
stuff just off Baie Comeau so
the Prime Minister could get
full credit from his con-
stituents?

Just think of the bargaining
chip in the free trade talks.
Added to the lumber, fish, steel
sell-outs; added to the arctic,
to drugs, De Havilland and
now the Dome giveaways,
permitting the U.S. to dump its
garbage in Canada would once
more show Reagan just what a
friend he has in Mulroney.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 6, 1987 e 9

Out from under
their rock

It’s probably fitting that two
old warhorses have joined voi-
ces to condemn possible
U.S.-USSR_ nuclear missile
cutbacks in Europe.

By coming out from under
their rocks to oppose the cuts,
former President Nixon and
his former Secretary of State,
Henry Kissinger may just have
done the peace movement a
favor.

If these two crooks think
arms control is bad, it must be
good. If a discredited former
president and his foreign pol-
licy architect (remember Viet-
nam?) say that Europe is safer
with nuclear missiles poised
just eight minutes from target,
their logic speaks for itself.

Remember Nixon? He
boozed himself into a stupor
aboard the presidential yacht
as he pondered sending his
B-52s secretly over Cambodia.
Then to screw up his courage,
he screened the film Patton
and, sitting right there next to
him — was loyal Henry.

First time tragedy, second
time farce ...