— Music Festival. (see story below). lionel Edwards pamphlet Tells of Cuban struggle dy a4 CUBA, by Lionel 8, People’s Co-op SOkstoy Meouve, 339 W. Pender St. Cuba ; int 9 has become a focal Oven World attention. Md more € past two years, ast fe Especially over the Ords ha Weeks, millions of tin io been written about . fe aily press, Betayj.g ” ttempt any sort of : analysis of what is Wer s “appening there. And 0 S69 Make any effort of its paay's Cuba in terms 0 th a tical development acent as Proper estimation of he ce I Kenunited States Presi- is Seg claims that Cu- €ar and present dan- € western hemis- ae ala for such an S~ essential. > the st Mphlet traces the cos the. island by he brutal exploita- € land and its peo- By latter, one ah ie ee of American In- 88 th ae know of in y 1€ Siboneys, were sh peuped out by the hei berialists, Place, Spain brought ce Ma of -slaves 0S ang ° work the plan- and po pened “a fright- rrible chapter in Man,’ € People back of Cuba from the begi gin- pedom. Slavery was nN the late 19th a began f the 4 str great 30- 8 f Wgle for independ- “Adey Spain under the ee Patyi: Ship of th ele € great C on Jose M uban ry arti, But when apni ead at hand, the Un- Vto “st _ Provoked war Cain Pain and moved in Soi) Bteegin” asa prize, f “ Y exploited the h sugar harvest vents can be obtain- At the same time, it prevent- ed development of any manu- facturing industries. Cuba thus maintained ser- ious imbalances in its trade relations with the U.S. Ed- wards pointedly draws the parallel between this situation and the present circumstances Canada finds itself in with re- gard to its U.S.. trade rela- tions. ‘And from the U.S. came the brothels and gambling rings which further defaced the na- tional pride and culture .of the Cuban people. Canada, itself now dominat- ed by the U.S., also contribut- ed to the exploitation of Cuba and its workers. Edwards points out that Sir Herbert Holt interests, and their fin- ancial medium, the Royal Bank of Canada, was one of the biggest foreign holders in Cuba. In Cuba itself,-this foreign control was made firm by bru- tal. dictatorships, which came to replace ‘official’ U.S. con- trol. But the Cuban people never passively accepted their for- eign or domestic suppressors. The Communist Party of Cu- ba was founded in the 1920’s and played a leading role in organizing the people. In 1933, popular pressure led. to the overthrow of the Machado. dictator. His place was taken by Batista, who in- itially was forced to grant cer- tain reforms, but who revert- ed to fierce. tyranny in the 1940’s and 1950’s. On July 26, 1953, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, an attack was mounted against Fort Moncado. It was defeat- ed and its leaders were im- prisoned. Popular pressure led to an amnesty for these valiant fighters for freedom. Castro and the others went to Mexico to prepare themselves better for the task of winning Cuba’s freedom and independence. In 1956 they returned. The world now knows that their return marked the beginning of a struggle by the Cuban people which would result three years later in the over- throw of Batista. Edwards’ presentation of this outline is graphic and viv- id. But equally so is his des- cription of. the reforms insti- tuted. An end was made to absen- tee landlordism, wages of. the workers were increased, a vast educational program came into being to overcome the widespread illiteracy, wo- men were emancipated and madé equal, discrimination against Negroes and ° Indians | was. abolished and independ- ence and.soverignty were won, for Cuba. “There will be no. turning back on the road upward” for Cuba, states Edwards. But he also sounds a necessary * warn- ing against the plans of the U.S. government to bring about such a turning back — a warning fully vindicated by the invasion of Cuba. Edwards:deals with the im- pact of Cuba on the wor!d and on Canada. He points to the new epoch of socialism which has permitted a small country of 614 million people to throw off the shackles of U.S. im- perialism. For Canada, this is a lesson of what can be done, since Can- ada is also tied so closely to the U.S. And it isin the inter- ests of Canadians to express the fullest amount of solidar- ity with the Cuban people, not only because their cause if is just, but also because their call for solidarity against the U.S. will one day be the same |; call of Canadians to the peo- ple of Cuba and Latin Amer- ica. Edwards’ pamphlet is not long and it is easy to read. It is an invaluable contribution to understanding Cuba and the role Canadians must play on behalf of that country and on behalf of Canada. (B. ‘WO cultural groups of the Ass’n of United Ukrainian tion of Karl achieved outstanding success in the recent competitions of the 39th annual B.C. Music Festival. Competing in the Orchestra —open class, the AUUC String Orchestra played the finale of a Ukrainian Symphony, author unknown, to achieve a top mark of 93 peints and win the Gold Cup presented for this class. ture item of the will be performed by group pictured above, at the June 2 and 3. “Sing For Seeger’ Alex Kucher, Vanc°uver, writes in part: Pete Seeger, when giving a folk-song con- cert,. always introduced his songs by a commentary of their origin. This is what he had to say at, one. of his many concerts about a German folk song: My Thoughts Are Free. “Here is a song which start- ‘ed off in Germany, oh—about four hundred years ago and some say it started off at the time of the peasant wars. Some ~person in - Germany wrote a song simply saying: ‘thoughts are free — you can’t ‘put them in jail.” Many a top- ‘ical song written about a par- ticular situation will die off when the times change, but, every so often, when times got tough, this song would re- appear.” Pointing to: -Seeger’s im- | | | | / \CITY AUUC GROUPS WIN TOP HONOURS In adjudicating the orches- tra’s performance, Dr. Nelson | Canadians, under the direc-! said, “it was ensemble playing Kobylansky,! of the highest order, beauti- fully balanced, excellently timed, and above all played with such vitality and -musi- cianship.” In awarding the marks, he stated, “This is the highest. mark I have ever given in Canada, but it was the most. outstanding -instru- mental playing I heard in this country.” The AUUC Rusalka Wo- men’s Choir, performed in the This work, which is a fea-| Folk Song Choirs—open class National, with Shevchenko Festival program, | Piper’”—Ukrianian Folk. Seng the! and, “When I Saw the Flax” two selections. “The — Russian folk seng, They Provincial Shevchenko « Con-| were awarded marks of 8% cert to be held in the Exhibi--and 84 respectively te win the tion Gardens in Vancouver on} Shield for the winning entry in this Class. OPEN FORUM. | prisonment in the U.S., Kuch- er suggests the ideals of this: song. should re-appear -in full force. He says: : We in Vancouver could do much to urge to the U.S.. gov- ernment to release this great people’s artist ... Why not a “Sing for Seeger” picket line around the U.S. Embassy. U.S. in Laos A.S., North Vancouver, sent us a piece from the U.S. Farm News on how the U.S. tried to make a deal with Batista, which we published last week. He also sends a copy of a letter to the Vancouver Sun which quotes a New Yotk Times article in which Prince Souvanna Phouma of Laos charges that the U.S. financed. a revolt against his govern- ment. MEXICO’S GREAT ARTIST BEHIND PRISON BARS. Piciure shows David Siqueiros, one of the three top giants of Mexican. mural painting, in prison where he has been held for almost a year without being brought to trial. Letters of protest should: go to the Ambassador of the. Republic’ of Mexico, Ottawa, D.- |demanding freedom for him and his friends. May 5, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5