May 2nd, 1997

International Workers' Day Declaration from the opposition Cuban Workers' Coordinate

HAVANA

To the international working class:

From its trenches in the Caribbean, the Cuban Workers' Coordinate (COC*) sends a greeting to workers throughout the world who likewise are struggling for a stable and just development for their peoples.

Those of us working poor who are becoming poorer than ever, and those of us who are unemployed in alarmingly higher numbers, must struggle heroically day by day merely to survive. Only much effort and economic stimulus can allow underdeveloped nations such as ours to emerge from our current state of deprivation.

The Cuban Workers' Coordinate joins those who dedicate all their energies to reaching the goals of the working class, clamoring for better conditions, especially in other underdeveloped countries.

In the situation such as the one Cuba finds itself, it is of the utmost urgency that true progress be brought about, creating the most basic conditions for political democracy, social justice, international solidarity and a better future for all workers.

Today, only three years from the end of the millennium, we recall the words of Jose Marti which so succinctly sum up our essential point:

"He who boldly reclaims his freedom is more noble than he who begs for it; Rights are firmly taken, not requested; they are seized decisively, not timidly."

Let us defend our most basic rights.

Ms. Aida Valdes Santana

President, Cuban Workers' Coordinate

* The COC is a workers' rights forum banned by the Cuban government.

Relayed by phone from Havana on 4/29/97 by independent journalist Monike de Mota to Tete Machado of the Cuban Human Rights Information Bureau in Miami.

Translated for CubaNet by Miguel Casuso.