Cubans Participate in Volunteer Work Day

[magbana]

Again, you gotta love these Cubans!


The comment prior to the article in parentheses is from Walter Lippmann, the editor of the Cuba News list.

GRANMA: Volunteer Workday Held Sunday
Posted by: "Walter Lippmann" [e-mail] walterlx
Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:14 am (PDT)

GRANMA
(The international media shows somewhere between little and no interest
in such Cuban institutions as trabajo voluntario, or voluntary work in
which Cubans make an unpaid contribution toward the national economy,
usually in areas where they do not themselves regularly work. Emphasis
here is on the voluntary aspect of popular participation. These are at
once a political mobilization and also make an economic contribution.)
===========================================================================

GRANMA
April 21, 2008

Volunteer Workday Held Sunday

The Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) reported that more than a million people
turned out for a voluntary workday held Sunday. The national effort was led
by CTC general secretary Salvador Valdes Mesa.

SUSANA LEE
[e-mail]

A massively attended and productive volunteer work day was held Sunday
throughout Cuba as a salute to the upcoming International Workers Day
celebration on May 1. Preliminary reports estimate that 1,262,407 people
took part in the effort. The main work carried out was planting and
harvesting vegetables and tubers, sugarcane cultivation related activities,
construction of homes and other prioritized government projects, factory
work and clean up efforts.

THOUSANDS PARTICIPATED IN AGRICULTURAL WORK SUNDAY THAT INCLUDED THE
PLANTING AND HARVESTING OF VEGETABLES AND TUBERS.

CTC General Secretary Salvador Valdes Mesa led the participation of the
national leaders of the labor organization who were joined by staff of the
Small Farmers Association (ANAP) National School at the La Iberia
cooperative farm at Yaguayay in the Havana municipality of Guira de Melena.
The voluntary effort there consisted of planting four hectares of malanga on
land recently harvested of potatoes.

Valdes told the press that the effort Sunday was part of a national campaign
of volunteer work began on April 1, which will extend through January 28,
2009, as a salute to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution and 70th
of the founding of the CTC. The goal is to boost all the programs and plans
contributing to the country’s economic recovery.

The campaign involves a minimum of 70 hours of volunteer labor per worker as
prioritized during the period, both on massive turnout days and others
according to the needs in each locality and workplace.