Letting It All Hang Out

Dialogue, discussion and the search for solutions to cracks in the work of the UJC characterized the 11th Evaluation Assembly. of the organization in the Pinar del Río municipality of Viñales

By Zorileidys Pimentel Miranda
December 22, 2019

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

SHE: Are you crazy, old man? HE: I heard the grandchild at your assembly and I caught the urge!

Viñales, Pinar del Río – To transform, propose new ideas and enrich the work of the Young Communist League (YCL); to build spaces for self-criticism and deep discussion; to bring joy and responsibility to the tasks… The proposals are diverse, but they all seek a common goal: to make the YCL an organization with which the new generations feel committed and in which they see their interests well represented.

These times require the dynamism, creativity, and enthusiasm of the youth. Today the YCL also advocates strengthening of political and ideological preparation, knowledge of history, defense of the country and work in social networks to confront the subversive campaigns of imperialism against the Cuban Revolution.

This is what the delegates from Viñales to the 11th Evaluation Assembly. Congress, a space in which the people of Pinar del Río talked “with their shirts off”, about the main difficulties that threaten the adequate functioning of the organization in this territory.

“Enough of incorporating young people to fill the numbers. We have to focus on growing with those who really feel committed to this militancy, to the Revolution and to the tasks it assigns us,” said the secretary of the base committee of the Dos Hermanas camp, who works as a recreation technician.

He was right when he said: “Hence the importance of creating meeting spaces that allow interaction, getting to know each other and sharing our experiences. In this sense, Diosvany Acosta Abrahante, a member of the National Bureau of the UJC, urged the generation of proposals that would bring about a real change of mentality in the youth universe.

We need to guarantee greater incorporation to the ranks of the UJC. This is one of our work priorities; but it is not a question of doing it to fulfill a form, but to find creative solutions among all of us and to act as the vanguard that is the organization of the new generations, he pointed out.

“Another of the central aspects, I would say, is that we must demonstrate in each space that the youth are not lost, and that we are interested in the problems of the country. We are concerned about actively participating in voluntary work, camping, special mornings and all the activities that the UJC calls for,” said  Daimarys Arteaga a pre-university student.

“Those of us who are self-employed, for example, have to be more prepared, to know about our past, the current situation of the country… because on many occasions we interact with tourists who ask us about how people live in Cuba, and that is when we have to present them with arguments to defend our truth,” said Lisandra Arencibia Llanes, who has been working in the non-state sector for four years.

In each of the views presented in the evaluation assembly, it was evident, as Acosta Abrahante said, that these are times to implement, multiply and socialize with the entire youth universe, and above all to understand that the base committee is an essential part of the effort to strengthen the internal life, structures and work of the UJC.