EDITORIAL: The Youth Revolution

Without the commitment, without the contributions, without the enthusiasm of younger Cubans, it will be impossible to realize the project of a better country, the objective of a prosperous society, the future we deserve and the future generations deserve. Young people are not "the future": they are the present that envisions and builds that future. Without the thrust, without the strength of the youth, the country would largely be immobilized. Young people are an essential part of the nation's workforce. And they are the students who are preparing to take on the necessary professional renewal in all fields of economics, science, culture, and politics ...

Cuba celebrated this April 4^th the 59^th anniversary of the Young Communists League (UJC) and the 60^th anniversary of José Martí Pioneers Organization (OPJM). Hundreds of thousands of children, adolescents and young people make up these organizations. They are a guarantee of continuity of the Revolution: source and opportunity of full realization.

Those who believe that the majority of young Cubans aren’t interested in the future of their country, that almost all are indifferent, "apolitical", that they evade their reality, that they don’t feel committed to their moment or that they are rebels without a cause, or that they don’t want to work ... they should check the daily work of so many young people in essential sectors, particularly notable in this complex health contingency. They are driven by a desire for solidarity, an essential humanism. For certain characters, pawns of segments that oppose the Revolution, it’s convenient for them to ignore that devotion. These narratives promote isolated expressions and belittle mass summoning. They pretend that the vast majority of Cuban youth have turned their back on the revolutionary process, on the principles that hold it together.

Certainly, these are difficult times. Hard times. But the nation trusts its youth. The Revolution trusts the young.

Youngsters were, more than six decades ago, a good part of the men who made this Revolution. Young was Fidel Castro in those founding years. Young people, in their great majority, those who participated in the literacy campaign. Those who joined the Armed Forces. The internationalist fighters. Those who took on shock tasks. Those who filled classrooms.

This must always be the Revolution of the young, because in the young it’s permanently renewed. And in the most difficult moments (which there have been and will continue to be) that youth, generation after generation, has never failed them. That is the confidence.

Translated by: Amilkal Labañino Valdés / Cubasí Translation Staff