On the eve of May 1, posters fill everything from state stalls to ’MSMEs’ connected to the regime
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 April 2024 — With a cap, backpack and the gestures of an artist, a “compañero” – it is not known if sent by the Party or the municipal government – walked around the agricultural market on 17th and K, in Havana, on Tuesday morning. With a black marker and leaning on a flimsy piece of cardboard, he drew a slogan, “Long Live May 1!”, surrounded by flourishes and shading.
Without paying much attention to the “propaganda artist,” the campesinos in charge of selling took the posters and hung them in their sales stalls. The scene, which is repeated every year on the eve of May 1st — Workers’ Day — was reminiscent of the Czech politician Václav Havel’s mockery about daily life in a dictatorship: the guajiro uses the sign not because he cares about what it says, but because it is a talisman to scare away the inspectors.
Neither the fuel crisis nor the “war economy” have prevented the Government from planning a May 1st in style. The date, the parade – which will be attended by hundreds of foreign “guests” – and the barrage of propaganda are one of the trademarks of the Island’s regime, whose ca