Gilda Chacon Bravo, Cuban labor leader, ¡presente!

April 9 — We just received the sad news just that a dear friend of workers in the U.S. and around the world has died. Gilda Chacon Bravo served for many years in the International Department of the Cuban Workers’ Central Union (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba) and the World Federation of Trade Unions.

Workers who traveled from all parts of the globe to celebrate May Day in Havana met Gilda in the hallways of the Convention Center at the May 2 International Solidarity Conferences. She often attended the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange Conferences in Tijuana, Mexico.

In spring 2011, the U.S. labor movement vibrated with the massive upsurge in Wisconsin to defend workers’ rights. Although CTC representatives couldn’t directly get visas to tour the U.S., Gilda also represented the WFTU. Together with Pipino Cuevas Velazques of the Sindicato Mexicano De Electricistas — the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union — she traveled to Los Angeles, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Detroit and other cities. 

In Madison, Wis., she met with Voces de la Frontera, organizers for immigrant rights. In Washington, D.C., the AFL-CIO International Department met with her. 

Arriving by car in Baltimore from New York shocked her. She intently videoed real-life conditions of life under U.S. capitalism as she traveled. Gilda intended to share these hard images with her son and other Cuban youth bombarded by the false glitter of capitalist life. 

In addition to her role as a Cuban union leader, Gilda was also an elected representative from her neighborhood in Havana. 

We remember Gilda Chacon Bravo with much love and respect, as a strong, capable leader — a revolutionary Cuban woman.