Cuba marks 50 years of socialism

Thousands of Cubans joined a huge military parade Saturday marking 50 years of socialism and defeat of the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, hours ahead of a crucial Communist Party Congress setting new political and economic goals.
President Raul Castro, clad in his general's uniform and surrounded by senior officials, party congress delegates and war veterans, saluted soldiers as they marched through the Plaza de la Revolucion, the political heart of the country and in the shadow of its Communist Party headquarters.
Hundreds of thousands of other marching Cubans followed, including thousands of young "pioneers" waving Cuban flags and chanting "Viva Fidel!" "Viva Raul!" "Long live the revolution!" The parade kicked off with a tribute to revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, 84, who officially handed the reins of power to his 79-year-old brother Raul in 2006 for health reasons.
Fidel did not attend the festivities Saturday, exactly half a century after Castro himself proclaimed the socialist character of the regime just a day before the April 17, 1961 landing by 1,400 Cuban exiles armed and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Within just 72 hours of bloody combat on Playa Larga and Playa Giron 200 kilometers (124 miles) south-east of Havana, Castro had routed out the invaders in what Cuba celebrates as "the first great defeat of imperialism in Latin America." A T-34 tank, cannons and other weapons used by Castro's forces 50 years ago were at the forefront of the military parade, the first since December 2006.
"On imperialism, the message is clear," a university student leader said over a loudspeaker. "Young people will not fail because the work that we are building is for everyone. We will not fail because our guide was right." At 2000 GMT Saturday the regime was set to convene the Sixth Communist Party Congress - the nation's first in 16 years - whose 1,000 delegates will, over four days, vote on economic reforms proposed by Raul Castro, update the country's one-party political system, and either re-elect or relieve Fidel as party leader.
Castro has led the party since its founding in 1965. The congress will elect a new 100-member Central Committee, as well as the more elite 19-member Politburo and 10-member Secretariat. The government has said the congress will formally enshrine many economic reforms the government has adopted over the past year. Reforms are desperately awaited in a country where the average salary is about $20 a month, domestic food production is a problem and corruption widespread.
Among the moves put on track in 2010: Havana is eliminating 20 percent of state employees. To help pick up slack on the unemployment front, it is expanding the categories of legal self-employment to 178, decentralising the food distribution system, expanding allowable areas of foreign investment, slashing subsidies and imposing a tax system.