In the decades of wars, economic crises, and explosive class battles that lie ahead, the weight of the toilers of Africa in shaping the future will be greater than ever before.

Reporting from Equatorial Guinea in central Africa, the authors focus on the social transformations unfolding, as revenues from offshore oil extraction are used to build infrastructure on which rising labor productivity, industry, and progress depend. Pulled into the world market as never before, both a capitalist class and a working class are being born.

Here also, in accounts of the work of volunteer Cuban medical brigades in Equatorial Guinea, is the living example of Cuba s socialist revolution made possible by workers and farmers who were led five decades ago to take power into their own hands.

Woven together, these seemingly disparate threads the beginning transformation of production and class relations in Equatorial Guinea, and the proletarian course of the Cuban Revolution show a future to be fought for today.

Introduction by Mary-Alice Waters, photos, maps, index.

Also available in: Spanish