Havana - "I believe in you."

With those words from his 2007 "Message to the Communist Youth," an ailing Fidel Castro emphasized the importance of the large sector of Cuban society that has known only the socialist system, and whose hands hold the key to the future of the island.

Judging solely by the numbers, they're doing pretty well. There are more than half a million members of the Communist Youth Union, the new generation of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Young people are active at many levels and in state organizations breathing life into efforts to "create awareness, to reach the soul of new generations," and persuade them that socialism "is the only true path," according to one militant youth who attended a recent congress of Committees for the Defence of the Revolution - the eyes and ears of the party in every neighbourhood.

For Arturo Alcolea, a committed 21-year-old cadre from the eastern province of Las Tunas, there can be no doubting the righteousness of the mission.

"(The revolutionary heroes) gave everything so that this country could move forward. We are grateful and will always be with the revolution, for all that the sacrifice has achieved for 50 years, never yielding, always advancing, to bolster our resolve," he said.

Dixan Cruz, a 32-year-old provincial government official, agreed.

"We still have work to do, the youth of today must take our turn leading the charge, to bring history to life and understand how our comrades sacrificed to build what we have today."

The tasks have changed and the struggle is no longer on the romantic fields of military battle. "Ours is now a battle of ideas. And we are confident that we will prevail," he said.

But not all of Cuba's youth feel such ties to the revolution that inspired many of their elders. Those younger than 40 years of age were born or raised during the so-called "special period," the grave economic crisis that Cuba suffered in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It was a troubled period that even state officials acknowledge provoked a transcendental change in society, giving rise to habits of corruption and "dual morality" to substitute for salaries that were no longer sufficient.

"We must be conscious of the contradictions that our society has inherited from the special period," Vice President Carlos Lage said at the 45th anniversary of the Communist Youth Union, where he exhorted cadres to work to create "generations immune to the siren call of capitalism and window-shopping of consumer societies."

Orlando - not his real name - was one of those young people who answered that siren's call, and emigrated to California for what he called "a more promising future."

In an e-mail exchange with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, the 26- year-old computer specialist said he had many questions that he couldn't find answers for in the country of his birth. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his family.

"Why did they educate us only to later repress us? Why did they inculcate us with such professionalism only to later ignore us? Why do they pay us for our efforts in a currency that is 25 times less than what it costs to acquire basic necessities?"

"I think Cuban youth has been betrayed, and is tired of hearing about the history of our fathers, who were used to provide a more prosperous future, but we are still waiting for that future so long promised by our government," he said.

"Three generations have passed, three futures, and yet we still don't see any advances, for us young people."

Anabel, 35, who works for a foreign enterprise in Havana and spoke on condition of anonymity, said she has never thought of leaving Cuba. But she also registered profound discontent.

"My generation of 30 years has suffered what I call a 'generational blackmail.' My parents are loyal to the revolution, to which they feel they owe the opportunities that they had in the face of scarcity and hardship, and transmitted to me this feeling that I owe everything to the revolution," she said.

"But we feel differently, we see things differently, and we notice many problems - especially regarding freedom."

In his message to the youthful revolutionaries, Fidel Castro warned: "If the youth fail, then everything will fail."

Looking at the 50th anniversary of a revolution in which he was born and raised, Jesus, who also preferred to remain anonymous, has a business degree and is one of many who have chosen to work "on the left" - instead of for the government - "because at the end of the month you don't see the benefits of your labour."

"I'm 33 years old and I love my country. I would not want to have to emigrate to another to improve my life. I would like my country to change, I don't like the system because it is not a system that I chose, it has been imposed on me," he said.

"I would like to have all the necessary information to be able to compare, and know that I have the option to choose what I want to be, not what is imposed from above. That is what I want." (dpa)