Cuba solidarity conference
By Pip Hinman
MELBOURNE — A national conference to discuss solidarity with Cuba is being planned here for Sunday November 3. Australia-Cuba Friendship Society spokesperson Dave Deutschmann told Green Left Weekly that, in the light of the stepped-up international campaign against Cuba, the society had been in contact with many groups with an interest in participating in a defence of Cuba campaign.
The conference has been planned to include the Cuban delegation which will be on a month-long Australia-wide tour from mid-October.
Two women leaders, Nieves Alemany (a member of the Cuban Women's Federation, the National Assembly of Cuba and the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba) and Eva Seoane (vice-president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples), will participate in the conference. Nieves Alemany attended the Cuban Communist Party Congress held last week in Havana.
"This conference aims to be a broad, non-exclusive conference", Deutschmann said. "We'd like to draw together all who wish to express solidarity with Cuba — including Latin American solidarity groups, Latin Americans, trade unionists and political parties. We'd also like to talk about material solidarity."
The proposed agenda includes the launch of a national campaign to call for an end to the US blockade of Cuba, the removal of the US base at Guantánamo and the building of sporting, trade, cultural and scientific links between Cuba and Australia.
The conference, starting at 10 a.m., will take place at the BWIU, 500 Swanston St, Carlton South. For more information contact the National Cuba Conference, Box 1, 52 Victoria St, Carlton South or phone Jo (03) 571 3772, Cacho (03) 544 3581, Ricardo (03) 347 8949 or David (052) 633100.
More on Cuba and solidarity: page 17.