By Jim McIlroy
BRISBANE — "The Cuban people have full confidence in Fidel Castro and the country's leadership. You can have full confidence that the morale of the Cuban people is high, and that they will overcome the challenges facing our country", Nieves Alemany, a member of the two-woman delegation currently touring Australia, told a public meeting here on October 23.
The tour by Alemany and Eva Seone is being sponsored by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society in a bid to explain the truth about Cuban society to the Australian public, in the face of a barrage of lies and disinformation being heaped on Cuba by the US government, via the world media.
Alemany is a primary teacher, a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, a member of the Cuban Federation of Women and a deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power (Cuba's parliament).
Seone has a law degree and is a vice-president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples.
Beginning a series of public meetings around the country, Alemany told an audience of some 100 in the Trades Hall Auditorium about the history of Cuba's struggle for national independence and freedom from tyranny. She explained the Cuban people's choice to take the road of socialism, in the face of the US government's ceaseless campaign of attacks on Cuba's sovereignty.
In discussion time, the speakers took up the key issues debated at the recent Cuban Communist Party Congress, and questions about human rights and Cuba's international position.
Chairperson Gay Pittam, Brisbane president of the ACFS, announced the launching of a petition campaign to call on the United Nations General Assembly to condemn the US government over its 30-year illegal and immoral economic blockade of Cuba.
During their stay in Brisbane, Alemany and Seone held meetings with union and parliamentary groups, and Latin American solidarity organisations.
A lunchtime meeting at the University of Queensland sponsored by the Resistance Club attracted some 80 students to a lively discussion on issues facing the Cuban revolution, and the Cuban people's creative response to the serious challenges facing their country.