Latin America solidarity
BRISBANE — Supporters of the Cuban Revolution danced into the early hours of the morning to the Latin sounds of DJ Sonido Tropicale here on July 29, in commemoration of the 48th anniversary of the July 26 attack on the Moncada Barracks, which touched off the revolutionary struggle in the Caribbean island.
Earlier in the evening, the 80 people present had heard the Democratic Socialist Party's Graham Matthews speak about how crucial the solidarity of Australian workers was to the people of Cuba and US-based Zapatista solidarity activist Naomi Mudge tell of indigenous Mexicans' heroic struggle against the military-backed landlords.
Other speakers at the Cuba Fiesta, organised by the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean, included Lauchlin Hurst from Australia-Cuba Friendship Society, Erica Fernandez and Ana-Marie Holas from the Latin American women's support group and Rohan Josey from Resistance, who all gave stirring speeches in defence of Cuban Revolution. The funds raised will go to an environmental project in Cuba and to a Mapuche indigenous people's group in Chile.
Castro books launched
LISMORE — The Cuban government's resistance to imperialism and its support for people's struggles around the world illustrated Cuban President Fidel Castro's contribution to the global fight against corporate tyranny, the Democratic Socialist Party's Tony Iltis told a Politics in the Pub forum here on August 4.
The forum, attended by 25 people, launched two books by Castro on globalisation. Iltis compared the social, economic and environmental achievements of Cuba with the devastation and misery created by the neo-liberal "development" model pushed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The books would make ideal reading on the bus to the September 11 protests at the multinationals' World Economic Forum summit in Melbourne, he suggested.