Rally for Cuba

Around 60 Cuba solidarity activists gathered outside the United States consulate in the CBD on October 25.

The rally, initiated by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS), called on the Australian government to provide financial and material aid to hurricane-devastated Cuba and support Cuba's motion to the United Nations General Assembly on October 29 for the lifting of the US economic blockade against it.

The blockade on Cuba, which has been in force since 1962, prevents the tiny socialist nation from buying most construction and other supplies from the US, and discourages other countries from trading with Cuba. These sanctions, as well as violating the Cuban people's right to decide their own political system and future, are now the biggest obstacle to Cuba's recovery from hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Those storms left 200,000 people homeless and have caused major food shortages for the population.

The rally was addressed by: Joan Silk from the ACFS Sydney; political economy lecturer and solidarity activist Tim Anderson; Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary Andrew Ferguson; and representatives of the Communist Party of Australia, the Socialist Alliance, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Communist League.

From GLW issue 772