Cuba solidarity in Hobart
BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Cuba's revolution has been able to survive because it has tapped the "creative potential" of millions of working people, Democratic Socialist Party leader Dick Nichols told participants in a Cuban solidarity forum here on July 26.
Nichols, who has recently returned from the socialist island, spoke about the economic slump that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the US blockade, and the subsequent economic and social recovery.
He argued, however, that for all the progress achieved and the sacrifices made, Cuba's fate would not be determined solely within Cuban borders and hence our solidarity is still needed. The best form of solidarity, he said, is to struggle for a socialist revolution in Australia.
The meeting included the Tasmanian launch of two publications of speeches by Cuban leader Fidel Castro: Neoliberal Globalisation and the Third World from Resistance Books and Capitalism in Crisis from Ocean Press.
The meeting was organised by Green Left Weekly and jointly sponsored by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society and the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Carribean. Nichols spoke at the University of Tasmania earlier that day on the topic of socialist solutions to the environmental crisis.