JULY 26 CELEBRATION

On the occasion of the 64th anniversary of 26 July 1953, the attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, around 25 people braved the cold and gathered at the Cuban Sculpture in Latin American Plaza, Canberra.

SOUTHERN CROSS BRIGADE TO CUBA 2017-18

The 35th annual Southern Cross Brigade to Cuba from 28 December 2017 to 17 January 2018 has been announced. This three week trip gives Australians and New Zealanders the chance to understand Cuba’s unique, yet often misunderstood, political history and to participate in Cuba’s rich cultural heritage. As the Cuban Revolution celebrates its 58th Anniversary this coming January, there is no better time to join the brigade and to find out what life is like in socialist Cuba!

Details are contained in the following website: https://cubabrigade.wordpress.com

Alternatively you can access Facebook by typing:

southern cross brigade / brigida cruz del sur

MOTION CONDEMNING PRESIDENT TRUMP

The Australia Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS) was first established in Australia almost 40 years ago with the purpose of maintaining a conduit of communication and friendship between the people of Australia and Cuba.

The membership of the Canberra branch of the ACFS at its AGM held last 3^rd July, unanimously passed the following motion:

“The ACFS firmly condemns the potentially detrimental intervention of President Donald Trump in the process of reconciliation between the people of the USA and Cuba initiated by President Barack Obama. The people of the two countries have voted with their feet and have welcomed enthusiastically President Obama’s initiative. 

From Canberra, Australia, we call on President Trump to help the reconciliation process initiated by presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro and to stop damaging the growing relationship and friendship of the people of those two countries”

Australia Cuba Friendship Society (Canberra Branch)

Canberra 3^rd July 2017

Milestones

Fidel Castro passed away last November and we have the 50^th anniversary of Che Guevara’s death coming up on the 9^th of October. However a very significant anniversary has gone unheralded. The 6^th of October 2016 was the 40^th anniversary of the downing of Cubana Flight 455 in the Caribbean. The flight was on its way from Barbados to Jamaica. 73 persons lost their lives when two bombs exploded on board. 57 Cubans were on board. Among the dead were all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban fencing team that had just won all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean championships; many were teenagers.

 

The tragedy is on a list of 37 terrorist attacks on planes on Wikipedia. It may well now be one of many but it is not forgotten in Cuba. School children re-enact the crash for foreign visitors and once you see that re-enactment you understand why it is seared into the national consciousness. Cuba is convinced that the explosions were CIA sponsored.

The Wikipedia entry on the incident makes interesting reading. CIA operatives are clearly implicated in the article. From the Bay of Pigs to the many attempts on Fidel Castro’s life, Cubans are familiar with the ways of the CIA. It’s hard to believe that a country that has been under such consistent attack from the CIA will now change its ways and fall into step with the capitalist world. Why would it? As Fidel said: They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?