Long live Fidel!

WW photo: Peter Cook

A meeting in solidarity with socialist Cuba was held on Aug. 17 in Boston. Speakers discussed many of the advances that have taken place in Cuba since the 1959 revolution, including education, health care and the sciences. The U.S. government’s lack of response to Hurricane Katrina was compared to the impact that socialist planning has had on the Cuban response to natural disasters. U.S. imperialism’s repeated attempts to overthrow the Cuban government were soundly denounced, as was the lack of justice and continued detention of the Cuban 5.

Those in attendance all signed a card wishing President Fidel Castro a happy 80th birthday and a speedy recovery from the surgery that has forced him to temporarily step aside.

Speakers included: Berta Joubert-Ceci of Workers World Party; Tony Van Der Meer, Co-Chair of the Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee; Jorge Marin, MLK Jr., Bolivarian Circle; Nalda Vigezzi, July 26th Coalition; Puerto Rican activist Dorotea Manuela; Josue Renaud of the New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti; and Roberto Torres of Latinos for Social Change. Askia Toure read several of his poems on Cuba; Ahmad Kawash of the Palestinian American Congress, who was unable to attend, sent a message of solidarity. Mia Campbell chaired the event and read one of her poems.

—Evan Sarmiento and Peter Cook