A NIGHT OF SOLIDARITY FOR CUBA

RMTnews :: july/august 2005 30 RMT general secretary Bob Crow welcomed guests to the third annual garden party held in conjunction with the Cuba Solidarity Campaign to raise funds for Medical Aid for Cuba. “Cuba needs our support more than ever as the United States makes increasingly hostile and threatening statements against this small socialist island,” he said. Bob pointed out that peoples’ movements across Latin America were taking inspiration from Cuba and the ideas of Ernesto Che Guevara and taking action to improve their lives. Labour movement figures including CWU general secretary Billy Hayes and John MacDonnell MP echoed these sentiments and pledged to continue the fight to defend Cuba against US aggression. Nicaraguan public service union leader Domingo Perez said that Cuba was a beacon for Latin America that showed there were very real alternatives to endless privatisation and poverty that existed under failed neoliberal policies that has been imposed across the continent. “In Nicaragua we are defending our public services from this onslaught,” he said. Veteran left campaigner Tony Benn told the crowd that he was optimistic about the future as people across the world were rejecting endless war and profiteering. “From Bolivia to Venezuela, From France to The Netherlands, people are saying enough is enough,” he said. Guests went on to enjoy RMT hospitality, dancing the night away to Cuban music and eating Cuban-style food, all in a good cause. A NIGHT OF SOLIDARITY FOR CUBA Hundreds gathered in the gardens of Maritime House in south London last month for a night of solidarity with Cuba which included speeches, music and great food Cuban representative Luis Marron congratulates Bill Rawcliffe and Joe Sheridon