Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.168.273
Object Name
Poster
Title
OSPAAAL world day of solidarity with Cuba
Place
Cuba
People
Fidel Castro
Events
Cuban Independence
Date
1968
Creator(s)
Description
Medium long rectangular poster - purple background with black text saying "World Day of Solidarity with Cuba." Underneath this there is an image of the Cuban flag, with red, yellow and back arrows going around it. Underneath this it says "July 26th" and then "OSPAAAL" and the OSPAAAL logo. This poster was issued around 1968, and is calling for a day of international solidarity with Cuba on July 26th. There were many conflicts at play after the overthrow of violent US backed military dictator Fulgencio Batista - Fidel Castro became leader. His legalisation of the Communist party and land reforms which gave land back to peasants, and the execution of Batista led to the worsening of relations between America and Cuba,. America froze trade from Cuba, as well as training Cuban refugees to overthrow Casro. In 1964, Cuba organized a meeting of Latin American communists in Havana and stoked a civil war in the capital of the Dominican Republic in 1965 that prompted the U.S. military to
intervene there. Che Guevara engaged in guerrilla activities in Africa and was killed in 1967 while attempting to start a revolution in Bolivia. During the 1970s, Fidel Castro dispatched tens of thousands of troops in support of Soviet-supported wars in Africa. He supported the MPLA in Angola (Angolan Civil War) and Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia (Ogaden War). This poster was issued by OSPAAAL - OSPAAAL is the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America. abbreviated as OSPAAAL, was a Cuban political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalisation, imperialism, neoliberalism and defending human rights. The OSPAAAL was founded in Havana in January 1966, after the Tricontinental Conference, a meeting of over 500 delegates and 200 observers from over 82 countries.
Acting as the "key bridge" to unite liberation struggles and movements in the three continents, OSPAAAL's main objective is the promotion of anti-imperialism and socialism.[1] The Organization of American States (OAS) called OSPAAAL "the most dangerous threat that international communism has yet made against the inter-American system".
OSPAAAL's motto was "This great humanity has said: enough! And has started to move forward".
Until 2019, it published the magazine Tricontinental as their main transnational communication tool. After the closing of OSPAAAL by the Cuban Government, the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research seeks to continue the heritage of the Tricontinental conference and the organization. They "stand, in the words of Franz Fanon, with the wretched of the earth to create a world of human beings."
