Two radical events marked July 26, the date in 1953 when Fidel Castro led an attack on the Moncada Barracks that failed militarily, but inspired the ultimately successful Cuban Revolution.
At a forum organised by the socialist youth organisation Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) at the Brisbane Activist Centre, two dozen people helped launch a new Resistance Books title, Cuba — How the Workers and Peasants Made a Revolution, written by Chris Slee.
"The Cuban Revolution could not have happened without the involvement of the mass of society", the DSP's Adam Baker said in launching the new pamphlet. Baker explained that the pamphlet dispels the myth, perpetuated by some people on both the right and left of politics, that the Cuban Revolution was made by a few hundred guerilla fighters.
"Who took over 1000 capitalist firms during one day in October 1960?", Baker asked when describing how the Cuban revolutionaries used general strikes, peasant mobilisations and other forms of mass struggle to overthrow the US-backed dictatorship.
Other speakers included Resistance activists Keir Riley, who described how Ernesto "Che" Guevara continues to inspire young people to struggle for a better world, and Naomi Rodgers-Falk, who presented a huge list of achievements of the Cuban Revolution, from the provision of free education and healthcare for all to the fact that the World Wildlife Fund has described Cuba as the only environmentally sustainable country in the world.
A wide-ranging discussion followed, including about the potential for Cuba's example, now bolstered by Venezuela's efforts to construct "socialism of the 21st century", to spread internationally.
Later on July 26, 35 people enjoyed Cuban poetry and Latin American music at a celebration of the revolution organised by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society at Ahimsa House.
To order a copy of Cuba — How the Workers and Peasants Made a Revolution, visit .