Hundreds Line up Beside Latin America

From the Morning Star, Monday 03 December - a report on the inspiring conference organised by Venezuela Information Centre, Cuba Solidarity Campaign & SERTUC, which brought together many of the progressive left forces in Britain today.

HUNDREDS of people gathered in London on Saturday to show their solidarity for democracy, liberation and social progress in Latin America.Representatives from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba spoke at the third annual Latin America solidarity conference.
Cuba Solidarity Campaign secretary Bernard Regan said that the conference was a “testament to the strength of the struggles” in Latin America.Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn told delegates that Latin America is breaking out of the straightjacket of almost 200 years of the Monroe doctrine.He urged the government to change its “ill thought-out” policy towards Latin America.
Labour Friends of Venezuela chairman Colin Burgon MP added: “Our job is not to lecture the people of Latin America on how to do things.“It is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in solidarity.” Bolivian MP Cesar Navarro said: “It is very difficult to be on the left, but it is also the most beautiful thing in the world, because it means breaking with neoliberal ideas.” Declaring the solidarity of the Bolivian people towards Cuba and Venezuela, he added: “We must bring about a transformation of Latin America. This means building our own revolution.”
Venezuelan ambassador Samuel Moncada pointed out that it was very difficult to see through the curtain of the information blockade that hangs over Venezuela. “We are all guinea pigs in a global experiment in disinformation,” he said. Cuban ambassador Rene Mujica Cantelar added: “This is a battle for the minds of people everywhere, which, if we can win this struggle, will inevitably produce liberated minds. “National liberation can be understood as a permanent liberation of the mind. This is what the Cuban revolution did for the Cuban people.”
PICTURE: Cuban doctor in Pakistan following the Earthquake.
Birmingham Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob pointed out that Hugo Chavez became a hero in the Middle East when he withdrew Venezuela’s ambassador to Israel over last year’s invasion of Lebanon. She also praised the Cuban medical brigades that brought aid to the people of Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake. “They asked the Cuban doctors: ‘Why are you doing this?’,” Ms Yaqoob said. “They answered: ‘Because you are our brothers and sisters.’ “This is the humanity that we are all fighting and struggling for.”
Respect MP George Galloway said that the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions encompass the hopes of Latin America. “The Cubans thank us for our solidarity, but it is we who should thank them for keeping the flag flying for all these years,” he said.