On Saturday the 9 May Rock Around the Blockade in Manchester held a dayschool to celebrate 50 years of the Cuban revolution.
The event was attended by around 40 people who stayed the whole day.
The dayschool started with 3 comrades just back from RATB's brigade to Cuba, talking about their impressions and experiences of two weeks intensive activity in Revolutionary Cuba. A common theme was how people are involved at all levels of society.
The next speaker was Helen Yaffe who talked about how she researched the material for her newly published book, Che Guevara - The Economics of Revolution.
The floor was then opened up for questions to the speakers and discussion, a lively debate then took place on issues such as the US blockade, Cuban agriculture and international solidarity.
In the second session we had two more speakers, the first being Diana Raby the author of Democracy and revolution in Latin America , who talked about the revolutionary movements in Latin America and the crucial role played by Cuba.
The last speaker was Robert Clough from the Revolutionary Communist Group who spoke about the present so called 'credit crisis' saying we should call the crisis by its correct name a crisis of imperialism setting this against the context of the present onslaught in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well its economic and political effects here in Britain.
His talk also highlighted that Cuba was not only an example to the revolutionary movements in Latin America but was also important in building a movement against imperialism here in Britain.
Again this was follow by lively disscusion with questions on democracy, the future of the Cuban revolution and ALBA.