REPORT ON SECOND MEETING HELD IN SOLIDARITY WITH LATIN AMERICAN REVOLUTION
by Claude Anderson
As a sequel to the successful meeting held in solidarity with the OLAS conference on July 26th, which incidently drew an overwhelmingly enthusiatic audience of over 600, the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation held another successful meeting on the same theme of solidarity with the revolutionary struggles in Latin America, Although there were considerably less people attending this meeting, about 500, the speakers tackled the subject at a higher theoretical level, and the tone of the meeting generally was one of serious political analysis, The feature of the evening was a report from the OLAS conference by Ken Coates who had represented the Russell Peace Foundation at the conference, Mr, Coates talked about his experiences in Cuba and spoke of the country in the context of the economic and political situation in Latin America generally, He then went on to consider the OLAS conference itself and dispelled the grossly exaggerated interpretations that the Western press had given to the conferonce, According to him, the delegates at the conference accepted almost unanimously the general resolution on the necessity of the use of armed struggle for liberating Latin America, The same general acceptance applied also to the resolution condemning Soviet support for the governments of the continent engaged in repressing revolutionary struggles, He also emphasised the freedom and depth of discussion that took place at the conference, and the committed and serious nature of the delegates, which was in total contrast with the impressions that the Western press had tried to present. The secondary feature of the meeting which later during the evening caused some important discussion, was a talk by Robin Blackburn and Maicome Caldwell who had recently returned from Bolivia after having studied the case of the imprisoned French journalist, Regis Debray. The discussion was basically concerned with the arguments for and against the Cuban strategy for revolution in Latin America, and the book by Regis Debray; 'Revolution in the Revolution-?' Some contributions from the audience séemed to be totally ignorant of the political developments that have taken place in Cuba recently; The same charges of 'adventurism' that were thrown at Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra days were made to the Guerrilla movements of the continent, These two meetings that have taken place certainly seem to augur well for an increased interest that is developing in this country towards the revolutionary struggles that are intensifying on this continent, Let us hope that this is contributing towards achieving a greater international awareness among British socialists, The fact that the OLAS conference took place at the same time as the outbreak of Guerrilla warfare in the cities of North America itself, and the presence of Stokeley Carmichael at the conference gave great prestige to the OLAS conference as being a coordination of continental strategy against imperialism, The Russell Peace Foundation is doing a very important job in developing its eaf&paign on Latin America, and bringing the attention of people in this country not only to the objective reality of the continent, but also propagating the movements that are actually fighting against imperialism in situations that have all the potentials of being future Vietnams,