Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America
Encyclopedia
The Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (Organización de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina), abbreviated as OSPAAAL, is a Cuba
n political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalisation, imperialism
, neoliberalism
and defending human rights
. It publishes the magazine
Tricontinental
. The OSPAAAL was founded in Havana
in January 1966, after the Tricontinental Conference, a meeting of leftist
delegates from Guinea
, the Congo, South Africa
, Angola
, Vietnam
, Syria
, North Korea
, the Palestine Liberation Organization
, Cuba, Puerto Rico
, Chile
and the Dominican Republic
. Mehdi Ben Barka
, the Moroccan leader of the Tricontinental Conference, was murdered the year before, allegedly with complicity of the CIA.
One of the main purposes of the organisation is to promote the causes of freedom fighters in the Third World
; for example, OSPAAAL strongly supports Hugo Chávez
and demands that the Cuban Five
be released. Social development, which the organization says is a human right, is a recurring theme in OSPAAAL publications.
, Egypt
in 1957. 500 delegates from 35 countries represented their national liberation movements and parties rather than states. It was led by Ismael Touré
, the brother of Ahmed Sékou Touré
, president of Guinea
. Ismaël Touré presided the board responsible of the solidarity funds, assisted by two vice-chairmen-- Mehdi Ben Barka of Morocco and Chu Tzu-chi of Red China. At that time AAPSO (Africa Asian People's Solidarity Organization) was debating the inclusion of Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America to the group, a question posed again in Cairo
, Egypt
in June 1961 by the new commission, the Commission on Neocolonialism, which was presided by Ben Barka.
While the Casablanca Group
, founded in 1961, gathered "progressive states" (Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Mali
, Libya
, and Morocco
), the OSPAAL was an organization of movements, which aimed at creating national economic development
plans for the newly independent states and break national isolation through internationalism
. Until Boumédienne's 1965 coup in Algeria
, Algiers
was the capital of anti-imperialist
movements. In exile, Ben Barka resided there six months in 1964. Amilcar Cabral
, Malcolm X
, and Che Guevara
lived in the city around that time. Henri Curiel
was there organizing "solidarity networks", which trained African National Congress
activists. (The ANC had been prohibited in 1960, and Curiel would be murdered in 1978). Ben Barka was going to create an anti-colonialist magazine titled The African Review, but he decided to enlarge the union to Latin America.
After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion
in 1961, Fidel Castro
started getting closer to the Soviet Union
. In February 1962, Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States
(OEA). On October 3, 1965, Ben Barka declared in a press conference prior to the Havana conference that the "two currents of the world revolution
would be represented there: the current born with the October Revolution
and the national liberation revolutions' currents."
The fourth congress of the OSPAA, in Accra from May 6 to May 9, 1965, finally agreed on including Latin America and to take in account the founding January 1966 conference in Havana. In July, Medhi Ben Barka, who was presiding the preparatory council, assured the support of China
and the USSR
, and defined the objectives of the new organization, summed up as "total liberation": aid to national liberation movements (in particular to the Palestinian movement
), intensification of armed and peaceful struggles on all three continents, support to the Cuban Revolution
, suppression of foreign military bases, support of the nuclear disarmament
option, and opposition to apartheid and racial segregation
. In September, Ben Barka went to Havana to prepare the opening up of the conference on January 3, 1966. But on October 29, 1965, he was disappeared in Paris, abducted by Moroccan secret agents, allegedly with support of foreign intelligence agencies including the Mossad
and the CIA. The Havana Conference thus took place without him, and the OSPAAAL was officially founded.
posters promoting their cause, however, financial difficulty and ink
shortages forced the organization to stop producing these posters. However, in 2000, these posters began to be printed again.
These posters, as they intended to be internationalist
, usually had their message written in Spanish
, English
, French
, and Arabic
. As opposed to being put up on walls around Cuba, these posters were instead folded up and stapled into copies of Tricontinental, so that they could be distributed internationally. This allowed OSPAAAL to send its message to the several hundred thousand subscribers
around the world.
The brightly coloured posters, with their revolution
ary slogans, have become collector's items
, even amongst political conservative
s. All OSPAAAL-Posters from the beginning until 2003 are documented and indexed in the book The Tricontinental Solidarity Poster.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalisation, imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
and defending human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. It publishes the magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Tricontinental
Tricontinental
Tricontinental is a leftist quarterly magazine founded during the 1966 Tricontinental Conference, currently published by the Cuban organisation OSPAAAL.The magazine receives much funding from sympathetic Italian groups....
. The OSPAAAL was founded in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
in January 1966, after the Tricontinental Conference, a meeting of leftist
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
delegates from Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, the Congo, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, the Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
, Cuba, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan politician, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces and secretary of the Tricontinental Conference...
, the Moroccan leader of the Tricontinental Conference, was murdered the year before, allegedly with complicity of the CIA.
One of the main purposes of the organisation is to promote the causes of freedom fighters in the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
; for example, OSPAAAL strongly supports Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
and demands that the Cuban Five
Cuban Five
The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five are five Cuban intelligence officers convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities in the United States...
be released. Social development, which the organization says is a human right, is a recurring theme in OSPAAAL publications.
History and context
The OSPAAAL was born out of the Tricontinental Conference in Havana, which Mehdi Ben Barka was preparing before his October 1965 assassination. The OSPAA (Organization for Solidarity for the People of Africa and Asia) had gathered itself for the first time in CairoCairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in 1957. 500 delegates from 35 countries represented their national liberation movements and parties rather than states. It was led by Ismael Touré
Ismaël Touré
- Bibliography :...
, the brother of Ahmed Sékou Touré
Ahmed Sékou Touré
Ahmed Sékou Touré was an African political leader and President of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984...
, president of Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
. Ismaël Touré presided the board responsible of the solidarity funds, assisted by two vice-chairmen-- Mehdi Ben Barka of Morocco and Chu Tzu-chi of Red China. At that time AAPSO (Africa Asian People's Solidarity Organization) was debating the inclusion of Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America to the group, a question posed again in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in June 1961 by the new commission, the Commission on Neocolonialism, which was presided by Ben Barka.
While the Casablanca Group
Casablanca group
The Casablanca Group was an organization of "progressive states" founded in 1961. It gathered Gamal Abdel-Nasser's Egypt, Ghana — led by Kwame Nkrumah, leading proponent of Pan-Africanism —, Sékou Touré's Guinea, Mali, Libya or Morocco for a short period — left-wing Moroccan prime...
, founded in 1961, gathered "progressive states" (Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
), the OSPAAL was an organization of movements, which aimed at creating national economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
plans for the newly independent states and break national isolation through internationalism
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
. Until Boumédienne's 1965 coup in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
was the capital of anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
movements. In exile, Ben Barka resided there six months in 1964. Amilcar Cabral
Amílcar Cabral
Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, writer, and a nationalist thinker and politician. Also known by his nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence...
, Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, and Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
lived in the city around that time. Henri Curiel
Henri Curiel
Henri Curiel was a left-wing political activist. Born in Egypt, Curiel led the communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation until he was expelled from the country in 1950. Settling in France, Curiel aided the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale and other national liberation causes...
was there organizing "solidarity networks", which trained African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
activists. (The ANC had been prohibited in 1960, and Curiel would be murdered in 1978). Ben Barka was going to create an anti-colonialist magazine titled The African Review, but he decided to enlarge the union to Latin America.
After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
in 1961, Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
started getting closer to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In February 1962, Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
(OEA). On October 3, 1965, Ben Barka declared in a press conference prior to the Havana conference that the "two currents of the world revolution
World revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...
would be represented there: the current born with the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and the national liberation revolutions' currents."
The fourth congress of the OSPAA, in Accra from May 6 to May 9, 1965, finally agreed on including Latin America and to take in account the founding January 1966 conference in Havana. In July, Medhi Ben Barka, who was presiding the preparatory council, assured the support of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and the USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and defined the objectives of the new organization, summed up as "total liberation": aid to national liberation movements (in particular to the Palestinian movement
Palestinian nationalism
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people. It has roots in Pan-Arabism and other movements rejecting colonialism and calling for national independence. More recently, Palestinian Nationalism is expressed through the Israeli–Palestinian conflict...
), intensification of armed and peaceful struggles on all three continents, support to the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
, suppression of foreign military bases, support of the nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
option, and opposition to apartheid and racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. In September, Ben Barka went to Havana to prepare the opening up of the conference on January 3, 1966. But on October 29, 1965, he was disappeared in Paris, abducted by Moroccan secret agents, allegedly with support of foreign intelligence agencies including the Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
and the CIA. The Havana Conference thus took place without him, and the OSPAAAL was officially founded.
Posters
From its foundation until the mid 1980s, OSPAAAL produced brightly coloured propagandaPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
posters promoting their cause, however, financial difficulty and ink
Ink
Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...
shortages forced the organization to stop producing these posters. However, in 2000, these posters began to be printed again.
These posters, as they intended to be internationalist
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
, usually had their message written in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. As opposed to being put up on walls around Cuba, these posters were instead folded up and stapled into copies of Tricontinental, so that they could be distributed internationally. This allowed OSPAAAL to send its message to the several hundred thousand subscribers
Subscription business model
The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....
around the world.
The brightly coloured posters, with their revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary slogans, have become collector's items
Collecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...
, even amongst political conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
s. All OSPAAAL-Posters from the beginning until 2003 are documented and indexed in the book The Tricontinental Solidarity Poster.