This evening we held a historic book launch for Tricontinental, Havana 1966, beginning with a grounding from Yuri Gala Lopez of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations. The book, edited by Manolo De Los Santos with a foreword by Vijay Prashad, was discussed in conversation with Kate Gonzales, editor at
@1804Books
Tricontinental triumphantly compiles the unrecorded and unsung documents of the 1966 meeting of revolutionary delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the heat of a transforming world for national and socialist liberation in Havana, Cuba. That historic gathering took place amidst the escalating violence of the Vietnam War, alongside liberation struggles sweeping across Africa, from Guinea-Bissau & Cape Verde to Mozambique, Angola, and beyond. All the while, the United States was ramping up lethal aggression against decolonial movements worldwide, determined to crush the possibility of liberation wherever it emerged.
What made Havana 1966 so extraordinary was not only the moment itself, but the persistence it took to create a space where revolutionary ideas, strategy, and internationalist solidarity could be forged, despite differences, war, repression, and imperial retaliation. That insistence on gathering, thinking collectively, and building unity was not optional then, and it is not optional now.
Today, as exclusion, dispossession, and the tightening blockade against Cuba intensify, the lessons and documents of Tricontinental remind us that internationalism is not buried in the past. It is a living practice, and a vital tool for survival and liberation.
đź”—đź“– Buy the book now at
1804books.com or in-person at The People’s Forum!