Gleijeses discussed the role of Cuban internationalist solidarity in aiding and defending national liberation struggles throughout Africa from the initial period after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 through the 1970s. He pointed out that Cuba sent its first such aid to the Algerian revolutionaries waging a war of independence against French colonial rule. He described a plane that carried a load of weapons to the Algerian rearguard in Casablanca, Morocco, that returned to Cuba with war orphans and injured fighters.

In late 1965, Gleijeses said, the first Cuban fighters arrived in Angola to help the freedom fighters there struggling against Portuguese colonial rule. But from 1966 to 1975 their military assistance was limited to Guinea-Bissau. The major imperialist countries aided the apartheid government in South Africa and the Portuguese colonialists, he said, while other European countries sent only humanitarian aid to the liberation movements. The government of the Soviet Union sent military aid to the anticolonial movements, he added, but only the Cubans also sent volunteers to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their sisters and brothers in Africa.

Gleijeses pointed to the importance of the doctors Cuba provided in the liberated region of Guinea-Bissau. “At least 70 percent of the medical care in the guerrilla areas was provided by Cubans,” he said.

Cuba sent troops to Angola in October 1975 following the invasion of the country by the army of South Africa’s apartheid regime for two reasons, Gleijeses said. On the one hand, he noted, the Cubans wanted to challenge U.S. imperialism wherever possible to weaken Washington’s allies and to help the liberation movements and governments friendly to Cuba. Secondly, he said, the Cuban revolutionaries believed that “Cuba had a duty to help other people” in fighting for their freedom.

In a question and answer period after his talk, one person asked whether there had been antiwar protests in Cuba during the years that 300,000 Cuban troops served in Angola. Gleijeses replied that no such protests took place because the stance of the Cuban government was that no one was forced to go to Angola—only volunteers would be sent. He said that nothing in the research for his book had pointed to that position being ignored or sidestepped. In addition, a majority of the Cuban people identified with the political goal of aiding national liberation movements in Africa.

The meeting was sponsored by the Santa Monica College (SMC) Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba, five other student groups, the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba, and others. Benny Blaydes, advisor to the SMC coalition, and an administrator with the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services department at Santa Monica College, was instrumental in bringing Gleijeses to the campus.  
 
 
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