Havana’s Second Libertarian Spring

Isbel Diaz Torres

HAVANA TIMES – Cuban anarchists will soon be holding the second Havana Libertarian Spring. The gathering, sponsored by the Alfredo Lopez Libertarian Workshop, El Guardabosques association and the Cristo Salvador gallery, has just been publicly announced for May 29 through June 7, 2015.

The Libertarian Spring is a “space open to anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist processes and experiences that can contribute to forms of sociability and awareness based on horizontality, mutual learning and responsibility.”

The specific areas of work this year have not yet been fully defined, as the project seeks to include the proposals of everyone who is interested in participating. Those who wish to do so may sign up by writing to primaveralibre@riseup.net.

The gathering aims to “evoke the spring shoots of libertarian ideals, whose roots, despite historical adversity, are always looking for the soil of a new beginning, new explorations and possibilities for struggle and transformation.”

The first Libertarian Spring was held from May 11 to June 7 last year. According to historian and social activist Mario Castillo, the first gathering succeeded in:

– Establishing links with valuable members of other networks, links that could prove highly beneficial in terms of social work and the broadening of libertarian spaces and perspectives in Cuba.

– Consolidating a firmer and closer relationship between the Alfredo Lopez Libertarian Workshop and the Cristo Salvador gallery collective.

– Providing a space for doing things differently and allowing us to focus our energies and make our work more visible.

– Generating critical referents to encourage anti-authoritarian practices within Havana’s anemic counterculture movement.

– Proving that libertarians in Havana can organize a serious event without business or State sponsors.

On the basis of these achievements, this second Libertarian Spring offers a warm welcome to all inspiration and ideas that stem “from the love awakened by all honest actions against oppression.”