3 Documenting OSPAAAL: The Tricontinental and archives of internationalism

The Tricontinental Conference, OSPAAAL, and its graphic production

The historiography of global history is characterised by a lack of equitable representation of all countries on the planet. A multitude of factors influence the possibility of doing so in a coherent and well-founded manner, for which access to sources is essential. However, countries in the Global South have either not had the capacity or not had the opportunity to preserve materials from significant political events to the same extent as those countries that have sufficient resources and adequate legislation to do so. In this regard, Cuba occupied a prominent international position during the Cold War era. However, various factors have contributed to the absence of documentation from that period, including materials produced for the so-called Tricontinental Project (Parrott & Lawrence 2022).

In relation to this matter, the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) was founded in Havana during the 1966 Tricontinental Conference with the purpose of supporting and coordinating revolutionary struggles at a global scale. It existed until 2019, led and mainly funded by the Cuban government. The appellation ‘OSPAAAL’ was inspired by that of the ‘OSPAA’ (Asian and African Peoples’ Solidarity Organization), otherwise referred to as the ‘Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization’ (AAPSO), an organisation which continues to exist and which has its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The original idea was to hold a second edition of the Tricontinental Conference in Cairo in 1968 and for the headquarters of the OSPAAAL to alternate between different countries. But changes in the international political scene made both projects unfeasible, and the Cuban state ended up running the organisation (Camacho Padilla & Palieraki 2019).

The Tricontinental Conference brought together representatives of 82 Latin American, African, and Asian countries, comprising mainly leaders of political organisations and revolutionary movements, but also some heads of state, to discuss a collective political platform. Having as its antecedents the 1955 Afro-Asian Bandung Conference, the 1957 Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference, and the 1961 and 1964 Conferences of the Non-Aligned Countries, among other international meetings, the Tricontinental meant the incorporation of Latin America into the notion of Third World and the radicalisation of the debates on anticolonial and anti-imperialist struggles (Estrada & Suarez Salazar 2006). Conceived as a tool for implementing the resolutions of the conference, OSPAAAL had a Cuban general secretary and an international executive secretariat, formed by representatives from the three continents encompassed in its acronym. Throughout its extensive history, the OSPAAAL underwent numerous phases. The most significant, and relevant in political and external influence terms, was brief, spanning from 1966 to 1968 or 1969. Following this period, the Tricontinental initiative experienced a decline in momentum due to mounting political tensions with the governments that had initially endorsed the project, including Egypt itself.^[1] From that point until 1990, it functioned essentially as a Cuban organisation of solidarity with Third World causes, serving as a meeting place for various leaders of national liberation movements. These leaders were offered space and visibility both at its headquarters and organs of dissemination. The organisation’s work focused mainly on the production of cultural materials such as newsreels, short films, periodicals, books, radio programs, records and posters aimed at supporting the creation of a global revolutionary subjectivity (Morales 2012; Young 2018; Generoso 2018; Calvo González 2021; Interference Archive 2025).

These materials include the Tricontinental Bulletin (1966-1980), the Tricontinental Magazine (1967-1990 and 1995-2018) and posters. Of all these, the posters stand out, which were initially distributed with the aforementioned publications and later independently. A quick search on the internet demonstrates that OSPAAAL became known above all for its graphic art, which shared general features of post-revolutionary Cuban art, while also having specificities. Moving away from the paradigm of socialist realism, Cuban graphic design was influenced by avant-garde trends such as Pop Art, Op Art, conceptual art, minimalism and the Polish poster school (Bermúdez 2015). These references were creatively appropriated by professional artists, who usually had higher education and/or experience in the field of commercial advertising. The OSPAAAL materials centred on providing support for revolutionary, anti-imperialist and anti–colonial struggles that were being conducted in the Third World. These also encompassed stateless populations in the Middle East, including the Sahrawi, Palestinians and Dhofari (Losier & Stites Mor, 2024). To sustain the perspective of their inevitable victory against a common enemy, the artists resorted to various strategies such as portraying leaders of different political movements similarly and using the same symbols of oppression and resistance to represent diverse struggles (see chapter by Alexandra Lewis, this volume). Among these symbols, weapons were particularly important, as they made it possible to establish links between past and present struggles, and to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate forms of violence, depending on whether they were used by revolutionary struggles on the one hand, or by imperialist or colonial powers on the other (Stites Mor, 2022; García Molinero, 2022; Schmiedecke, 2023; & Generoso, 2023).

The production of cultural materials was particularly intense between the late 1960s and early 1970s, which is the period when national liberation movements reached their peak. During those years, the Information and Propaganda Department of OSPAAAL was led by Alfredo Rostgaard, who embraced an avant-garde aesthetic and developed innovative composition techniques. In 1977, Rostgaard was replaced by Rafael Enríquez Vega, who introduced a more realistic style. By the late 1980s, the declining enthusiasm for global revolution, the economic crises faced by Cuba, and its complex transition to the digital era had a negative impact on the OSPAAAL activities. Nevertheless, it continued being active until 2019, when the Communist Party of Cuba suddenly announced its closure on the grounds that it had fulfilled its historic mission (Camacho Padilla & Palieraki 2019). On that occasion, most of its small staff was left helpless. At the same time, international interest in the organisation’s artistic legacy has grown significantly, especially in the Global North, where several exhibitions, publications, and archival projects have been organised around the topic (Schmiedecke 2025). Many of them are part of a broader effort towards reassessing Cold War history from a decentralised perspective.

Particular interest has been paid to the OSPAAAL posters, which have been featured in Cuban and foreign exhibitions and art books since the 1970s, when Dugald Stermer’s (1970) book The Art of Revolution helped popularise Cuban graphic design at an international level. Books exclusively dedicated to the OSPAAAL posters include Il manifesto dell’OSPAAAL (1997) and The Tricontinental Solidarity Poster (Frick 2003), while exhibitions on the topic have been organised in major avenues like Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and New York’s James Gallery.

Collections, archives, and cataloguing projects

Collectors Lincoln Cushing and Richard Frick have played a key role in the preservation and promotion of these materials. Digitisation efforts by institutions like the Cuban National Library and the Docs Populi archive, led by Cushing, have further expanded access to them. This work proved especially important since OSPAAAL’s closure, as its archive remained inaccessible for years and was only recently made partly available to the public by the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz. However, much of the organisation’s documents have disappeared over the years as a result of the difficult conservation conditions to which many Cuban archives are subjected. In this sense, it would be important to carry out projects of preservation and digitisation not only of the organisation’s printed publications, but also correspondence, minutes of meetings and other relevant materials (see chapters by Alice Corble, and by Karen Smith in this volume). In order to achieve this objective, it is imperative to engage with partners from the Global South. This is necessary to counteract the prevailing tendency to utilise their archives without contributing to their preservation and enhancement.

A primary challenge confronting institutions, archives and documentation centres that possess posters, newsletters and magazines, among other materials in their collections, corresponds to the digitisation process in high resolution and across various formats (e.g. .jpg, .tiff), in addition to the collaborative publication of these materials on a centralised website. The nature of the work in question is such that it necessitates the classification of materials according to their respective types, and the subsequent organisation of these materials by numerical or temporal criteria, namely number or date of production, respectively. A key feature of this approach is the indication of the archive or documentation centre from which each piece originates. A further necessary but more complex aspect would be the search for archival documentation related to the OSPAAAL, not only in Cuba, but also in other locations, and, in addition, interviews with people who were directly involved with the organisation, although sadly many of them are now deceased.

Digitisation and dissemination of historical documentation is necessary and important, especially in Global South countries, where archives are exposed to a higher risk of disappearance or destruction due to political conflicts, social instability, mismanagement, and environmental risks such as natural disasters or extreme weather conditions. Cuba is a country where many of these factors are present, in addition to a lack of financial resources and clear legislation on the preservation and management of documents. The preservation of documents has been a problem for the revolutionary government from the very beginning, and this problem has clearly been accentuated in the last three and a half decades. The ongoing blockade by the United States has further compounded the challenges, resulting in a severe shortage of qualified professionals in the archives. Young professionals often stay in these roles for only a few months or years, and older archivists are increasingly dealing with health issues. The absence of adequate technological resources hinders their capacity to organize and preserve documents effectively. External assistance is often needed for this purpose, or for the preservation of documents which are in line with the agenda of the Cuban government. At present, the only effort made by the government itself in this direction is in relation to the legacy and memory of Fidel Castro, through the library of the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz in Havana.

History is the common heritage of the entire global population; therefore, it must be preserved for posterity. However, when states or organizations that are the heirs of the events to be preserved lack the will or financial resources to protect the evidence or documents of the past, other entities must assume the task, otherwise the memory is permanently erased. Documentation on paper or visual media, such as posters, photographs or even negatives or rolls of film, are extremely fragile. Without proper conservation and maintenance, they are doomed to disappear. Efforts have been made in other countries to digitise and preserve what is possible, but these efforts have not always met with success. For example, there has been a lack of willingness to establish collaborations of this nature, as evidenced by the failure to digitise the photo library of the Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina. It is to be hoped that it will not suffer the same fate as the photographic archive of the OSPAAAL, disbanded and destroyed in 2019, due to the combination of factors such as material and logistical difficulties mentioned above and the lack of awareness of the value and historical importance of these materials on the part of the custodians. This archive was of enormous historical and political significance, as it was organised by continent, country and cultural region and contained numerous photographs of social and political reality, as well as a large number of unpublished photographs of the liberation movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America, many of which had been given to the OSPAAAL by the movements themselves or by Cuban and foreign photographers. Some of these photographs were taken by the OSPAAAL’s own staff during trips carried out in the early years of the organisation.

The importance of preserving archives of internationalism and Third World solidarity is paramount in the contemporary era. These represent a distinctive political and social experience of the Cold War, which declined in the 1980s. In the present day, the concept of Global South solidarity encompasses a variety of issues, including women’s and minority rights, as well as environmental preservation, all of which are of significant relevance. However, the emergence of political alternatives to neocolonialism remains ambiguous in the contemporary era, and furthermore, the social commitment on a global scale, encompassing both the Global South and the Global North, has undergone a substantial decline (see chapter by Paul Gilbert, this volume). The historical solidarity, exemplified by the remarkable quality and aesthetic appeal of the materials, will invariably exert a profound influence on future social movements striving for a more equitable and egalitarian world.

References

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