Havana, Cuba, 1966. Hundreds of revolutionary leaders like Fidel Castro, Amílcar Cabral, and Salvador Allende. Eighty-two countries and three continents. National Liberation movements, communist parties and socialist states. A revolutionary commitment to coordinate struggles and build solidarity against US imperialism and its allies.

These were the elements that made up the first Tricontinental Conference.

In 1966, revolutionary forces were on the offensive: the Vietnamese were bravely fighting the US military, South Africa was rising up against apartheid, Palestine was resisting Zionist colonization, among many other fronts of struggle. US imperialism, on the defensive, was wreaking havoc across the world—it became obvious that worldwide solidarity among revolutionary forces was a necessary step towards achieving total liberation. The Tricontinental was not only an acknowledgment of that fact, but a promise to make that solidarity a material reality. Decades later, US imperialism continues its assault on working and oppressed people across the world, and this conference provides us a glimpse into what is necessary to build true liberation today.