In January 1966 an important conference took place in Havana, Cuba, attended by more than 80 representatives of governments and organisations from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The conference was held against a complex political background including the struggle against colonialism, the fight against apartheid in South Africa, white domination in Zimbabwe and the plight of the Palestinians. The theme of the conference was to find an immediate way to support the struggle against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism.

At this conference OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Support for the People of Africa Asia and America Latina) came into existence.

Since then OSPAAAL has been based in Havana and has tried, for over four decades to build solidarity among African, Asian and Latin American people so they may enjoy education, good health and housing, a guaranteed job and a fair distribution of wealth.

And of course, in order to do this, OSPAAAL immediately became involved in a range of propaganda activities, books, music, film and broadcasting.

From 1967 to 1992 more than 40 Cuban artists and graphic designers were involved in creating over 300 posters.

It is estimated that about nine million of them were distributed around the world.

You will see that the posters, both here on the page and in the exhibition, are short on word and long on design – making the message simple to understand without the barrier of language.

The exhibits show the extraordinary creative skill of a little known band of Cuban graphic designers and artists.

Virulently hostile to imperialism and colonialism, they offer a unique and fascinating insight into a political system whose byword was ‘Victory or Death’.