Ragged Uni: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution + Financial Exclusion and Poverties

Ragged University: Bring along an item of food to put on the table and take away what is left at the end. Two talks and some conversation; you can come and go as you please, it is all informal:

Doors open at 6.30 for drinks and conversation before start at 7pm...

Cuba’s LGBT Revolution by Angus Reid

Join us for a screening of Angus Reid's short film followed by a talk by him on the making of the film and the issues it covers...

A few paragraphs from Angus:

"When I went to Cuba in 2022 I collided with the Family Code Referendum, and I made a film. What the Cubans were doing specifically at that moment was revolutionary: they are still the only country on earth to put LGBT equality to a referendum and, in passing it, to prove that discrimination and homophobia are minority prejudices, against the will of the majority. That blew my mind.

That lifted an immense weight from my shoulders. Can you imagine such a thing happening here in the UK?The problem is that people don’t know about it. Specifically it is a problem that LGBT people don’t know about it as it casts our own struggle in a completely different and liberating light.

What we need to do is to share and make public the liberating potential for LGBT people that the Cuban Family Code, and the Cuban constitution embodies. It’s their finest achievement. It’s what President Diaz-Canal has refused to concede. It’s what Rubio wants to destroy. Personally, I think that, like Mark Ashton in 1984, we should create a petition together: Lesbians and Gays Support Cuba."

A few paragraphs about Angus:

Angus Reid writes, paints and makes films. From 1989 – 2022 he directed an independent arts project – Speakeasy – producing original research and production in the areas of theatre, film, exhibition and publication. These include Brotherly Love (1994, Channel) and The Ring (Winner “Best Central European Feature Documentary” 2004, Jihlava IDFF) In 2023 he was appointed Arts Editor of the Morning Star, the only socialist daily newspaper in the English-speaking world. He lives and works in Scotland.

Find more information at:

https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2026/04/11/cubas-lgbt-revolution-by-angus-reid/

– plus after the break you are welcome to stay on for the second talk of the night starting at 8.30pm -

Financial Exclusion, Disappearing Public Goods and Poverties: The Dwindling Habitat by Alex Dunedin

A few paragraphs on the subject:

I plan on doing a presentation around 40 minutes long followed by a discussion with those in the room. I am involved in poverty research following particularly the human rights scholar and former UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty Prof Philip Alston.

This work fascinates me especially as I have been born in and grown up in what is judged by the economic measure GDP (Gross Domestic Poverty) to be the 6th richest nation in the world. Britain is rich, and Edinburgh wealthy, and yet there is relatively little public discussion about the extreme disparity.

In this talk I am going to discuss some basic economic histories putting in context what it means in practice when things run by the state in order to enrich the lives of its citizens (Public Goods) are turned into businesses which extract profit from the population and concentrate it in the hands of the owners.

Ultimately so much of life becomes a pay-to-play situation. People struggle to participate in normal social and familial activities thus becoming more isolated and removed from each other. In this presentation I examine some of the findings of the UK parliament Select Committee on Financial Exclusion.

What does it mean to be financially excluded ? What impact does that have on the economy as a whole ? How does this impact on health and psychology ? All are questions which poverty researchers ask. I take a brief look at the United Nations criteria of assessing poverty in different ways. Like Charles Dickens starts in his book ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”; like Victorian times, if you have a lot of money you live in the best of all possible worlds however, if you have no money you live in the worst of all possible worlds.

This is why under the auspices of the United Nations, Prof Philip Alston visited Britain the 6th richest country in the world in 2018 in order to study poverty delivering a damning verdict. There is structural poverty in Britain which is artificially produced. This offers an account for a magnitude of research done by the likes of Professors Marmot, Wilkinson and Pickett which reveals the illness caused by the deliberate production of poverty in our sociological ecosystem.

A few paragraphs about Alex:

I have been involved in independent library research for 28 years and independent community education for 15 years. Being born and having lived in Edinburgh I have lived in most quarters of the city, from the abundance of Morningside to the high flats of Oxgangs and Leith.

I have been the beneficiary of many teachers and been taught to map histories, social arrangements, and institutional arrangements in order to study the sociology – that is, study and make sense of human society and social behaviour as we find it.

I am currently studying a Masters degree in Public Sociology which takes a special focus on critical aspects of psychiatry. My interests in poverty research intersect and overlay because I believe that the isolation which the structure of our society is promoting through its move from a Mixed Market economy to a Neoliberal one is causing much mental and physical illness.

For more information please visit:

The event is free and all are welcome.

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Host or Publisher Alex Dunedin