Voice of Revolution

Hands Off Cuba

Red Salute to the Cuban People and Their Revolution!

Voice of Revolution sends its Red Salute! to the Cuban people and their revolution and we vigorously condemn the ruling class chorus against Cuba now being broadly spread by the government and the monopoly media. When Cuba’s revolutionary patriot and leader Fidel Castro sent a message to Cubans and the world February 18, saying he would not be a candidate in the February 24 National Assembly election of the State Council, the U.S. rulers used the occasion to insult the Cuban people and demand that they submit to U.S.-style democracy. President George W. Bush said he hoped there would now be “a democratic transition for the people of Cuba…An interesting debate will arise. Some will say let us promote stability. In the meantime, political prisoners will rot…This should be a transition to free and fair elections.” This coming from a president notorious for being selected as president — not once but twice — in elections that were not free or fair.

The Cuban people have long withstood U.S. interference and attacks, including the criminal U.S. blockade, attempted invasions, state-organized terrorism that includes blowing up tourist hotels and an airliner, more than 600 attempts to assassinate Fidel, the long-standing and unending effort of U.S. presidents to dictate Cuba’s affairs to the Cuban people. These efforts to interfere can be further seen in the statements by the Democrats, who proclaim from the U.S. that they can tell the Cuban’s how they should hold their elections and govern their country.

Senator Barack Obama said February 18, “Today should mark the end of a dark era in Cuba’s history. Fidel Castro’s stepping down is an essential first step, but it is sadly insufficient in bringing freedom to Cuba. Cuba’s future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime. The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It is time for these heroes to be released. If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades. The freedom of the Cuban people is a cause that should bring the Americans together.” Obama is certainly aware of the achievements of the Cuban people over the past almost 50 years of revolutionary struggle — achievements in universal healthcare, literacy and universal education, and fraternal relations among the peoples, including their internationalist efforts to assist in the elimination of South African apartheid. The “dark era” is that belonging to the U.S. government, which has systematically attempted to dictate to the Cubans, while themselves maintaining a system of apartheid and racism in the U.S. Far from siding with the people, Obama is shamefully voicing the dream of the U.S. imperialists to once again enslave Cuba, all in the name of freedom. The peoples of the world also know that it is the U.S. that must release the Cuban Five heroes, political prisoners held in the U.S.

It is the U.S. that has responsibilities, to the Cubans and the world. Cuba has and continues to fulfill her responsibilities as a nation that defends the rights of Cubans, including defending Cuba’s right to determine her own affairs, and as a nation that consistently stands up against imperialism and for the world’s peoples.

Senator Hillary Clinton, like Bush and Obama, said “The new leadership in Cuba will face a stark choice — continue with the failed policies of the past that have stifled democratic freedoms and stunted economic growth — or take a historic step to bring Cuba into the community of democratic nations. The people of Cuba want to seize this opportunity for real change and so must we…The new government should take this opportunity to release political prisoners and to take serious steps towards democracy that give their people a real voice in government.”

While denouncing Cuba, Clinton and Obama have nothing to say about the fact that the U.S. has one of the most racist and unjust “justice” systems — known for having one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, for sentencing children to life in prison, for its assassinations and jailings of Puerto Ricans fighting for independence and African and Native Americans demanding rights, and more. It is a crime for them to be silent on these matters, while threatening the Cubans that the U.S. will again try to impose “real change.” It should be seen from both statements that the change Clinton and Obama talk about, whether in Cuba or in the U.S., is change that serves the rich, not the people.

This can further be seen in the fact that these threats against Cuba are coming at a time when Americans are again contending with an electoral system dominated by the political parties of the rich, the Democrats and Republicans. It is a system that keeps the people out of power while guaranteeing the continued rule of the rich by bringing either Democrats or Republicans to power. It is a set up where these two parties, state by state, decide who can and cannot vote, what identification is required to vote, which parties can and cannot participate, the rules for being on the ballot, the rules for the primaries and caucuses, and the rules that say the two parties, at their state and national conventions, can make decisions contrary to the popular vote. It is a system where there are not elections of candidates by popular vote, with a majority of votes required to win. Instead, in primaries, caucuses and the general election for president, people are voting for lists of party delegates, who then vote at the party conventions to select the candidate. It is a system designed to keep people from voting and then to dismiss the popular vote that does take place. It is not “free and fair” even by existing international standards, let alone the people’s vision of the system needed — where the institutions of democracy are organized to guarantee that the people themselves govern and decide.

It is also a time when the Cuban people recently held elections where the people themselves chose the candidates, where more than 95 percent of voters voted directly for candidates, and where the popular vote decided the results. It is also the case that in the Cuban system, the National Assembly is the decision making body when it comes to legislation. The State Council elected by it, including the president, are subordinate to the Assembly.

Voice of Revolution congratulates the Cuban people on their elections, one part of their undaunted and irresistible drive to go forward in defending and advancing their revolution. We demand that the U.S. immediately lift the blockade, free the Cuban Five and end all interference in the affairs of the Cuban people. Let candidates for office address themselves to the U.S. and its problems and keep their noses out of the affairs of the peoples worldwide.

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Message from Cuban President Fidel Castro, Historic Figure of the Cuban Revolution

February 18, 2008

Dear Compatriots:

Last Friday, February 15, I promised you that in my next reflection I would deal with an issue of interest to many compatriots. Thus, this now is rather a message.

The moment has come to nominate and elect the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents and Secretary.

For many years I have occupied the honorable position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of over 95 percent of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first National Assembly was established on December 2 that same year; this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

There were those overseas who, aware of my critical health condition, thought that my provisional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the position of President of the State Council, which I left to First Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final. But Raul, who is also minister of the Armed Forces on account of his own personal merits, and the other comrades of the Party and State leadership were unwilling to consider me out of public life despite my unstable health condition.

It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-à-vis an adversary which had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply.

Later, in my necessary retreat, I was able to recover the full command of my mind as well as the possibility for much reading and meditation. I had enough physical strength to write for many hours, which I shared with the corresponding rehabilitation and recovery programs. Basic common sense indicated that such activity was within my reach. On the other hand, when referring to my health I was extremely careful to avoid raising expectations since I felt that an adverse ending would bring traumatic news to our people in the midst of the battle. Thus, my first duty was to prepare our people both politically and psychologically for my absence after so many years of struggle. I kept saying that my recovery “was not without risks.”

My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath. That’s all I can offer.

To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.

In short letters addressed to Randy Alonso, Director of the Round Table National TV Program, — letters which at my request were made public — I discreetly introduced elements of this message I am writing today, when not even the addressee of such letters was aware of my intention. I trusted Randy, whom I knew very well from his days as a student of journalism. In those days I met almost on a weekly basis with the main representatives of the university students from the provinces at the library of the large house in Kohly where they lived. Today, the entire country is an immense university.

Following are some paragraphs chosen from the letter addressed to Randy on December 17, 2007:

“I strongly believe that the answers to the current problems facing Cuban society, which has, as an average, a twelfth grade of education, almost a million university graduates, and a real possibility for all its citizens to become educated without their being in any way discriminated against, require more variables for each concrete problem than those contained in a chess game. We cannot ignore one single detail; this is not an easy path to take, if the intelligence of a human being in a revolutionary society is to prevail over instinct.

“My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, much less to stand in the way of younger persons, but rather to contribute my own experience and ideas whose modest value comes from the exceptional era that I had the privilege of living in.

“Like Niemeyer, I believe that one has to be consistent right up to the end.”

Letter from January 8, 2008:

“...I am a firm supporter of the united vote (a principle that preserves the unknown merits), which allowed us to avoid the tendency to copy what came to us from countries of the former socialist bloc, including the portrait of the one candidate, as singular as his solidarity towards Cuba. I deeply respect that first attempt at building socialism, thanks to which we were able to continue along the path we had chosen.”

And I reiterated in that letter that “...I never forget that all of the world’s glory fits in a kernel of corn.”

Therefore, it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer. This I say devoid of all drama.

Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process. Some were very young, almost children, when they joined the fight on the mountains and later they have given glory to the country with their heroic performance and their internationalist missions. They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement. There is also the intermediate generation that learned together with us the basics of the complex and almost unattainable art of organizing and leading a revolution.

The path will always be difficult and require from everyone’s intelligent effort. I distrust the seemingly easy path of apologetics or its antithesis the self-flagellation. We should always be prepared for the worst variable. The principle of being as prudent in success as steady in adversity cannot be forgotten. The adversary to be defeated is extremely strong; however, we have been able to keep it at bay for half a century.

This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of “Reflections by Comrade Fidel.” It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful.

Thanks.

Fidel Castro Ruz

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Reflections of Comrade Fidel

February 22, 2008

This is what I wrote on Tuesday 19. That Tuesday, there was no fresh international news. My modest message to the people of Monday, February 18 (above) had no problem being widely circulated. I began to receive news from 11:00am. The previous night I slept like never before. My conscience was at rest and I had promised myself a vacation. The days of tension, with the proximity of February 24 elect left me exhausted. [On that date, the Cuban National Assembly elects it Council of State, which in turn elects the President, a position Fidel has held.]

Today I shall not say anything about people in Cuba and the world who are close and who expressed their emotions in thousands of different ways. I also received a large number of comments collected from people on the street via reliable methods who, almost without exception, and spontaneously, voiced their most profound sentiments of solidarity. One day I shall approach that subject.

At this point I am dedicating myself to the adversaries. I enjoyed watching the embarrassing position of all the candidates for the United States presidency. One by one they were obliged to announce their immediate demands of Cuba in order not to risk losing a single voter. Not that I am a Pulitzer Prize winner interrogating them on CNN on the most delicate political and even personal matters from Las Vegas, where the logic of chance of the roulette rules and where one has to make one’s humble presence if aspiring to be president.

Half a century of blockade seemed little enough to the favorites. “Change, change, change!” they cried in unison.

I am in agreement, change! But in the United States. Cuba changed a long time ago and will follow its dialectical route. “No return to the past ever!” exclaim our people.

“Annexation, annexation, annexation!” responds the adversary; that is what they are really thinking about deep down, when they talk of change.

Breaking the secret of his silent struggle, Martí denounced the voracious and expansionist empire discovered and described by his brilliant intelligence more than one century after the revolutionary declaration of independence of the 13 colonies.

The end of one stage is not the same as the beginning of the end of an unsustainable system.

Immediately, the diminished European powers allied to that system, began to pronounce the same demands. In their judgment, the hour had come to dance to the music of the democracy and freedom that, since the times of Torquemada, they have never really known. The colonization and neo-colonization of entire continents, from which they extract energy, raw materials and a cheap workforce, morally disqualify them.

An extremely illustrious Spanish figure, previously minister of culture and an impeccable socialist, today and for some time now a spokesman on arms and war, is the synthesis of pure wrong. Kosovo and the unilateral declaration of independence is hitting them at this time like an impertinent nightmare.

People of flesh and blood with U.S. and NATO uniforms are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memory of the USSR, disintegrated in part due to its interventionist adventure in the latter of the two countries, haunts the Europeans like a shadow.

Bush Senior is backing John McCain as his candidate, while Bush Junior, in a country of Africa — yesterday the origin of humankind and a martyr continent today — where nobody knows what he is doing, said that my message was the beginning of Cuba’s road to freedom; in other words, the annexation decreed by his government in a voluminous and enormous text.

The day before, international television showed a group of latest-generation bombers executing spectacular maneuvers, with the complete guarantee that bombs of any type could be launched without radars detecting the aircraft carriers, and this is not even considered to be a war crime.

A protest was made by important countries in relation to the imperial idea of testing a weapon on the pretext of avoiding the possible fall over the territory of another country of a spy satellite — one of the many artifacts that, for military purposes, the United States has sent into orbit of the planet.

I was thinking of not writing a reflection for at least 10 days, but I had no right to keep quiet for so long. I revised it yesterday and today, Thursday, will hand it over. I have insistently asked for my reflections to be published on page 2 or any other page of our newspapers, never on the front page, and to give simple summaries in the other media if they are extensive.

I am now absorbed in the effort of confirming my united vote for the President of the National Assembly and the new Council of State and how to do that.

I thank my readers for your patient wait.

Fidel Castro Ruz

February 21, 2008

Translated by Granma International

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Extradite Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela

Join in the Work to Free the Cuban Five

Voice of Revolution strongly encourages our readers to support the many actions and events in support of the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Five, five political prisoners jailed in the U.S. The Cuban people have been heroically fighting to maintain their right to self-determination against the vicious attacks from the U.S. government, including the unjust imprisonment of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez. These five men organized against anti-Cuban terrorist groups based in Miami, Florida, and funded and organized by the CIA. They were targeted for this stand against terrorism and in defense of Cuba and unjustly tried and imprisoned in 1998. Their case is currently under appeal, with a ruling expected from the appeals court at any time (see www.freethefive for more information on the case). At a time when the U.S. government is stepping up its interference in Cuba in an effort to force it to submit to U.S.-style democracy, workers women and youth across the country are taking their stand with the Cuban people and their right to decide their own affairs. Contribute to these efforts!

In 2008, various campaigns and other actions to free the Cuban Five around the world are already well underway. According to the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP) there are almost two thousand organizations in solidarity with Cuba around the world and one of the main tasks of these groups is to fight for the release of the Cuban Five.

On January 14, the U.S. National Committee to Free the Cuban Five made a call to organize international “Day After” actions, so that whatever the outcome of the current hearing of the Cuban Five to appeal their unjust convictions and whenever it comes, people will be ready to militantly respond. The hearing, which took place on August 20, 2007, involved efforts by the defense to have the charge of “conspiracy to commit murder” against Gerardo Hernandez dropped. Various organizations across the country are preparing for demonstrations whenever the court ruling is issued.

On February 1, nearly two dozen solidarity activists gathered on Hollywood Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, California, to unveil a bulletin board boldly proclaiming “Free the Cuban Five Unjustly Held in U.S. Prisons” to motorists on the busy freeway. The U.S. National Committee to Free the Cuban Five organized the billboard campaign with important financial assistance from supporters of the Cuban Five around the United States and around the world.

The crowd was thrilled to see this tribute to five heroic men, and happy to know that the message of the Five will reach hundreds of thousands of people over the course of the next month.

At the 2008 World Social Forum (WSF) in Madrid activists made a firm demand for the release of the Cuban Five. The case was presented in a workshop by Jefferson Cardenas, a member of the Madrid Committee for the release of the Cuban Five, who put the case in the context of the U.S. government’s continuing aggression against Cuba. Cardenas called on participants in the WSF to join the campaign for the release of the Cuban antiterrorist fighters, and announced the launch of the book Cronica de un Silencio (Chronicle of Silence) and the exhibition of the documentary “El Mayor Amor” (The Greatest Love) in Madrid. The two works deal with The Five and the irregularities and violations committed against them and their relatives during and after the trial.

In Canada, Cuban solidarity organizations are continuing regular monthly pickets to free the Five. In Montreal on January 26, the Table de Concertation de Solidarité Québec-Cuba joined with many others to march through the streets as part of the Québec Social Forum/World Social Forum international actions held that day. In Vancouver, on January 17, the Free the Cuban 5 Committee-Vancouver held its first protest of 2008 to kick off a new year of fighting for the liberation of the Five. Committee coordinator Noah Fine reminded people of the two years of monthly protests in Vancouver and the work of more than 300 committees worldwide demanding freedom for the Five. He concluded by informing the participants about the “Day After” Campaign.

Extradite Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles

While the U.S. government imprisons those who stand up to U.S.-sponsored terrorism, at directly protects those who carry out terrorism on behalf of the U.S. Luis Posada Carriles is one such terrorist, who worked for yeas for the CIA, directly involved in its terrorist operations against Cuba, including bombing hotels and blowing up a Cubana plane, killing all 72 people on board. And though Posada has bragged about these crimes, he is not being charged, or jailed but rather walks free in Miami.

When the U.S. government began posting photos of the people it has branded as the “most sought after terrorists” — in 20 cities, including Miami —the anti-war organization CodePink called the FBI to ask if Luis Posada Carriles was on the list. “No. He was on the list, but not anymore,” was the cynical response from the agency. Consequently the organization initiated a campaign to include Posada on the list and is demanding his immediate arrest. CodePink founder and leader Medea Benjamin explained that when they attempted to peacefully collect signatures for the arrest of Posada at the Versailles Restaurant in Miami on January 12 their car was attacked by a violent mob of Posada’s supporters from the Cuban exile community who threw bottles and eggs. The FBI and Miami-Dade police, “did nothing” to guarantee the activists’ security she said.

Benjamin also pointed to the close links between the Bush family, Posada Carriles and Cuban exile community in Miami as an explanation for the reticence of the U.S. government to act on the Posada Carriles case. “George Bush senior was chief of the CIA and knows well the movements of Posada when he was acting as an agent of the U.S. government in Latin America. Jeb Bush was supported as governor of Florida by the same group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles that are now attempting to prevent actions against Posada.”

Benjamin added: “We see that the Bush administration is looking in far off lands for terrorists: in Afghanistan, in Pakistan. However, there are those living peacefully in our own country. Posada Carriles is one case and he should be the most sought after. For that reason when we learned that he was not on the list we decided to launch a campaign to put him where he belongs, on trial in the United States or sent to Venezuela as provided in the valid extradition treaty between the two countries.”

On January 24 in Caracas, Venezuela, CodePink’s Medea Benjamin spoke at a joint press with Jesús Marrero from the Committee for the Extradition of Posada Carriles in Venezuela, where both organizations demanded the arrest and extradition to Venezuela of former CIA operative and international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Venezuela has been seeking the extradition of Posada Carriles since 2005, but the U.S. has resorted to saying it cannot do so because of fear Posada Carriles will be tortured while in Venezuelan custody.

Marrero, himself a torture victim of operations directed by Posada Carriles in 1973 when Posada Carriles was Chief of Operations of Venezuelan Intelligence, the DISIP, detailed a series of abuses which he said occurred under Posada’s command, including a massacre of 40 people.

He also said the Committee for the Extradition of Posada Carriles would continue the campaign to bring him to justice and has collected thousands of signatures in Venezuela demanding his extradition, which will be handed over to U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy. Benjamin assured that the -document with 35,000 signatures would also be delivered to the U.S. Justice Department, as well as several U.S. congressmen, including William Delahunt upon her return to the U.S. CodePink is also continuing its campaign in Miami, demanding that Posada be arrested as a terrorist.

The U.S. has consistently refused do its duty under international treaties on terrorism to try Posada as a terrorist or extradite him to Venezuela to be tried as a terrorist. The government protects those who commit terrorist acts on behalf of U.S. interests, such as the many assassinations and coups d’etats organized and carried out by the U.S. through out Latin America and elsewhere. Cuba, a small nation that founded its independent socialist nation-building project against U.S. domination has consistently stood up for its rights and those of all the peoples, has been a constant target of U.S. state terrorism and interference for nearly 50 years.

The late Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who directed anti-Cuban operations for a number of years in Ecuador and Uruguay from the U.S. embassy in Quito, Ecuador, pointed out in a November 20, 2007 speech, the close ties between the U.S. secret police agencies and the anti-Cuban mafia in Miami, Florida (who are also closely tied to Posada Carriles).

“The terrorist organizations in Miami intensified their operations against Cuba in the 1990’s with attacks from the sea and hotel bombings, one of which killed an Italian tourist in 1997. These terrorist activities were violations of U.S. law, but U.S. law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, did not stop them,” Agee said.

As to why and how this took place, Agee explained, “In my opinion it is because the CIA has never ended its involvement with these terrorist groups. In Miami the Agency has close liaison with the FBI and local police, and all they have to do is ask for hands off these organizations and nothing will be done. For me there is no other explanation for the impunity with which these terrorists have broken U.S. law over so many years and continue to do so.”

Agee also cited former CIA Director Richard Helms, who in 1975 gave testimony to the U.S. Senate, saying that the terrorist activities were “a matter of American government policy.”

“At the same time the CIA was establishing counterrevolutionary networks on the island and infiltrating teams of terrorists and saboteurs,” Agee remarked. “The soldiers in this army have been selected almost entirely from among the Cuban exile community living in Florida with historical ties to the [former U.S.-backed] Batista dictatorship,” he stated.

“They were trained by the CIA in explosives and sabotage. But there has never been any sign that the CIA ended its links with these people. Various Miami-based organizations appeared through the years with names like Brigade 2506 (the defeated CIA invasion force at the Bay of Pigs), Alpha-66, Omega-7, CORU, Comandos L, Brothers to the Rescue and Comandos F-4, just to name a few. Over the years some would disappear and others appear, but the main organizations are still operating today, planning and attempting strikes against Cuba.”

(Sources: TML Daily, Venezuelanalysis.com, Granma International, Periodico26.cu)

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International Call to Action

Prepare for the Cuban Five Court Decision: Organize “Day After” Protests and Press Conferences

National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, January 14, 2008

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five has issued a call for international “Day After” actions, immediately upon the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision.

We urge supporters to organize press conferences and/or rallies at government offices in the United States, and at U.S. embassies or other U.S. symbols abroad, and to promote a massive letter-writing campaign to the U.S. President and U.S. Attorney General.

We also ask that organizations mobilize in larger numbers and intensify the support in the days and/or weeks following the court ruling.

Demand: Free the Five Now! No More U.S. Government Appeals!

The new decision of the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit, on nine key issues of appeal for the Five, could come at any time. It may take weeks, months or even a year or more. Nobody will know the date of the court opinion until it is issued, but we can prepare ahead of time to act immediately when the ruling comes.

History has shown that political cases are won with the people’s support and by exposing the truth. The struggle of the Cuban Five is no exception.

If the court decides favorably for the Five on any of the appeals issues, the U.S. government will likely try to appeal to the full panel of 12 judges of the 11th Circuit. We need to tell Washington with a united voice: Stop delaying the Five’s freedom!

To the extent that pressure is brought to bear on Washington, and to the degree that the people are made aware of the U.S. government’s persecution of the Five, much will depend on the coordinated, united and determined will of the Cuban Five’s supporters.

Background to the Call

On August 9, 2005, the Cuban Five won an historic victory on their appeal before the three-judge panel of the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The panel ordered a new trial for the Five and overturned their convictions.

If a new trial for the Five had been held in another city in the United States, with the experience of the defense team, with the discovery of even more terrorist plots in Miami since the first trial, we are very confident that the Five would have been exonerated.

In fact, by law a new trial would have already taken place by February 2007. But the U.S. government fought against a new trial for the Five, because it is the U.S. government’s policy of terror against Cuba that would have been on trial.

What happened to the Five’s victory? Disgracefully but not surprisingly, the U.S. government, through U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office, appealed the 2005 decision of the 3-judge panel.

Exactly one year later — in what could only have been a political decision, on August 9, 2006 — the full panel of 12 judges, in an extremely conservative court, ruled 10 to 2 to deny a new trial. The en banc panel reinstated the convictions and sentences of the Five. It was a cruel and very bitter blow to our brothers — Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando, and René — who have had to suffer more years of imprisonment.

Worldwide Mobilizations for the Five Will Be Critical

The U.S. government has a double standard, which allows terrorists like Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles to go free in Miami, while the Five were arrested, tried and convicted in the midst of Miami’s anti-Cuba hysteria.

The U.S. policy of supporting the terrorists and imprisoning the Five, has convinced virtually all who learn of their case, that the Five have been subjected to a great injustice and it must be reversed.

Coordinated rallies and/or press conferences, for both the Day After the court decision, and larger mobilizations in following weeks, will help expose this hypocrisy and show broad support for the Five’s freedom.

Let us remember that when their supporters have come together, we have achieved our goals: from the New York Times ad in 2004, to the emergency response that helped free the Five from the cruel isolation cells in March 2003,

Suggested Plan of action

1. Decide gathering place, and time (e.g., 5:00 pm on a weekday, 12 noon if the action is a weekend) and begin to publicize.

2. Produce a flyer that you can distribute at political events and to the contacts in your area; create a special list serve of new supporters you meet who want to be notified of the emergency actions.

3. Send us details of your planned actions to webmaster@Freethefive.org . We will post them on freethefive.org and help publicize them.

4. Do outreach to the media in your area ahead of time, so they are aware of the case, the pending decision and your plans. Send a press communiqué as soon as court decision is issued, with news of the decision, the demand for the Five’s freedom and details of your event(s). We will hold a telephone press conference immediately after the court decision is announced and disseminate that information right away.

5. As soon as the court opinion is announced, we will launch a letter-writing campaign to the U.S. President and U.S. Attorney General, demanding the Five’s freedom and no more government appeals against them.

Together we can do it: Free the Cuban Five Now!

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Letter to Rice, Mukasey and Chertoff Demands Visiting Rights for Families of Cuban Five

More than 100 personalities from 27 countries signed letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff urging that temporary visas be immediately granted to two Cuban women denied the rights to visit their husbands. Their husbands are part of the Cuban Five political prisoners, unjustly jailed since 1998.

On top of the harsh sentences being served by the Five, they have face solitary confinement and denied visits from their wives. Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez have not been allowed to visit Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez for 8 and 9 years. On September 12, 2007, on the ninth anniversary of the arrests of their husbands, the U.S. government once again denied visas Olga and Adriana, preventing them from visiting. On eight separate occasions they have applied for a visa and each time they have been denied for a different reason and without any justification.

Denying these two prisoners their right to be visited by their wives is a violation of their human rights and is seen by many as a violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The more than 100 members of the International Commission of the Right of Family Visits are demanding that the Bush administration immediately grant visas for Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva. The Commission, headed by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchú and Danielle Miterrand, have been joined by members of the religious community, actors, writers, members of parliaments from around the world, and known personalities from the United States including former Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, Reverend Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Angela Davis, Danny Glover, Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, former Congressman Esteban Torres, former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, Wayne Smith , Mayor of Richmond, California, Gayle McLaughlin and Michael Parenti.

A copy of the letter has also been sent to members of the U.S. Congress and Senate and to the United Nations Human Right Council

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Do Not Use Labor’s Name to Attack Cuba

This statement was presented at the Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/U.S. Labor Conference held in Tijuana, Mexico December 7-9, 2007.

On October 30, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly for the sixteenth consecutive time called on the United States to end the criminal U.S. blockade of Cuba. This vote was virtually unanimous. Working people around the world and their unions — many affiliates of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) — agree the U.S. blockade of Cuba must end.

Cuba has achieved much that is well known and independently acclaimed including a free universal health care system; free education through university (extended to students from around the world including the U.S. who study medicine free of charge); an infant mortality rate unmatched by any U.S. poor community and life expectancy that is equal to that of the United States.

And all workers have job rights in Cuba that are only a dream for most in the United States — first of all the right to have a job and the right to paid time off, the right to housing and utilities, the right to determine production levels, for example. Working women receive one year paid maternity leave and the right to their job when they return. And the workers through their union, the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (Confederation of Cuban Workers, or CTC) directly discuss, accept, reject or amend all laws affecting workers and the discussion is at the shop floor level. The CTC has also played a leading role exposing and organizing internationally against the phony Free Trade agreements like the NAFTA. And, the U.S. even harbors the terrorists who boast about bombing Cuban civilian airliners and tourist hotels and still supports paramilitaries training to attack Cuba from Florida, while falsely imprisoning five Cuban men who peacefully monitored the activities of these killers in the Miami area. The actions of the Cuban Five, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, and Fernando Gonzalez prevented loss of life in their homeland, Cuba, and other countries.

The International AFL-CIO has unfortunately been a key player advancing U.S. foreign policy against Cuba and still accepts funding through the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) from the misnamed National Endowment for Democracy.We call on our union sisters and brothers, AFL-CIO affiliates and ITUC affiliates to demand that the AFL-CIO and ITUC leadership:

• Stop the U.S. backed slander campaign on the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC). Do not use the name of labor to support U.S. anti-Cuba foreign policy.
• Demand that the U.S. to end the genocidal blockade of Cuba
• Call for the immediate end of the U.S. travel ban to Cuba so U.S. workers can exchange experiences and ideas with our counterparts in Cuba and visas for CTC representatives can receive visas to visit the U.S.
• Call on union members to join the campaign to free the Cuban Five from U.S. jails
• Say no to the threats to Cuba’s sovereignty embodied in the Bush plan “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.”

Initially signed by:

Sharon Black, United Federation of Teachers (UFT), Labor coordinator, Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC)

Ed Childs, Chief Shop Steward, UNITE/HERE Local 26, Harvard Cafeteria Workers

Susan E. Davis, National Writers Union, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1981, National Contract Advisor

Greg Dunkel, Delegate, Professional Staff Congress, American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

Mike Eilenfeldt, Delegate, New York City Central Labor Council

Leslie Feinberg, National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981

Steve Gillis, Vice-President, United Steel Workers, (USW) Local 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers

Mike Gimbel Delegate, New York City Central Labor Council, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Local 375, District Council 37

Elisabeth Green, AFSCME, Local 3650

Martha Grevatt Trustee, UAW Local 122, Cleveland, Ohio (union affiliation listed for identification only)

Sue Kelly Secretary Treasurer, Local 334 Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)

Steve Kirschbaum, Grievance Chair, USW, Local 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers

Cheryl LaBash U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange

Frantz Mendes President, USW, Local 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers

Ignacio Meneses U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, UAW

Frank Neisser, Communication Workers of America (CWA)

Andre Powell, Delegate, Baltimore, Maryland, AFL-CIO Central Labor Council

Ann Lalla Schoenstein, UNITE/HERE Retiree

Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 808

David Sole President, UAW Local 2334, Detroit, Michigan

Dave Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council

Robin McCubbin Delegate, Southwestern College Educational Association, California Teachers Association

Fernando Muñoz, Syndicato Mexicano de Electricistas

Luis García, Syndicato Mexicano de Electricistas

James Jordan, National Writers Union

Martha Rojas, CWA

Ike Nahem, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen - Teamsters

Martha, Elvia, Maria and Luisa García, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE, Sec. 2)

Carlos Urrutia, UNITE/HERE

José Jacques, CWA

Catherine Pottinger, Service Employees International Union

Richard Grassl, United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC)

Alejandro Ahumada Utility Workers of America, Local 132, Former President

Tom Ladd, National Writers Union, UAW/AFL-CIO Local 1981

Stanley Kaster, Public Employees Federation, NY State (PEF)

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