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Three members of the Cuban five have recently won a battle to have their sentences reduced: Ramon Labanino from life plus eighteen years to thirty years, Fernando Gonzalez from nineteen years to seventeen years plus nine months, and Antonio Guerrero from life plus ten years to twenty one years plus ten months. This is a victory for the international movement to free the five Cuban anti-terrorists from their political imprisonment at the hands of United States imperialism. After their resentencing the three men said they “feel profoundly moved and grateful for the permanent solidarity…so crucial in this long battle for justice.”
The five Cubans are political prisoners held in US gaols for trying to stop terrorist attacks against their country. They were working to foil the persistent attempts by right-wing counter-revolutionary groups based in Miami to commit acts of sabotage and terrorism against Cuba. Among those they attempted to expose was Luis Posada Carrilles, who has openly admitted to terrorist acts including the bombing of a Cuban aeroplane in 1976 which killed over 70 people. However when they submitted information to the US government which would have helped prevent further terrorist action they themselves were arrested on trumped-up charges, sentenced in a Miami courtroom and have been held in US gaols since, including spells in solitary confinement, while terrorists like Posada Carilles walk free on US soil.
In Cuba the five are national heroes and around the world they are symbols of anti-imperialist resistance. There are regular international protests demanding their release, in Cuba, Latin America, Britain and even the US itself. The five have continued their fight for over 11 years and resisted frequent offers from the US to sell-out and spread lies about Cuban socialism in return for their freedom. In a joint statement made by Ramon, Fernando and Antonio after having their sentences reduced they said “we did not give an inch in our principles, decorum and honour, always defending our innocence and the dignity of our Homeland” and they reiterated that “although three of our sentences were partially reduced, the injustice remains for all of us.” They also noted that “the prosecutor publicly recognised the existence of a strong international movement in support of our immediate freedom that affects the image of the US judicial system…the absolute political character of this process is confirmed.”
Both inside and outside of the corrupt US judicial system, the struggle continues. The campaign to free the five is an important part of Cuba’s ongoing revolution. In a new year’s message to his supporters Antonio Guerrero, one of the five, stated that we must “say with one voice, ENOUGH!”, that we must “think of socialism as a solution to the problems of the peoples” and as something “we have to defend and perfect daily.”
The Cuban five were falsely tried, free the Cuban five!
By Luke Lucas
Read more here: www.freethefive.org/whoarethefive.htm
Contact us to get involved in our work in solidarity with the Cuban revolution and against the imprisonment of the Cuban five.
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Here is my unprinted response to the whole-page article about recent developments in Cuba which appeared in the Financial Times, 25 April 2011:
With typical journalistic hyperbole you claim that changes to the employment structure in Cuba amount to ‘a structural adjustment so harsh it would make even advocates of the “shock therapy” meted out in the former Soviet bloc wince’ (John Rathbone and Marc Frank, ‘Cuba Libre?’ 25 April 2011). You are mistaken.
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Photo: Reuters Pictures
Employees at a tobacco factory vote during a debate on new guidelines for the Cuban economy
The Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) took place in Havana between the 16 and 19 April 2011, marking the 50th anniversary of two historic events: the declaration of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution on 16 April 1961 and the defeat of the Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-trained Cuban exiles, within 72 hours, on the 19 April 1961.
The principal function of the Congress was to discuss, amend and approve the Draft Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution and then to oversee their implementation. Distributed nationally in early November 2010, these guidelines contained 291 proposals for consolidating or amending social and economic policy in twelve broad categories:
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Photos: Carlos Serpa Maceira (top) and Moises Rodriguez (bottom) are congratulated in their respective areas by neighbours who have just watched the television programme Pawns of Imperialism on Saturday 26 February.
The spontaneous demonstration which broke out on Saturday night in Nueva Gerona, capital of Cuba’s Island of Youth, was not the anti-regime uprising for which the US government, bourgeois media, and the internal opposition hopelessly craves. Instead it was a celebration of the revolutionary commitment shown by local resident Carlos Serpa Maceira, as neighbours welcomed him back into the arms of his people.
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This new pamphlet, produced by Rock around the Blockade, collects together a series of articles from
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! that marked the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution in 2009.
The articles analyse different aspects of the development of socialism in Cuba: from health and education, to economic management and Cuba’s trade and cooperation agreements with progressive Latin American and Caribbean governments.
The pamphlet is free to download here and we encourage you to share it widely.
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‘Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society – after deductions have been made – exactly what he gives to it’ (Marx, 1875)
‘wages today are clearly insufficient to satisfy all needs and have thus ceased to play a role in ensuring the socialist principle that each should contribute according to their capacity and receive according to their work…the Party and government have been studying these and other complex and difficult problems in depth, problems which must be addressed comprehensibly and through a differentiated approach in each concrete case.’ (Raul Castro, 2007)
‘[we have] the dream of everyone being able to live on their salary or on their adequate pension…’ (Fidel Castro, 2005)
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Hundreds of revolutionaries take to the streets to protest at a parade by the ‘Ladies in White’ on 21 March 2010 shouting slogans against the European Union at Volker Pellet, deputy head of the German embassy, and Michael Upton (R), deputy head of the British embassy. These diplomats were violating the principle of non-intervention and non-interference by supporting the ‘Ladies’ who have publicly admitted being funded from the US.
In this time of global economic crisis people’s livelihoods are being attacked while bankers boast of their bonuses. Politicians compete in an electoral fraud to cover up savage cuts in health, education and social services. While British government complicity in torture is repeatedly exposed and the bloody imperialist occupation in Afghanistan intensifies, the BBC has dedicated its resources to focusing on group of less than 30 Cuban women, known as the ‘Ladies in White’, protesting against supposed human rights abuses in Cuba. Why is this?
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Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Hundreds of revolutionaries take to the streets to protest at a parade by the ‘Ladies in White’ on 21 March 2010 shouting slogans against the European Union at Volker Pellet, deputy head of the German embassy, and Michael Upton (R), deputy head of the British embassy. These diplomats were violating the principle of non-intervention and non-interference by supporting the ‘Ladies’ who have publicly admitted being funded from the US.
Chris Bryant MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dear Christopher Bryant, MP
On Saturday 10 April 2010 you addressed a plenary session of the Society of Latin American Studies annual conference in Bristol, speaking as a member of the British government; Minister of State for Europe and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. One of the attendees asked you to explain why Michael Upton, deputy head of the British Embassy, in Havana had been participating in demonstrations by the ‘Ladies in White’, in contravention of the United Nations Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States, Resolution 36/103, 91st Plenary meeting, 9 December 1981.
The Ladies in White have protested monthly for seven years without interference or restrictions being placed on them by the Cuban state, its agents or its citizens. Recently, in a televised interview, their leader Laura Pollan admitted having received external funding. This money comes from Santiago Alvarez, a Miami-based Cuban exile, who has been linked to terrorist actions against the Cuban people. In November 2006 he was sentenced in the United States to nearly four years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to stockpile weapons for possible use against Cuba. Alvarez is also a key sponsor of the terrorist Luís Posada Carriles who has boasted about his part in the bombing of a Cuban commercial flight in 1976, which killed all 73 people on board.
Your initial response to the academic who raised the question was to claim that you could not see any problem with diplomats participating in demonstrations in their host countries. This suggests an alarming lack of knowledge about the international principle of non-intervention and non-interference, particularly given your governmental responsibilities. However, when the Ambassador of the Venezuelan embassy in London, with whom you shared the platform, affirmed this principle contained in Resolution 36/103, you agreed to investigate this extremely serious matter.
We are therefore writing to request an immediate investigation to determine why British diplomats are violating the terms of their post.
Yours sincerely,
RATB
We are asking all supporters of socialist Cuba and Cuba's right to self-determination to write to Chris Bryant at email address provided - or post the letter above as soon as possible.