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FREE THE MIAMI
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NOW!!!
----- Original Message -----
From: NY Transfer News
To: NY Transfer News
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 10:50 AM
Subject: LA Events Demand Freedom for Miami 5, Defend Civil
Liberties Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
LOS ANGELES EVENTS DEMAND FREEDOM FOR MIAMI FIVE, DEFEND CIVIL LIBERTIES
By Jon Hillson LOS ANGELES, December 10 (NY Transfer)--"As a Palestinian, I know what the people of Cuba have been through," said Michele Shehadeh, "I know the justice of the five Cuban patriots." Shehadeh, the west coast coordinator of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was one of several speakers who addressed 100 people at Loyola Law School near downtown Los Angeles on December 8 during two panels in defense of civil liberties, democratic rights, and to demand freedom for the five Cubans unjustly jailed in Miami on frame-up espionage. Shehadeh, along with six Palestinians and one Kenyan, were arrested in 1987 after a three-and-a-half year FBI investigation, on charges of illegal support to "world communism" -- in this case, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian. This "crime" was later adjusted to support for "world terrorism." The resulting case of the "LA 8" garnered widespread support, defeating every effort by Washington to deport the activists. "The case is still pending," Shehadeh said, "but we keep fighting. Activists have been in tough spots before and they have overcome. The five Cubans will also overcome." The five, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero, were convicted in June of "conspiracy to commit espionage" and related charges. Three face up to life imprisonment, and the remaining two could be sentenced to up to ten years for failing to register as "foreign agents." Gerardo also faces a second life sentence for "conspiracy to commit murder" in connection with the 1996 downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes which, against official Cuban warnings, violated the island's airspace. Sentencing in federal district court begins on December 11 -- with the Cubans accorded separate days for the judicial decree -- and will conclude two weeks later. The Los Angeles protest event was supported by a dozen prominent individuals and political organizations, including the National Lawyers Guild, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Korean Immigrant Workers Association, International Action Center, Socialist Workers Party, Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Angela Sanbrano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center, the major immigrant rights center in the city. The events were organized by the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba. Kathy Masaoka, Chair of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, told the crowd that it must "speak out in this climate of repression and fear." Masaoka's grandfather was in the first wave of 1,300 Japanese-Americans picked up by the U.S. government in the hours after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, a number that would eventually reach 120,000. "No one reached out to them. Today, it must be different. We must defend all those under attack," she said. The NCCR eventually won a measure of justice for the survivors of the concentration camps: a $20,000 penalty from Washington. She told the audience she had learned of the case of the five Cuban patriots in Cuba earlier this year, on the first Japanese-American delegation ever to Cuba. "We learned their story, we defend them, and we should support them," she said. It is necessary to "speak out in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation so that what happened during World War II does not happen again -- and it can happen if we don't resist." Gloria La Riva, National Coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Five, reported on the current stage of the fight. She urged activists to call President George W. Bush as sentencing begins to demand freedom for the five. "We do this not because we believe Bush will listen, but to let him and the government know that people are watching, are aware, and are active. It will only be the struggle of the people that will win their freedom." The faces of the five looked out at the audience from a nine foot banner, in the montage of Cuba's flag, constructed by Cuban-American artist Oscar Albuerne. "This work is difficult," La Riva told the crowd. She urged them to study the facts of the case, and to win support for the five. The struggle to free them, she said, "will be a long fight." Andres Gomez, national coordinator of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, detailed the history of U.S.-based terrorism against Cuba, from the earliest days of the revolution. Figures of death and damage "would have been worse, would have been higher, if there had been no Cubans inside the terrorist organizations who could report to their government on such violent plans." "The Five," Gomez said, "were protecting their country. Their mission was to save lives." This theme was explained with powerful youthful spirit by Meena Haghmoradkhnan, an 18-year-old senior at Costa High School, who participated in the second Cuba-US Youth Exchange last summer, and joined 1.2 million Cubans in Havana on July 26 who demanded freedom for the five. Learning about their work and duties, and of the role of terrorist groups in the United States attacking Cuba, she became convinced of their innocence and the justice of their cause. "It's not just Fidel and Che who are heroes," she said, "but the everyday Cuban people, the average people, people like the Miami Five. We have to learn to appreciated these everyday people who are the real heroes of Cuba, the kind of people we marched with. The Miami Five didn't do anything wrong! They were right!" Gomez conveyed the facts of the case and the demand for freedom to thousands more in an interview on Enfoque Latino, a popular local radio show. The event was recorded for Santa Barbara public access television and KPFX radio. Earlier in the day, Gomez spoke at an opening panel on escalating attacks on democratic rights, with ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner and National Lawyer's Guild Attorney Carol Sobel. This discussion connected the kind of "investigation" and prosecution of the Miami Five with the anti-democratic decrees and legislation that have been put in place by the Bush administration and Congress since the September 11 attacks. The frame-up of the five was the chronicle of current repression foretold. Gomez also met with local activists and spoke at a benefit attended by 30 people in San Pedro to raise funds for Cuba's Hurricane Michelle relief efforts. At all these events, Gomez reported on upcoming activities in Miami in defense of the yhe Five, including a protest news conference to demand their freedom on December 12, and a December 16 public meeting at a Miami hotel. The Los Angeles Free the Five forum opened with an appeal for solidarity from sisters Esperanza Hernandez and Guadalupe Hernandez, two sewing machine operators who are part of ongoing protests against Forever 21, a national clothing manufacturer based in Los Angeles which produces a youth-oriented clothing line. The company, which sub-contracts work to area garment shops has refused to pay the salaries of hundreds of sub-minimum wage immigrant workers. "We are fighting for dignity because we are tired of being exploited," Guadalupe said, to applause. "The same can be said of the Miami Five," the representative of the Cuba coalition said in introducing the event. "And the slogan of the garment workers fighting for justice -- si se puede -- is that of all those who fight to free the Miami Five." For more information on defense of the Miami Five contact: Free the Five Committee 2849 Mission Street, #24 San Francisco, CA 94110 (415)821-6545 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Miami Coalition to End the Embargo of Cuba P.O. Box 370867 Miami, FL 33137-0867 (305)903-7407 Copyright (c) 2001 by Jon Hillson and NY Transfer News. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
