------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 19, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
NO POLITICAL PRISONERS IN U.S.? N.H. STUDENTS LEARN OF PELTIER, CUBAN 5 Special to Workers World Durham, N.H. "Think the U.S. has no political prisoners? Guess again!" This was a main theme of a forum at the University of New Hampshire on Dec. 3. The meeting highlighted the cases of the Cuban Five and American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier. Despite a bitterly cold evening, 75 people, including activists from Boston, attended the forum Marquetta Peltier, the Native activist's daughter, gave a moving account of what it has been like to grow up without her father because he has been incarcerated for almost 27 years. She spoke about how her father was railroaded to a life sentence by the U.S. government after two FBI agents were killed on the Pine Ridge reservation back in 1975. President Bill Clinton denied Peltier clemency in 2000. Monica Moorehead from the International Action Center spoke about the case of the Cuban Five: Fernando Gonzalez, Ren� Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez and Ram�n Labanino. These five Cuban patriots have been sentenced to long prison sentences in the United States for monitoring the activities of terrorist Cuban counter- revolutionaries in Miami. Legal appeals have been filed to demand a new trial outside the hugely biased Miami/Dade County area. Free the Five committees are being organized all over the country and the world, including Latin America and, just recently, by the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Kazi Toure, a former political prisoner and well-known organizer in the struggle to free African American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, told how hundreds of political prisoners--including the MOVE 9, Sundiata Acoli and others--have been victims of a racist U.S. policy for many decades. The meeting was organized by the Diverse Support Coalition, a broad- based student organization that "seeks to promote, educate and support multiculturalism and diversity at UNH." Under the leadership of Puerto Rican student activist Andrew Houston, the DSC includes Alliance, a lesbian/gay/bi/ trans group; the Black Student Union; Hillel, a Jewish student organization; Mosaico, a Latino student organization; the Native American Cultural Association; and the United Asian Coalition. The question and answer period included discussion about the role of the prisons, attacks on affirmative action in New Hampshire and the need to link Bush's war drive against Iraq with the issue of supporting political prisoners. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
