Trade Union solidarity with Cuba climbing
Campaign News | Thursday, 4 May 2006
World Conference to Demand of Freedom for the Cuban Five being organized
Havana 3 May: More than one thousand delegates from 70 nations participated in the International Forum on Solidarity with Cuba, held yesterday at the Havana Convention Center.
There, the representatives defended the right of the Cuban people to self-determination -without US interference- and learned of the proposed world campaign to be carried out between September 12 and October 6 to free the Cuban Five, anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the US.
In a special address, Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, highlighted the importance of this first of May in United States, where massive protests, boycotts and work stoppages were held in defense of immigrant workers and their right to live free of discrimination.
Alarcon alerted the unionists of the need to provide information about the true situation of people’s struggles through the alternative media, given the deluge of distorted news flooding from the corporate media.
Rob Miller, director of Great Britain’s Cuba Solidarity Campaign, made it crystal clear that 86 percent of union members in his country support the island in its struggle for national sovereignty.
Later, Rob also appeared on Cuban TV's round table discussion rogramme to explain the work of the CSC to a national audience.
Meanwhile at the forum, Odalys Perez - the daughter of the pilot of the Cuban commercial airliner bombed off the coast of Barbados in October of 1976 - demanded justice so that the perpetrators of that genocidal act are punished.
Winding up the forum, Pedro Ross Leal, the general secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation, forcefully criticized imperialistic efforts to destabilize Cuba. Noting that the blockade has cost the country 80 billion dollars, Ross Leal said such attempts to strangle Cuba have failed and will continue to fail as demonstrated by the way the Cuban economy has been performing.
http://www.periodico26.cu/english/news_cuba/solidarity050306.htm
Solidarity meeting in Havana sees CSC conference film
Havana 2 May: Rob Miller, director of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK, addressed 1,000 delegates at a world trade union solidairty conference held today in Havana.
Meeting in the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, the huge gathering of trade unionists froim all over the world, including members of UK trade unions, heard Rob talk of the work being done in the UK in defence of Cuba.
In addition, a short film of the highly successful European Trade Union Conference organised by the CSC in London in February was shown to great applause.
Also present was Ken Gill, chair of the CSC as well as Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament, and the families of the Miami Five.
Mr Alarcon gave an impassioned speech in which he accused the US of being complicit in terrorism against Cuba.
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B54F2C5F7-9166-48A2-BE1F-C1DE2E017743%7D)&language=EN
