On 29 June, Rock around the Blockade held its third successful, noisy and colourful picket of the US Embassy in London to demand the release of the five Cuban revolutionaries convicted of espionage and now imprisoned across the United States. Speeches made over the megaphone highlighted the terrorist nature of the United States government – ‘the most hated government in the world’ – and the brutal US prison system. To mark the eve of the World Cup, the picketers had a little surprise to round off the picket. Under the suspicious gaze of Metropolitan police officers armed with automatic weapons, in the middle of the road outside the Embassy closed to traffic ‘for security reasons’, picketers lined up as the Miami 5 vs the US Imperialists for an impromptu five-a-side football match. The Imperialists’ entire arsenal of dirty tricks, handballs and fouls proved no match for the Revolutionaries, who achieved a convincing 5-0 victory!
The Cubans have called for maximum international solidarity in support of the five men, who have been made political scapegoats by the US administration as part of its war against Cuba. During a visit to London, Julio Martinez, the second secretary of the Cuban UJC and long-standing friend of Rock around the Blockade, stated: ‘The struggle in Cuba for the return of our five comrades is a struggle for us all…I think the main activities in the future should concentrate on publicising their case internationally as widely as possible, to raise awareness about the necessity of them returning to Cuba.’
Rock around the Blockade is responding to this call. As well as picketing the US Embassy in London, we have held demonstrations outside the US Consulate in Edinburgh and been active distributing leaflets about the Miami 5. We have sent pictures and reports of all our activities to the five men and received inspiring and political replies, reaffirming the strength of the Cuban Revolution and its people. ‘Your solidarity gives us an incredible strength and spirit’, Gerardo Hernandez, who has put photos of all our pickets on his cell wall, told us in a letter. Fernando Gonzalez ends with ‘My gratitude for your solidarity and commitment to our release…I am aware that we have many friends in Britain who are working hard in spreading the word about our case and doing everything they can to put an end to the injustice done not only to us five but to the Cuban people.’ And from Antonio Guerrero, quoting Jose Marti: ‘It is not possible to make great things without great friends.’
Regrettably, this faith in Rock around the Blockade’s support is not shared by Britain’s Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC), where our attempts to build a united movement in solidarity with the Miami 5 have come up against a brick wall.
Despite repeated invitations, the CSC has shunned our pickets outside the US Embassy and turned down point-blank our request to interview and meet with Paul McKenna, the US lawyer for Gerardo Hernandez, during his CSC speaking tour of Britain. We did attend a meeting addressed by McKenna at the House of Commons, where he exposed the farcical legal proceedings of the Miami trial which convicted the five men, and expressed hopes for a retrial. However, CSC Chair Ken Gill summed up the CSC’s attitude to the campaign when he closed the meeting with the words ‘We need more non-political fighters for justice’!
The Miami 5 themselves have no such illusions. They are clear that they are political prisoners, victims of the USA’s insidious war against socialist Cuba, continuing the revolutionary struggle from within their cells. As Rene Gonzalez wrote to us: ‘While our people resists [in Cuba], between the walls of the American prisons we’ll do the same, shielded by the same morale which allowed us the joy of shaking the prosecutors during our trial and which has allowed us also to withstand so many years of aggression. Neither our people nor you will be let down by us and we’ll always be up to the confidence you have placed in us.’
So if you want to be a political fighter for justice, get involved in our struggle to free the Miami 5 and promote the Cuban solidarity to whose defence these five men have dedicated their lives. m
For more information and to get involved, go to www.ratb.org.uk or write to us at Rock around the Blockade, BCM Box 5909, London WC1N 3XX.
FRFI 168 August / September 2002
