Saturday 19 May 2007, members of several organisations: Rock Around the Blockade set up by the Revolutionary Communist Group, North London Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Communist League and the Young Socialists, held a joint solidarity event to call for the immediate release of the 5 Cuban heroes. The protest was held in Trafalgar Square, in the centre of London, where protesters held up placards demanding the release of the Five, an end to the illegal US blockade of Cuba and incarceration for infamous terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Many passers by, including tourists from around the globe, stopped to listen to speeches and slogans and took leaflets about the case of the Five and the example of the Cuban Revolution.
The demonstration of over 60 people concluded with a march to 10 Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister, where members handed in a letter demanding that the British government intervene in the case of the Cuban Five and end its complicity with US attacks on the Cuban Revolution. Prime Minister Blair was not there to receive the letter – as he was in Iraq, where Britain has shown its true imperialist colours as junior partner to the fascist Bush administration responsible for a barbaric invasion.
The British government and the media censor the Cuban Revolution, because they fear that if the British public learns the truth about the island’s achievements, they will support and emulate Cuba’s revolutionary process. Most of the population is sickened by the prospect of perpetual, imperialist war and by British involvement in the indefinite imprisonment in inhumane and brutal conditions of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and of torture in prisons in Iraq. Learning about the example of Cuba, an alternative society, could impel them to join a movement for revolutionary change.
Luis Posada Carriles may have escaped justice for now, but he will continue to symbolise the total hypocrisy of the US government. Communists and other activists here in Britain will continue to demand the immediate release of the Cuban Five. 14 activists from Rock around the Blockade recently returned from the international conference in Havana organised by the UJC and attended by 500 people from 49 countries to demand justice for the Cuban heroes. Rock around the Blockade.
