The government’s prosecution and convictions serve to remind workers and farmers that Washington’s assaults on the Cuban Revolution--and other struggles of working people around the world--go hand in hand with its efforts to undermine workers’ rights.

The trial and the media show around it aimed to demonize revolutionary Cuba and to create an atmosphere in which those who support the revolution or stand up to government and company assaults are at best intimidated and at worst branded as spies and subject to extended incarceration.

The list of undemocratic aspects of the trial is long. The five defendants were convicted in the absence of any evidence that they had stolen "military secrets." They were convicted on the basis of information allegedly contained in supposedly encoded messages the FBI copied off the men’s personal computer hard drives in repeated break-ins into their homes, and by the testimony of several of the original defendants who, in the face of stiff prison terms, cooperated with the frame-up in return for reduced sentences.

Now U.S. officials are threatening further "investigation" of supposed spies for Cuba in the United States. This is an escalation of their efforts to frighten and intimidate anyone who questions or opposes Washington’s policies toward Cuba. It is of a piece with Washington’s initiatives to beat the drums against supposed terrorists carrying out "industrial espionage" or alleged spying for "rogue" states--that is, all countries that don’t cooperate with imperialist wishes--as pretexts for encroaching on democratic rights.

The bosses and their government need to carry out these antidemocratic measures at a time when resistance to their attacks on the labor movement, on welfare and Social Security, and on the dignity of working people is on the increase.

They need to step up attacks on Cuba because the Cuban Revolution, 90 miles from U.S. shores, has survived all of Washington’s efforts to isolate and defeat it. The Cuban Revolution continues to be a shining example for workers around the world, and living proof of the revolutionary capacities of workers and farmers.

The spy trial convictions are a violation of workers’ rights and a slander against the Cuban Revolution that deal a blow to the working-class movement in every country. All working people have an interest in demanding justice for the five convicted men in Miami and a halt to Washington’s witch-hunt against "Cuban spies."
 
 
Related articles:
‘Spy’ trial of Cubans in Florida targets rights
Minnesota cops target immigrants, union fight
Boeing calls FBI into Renton plant  
 
 
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