Vol. 72/No. 37      September 22, 2008

Numerous activities demanding freedom for the five are taking place September 12-13 as part of an international campaign to win support for the case. We encourage our readers to join them.

Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, René González, and Antonio Guerrero are Cuban revolutionaries who came to the United States to gather information on rightist forces based in Miami that have carried out attacks on Cuba, aided and abetted by the U.S. government. The five were arrested on Sept. 12, 1998, and have been in jail ever since.

The case of the five is full of examples of attacks common to the ruling-class offensive on workers rights. The FBI repeatedly broke into and spied on their homes for years prior to their arrests. After they were arrested they were held in solitary confinement for 17 months. The government used “conspiracy” charges to convict them because it had no evidence of the crimes they supposedly committed. These violations of basic rights underscore the importance for working people to rally to their defense.

The ruling class will use these methods against vanguard workers more and more as the struggle sharpens. It was “conspiracy” charges that they used to jail leaders of workers’ organizations leading up to and during the second imperialist world war.

Many other working-class fighters today, such as those jailed for fighting for Puerto Rican independence, face the same circumstances.

The response to the September 12-13 actions is an indication that growing numbers are learning about the Cuban Five, recognizing the outrage their continued imprisonment represents, and are willing to unite with others to get out the word and build bigger protests demanding their release.

Let’s go forward from the success of these activities to bring knowledge of this important case to broader layers and widen the support that can be won. Free the Cuban Five!  
 
 
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