Cuba - April 16th, 2022
Unconditional freedom to the political prisoners of the 11J hunger uprising!
Judge and punish the murderers of Diubis Laurencio!
The uprising of the slaves and the starving people is not a crime, it is justice!
Endorsement of the International Network for the Freedom of the world Political Prisoners to the call made from La Joven Cuba (the young Cuba) for the immediate release of the 11J prisoners
That call is endorsed by hundreds of workers, popular and human rights organizations of Cuba and the world.
From the International Network for the Freedom of the world Political Prisoners we endorse concretely the two points that the aforementioned statement poses, namely a call to “international solidarity with the 11J protestors who were unfairly convicted” and “for an amnesty law for the people who were unfairly convicted”.
We demand and join the claim for trial and punish the murderers of young Diubis Laurencio, murdered during 11J, which proofs that there was a fierce State crackdown on starving people that took to the streets for work, bread and justice. The Cuban Communist Party in power attacked them to crush the Cuban workers and starving people’s uprising of 11J. The ones on the top and the repressors already live as capitalists while the ones below live as beggars.
We affirm no current that claim to defend the slightest democratic freedom can let the state, in its capacity of gendarme and defender of the oppressors, to repress and imprison the masses that fight against hunger.
We affirm: The rebellion of the slaves is not a crime, it is justice! The starving masses have the right to rise against its oppressors, responsible of their unprecedented sufferings.
From the International Network we support the claim for the unconditional freedom of the workers youth and the revolted Cuban workers, who were imprisoned and convicted by the judges and the government of Cuba, just as it happens in Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, where the claim for justice for the martyrs of the repression and the freedom for the political prisoners is still demanded. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the claim and fight is for the cease of the repression and persecution to the unemployed movement, where the leaders and fighters are being imprisoned for demanding work, bread and dignity.
As “La Joven Cuba” correctly denounces in its statement we hereby reproduce, the revolted people “has been subjected to criminalization and punitive practices”. We totally endorse the denounce this statement has about the heinous sentences imposed to over 790 people charged, including 55 underage. We condemn the sentences that reach up to 30 years in prison, applied to 120 people, including, as we said, underage. This is no different from the Zionist State of Israel, which torments the Palestinian youth with jail and repression.
We therefore call all the workers organizations of the world to fight, in every country, to set the working class and its organizations in state of mobilization to free the Cuban prisoners.
We call for this campaign to be adopted by the families of the murdered and arrested in Senkata, Bolivia; by the families of the 43 high school students of Ayotzinapa, Mexico, who are still looking for their children; by the organizations fighting for the freedom of the Palestinian, Syrian, Iranian, Basque, Catalan prisoners and those who were arrested for rising against the invasion war of Putin on the Ukrainian nation. We call this campaign to be adopted by the revolutionary youth of the Zengakuren of Japan, who marched on the Chilean embassy for the freedom of the thousands of political prisoners that are still in jail since the Piñera government and are today tortured in Boric’s jails, as well as the widows of Marikana, who still claim for justice for the miners killed in South Africa by Anglo American and the South African government, which still protects it.
We fight for the unconditional freedom of the Cuban prisoners. The same way, we defend the unconditional right of the workers in Cuba and in every capitalist country to be able to set up their own unions and organs for the struggle, independently from the State and the employers; and to fight for their demands with the methods of the working class, namely the strikes, general strikes, picket lines and demonstrations. This is the only instrument the workers have to defend their interests.
We also defend the unconditional right of the workers to set up the workers parties they consider to be necessary to fight for their demands and claims. This is an elementary principle of the workers democracy who nobody can trample without consequences if they claim to be for the workers liberation. Without the right to set up parties, unions, workers organizations for the struggle, there would be a fierce dictatorship against the workers that can only defend (as it was shown in 11J) the interests of the capitalists and the new rich. This has nothing to do with the defense of socialism or with the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggles of the Latin American working class.
May La Joven Cuba and the workers organizations that claim to fight for socialism that signed the aforementioned statement receive our salute and commitment of fighting up to the end for the two points that unite us: unconditional amnesty to the 11J political prisoners and international solidarity for this cause.
From Las Heras, the oil workers of southern Argentina, members and promoters of this International Network for the Freedom of the world Political Prisoners, were sentenced to a life time in jail for fighting. If they are still free today is for the struggle and the huge international solidarity, and that is what the Cuban political prisoners need to return to their cities, homes and families.
We call on to double the solidarity with the unemployed workers of Argentina, who were repressed and imprisoned for fighting for decent work and be able to access to food decently.
We send the families of the workers and rebel youth subjected to the sufferings of jail, our broadest solidarity.
May Day, the international workers socialist day of the world working class is coming. We cannot let for a single day that on behalf of socialism the banner for which the world working class came out to fight as a single fist for the freedom of the Chicago Martyrs to be stained. Either you are with the Chicago Martyrs or you act as their executioners.
Free the prisoners of the rebellion of the Cuban slaves, now!
Free all those who fight against the opprobrium regimes and the world capitalist system!
Claudia Pafundi, member of the Commission of Convicted Workers, Families and Friends of Las Heras, Argentina.
Paula Medrano, daughter of the disappeared by the Videla 1970s dictatorship and a fighter in Europe for the freedom of political prisoners.
Abu Muad, from the paper Truth of the Opressed of Syria and Middle East.
Alejandro Villarroel, worker of Rio Santiago Shipyard (Argentina), prosecuted for fighting
James Sakala, delegate of textile workers from Zimbabwe
Omar Villacorta, former delegate of the meat processing Factory Paty
Bellow you can find the statement of The Young Cuba calling to fight for the unconditional amnisty of the political prisoners from 11J and to the international solidarity for this struggle
April 11, 2022
Solidarity with the protesters of July 2021
To: Miguel Mario Díaz Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba;
To: Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power of the Republic of Cuba;
To Rubén Remigio Ferro, President of the People’s Supreme Court of the Republic of Cuba;
To the Cuban people and the international left
In Cuba there is a deep structural crisis. This crisis, in the midst of a notable intensification of the precariousness of living conditions, led a part of the population onto the streets, on 11 and 12 July 2021. The hostile US sanctions, within the framework of a policy of aggression and blockade that has continued for more than 60 years, the inability of the country’s administration to meet the most basic needs of the people, and the neglect of the social, political and economic demands of civil society, all contributed to the worsening of this situation and led to a growing loss of confidence in the government’s narrative.
The decision that essential goods for the domestic market be sold in foreign currency, out of the reach of the majority, and the effects of the pandemic, worsened and with reason the discontent of the sectors afflicted by poverty and marginalisation, related to place of residence, skin colour, gender and other categories of exclusion. The economic and political crisis that the country is suffering is also expressed in the gradual deterioration of social indicators of health, education, sports and culture. This decadence is precipitating the massive exodus of young people, with the consequences that this leads to in Cuban families and in the economy in general.
Within the social protests in July 2021, the largest since 1959, there were examples of violent behaviour and physical confrontation on both sides, both by the police forces and pro-government groups and by some groups of protesters. While the latter have been subjected to criminalisation and punitive practices, evidenced in the official narrative and in disproportionate sentences, which are clearly exemplary measures aimed at preventing similar scenarios in the future, the pro-government sectors, the security forces and the officials responsible for the repression and the excesses of state violence continue to enjoy impunity.
During March 2022, two trials were held over the protests. The first was for the protests carried out by the poor sectors of Esquina de Toyo and La Güinera in Havana. In a mass trial, 127 people were condemned to up to 30 years’ imprisonment; the sentences added up to 1,916 years in all. Eight of the condemned were between 16 and 17 years old. The second trial was for the protests in San Antonio de los Baños, against 17 demonstrators, with sentences of up to 10 years.
Among the latter, we must highlight the sentence of six years’ imprisonment for Yoan de la Cruz, one of the first young people to livestream the protests on social networks. The sentence states that he “transmitted live on social networks what was happening, which caused such acts to be visualised inside and outside the country and that the harmful actions were imitated in different municipalities and provinces.”
According to the Attorney General’s Office, a total of 790 people were prosecuted, including 55 of between 16 and 17 years old.
At the same time, various civil society sectors and activists are being constantly harassed by the authorities. This persecution and surveillance is carried out by the police security apparatus, which is characterised by acting outside constitutional legality and attacking people’s dignity. All this occurs in a scenario of absolute impunity, in the absence of legal guarantees for the exercise of free association, among people and civil society groups that have concerns about participation in the public space. The cycle of repression is completed with the use of the media to destroy reputations, label all dissent as mercenary, and delegitimise any person or organisation that puts into question the current reality. A right wing backed by the United States and that supports its attacks does exist, but here we are not talking about that right wing.
Faced with this context, the people, groups and organisations that sign this document, both from Cuba and internationally:
Call for international solidarity with the unjustly convicted protesters.
Call for an Amnesty Law for the persons who have been unjustly convicted, as a necessary step that opens the door to a truly democratic socialism of equals.
Endorsements to the Call
International call from the left, in solidarity with demonstrators of July 2021, promoted by different activists and groups in Cuba.
First signatures:
From Cuba:
Alianza Afrocubana ● Plataforma 11M ● Reclamo Universitario ● Socialistas en lucha ● Revista Tremenda Nota ● Adiel González Maimó, teólogo y activista LGBTIQ+ ● Ahmed Correa Alvarez, University of California, Merced ● Ailynn Torres Santana, académica y militante feminista ● Alexander Correa Iglesias, historiador ● Alexander Hall, estudiante de historia, activista afrodescendiente de proyección socialista ● Alina Bárbara López Hernández, historiadora, ensayista y editora cubana. Coordinadora de La Joven Cuba ● Amalia Pérez Martín, University of California, Merced ● Amanda Chang ● Angélica Salvador, trabajadora de cine ● Camilo González Machado, estudiante de doctorado ● Carlos Bernal Medina, cubano comprometido con la justicia social ● Daniel Alejandro Espinosa Prieto, estudiante universitario ● Daniel Triana Rubio, actor y activista ● Dennis Valdés Pilar, psicólogo y pedagogo ● Diosnara Ortega González, socióloga ● Enrique Guzman Karell ● Esteban Insausti ● Hamed Oriol Toledo Torres, anarquista ● Hiram Hernández Castro, Profesor ● Inti Santana Guerra, Cantautor cubano ● Ivette García González, Historiadora, profesora y escritora ● Jonathan Samir Formell Sierra, compositor, estudiante del ISA, guitarrista y periodista musical ● José Alejandro Esteve Santos, estudiante de medicina, militante de Marx21 ● José Ángel Santiesteban Ricardo, ingeniero en telecomunicaciones ● José Manuel González Rubines, periodista y editor del portal de análisis político La Joven Cuba ● Juan Pin Vilar ● Julio Antonio Fernández Estrada ● Julio Cesar Guanche Zaldivar, Profesor e investigador cubano. Milita por el socialismo y el republicanismo democráticos para Cuba ● Kaloian Santos Cabrera, Periodista, fotógrafo y docente ● Liane Cossío ● Lidia M Romero Moreno, activista LGBTIQ y por los derechos de las mujeres ● Lisbeth Moya González, periodista feminista y escritora cubana ● Manuel Rodríguez Yong, productor y realizador audiovisual ● Marta María Ramírez, periodista y activista feminista autónoma ● Maykel González Vivero, periodista cubano y director de Tremenda Nota ● Miguel Alejandro Hayes, economista político y bloguero ● Orlando Santos Pérez, cubano de corazón, Doctor en Ciencias ● Rafael Alejandro González Escalona, periodista ● Raúl Armando Leiva González, estudiante de Letras ● Raúl Soublett López, Coordinador General de la Alianza Afro-Cubana ● René Fidel González García, Profesor de Derecho y ensayista ● Ricardo Figueredo Oliva, cineasta ● Roberto Garcés Marrero, antropólogo ● Roberto Ramos Mori, artista visual, tatuador, UNEAC, MINCULT ● Tania Bruguera, artista, activista y profesora ● Yarelis Rico Hernández, directora de la revista Palabra Nueva ● Yasmín S. Portales-Machado, Escritora y activista LGBTIQ+ ● Yoelkis Torres Tapanes, Master en estudios históricos y antropológicos, Coordinador de Proyectos, Activista LGBTIQ+
Hundreds of signatures continue… |
