An Appeal to Help Us Continue Our Work in the United States
Dear friends and supporters of the Cuban 5,
Here is a moving YouTube that we just finished of Cuban performer Vicente Feliú live at Brava Theater in San Francisco. We hope you enjoy it. Vicente along with Latin Grammy winning guitarist Alejandro Valdés toured Washington, New York and San Francisco using their music to draw attention to the imprisonment of the Cuban 5.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVkS28KibXY&feature=plcp
This was just one of a great number of activities that took place all over the world from September 12th to October 8th to commemorate the 14th anniversary of this enormous injustice. There were more events and actions this year than any other before and that shows we are making progress in reaching more layers of people. But we do not have the luxury to rest on what we have done and the gains we have made. We need to intensify the work especially in the U.S. where the Five have been kept hostage due to a 50 year old failed U.S. policy towards Cuba.
We were cautioned that we should not expect much to happen in this election year but that did not stop the International Committee for the Freedom of Cuban 5 from organizing a number of activities this year including:
- 5 days for the Cuban 5 in Washington DC that brought together Cuban 5 supporters from all over the world including Canada, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and Honduras. During these 5 days posters of “Obama Give me 5” were pasted all over DC, we featured the documentary “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up” in different universities. Also we organized public events with known personalities including Danny Glover, Dolores Huerta, Stephen Kimber, Cindy Sheehan, Wayne Smith, Saul Landau, Salim Lamrani and many others. We also brought the issue of the Cuban 5 to 40 members of Congress, and we ended the 5 days with a rally in front of the White House.
- More recently and in addition to the tour of Vicente Feliú, we organized a public meeting in Washington DC on September 14, with the participation of the fighter for Puerto Rico independence Rafael Cancel Miranda and Tom Hayden, editor of The Nation and others. We also followed up with our lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill by visiting 7 more members of Congress.
To continue raising awareness about the case of the Cuban 5, we are currently planning a number of new activities and there are two main ingredients that will make them successful; human commitment and monetary resources. Our committee has a growing number of dedicated activists and with the necessary donations we feel we will be able to achieve more in the upcoming period.
Many of you have given your financial support in the past and we are asking you to do it once again. And for those of you who haven’t donated to us in the past, but who follow the work of the International Committee, we urge you to do so.
CHIP IN A MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION OR MAKE ONE TIME DONATION
WRITE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE CHECK TO: International Committee
And send it to:
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
P.O. Box 22455
Oakland, CA 94609
TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT!