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November 6, 2002
IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM FREE THE FIVE COMMITTEE
Dear friends of the Cuban Five, below are:
- An important update on the Cuban Five organizing;
- An action alert for lawyers and legal associations;
- Proposal for public forums at law schools in your locale.
- Press conference November 12
1. UPDATE OCTOBER 26 MARCH:
200,000 people turned out in Washington DC for a powerful march and rally against Bush's plans for war on Iraq. In San Francisco close to 100,000 people also marched.
In addition to the anti-war and social justice struggles represented in Washington DC, Leonard Weinglass spoke on behalf of the Five compañeros at the main rally. He gave a great talk during prime time. The whole morning rally was aired live on C-SPAN TV cable network, and broadcast twice more. Weinglass's talk was also broadcast on Pacifica radio network. This means that the message of the Five got out to potentially millions of viewers and listeners across the U.S. Both the march and Weinglass's talk received considerable coverage in the Cuban press as well. Weinglass's talk at the NLG convention, his Oct. 26 talk in video and audio are available on the www.freethefivecc.org website.
In San Francisco, Los Angeles activist Ana Duarte spoke on the struggle of the Five. Petitions were gathered in both rallies and beautiful banners were held. We appreciate the support of ANSWER coalition in providing time for the Cuban Five.
As the Free the Five Committee has said before, the mutual solidarity of the Cuban Five with other just causes makes our movements that much stronger, and enables us to make their case known to wider audiences. In your local work, we suggest that organizers see if it is possible to have a speaker from the local Free the Five committees at progressive activities in your area. That is happening in a number of places incoming weeks, including New Hampshire at a political prisoner conference in early December, in UC Berkeley at a Mumia Abu- Jamal organizing conference mid-November, at the National Network on Cuba conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, mid-November. The Cuban 5 workshop at the Mumia Abu-Jamal conference in Berkeley, CA, will be at Dwinelle Hall, University of California at Berkeley, Saturday, November 16. The Albuquerque NNOC political-cultural forum on the Cuban 5 and other Cuba-related issues, will be: Saturday, November 16, 7:30 pm, the Rio Grande Inn Best Western Hotel, Rio Grande N.W. and I-40.
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CONVENTION
On October 19, the National Lawyers Guild held their annual convention in Pasadena. Among workshops like the issue of defense of civil rights, the Palestinian struggle, and others, a workshop on the Cuban Five was organized by Bruce Nestor, president of the National Lawyers Guild, and NLG Cuba Subcommittee chair Art Heitzer. The NLG is playing a principal role along with the Free the Five Committee, to garner legal support for the Cuban Five.
Attending the Saturday workshop were many longtime progressive attorneys, including Arthur Kinoy; Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights; civil rights attorney Dennis Cunningham; Jitendra Sharma, of India and President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers; immigration attorney Marc Van Der Hout; former Pasadena mayor and attorney Bill Paparian, Steve Bingham, and others. Leonard Weinglass gave an informative 25- minute presentation on the case.
He focused on the investigation he has conducted in preparation for the appeals, in particular on the issue of venue (see below for details). Weinglass announced that he will soon file a Motion for a New Trial, based on "newly-discovered evidence and in the interest of justice". While it is formally on behalf of his client Antonio Guerrero, it will be filed for all the five Cubans. He expects to file it in U.S. District Court in Miami next week. Below is the action alert for lawyers and associations to submit statements of support to the motion.
A great deal of interest was generated by the workshop, and many of the lawyers and other activists present signed up to get involved. A 26-minute video tape of Weinglass' presentation at the NLG Workshop on the Cuban Five is available. To order, indicate which format (NTSC or PAL),please e-mail us at: freethefive@actionsf.org
2. ACTION ALERT TO SUPPORT LEGAL MOTION
On Tuesday, November 12, Leonard Weinglass, one of the 5 appeals attorneys for the compañeros, will file a motion for a new trial, in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida.
The motion is based in the interests of justice and on newly- discovered evidence, focusing on the refusal to grant a change in venue. One year after the conclusion of the trial for the Cuban Five, the same U.S. Attorney's office which had successfully argued that Miami was such a cosmopolitan community that it was possible the Five could receive a fair jury trial there, then argued the opposite, claiming it was virtually impossible to have a fair trial in Miami employment-related discrimination against Attorney General John Ashcroft as head of the Department of Justice and its Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In the latter case, the plaintiff was a non-Cuban Latino, alleging discrimination by Anglos in the INS office management.
In other words, the same U.S. attorney's office in the Cuban Five argued against change of venue out of Miami, and opposed the Five's motion citation of Pamplin v. Mason, 364 F2d 1 (5th Circuit Ct. 1968), which upheld a change of venue because of pervasive community prejudice.
One year later, the same U.S. Attorney's office relied on that same Pamplin case to argue for change of venue out of Miami. As Weinglass states in his brief, "Both cases raised an identical issue: could Miami-Dade [County] afford a fair trial to a defendant when the matter being litigated touched upon and aggravated the passionately- held views of the Cuban-American community toward Cuba? When the defendants were agents of the Cuban government charged in connection with murder and espionage, the U.S. Attorney argued it was possible. When the defendant in a civil suit was the Attorney General of the United States charged with discrimination in an employment case, only tangentially related to Cuba, the government argued it was 'virtually impossible.' "
To support the motion, we ask for statements from legal associations, attorneys and other interested organizations. If you can contribute to this effort, we urge you to write to us at: freethefive@action.org and we will send you the details of the case, where to send statement, etc.
3. PROPOSAL FOR PUBLIC FORUMS AT LAW SCHOOLS IN YOUR CITY
So far public meetings have been organized for the public at large, and attended mainly by Cuba solidarity, peace activists and other interested individuals. This is very important to build among the progressive base, who need to also become aware of the Cuban Five and get involved. There is a great potential for support among attorneys, law students and the community at large, which has not been tapped yet. In discussions with organizers in the Free the Five Committees, we would like to propose nationally-coordinated, locally-organized public forums at Law Schools of universities in your cities. Law professors, especially those who are involved in social-justice issues, and/or who teach courses related to a.) Venue; b.) Civil rights; c.) International law; etc., could be approached for sponsorship of such an event, to focus on the Cuban Five and the political implications of their convictions, e.g., denial of their right to a fair and impartial jury trial.
Interested professors could invite or assign their classes to attend the forums. A public invitation and fliers could go out to the general public and political movement.
Already, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, plans are underway for forums at Law Schools. Available attorney speakers familiar with the Cuban Five could be: Leonard Weinglass, Bruce Nestor, Art Heitzer, or others, depending on scheduling. Since December is a time when universities are usually closed, January or February are recommended.
If you would like to use the Weinglass video to do outreach to possible lawyer/professor sponsors, or get a copy of our outreach letter, write us at: freethefive@actionsf.org
Or call: 415-821-6545, to coordinate for availability of speakers and resources. Since there may be a lot of demand for the above- listed speakers, it would be most helpful if we could coordinate dates so as to take advantage of air travel, schedules, media work, etc.
4. PRESS CONFERENCE BY TELEPHONE TO ANNOUNCE MOTION FILING
On Tuesday, November 12, 11 am New York time, a Telephone Press Conference will be held. Leonard Weinglass will explain in detail the basis for the motion, and others will talk on the overall campaign for the Five.
It will be possible for interested media to call into a Conference phone number, listen to the press conference, then ask questions of Weinglass and other speakers. It is very important that interested parties write us by e-mail to indicate your desire to listen to the conference. It costs the committee for each line that connects to the conference, and we have to reserve sufficient lines, so we would like to know in advance an estimate of how many people will call in. It is possible for international calls to be made as well. We will also make the audio recording of the press conference available on our Website, within two or three days after the Nov. 12 conference: www.freethefivecc.org
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