Sunday, December 11, 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

8th Conference welcomes: Cananea miners and Mexican electrical workers

8th Tijuana Labor Conference welcomes
  • Sergio Tolano Lizarraga, Sec-Gen Nat'l. Miners Union Sec. 65
  • Humberto Montes de Oca, SME
Cananea miners and Mexican electrical workers build a social movement strong enough to force change

A social movement strong enough to force change. This statement could describe the aim of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but it refers to the struggle of Mexican miners in Cananea, Sonora and electrical workers who have years of experience. Leaders from these struggles will open the 8th U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference on Dec. 2 in Tijuana, Mexico.

National Miners Union Section 65 Secretary-General Sergio Tolano Lizarraga and Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) Humberto Montes de Oca will be joined by representatives from the Cuban Workers Central Union (CTC), the World Federation of Trade Unions - Americas Region, the Central Workers Union of Brasil (CTB), Workers Interunion Plenary and National Workers Convention of Uruguay (PIT-CNT), and more. Exchanges with U.S. “occupy” participants and recognition for completion of the three-day Workers School that precedes the Tijuana Conference are also planned.

Reflecting a renewed effort to free the Cuban Five unjustly held in U.S. prisons for more than 13 years, the Conference solidarity evening is moved to Saturday, Dec. 3. A musical tribute to the Cuban Five by young Tijuana Opera singers and the new video “Will the real terrorist please stand up?” aim to inspire increased union action on this important campaign.

Registration and hotel information is available at the page column on the right side of this blog or email to LaborExchange@gmail.com

Sunday, November 13, 2011

8th U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference


You are invited . . . won't you join us?
This Dec. 2, 3 and 4 workers from the U.S., Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and other Latin American countries will analyze the global capitalist crisis, its effects on workers throughout the hemisphere and with real examples showing how to combat it. Three days of intensive classes and discussion -- Nov. 29, 30 and Dec. 1 , with teachers from Cuba's Lazaro Pena workers' school -- will precede the conference. 

Online registration and information is at LaborExchange.blogspot.com
Contact us by email at: LaborExchange@gmail.com
downloadable bilingual leaflets at:  
http://uniondelbarrio.org/events/tijuanaConfSindical2011.html

Do you know that for the past four years Labor Federations in Latin America have met to develop a common program? The August 2011 meeting was in Nicaragua and will be held in Mexico in 2012. Representatives from this Encuentro Sindical Nuestra America are joining us. Youth from the Tijuana Opera are singing for the Cuban Five. Chilean singer Ismael Duran will sing songs of struggle. 

Your experience, thoughts, and ideas are important to this conference and workers' school as we progress toward working class continental integration and class-wide unity to face the bosses and bankers who are destroying our futures.

Learn more about the Cuban Five unjustly held in U.S. prisons, why they were needed in the U.S. to prevent terrorism and what unions around the world are doing for their freedom. See the Saul Landau movie, "Will the real terrorist please stand up?"

All events will be at the Hotel Palacio Azteca in Tijuana, Mexico with a special Cuba Labor Conference room rate that includes a marvelous breakfast buffet ($81 single, $116 double). Call now to reserve your rooms, toll free from the U.S.: 1 888 901 3720/

Registration -- requested by Nov. 20 -- for conference or classes and hotel information is at:
LaborExchange.blogspot.com


Tijuana conference to take up hemisphere’s struggles

By Cheryl LaBash

 Where is the electrifying Occupy Wall Street movement headed?

 From capitalist media pundits to the Occupy Wall Street encampments struggling to hold  public space in countless cities and towns across the U.S., this question is bubbling  underneath the daily actions and police repression.

An opportunity to discuss the experience of other such movements will take place just across the U.S. border from San Diego in Tijuana, Mexico, on Dec. 2 to 4 at the 8th U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference. It will follow a three-day Workers’ School with instructors from the Lázaro Peña Cadre School in Havana, Cuba. Online registration and information are available at http://LaborExchange.blogspot.com.

Occupations, general strikes and militant marches are being renewed in th e U.S. today. On May 1, 2006, the massive immigrant rights marches were effectively general strikes in many areas. This national movement had a strong impact.

Earlier this year, tens of thousands mobilized daily to support an occupation of Wisconsin’s Capitol in Madison to challenge an anti-worker program. Through all this, the working class is learning to take action in its own name.

In Central and South America and the Caribbean, workers, Indigenous people and rural farmers have walked this path before us. They have been on the receiving end of imperialist economic domination, coup d’états, military  dictatorships and rigged elections sponsored by the United States.

Today the Mexican electrical workers are occupying the central square in Mexico City, which they have held since March. Chilean and Colombian students are fighting for education rights. Moreover, tiny Cuba has held off the imperialist giant to the north poised to destroy them for more than 50 years  with a battle of ideas and profound unity.

The Oakland call for a citywide general strike and march to the port on Nov. 2 to “block the flow of capital” states the truth: “The Oakland General Strike will demonstrate the wide reaching implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. Now is the time that the people are doing something about it. The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1 percent:  Their wealth only exists because the 99 percent creates it for them.”

That is true. For those who want to discuss where this truth can take us with active builders of independent social orders, send a representative to the December conference in Tijuana. We have a world to win!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Latin American Labor Conference focus on worker emancipation

REGISTER NOW - ONLINE!  
See instructions in column under DONATE button.



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Latin American Labor Conference to focus on worker emancipation
La Prensa San Diego is a bilingual, widely distributed weekly in the San Diego area. The current issue includes Rocky Neptun's fine article promoting the Tijuana conference. Thank you, Rocky!


Fri, Oct 28, 2011
By Rocky NeptunSan Diego Indy Media
    From Tehran to Scotland, from Hong Kong to the always fiery, militant youth of Rome, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the globe. Tired and angry over decades of corporate owned capitalism, where wealthy stockholders and huge multi-national corporations set the agenda for political and economic policy decisions, plunging millions of middle-class families into poverty, exacerbating the conditions of the already destitute, and forcing millions of youth into either wage slavery or no future at all; the world’s 99% have taken to the streets.
    Yet, on that vast continent south of the Atrato Swamp, colonized and exploited for centuries, there were no “occupy” encampments. The people of South American, with the exception of still Yankee dominated Colombia, over the last two decades, have, slowly at first, then rapidly, begun to take back their governments and economies from both the international corporations and their own local corrupt elites.
    There was no sudden revolution —only the memory of Che— no storming of the Bastille nor Concord Old North Bridge, no shot heard ‘round the world;’ just the experience of authentic community action and tangible solidarity. First, the villagers took control of what was closest to them – their faith.  Steeped in the liberation theology of Jesus’ true ministry, his support of the poor and the disenfranchised, they kicked out the priests and bishops who pampered and supported the rich. Then parish by parish, village by township, city by city, they began organizing, putting forth candidates for local offices; when some of those were arrested, beaten and sometimes killed, others stepped into their places. Workers throughout the continent began occupying work places (a thought for U.S. occupiers, no?) and taking back their unions from corporate lackeys and power liberals with huge salaries.
    The growth and strength of the Latin American labor movement for participatory democracy and economic fairness will highlight the 8th Annual Latin American Labor Conference in Tijuana, Mexico. The theme of the early December international gathering is “Continental Integration & Working-Class Unity,” and will explore how Latin American countries have chosen to create alternatives which integrate economies focused on human needs (health-care, education, housing) and not corporate profits.”
    A vital component of people first economies according to the conference’s organizers —the U.S. based Labor Exchange— is to build co-operative, collective and worker-owned systems and structures outside the corporate and bank controlled neo-liberal model. Participants of the Trade Union Meeting of Our America movement, who have held meetings throughout the hemisphere and in Central America and Mexico recently, will report on their efforts at worker emancipation. Also to be discussed will be the Bolivarian Alliance’s determination (9 Latin and Caribbean Nations) to achieve a viable alternative to the greed, environmental destructiveness and dehumanization of the corporate owned economic system.
    The Conference in Tijuana, December 2-4, at the Hotel Palacio Azteca will be preceded by a three day “Worker’s School,” November 29, 30 and Dec. 1, formed by the Federacion Sindical Mundial of Mexico and the Central Trabajadores de Cuba. The classes, both in Spanish and English, as is the conference itself, will educate and prepare workers, employees, the unemployed, underemployed and youth without possibility of a decent future, for the coming conflagration  between the 1% who hoard the planet’s wealth and all the rest of us.
    Speaking at both the worker’s school and the conference will be those on the frontline of the war for economic democracy: including Juan Barahona, of the often attacked Honduras Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular; Leonardo Batalla, from the PIT CNT of Uruguay, Jacobo Torres de Leon, representing the Fuerza Socialista Bolivariana de Trabajadores de Venezuela; Joao Batista Lemos, who is Secretario Adjunto de Relaciones Internacionales for the Brazilian labor union CTB; and, Humberto Montes de Oca, from the government mugged Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas.
    There will also be representatives from Ecuador’s Confederacion de Trabajadores; Bolivia’s Central Obrero Boliviano, Cuba’s Central de Trabajadores, and the United States’ SEIU local 721.
    The Labor Conference registration is $80.00 for the three-day event or $55.00 for the weekend only. The Worker’s School fee is $60.00 for the entire three days of classes and discussions. Registration is at laborexchange@gmail.com or calling (313) 355-8566 or online at LaborExchange.blogspot.com. Reservations at the Hotel Placio Azteca can be made at (01) 800-026-6660.
    For any local student or unemployed person who wishes to attend, the Director of the San Diego Renters Union’s lover, a Mexican national, has made accommodations in his home in Tijuana available free of charge for the full six days of classes and conference. Also, the San Diego Renters Union is offering three scholarships for both the school and the conference. Go to their website,www.SanDiegoRentersUnion or call (619) 450-9804 to apply.
    Across the Southern Hemisphere millions of workers and unemployed have locked arms in solidarity to create space for justice and equality, to not only occupy their workplaces but to own them; let us not only support them but learn and “spread the experiences.”

Friday, October 28, 2011

2011 Tijuana Conference




REGISTER NOW - ONLINE or by mail!

PLEASE REGISTER BY NOVEMBER 20!


It's the EIGHTH Cuba/Venezuela/North America/Latin America Labor Conference - and 3-day workers' school. Register now, online with charge card or paypal account at: http://laborexchange.blogspot.com/


(For mail registration, print out the form below and mail that with a check to Labor Exchange, POB 39188, Redford, MI 48239 to be received by Nov. 20)

1) Click on DONATE button (upper right at laborexchange.blogspot.com), follow instructions
2) REGISTRATION FEES
** Conference $80 (Dec. 2, 3, 4)
** 3-day workers' classes $60   (Nov. 29, 30, Dec. 1)
3) Enter the dollar amount - $60, $80 or $140 for both (or more, if you can afford an additional donation to help with costs.) You and the Labor Exchange will both receive an email receipt that will be used at the conference to confirm your payment.
5) Send the info on the form below to: laborexchange@gmail.com
THEN - Make your hotel registration at Hotel Palacio Azteca, request the Cuba Labor Conference rate that includes breakfast and Saturday dinner (if you do not stay in the Hotel Palacio Azteca, please pay $25 extra for dinner on Saturday)

(Send your hotel confirmation number to laborexchange@gmail.com) Hotel details are farther down in this post. (If you have any problems with reserving a hotel room, please let us know - call: 313 675-4026.)


Conference Registration/ Datos para su inscripción a la Conferencia:
Name/Nombre:_____________________________________
Address/Direccion:___________________________________
City,State, Zip/Ciudad, Estado, Zona Postal: _______
Phone/Telefono:_____________Fax:_____________________
Email/Correo Electronico: ______________________
Union/Organization/Sindicato:____________________________

Enclosed is my registration fee(s) of:
[ ]$ 80 U.S. dollars (includes dinner and special Free the Cuban Five program with family members from Cuba)
[ ]$ 60 U.S. dollars for 3-day workers' school

[ ]$ 25 for Saturday dinner. I/we are not staying at the Hotel Palacio Azteca.
[ ] I would like to give a donation of $ ________ for a low-income participant.

[ ]Envio mi registro y mi donacion de 80 dolares US - conferencia
[ ]Envio mi registro y mi donacion de 60 dolares US -curso laboral
[ ]y quisiera aportar la cantidad de $_______para aquellos participantes de bajo ingreso.

Make checks payable to: Labor Exchange (if you don't pay online)
Haga los chekes pagables a: Labor Exchange

US/Cuba Labor Exchange ● P.O. BOX 39188 ● Redford MI 48239
● Phone: (313) 675 4026 ● Email: laborexchange@aol.com
(alternate contact: 313 355-8566 or LaborExchange@gmail.com)


WORKERS' SCHOOL (Nov. 29, 30 and Dec. 1): Working together with the Federacion Sindical Mundial in Mexico, the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, partnered with Union del Barrio, International Action Center and other organizers will convene a 3-day workers' school featuring instructor from the Central Trabajadores de Cuba (Cuba's Central Union organization), from Mexico and the U.S.
Register now -- put in your vacation request! Nov. 29, 30 and Dec. 1.
Class begins on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 9 am at the Hotel Palacio Azteca in Tijuana, Mexico.


FREE THE CUBAN FIVE: With the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, the night of solidarity will ask, "Will the real terrorist please stand up?" a new film by Saul Landau. Hear the latest developments in the international struggle for justice for the Cuban Five.


8TH U.S./CUBA/MEXICO/LATIN AMERICA LABOR CONFERENCE, 
Dec. 2, 3, 4 

Discuss the global capitalist economic crisis and the struggle for working class unity to win the better world that is possible for workers and oppressed nations. Share the emerging battles in the U.S. with the experiences and victories in the South. Encuentro Sindical de Nuestra America co-ordinators from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay are attending ... Cuba, Venezuela, Electrical workers from Mexico who have occupied the Xocalo in Mexico City since March, teachers from Michoacan and more.

VENUE: Hotel Palacio Azteca, Tijuana, Mexico:
Hotel Reservations/Reservaciones de Hotel:
Hotel Palacio Azteca
Blvd Cuauhtemoc Sur #213 Colonia Davila 22400 Tijuana, Mexico
*Toll Free from USA 1 888 901 3720 Toll Free From Mexico 01 8000266660
Please mention the/Favor de mencionar para un descuento al: Cuba Labor Conference to get the special price:
Single/Sencilla Room $81 U.S.Dollars * Double/Doble Room $116 U.S. Dollars*
*(Room rates include two breakfasts and one Saturday dinner per person)
*(Este precio incluye dos desayunos y una cena por persona)
Saturday: Coffee and sweets all day * Sabado: Cafe y bocadillos todo el dia
Reservations should be made as soon as possible/Realice su reservacion lo antes possible.
*If you have a problem please call 313 675-4026 or laborexchange@aol.com (alternate contact 313 355-8566.or laborexchange@gmail.com)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Tijuana Workers' School and Labor Conference!

WORKERS' SCHOOL: Working together with the Federacion Sindical Mundial in Mexico, the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, partnered with Union del Barrio, International Action Center and other organizers will convene a 3-day workers' school featuring instructors from the Central Trabajadores de Cuba (Cuba's Central Union organization), from Mexico and the U.S. Sign up now for more information - send an email to laborexchange@gmail.com -- put in your vacation request! Nov. 29, 30 and Dec. 1.


FREE THE CUBAN FIVE: With the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, the night of solidarity will ask, "Will the real terrorist please stand up?" a new film by Saul Landau. Hear the latest developments in the international struggle for justice for the Cuban Five.



8th U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference, 
Dec. 2, 3, 4 at the Hotel Palacio Azteca:
Hotel Reservations/Reservaciones de Hotel:
Hotel Palacio Azteca
Blvd Cuauhtemoc Sur #213 Colonia Davila 22400 Tijuana, Mexico
*Toll Free from USA 1 888 901 3720 Toll Free From Mexico 01 8000266660
Conference check in starts Friday afternoon, Dec. 2 - Conference ends 3 pm Sunday, Dec. 4
Please mention the/Favor de mencionar para un descuento al: Cuba Labor Conference to get the special price:
Single/Sencilla Room $81 U.S.Dollars * Double/Doble Room $116 U.S. Dollars*
*(Room rates include two breakfasts and one Saturday dinner per person)
*(Este precio incluye dos desayunos y una cena por persona)
Saturday: Coffee and sweets all day * Sabado: Cafe y bocadillos todo el dia
Reservations should be made as soon as possible/Realice su reservacion lo antes possible.
*If you have a problem please call 313 675-4026 or laborexchange@aol.com (alternate contact 313 355-8566.or laborexchange@gmail.com)

REGISTER NOW - ONLINE INFORMATION HERE

REGISTER and PAY online Tijuana Labor Conference and school

It's the EIGHTH Cuba/Venezuela/North America/Latin America Labor Conference - and 3-day Workers' School. Register now, online!


Want to Register and pay online with charge card or paypal account? Here's how at http://laborexchange.blogspot.com/


1) Click on DONATE button (upper right at laborexchange.blogspot.com), follow instructions



REGISTRATION FEES

2) Conference $80 (Dec. 2, 3, 4)

3) 3-day workers' classes $60   (Nov. 29, 30, Dec. 1)


4) Enter the dollar amount - $60, $80 or $140 for both (or more, if you can afford an additional donation to help with costs.) You and the Labor Exchange will both receive an email receipt that will be used at the conference to confirm your payment.


4) Send the info on the form below to: laborexchange@gmail.com




THEN - Make your hotel registration at Hotel Palacio Azteca, request the Cuba Labor Conference rate that includes breakfast and Saturday dinner (if you do not stay in the Hotel Palacio Azteca, please pay $25 extra for dinner on Saturday)

(Send your hotel confirmation number to laborexchange@gmail.com) Hotel details are farther down in this post. (If you have any problems with reserving a hotel room, please let us know - call: 313 675-4026.)


Conference Registration/ Datos para su inscripción a la Conferencia:


Name/Nombre:_____________________________________


Address/Direccion:___________________________________

City,State, Zip/Ciudad, Estado, Zona Postal: _______


Phone/Telefono:_____________Fax:_____________________


Email/Correo Electronico: ______________________


Union/Organization/Sindicato:____________________________


Enclosed is my registration fee(s) of:
[ ]$ 80 U.S. dollars (includes dinner and special Free the Cuban Five program with family members from Cuba)
[ ]$ 60 U.S. dollars for 3-day workers' school

[ ] I would like to give a donation of $ ________ for a low-income participant.


[ ]Envio mi registro y mi donacion de 80 dolares US - conferencia
[ ]Envio mi registro y mi donacion de 60 dolares US -
[ ]y quisiera aportar la cantidad de $_______para aquellos participantes de bajo ingreso.


Make checks payable to: Labor Exchange (if you don't pay online)
Haga los chekes pagables a: Labor Exchange


US/Cuba Labor Exchange ● P.O. BOX 39188 ● Redford MI 48239 ● Phone/Fax: (313) 575 4933 ● Email: laborexchange@aol.com

Thursday, October 20, 2011

REGISTER NOW!
Conference - Dec. 2, 3, 4
Workers' School - Nov. 29, 30, Dec. 1
all at Hotel Palacio Azteca - Tijuana, Mexico 
see Registration info in the list to the right

Friday, October 7, 2011

2011 Tijuana UPDATE!

2011 Tijuana - Dec. 2, 3, 4 Workers' School! NEW

WORKERS' SCHOOL: Working together with the Federacion Sindical Mundial in Mexico, the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, partnered with Union del Barrio, International Action Center and other organizers will convene a 3-day workers' school featuring instructor from the Central Trabajadores de Cuba (Cuba's Central Union organization), from Mexico and the U.S. Sign up now for more information - send an email to laborexchange@gmail.com -- put in your vacation request! Nov. 29, 30 and Dec. 1.


FREE THE CUBAN FIVE: With the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, the Dec. 2 Friday night of solidarity will feature ask, "Will the real terrorist please stand up?" a new film by Saul Landau.


8th U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference, 
Dec. 2, 3, 4 at the Hotel Palacio Azteca:
Hotel Reservations/Reservaciones de Hotel:
Hotel Palacio Azteca
Blvd Cuauhtemoc Sur #213 Colonia Davila 22400 Tijuana, Mexico
*Toll Free from USA 1 888 901 3720 Toll Free From Mexico 01 8000266660
Conference check in starts Friday afternoon, Dec. 2 - Conference ends 3 pm Sunday, Dec. 4
Please mention the/Favor de mencionar para un descuento al: Cuba Labor Conference to get the special price:
Single/Sencilla Room $81 U.S.Dollars * Double/Doble Room $116 U.S. Dollars*
*(Room rates include two breakfasts and one Saturday dinner per person)
*(Este precio incluye dos desayunos y una cena por persona)
Saturday: Coffee and sweets all day * Sabado: Cafe y bocadillos todo el dia
Reservations should be made as soon as possible/Realice su reservacion lo antes possible.
*If you have a problem please call 313 675-4026 or laborexchange@aol.com (alternate contact 313 355-8566.or laborexchange@gmail.com)

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Sunday, August 28, 2011

4th ESNA ends in Managua! On to Tijuana Dec. 2011

Send a copy of this message to a friend with this link.

Since the last Tijuana Conference, resistance by workers, poor people and oppressed nations against the domination of international financial institutions and the military that enforces their austerity have percolated in the U.S. and blossomed around the world.

Join sisters and brothers from Cuba, Mexico and more Latin American and Caribbean countries to continue the ESNA process and build for the struggle ahead.

Join us in Tijuana, Dec. 2, 3, 4.

Plan to come a few days earlier -- watch for an announcement soon about labor classes in conjunction with the conference.

Watch laborexchange.blogspot.com - online registration will be active soon. DONATIONS are always gratefully welcomed and accepted online or by mail to Labor Exchange POB 39188, Redford, MI 48239.

http://albatv.org/4o-Encuentro-Sindical-Nuestra.html
Deepening the political consciousness of the American labor movement

4th Meeting Association Our America (Encuentro Sindical Nuestra America) debate over the role of the union movement

NICARAGUA | AUGUST 27, 2011 
SOURCE: BY GIORGIO TRUCCHI - LINYM
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document by email
This Thursday (25 / 8) opened in Managua, Nicaragua, the 4th Meeting Association Our America (ESNA).
Main purpose of the over 300 delegates from 134 organizations from 23 countries of the continent will be "advancing and deepening the political consciousness of the American labor movement," and while "taking stock of progress and remaining gaps exist, and that should be corrected without alarm, "said John Castillo, coordinator of the ESNA.
Castillo explained that this meeting will also seek to make a thorough analysis of the political situation in America and the world to be defining "what is today the role and the challenge of organized international working class."
Therefore, the 4 th ESNA is a space that seeks to "build unity in action of all workers over the idiologías and affiliations with a strong commitment to the political processes of advanced our America," said Castillo .
The coordinator of the event also highlighted the importance of further examining the relationship between unionism and politics. "Remember that in 2005, during the World Social Forum, the Presidents Hugo Chávez, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Evo Morales called to forge a new kind of labor movement, asking not left alone.
Trade unions, central and organized labor - went Castillo - should not be a mere spectator of the political and social changes, but we must be involved and integrated into what is a real dispute with the ruling class " also said the leader of the PIT-CNT in Uruguay.
The theme of the relationship between politics and trade unionism has been at the center of discussion in recent years. "We should not have you fear, because we have come to rely increasingly on our working class. However, be extremely careful."
The labor movement's involvement in these political processes "does not mean being subject to the mandates of governments or political parties. They are different things. I am convinced that workers and their organizations should be increasingly politicized, but less partirizados" Castillo said.
For two days, delegates will be divided into three working groups, addressing key issues such as outsourcing. "We have to continue working for the worker and the worker to take an increasing awareness that we must study, learn, research and perfect for achieving change the correlation of forces and eliminate phenomena such as outsourcing, which is nothing more than a degree top of the exploitation of the working class. "
Finally, Castillo reported that deepen some of the specific commitments made by the ESNA, such as collecting signatures on an international level against the U.S. military base in Latin America, and the proposal made yesterday (25 / 8) by the founder of the FSLN (Sandinista Front for National Liberation), Tomas Borge, on behalf of five Cubans unfairly imprisoned in United States.
The 4th ESNA end on August 27 with the pooling of the results of the three working groups and final reading of the Declaration.
By Giorgio Trucchi - LINyM

Friday, August 12, 2011

Aug. 13 in Los Angeles - Labor's voice, Free the Cuban Five!

Saturday August 13
6pm (Program will start at 7pm)

SEIU-USWW Hall 828 W. Washington Blvd, Los Angeles Free admission

Program presentations include: Tony Woodley, UNITE the large Irish/English union that produced the youtube below in 2008! Woodley has visited Gerardo Hernandez. 

The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, René González, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González. They are sons, husbands, brothers, poets, pilots, college graduates and artists. To the 11 millon Cubans they are considered heroes. They were arrested in 1998, and are currently serving long sentences in five different prisons across the United States. They never killed or threatened anyone, their mission was to infiltrate and monitor the activites of violent groups within the Cuban exiles who have been responsible for the deaths of 3,500 Cubans since 1959. 

As the Cuban 5 case continues to be known in the United States, leaders of the international labor movement will gather in Los Angeles to bring this important case to their membership.  This event coincides with the birthday of Rene Gonzalez, one of the Cuban 5 who is currently serving his sentence in Marianna Florida. 

PROGRAM INCLUDES
An exhibition of political cartoons by Gerardo Hernandez. Herandez is one of the internationally known Cuban 5 political prisoners held in US Prisons since 1998. He is currently serving two life sentences in Victorville, 100 miles away from LA.

Live Music

Brief Video of Danny Glover on the Cuban 5

Presentations by
Mike Garcia, President of SEIU-USWW

Cristina R. Vazquez, Workers United, Western States Regional Joint Board, International Vice-President, Regional Manager
Tony Woodley, Unite - Britain's largest trade union Former National President and lead officer on the Cuban Five for UK unions

Alicia Jrapko, US coordinator, International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5

For more Info: 213-284-3808