Please find December 2010 Newsletter for Perth ACFS


ACFS-Newsletter1-12-10 -

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[The information below is from Tim Anderson, 8 December 2010.]

Cuban news agencies Granma and Prensa Latina says that Julian Assange's 'rape' accuser, Anna Ardin, is a Cuban CIA collaborator who has been working with Miami-based, US Government paid agencies.  They say Ardin is linked to the anti-Cuban terrorist Carlos Aberto Montaner.

After leaving Cuba, Ardin worked with web sites financed by USAID and controlled by the CIA. One of these sites was 'Miscelánea de Cuba', run by the Cuban Alexis Gainza. Through Gainza she became linked to Swediish agencies, including Dagens Nyheter and SVT, and entered the Swedish social democrat party.

Gainza is linked to the German Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (International Human Rights Society), a group linked to German and US intelligence and has some former nazis (such as Ludwig Martin) and ex military figures (Dieter von Glahn) in its ranks.

The current president of the IGFM, Martin Lessenthin, works closely with the Venezuelan oppsoition party Primero Justicia, led by the anti-Chavez terrorist Alejandro Peña.

Primero Justicia, in turn is the main partner of the International republican Institute, and extreme right wing group funded by the US Government's National Endowment for Democracy.

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Dear ACFSers,

I am forwarding this very important message received from the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuabn 5about a decision made by the International gathering in solidarity with the Five, VI International Colloquium for the Freedomof the 5 Heroes and Against Terrorism, in Holguin. Sorry for any cross postings but I didn't want to miss anyone, we need to activate faxes, calls and emails from all members and societies and support this important 5 day action.   
   
Please read below for the message received and then get ready to hit the phones, emails and faxes from the 10th to the 15th Dec.

 

In Friendship

 

Elizabeth

Branch Secretary

ACFS WA  

 

On December 10

International Day of Human Rights  
Lets raise our voices for the heroes

5 DAYS FOR THE 5

Delegates from Latin America and Europe who were present at the VI International Colloquium for the Freedom of the 5 Heroesand Against Terrorism, in Holguin, proposed to put in place an immediate plan of action for December 10, International Day of Human Rights.

On that day, from 9AM to 5PM (Eastern Time), and for 5 consecutive days LETS CALL, OR SEND FAXES, OR SEND E-MAILS,to the WHITE HOUSE to demand President Obama  Free the 5 Cuban Patriots imprisoned in the United States for defending their homeland.

The significance of this day is that on December 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rightsand established that day as the International Day on Human Rights.

In a report issued on October 13, 2010, Amnesty International asked the US government to review the case of the Cuban 5 and to mitigateany injustice through the process of clemency or any other appropriate means, in case that new legal appeals do not provide a timely remedy.

President Obama has more than enough proof of the innocence of the Cuban 5, he knows that they never were a threat to US National Security,that they carried no guns and that their only objective was to monitor terrorist organizations based in Miami to avoid the death of more innocent people. 

On the International Day of Human Rights, and making use of the rights conferred by the US Constitution, we are asking President Obama as a lawyer,as a father, as a son, as a husband, as a decent justice loving person, and as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to END THIS COLOSSAL INJUSTICE AND TO FREE THE 5 NOW!!!

DIFFERENT WAYS TO REACH THE WHITE HOUSE

By phone: 202-456-1111If calling from outside the United States, dial first the International Area Code + 1 (US country code) followed by 202-456-1111

By Fax: 202-456-2461If fax is sent from outside the United States, dial first the International Area Code + 1 (US country code) followed by 202-456-2461

To send an electronic message write to: HTTP://WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=yre9a4cab&et=1103981281059&s=0&e=0016256HTdUsnqYvmWD4bpJgdLCAzdCAzYKswb7sgE29y2vblcJxp790t2EJUePhBCE4gETzBpTBsjy_QCRk_25zQxSnlMqXp6S3JfKfb_VxZ2GsH_iS6P7OQ==&id=preview>

 President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
EE.UU.

THIS COLLECTIVE ACTION WILL ONLY BE EFFECTIVE IF PEOPLE FROM THE US, AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, CALL, OR SEND FAX, or E-MAILS , FROM DECEMBER 10 TO DECEMBER 14.

IF YOU CAN NOT REACH ANYBODY BY PHONE, PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE.

TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT!!!

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Unbelievable we are almost at the end of another year and it is time to farewell the brigadistas again. It's a good opportunity as well to take time out to have an informal get together to finish up another busy year. This year the branch has decided to have a breakfast on the foreshore at the end of the South Perth Esplanade at 9:30am on Sunday 28th November. Look at the attached link - east of the Mends Street Jetty where there are BBQ's and a playground. Look for the Cuban flag.

ACFS will provide eggs, bacon, chorizo, buns and more. You are welcome to bring a drink or something to share and bring your families. We look forward to seeing you all there. Please RSVP to this email to help with catering.

In Friendship

Elizabeth

Map reference:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q=mends+street+jetty+south+perth+esplanade&safe=off&ie=UTF8&ll=-31.972661,115.855905&spn=0.003968,0.009602&z=17

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Dear ACFS supporters,

I would like to share this news with you. It is the first time AI backs up the case of the Cuban Five. An opportunity to lobby AI Australia to follow suit.

In solidarity,

Vinnie Molina

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20101013001&lang=e

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/093/2010/en/9911673a-a171-49db-b757-581f2fbdfe11/amr510932010en.pdf

Amnesty International Seeks Review of Case of the ‘Cuban Five’

Human rights organization calls on US government to review case and mitigate any injustice

Contact: AIUSA media relations office, 202-509-8194

(Washington, D.C.) In a report released today, Amnesty International outlines its concerns with the fairness of the trial of five men convicted in 2001 of acting as intelligence agents for Cuba, among other charges. The five men are serving terms ranging from 15 years to life in US federal prisons.

In a letter sent to United States Attorney General Eric Holder on October 4, Amnesty International noted doubts about the fairness and impartiality of the trial which have not been resolved on appeal. The human rights organization has not taken a position on whether the five men are guilty or innocent of the charges against them.

The five -- Cuban nationals Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, and US nationals Antonio Guerrero and René González -- were tried in Miami and convicted on various counts, including acting and conspiring to act as unregistered agents of the Republic of Cuba, fraud and misuse of identity documents and, in the case of three of the accused, conspiracy to transmit national defense information. Gerardo Hernández was further convicted of conspiracy to murder, based on his alleged role in the 1996 shoot-down by Cuba of two planes operated by a US anti-Castro organization, Brothers to the Rescue, in which four people died.

Amnesty International’s report said holding the trial in Miami, given the pervasive hostility to the Cuban government in that area, along with media and other events before and during the trial were factors that made it impossible to ensure a wholly impartial jury.

Other concerns included questions about the strength of the evidence to support the conspiracy to murder conviction in the case of Gerardo Hernández, and whether the circumstances of the pre-trial detention of the five men, in which they had limited access to their attorneys and to documents, may have undermined their right to defense.

Amnesty International has called on the government to review the case and mitigate any injustice through the clemency process or other appropriate means, should further legal appeals prove ineffective.

Amnesty International has also reiterated its concern about the repeated denials by the US government of temporary visas to allow the Cuban wives of two of the prisoners, René González and Gerardo Hernández, to visit their husbands. The organization is concerned that such a blanket or permanent bar on visits with their wives constitutes additional punishment and is contrary to international standards for the humane treatment of prisoners and states’ obligation to protect family life. Amnesty International continues to urge the government to grant the wives temporary visas on humanitarian grounds.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

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Video by Zeb Parkes

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Perth ACFS Newsletter 14-9-10

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12 September 2010: Around 25 gathered at the Wesley Church corner in Perth city to mark the 12th anniversary of the unjust incarceration of the Cuban Five. Shoppers were told about the 3,400 people who have been brutally murdered by the actions of terrorist groups based in Miami.

Speakers spoke about the injustice against these 5 Cuban Heroes who harmed no one but were imprisoned after giving information they had collected about these terrorist groups operating against Cuba from U.S. soil to the U.S. government, hoping the U.S. would live up to its rhetoric against terrorism and intervene to jail the terrorists. Many shoppers stopped to find out more and to sign a petition for the freedom of the Five.

Following speeches the rally marched through the Hay Street Mall handing out leaflets to interested shoppers, calling for Obama to exercise his power to rectify the grave injustice of this politically motivated attack on Five brave men who were fighting against terrorism.

Written by Elizabeth Hulm. Photos by Alex Bainbridge. Video by Zeb Parkes here.

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The Australia-Cuba Friendship Society, ACFS is organising the 28th Australia-NZ Southern Cross Work-Study Brigade to Cuba. 

We organise the Southern Cross brigade as the best way for people to see for themselves what the Cuban revolution has been able to provide to its people in the way of free access to education and health, housing and jobs.

This is the 28th Brigade which is the very same number of years since the friendship societies were established in Australia.

We work closely with the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, ICAP which has links with friendship organisations in over 120 countries.

As part of our solidarity work we organise educational forums and exchange information about Cuba and its revolution. We also sponsor health, education and other projects in Cuba. Currently we are funding the reconstruction of a school for children with special needs in the province of Las Tunas. Brigadistas as we call people travelling with the Southern Cross Brigade will carry and hand in the monies collected throughout
the year for the above mentioned project.

So far we have a number of people who have expressed interest in attending the brigade from Perth. Rhonda Andrews is the National Brigade coordinator who can give you more details of the number of people attending from Perth and other parts of Australia and NZ.

ACFS Perth will run an information session for people interested in the brigade on Sunday 19th September from 3-5pm at the Activist Centre 15/5 Aberdeen Street East Perth, information attached.  Visit: www.cubabrigade.org.au

The sessions are good because you get to meet others who have been on previous brigades and to ask questions etc.


If you would like to have a chat please feel free to call 0419 812 872 anytime or contact Rhonda Andrews on 92472731 after 6pm or by email: bowgadabird1@hotmail.com

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As you might be aware the Australia Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS) has organised a rally to protest the incarceration of Five Cuban anti-terrorists known as "The Cuban Five". They have been in US prisons for 12 long years for no crime ever committed.

Join us on Sunday 12th September from 12:30pm at the Wesley Church grounds for a peaceful protest rally, calling for freedom of the  Cuban Five.

The Cuban Five are five Cuban men serving four life sentences and 75 years collectively in US prisons, after being wrongly convicted in the US federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001. They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González.

The Five were falsely accused by the US government of committing espionage, conspiracy against the United States, and other related charges. But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defence that they were involved in peacefully monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their homeland Cuba.

For more than 40 years, Cuba has been the target of terrorist attacks by anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami. Such groups operate with complete impunity from within the United States to attack Cuba—with the knowledge and support of the FBI and CIA.
More than 3,000 Cubans have died as a result of these terrorists’ attacks.

But instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five anti-terrorists on September 12, 1998. The Five were illegally held in solitary confinement for 17 months in a Miami prisons.

The campaign for the release of the Cuban Five has been supported by declarations from hundreds of parliamentarians in Britain, Italy, and the European and Latin American Parliaments. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, with five judges, ruled that there were irregularities in the Five’s trial and arrest, effectively denying them a fair trial and calls on the US government to remedy this injustice.
Around Australia, Australia-Cuba Friendship Societies have been working hard to raise awareness about their case. The rally we will hold on September 12, will be a peaceful assembly and distribute fliers to raise awareness of the case.

More information on the campaign can be found at http://www.freethefive.org.

FREE THE CUBAN FIVE!

Yours in solidarity,

Vinnie Molina
Branch President
Australia Cuba Friendship Society

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On Saturday 24th July the city of Fremantle in Western Australia wore the colours of the Cuban Revolution. The Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS) threw a big Revolution party, a unique event for Perth.

The party kicked off with a warm welcome from Cuban ambassador to Australia, Mr Abelardo Curbelo, who kindly accepted the invitation to visit Western Australia for the celebrations. He highlighted the significance of the historical event, the spark of the Cuban revolution, in the city of Santiago de Cuba which sees the town shut down its activities for a week to dance the days and nights away to rhythms of Cuban music.

Almost 200 people attended the big revolution party which featured local band Latin Fusion. ACFS secretary Elizabeth Hulm talked to people about the aims of the friendship society in Perth that for 16 years has been strengthening the friendship between the peoples of Australia and Cuba.

She told the attendees that it is only their solidarity that would enable the ACFS to raise the dollars needed to fund this year’s project in the province of Las Tunas, Cuba. ACFS Perth is currently sponsoring the rebuilding of the local school for children with special needs whose dream is to attend the Paralympics sometime in the future.

Branch president Vinnie Molina invited those present to visit Cuba in the upcoming Southern Cross brigade to Cuba due on Boxing Day. He also talked on the plight of the Cuban Five men unjustly incarcerated in US prisons for no crime and whom are unable to get visits by their wives.  The night ended at midnight with a chant of Viva Cuba!

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Why not join our next work & study tour to Cuba?

 The Australian Cuban Friendship Society’s

28^th Southern Cross Brigade to Cuba

December 27^th 2010 - January 20^th 2011.

Join other Australians & New Zealanders on the trip of a lifetime as you experience life in Cuba from a different perspective to that of the ordinary tourist.
                           www.cubabrigade.org.au
                                    
                                               
         Drinks & nibbles provided

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The Australia-Cuba Friendship Society
invites you to a public talk with

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister

His Excellency Bruno Rodriguez-Parrilla

Speaking on:

Cuba Today &

Australia-Cuba relations

Minister Bruno Rodriguez-Parilla has a degree in law and worked as a professor of International Public Law at the University of Havana. From February 1995 - December 2003 he served as the permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations. From 2003 - 2004 he was Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of Latin America and the Carribbean and for information and communication. In 2004, he was appointed First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs. He led the humanitarian medical missions to Haiti in 2004 and to Pakistan in 2005-2006.

6:30pm, Monday 7 June
Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA
(entrance: carpark No 4 off Hackett Drive)

For more information: ACFS on 0419 812 872 or 0421 113 343
Email: acfsperth@gmail.com or http://acfs-perth.blogspot.com/

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Doctors of Tomorrow
A special screening of the documentary by Tim Anderson about cooperation between Cuba and Timor Leste. It includes interviews with some of the 850 East Timorese students studying medicine with the Cubans in the biggest medical college on Earth. From 2010, these young people will begin to take control of their country's health system. Filmed in Timor Leste & Cuba.

7:30pm (following ACFS branch meeting at 6:30pm)
Monday 1 March

Perth Activist Centre (15/5 Aberdeen St, East Perth - next to McIver station)

Organised by Australia-Cuba Friendship Society
PO Box 1455, South Perth 6951

Email: acfsperth@gmail.com

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On Thursday 28^th January the ACFS Perth called for a special meeting to celebrate the 157^th anniversary of birth of Cuban hero of independence Jose Marti.

It was a very moving celebration to pay homage and remember one of the greatest Latin American poets and revolutionaries who committed their lives to the people.

The ACFS screened the documentary on the life of Marti, ‘Soldier of light” which gives a brief description of the rich life of the apostle of Cuba. Members of the society discussed the life of Jose Marti and read one of his famous poems: “Versos Sencillos”.

ACFS also discussed Cuban’s contribution in Haiti as well as condemned the occupation carried out by the Obama Administration in contrast with Cubans medical assistance.

The attendees demanded Cuba be removed from the US list of countries sponsors of international terrorism.

ACFS has sent letters to the US ambassador based in Canberra demanding the removal of Cuba from the US terrorist list. ACFS also sent an open letter to the Australian Foreign Affairs minister, the Hon Stephen Smith asking the government to make a donation of medicines to the Cuban health brigade in Haiti.

ACFS read a message of solidarity sent by local member Dr Katherine Edyvane who is currently working with a team of Cuban doctors in East Timor.

Finally, we all enjoyed a delicious cake specially baked for the occasion by local member

Rhonda Andrews.

Viva Cuba,

Viva Jose Marti

Long live the friendship between Australia and Cuba!

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ACFS   

AUSTRALIA-CUBA FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY, WA BRANCH      

PO BOX 1455   SOUTH PERTH   WA   6951

acfsperth@gmail.com

28th January 2010

                 Open Letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Stephen Smith

PO Box 6022                                                        PO Box 901
House of Representatives                                       Inglewood WA 6932
Parliament House           
Canberra ACT 2600

To the Honourable Stephen Smith

We write with a letter of request for you to consider sending financial assistance from Australia to supply medicines and medical supplies to the Cuban doctors in Haiti.

We believe this is the best way to deliver aid effectively to Haiti.  Cuban doctors already have 11 solid years of helping Haiti with doctors and health professionals. After the earthquake they were there first, setting up a hospital beside the collapsed national hospital.

By noon on day 2 more medical teams arrived from Cuba and currently there are around 400 doctors and nurses and other technicians in eight separate field hospitals. Already over 13400 consultations, 1070 surgical interventions of which 550 were considered major surgeries have been performed and the need is ongoing with secondary infections and gangrene now appearing.

The U.S. blockade on Cuba impacts greatly on the cost of medical supplies to the Cuban doctors and despite this Cuba continues to supply free medical aid – the Cuban government funds the personnel – on a scale unmatched even by the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières.

The earthquakes in the Kashmir region of Pakistan in 2005 illustrates well the extent of this assistance when Cuban doctors were the only attending medical teams that set up field hospitals in the most hard to reach areas to the north. Often the most seriously ill patients are transported to Cuba for treatment including Vietnamese Kim Phuc, the little girl shown in the famous war photograph running naked along a road, her skin burned by napalm and some 19,000 adults and children from the three Soviet republics most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986

The Norwegian Embassy in Cuba has signed an agreement with the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX) to donate five million Norwegian crowns (approximately US $885,000) as emergency aid to the Haitian people. The money will be used to buy and send medical equipment and supplies to the Cuban Health Brigade working in Haiti.

We strongly encourage you to follow the example of Norway and make a contribution from Australia.

Regards,

Elizabeth Hulm

Branch Secretary

0421 113 343

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Please join us for a celebration to commemorate Jose Marti's birth. A short documentary will be screened, join us and feel free to invite your friends along. There will also be a brief discussion about the latest developments of US policy on Cuba such as the inclusion on the list of 14 countries that sponsor terrorism. Bring a plate to share, we will have drinks there.

Thursday 28 January

6.30pm Perth Activist Centre 

(15 / 5 Aberdeen St, East Perth - next to McIver station)

[Please note this meeting doesn't replace our first branch meeting for 2010 which will be held at the activist centre on Monday 1st February at 6:30pm]

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Dear ACFSers:

We have posted here a video on the Royal Ballet recent visit to Cuba. You can also look at the comments posted by viewers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlOYra_wzKU

The anniversary of birth of Cuban hero of independence Jose Marty is on this Thursday 28th January. We will endeavor to organise a short meeting to pay homage to him. Details to follow.

We will also include a discussion on the recent inclusion of Cuba as a country sponsor of international terrorism by the Obama administration.

In friendship,

Vinnie Molina

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