Solidarity with the Cuban 5!

Vanguard September 2014

Richard S

The recent speaking tour by Aili Labanino-Cardoso (above) about the Cuban Five provided the solidarity movement with an important boost in Australia.

The treatment of the Cuban Five, at the hands of the United States, remains an outrage. It clearly shows the duplicity of US foreign policy and how decision-makers in Washington and the Pentagon act toward others regarded as obstacles to their foreign policy, diplomatic and military objectives.

The speaking tour by Aili was perfectly timed, coinciding with high-level diplomatic talks between Australia and the US about the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific region, today, has become heavily militarised as the US seek to contain and encircle China.

The speaking tour also had a strong relevance for the Australian solidarity movement. Some of those responsible for establishment of far-right Cuban exile paramilitary groups in Miami later became prominent in implementation of US foreign policy directives for Australia, with hallmarks of similar duplicity.

Aili opened her talk at the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Offices, Adelaide, South Australia, by stating since the progressive M-26-7 forces came to power in Havana on 1 January 1959, the US has not been in favour of a free Cuba. Their hegemonic positions toward the region sought compliant governments across the Caribbean and southern half of the Americas. 

In response to the unfolding Cuban Revolution and socialist economic development which successfully challenged hegemonic positions, the US financed and actively supported Cuban exile groups and their terrorist organisations for covert operations. They sought to reassert traditional authority patterns and a compliant, pro-US government to serve their interests

She listed a number of the organisations implicated in covert operations, including ALPFA 66 and others based in Miami. They served as `lightening rods', specialising in planting of bombs in shopping centres and elsewhere. Another speciality was germ warfare, including dengue fever. There were, to date, 3,478 fatalities from their attacks in Cuba, together with a further 2,099 injured.

Aili also drew attention to the Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) paramilitary incursion which M-26-7 forces loyal to Fidel Castro repelled in 1961.

She also spoke about the bombing and blowing-up of a Cubana DC-8 plane, Flight 455, flying from Barbados to Cuba, in October 1976, killing 73 people. A paramilitary, counter-revolutionary group named `El Condor' accepted responsibility.

For many years an almost daily campaign to destabilise the Cuban Revolution took place from groups in Miami, backed by successive US governments. In response to the direct challenge of terrorism, Cuba sought to defend itself. It, therefore, quickly developed an effective system of relaying information about adversaries.

The Cuban Five were an important part of anti-terrorist operations. Their designated role was to infiltrate terrorist organisations based in the US, which they did successfully. Their specific responsibility was to prevent criminal attacks, against Cuban people.

It was when the Cuban Five discovered plans to assassinate then US President Clinton the operation faltered. Decision-makers in Washington did not respond in the usual manner, throwing light upon discrepancies between political elites and military planners in  the Pentagon. The anti-terrorists who were arrested on 12 September 1998. The perpetrators of a planned assassination of a US president, however, were allowed to continue their covert operations.

Aili was particularly moving and personal about the outrage of the arrest and conviction of the Cuban Five. Her father, Ramon Labanino, was one of the Cuban Five. Aili spoke about the problem of her father being incarcerated in prison in another country, while her family had to come to terms with growing up without him.

For nearly sixteen years the Cuban Five case has been the subject to legal wrangling. Huge question marks surround the verdicts, they were convicted on flimsy charges; they had exposed criminal  activities outside of US jurisdiction. The sentences were preposterous. The Cuban Five, however, were responsible for unveiling covert US foreign policy objectives toward Cuba and elsewhere. Adversaries in Washington and the Pentagon view their exposure and dirty tricks as a threat to `US interests'.

`Cuba is a hundred per cent committed to this struggle', stated Aili.

She drew attention to the fact a massive solidarity movement has developed around the struggle to free the Cuban Five. Over 300 active committees around the world successfully lobby governments and other influential bodies including the United Nations. More than ten Nobel Prize Winners have spoken in their support. Several Latin American presidents have also added weight to the campaign. Aili noted, however, US presidents Clinton, Bush and now Obama have never spoken publicly about the matter despite the fact they have the ability to commute the sentences, if they so wished. Their silence, is noted.

While US foreign policy is conducted on the regional basis, it follows a consistent global plan.

In the background to the Adelaide solidarity meeting, major diplomatic initiatives were taking place in Canberra, with far-reaching implications for progressive m movements in Australia and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel were meeting Australian counterparts, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defence Minister David Johnson for the annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN).

High-placed on official agendas was the implementation of final stages of the Global Transformation of Defence and Security (GTDS). It includes Japan being transformed into a fully-fledged regional hub for `US interests' in the northern part of the region, with Australia, a counterpart, in the southern half. 

US defence and security planning has increasingly militarised the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. It remains stifling, from one side of the region to the other. There is little ambiguity with military objectives, at varying levels. It is intended to reassert US hegemonic positions and push the triumphalism of capitalism and imperialism, still further.

The plans have a general aim of containing and encircling China due to the perceived threat it poses to `US interests'. Other specific concerns include the Korean peninsula with almost continual joint military manoeuvres led by the US and allies, including Australia. They include the use of live ammunition for firing drills.

Progressive organisations across the Asia-Pacific region are, today, faced with the stark reality of dominant US hegemonic positions, their assessments and perceptions of regional balance of forces. It is against this backcloth that voicing any effective form of dissent has become, increasingly, more and more difficult.

Solidarity with Cuba, therefore, has become more important than ever, Cuba has successfully resisted US global positions. In the polarisation Cuba remains a standard-bearer of challenge and resistance to `US interests' and all which that entails. It has a long, proud history of resistance and support for oppressed peoples the world-over.

Progressive organisations, in Australia, retain a strong affinity with Cuba. Solidarity campaigns have been active for decades. There has also been an intertwining of concern about prominent people placed within US intelligence services with responsibility for the two countries for over forty years. Theodore Shackley was one of the founders of US covert operations with Cuban exile groups in Miami. He later become Head of the CIA Western Hemisphere Division with responsibility for Australia in the mid-1970's period.

Using Australia as a base for covert operations and US foreign policy objectives, Shackley and his cohorts were responsible for establishing shonky banks, front-style organisations and deep penetration of bureaucracies to further `US interests through funding shadowy organisations. The legacy of the activities still lingers within contemporary Australian society, through a complicated matrix of inter-locking circles of influence converging upon Canberra. Their penchant for out-sourcing extra-curricula activities, however, allows the US intelligence services an opportunity to deny official involvement.

Diplomacy between the US and Australia, was never and has never, been conducted on the basis of an equal footage. It remains based upon Washington and Pentagon assessments for geo-political and strategic planning. Australian governments are expected to follow directives and the defence of `US interests'.

A recent statement from the Australian Defence Department has shown just how vital the country has become for `US interests'. In the lead-up to the high level diplomatic AUSMIN meetings, an announcement from former Army Chief Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy stated the Geraldtown `spy-base' would be further developed and `catapulted into the future' with increased facilities for accessing US satellite systems for drone warfare. Australia is already littered with `US facilities'.

The exact nature of US-Australian diplomatic relations was stated as, `The new ground station will facilitate and greatly enhance the communications for drone activities in the Indian Ocean and South-east Asia. This is a new development for the US', which required the Australian-based ground station to access wideband global satellite systems.

When Aili spoke about her father and the Cuban Five, it carried a particularly strong relevance for those involved in Australian solidarity work and other progressive struggles. There remains little ambiguity about the nature of the main adversay, its role, capacity and historical behaviour toward those regarded as obstacles.

The speaking tour of the major cities across Australia for Aili was hosted by the CFMEU and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), two bastions of militant trade-union organisation together with the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS).

(Aili and her Cuban Embassy translator with Aaron Cartledge, SA State Secretary of the CFMEU, 22nd left, and SA Greens leader Mark Parnell MP, 3rd left).

While in South Australia Aili also provided a briefing for M.P.'s in preparation for a possible Parliamentary delegation to Cuba next year and met representatives of the federal Australian Council for Trade Unions (ACTU).

Those attending the South Australian meetings were also provided with a statement from former Cuban leader Fidel Castro about the `Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza'.

Ever Onward to Victory!

The triumphalism of capitalism and imperialism will not last forever!

Viva Cuba!

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LETTER FROM CUBAN FIVE TO SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN AUSTRALIA:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Australia

It is a great honour for the five of use to send our love and gratitude through my daughter, Aili.

We know how powerful and important is the excellent job you carry out for our course, for Cuba, every day. We feel honoured and privileged for counting on your solidarity and support.

Also, we would like to use this opportunity to express our solidarity with the Palestinian people, with Gaza, with all children and innocent civilians who are suffering this horrendous war.

We join the international demand to a cease fire and to find a peaceful solution - Palestine has a right to exist as an independent state and live in peace!

Thank you so much for all your letters, photos and support.

The struggle continues till the final victory.

Five hugs

Antonio, Rene, Fernando, Gerardo, Ramon