Ernesto is a proud Cuban

There are some great lines in bushranger Ned Kelly’s famous Jerilderie Letter of 1879 (it’s on the web), but it’s hard to go past ‘there never was such a thing as justice in the English laws, but any amount of injustice to be had.’ 

Ask Ernesto Cazanas, from the Cuban National Council of the CTC (equivalent of our ACTU)  whether Ned Kelly’s words were applicable to the USA and the answer would be a passionate ‘yes’. Ernesto is a proud Cuban who’ll talk ad nauseam about the charisma and significance of president Fidel Castro.

That however wasn’t the centrepiece of the conversation when he visited the ETU on Wednesday 21 October. Ernesto is asking for the support of unions and progressively minded people in the campaign to have five Cubans gaoled in the USA in 1998, set free. The men were charged after engaging in covert activities against individuals they believed were conspiring to conduct terrorist acts against Cuba. The Cubans, who were living in the US, were charged after passing on the intelligence to the Cuban government. Defence lawyers were strongly opposed to the trials being held in anti-Cuba Florida, where it was felt a fair trial was impossible

For more information about the Cuban Five click here