BY ERNIE MAILHOT
MIAMI - Activists against the U.S. economic blockade of
Cuba here have called for a public meeting titled "100 Years
of Struggle Against U.S. Domination - Resistance of the
Puerto Rican and Cuban People." It will be held at the First
Unitarian Church in southwest Miami on May 2.
Among the featured speakers at this event will be Rafael Cancel Miranda, a Puerto Rican independence fighter who spent 28 years in U.S. prisons; Andrés Gómez from the Antonio Maceo Brigade, an organization of Cubans in the United States who support the Cuban revolution; and Mary- Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press and editor of the English-language edition of The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara. A representative from Cuba has also been invited to address the meeting.
The sponsors of the meeting include the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba, the Antonio Maceo Brigade, the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community, and the Socialist Workers Party.
One year ago the same groups sponsored a public meeting in Miami for Félix Wilson, the First Secretary of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. This event marked the first time that a public meeting with a representative of the revolutionary government of Cuba was held in Miami. More than 200 people, most of them Cuban-Americans, attended.
Orlando Collado, from the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba, commented on the importance of the upcoming Miami meeting. "Last year's meeting was a big success and showed the changes in this city. Those attacking Cuba have less support. The meeting with Rafael Cancel Miranda and the others will also show this. And this time we're going to publicize this weeks in advance."
Ernie Mailhot is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1126.