"One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed." - George Meany, 1979
Dear Mr. Smalls,
There is an independent worker led movement in Cuba. There is no right to strike or collective bargaining in Cuba today. Union organizers are persecuted, jailed, and some have been killed by the current government in power.
They are the descendants of the pre-1959 labor movement. For the sake of brevity will focus on five individuals: four union activists, and a bricklayer who engaged in human rights activism, and will provide some historical context.
Recommend that you research and look for yourself into the plight of these activists, and what international human rights groups have to say about it..
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| Ivan Hernandez Carillo (L) and Ulises González Moreno (R). |
This 2016 AFL-CIO communication to the Cuban government about the violence visited upon Ivan Hernandez Carrillo when he returned to Cuba after visiting unionists and human rights defenders in Europe and the United States should be a starting point to learning more about this labor activist.
August 4, 2016
His Excellency Raul Castro Ruz
Republic of Cuba
Plaza de la Revolution
Havana, Cuba
Your Excellency:
On behalf of the twelve and a half million working women and men of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), I write to express our deep concern over the violent treatment of independent trade unionist and journalist Ivan Hernandez Carrillo after his return to Cuba from an extended trip abroad meeting with unionists and human rights activists in Europe and the United States.
According to reports, on Sunday, July 31, Mr. Hernandez Carrillo was arrested during a search of his luggage at Havana's José Marti International Airport. Police confiscated his phone, passport and luggage, and detained him.He was then taken to the police station after being kicked, beaten and forcibly thrown into a police car. Mr. Hernandez Carrillo was held in deplorable conditions in a police station without access to communication. His family was denied contact or further information regarding his brutal treatment and
detention. He was released in the middle of the night on August 2, with no charges and no explanation of his treatment and detention.
In 2011, Hernandez Carrillo, a leader of Cuba’s Independent Trade Union Coalition (CSIC, in Spanish), was freed from prison after eight years of detention subsequent to a wave of arrests and detentions in 2003. Since then, he has suffered recurring harassment and arrest. If the government of Cuba wishes to live up to the human rights standards and commitments if has made, he and others must be allowed to exercise their rights of freedom of expression and association.
We will continue to monitor the situation faced by Mr, Hernandez Carrillo and CSIC activists. We hope to see concrete action regarding labor and human rights and signs of real change consistent with the transition toward normalized relations between Cuba and the United States. The respect for human rights should accompany such a process.
Sincerely,
Richard L. Trumka
President
cc: Ambassador José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, Embassy of Cuba, Washington, DC
The following excerpt is taken from the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and is available online in several languages. The working group determined that Ulises González Moreno was arbitrarily detained.
Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its sixty-seventh session, 26–30 August 2013
No. 17/2013 (Cuba)
Communication addressed to the Government on 25 February 2013
Concerning Ulises González Moreno
[...]
Communication from the source
3. Ulises González Moreno, a 45-year-old Cuban national, married to Ms. Jacqueline Daly and residing at Flat 2, 414 Concordia (between Gervasio and Escobar), Centro Habana, Havana, is Deputy Secretary-General of the organization known as the Sindicato Independiente de Carpinteros por Cuenta Propia (independent syndicate of own-account carpenters), which is affiliated with the Confederación de Trabajadores Independientes de Cuba (confederation of independent workers of Cuba). (These bodies are not officially recognized.) According to the source, Mr. González Moreno is a human rights defender
who has worked to defend the right of association and has discharged his duties in a civically responsible and peaceful manner.
4. The source reports that Mr. González Moreno was arrested at his home by two plain-clothes National Revolutionary Police officers, who took him to the Second Police Unit in Zanja. Subsequently, on 28 November 2012, he was transferred to Valle Grande Prison, a facility attached to the Prison Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
5. Mr. González Moreno was detained under an arrest warrant issued at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office on charges of pre-criminal social dangerousness on the basis of his links to antisocial dissident elements, pursuant to Act No. 62 (the Criminal Code) and Act No. 5 (the Code of Criminal Procedure).
6. According to the source, the charges were actually brought in retaliation against Mr. González Moreno for refusing to act as a police informer. It is alleged that the threat to indict him for pre-criminal social dangerousness was reiterated by officers during Mr. González Moreno’s interrogation on police premises.
7. On 27 November 2012, a summary trial took place before the Centro Habana Municipal People’s Court. The Court found Mr. González Moreno guilty of pre-criminal social dangerousness for “carrying out dissident activities” and for “having links to antisocial elements” and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment. According to the source, the defendant’s court appearance was manipulated and controlled by the State security services.
8. According to the source, an indictment for establishing links with antisocial elements entails the criminalization of peaceful private and political relations between citizens, who should not have to align their opinions with those of the Government in every instance. The source recalls that article 20, paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
9. The source reports that the defendant’s counsel, Amelia Rodríguez Cala, was unable to act in his defence because of the summary nature of the trial.
10. The source states that Mr. González Moreno was arrested, held in custody and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, not for committing any offence, but for exercising his rights and freedoms in accordance with international law and Cuban legislation. The source considers that this case demonstrates the way in which dissidents are criminalized on the grounds of antisocial behaviour.
11. The source adds that the offence of pre-criminal social dangerousness creates a climate of legal uncertainty in which citizens fear punishment even when they have committed no offence whatsoever.
12. The source concludes that Mr. González Moreno’s detention is arbitrary. Mr. González Moreno was convicted solely for carrying out trade union activities in a peaceful, civically responsible and independent manner outside the established trade union organizations that are controlled by the Government. The source recalls that article 23, paragraph 4, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the right of everyone “to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests”.
13. According to the source, the criminal offence of pre-criminal social dangerousness is arbitrary and unjust insofar as it is used as a legal basis for imprisoning citizens who have committed no actual offence whatsoever. To leave it to a judge, tribunal or court to decide whether or not a person is likely to commit an offence in the future is an arbitrary measure, particularly when it is used to imprison political opponents. To maintain contact or links with dissidents, or even to be a dissident, is not an offence. The source recalls that article 11, paragraph 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: “No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute
a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.”
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a bricklayer and human rights activist. The
following information about him was provided by Amnesty International in 2004 and 2010.
Cuba: Newly declared prisoners of conscience
In June 2003 Amnesty International declared 75 new Cuban prisoners of conscience after they were detained in a massive government crackdown on dissent which began on 18 March 2003. This brief report gives an account of the charges and arrests of four new prisoners of conscience.
[...]
Orlando Zapata Tamayo
Date of arrest: 20 March 2003
Sentence: No trial yet, but charged with “desacato”, “desordenes publicos”, “public
disorder”, and “desobediencia”.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo is a member of the Movimiento Alternativa Republicana, Alternative Republican Movement, and a member of the Consejo Nacional de Resistencia Cívica, National Civic Resistance Committee.
He has been arrested several times in the past. For example he was temporarily detained on 3 July 2002 and 28 October 2002. In November 2002 after taking part in a workshop on human rights in the central Havana park, José Martí, he and eight other government opponents were reportedly arrested and later released. He was also arrested on 6 December 2002 along with Oscar Elías Biscet3, but was released on 8 March 2003.
Most recently, he was arrested on the morning of 20 March 2003 whilst taking part in a hunger strike at the Fundación Jesús Yánez Pelletier, Jesús Yánez Pelletier Foundation, in Havana, to demand the release of Oscar Biscet and other political prisoners. He was reportedly taken to the Villa Marista State Security Headquarters. He has not been tried yet, but the prosecutor is reportedly asking for three years’ imprisonment for “desacato”, “desordenes publicos”, “public disorder”, and “desobediencia”.
He has reportedly been moved around several prisons, including Quivicán Prison, Guanajay Prison, and most recently, Combinado del Este Prison in Havana. According to reports, on 20 October 2003 he was dragged along the floor of Combinado del Este Prison by prison officials after requesting medical attention, leaving his back full of lacerations.
3. See Cuba: Continued detentions following mass arrests in February and December 2002 (AI Index: AMR 25/001/2003)
https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/amr250022004en.pdf
Amnesty International, February 24, 2010
Death of Cuban prisoner of conscience on hunger strike must herald change
Amnesty International has urged Cuban President Raúl Castro to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience after a political activist died following a hunger strike.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was reported to have been on hunger strike in protest at prison conditions for several weeks before his death in Havana on Monday.
“The tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo is a terrible illustration of the despair facing prisoners of conscience who see no hope of being freed from their unfair and prolonged incarceration,” said Gerardo Ducos, Amnesty International’s Caribbean researcher.
A full investigation must be carried out to establish whether ill-treatment may have played a part in his death”, added Amnesty International.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo was arrested in March 2003 and in May 2004 he was sentenced to three years in prison for “disrespect”, “public disorder” and “resistance”.
He was subsequently tried several times on further charges of “disobedience” and “disorder in a penal establishment”, the last time in May 2009, and was serving a total sentence of 36 years at the time of his death.
“Faced with a prolonged prison sentence, the fact that Orlando Zapata Tamayo felt he had no other avenue available to him but to starve himself in protest is a terrible indictment of the continuing repression of political dissidents in Cuba.
“The death of Orlando Zapata also underlines the urgent need for Cuba to invite international human rights experts to visit the country to verify respect for human rights, in particular obligations in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
Background information Orlando Zapata Tamayo was one of 55 prisoners of conscience who have been adopted by Amnesty International in Cuba.
The majority were among the 75 people arrested as part of the massive March 2003 crackdown by authorities against political activists. With no independent judiciary in Cuba, trials are often summary and fall grossly short of international fair trial standards, once sentenced the chances of appeal are virtually nil.
End/
Some historical context
Between 1902 and 1952 the Cuban labor union movement through collective bargaining and strike actions obtained the following for workers.
- Creation of the Ministry of Labor in 1933, there had been no government body specifically in charge of labor matters before that.
- Employer liability established in 1933 for work place accidents.
- Eight-hour work day and the right to unionize established in 1933.
- Labor Nationalization Law established in 1933 obligating that 50% of workers and employees hired by businesses, and management had to be native Cubans.
- Article 66: The maximum working week shall be 44 hours, equivalent to 48 in wages...
- Article 67. The right to paid vacation of one month for each 11 months of work in each calendar year is established for all manual and intellectual workers. Those who, because of the nature of their work or other circumstances, have not worked the 11 months, are entitled to paid rest in proportion to the time worked.
- Article 69. The right of syndicalisation is acknowledged to employers, private employees and workers, for the exclusive purposes of their economic-social activities.
- Article 71. The right of workers to strike, and of employers to stop work, is recognized, in conformity with regulations which will be established by law for the exercise of both rights.
- Article 72. The system of collective labour contracts, which employers and workers are compelled to execute, shall be regulated by law.
-
Article 74. The Ministry of Labour shall see, as an essential part among others
of its permanent social policy, that in the distribution of
opportunities to work in industry and commerce, no discriminatory
practices of any kind prevail. In removals of personnel and in the
creation of new positions, as well as in new factories, industries or
businesses that are established, it shall be obligatory to distribute
the opportunities for work without distinction as to race or colour,
provided the necessary qualifications as to ability are met. It shall be
provided by law that every other practice shall be punishable and prosecutable on Official initiative or at the instance of an affected party.
On January 22, 1959 the CTC was replaced by the CTC-Revolucionaria. In the X Congress, held in November 1959, the Secretary General, David Salvador Manso,"said that the workers had not gone to the event to raise economic demands but to support the revolution." And in the XI Congress, November 1961, the delegates renounced almost all the achievements of the labor movement: "the nine days of leave for sickness, the supplementary Christmas bonus, the weekly shift of 44 x 48 hours, the right to strike and an increase of 9.09%, among many others.
The Hotel Habana Libre that had been owned by the Hotel Workers Labor Union (Sindicato Cubano de Trabajadores de la Gastronomía ) retirement fund was seized by the revolutionary government. The Hospital Maternidad Obrera (built 1939) was taken and fell into disrepair without adequate funding and maintenance by the revolutionary government.Workers were required to do "voluntary work" that was not voluntary.
There is no freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly in Cuba. There are no democratic election, and there is no method of securing human rights against the Cuban state. Proof of this was seen in the July 2021 protests were President Miguel Diaz-Canel gave the order to attack unarmed protesters.
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| Mario Chanes de Armas |
The Miami Herald, Mon, Feb. 26, 2007
MARIO CHANES DE ARMAS, 80
Funeral today for former Cuban political prisoner
A one-time comrade of Fidel Castro and former Cuban political prisoner will be buried Tuesday in Miami after suffering a heart attack.
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald
Mario Chanes de Armas, the Cuban political prisoner who served the longest sentence in modern times and symbolized the struggle for civic freedom in 20th century Cuba, will be remembered today with a funeral service in Miami.
Chanes, 80, who suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday, spent his life in prison and in exile, but no adversity convinced him to halt his quest for a democratic future for his homeland.
Certainly not during the 30 years he spent in prison for opposing the regime of Fidel Castro, his comrade-in-arms during the failed raid on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba in 1953.
In the past two years, Chanes' health deteriorated rapidly as a consequence of Alzheimer's disease. His memory failed, and in 2005, he was admitted into an assisted living facility in Hialeah.
Chanes died at Hialeah Hospital, where he had been taken in serious condition. His closest relatives were at his bedside.
''He died with the serenity and peace that accompanied him his whole life through,'' said his sister, Belén López. `He was a marvelous and kind man, willing to help everybody in exchange for nothing, a man of an earlier era.''
THE EARLY YEARS
Born in the Marianao neighborhood of Havana on Oct. 25, 1926, Chanes took up commerce after graduating from high school.
Because of his leadership abilities, he soon became a labor leader in the Havana areas of Puentes Grandes and Ceiba and later extended his influence as an organizer to other provinces.
He was on his way to becoming an influential figure in Cuban labor circles, when the military coup of March 10, 1952, led by Gen. Fulgencio Batista, forced him to reassess his future.
Chanes gave up his labor work and joined the underground, where he conspired against Batista. That is where he met Fidel Castro, during a meeting with young people opposed to Batista's regime.
''A dear friend of ours, photographer Fernando Chenard Piña, knew a gentleman named Fidel Castro Ruz, and we began to meet in a house at 109 Prado in Havana,'' Chanes recalled during a long interview with El Nuevo Herald in 2003.
Along with Chenard, Chanes became chief of the secret cells that trained young men in the use of firearms, in preparation for the raid on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953. Chanes drove in the third car behind Castro and was wounded in the hand before retreating.
Captured days later outside Santiago de Cuba, he was tried and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, but he was released in 1955 in a general amnesty to the raiders. He then moved to Miami and worked here as a dishwasher.
CASTRO CALLS
Not long thereafter, Castro summoned him from Mexico and asked him to join the expeditionaries aboard the yacht Granma. Chanes did not hesitate to take up arms again. On Dec. 2, 1956, he and 81 other rebels landed on the eastern coast of Cuba.
After the failed landing, Chanes managed to reach Havana, where he directed sabotage teams. He was arrested again, and was in prison when the revolution triumphed, on Jan. 1, 1959.
Chanes became disenchanted by the shift in the revolutionary process toward communism and tried to pull away from the circles of power.
On July 17, 1961, he was arrested on charges of conspiring to assassinate Castro and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. He always maintained that the charges were fabricated, pointing out that no weapons or compromising documents were ever found in his possession.
`A PLANTADO'
Refusing to accept the routine in prison or even wear prison garb, Chanes identified himself as a plantado -- a disobedient inmate -- until July 16, 1991, when he was released.
Chanes found exile in Miami in 1993.
He went on to became a tireless activist for the release of Cuban political prisoners and called for the democratization of Cuba at numerous international conferences. Until 2003, Chanes worked actively in the group Plantados, along with other well-known former political prisoners with whom he served time in Cuban prisons.
Chanes took up the banner of peaceful reconciliation among Cubans and vigorously supported all activists who practiced domestic opposition on the island.
Chanes is survived in Miami by his sisters Belén, Mercedes, Aleida and Merceditas. His son, Mario, died in 1984.
Visiting will begin at 5 p.m. today at the Bernardo Garcia Funeral Home, 4100 NW Seventh St., Miami. Burial has been set for Tuesday.
Miami Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report.
https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/moncada/chanes-obit.htm
Amnesty International, 1964
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| David Salvador |
PRISONER OF THE MONTH
DAVID SALVADOR (CUBA)
(Jailed by Batista, now a prisoner of Castro)
David Salvador was born in Ciego de Avila in August 1923, of a working-class family. At an early age he became convinced that only socialism and nationalism could free Cuba's peasants from their perennial poverty.
At the age of twenty-two he made a radio speech in which he accused the Communists of betraying the workers. Subsequently, an un-successful assassination attempt was made against him.
Salvador became associated with the Cuban People's Party which was almost assured of winning the 1952 election, but on the 10th of March that year Batista staged his coup d'etat, and set up a second dictatorship.
Salvador immediately set up an underground resistance against Batista which was to last seven years.
When Fidel Castro made his attack on Moncada barracks on the 26th of July, 1953, Salvador began to make contact with Fidelistas, and he became one of the founders of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba.
Soon he took over as the leader of revolutionary labour throughout Cuba, a position which he held until 1960. On October 18th, 1958, Salvador was arrested by the Batista police in Havana.
He was released when the revolution triumphed on January 1st, 1959, and he became the secretary-general of the revolutionary CTC.
But by September 1959, people began to question why so many 26th of July leaders were being replaced by Communists. The purge of leaders had begun.
Salvador complained about what was happening, and in March 1960, he resigned as secretary-general.
On the 5th of November, 1960, just two years after he had been arrested by Batista's police, Salvador was arrested by Castro's police.
He was sent to La Cabana prison for political prisoners where the living conditions are inhuman, and the guards frequently brutal.
His collar bone was broken by the butt of a guard's rifle.
David Salvador was still the elected leader of 1,200,000 Cuban workers during his first year of imprisonment, but he remains in La Cabana serving a thirty-year sentence for his loyalty to the cause of the Cuban revolution.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/nws210151964en.pdf
Thank you for your time in reading all of this.
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