WORLD SOCIAL FORUM - Tribunal in defense of the five Cuban heroes

www.granma.cu Havana. January 21,  2003

• Large Cuban delegation also to denounce the blockade of the island, and expose the dangers of the FTAA and neoliberal globalization

• THE sizeable Cuban delegation participating at the 3rd World Social Forum in Porto Alegre has very quickly entered into the activities of an event bringing together 100,000 people in the Brazilian city.

The future of education in the five continents was the first tribunal opened, attended by ministers from some 30 nations and UNESCO representatives. The island’s educational achievements from the 1961 literacy campaign to the current new programs aimed at improving knowledge were outlined.

Cuban elementary school student Gabriela Castellanos gave an improvised talk to the 10,000 educators present; she offered greetings from the island’s delegation and affirmed: "the Cuban people’s struggle really shows that a new world is possible."

Her vibrant message demonstrates why Porto Alegre continues to be a venue for events as important as the World Social Forum.

A subject that has awakened special interest is the report on the rigged trial in the United States and the unjust sentences handed down to the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in that country’s jails. Relatives of Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Antonio Guerrero are to denounce the men’s situation in distinct tribunals. From their cells, the five have sent messages of solidarity to the thousands of representatives of NGO’s, institutions, ethnic groups and other sectors meeting in the Brazilian city.

A roundtable and other activities have been announced to discuss the situation of the five prisoners of the empire. Additionally, Cuba’s representatives will speak out against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a neocolonial instrument of the U.S. government, and the damage to Third World nations resulting from the neoliberal policies of the Washington administration and its allies. The serious difficulties that the U.S. superpower’s criminal blockade creates for Cuba will be aired once again at the forum.

The pro-peace fight and rejection of war plans against Iraq, the problems of Palestine, and the campaign to destabilize the constitutional government in Venezuela are other issues to be raised by the island’s representatives at the world event — now one of the planet’s most significant political gatherings.