----- Original Message ----- From: Walter Lippmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Change Links <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; IRL32-ACTION list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; CubaNews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 6:02 AM Subject: [CubaNews] Mumia Greets Cuban Delegation -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> Kids tested. Mom approved. And Dad liked it because he got his loan approved in under 60 seconds. Find out how. Click below http://click.egroups.com/1/8423/15/_/_/_/968907842/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> FROM DEATH ROW: MUMIA GREETS CUBAN DELEGATION ONA MOVE! On behalf of the committee to welcome the Cuban delegation to the Millennium summit and their supporters in various communities, we say, "Bienvenidos mis amigos de Cuba. Bienvenidos." We welcome his Excellency el Presidente Fidel Castro, members of the honored Cuban delegation, and the members of the welcoming committee that organized this event and made it possible. Bien venidos. We welcome you to the historic Riverside Church of Harlem. This is an important moment of history. For as the late revered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come." It is time for us all to recognize the futility of the blockade that continues to stifle Cuban economic life. In a time when the watchword on every major politician's lips is "free trade," how can such a thing as the blockade, a naked restraint of trade if ever there was one, be maintained? It is an anachronism, a rusty tool of the Cold War era, due for storage in a dusty museum of another century. It should be joined by the Cuban Adjustment Act, another Cold War relic of another age, another time. If lawmakers were honest, it would be called the Cuban Destruction Act, for it lures poor and desperate people into the shark-infested, treacherous water of the Florida Keys. Every empire in the world has acted like an economic magnet for poor people on the periphery. But it is inhumane to set up a system that treats their survival like a deadly obstacle course. Like the blockade, the so-called Cuban Adjustment Act punishes free trade and also forbids free travel by Americans to that island just 90 miles offshore. It too is an idea whose time has past. We gather today to join our voices to the swelling chorus of millions calling for an end to the blockade, repeal of Helms- Burton, an end to the travel ban. The recent American media fever over Elian has provided an invaluable opening for those like the late Philadelphia activist Bob Simpson who wanted to bring some sanity to an American-born policy that is muddled in madness. Take heart, for madness cannot last forever. even the most raging fever will break. You are all the breath of fresh air that is signaling the return of sanity to Cuban-U.S. relations. So again, Bien-venidos, we welcome you. We also want to thank you for your continuing resistance to the empire, for four decades of remaining true to the revolution; for building a system where education is a fundamental human right; for aiding in the long and arduous fight to free South Africa from the obscenity called apartheid; for providing a home for fugitives from the prison house of nations, like Assata Shakur, like Mahanda, like the late Dr. Huey P. Newton and briefly Eldridge Cleaver. We thank you and we welcome you to Riverside. Ona Move! Viva Fidel! Viva la revolucíon! Viva John Africa! >From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal. September 6, 2000 - END - Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) Post comments to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send an email to subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
