Appeal:
The Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Disobedience Front, in the framework of the “The System Doesn’t Work” Day and in coordination with the Frank País 30th of November Democratic Party*, members of this front, invite the rest of the opposition and dissident organizations in the country to meet this November 30th at 8:30 at night coincident with the national pot-and-pan protest.
The Front, which gathers together the leading regional coalitions and promoter organizations of civil disobedience will present the Castro regime with this anti-establishment demand.
1. Demand the dictatorship that if, as Fidel Castro recognized, the system doesn’t work, that it be immediately changed.
2. The freedom of the more than 11 million Cubans, prisoners on this captive Island.
3. The return of the girl Yirisleidi to her father, incarcerated for writing anti-government slogans on the front of his house.
4. The urgent and unconditional freedom of the 10 Cuban patriots, who by their refusal to leave Cuba are retained in prison, as well as the freedom of each and every one of the political prisoners in Cuba.
5. Our opposition to the evictions and layoffs of those who are being objects thereof – the Cubans of the Island.
Likewise, the Front claims the support of all our countrymen — be they inside or outside Cuba — and of all the friends and sympathizers of the cause of freedom of our Motherland across which we summon to this important call.
The Front, in coordination with the Partido Democrático 30 de noviembre Frank País, believes that this important and peaceful protest will create a serious precedent in the anti-Castro struggle and will be the beginning of an escalation of actions and initiatives that will contribute powerfully to the strengthening and unity of each and every one of the factors struggling for democratic change of our Motherland.
“Freedom, compatriots”, said the apostle**, “costs very dearly and it is necessary to resign oneself to live without it or conquer it at its price.” And the price is this, the struggle and frontal assault against the dictatorship.
Brothers, Sisters: This is the moment to move from thought to action, from dissidence to resistance, from planning to activism. And here is the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Disobedience Front; an entity arisen as a necessity of the moment in which our country lives. Here is the Front, uniting, for the first time, those in Cuba who promote civil disobedience and public protests as strategies of the struggle. Here is the Front, upright in the face of terror, demanding the freedom of the more than 11 million Cubans, the reuniting of the Cuban family and the cessation of repression against the population in general. The Front needs solid support, from as many Cubans who want and need to be free.
We are counting on your support.
From Placetas, in the center of Cuba. Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antunez”, candidate for democratic election to the (position of) Secretary General of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Disobedience Front.
* Translator’s Note: This party is named for an anti-Batista rebel named Frank País. This party’s name commemorates his leadership of a 4-day uprising in Santiago de Cuba which began on 30 November 1956. Future references to this party’s name will remain in its original Spanish.
**Translator’s note: the “apostle” credited with this quote is José Martí.
Translated by: JT
November 24, 2010
