August 31, 2005

As participants at the conference commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Solidarity Movement, we find it reprehensible that the prisoner of conscience, Pedro Pablo Alvarez, faces harassment and threats at the hands of Cuban state security due to his daughter’s presentation at this event.

Here today, a diverse group of individuals involved with the struggle for democracy throughout the world, have gathered in the spirit of Solidarity. We salute the work of Pedro Pablo Alvarez, secretary general of the United Council of Cuban Workers (CUTC).

Pedro Pablo is serving an unjust prison term of twenty-five years at El Combinado del Este Prison. His only crime was to defend the rights of the Cuban worker based on the very rights the government has written into law but denies indiscriminately from eery worker in this supposed “worker’s paradise.”

Like Lech Walesa, Pedro Pablo Alvarez is simply a working man who believes in the ideals of truth and justice, and lived out that commitment by helping defend his fellow workers.

Therefore, we demand:

The immediate and unconditional release of Pedro Pablo Alvarez and the six other independent labor union leaders that were arbitrarily arrested during Cuba’s Black Spring of 2003;

That the Cuban State allow free and independent labor unions to form and organize without interference from the government;

That the 300+ prisoners of conscience on the island of Cuba be released and exonerated of their charges.

In solidarity with Pedro Pablo Alvarez,

Akbar Atri, executive committee member, Takhim Vahdat, Iran         

Donald Jensen, director of communications, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, U.S.A.

Mart Laar, former prime minister, Estonia

Carl Gershman, president, National Endowment for Democracy, U.S.A.

Maung Maung, general secretary, Federation of Trade Unions, Burma

Heba F. El-Shazli, regional program director, Solidarity Center, U.S.A.

Marko Djurisic, member, Serbian Parliament, Serbia

Adrian Karatnycky, counselor and senior scholar, Freedom House, U.S.A.

Pavol Demes, regional director, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Slovakia

Pavel V. Isayev, chairman of the board, Center for Social Partnership, Russia

Omar Lopez Montenegro, founding member, Cuban Democratic Coalition, Cuba

Blanca Reyes, founder, Damas de Blanco, Cuba

Susana Alvarez, member of executive board, Consejo Unitario de Trabajadores Cubanos, Cuba

Sandy Acosta, program officer, Freedom House, U.S.A.

Nguyen Van Tran, Alliance pour la Democratie au Vietnam, Vietnam

Joshua Muravchik, scholar, American Enterprise Institute, U.S.A.

David Pryce-Jones, senior editor, National Review, U.S.A.

Agnieszka Gratkiewicz, Lech Walesa Institute, Poland

Gneyan Scdowski, journalist, WProst Weekly, Poland

Manuel Scherer, University of Vienna, Austria

Zdislaw Krasnodebski, director, Forschungstelle Ostmitteleuropa, University of Bremen, Germany

Michael Rubin, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, U.S.A.

Sonja Licht, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, Serbia & Montenegro

Peter Ackerman, chairman, Freedom House, U.S.A.

David Hawk, human rights advocate, U.S.A.

Andrei Sannikov, Charter 97, Belarus

Ida Garibaldi, program officer, New Atlantic Initiative, U.S.A.

Radek Sikorski, executive director, New Atlantic Initiative, U.S.A.

Christopher DeMuth, president, American Enterprise Institute, U.S.A.

Vincuk Viacorka, chairman, Belaursian Popular Front, Belarus

Julian Lewis, member of Parliament, United Kingdom

Lord Salisbury, former member of Parliament, United Kingdom

Lorne W. Craner, president, International Republican Institute, U.S.A.

Hafez Albukari, chairman, Yemeni Center for Polling & Communications Research, Yemen

Alexandre Milinkevich, founder, Ratusha, Belarus

Anatol Liabedzka, chair, National Committee of the Civic Union Party, Belarus

Kang Cheol Hwan, dissident, North Korea

Bogda Zukowska, Bank Pelao SA, Poland

Jessica Barnes, program officer, Freedom House, U.S.A.

Robert Pernetta, Visions for Central Europe

Jan McLaughlin, journalist

Wiesaw Szczepinski, Poland

Bartlomiej Michalowski, Poland

John Kubinec, U.S.A.

Sue Koffel, U.S.A.

Hossein Namdar, Iran          

Lhsula Domoszewska, Poland

Marcin A. Rotwesko, Poland

Patrick LaCombe

Kim Hedge

Stephen Morris

Nadisa Aztyk

Adam Mroczek-Karp

Jery M. Nouvakouwski

David Edward Muchler

James Thomas Snyder