Announcing the Successful Cuba for Haiti Campaign

Press Conference Advisory

Announcing the Successful Cuba for Haiti Campaign

-Canadian Network on Cuba, August 25, 2010 -

The Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC) will hold a press conference on Thursday, September 2 at 3:00pm at A Different Booklist on 746 Bathurst Street, Toronto. We will highlight the continuing success of the Cuba for Haiti Fundraising Campaign and present the plans for the future.

The campaign, launched on January 18, 2010 in response to the earthquake disaster that struck Haiti, has raised more than $140,000 to support the Cuban Henry Reeves Medical Brigade in Haiti. The money has gone directly to assist the Haitian people. None of it has been used on administrative costs.

We thank Canadians for their generosity. Some people have told us they feel they can entrust Cuba with the money they want Haiti to receive. "I am confident it will safely reach its destination and not be squandered through corruption or misuse," one contributor said.

For more than a decade, Cuban medical personnel have been working in Haiti. "You did not wait for an earthquake to help us," Haitian President René Préval told the Cubans.

Since the January 10 earthquake, the Cuban cooperation has grown to encompass 1,304 personnel, including 679 Cuban nationals and 625 graduates and students of the Latin American School of Medicine from 26 other countries, educated by Cuba free of cost. More than 300,000 patients have been treated so far by this personnel.

Cuba for Haiti Campaign Coordinator Keith Ellis, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, captured the prevailing sentiment. "We believe that this kind of unprecedented and invaluable help which Cuba has been giving Haiti for eleven years deserves to be supported as strongly as possible," he said.

For more information, contact:

Keith Ellis

CNC Coordinator Cuba for Haiti

Phone: 905 822-1972

Email: zellis@yorku.ca

Isaac Saney

CNC Co-Chair and National Spokesperson

Phone: 902-449-4967

Email: isaney@hotmail.com

SACP on strikes

Contact – Provincial Secretary: Jacob Mamabolo (082 884 1868)
Provincial Spokesperson: Pat Ntsobi (072 671 4258)

Gauteng SACP Press Statement, 25 August 2010


Gauteng SACP in support of the Public Service strike

The SACP in Gauteng is fully behind the public service strike and is convinced that the demands of the workers are legitimate. We have thus far taken it upon ourselves to mobilize the rest of civil society and our communities to understand and support this action.

We have however been taken aback by the intransigence of the employer by misleading the public, insinuating that there is a new offer on the table. Such actions only harden attitudes and militate against rules of engagement as provided for in collective bargaining processes. We call upon the employer to desist from such amateurish tendencies and return to the bargaining table with a better offer as soon as possible, for a speedy resolution of this strike.

We are equally dismayed by the brutal and repressive measures employed by the police in dealing with the striking workers. We have noted with concern that Gauteng law enforcement agencies are the most brutal compared to the rest of the provinces during this period. We condemn such brutality as it only plunges the country into chaos. We therefore call upon authorities, in particular the MEC for Safety in Gauteng to make a decisive intervention to restrain the police.

In the same breath, we condemn in all strongest sense any acts of violence and intimidation attributed to the striking workers as it undermines the legitimacy of our action. We call for maximum discipline amongst the workers. We finally call upon the employer to meet the demands of the workers and that can only be achieved at the negotiating table not through the media platform.


Issued by the SACP Gauteng Province

Contact – Provincial Secretary: Jacob Mamabolo (082 884 1868)

Provincial Spokesperson: Pat Ntsobi (072 671 4258)