https://socialistaction.org/2017/02/22/a-call-to-mobilize-for-a-national-conference-to-fight-for-the-full-normalization-of-relations-between-the-u-s-and-cuba/
A call to mobilize for a national conference to fight for the full
normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba
/ 19 hours ago
march-2017-fidels-graveCOME TO FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL IN NEW YORK CITY
MARCH 25-26, 2017
Dear Friends of Cuba:
We are inviting organizations and individuals to help organize an
inclusive, broad conference in New York City March 25-26, 2017 focused
on US-Cuban relations. The National Conference will be held at the
Fordham Law School and will bring together longtime Cuba solidarity
activists, opponents of continuing US sanctions against Cuba, as well as
representatives from many organizations and cities. We invite you to
participate in planning and organizing the National Conference, which
will include highly educational and informative workshops,
presentations, cultural performances, and films, with the political
purpose of promoting an agreed action agenda for the real normalization
of relations between the United States and Cuba, and to expand activity
around these ends across the United States.
The Electoral College triumph of Donald Trump, and the retention of a
Republican majority in the US House and Senate, underscores, more than
ever, the need for an independent movement to advocate and fight for the
full normalization of US-Cuban relations. During the election campaign
Trump publicly pledged to reverse the modest Executive Orders easing
ongoing US anti-Cuba sanctions, implemented by President Obama. He has
stopped short so far from supporting the termination of the July 2015
restoration of US-Cuban diplomatic relations, a precondition for full
normalization. This question, along with many other burning domestic and
international issues, will be posed sharply from the first day of the
Donald Trump Administration and the transition to it. The National
Conference for the Full Normalization of US-Cuban Relations will be one
of the first national protest and solidarity gathering under the new
Trump regime.
The current Republican House and Senate leaderships in the last years of
the Obama Administration have shown no inclination to bring before the
Congress several existing bills that are circulating that would end or
significantly ameliorate the ongoing US economic and financial embargo
against Cuba and also strike down remaining US legal barriers to freedom
of travel to Cuba from the United States.
Following the December 17, 2014 announcements by US President Barack
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, the United States and Cuba moved
to the establishment of diplomatic relations. Despite President Obama
using his executive powers, this relationship remains far from “normal.”
Fully ending ongoing US sanctions against Cuba will require a formal act
of Congress. The notorious Helms-Burton legislation, signed by President
Bill Clinton in 1996, took that right and ability out of the Executive
Branch of the US government.
In one of its last acts before the November 8 election, the Obama White
House directed the US United Nations Mission to abstain in the annual
vote in the UN General Assembly to condemn, now unanimously 192-0, “the
economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States
of America against Cuba.” For over 20 years the vote has registered near
unanimous political isolation for Washington in the “international
community.”
Full normalization also requires returning the US-occupied Guantanamo
Bay Naval base on Cuban territory to Cuban sovereignty. It also requires
ending US overtly and covertly budgeted, subversive “regime change”
programs. All of these ongoing policies represent the continuity of
decades of Washington’s gross violations of Cuban sovereignty.
In addition Cuba has a sovereign right to give political asylum and
legal protections under clear procedures to individuals determined to be
fleeing persecution and injustice. We support the repeal of the unequal
and discriminatory Cuban Adjustment Act which has been used as a
political club against Cuba by successive US Administrations and is the
major obstacle to stabilizing and resolving immigration issues between
Washington and Havana.
Hence, a large number of individual activists along with local and
national organizations from the New York-New Jersey area, with years of
united, non-sectarian coalition activities in solidarity with Cuba, and
in the successful struggle to free the Cuban Five are issuing this
invitation in the spirit of unity and democratic decision-making
processes. Specifically, we are inviting you and/or your organization to
participate in the organizing of a National Conference to take place
after the results of the November 2016 Presidential and Congressional
elections, when we will be able to analyze the results and their impact
on moving our work forward.
The undersigned propose that the organizers of the National Conference
reach out and work closely with organizations in Cuba, such as the Cuban
Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) to bring a number of
Cuban representatives to take part in the 2017 Conference.
The visit of President Barack Obama to Cuba March 20-22, 2016 was an
important event that should broaden the discussion on US-Cuba relations
and ending US sanctions. Normal relations will mean increased political
and people-to-people exchanges as more people from the US visit the
Caribbean island and more genuine representatives of Cuban society,
trade unionists and Afro-Cubans, women’s rights and LGBT rights
activists, artists and intellectuals, scientists and doctors are able to
travel and speak in the United States.
Cuba says it is prepared to discuss anything and everything with the
United States, including “democracy” and “human rights.” This national
gathering March 25-26 will be an opportunity to bring activists together
from across the United States to discuss and act on these questions back
at their home base and local area. The National Conference will have
plenary sessions, dozens of workshops on Cuba and international themes,
and proposals for action to demand full and real normalization of
US-Cuban relations. In addition to Conference sessions and workshops, we
will also hold a major public event in a large space with prominent
speakers, including from Cuba, cultural performers, and special video
greetings.
This invitation to hold a conference registers a spirit of unity and a
perspective to reach out broadly, across different points of view, to
all who are opposed to the continuation of hostile US policies toward
Cuba, the fundamental obstacle to normalized relations between the two
governments.
We look forward to you coming to New York City in the Spring of 2017! We
must organize to change US anti-Cuba policy!
END ALL US ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL, AND
TRAVEL SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA!
RETURN GUANTANAMO BAY
TERRITORY TO CUBAN SOVEREIGNTY!
STOP US-FUNDED COVERT “REGIME CHANGE”
PROGRAMS AGAINST CUBA!
— US-CUBA NORMALIZATION COMMITTEE
Photo: Fidel Castro’s grave in Santiago de Cuba. Marty Goodman /
Socialist Action
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February 22, 2017 in Caribbean, Cuba, Latin America.
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