The U.S. government prevents its citizens from freely traveling to Cuba as part of its attempt to isolate and overturn the Cuban revolution. Taking advantage of the fact that a large number of officials of various agricultural companies have been granted the right to travel to Cuba, the Atlanta Network on Cuba applied to the Secretary of the Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control last month and was granted a license. In addition, the Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, made their license available after learning about the farmer's trip.

"We may be one of the first solidarity organizations to get a license, but we don't want to be the only one," said Stone. The Atlanta Network on Cuba sought the help of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in obtaining the license to travel. Pledging McKinney's ongoing support, her aide Jocco Baccus told the meeting, "if we've helped to open the door to travel to Cuba, that's great. Now we must help keep the door open."

The six farmers who are making the trip have been part of the struggles against farm foreclosures, the devastating effects of the drop in prices paid to farmers for their products, and the racist and sexist discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have been invited by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) of Cuba, which has planned a full itinerary for the one-week trip.

Eddie Slaughter, a farmer from Buena Vista, Georgia, and the national vice-president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association cochaired the meeting. "The harsh conditions in America forced us to look to Cuba," he explained.

"I'm looking, searching for answers, for a method to bring some insight to the injustices farmers are faced with here," added Willie Head, a vegetable farmer from Pavo, Georgia. "Under the Democrats and the Republicans, people of color and the poor are mistreated. The United States Department of Agriculture is the last plantation--they have proven this to us. We don't matter to them. Change comes in a capitalist society through grassroots struggle."

Supporters of the farmers' trip attended the meeting from as far away as Miami, where they organized a car caravan to Tampa to pick up an activists from the Cuba Vive group. From there they drove to Plant City to pick up Karl Butts, a Florida farmer who is a member of the delegation. Anna Marie Codario, a New Jersey farmer in the delegation, was en route to Atlanta and unable to attend the meeting. Other participants in the farmers' trip to Cuba include members of the Atlanta Network on Cuba, Bernardo Gómez, and James Harris, who also attended the send-off rally.

Butts told the meeting what it is like to be a working farmer today. "In gambling terms, each year is a gut-wrenching crap shoot. Commodity prices don't rise at the same rate as inputs, and inputs are the only way a farmer here has to produce more. We want to see what Cuba did with their revolution, in which peasants and landless workers were the backbone of the revolution."

Forty-five people attended the event, which was held at Emory University. Many of the participants were young. A group of four students from the Political Science Department of Clark/Atlanta University donated aspirins and pencils in a bag filled to the brim. Other youth included a student at the University of Georgia in Athens, who is also a farmer from Talking Rock, Georgia; two students from Emory University; a high school student from Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and several young women workers.

Gladys Williams, a farmer from Quitman, Georgia, made a pitch to the youth at the meeting. "Don't just be inspired by us, be just like us. Go to Cuba." Williams held up a brochure from the 12th Continental Latin-American and Caribbean Students Organization (OCLAE) conference, which will be held in Havana, Cuba, April 1-4.

Overall, the Atlanta Network on Cuba raised more than $5,000 for this project. Stone singled out for special note a $363 check from the People's Tribunal, a Valdosta, Georgia, antipolice brutality organization.

Upon their return, the farmers have been scheduled to speak at several college campuses, including Spelman College and Clark/Atlanta University in Atlanta, and Iowa State University of Science and Technology. They will also be writing articles for several newspapers, including the Greene County Democrat, in Eutaw, Alabama; the Iguana, in Gainesville, Florida; the Buena Times in Richland, New Jersey; and the Post in Valdosta, Georgia.

Paul Cornish is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Atlanta.  
 
 
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