BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
HOUSTON, Texas - About 60 people attended the semiannual meeting of the National Network on Cuba here February 1-2. The Network is a coalition of national and local groups organizing activities to oppose U.S. policy toward Cuba.

The meeting was hosted by the Cuba Coalition of Houston. It was preceded by a two-day tour of the area by Félix Wilson and Johana Tablada, first and third secretaries of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. The Houston coalition hosted the tour. Wilson and Tablada addressed a number of public meetings, including one of 200 students, most of them Black, at Jones High School.

They also gave several interviews to the media, resulting in at least one article in the Houston Chronicle, the city's only daily paper. The Cuba Coalition had helped organize a tour of Texas for Dagoberto Rodríguez, also a first secretary at the Cuban Interests Section, in November.

Participants at the February 1-2 meeting decided to urge NNOC affiliates to help organize tours for representatives of the Cuban Interests Section across the United States this year.

"These tours can help counter the economic war that the United States government has intensified against Cuba," said Andrés Gómez, one of the four national cochairs of the Network. "They can also serve to initiate discussions among college students, activists, workers, and the broader public about the annexationist Helms-Burton law and win more people to actively opposing it." Gómez was referring to the misnamed Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which President William Clinton signed March 12, 1996. The aggressive use of the legislation by Washington has exacerbated economic difficulties the Cuban people face.

The Network meeting also discussed other projects NNOC affiliates are organizing. They include the next Friendshipment caravan of humanitarian aid to Cuba, sponsored by Pastors for Peace, scheduled for May 4 -25. The group, which has organized six previous caravans, recently relocated its offices to Chicago from Minneapolis.

A number of other groups are organizing contingents to Cuba this year that will coincide with the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students, scheduled for the Caribbean island July 28-August 5. The NNOC is a sponsor of the U.S. Organizing Committee for the World Youth Festival, which is coordinating the U.S. delegation to the international youth conference.

In addition, the Venceremos Brigade is organizing its next contingent to Cuba July 20 - August 6. Participants on that trip will attend the festival during their second week on the island. The Detroit-based U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange is planning a delegation for an international trade union conference, scheduled for Havana August 6 - 8. Participants on this trip can go earlier and attend the youth event as well.

Participants at the Houston meeting elected new cochairs for the Network. Three of the four previous chairpeople were reelected - Andrés Gómez of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Miami-based organization of Cubans who support the Cuban revolution; Ignacio Meneses of the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange; and Marilyn McKenna, a leader of the Chicago Cuba Coalition. Bob Guild of the New Jersey Network on Cuba was elected the fourth cochair.

Leslie Cagan, who had served as NNOC cochair for more than five years, left her responsibilities in the Network to concentrate on other activities. The Cuba Information Project, which Cagan headed, closed its offices on January 31. She is now helping to coordinate the U.S. Organizing Committee for the World Youth Festival.

The next meeting of the Network is scheduled for the fall of this year.  
 
 
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