Felipe Pérez Roque, Cuba's foreign minister who headed his government's delegation to the WTO meeting, was featured at the December 3 event. He was welcomed at the meeting by Joan Campbell of the National Council of Churches and Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace, among others.

Pérez Roque said the Cuban government raised its voice at the WTO summit on behalf of the Third World. He pointed to United Nations statistics that show the richest 20 percent of people on the planet control 86 percent of the world economy.

This system of domination and superexploitation of most nations—the majority of humanity—by a handful of imperialist powers is responsible for expanding poverty and social inequality, increasing joblessness, and destruction of the environment, he said. "This is the world that Cuba believes it is possible to change, that we have the duty and the right to change."

Washington's 40-year-long economic war on Cuba is not only aimed at the Cuban people, Pérez Roque said. It also violates rights of people in the United States, like Cuban Americans who are prevented from having normal relations with their relatives in Cuba. "The U.S. blockade has brought difficulties," he said, "but it hasn't been able to kill our hope. We are more optimistic than ever that time is on our side."

Hassán Pérez, president of the Federation of University Students (FEU) in Cuba, also gave brief greetings to the December 3 gathering. He had addressed several dozen students the day before at the University of Washington. Campus officials had previously reserved a large auditorium and had announced a public meeting there to be addressed by Cuban president Fidel Castro, who the press had said might be part of the Cuban delegation to the WTO meeting. U.S. president William Clinton, however, who addressed the trade summit, failed to convince any other heads of state to attend it. The Cuban government decided not to send Castro as part of its delegation either.

The conference on December 4-5 was attended by about 150 people and consisted of several panel discussions. Its main aim was to build and help organize a U.S. delegation for a World Meeting of Friendship and Solidarity with Cuba, scheduled for Havana, November 10-14, 2000.

Fernando Remírez de Esteñoz, First Deputy Minister of Cuba and chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., gave the main presentation on the panel on U.S.-Cuba relations. Despite claims in the media that the U.S. government has eased some of its sanctions against Cuba, Remírez said, "the embargo is not only in place but has been enforced vigorously in recent months." This year the U.S. government has taken action against three companies from Spain, Germany, and Jamaica, attempting to force them to curtail or end their investments in Cuba, Remírez said.

Cuba continues to face a severe economic crisis, however, triggered at the opening of the 1990s from the sudden cutoff of trade at preferential prices and aid from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. Since then, Cuba has had to trade largely in the capitalist market.

The difficulties have been exacerbated by an intensified economic war by Washington, which began immediately after workers and peasants overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and opened up the first socialist revolution in the Americas.

Other panels discussed the gains of the Cuban revolution, and the challenges to maintain these gains today, in health, education, and culture. Panelists from the United States included David Apsey, a dentist from Detroit, Jane Franklin from New Jersey who has written books on Cuba, and Ellen Bernstein of Pastors for Peace.

On the evening of December 4, a delegation of nine arrived from Cuba. It included representatives of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC). They had been invited to take part in the US-Cuba 2000 conference, but the U.S. government delayed giving them visas. They addressed conference panels the next day.

Rita Pereira, a leader of the FMC, for example, described the impact of Washington's economic war on women in Cuba.

On the morning of December 5, several of the speakers just arrived from Cuba explained the Cuban government's campaign to press for the return to Cuba of 6-year-old Elián González. Julio Fernández Buste, professor of law at the University of Havana, said the case "is a very emotional thing for the Cuban people." González was rescued by fishermen after a shipwreck left him clinging to an inner tube in the Florida Straits for two days. He was one of 13 Cubans who left Cuba outside legal channels aboard an overloaded 20-foot boat. Ten drowned, including the boy's mother.

His father, Juán Miguel González, who Elián lived with, and his grandparents have made it clear they want him back home in Cárdenas, Cuba. The U.S. government, backed by the big-business press and right-wing organizations such as the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), has projected the framework of a custody battle fought out in Florida Family Court.

The Cuban government has demanded the boy's immediate repatriation. Large demonstrations have been held outside the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to press this demand. Washington has since said it is prepared to send officials to Cuba to meet with the child's family and negotiate his return.

The NNOC conference passed a resolution backing the Cuban government's demand and calling for actions in the United States to press for it. In discussing the proposal, a number of speakers said that the NNOC should not "politicize" the issue and proposed a return-the-child-to-his-family axis for any actions.

Others said that it is the policies of the U.S. government that are responsible for Cubans attempting to leave the island through illegal channels and those policies must be discussed and opposed. Gisela López of the Chicago Cuba Coalition said Washington funds and backs programs like those beamed to Cuba by the so-called Radio Martí urging Cubans to "flee."

A few participants argued that speaking to workers, farmers, young people and others about this case cannot be divorced from the Cuban revolution and its decades-long face-off with U.S. imperialism. Ernie Mailhot of the Socialist Workers Party in Seattle said the fire of opponents of U.S. policy towards Cuba should be focused on Washington, not on the "right-wing Mafia" in Miami, and urged forums and other educational activities to discuss why Washington's cold war against Cuba doesn't end.

The gathering endorsed the NNOC proposal to build a delegation from the United States for the November 2000 solidarity conference in Havana. During the youth panel, Johana Tablada from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., and Luis Enrique Prieto of the Union of Young Communists in Cuba urged participants to help organize students and other youth to take part in the April 1-4 congress in Cuba of the Organization of Caribbean and Latin American Students (OCLAE), which projects participation by a few thousand.

On December 6, about 45 representatives of organizations affiliated to the National Network on Cuba held the NNOC semiannual meeting at the same site. They discussed implementing what had been projected at the conference, including organizing a delegation for the November 2000 gathering in Havana. The NNOC also endorsed efforts by students and other youth to organize a delegation to the OCLAE congress. Network affiliates announced several other projects they are working on, including the next Venceremos Brigade to Cuba and educational seminars in Cuba by the Detroit-based U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange.

Andrés Gómez of the Antonio Maceo Brigade and the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Economic Embargo on Cuba announced that five farmers from Georgia and Florida are planning a fact-finding trip to Cuba in February. The Miami coalition and the Atlanta Network on Cuba have backed the trip. The NNOC set its next meeting in New York City June 4-5.

Elizabeth Stone is a member of the International Association of Machinists in Chicago. Angel Lariscy in Miami and Argiris Malapanis contributed to this article.  
 
 
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