Vol. 79/No. 18      May 18, 2015

“As a recently retired farmer, I look at farmers in Nebraska raising crops of corn and soybeans that people in the world can’t afford to buy and I think something is wrong,” he said.

The forum, whose theme was “What Will Changes with Cuba Mean for U.S.-Cuba Relations?” was organized by Central Nebraska Peace Workers, a chapter of Nebraskans for Peace. Two dozen people attended.

Brian Whitecalf, organizer of Peace Workers, introduced the panel of Todd-Meyer; Hendrik van den Berg, professor of economics at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and former U.S. Embassy employee in Latin America; Rebecca Williamson, chair of the Omaha Socialist Workers Party, who attended the Havana International Book Fair in February; and Jackson Meredith, of the Black Cat House, who helped organize several protests in Lincoln this year against police brutality and for a woman’s right to choose abortion.

“Cuba has doctors in 68 different countries. They’re not there for money, but to help people in need,” Meredith said. He condemned the economic embargo of Cuba, saying the U.S. “doesn’t just prevent U.S. trade, they also block other countries from trading with Cuba. They have been trying to punish the Cubans for their actions independent of the U.S. for the past 55 years.”

In answer to a question suggesting that Washington’s Cuba policies bent to “vocal anti-Cuban forces in Miami,” Van den Berg said, “I think it is more accurate to say that the U.S. government acts throughout Latin America to promote the interests of big business. In Cuba they haven’t been able to do that since 1959. So they try to use the people who were rich landowners and businesspeople in Cuba, who left for Florida, to help them speak and act against Cuba. But we should be clear about who is using whom.”

“There’s more interest in the Cuban Revolution today,” said Williamson, “because more working people here are standing up and demanding dignity, a living wage and a safe workplace. Just look at the actions of fast-food and other workers across the country this month. Look at the actions of working people in city after city from all kinds of backgrounds against police brutality and killings.”

“As the movement broadens,” she said, “and workers and farmers get more confidence from organizing for their rights, they want to learn about how Cuban workers and farmers made a revolution and began to build their society based on human solidarity.”

At the end of the meeting Whitecalf encouraged people to join in a rally May 5 here to demand driver’s licenses for immigrants.
 
 
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