More unions vote: ‘Washington take Cuba off your “terrorist” list’

By Norton Sandler
August 19, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Over the past few months a number of unions have voted to urge the U.S. government to remove Cuba from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list. At its July 16-17 convention, the 2.3 million-member California State AFL-CIO passed a resolution urging the national AFL-CIO to “inform President Biden of the AFL-CIO’s opposition to the inclusion of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”

Washington’s listing “continues to inflict daily hardships and deprivations on the Cuban people creating shortages of basic necessities like food and medicine, and severely restricting international financial and trade opportunities,” the resolution says. “It prevents Cuba from obtaining vital medical equipment and supplies, and even impedes humanitarian aid responses to catastrophic events like Hurricane Ian which devastated both Florida and Cuba.”

Bill Camp, the leader of the Sacramento-based Building Relations With Cuban Labor, was instrumental in helping get the resolution passed. For many years Camp was an officer of the Sacramento-area AFL-CIO. “It was pretty easy to get the resolution passed,” Camp told the Militant in a July 29 phone interview. “They were favorable. Our next question is getting as many union locals as possible to pass similar resolutions.”

The California Conference of the International Association of Machinists union passed a similar resolution July 15. Such resolutions have also been adopted by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, United Electrical Workers, Northern Nevada AFL-CIO, Inlandboatmen’s Union, California Nurses Association, National Union of Health Care Workers, the Washington State Labor Council and a number of county labor councils and union locals.

The U.S. government’s “State Sponsors of Terrorism” designation adds further damaging sanctions to those that have been imposed by Washington’s brutal six-decade-long economic war against Cuba, aimed at crushing the country’s socialist revolution. It also restricts the ability of Cubans living abroad to send money to family members on the island.

Cuba was originally placed on the list in 1982 during the Ronald Reagan administration and backed by following Democratic and Republican administrations; then removed briefly by Barack Obama, who pursued other avenues to attempt to destroy the revolution. Donald Trump put Cuba back on the list near the end of his presidency and it has been kept in place since by the Joseph Biden administration.

The LA US Hands Off Cuba Committee, working with Machinists Local 1484 in Wilmington, has been active in advancing resolutions urging Washington to remove Cuba from the list, Mark Friedman, a member of the committee, told the Militant. “Over the past year Local 1484 of the Machinists has increasingly been vocal and demonstrative in their support for ending the blockade of Cuba and removing Cuba from Washington’s list of alleged terrorist nations,” he said. That local presented the resolution it passed against Cuba being on the list to the July Machinists’ state conference.

This growing labor opposition to Washington’s attacks on Cuba and its people is an important development that can be emulated.