NEW YORK — More than 100 people from the U.S. and Canada participated in a two-day conference here March 15-16 to discuss what faces the Cuban people today and plan activities to press Washington to end its more than 65-year economic, political and financial war against the Cuban Revolution. Dozens more joined via video.
The conference was organized by the International US-Cuba Normalization Conference Coalition and the Cuba Sí New York/New Jersey Coalition, and endorsed by a number of other organizations and individuals.
“The economic war against Cuba takes a high toll, costing Cuba some $5 billion in trade and resources just over the past year,” Cuba’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Yuri Gala López, told the Saturday evening rally. “The U.S. does a lot of damage, but it will never achieve its main objective of bringing Cuba to its knees.”
The U.S. government has announced new visa restrictions on Cubans and their relatives travelling to the U.S. if they have any links with the country’s historic program to provide medical aid around the world. Washington has made these programs a special target as part of its attempt to slander Cuba’s internationalist record and deprive it of much-needed hard currency.
Thousands of Cuban health care workers have gone on medical missions abroad, often working in the most remote rural areas or worst-off working-class neighborhoods. Washington smears these volunteers as being “slaves” and accuses Cuba of “human trafficking.”
“Anyone who has ever been treated by a Cuban doctor in another country as part of these programs knows this is not true,” said Leima Martínez Freire, of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). She urged participants to spread the truth about the contributions Cuban medical workers have made since the early years of the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
The conference coincided with the annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. A delegation from Cuba was in New York to participate and several members spoke at the conference.
The sessions on March 15 — a morning plenary, four workshops and an evening rally — were held at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Malcolm X often spoke here and it is where he was assassinated 60 years ago. Several at the conference spoke to the historic meeting between Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and Malcolm X in 1960, when Castro came to address the United Nations for the first time.
Under pressure from the U.S. government, the Cuban delegation was insulted and turned away from hotels downtown, so Malcolm X arranged for Castro and the delegation to stay at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem.
“We cannot fail to remember the two giants whose struggles and legacies guide us — Fidel and Malcolm,” Noemi Rabaza, ICAP’s vice president, said at the opening plenary. “From different trenches but with the same purpose they dedicated their lives to the struggle for social justice, equality and human dignity.
“Fidel had unwavering confidence in the power of the people. He taught us that no challenge is too great when fighting for a just ideal. And Malcolm X reminded us that the struggle for human rights knows no borders,” she said.
Conference workshops
There were four afternoon workshops March 15, including “Cuba and Climate Change,” “Labor Unions Standing with Cuba” and “Travel and Material Aid to Cuba.” At the fourth workshop, on “Cuba and Reproductive Justice,” Osmayda Hernández, director of international relations for the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), noted that in Cuba public health, including reproductive and sexual health for both men and women, is a right. Zonya Rivero López, the FMC’s national second secretary, also took part in the conference sessions.
In response to a question on child care, Yamila González Ferrer, vice president of the National Union of Cuban Jurists, explained that the number of working-age adults leaving the island due to the difficult conditions resulting from the U.S. economic war poses new challenges for both child care and elder care. “Children are left in the care of grandparents, friends and neighbors. The immigrant adults send money back, but the emotional connections and support are missing,” she said.
Cuba faces big shortages of medicines and medical equipment due to Washington’s embargo. Helping ease this crisis was a central focus of the workshop on material aid. Bob Schwartz, from Global Health Partners, reported that at the height of the COVID pandemic, supporters of the Cuban Revolution from North America were able to send 6 million syringes to Cuba, making it possible for Cuba to use its own vaccines to immunize the entire country. He and others urged participants to join in current efforts to send pacemakers to Cuba.
A highlight of the conference was a reportback from several youth delegates who had attended the International Conference for the Decade of People of African Descent, held in Cuba last December.
“I understand now why the U.S. government hates Cuba so much,” Shaquille Williams said. “Elders are incorporated into the life of the nation. The right to a home is protected by the constitution. Even with the tremendous shortages, they have programs to build new houses. I didn’t see any homeless people. But here in the richest and most powerful country in the world, they can’t do that.
“Cuba’s internationalism is a threat to imperialism. They set a great example,” he said. “What they did is what we need to do.”