RESOUNDING SUCCESS OF THE WORLD CARAVAN BY LIFTING SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA.
These caravans, the largest public protests in LA to defend Cuba’s sovereignty in a decade, urged Mayor Garcetti and Gov. Newsom to invite Cuban medical personnel here to assist in the pandemic crises, to end the blockade, travel ban, normalize cultural, educational & scientific collaboration. LA County, similar population to Cuba, has 23,000+ deaths; Cuba has 400.
Youthful committee members, like Brenda Lopez, Cassio and Antonio Mendez, Pacey Hackett, Diana and Johanna Cervantes are active participants in national zoom calls, conferences, webinars, multiple radio, newspaper and TV stations interviews, monthly on-line book clubs, and outdoor Cuban film showings. We held a successful in-person and on-line July 26 event with Pastors for Peace, Cuban ELAM (Medical school) graduates and others at the Wilmington International Association of Machinists hall. Marisol Cruz got the Lennox School Bd to pass a resolution for US-CUBA normalization, end the blockade.
Committee activists tend to be young, Black and Latinx, new to the End the Blockade movement, some travelled to Cuba in 2019 to present at Cubambiente (International Environmental conference). Others come out of the protests around Black Lives Matter, nurses’ protests for PPE, Amazon workers unionizing, MLK, teacher, immigrants’ rights, environmental actions, etc.
We are appealing for your participation in on-going activities and financial assistance to continue our important work. The committee has incurred expenses in financing our website, banners for protests and organizing meetings. But more importantly, we need to begin now to raise funds to send youth leaders to New York City in June for the UN resolution and vote to end the US blockade of Cuba. Further, we want to send youth to Cuba as soon as possible, to join youth brigades and science conferences, so they can gain further experience and knowledge of the society the Cuban people are building. We have just been invited to send a delegation to the 2021 Cubambiente international conference in Havana, in July. Costs will be roughly $1500 per person for transportation to Cuba, housing, food, regional travel & sites (ELAM, Acuario Nacional, CDR, FMC meetings, etc.). NINE YOUNG COMMITTEE ACTIVISTS ARE PLANNING TO GO IF WE CAN HELP THEM RAISE THE MONEY.