There has been no more vigorous example of direct opposition to the embargo against Cuba than efforts to send humanitarian materials to the shortage-ridden island. First introduced by Pastors for Peace and that organization’s leader, Lucius Walker, such shipments represent a challenge to U.S. Cuban policy, especially when the exporter refuses to secure the license required under embargo laws for humanitarian donations to Cuba.

On July 2, 2001, Pastors for Peace crossed into Mexico with its 12th “Friendshipment” of aid to Cuba. Officials there of theU.S. Customs Service sent that shipment on through even though no license had been obtained. Previous attempts to block the Friendshipments had resulted in confrontations that generated significant publicity, and presumably for U.S. officials a violation of the law was less troublesome than the public learning about principled opposition to U.S. policy. And 20 months ago, Let Cuba Live took four pickup truck loads of unlicensed medical supplies to Montreal for shipment to Cuba , and on that occasion too, there was no interference by U.S. authorities.

Hoping to replicate that effort, , Let Cuba Live on July 2, 2001 – the same day as the Pastors for Peace crossing - tried to take two cars and four pickups, one with a U-Haul trailer, to Montreal, each filled to capacity with donated medical supplies. This time, the 14 drivers and passengers were stopped at Coburn Gore, Maine, at the international border. Customs officials placed spike strips under the vehicles’ tires.  When U.S. agents announced that they were detaining the entire Cuban-bound shipment, members of Let Cuba Live carried the boxes of humanitarian aid on foot across the border and gave them to Canadian friends who had come to welcome the caravan, all members of Caravane D'Amitie Quebec-Cuba.

At that point, a three-hour long confrontation ensued between members of Let Cuba Live and federal officers who wrestled as many boxes of aid out of the hands of the protesters as they could.  Tussling and scuffling were the order of the day with both officers and the protesters managing for the most part to remain fairly civil to each other. State Police and law enforcement officials from adjoining counties arrived at the border during the confrontation to provide reinforcement for the Coburn Gore Border Patrol and Customs officials. Was U.S. national security so in danger from a few Maine people with boxes of bed-sheets, newborn resuscitation devices, and anesthesia machines that at one point over twenty police vehicles were gathered in the adjacent parking lot, all with motors running?

Over 40 boxes reached the Canadian side of the border. The rest of the donated material, 50 boxes, was seized by the U.S. government, along with two trucks and trailer laden with boxes deemed too heavy to unload.  The trucks and the trailer were released on July 13.

Steve Burke of Let Cuba Live commented at the time that, “This action by the U.S. authorities represents a change in their attitude toward Let Cuba Live [referring to the 1999 shipment to Quebec] …The feds really seem to feel increasingly threatened by what we’re doing.  We must be doing it right.”

Let Cuba Live has petitioned Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), of the U.S. Treasury Department for release of the seized items so they can be sent to Cuba.  Shortly after the border challenge, Let Cuba Live received statements of support from U.S. Congressmen John Baldacci and Tom Allen, as well as from Senator Susan Collins, each of whom has come out for easing the blockade against Cuba.   The three legislators now support “The Bridges with the Cuban People Act” that would ease the travel restrictions exempt food and medical supplies from embargo restrictions. [See accompanying article].Olympia Snowe, on the other hand, co-sponsor of the Helms-Burton Act a cornerstone of the blockade, so far has refused to support the “Bridges” act, but is rumored to be rethinking her Cold War-era opinion on this issue. There has been an outpouring of international support. Those messages can be seen on the Let Cuba Live website, www.letcubalive.org

On August 18, as reported elsewhere in this Newsletter, 75 embargo protesters demanded that federal officials at Coburn Gore, Maine let 140 boxes of medical supplies enter Canada for shipment to Cuba.

The Customs Service informed the press that there is a "simple, legal method" for sending aid to Cuba; specifically, Let Cuba Live should have secured a license. From the point of view of the Customs Service, whose interest is that merchandise crosses borders efficiently and legally, such advice does make sense. If humanitarian donations were its main business, Let Cuba Live might indeed have obtained a license. The main work of Let Cuba Live, however, is political, opposition to a cruel, illegal blockade.

Historically, when legislative processes fail in leading to reform, dissidents seek out alternative weapons in the arsenal of democratic protest, such as strikes, boycotts, demonstrations, and civil disobedience. They resort to direct action in order to educate, promote discussion, convert sympathizers into activists, and shape public opinion in order that public officials feel pressure. They are steering away from the easy course – the one recommended by the Customs Service - and they are asking for trouble.

Henry Thoreau chose not to pay his poll tax to a government that invaded Mexico in 1847 and supported slavery. He went to jail. Suffragettes could have stayed home and waited for reasonable, but timid, men to give them the vote, but instead they took to the streets and also went to jail. Rosa Parks disobeyed the law by sitting in the back of the bus. She set off a bus boycott, and Black people in Montgomery had to walk. A century ago working people realized that good will alone on the part of factory owners would not end child labor and bring about the eight-hour workday. They set strikes in motion, built a labor movement, and violated more than a few laws and municipal ordinances.
 
Now, Let Cuba Live chooses not to cooperate with the requirement for licensure. Acceptance of even a small part of the legal framework of the embargo system suggests complicity. The mere sending of aid does little to inform the public about the evils of the blockade. Media coverage rarely includes full public discussion of the failed U.S. policy toward Cuba. Provocative challenges like the ones at Coburn Gore are intended to stimulate the beginnings  of real debate.

One aspect of political activism that the new anti-globilization movement embodies is the challenge of finding  connections among the injustices against humanity, the environment, and indigenous and local economies. Multi-issue
organizing of this kind is not new, but it has become an imperative if we on the Left are to build the numbers needed to push political momentum in our direction.

As long-time organic farmers we have always considered ourselves environmentalists. Throughout the years we have been active also in the Nuclear  Freeze movement, the anti- nuclear power movement, mass demonstrations against US
intervention in Central America and Vietnam, and much more. Now retired from farming,  We are still involved. Fighting for the environment remains an important priority, but recently anti-globilization has taken up much of our time. We see the plight of Cuba and the US policies toward it as part of the overall antiglobalization struggle, not a "separate" issue.

 And that's why we participated in the August 18th challenge to the blockade against Cuba at Coburn Gore by bringing humanitarian aid across the border into Canada. Although we have not been able to participate in all activities of Let
Cuba Live, we did take part in an earlier caravan of medical supplies in l996 that went to the Canadian border at Highgate, Vermont. On that occasion, we crossed over into Canada only after a tense four-hour negotiation with US Customs officers and after they had seized computers and peripherals valued at $5000.

The timing of the responses by the U.S. Customs Service to these two events, similar in many respects,– including the "partial" success in each case of getting some, but not all, of the humanitarian  aid across the border - serves  to underscore the Clinton,
and now the Bush administrations’ stand on Cuba at critical points in their respective tenures. The international outcry this year against the seizure of medical supplies at Coburn Gore, on July 2, echoed the outrage we felt. When Rev. Lucius Walker spoke at a rally in Portland on July 21, 2001, his words stirred us with a sense of the significance of the issue. History will show the US policies toward Cuba to have been a crime against humanity, and our role as US citizens is, and will be,  crucial in turning the tide.

Even in retirement we remain active although our bodies are neither as compliant, nor as uncomplaining as they used to be. When the summer began, we promised ourselves that we would try to pay attention to our personal needs and respond to only the most urgent of political issues.

But when Let Cuba Live put out its call to action early in August for a return to Coburn Gore, there was no question in our minds that we and our 1984 farm truck would go where the need was. And needed we were.

What has medical aid to Cuba have to do with the larger, overarching issue of corporate domination – the focus of our activism over the past several years? In fact, everything! The Cuban embargo is a purely political tool, and the corporate interests that are buried deep in the Helms-Burton Act and other pieces of embargo legislation drive the powerbrokers in Congress. The Cuban  revolution was successful in spoiling the fun for the millionaires who used to run the rum industry, the sugar plantations, the casino industry, the sex trade before the revolution. U.S. policy is  all about who pays for political power, who gives huge contributions to the candidates.

Cuba stands as a lone symbol of defiant self-determination in a world driven by U.S. based corporate domination. We honor
the Cuban people and hold them up as heroes in an era of global pillage. We owe it to them to do all we can to deny the validity of the embargo, to defy immoral laws. We owe it to them to go the extra mile, to make sure there are persistent and determined acts of defiance over and over again.

Increasingly, Cuba is in the news. Some would trace this upsurge back to the saga of Elian Gonzales, the six-year-old boy from Cardenas, Cuba who was rescued at sea on November 25, 1999. More recently, the news has focused on internal strife within the Cuban American National Foundation, the largest Cuban exile organization in the United States.  And after his recent fainting spell, speculation mounts as to changes that may come to Cuba after the death of President Fidel Castro and about possible changes in U.S. – Cuban relations.

For many, a surge in coverage of news about Cuba may elicit a less-than-enthusiastic yawn or perhaps the question: “So what?”  Indeed, why does Cuba matter, especially for working people?

Steve Burke, a founding member of Let Cuba Live has an answer: “It’s true that Cuba seems, in many ways, to be an entire world away… But United States policy concerning Cuba has had and will have an effect on the lives and jobs of Maine workers.”  Burke notes that Cuba has 7 million educated workers who someday may join the North American labor and commercial markets.  Many believe that these workers enjoy a greater degree of literacy and a stronger social safety net than is found in the United States.  On the other hand, Cuba’s wages fall far short of those found in the U.S.

The diplomatic and economic drama between the United States and Cuba continues to unfold, and Maine workers may have to face the prospect of Cuba entering the U.S./North American economy, an eventuality that might add to global competition and put downward pressure on wages and working conditions here at home. Should not workers from both countries stand up together for trade agreements that meet the highest common wage and social denominator of both societies?  “Put simply,” says Steve Burke, “Will economic integration with Cuba bring a continued ‘race to the bottom’ like we have with NAFTA, or will it bring a new kind of ‘race to the top’ that will benefit everyone?”

Many inside and outside the U.S. labor movement would argue that the answers to questions like these depend upon what U.S. workers do right now to build relationships with Cuban citizens, their unions, and their government.  Jeff Faux, President of the Economic Policy Institute and Marjorie Allen, a Legislative Affairs Specialist with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) covered some of this ground in an article entitled  “American Labor’s Stake in Cuba’s Future” (WorkingUSA-January/February, 1999).  They conclude that, “It is in American labor’s interest that Cuba’s reintegration comes on terms that help raise, rather than lower, the living standards of its own workers and those of its neighboring countries as well.”

Barbara West, another early member of Let Cuba Live, adds,  “It’s also in American labor’s interest to make improvements in the U.S. based on the Cuban society’s examples in the areas of universal health care and education.”  She continues: “But it’s really hard for either society to learn from the other while this ridiculous, immoral and illegal blockade against Cuba is in place.”

The U.S. government harasses Cuba at every turn, the embargo attempts to strangle the Cuban people, and Washington would isolate the nation from the rest of the world. For these reasons, Cuba labels U.S. policy as a blockade. By law U.S. citizens and businesses are unable to engage in trade of any sort of with people in Cuba and may not spend money in Cuba, the result being that travel to Cuba is severely restricted. Remarkably, U.S. citizens are forbidden to send humanitarian aid to Cuba without a special “license” from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The embargo restricts the importation of food and medical equipment, even those from third countries. Merchant ships that visit Cuba may not enter U.S. ports for 6 months. Without question, working people in Cuba suffer at the hands of the U.S. blockade.
.
And the blockade hurts U.S. workers too.  It isolates them and prevents them from learning about a nation that, having endured a decade of economic disaster, by and large has been able to realize that most humane aspiration of a decent society, the right of all people to learn, be healthy, and do useful work. Cuban workers continue to benefit from a world-renowned system of universal health care, an exceptionally high literacy rate among all of its citizens and a social safety net that, if the words of U.S. President George W. Bush may be used, truly “leaves no child behind.”     In the United States, on the other hand, a high-tech hangover gouges the public’s confidence in the new, soap-bubble economy, and both American and Maine workers are told that job security, their benefit levels, and their plans for retirement all may be problematic, now that competition rules the roost.

Barbara West comments: “The U.S. blockade against Cuba seeks to discredit the solutions that Cubans have found for problems that we have here in the State of Maine and in the U.S. as a whole.”  She continues: “More importantly, the blockade prevents people here from learning about how Cuban society has structured itself to benefit all of its workers.”

Rev. Lucius Walker, relaxing at the White Wolf Restaurant, Stratton, Maine, on August 18, a few hours after the border challenge at Coburn Gore, remarked that in two days he would be joining 26 U.S. students on their way to Havana, Cuba. They would be beginning a six year course of study at Cuba’ s Latin American School of Medicine, and IFCO/ Pastors for Peace, of which Rev. Walker is the director, has played a crucial role in recruiting and preparing students to attend the medical school

The Cuban Government established the school in 1998 as a response to the disaster of Hurricane Mitch earlier that year. 4000 students from 24 countries in Latin American, the Caribbean, Africa, and now the United States are enrolled in the school. On graduating, they will return to work in areas without adequate medical care. Cuban doctors, at least 2000 at any given time, have long been working in remote areas in some of the students’ homelands.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus first discussed the prospect of North Americans studying in Cuba at a meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1999, in Havana. The idea was revived when he came to New York on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the UN. IFCO undertook responsibility for making the project a reality. Cuba has set aside 500 places for U.S. students to receive a free medical education. The students must come from low- income backgrounds, be members of an ethnic minority, and promise to work in underserved areas. The first 8 U.S. students were enrolled six months ago, and the total now is 37. Lucius Walker reports that IFCO receives 25 applications each month.

The program has been criticized as a publicity stunt crafted by the Cuban government, and the possibility of difficulties in obtaining a medical license in the United States after graduation has been pointed out. In the United States, 80% of the medical students come from the 20% richest families. The average debt incurred by students attempting to pay for a medical education exceeds $125,000, hardly an inducement to give up high earnings in order to practice in low-income areas. For information about the Latin American School of Medicine, contact Let Cuba Live or reach IFC0 (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization) at: ifco@igc.apc.org , or (212) 926 -5842

From October 1 through October 4, Juan Suarez Rodes will be speaking at various locations in Maine. The sponsor of his tour is Witness for Peace of New England, and the hope is to raise funds in support of Witness for Peace ecumenical projects for solidarity in Cuba and other parts of Latin America.

Joel Suarez Rodes is the Coordinator General of the Martin Luther King Center which for over two decades has provided outreach and support in its Havana neighborhood and has served as home base for visiting North Americans, including many Mainers participating in the Pastors for Peace Friendshipments. Raul Suarez, the speaker’s father, founded the Center and serves as pastor of its Ebenezer Baptist Church. He is a member of the Cuban National Assembly.

Joel Suarez Rodes will discuss the role of churchs in Cuban life, the effect of shortages on the people’s lives, and the extent to which revolutionary ideals survive in contemporary Cuba. He will talk also about the increased role of non-governmental organizations in Cuban life and their potential relationships with solidarity groups in other countries. His schedule in Maine is full:

Monday October 1
noon    Camden Public Library
for information: Marie Almeida    236-7319

5 P.M.  H.O.M.E. Chapel,  Route 1, Orland
call 469-7961 or Ellen Wells  781-2604

Tuesday  October  2
Call,  Suzanne Hedricks 563-7041
Noon     2nd Congregational Church, Newscastle-Damariscotta Lunch served
7 P.M.     Bowdoin College, Brunswick, location to be announced
 
Wednesday  October  3
Call,  Don Sibley   892 - 7446
6:30 A.M to 7:15 A.M..  Interview  at WMPG, 90.9 FM   Portland
8:00 to 9:15 AM    #312 Bailey Hall, University of Southern Maine
Noon        # 12 Almond Center, University of New England, Biddeford
4 P.M.      #113 Masterson Hall, University of Southern Maine,  Portland
                                                       
Thursday   October  4
10 A.M.     Spanish classes, Oxford Hills High School, South Paris, Maine.     Call 743-2183
 4 P.M.       Bates College    Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall,   Contact Kerry Maloney, 786-8272
 7 P.M.       Public Interest Forum, 463 Main St. Norway, Tom Whitney    743-2183

Senators and Representatives now have the chance to begin reshaping U.S.policy toward Cuba. 25 Senators have now signed on to The Bridges to the Cuban People Act (S.1017) introduced by Senator Dodd and others on June 12, 2001. In the House, a companion bill (H.R.2183) introduced the same day by Rep. Serrano, now has 101 cosponsors. The bills have been referred to committees.

The proposed legislation calls for:

* Doing away with restrictions on sales to Cuba of agricultural products, farm equipment, medicines, medical supplies

* Allowing ships leaving Cuban ports to be able to sail at once to the United States They would no longer have to wait for 180 days

* Abolishing the restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens

* Allowing the President to waive sanctions imposed by the Helms Burton Act of 1996 on foreign individuals and corporations benefiting from the use of property expropriated after the Cuban Revolution. It would also restore to him administrative flexibility in embargo oversight that the Helms Burton Act had removed.

* Lifting the limitations on the amount of money that Cuban – Americans can send to their relatives in Cuba.

* Funds to enable Cuban young people to pursue graduate study in the United States, especially in public health, public policy, economics, and law.

* Allowing the importation into the United States of medical items made in Cuba that are unavailable in the United States.

* Exemptions that would permit the export of goods and service to Cuba that are intended for the exclusive use of children.

The “Bridges to the Cuban People Act” deserves full support from those who oppose 40 years of a state of seige imposed on a small island. If passed, it represents a beginning step toward respect for Cuba’s ability and right to set her own course. The need ultimately, of course, is for full diplomatic relations with Cuba, free trade, citizen interchange as with other nations, and dismantling the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

Maine Representatives Baldacci and Allen and Senator Susan Collins have cosponsored the proposed legislation. Senator Olympia Snowe has indicated in letters to inquiring constituents that she does not support the bill. Her office was unable to find time for her during the summer to discuss the bill at a proposed meeting with a delegation of Let Cuba Live members. Her apparent unwillingness to think about shedding an archaic, cruel, and illegal policy puts her at odds with Congressional colleagues and, according to public opinion surveys, with a majority of U.S. citizens. How can we persuade her to accept contemporary realities?

On June 8, 2001 three Cuban citizens, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labaniño and Antonio Guerrero, were convicted in a federal court in Miami of "conspiracy to commit espionage" and "conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent." They could face life in prison. Fernando González and René González, convicted only of the second charge, face possible ten-year sentences. All are expected to be sentenced in September.

The Cuban government has condemned the prosecution and convictions and treats them as part of Washington's hostile policies against Cuba. In a statement published in the June 20 issue of the Cuban daily GRANMA, the government stated that the five Cubans were part of an operation to "discover and report on terrorist plans hatched against our people." From their point of view, those convicted are Cuban patriots whose work was directed exclusively at protecting their homeland from cowardly terrorist actions being planned and carried out from Miami. At no time did they convey to Cuba information about U.S. military or other installations. They focused  on defending their country against the various attacks and subversion by organizations based in the Miami area that have plagued Cuba for more than forty years, including in the last couple of years commando raids and bombing attacks on hotels, and two frustrated attempts at assassinating Fidel Castro.

In addition, Gerardo Hernández faces the possibility of an additional life sentence for "conspiracy to commit murder" in the deaths of four pilots belonging to the rightist Cuban-American group called Brothers to the Rescue. The pilots were shot down by the Cuban air force in 1996, after provocatively entering Cuban air space and ignoring repeated warnings. The prosecution justified the charge by claiming that Hernández had provided the Cuban government with flight information about the Brothers to the Rescue operation.

Many political activists believe these moves are partially aimed at marginalizing and intimidating those who would oppose U.S. government policies, and at undermining democratic rights in this country. During the three years prior to the arrests, FBI agents repeated broke into the homes of suspects. "Evidence" in the trial consisted of information the FBI claimed to have collected in these raids, and from short-wave radio transmissions assertedly intercepted between the defendants and Havana. The judge refused a defense motion to move the trial out of the inflamed anti-Cuba political atmosphere in Miami. And the FBI agent in charge of operations there has announced that more indictments of individuals it believes are "spying" for Cuba will follow.
The jailed Cubans appreciate messages of solidarity. Their addresses are available from Let Cuba Live.

Many people who are unable to work regularly with Let Cuba Live provided help and support during recent months and years. We are grateful to...

Mabel Dennison of Temple, Maine, who gave over her house and hall for meetings, sleep, and food for 40 people on the night before the August 18 challenge, and participated in the border crossing. We regret having to report that Mabel died unexpectedly on September 6. She was a lifelong activist and a friend of children, neighbors and fellow peacemakers. Mabel Dennison, presente!
Nancy Allen Brooksville, Maine, for media support and emergency response coordination
Stuart Abbott for driving his truck far afield to pick up donated material.
Jim Casteris of Boston, for solidarity.
Ken Morse  of Grassroots Graphics, Norway, Maine -  printer and friend
Merle Glines and Mac Mclaughlin, sign-painters, for making us a new banner.
Jill Grant of Brewer, Maine, and Donna Neff, of Marblehead, Massachusetts - master scroungers.
Tom Sturtevant, Stan and Loukie Lofchie, Jack and Fay Bussell for food  (and  Tom for finding Mabel’s place) – all of Veteran’s for Peace.
Rick Starbird for lending his truck and for putting up with its confiscation.
Rick, Richard Stander, Nancy Galland, and Jim Ellsworth for driving boxes of aid to Montreal. Barbara West accompanied them.
Russ Christensen, Jim Ellsworth, Tom Sturtevant for writing persuasive op-ed pieces and articles about our cause in newspapers and journals.
Rev. Lucius Walker and all the staff at IFCO/Pastors for Peace,  for guidance and support, across the miles and on the front lines.
Irv Wolfe who wins the senior prize - age 88- and ties for the long distance prize – New York City
Phil Worden, Northeast Harbor, Maine, for legal support and counsel, political insight, and always being at the ready.
members of the Caravane d’Amitie Quebec-Cuba and the Association Quebecoise des Amis de Cuba whose solidarity with Cuba is strong and whose work makes Coburn Gore(s) possible.
Mystery person who paid for an airplane to fly over the July 21 rally in Portland with a banner that read "!Cuba Si! -- Let Cuba Live!"

Let Cuba Live is working on plans for two trips to Cuba, each from April 13 to April 20, 2002, one for teachers, the other for health workers. Over the years many groups of people who share common work interests have visited the island to learn about life in Cuba and Cuba’s history of political and social change. A visit with people doing the same work you do can facilitate a learning process about their lives, needs, and hopes that may not open up to the casual tourist. And such an experience can only add to an understanding and appreciation of one’s own profession, as well as offer an opportunity to make new friends and colleagues.

Let Cuba Live organized a delegation of pediatricians and pediatric nurses for a visit to Cuba in 1996 and brought together a large group of teachers for a weeklong visit during April, 2000. The organization helped out with a trip to Cuba of organic farmers in 1997.

The two groups will visit locations in Eastern Cuba and will be based first in the city of Holguin then in Santiago. Plans are for the two groups to travel together from Montreal and to share the same hotels in Cuba. The cost of both a week in Cuba and the flights to and from Montreal will total about $1500.The groups will be limited in size, approximately 15 people in each one. Our coordinator for this project, who lives in Cuba, has already outlined preliminary schedules of visits and local trips that for variety and relevance, promise real excitement. Time will be set aside for the visitors to explore and to meet with Cuban people on their own, and visits are being planned to sites of historical and cultural interest.

The education tour group will examine a full range of schools and projects that exemplify Cuba’s commitment to educational for all, from preschool centers, schools for the handicapped, elementary schools up to universities and technical schools. The group of health workers, we hope, will be multi-disciplinary, and they will be exposed to all sorts of health facilities and services in order that they might learn how Cuba has been able to achieve a statistical record of improved health outcome that is envied worldwide. Health care and education in Cuba do not exist, however, without problems, and the visiting teachers and health care workers will have an opportunity to investigate those aspects of Cuban life too.

A representative of Let Cuba Live will accompany each group as a facilitator. We will arrange one or more meetings for people interested in visiting Cuba during the coming months in order to find out about their ideas as to objectives and arrangements. Anybody wanting to learn more should contact Let Cuba Live. Education people should call Renee Cote at 786-4325, and health professionals should call Tom Whitney at 743 – 2183.