Uniting working class in the Americas

From Dec. 3 to 5 in Tijuana, Mexico — just minutes from the San Diego, Calif., airport — a cross-section of workers from Latin America who are confronting the global crisis will meet with U.S. workers grappling with devastating challenges. Building on six previous conferences, the meeting’s aim is to grow the unity of the working class in the Americas and increase its influence — from the tip of Chile to Alaska — by sharing problems but also examining strategies to fight and win.

Of special interest will be a representative from Ecuador, where a U.S.-backed coup was defeated Sept. 30. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers in the U.S., will appear by video.

Special guest Aili Labañino will represent the families of the Cuban Five — men unjustly jailed for more than 12 years in the U.S. — at the conference opening on the evening of Dec. 3. She is the eldest daughter of Ramón Labañino, currently in the Jessup, Ga., federal prison. Throughout the conference, the first public showing of cartoons drawn by another of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, will be displayed. Hernández is imprisoned in Victorville, Calif. His double-life plus 15 years sentence is still under appeal.

The U.S. government blockade of Cuba has prevented Cuban union leaders from coming to the U.S. So the Dec. 3-5 weekend is a rare opportunity to discuss the changing world situation with these workers, who have won universal free health care, universal free education and social security for the working class, even under the most difficult conditions of a colonial past, almost half a century of an imperialist blockade with overt and covert aggression, and now a global economic crisis caused by capitalist overproduction.

The Venezuelan delegation from the Workers’ Socialist Center (CST) is bringing Oliver Stone’s new film “South of the Border” for viewing and discussion after the Dec. 4 dinner.

The agenda will include looking at problems and steps forward, and will also focus on the current situation in Mexico. Representatives of the Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) and Mexicana airline workers who were thrown out of their jobs will discuss their organizing. Miners and maquiladora workers are expected, too.

Migration and immigration, compelled by imperialist “free trade” agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, their effects and responses to them, including May Day 2011, will round out the conference on Dec. 5.

Already autoworkers, steelworkers, health care workers, teachers, trades people and low-wage workers are registering to come from the U.S. To increase time for discussion, simultaneous translation is being organized.

The conference is not underwritten by any large labor organizations or foundations. It depends on attendee registrations and individual donations to cover the considerable costs.

Confirmed participants include Ermela García Santiago, National Secretariat, Cuban Workers Federation (CTC); Magaly Batista Enríquez, International Relations, CTC; Silvia García Tabío, Cuban National Assembly of Peoples’ Power; Gilda Chacón Bravo, Americas’ office, WFTU/FSM; Jacobo Torres de León, Venezuelan Socialist Force of Bolivarian Workers, CST; a representative of Venezuela’s UNETE; Fredy José Franco, Nicaraguan Federation of Teachers of Higher Education; José Humberto Montes de Oca Luna, SME; Oliverio Esquivel Reyes, WFTU/FSM Mexican Coordinator; Professor Jorge Cazares Torres, Mexican National Union of Educators, Sec. VIII; a representative from the Mexico Miners’ Union; João Batista Lemos, Brazil Workers’ Center; Adolfo Cardona, Colombia’s SINALTRAINAL union, USW organizer; Edgar Luis Sarango Correa, Vice-President, Ecuadoran Workers’ Center; and speakers from the U.S. Invited but not yet confirmed are representatives from Haiti and Puerto Rico.

To register or donate, go to laborexchange.blogspot.com. To make a special inclusive-rate hotel registration, call the Hotel Palacio Azteca toll-free from the U.S. at 1-888-901-3720 and ask for “Cuba Labor Conference.” Hotel includes breakfasts and Saturday dinner. Registration is $80 U.S., including dinner on Friday.