Detroit City Council:
'End travel ban on Cuba'
By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
The Detroit City Council on Nov. 7 unanimously
passed a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to repeal all
trade and travel restrictions with Cuba. Submitted by
Councilmember JoAnn Watson, the action responded to Bush
adminstration threats to fine and jail U.S. citizens who travel
to Cuba.
The U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, an organization promoting
worker-to-worker dialogue between the two countries, asked for
the council's support.
Founded in Detroit in 1991, the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange is
one of three organizations that have received
request-for-information letters from the U.S. Treasury
Department, a move that may be followed with fines.
The council action is part of a national campaign initiated
by the National Network on Cuba to mobilize support for ending
the trade and travel ban on Cuba.
While the Bush administration is stepping up harassment and
legal action against people who have travelled to Cuba, in
Congress, both the House and Senate passed identical
legislation to cut funding for this enforcement.
The Detroit City Council resolution characterized the Bush
administration's action as "attempting to thwart the vote of
the House and Senate." It points out that "Cuba has developed
important medicines and vaccines that would be of great
benefit" to Detroiters. The resolution also looked toward farm
and manufacturing trade with Cuba to "help regenerate
Michigan's economic situation." Significantly, the resolution
also "urges that the President carefully review the inclusion
of Cuba on the list of terrorist countries, based on actual
evidence and not on political factors." The administration has
accused Cuba of being a terrorist country, without a shred of
evidence.
In fact, Cuba has been attacked numerous times since its
1959 revolution by U.S.-based terrorists.
Reprinted from the Nov. 20, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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