A Winning Strategy from LA and the NNOC Conference Labor Workshop*
The new opportunities that keep presenting themselves enable us to reach out to labor given the capitalist crisis – which will only increase.
The growing strike wave that has been sweeping the US opens up new possibilities for solidarity work in organized unions, on the picket line, and wherever workers are trying to form new unions – all are critical. We need to show up at ALU, Starbucks other union organizing efforts… plus, actions like the pre-strike Teamster rallies, UAW strike, hospital, health care workers, teachers, port & dock workers. ANYBODY ON THE PICKET LINE.
We are not there to endorse strikes, but to explain the Cuban Labor Code & rights of Cuban workers vs. the conditions facing US workers.
Cuba committees must do CONSISTENT outreach to the labor movement, or we will miss this critical opportunity, not easy but a vital one for Cuba. The importance Cubans place on US labor support was made clear when the LA cttee attended the week-long, Pasantia- Cuban labor internship. LA has been invited again this year to bring a “Labor and Youth Activists” delegation. We have confirmations from leaders of the Amazon Labor Union reform caucus, railroad workers, SEIU youth organizers, political, environmental and Cuba activists—contact us to join. The Building Relations with Cuban Labor is also organizing one.
LA should not be unique as to what is possible! It took us 9 months to bring in the International Association of Machinists as formal committee members. Every solidarity committee should be working the labor angle! Chicago and Miami have been working hard on this, others too, I am sure. The Labor Notes national and local troublemakers’ conferences are important for us to attend. Many participants are radicalizing unionists and opposed to the US blockade.
LA had 300, with 100 members of the International Longshore and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU) – many organized to attend by Cuba committee member Mike Vera, member of the Inland Boatman’s Union (IBU-marine division of ILWU) you may have seen on the webinar recently. His video is available. It is powerful. He’s at every strike & picket line, talking up Cuba solidarity.
Labor union resolutions are important—and an opportunity to reach the ranks, activists which there are more of now than we have seen in 6 decades. New LA Federation of Labor resolution is the largest labor body, representing 300 locals with 800,000 members to pass a resolution on SSOT, but with an attack on the CTC. Importantly, the article in Trabajadores answered it brilliantly but nevertheless recognized the importance the resolution represented.
We need to answer the lies– that have been hammered into people over decades. The more we do this the easier it will be, and the more resolutions we can show people, the harder it will be for conservative officials to insert jabs against Cuba into resolutions. Building Relations with Cuban Labor, as Bill Camp discussed, has been successful on labor resolutions for years.
Cuba urges us to orient to labor struggles and specific methods of functioning such as these quotes from the CTC newspaper Trabajadores and Granma: I am quoting Miguel Angel Alvarez, N. American International Relations director of the CTC (national Cuban union association 15 different unions of millions of Cuban workers). to a LA delegation meeting with CTC interns, and international CTC representatives.
“We thank you for your continued support in defending Cuba. We give our unconditional support to the LA Hands-Off Cuba Committee, your activities, and the formation of your broad democratic committee involving organizations, unions, political activists, and individuals. Your committee takes the moral high ground in defending Cuba. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the type of activities organized by the LAHOC, how it functions, and to use it as a model for others organizing internationally.”
We must reach out to labor to rejuvenate our committees, young workers and other organizations of fighters – like BAYAN, a coalition of Filipino groups.
What about the type of committee needed to carry out this work? Why does Cuba spend so much time on this in their articles addressed to the world?
Cuba needs broad-based Cuba committees that are solely focused on Cuba. The last thing Cuba needs is leftist committees or politically narrow demonstrations such as we saw nationally on June 25. Actions with a preponderance of socialist signs does NOT advance our work, but makes us look small, isolated! It actually makes it harder for regular folks to join—they walk by and think it’s a socialist demonstration.
It harms our broad advocacy efforts, especially to bring in unions, and it harms the image of Cuba. It is a fundamentally sectarian way of functioning. For our committees to take positions on other issues, like Palestine or Ukraine, would destroy Cuba cttees, explode them. Relegate them to ineffective sectarian groups.
After all, that’s what political parties are for, right? NOT Cuba committees. We have one goal: the end of the cruel, punitive sanctions against Cuba, and get Cuba off the SSOT list.
Some of you may know that differences emerged over the past year within the LA Cuba committee. Others have also faced these political differences or will in the future. There have been two efforts to destroy the LA committee’s focus on Cuba.
One group said we should not do outreach at strikes, protests around climate change, abortion or immigrant’s rights with flyers addressing the Cuban position, and a having a Cuba committee literature table.
Another small group of individuals just split from the committee and formed their own for no political reason. This only hurts Cuba and solidarity efforts.
We survived both and became stronger—in part because of the workers, active unionists and youth in our committee of 50 groups, unions and prominent individuals. Continued outreach to unions and other groups is the answer.
We firmly rejected proposals to have our Cuba committee become one more an anti-imperialist committee. Instead, we adopted a simple mission statement focusing on Cuba.
We oppose the U.S. government’s hostility toward the Cuban People.
We advocate for respect of Cuba’s sovereignty and for normalized relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
The LA Hands Off Cuba committee demands:
• That the United States remove Cuba from the SSOT (State Sponsors of Terrorism list)
• An end to the U.S. blockade against Cuba; lift the travel, trade bans and sanctions
• The return of the Guantanamo Naval Base to Cuba
The LA Hands Off Cuba committee promotes U.S.-Cuba medical, educational, scientific and cultural collaboration and exchanges.
Such adoption would have weakened our mission and destroyed us as a broad, inclusive, anti-blockade committee. It would especially prevent unionists from coming in, learning about Cuba, and then leading efforts to get their unions on board. With every added demand, we dilute our message and task, and appeal to a narrower group of people; a recipe for remaining a small committee.
We need open, democratically run committees, using Roberts Rules, like unions do, and reject consensus which only works for small groups. And not linked to any political party. Building these types of committees is the only way we shall bring in labor.
And our committees should not be run out of offices of a political party or organization, because we will just look like a front for that organization— we need independent organizations.
We thank the organizers of this NNOC conference for allowing us to present our work and perspectives.
*Presentation by Mark Friedman, Associate member of the International Association of Machinists #1484 and LA Hands-Off Cuba Cttee.