On December 5, a coalition of elected officials, labor leaders, and organizations across the United States issued a joint call to demand that President Biden take Cuba off of the US’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
“Today, Cuba faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Widespread power outages, severe food shortages, and an overwhelmed healthcare system have brought daily life to a breaking point. This hardship has been intensified by recent hurricanes and earthquakes, which have only added to the urgency of the crisis, leaving countless Cubans even more vulnerable,” reads the letter, addressed to Biden.
“Much of this suffering is further compounded by the Trump administration’s last-minute designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,” the letter continues, a designation which Biden has thus far refused to lift.
The letter has been signed by 46 elected officials, including New York State Senators Jabari Brisport, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Julia Salazar, as well as Minnesota State Senator Sandra Pappas, Massachusetts State Representative Erika Uyterhoeven, Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, and Nate Baker of the Durham, North Carolina City Council.
21 labor unions and labor leaders have also signed on, marking a major step in the labor movement uniting around anti-imperialist and progressive foreign policy demands, rather than only issues of workers’ rights domestically. This marks a continuation of the shift that began with major US labor unions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo of Israel in recent years. The unions that have signed onto the joint call are many of the same ones who have demanded a ceasefire and arms embargo, which include the United Auto Workers, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, and the Committee of Interns & Residents, a local of Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Labor leaders who have signed on include Dr. Brima Sylla, the Vice President, Amazon Labor Union IBT, Ali Fuhrman, the President of AFSCME Local 2822, and Anica Walls, the President of the Public Sector Employees of California, SEIU Local 1000.
Solidarity organizations that have signed onto the letter include CODEPINK, the CubaSi Coalition, the National Network on Cuba, the People’s Forum, Veterans For Peace, and the Venceremos Brigade.
In addition to adding Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, Trump also imposed 243 additional sanctions on the island in his short time in office. The letter calls on Biden to also lift these sanctions, as well as for the President to send humanitarian aid to the island, and to “take immediate steps to end the embargo once and for all.”
