End the blockade - 60 years too long

International trade union solidarity has a proud history of supporting comrades in need and saving countless lives.

This year marks 60 years of the US led inhumane economic blockade of the Republic of Cuba.

The impact of the blockade on the lives of Cubans has been brutal. In 1997 the American Association for World Health reported that it had “dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens” and “caused a significant rise in suffering, and even deaths, in Cuba” through “critical shortages of even the most basic medicines and medical hardware.”

Conference supports the statement from Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban Foreign Minister when speaking at the UN, June 2021;

“The human damage of the blockade is incalculable. No Cuban family is spared from the effects of this inhumane policy. Nobody could honestly state that it has no actual impact on the population…The blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all Cuba’s people. According to Article II c) of the Geneva Convention of 1948, it constitutes an act of genocide…This is an extraterritorial economic war against a small country, already adversely affected by the recession and global economic crisis caused by the pandemic that has deprived us of much-needed income.”

Conference instructs that an All Members’ circular is produced as soon as possible encouraging members to;

• join the ‘Cuba Solidarity Campaign’ and attend events and meetings in their respective areas
• take part in the boycott of anti-Cuban companies and encourage others to do so
• add their names to the ‘Cuba Solidarity Campaign’ letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to end the blockade. Additionally, Brigade Committees should invite a speaker from the ‘Cuba Solidarity Campaign’ to their respective committees if available in their area.