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The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently denied renewal of the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association license to travel. The current administration of the U.S. now prohibits people-to-people educational exchanges. We are currently in the process of re-applying for a humanitarian license to travel and will post updates to this site as we have more information.

The concepts of sister cities and citizen diplomacy originated with President Dwight Eisenhower, who stated,
"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it."

February 27, 2006

EU Asked to Abandon Aggressive Policies Against Cuba

More than 270 union leaders belonging to 65 organizations from 20 countries met in London over the weekend during the First European Trade Union Solidarity Conference with Cuba and Latin America.

The meeting was called by the British Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Solidarity with Cuba Campaign.

During the plenary sessions and seminars, several members from the Cuban delegation, headed by Pedro Ross Leal, general secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) , denounced the real intentions of US president Bush’s Program for Transition in Cuba. They pointed to the double standards of the European Union and Parliament in their discriminatory and selective policy against Cuba that tacitly supports the interventionist plans of the US administration.

The conference also denounced the unjust imprisonment in the US of the Cuban Five and called for a general mobilization of solidarity to obtain their immediate freedom.

The general secretaries of the TUC and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Brendan Barber and John Monks respectively, called upon the European Union to establish a new and independent relation with Cuba, based on respect and the principles of free self-determination and the sovereignty of nations. At the same time, they noted the need for European labor unions to prioritize solidarity with Cuban and Latin American governments that, as is the case with Venezuela and Bolivia, represent a hope for all peoples including Europeans who are victims of neoliberal policies, today applied on a universal scale.

Several of the speakers, including Miguel Angel Martinez, the Spanish deputy to the European parliament, denounced the servility of the European Parliament and its political alignment with US policies.

At the conference, held at London City Hall, the city’s mayor Ken Livingston addressed the union representatives present emotionally speaking of Cuba’s social achievements and solidarity with all the oppressed peoples of the world.

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Prensa Latina reporting from London, Feb 26

Speakers at the conference included:

• Central Trajabadores de Cuba general secretary Pedro Ross,
• London Mayor Ken Livingstone,
• European Trade Union Confederation general secretary John Monks,
• Spanish MEP Miguel Martinez Martinez,
• Oxfam Belgium director of mobilisation Xavier Declercq,
• Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) Oslo region president Kleiv Fiskvik,
• General Confederation of Portuguese Workers - National Intersindical (CGTP-IN) international secretary Florival Lanaa,
• CGT Mine-Energy Federation general secretary Frederic Imbrecht from France,
• UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis, TUC president Gloria Mills,
• T&G national organiser Diana Holland, RMT general secretary Bob Crow,
• UNISON deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet and
• Filcams-Cgil national secretary Naurizio Scarpa from Italy.