3538. The Coming War on China

 By Documentary Channel, January 12, 2020

2580. National Conference for the Full Normalization of US-CUBA Relations

By Organizing Committee of U.S.-Cuba Normalization of Relations Committee, No date 

Dear Friends of Cuba:

We are inviting organizations and individuals to help organize an inclusive, broad conference in New York City March 25-26, 2017 focused on US-Cuban relations. The National Conference will be held at the Fordham Law School and will bring together longtime Cuba solidarity activists, opponents of continuing US sanctionsagainst Cuba, as well as representatives from many organizations and cities. We invite you to participate in planning and organizing the National Conference, which will include highly educational and informative workshops, presentations, cultural performances, and films, with the political purpose of promoting an agreed action agenda for the real normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, and to expand activity around these ends across the United States.

The Electoral College triumph of Donald Trump, and the retention of a Republican majority in the US House and Senate, underscores, more than ever, the need for an independent movement to advocate and fight for the full normalization of US-Cuban relations. During the election campaign Trump publicly pledged to reverse the modest Executive Orders easing ongoing US anti-Cuba sanctions, implemented by President Obama. He has stopped short so far from supporting the termination of the July 2015 restoration of US-Cuban diplomatic relations, a precondition for full normalization. This question, along with many other burning domestic and international issues, will be posed sharply from the first day of the Donald Trump Administration and the transition to it. The National Conference for the Full Normalization of US-Cuban Relations will be one of the first national protest and solidarity gathering under the new Trump regime.

The current Republican House and Senate leaderships in the last years of the Obama Administration have shown no inclination to bring before the Congress several existing bills that are circulating that would end or significantly ameliorate the ongoing US economic and financial embargo against Cuba and also strike down remaining US legal barriers to freedom of travel to Cuba from the United States.

Following the December 17, 2014 announcements by US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, the United States and Cuba moved to the establishment of diplomatic relations. Despite President Obama using his executive powers, this relationship remains far from "normal." Fully ending ongoing US

sanctions against Cuba will require a formal act of Congress. The notorious Helms Burton legislation, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, took that right and ability out of the Executive Branch of the US government.

In one of its last acts before the November 8 election, the Obama White House directed the US United Nations Mission to abstain in the annual vote in the UN General Assembly to condemn, now unanimously 192-0, “the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba." For over 20 years the vote has registered near unanimous political isolation for Washington in the “international community."

Full normalization also requires returning the US-occupied Guantanamo Bay Naval base on Cuban territory to Cuban sovereignty. It also requires ending US overtly and covertly budgeted, subversive "regime change” programs. All of these ongoing policies represent the continuity of decades of Washington's gross violations of Cuban sovereignty.

In addition Cuba has a sovereign right to give political asylum and legal protections under clear procedures to individuals determined to be fleeing persecution and injustice. We support the repeal of the unequal and discriminatory Cuban Adjustment Act which has been used as a political club against Cuba by successive US Administrations and is the major obstacle to stabilizing and resolving immigration issues between Washington and Havana.

Hence, a large number of individual activists along with local and national organizations from the New YorkNew Jersey area, with years of united, non-sectarian coalition activities in solidarity with Cuba, and in the successful struggle to free the Cuban Five are issuing this invitation in the spirit of unity and democratic decision-making processes. Specifically, we are inviting you and/or your organization to participate in the

organizing of a National Conference to take place after the results of the November 2016 Presidential and Congressional elections, when we will be able to analyze the results and their impact on moving our work forward.

The undersigned propose that the organizers of the National Conference reach out and work closely with organizations in Cuba, such as the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) to bring a number of Cuban representatives to take part in the 2017 Conference.

The visit of President Barack Obama to Cuba March 20-22, 2016 was an important event that should broaden the discussion on US-Cuba relations and ending US sanctions. Normal relations will mean increased political and people-to-people exchanges as more people from the US visit the Caribbean island and more genuine

representatives of Cuban society, trade unionists and Afro-Cubans, women's rights and LGBT rights activists, artists and intellectuals, scientists and doctors are able to travel and speak in the United States.

Cuba says it is prepared to discuss anything and everything with the United States, including “democracy" and "human rights." This national gathering March 25-26 will be an opportunity to bring activists together from across the United States to discuss and act on these questions back at their home base and local area.

The National Conference will have plenary sessions, dozens of workshops on Cuba and international themes, and proposals for action to demand full and real normalization of US-Cuban relations. In addition to Conference sessions and workshops, we will also hold a major public event in a large space with prominent speakers, including from Cuba, cultural performers, and special video greetings.

This invitation to hold a conference registers a spirit of unity and a perspective to reach out broadly, across different points of view, to all who are opposed to the continuation of hostile US policies toward Cuba, the fundamental obstacle to normalized relations between the two governments.

We look forward to you coming to New York City in the Spring of 2017! We must organize to change US antiCuba policy!

END ALL US ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL, AND

TRAVEL SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA!

RETURN GUANTANAMO BAY

TERRITORY TO CUBAN SOVEREIGNTY!

STOP US-FUNDED COVERT "REGIME CHANGE” PROGRAMS AGAINST CUBA!

US-CUBA NORMALIZATION COMMITTEE

Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Akubundi Amazu, All African Peoples Revolutionary Party, San Jose, CA

Amadi Ajamu, December 12th Movement

S.E. Anderson, Black Left Unity Network, Author Black Holocaust for Beginners

Arnold August, Author and Journalist (Canada)

Hawa Bah, Mother of Mohammed Bah, murdered by NYPD, fighter for justice

Tom Balanoff, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, Chicago*

Iris Baez, Anthony Baez Foundation

Nellie Bailey, WBAI Radio, Host and Producer Behind the News

Clever Banganayi, Deputy General Secretary, Friends of Cuba Society, South Africa

Fr. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY

Arnoldo Barron, July 26 Movement Organizer in New York before the Cuban Revolution, founder Casa Cuba, Casa de las Americas

Thomas Blanton, Solidaridad Exportaciones, Washington, DC

Keith Bolender, Author, Voices from the Other Side

Nancy Cabrero, Casa de las Americas

Leslie Cagan, Peace and Justice Organizer

Joe Callahan, Minnesota Cuba Committee

William Camacaro, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle

Emily Coffey, Engage Cuba Colorado Council

Mariela Castro Espin, Director, Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX)

Greg Clave, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Omowale Clay, December 12th Movement

Dr. Andy Coates, Former President, Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan

Jason Corley, July 26 Coalition

Dr. John Cox, Professor of Global Studies, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Director, Center for Holocaust, Genocide &Human Rights Studies

Tim Craine, Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba 

Jodi Dean, Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

James Early, Institute for Policy Studies Board, Former Director Cultural Heritage Policy 

Tami Gold, Filmmaker, Professor of Film and Media, Hunter College

Andres Gomez, Antonio Maceo Brigade

Smithsonian Institution Center Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Steve Early. Author and Journalist, Trade Union Organizer

Todd Eaton, NYProtest

Fritz Edler, former Local Chairman, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 482, Washington, DC, Railroad Workers United 

Soffiyah Elijah

Steve Eckardt, Chicago Cuba Coalition

Howard Ehrman, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago 

Mark Emanation, American Federation of Musicians Local 14*

Bryan Epps, Director, Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center

Malia Everette, Founder and CEO, AltruVistas

Erin Feely-Nahem, LMSW, Cuba Solidarity New York

Jim Ferlo, President Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership, member Pennsylvania State Senate 2003-15

Jon Flanders, Former President International Association of Machinists, Local 1145, Retired

Franklin Flores, Casa de las Americas

Ellen David Friedman, Labor Notes Policy Committee

Mark Friedman, Los Angeles, Marine Biology Instructor, Los Angeles Maritime Institute and Redondo Beach CA United School District

Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report

Albert Fox, Tampa, FL, Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation

Jane Franklin, Author: Cuba and the U.S. Empire: A Chronological History

Pat Fry, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Martin Garbus, Attorney

William Gerena-Rochet, DiaspoRicans/Disporiquenos Network, New York City*

Joan P. Gibbs, Esq 

Margaret (Peggy) Gilpin, WBAI Cuba In Focus

Piero Gleijeses. Professor of United States Foreign Policy, Johns Hopkins University

Stan Goff, Author and Anti-War Activist, US Special Forces (Retired)

Robert Grace, Former Executive Board Member, New York State Public Employees Federation

Bob Guild, Marazul Charters

Teresa Gutierrez, International Action Center

Larry Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization for Progress

Tamara Hansen, Author, Cuba solidarity activist, Coordinator, Vancouver Communities in Solidarity

Tarik Haskins, Universal Zulu Nation

Doug Henwood, author Wall Street: How It Works and for Whom, contributing editor, The Nation magazine, publisher Left Business Observer

Dr. Alberto Jones, President, Caribbean American Children Foundation

Ben Jones, Artist and Activist, Jersey City, NJ

Alicia Jrapko, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Ron Kaminkow, General Secretary, Railroad Workers United

Chuck Kaufman, Alliance for Global Justice

Stephen Kimber, Professor, School of Journalism, University of King’s College, Halifax, Canada, Author, What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five

Margaret Kimberley, Editor and Senior Columnist, Black Agenda Report

Dequi Kioni-Sadiki, Chair, Malcolm X Commemoration Committee 

Steve Kramer, Vice President 1199SEIU, 1199SEIU Caribbean and Latin America Democracy Committee

Michael Krinsky, Attorney

Cheryl LaBash, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Ray Laforest, Co-Founder Haiti Support Network

Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee

Dr. Eloise Linger, Professor Emerita, SUNY Old Westbury, former leader in the section for scholarly relations with Cuba, Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Coalition

Jeff Mackler, National Secretary, Socialist Action

Esperanza Martell, Professor, Hunter College

Pamela Ann Martin, Philadelphia, longtime activist working to end the US embargo, consultant on legal travel to Cuba

Chris Matlhako, General Secretary, Friends of Cuba Society, South Africa

Luis Matos, World Organization for the Rights of the People to Healthcare

Brother Shepard McDaniel, Universal Zulu Nation

Dr. Rosemari Mealy, Author: Fidel and Malcolm X – Memories of a Meeting

Bob Miller, July 26 Coalition, Sheet Metal and Rail Transportation (SMART) Union Local 60

Peter Miller, July 26 Coalition of Boston

Rafael Cancel Miranda, Puerto Rican Independence Fighter

Anne Mitchell, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Roberto Monticello, Cuban-American Filmmaker, part of US delegation with President Obama in Cuba

Radhames Morales, Fuerza de la Revolucion

Derrick Morrison, New Orleans Social Justice Activist

Luci Murphy, Art for the People, Washington, DC

Omari Musa, DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution

Ike Nahem, Cuba Solidarity New York, July 26 Coalition

Estevan Nembhard, New York District Organizer, Communist Party USA

August Nimtz, Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota

Sally O’Brien, WBAI Cuba In Focus

Nino Pagliccia, Author, Editor Cuba Solidarity in Canada: Five Decades of People to People Foreign Relations

Vijay Prashad, Author and Journalist, Professor of International Studies, Chair in South Asian History, Trinity College

Luis Proyect, The Unrepentent Marxist

Benjamin Ramos Rosado, New York Cuba Solidarity Project

Merle Ratner, Co-Coordinator, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign*

Carla Riehle, Minnesota Cuba Committee

Lee Robinson, African Awareness Association, Richmond, VA

Suzanne Ross, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)

Pepe Rossy, Albany (New York) Cuba Solidarity

Azza Rojbi, Journalist, Coordinator, Friends of Cuba Against the Blockade, Vancouver, Canada

Ursula Rozum, Green Party, Central New York

Larry Rubin, Solidaridad Exportaciones, Washington, DC

Malcolm Sacks, Venceremos Brigade

Angelica Salazar, AltruVistas

Cesar Sanchez, July 26 Coalition

Isaac Saney, Co-Chair, Canadian Network on Cuba, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

Brock Satter, Mass Action Against Police Brutality*

Bob Schwartz, Disarm/Global Health Partners

Joel Schwartz, Civil Service Employees Association*

Banbose Shango, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, President, New York State Nurses Association

Michael Steven Smith, Attorney, Law and Disorder Radio

Stansfield Smith, Chicago ALBA Solidarity

Wayne Smith, Retired US State Department official, Chief of Mission, US Interests Section (now US Embassy) in Havana 1979-82

Johnnie Stevens, Workers World Party

Jan Strout, US Women and Cuba Collaboration

Heide Trampus, Coordinator Worker-To-Worker, Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Network

Walter Turner, President, Board of Directors, Global Exchange

Joel Tyner, Dutchess County, NY Legislator, District 11, representing Rhinebeck and Clinton

Bandele Tyehimbe, Pan African Connection, USA Revolutionary Party, Dallas, Texas

Lisa Valanti, Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition

Estela Vazquez, Vice President, 1199SEIU

Amy Velez, New York, Coalition for District Alternatives (CODA)

Frank Velgara, ProLibertad Freedom Campaign, Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico – Comite de Nuevo York

Nalda Vigezzi, Co-chair, National Network on Cuba

Jennifer Wager, Professor, Essex County College

Gail Walker, IFCO/Pastors for Peace

Victor Wallis, Managing Editor, Socialism and Democracy

Michael Warren, Attorney

Mary-Alice Waters, Socialist Workers Party

Aminifu Williams, People’s Organization for Progress

Louis Wolf, DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, Co-Editor Covert Action

Information Bulletin

Dr. Helen Yaffe, Fellow in Economic History, London School of Economics, Author, Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution

Juanita Young, Longtime fighter against police brutality and killings, Mother of Malcolm Ferguson,murdered by NYPD

Matilde Zimmermann, Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College

* Organization Listed for Identification Purposes Fordham Law School Student Organizations Latin American Law Students Association

National Lawyers Guild Chapter

Universal Justice

Additional Endorsing Organizations

All African Peoples Revolutionary Party

ANSWER

2017 NYC Voter Campaign For Community Control Of The Police

Capital District Socialist Party of New York State

City College of New York Guillermo Morales-Assata Shakur Community and Student Center

Engage Cuba Colorado Council

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), James Connolly Upstate New York Regional General Membership Branch 

International Committee for Peace, Justice, and Dignity

Jericho Movement, DC 

National Jericho Movement

National Network on Cuba

Party for Socialism and Liberation

Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership

Railroad Workers United

Solidarity Committee of the Capital District of New York

The Jericho Movement, DC

Universal Zulu Nation

Safiya Bukhari-Albert Nuh Foundation

Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Stop Mass Incarceration Network

New York-New Jersey Cuba Si! Coalition 

National and Local Cuba Solidarity Organizations

Albany Cuba Solidarity

July 26 Coalition of Boston

Chicago Cuba Coalition

Cuba Si!, New York-New Jersey

DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution

Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba

Minnesota Cuba Committee

Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition

Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Akubundi Amazu, All African Peoples Revolutionary Party, San Jose, CA

Amadi Ajamu, December 12th Movement

S.E. Anderson, Black Left Unity Network, Author Black Holocaust for Beginners

Arnold August, Author and Journalist (Canada)

Hawa Bah, Mother of Mohammed Bah, murdered by NYPD, fighter for justice

Tom Balanoff, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, Chicago*

Iris Baez, Anthony Baez Foundation

Nellie Bailey, WBAI Radio, Host and Producer Behind the News

Clever Banganayi, Deputy General Secretary, Friends of Cuba Society, South Africa

Fr. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY

Arnoldo Barron, July 26 Movement Organizer in New York before the Cuban Revolution, founder Casa Cuba, Casa de las Americas

Thomas Blanton, Solidaridad Exportaciones, Washington, DC

Keith Bolender, Author, Voices from the Other Side

Nancy Cabrero, Casa de las Americas

Leslie Cagan, Peace and Justice Organizer

Joe Callahan, Minnesota Cuba Committee

William Camacaro, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle

Emily Coffey, Engage Cuba Colorado Council

Mariela Castro Espin, Director, Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX)

Greg Clave, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Omowale Clay, December 12th Movement

Dr. Andy Coates, Former President, Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan

Jason Corley, July 26 Coalition

Dr. John Cox, Professor of Global Studies, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Director, Center for Holocaust, Genocide &Human Rights Studies

Tim Craine, Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba 

Jodi Dean, Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

James Early, Institute for Policy Studies Board, Former Director Cultural Heritage Policy 

Tami Gold, Filmmaker, Professor of Film and Media, Hunter College

Andres Gomez, Antonio Maceo Brigade

Smithsonian Institution Center Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Steve Early. Author and Journalist, Trade Union Organizer

Todd Eaton, NYProtest

Fritz Edler, former Local Chairman, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 482, Washington, DC, Railroad Workers United 

Soffiyah Elijah

Steve Eckardt, Chicago Cuba Coalition

Howard Ehrman, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago 

Mark Emanation, American Federation of Musicians Local 14*

Bryan Epps, Director, Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center

Malia Everette, Founder and CEO, AltruVistas

Erin Feely-Nahem, LMSW, Cuba Solidarity New York

Jim Ferlo, President Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership, member Pennsylvania State Senate 2003-15

Jon Flanders, Former President International Association of Machinists, Local 1145, Retired

Franklin Flores, Casa de las Americas

Ellen David Friedman, Labor Notes Policy Committee

Mark Friedman, Los Angeles, Marine Biology Instructor, Los Angeles Maritime Institute and Redondo Beach CA United School District

Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report

Albert Fox, Tampa, FL, Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation

Jane Franklin, Author: Cuba and the U.S. Empire: A Chronological History

Pat Fry, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Martin Garbus, Attorney

William Gerena-Rochet, DiaspoRicans/Disporiquenos Network, New York City*

Joan P. Gibbs, Esq 

Margaret (Peggy) Gilpin, WBAI Cuba In Focus

Piero Gleijeses. Professor of United States Foreign Policy, Johns Hopkins University

Stan Goff, Author and Anti-War Activist, US Special Forces (Retired)

Robert Grace, Former Executive Board Member, New York State Public Employees Federation

Bob Guild, Marazul Charters

Teresa Gutierrez, International Action Center

Larry Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization for Progress

Tamara Hansen, Author, Cuba solidarity activist, Coordinator, Vancouver Communities in Solidarity

Tarik Haskins, Universal Zulu Nation

Doug Henwood, author Wall Street: How It Works and for Whom, contributing editor, The Nation magazine, publisher Left Business Observer

Dr. Alberto Jones, President, Caribbean American Children Foundation

Ben Jones, Artist and Activist, Jersey City, NJ

Alicia Jrapko, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Ron Kaminkow, General Secretary, Railroad Workers United

Chuck Kaufman, Alliance for Global Justice

Stephen Kimber, Professor, School of Journalism, University of King’s College, Halifax, Canada, Author, What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five

Margaret Kimberley, Editor and Senior Columnist, Black Agenda Report

Dequi Kioni-Sadiki, Chair, Malcolm X Commemoration Committee 

Steve Kramer, Vice President 1199SEIU, 1199SEIU Caribbean and Latin America Democracy Committee

Michael Krinsky, Attorney

Cheryl LaBash, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Ray Laforest, Co-Founder Haiti Support Network

Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee

Dr. Eloise Linger, Professor Emerita, SUNY Old Westbury, former leader in the section for scholarly relations with Cuba, Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Coalition

Jeff Mackler, National Secretary, Socialist Action

Esperanza Martell, Professor, Hunter College

Pamela Ann Martin, Philadelphia, longtime activist working to end the US embargo, consultant on legal travel to Cuba

Chris Matlhako, General Secretary, Friends of Cuba Society, South Africa

Luis Matos, World Organization for the Rights of the People to Healthcare

Brother Shepard McDaniel, Universal Zulu Nation

Dr. Rosemari Mealy, Author: Fidel and Malcolm X – Memories of a Meeting

Bob Miller, July 26 Coalition, Sheet Metal and Rail Transportation (SMART) Union Local 60

Peter Miller, July 26 Coalition of Boston

Rafael Cancel Miranda, Puerto Rican Independence Fighter

Anne Mitchell, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Roberto Monticello, Cuban-American Filmmaker, part of US delegation with President Obama in Cuba

Radhames Morales, Fuerza de la Revolucion

Derrick Morrison, New Orleans Social Justice Activist

Luci Murphy, Art for the People, Washington, DC

Omari Musa, DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution

Ike Nahem, Cuba Solidarity New York, July 26 Coalition

Estevan Nembhard, New York District Organizer, Communist Party USA

August Nimtz, Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota

Sally O’Brien, WBAI Cuba In Focus

Nino Pagliccia, Author, Editor Cuba Solidarity in Canada: Five Decades of People to People Foreign Relations

Vijay Prashad, Author and Journalist, Professor of International Studies, Chair in South Asian History, Trinity College

Luis Proyect, The Unrepentent Marxist

Benjamin Ramos Rosado, New York Cuba Solidarity Project

Merle Ratner, Co-Coordinator, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign*

Carla Riehle, Minnesota Cuba Committee

Lee Robinson, African Awareness Association, Richmond, VA

Suzanne Ross, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC)

Pepe Rossy, Albany (New York) Cuba Solidarity

Azza Rojbi, Journalist, Coordinator, Friends of Cuba Against the Blockade, Vancouver, Canada

Ursula Rozum, Green Party, Central New York

Larry Rubin, Solidaridad Exportaciones, Washington, DC

Malcolm Sacks, Venceremos Brigade

Angelica Salazar, AltruVistas

Cesar Sanchez, July 26 Coalition

Isaac Saney, Co-Chair, Canadian Network on Cuba, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

Brock Satter, Mass Action Against Police Brutality*

Bob Schwartz, Disarm/Global Health Partners

Joel Schwartz, Civil Service Employees Association*

Banbose Shango, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba

Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, President, New York State Nurses Association

Michael Steven Smith, Attorney, Law and Disorder Radio

Stansfield Smith, Chicago ALBA Solidarity

Wayne Smith, Retired US State Department official, Chief of Mission, US Interests Section (now US Embassy) in Havana 1979-82

Johnnie Stevens, Workers World Party

Jan Strout, US Women and Cuba Collaboration

Heide Trampus, Coordinator Worker-To-Worker, Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Network

Walter Turner, President, Board of Directors, Global Exchange

Joel Tyner, Dutchess County, NY Legislator, District 11, representing Rhinebeck and Clinton

Bandele Tyehimbe, Pan African Connection, USA Revolutionary Party, Dallas, Texas

Lisa Valanti, Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition

Estela Vazquez, Vice President, 1199SEIU

Amy Velez, New York, Coalition for District Alternatives (CODA)

Frank Velgara, ProLibertad Freedom Campaign, Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico – Comite de Nuevo York

Nalda Vigezzi, Co-chair, National Network on Cuba

Jennifer Wager, Professor, Essex County College

Gail Walker, IFCO/Pastors for Peace

Victor Wallis, Managing Editor, Socialism and Democracy

Michael Warren, Attorney

Mary-Alice Waters, Socialist Workers Party

Aminifu Williams, People’s Organization for Progress

Louis Wolf, DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, Co-Editor Covert Action

Information Bulletin

Dr. Helen Yaffe, Fellow in Economic History, London School of Economics, Author, Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution

Juanita Young, Longtime fighter against police brutality and killings, Mother of Malcolm Ferguson,murdered by NYPD

Matilde Zimmermann, Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College

* Organization Listed for Identification Purposes Fordham Law School Student Organizations Latin American Law Students Association

National Lawyers Guild Chapter

Universal Justice

Additional Endorsing Organizations

All African Peoples Revolutionary Party

ANSWER

2017 NYC Voter Campaign For Community Control Of The Police

Capital District Socialist Party of New York State

City College of New York Guillermo Morales-Assata Shakur Community and Student Center

Engage Cuba Colorado Council

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), James Connolly Upstate New York Regional General Membership Branch 

International Committee for Peace, Justice, and Dignity

Jericho Movement, DC 

National Jericho Movement

National Network on Cuba

Party for Socialism and Liberation

Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership

Railroad Workers United

Solidarity Committee of the Capital District of New York

The Jericho Movement, DC

Universal Zulu Nation

Safiya Bukhari-Albert Nuh Foundation

Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Stop Mass Incarceration Network

New York-New Jersey Cuba Si! Coalition 

National and Local Cuba Solidarity Organizations

Albany Cuba Solidarity

July 26 Coalition of Boston

Chicago Cuba Coalition

Cuba Si!, New York-New Jersey

DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution

Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba

Minnesota Cuba Committee

Pittsburgh CUBA Coalition

Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Partnership 

1959. Heads They Win, Tails We Lose: On Iran Nuclear Agreement

By Kamran Nayeri, August 2, 2015

This was a nuclear industry advertisement with the slogan: "Nuclear Energy, Today's Answer." 

There has been much written about the Iran nuclear agreement signed in Vienna on July 14. Everything I have read, and I have read many from all sides, is mostly from an “international relations” perspective; their analysis focuses on which states will be winners or losers and how power relations among states may change in the Middle East if  the agreement is ratified in the U.S. and in Iran (Security Council has already ratified it). Further, the negotiating parties have stated that the agreement makes the Middle East and the world safer.  That is far from the truth. 

Nuclear technology for energy or for weapons is inherently and extremely dangerous to people and the planet as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011 and American atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 have clearly shown.  The progress toward a healthier, safer and better world requires elimination of all nuclear weapons and nuclear power.  While it is true that this agreement if adhered to may postpone military confrontation between U.S. and its allies and Iran, it is not true that working people in Iran, United States and elsewhere are safer and should lend their support to it. In fact, none of the participating governments in the negotiations represent the best interest of their people or the planet. 

To understand the nuclear agreement reached between the UN Security Council permanent members and Germany (5+1) and Iran we must recall who the negotiating parties represented and how the agreement was reached.

The Nuclear Club

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute there are nine countries in the world today with nuclear weapons. In order of the year of first nuclear test and number of their current weapons they are: United States (1945, currently has 7,260 nuclear weapons), Russia (1949, 7,500), United Kingdom (1952, 215), France (1960, 300), China (1964, 260), India (1974, 90-110), Pakistan (1998, 100-120), Israel (no firm date available, 80), and North Korea (2006, 6-8).   Furthermore, the top four members of the Nuclear Club have thousands of these weapons deployed for use: U. S. (2,080 deployed weapons), Russia (1,780), U. K.  (150) and France (290).  Needless to say, even if a small fraction of these weapons are used the entire world will be annihilated. 

Israel’s nuclear program is important in considering Iranian nuclear ambitions given the threat Israel has posed to the region. At a colonial-settler expansionist Jewish State at perpetual war with the indigenous peoples of the Middle East, it long has possessed nuclear weapons.  Yet, like its policy of colonialism and war it has never been held accountable by the Security Council and the United States for its refusal to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or for its nuclear weapons. 

According to the Federation of American Scientists, Israel began pursuit of nuclear weapons right after its establishment in 1948. It began search for uranium in 1949 and Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) was founded in 1952. On October 3, 1957, France and Israel signed an agreement to build a 24 MWt reactor (although the cooling systems and waste facilities were designed to handle three times that power) and, in protocols that were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing plant. This complex was constructed in secret, and outside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection regime.  In 1968, the CIA issued a report about Israel’s successful production of nuclear weapons. Although United States was aware of Israel’s nuclear ambitions and activities it turned a blind eye allowing its strategic ally in the Middle East to join the Nuclear Club outside the purview of the IAEA.

Advantages of membership in the Nuclear Club

Of course, there is significant advantage in belonging to the Nuclear Club and a disadvantage not to belonging to it.  For instance, in her 2008 bid to become the Democratic Party presidential candidate in 2008 Hillary Clinton threatened Iran with nuclear obliteration (The Guardian, April 22, 2008). Such dangerously bellicose demagogy was possible because the U.S. has nuclear weapons and Iran does not.  International relations in the capitalist world are power relations in which military might matters and possession of nuclear weapons offer a definite edge as the history of nuclear weapons proliferation shows.

United States developed the first atomic weapons during World War II with cooperation from the United Kingdom and Canada as part of the Manhattan Project. It tested the first nuclear weapon in 1945 (“Trinity”).   The U. S. then used atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing and wounding an estimated 150,000  and 75,000 respectively.  In 1952, the U.S. tested the first hydrogen bomb ("Ivy Mike") and a deployable weapon in 1954 ("Castle Bravo").  Using nuclear weapons in Japan has been “defended” as a decision to end the war quickly.  However, it is also a fact that United States used its possession of nuclear weapons as a strategic edge against the Soviet Union in the Cold War which initiated the nuclear arms race. 

Those in the Nuclear Club have a strong incentive to bar other states from obtaining nuclear arms: the fewer states in the Nuclear Club the more non-nuclear states who are militarily at gross disadvantage.  Thus, South Africa after apartheid as well as former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan were persuaded to give up their nuclear weapons. 

Thus, the 5+1 negotiators with Iran were not working to make the world safer from nuclear weapons but to maintain their own nuclear edge, in particular the nuclear edge of the colonial-settler Zionist regime in the Middle East.  In fact, the United States is currently undertaking a three-decade one trillion dollar program to update its nuclear arsenal. (William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, “U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms,” The New York Times, September 21, 2014)  The raucous debate between the Israeli government and its Republican and Democratic backers and the Obama administration is in large part about the best way to ensure Israeli’s nuclear edge in the Middle East and to contain Islamic Republic’s influence in the region.  Of course, it is also about the U.S.'s own strategic interests. 

The Iranian revolution of 1979

To understand what and who the Islamic Republic represents it is necessary to recall the Iranian revolution of February 1979, what it represented and what happened to it.  The Iranian revolution was the largest urban mass uprising since the 1917 Russian revolution. It changed that strategic relation of forces in the Middle East to the detriment of imperialism. In 1953, the Shah’s regime had been imposed by the CIA coup that overthrew the democratically elected nationalist government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The revolution overthrew imperialism’s regional gendarme, an ally of the colonial-settler state of Israel, and a supporter of South African Apartheid. It dissolved the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), a regional anti-Soviet military pact.

No political party or individual led the February insurrection that overthrow the Shah’s regime. In the year leading up to it grassroots organizations took shape in the neighborhoods, workplaces, high schools and universities, and among peasants and oppressed nationalities, and eventually in the armed forces, posing a challenge to the Shah’s power structure. Workers began to exert control over workplaces. Peasant moved to take the land they had tiled for centuries; closely tied to this oppressed nationalities began to revive their cultural heritage and exercise regional autonomy in Kurdistan and Turkmen Sahra. Universities became centers of political discourse. Neighborhoods were organized through popular committees to distribute scarce fuel and food. Political parties, including the banned socialist groups, began to function increasingly openly. Oil workers staged a nationwide strike that paralyzed the regime. Finally, as the discipline in the armed forces began to crumble and the Royal Guard attacked Homafaran’s (an officers rank in Shah’s air force) barracks who had gone to the side of the revolution in Tehran, the population armed itself and overthrew the monarchy in three days of insurrections across the country.

It was entirely possible for Iranians to inaugurate the first workers and peasant government in the Middle East and open the road to socialism. Instead Ayatollah Khomeini, who had opposed the Shah’s capitalist modernist reforms in 1963, including woman suffrage, and was subsequently arrested and exiled to Iraq, captured the moment and established himself as the spokesperson for the revolution. By 1983, Khomeini had used populist demagogy and ruthless repression to suppress all independent mass organizations and practically all political parties to consolidate a theocratic capitalist Islamic Republic regime. Thus, the Islamic Republic offers a historically reactionary response to imperialism in Iran and in the Middle East. (For an outline of this history see Nayeri and Nasab, “The Rise and Fall of the 1979 Iranian Revolution:  Its Lessons for Today,” 2006)

Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions

The Shah’s regime was among more than a dozen states that have attempted to join the Nuclear Club but gave it up for various reasons. (See, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, 2011, Figure 5-22).” 

The Iranian nuclear program began as part of President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program launched in 1953.  The first three reactors built under this program were for its close allies in the region: Israel, Iran and Pakistan. As part of its domestic and regional ambitions the Islamic Republic continued Shah’s nuclear program. It currently possesses several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facilities that include three known uranium enrichment plants. Also, Iran's first nuclear power plant that was started by the Shah’s regime in the 1970s, Bushehr I reactor, was completed with major assistance of Russian government agency Rosatom and officially opened in September 2011. Iran has announced that it is working on a new 360 MW nuclear power plant to be located in Darkhovin. Islamic Republic has also indicated that it will seek more medium-sized nuclear power plants and uranium mines in the future. 

American and Western claim that the Islamic Republic has been pursuing building a nuclear weapons has never been built on facts.  Iran has signed treaties repudiating the possession of weapons of mass destruction including the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  Even the 2007 U. S. National Intelligence Estimate assessed that Iran had ended all "nuclear weapon design and weaponization work" in 2003.  In 2012, U.S. intelligence agencies reported that Iran was pursuing research that could enable it to produce nuclear weapons, but was not attempting to do so.  Thus, the nuclear sanctions regime impose on Iran should be seen as part of the long campaign to overthrow the Islamic Republic that began in 1979 to impose a regime friendly to the West.  

For its own domestic and regional interests, the Israeli regime has declared the Iranian nuclear program an “existential threat” and together with the Bush administration demanded that it should be dismantled entirely.   Realizing that the Iranian scientists and engineers have already mastered the entire nuclear cycle and that a military option to eradicate the Islamic Republic nuclear program was not feasible and risked wider war in the Middle East, Obama administration intensified the sanctions regime while opening up negotiations with the Islamic Republic.  According to the U.S. State Department: 

“Acting both through the United Nations Security Council and regional or national authorities, the United States, the member states of the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, and others have put in place a strong, inter-locking matrix of sanctions measures relating to Iran's nuclear, missile, energy, shipping, transportation, and financial sectors.”  

The social and economic effects of sanctions have been severe. Even the war mongering George W. Bush’s ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, described the EU sanctions, in particular, as "tough, even brutal.” Impact of the recent sanctions have been particularly harsh for ordinary Iranians as the rial was devalued by more than 80% placing many imported products including some food items and domestically made products with imported materials or parts outside the reach of most consumers. Inflation and unemployment skyrocketed, stagflation set in. Although medicine and medical equipments are not sanctioned, they have become hard to obtain resulting in much suffering and some death. 

The July 14 agreement between 5+1 and the Islamic Republic reflects the balance of power between Iran and imperialism, headed by the United States.  America’s pyrrhic victory in the Gulf wars and subsequent rise and unravelling of the Arab Spring have resulted in region-wide instability where extremist Islamic organizations like Al-Quada and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that routinely use terror have gained grounds.  Meanwhile, the influence of the Islamic Republic has increased in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza Strip.  The Islamic Republic has been an ascending force in the region whose interests has coincided with those of the U.S. when Washington invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq and now that both regimes are engaged in the fight against ISIS.  At the same time, a majority in the Islamic Republic regime realize that their immediate interest to dismantle the sanctions regime and pursue economic development as well as their strategic regional ambitions are best served in reaching an understanding with the United States.  Thus, the Iran nuclear agreement is a win-win for American imperialism and its allies and the clerical capitalist Islamic Republic.  However, it would be a mistake to suppose that the agreement will stop future wars—conflicts can arise over implementation and the balance of power can change in the future making Iran again vulnerable.  Nor would the agreement make the Middle East and the world safer from nuclear “accidents” or nuclear wars.

For a nuclear free Middle East, for a nuclear free world

Most Iranians welcomed the new of the agreement and some celebrated it in the streets.  They are relieved that the threat of an American attack is lessened for the foreseeable future and hope that gradual easing of the sanctions regime will improve their daily lives. They also welcome the prospects of a better relations with the West.  The fact that Iranian scientists and engineers have mastered the nuclear cycle is a source of national pride.  The Iranian socialist groups and the incipient environmentalist movement have been silent about the dangers posed by the Islamic Republic nuclear program while also opposing imperialist threats, sanctions and attempts to impinge upon Iranian sovereignty. There has been little discussion about, let alone making demands for, a transition to clean renewable energy instead of relaying on fossil fuels and nuclear power in Iran.* 

These are in part due to the defeat of the 1979 revolution at the hands of the Islamic Republic regime that has resulted in mass demoralization of the older generation and mass disorientation of the generation that followed.  Still, Iranian working people are relatively in better position to chart a road forward than all other countries of the Middle East, save perhaps Turkey.  This too is due to the relatively further economic and social development and the potential of learning the lessons of the 1979 revolution when power resided in the hands of the working people, albeit for a short time.  Remembering these lessons are important not only for the working people of Iran but also throughout the region.  Had the Egyptian revolutionaries learned the lessons of the rise and fall of the Iranian revolution it would have been unlikely that Mubarakism could have returned to Egypt with a coup. The Iranian revolution affirmed that society and economy function because of us the working people and can be changed to serve the wellbeing of humanity and the planet if we self-organize to wield it ourselves directly.  In fact, during the revolution grassroots movements began to tackle problems that required solutions that required transcending capitalism before they were crushed by the Islamic Republic. However, the nuclear issue was not part of our discussions then. The revival of the Shah’s nuclear program by the Islamic Republic and the planetary crisis make it imperative to add to our demands:  “For a Nuclear Free Iran!; For a Nuclear Free Middle East!; For a Nuclear Free World!”

* Postscript: Mihan (Motherland), a Farsi language bimonthly e-magazine published abroad, devoted its July-August issue to "The Experience of the Nuclear File: Industry, Negotiations, Conclusion." Of the eighteen contributors only one, Isa Saharkhiz, an Islamic Republic reformer, notes as an aside dangers posed by the nuclear industry and the need for Iran to move to clean renewables. Only one, Farzaneh Roostaee, another reformist journalist, took notice of the hypocrisy of the U.S. and its allies who claim to be working towards nuclear non-proliferation. The contributors mostly ranged in their political perspectives from Islamic Republic reformists to reformist socialists.  For a sample of non-reformist socialist views  see the statement of the Communist Party of Iran and the statement of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. Both argue that the agreement represents a defeat for the Islamic Republic, neither make criticize it for its continuation Shah's nuclear program as intently hazardous to people and the environment. KN. August 4, 2014. 

References:
Broad, William J. and David E. Sanger. "U.S. Rampin Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Weapons," The New York Times, September 21, 2014. 
MacAskill, Ewen. "'Obliteration' Threat to Iran in Case of Nuclear Attack," The Guardian, April 22, 2008.
Mihan. "The Experience of the Nuclear File: Industry, Negotiation, Conclusion." July 2015.
Nayeri, Kamran and Alireza Nasab. "The Rise and Fall of the 1979 Iranian Revolution: Its Lessons for Today," April, 2006. 
Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Penguin Books, 2011.