A follow-up to Local Campaigns 2016-19, Update 2020 and Update 2021
End-of-the-year Local Resolution Tool Kit Now Available Here.
In the Municipalities: Brookline (MA), New Haven, Boston, Somerville, and Berkeley
With 20 municipalities having passed resolutions in support of ending the blockade or calling for medical and scientific collaboration in combatting the Pandemic, eight having done both, the seventh year of the Local Resolution Campaign began with the proactive Resolutions Committee of the Saving Lives campaign identifying 12 municipalities with active/promising efforts they’re supporting and looking for additional localities, levels of government, labor and other organizations and projects to actively support.*
On January 20, 2022 the 30,000 member Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing the blockade, brought to the Delegate Assembly by the faculty and staff union’s International Committee.
On February 22, The World Conference of Mayors, whose primary objective is to stimulate positive and constructive relations between mayors internationally, signed an International Partnership Agreement with the Embassy of Cuba to encourage the governments of the United States and Cuba “to move toward normalizing the official relationship between our two countries, which we feel will benefit the citizens who live in our cities and towns in the US, Cuba, and other nations.”
On May 25 a resolution calling for an End to the U.S. Embargo against Cuba was passed by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 which represents 2000 transit workers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Rochester, Minnesota.
On June 8, the Brookline, MA Town Meeting passed its second End the Embargo resolution, including the call for medical and scientific collaboration, complementing its first effort, passed in 2016, that built on the three Bay Area resolutions passed in the beginning of that year and helped make the campaign for local resolutions a truly national one. The Boston Resolution with a public hearing and final vote is well on the way. For more on these, see “The Ambassador’s Visit and the Brookline and Boston Resolutions.”
On July 6, as headlined in the CubaNews post-along, the City of New Haven declared an emphatic No to the US Blockade of Cuba. While the resolution is not currently available at the meeting record on the official site of the City’s Board of Alders, the full text can be found in the article about it in The New Haven Independent. In addition to CPMaine, articles have also appeared in People’s World, OnCubaNews, and Prensa Latina.
On July 13, the Boston City Council passed its Resolution calling for an End to the Embargo and medical, scientific, and other forms of collaboration.
On September 22 the Somerville City Council unanimously passed an anti-blockade resolution that calls on President Biden to remove Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism (SSOT) list that was recently reaffirmed. For more on this, see the July26.org page on the passage, the resolution and press release. Two days earlier, on September 20, the Windham, CT Town Council passed its anti-embargo resolution, little reported in the US media, though you can see articles by Prensa Latina in English and in Cubadebate (translated).
On November 15, the Berkeley, CA City Council passed its third resolution since 2016, supporting the removal of Cuba from the SSOT list. The next day the Troy (NY) Area Labor Council passed a resolution condemning the listing of Cuba as well — see Jon Flanders’ press release for TALC.
(Last updated 2/3/23.)
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* For a listing of the municipalities and other successful campaigns, see the details in the yearly update pages linked above. As the year began, the list was led by Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City and included Ann Arbor, Charleston (SC), Detroit, Fresno (CA), New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), and Raleigh/Durham. The Committee has produced a model resolution, fact sheets, and more, recently updated in the end-of-the-year Tool Kit and most importantly has as members experienced campaign organizers interested in helping others. The Committee can be contacted here.
july26.org 