112 • PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AFL-CIO CONVENTION • 2009
WHEREAS, our unilateral economic embargo against Cuba is the harshest
we maintain against any country in the world and is ineffective. The
United Nations has voted 17 times passing resolutions for the removal
of the trade embargo and condemning its negative impacts. The leaders
of the Caribbean regional trade bloc, known as CARICOM, have called
on U.S. President Barack Obama to lift the decades-old trade embargo
against Cuba; and
WHEREAS, our Cuba policy is an obstacle to striking a new
relationship with the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Virtually all countries in the Americas have diplomatic ties with
Cuba. Numerous Latin American presidents have visited Havana in the
past months to publicly underscore how Washington's policy is out of
sync with the rest of the Western Hemisphere and Cuba was a key part
of the agenda at the 5th Summit of the Americas in April 2009 in Port
of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and
WHEREAS, bipartisan legislators have long since called attention to
the negative impacts of the economic embargo on Cuba. Recently,
legislators in the U.S. House and Senate have introduced legislation
(H.R. 874 and S. 428), "The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act," which
proposes the repeal of all travel restrictions against the rights of
all Americans to travel to Cuba. The legislation would prevent the
president from stopping travel to Cuba by all Americans except in
cases of war, imminent danger to public health or threats to the
physical safety of U.S. travelers; and
WHEREAS, civil society leaders throughout the Caribbean and Latin
America have condemned the detrimental impacts (including limited
access to resources, technology, intellectual, cultural and social
advances) of the embargo on the vast majority of Cuban citizens; and
WHEREAS, several polls of Cuban-Americans taken in the past two
years, by institutions such as Florida International University,
demonstrate increased demand for some form of engagement with Cuba,
and declining support for restrictions on travel and remittances; and
WHEREAS, attempts by the U.S. to marginalize Cuba's engagement with
the global economic community have significantly limited Cuba's
growth. The Cuban government estimates the loss to Cuba at about $685
million annually and well-established research shows the negative
impacts in Cuba have disproportionately hurt Afro-Cubans, women,
children and the poor; and
WHEREAS, diverse U.S. stakeholders in business, politics and civil
society see enormous potential for agricultural trade and U.S.-Cuba
exchanges of biotech and medical equipment, as well as student
exchanges. Since Congress approved an exception to the embargo in
2000 for some U.S. businesses, Cuba has bought $2.6 billion in U.S.
food; and
WHEREAS, U.S.-Cuba policy has failed—it denies U.S. citizens their
fundamental and constitutional rights to travel, it cuts off Cubans
from information and the opportunity to interact with American citizens
and it prevents people in the United States from being exposed to the
cultural diversity and intellectual achievements of Cuban society;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO support the effort to
increase the economic remittance that can be made to family members
residing in Cuba; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO support the effort to end
travel restrictions on Americans seeking to visit Cuba; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO calls upon Congress to
initiate legislation that would repeal the economic embargo against
the Republic of Cuba and broaden diplomatic relations between the
United States and Cuba; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the AFL-CIO call upon Cuba to release
all political prisoners, including trade unionists, and enter a meaningful
dialogue with regard to broadening human and workers'
rights.
The last paragraph was a necessary sop to those who wouldn't support the rest of the resolution unless there was this pseudo "balance". It is a fact though there are NO legitimate trade unionists being held prisoner for their organising or political activities. It' is also unclear who is supposed to engage in this dialogue re human and workers' rights.
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/convention/2009/upload/res_43.pdf