www.peoplesworld.org April 9, 2016

Obama’s back from Havana; struggle against Cuba blockade continues

By Richard Grassl

or those who have been involved in the laws” which make up the U.S. blockade. Cuba solidarity movement for years, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker recalled the meeting between Presidents Barack her trip to Havana last October, stating openly: Obama and Raul Castro two weeks ago “We learned that in Cuba - as in many of our Fundoubtedly stands as a milestone. It’s a power- other trading partners around the world - it is ful symbol of the move toward normalization be- necessary to work with state-owned enterprises tween the two countries. in order to support the local private sector.” But with all the pageantry of the trip - from Such a recognition, is a good start, but not yet far the awkward press conferences to the baseball enough. diplomacy - it might be easy to forget that a lot of In his remarks, Rodrigo Malmierca, the Cuban the hard and detailed work to end the blockade goes on behind the scenes and in the halls of T H I S W E E K : power back in Washington. And for all the importance of Obama’s visit - and don’t get me • Struggle against Cuba blockade continues wrong, it’s huge - there is still a lot of work to be • The budget for would make the super-rich pay done. • Teachers led wave of strikes and job actions in Since Obama announced the shift in U.S. • Estudios revelan la importancia del voto Latino policy toward Cuba back on December 17, • is showing the way to stop Trump 2014, meetings between the two sides have progressively grown in importance as discussions READ MORE NEWS AND OPINION DAILY AT WWW.PEOPLESWORLD.ORG take on a life of their own. A case in point: immediately after the President announced in February that he would be headed to Havana, a Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, “Cuba Consortium Conference” was convened in highlighted three key aspects of the blockade D.C. policy which Obama himself still has the power to Senior officials of the Obama administration, change: permitting the island to use the dollar in academics, and business people conducted a international financial transactions, authorizing nine-hour session on “the complex framework of Cuban exports to the U.S., and allowing American

Page 1 companies to invest in other sectors besides overwhelmingly rejected by the U.S. population telecommunications. while the rest of the world watches in Understanding the meaning of democracy amazement? includes the ability to think critically, to use Obama’s visit to Cuba to advance the process dialectics to expose the contradiction and folly of of normalization is a recognition of the fact that U.S. policy toward Cuba. Treasury Department the world has changed. But that doesn’t mean specialist Andrea Gacki did just that at the there aren’t still potential hurdles along the way Congress has conference. Responding to a question from a as this process moves forward. a duty to represent Granma International reporter, Gacki was at a It is clear that the momentum needed to the good of all. total loss when asked to specifically identify the end the blockade - the main obstacle to Cuba’s law which prohibits Cuba’s use of the dollar in development and the normalization of relations - international transactions. Her response: the can’t come too soon. issue is being investigated. There are signs that the wind may be at the In this instance, the ability of people backs of the anti-blockade forces. Attitudes to travel and trade between Cuba and the among Cuban Americans are shifting in favor of U.S. is a constitutional protection that has ending the blockade. The U.S. government must been prohibited by the Helms-Burton Act recognize these voices - along with the demands in contravention of international standards of the farm and agriculture community to trade regarding the right of a people to their own self- with their Cuban counterparts. determination. Cuban and U.S. citizens both Congress has a duty to represent the are harmed due to illegal, criminal legislation good of all. With rapprochement moving in violation of the sovereignty of independent forward, what are we waiting for? states. Why continue supporting a policy Richard Grassl contributes to Peoplesworld.org Progressive budget for Illinois would make the super-rich pay By Bill Knight

wo documents on budget priorities and The People’s Agenda reform package would governing presented in Springfield, Ill., invest in communities and create jobs: adequate and Washington, D.C., in recent weeks and equitable funding structure for education, stress helping everyday people instead provide for real needs in education and human Tof the rich and powerful. services, modernize the state tax structure, “end The April 1 wave of strikes and protests in Chi- protections and preferential treatment of corpo- These proposals cago show there is massive support for solving the rations and Wall Street over working families” would generate IL budget crisis without resorting to Republican and “end predatory financial deals” by reforming billions of dollars Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “slash and burn” cuts. bank and financial industry regulation. for state To bring IL in line with other Midwest states, The Democratic-run state legislature may con- operations. the People’s Agenda calls for generating new rev- sider the People’s Agenda, even if Republican enue from those most able to afford it. Its package Gov. Rauner ignores it. But the agenda’s national would close corporate loopholes and pass a gradu- counterpart, from the Congressional Progressive ated income tax, a millionaires tax, and a financial Caucus, is sure to be voted down in the GOP-run transactions tax. U.S. House, if those solons ever get around to vot- Together, these proposals would generate bil- ing on a budget. Their own right wing is rebelling lions of dollars for state operations, such as pro- against too much spending on human services. viding universal pre-K child-care assistance, re- “The budget is designed to be a fiscally respon- ducing violence, and ending homelessness. sible, economically sound, and common-sense The People’s Agenda shows current funding blueprint for how progressive policies can spur needs would support $323 million in additional economic growth,” said Isaiah Poole of the Cam- activity in other parts of Illinois’ economy. paign for America’s Future.

www.peoplesworld.org Page 2 Teachers led wave of strikes and job actions in Chicago

By John Wojcik

numerous other community organizations and as pril 1 is likely to go down in the history many as ten other unions had joined the teachers books here as labor unions and commu- on the picket lines and staged their own parallel job nity organizations representing people actions. They all see themselves as victims of reck- from all walks of life staged strikes and less budget cutting and see the need for forming a Ajob actions from one end of the city to the other. permanent coalition to represent Chicago’s people The unprecedented “day of action” involved in a battle against the banks and financial institu- dozens of unions, community groups and their al- tions. lies uniting to reject the assault on budgets that the CEO Forrest Claypool Chicago and others have said leaves said the strike was “illegal.” this city “broke on purpose.” “CPS is on the verge of collapse,” countered the We shut down the The teachers got the ball rolling when their CTU in a statement. “Instead of threatening educa- schools for a day union’s House of Delegates voted earlier this month tors who are engaging in a historic day of protest to so we can keep to authorize an unfair labor practice strike to bring fight to save our schools, Mr. Claypool should join attention to the need to stabilize the school system us on this courageous day of action.” “We shut down them open in the and protect teachers and students in the face of at- the schools for a day so we can keep them open in days to come. tacks on the education budget by Illinois Republi- the days to come.” can Gov. Bruce Rauner. The actions were not the first time many of these The school district has, for more than a year, groups have gotten together in Chicago and not the stalled contract negotiations with the CTU, and has first time Chicagoans have united to do battle with threatened and mandated furlough days, cuts and the “1%.” Last year many of them got involved in the layoffs. The solution, the teachers say, is not starv- elections and forced Mayor into a ing the schools out of existence but the development runoff. In December, they joined together to pro- of new revenue sources. Those revenues should test the mayor’s role in covering up the killing by a come from progressive tax reform that would result Chicago police officer of Laquan McDonald. Some of in the wealthy paying their fare share in state taxes. those same groups came together again in the pri- That approach will generate $6 billion in new funds. mary elections to oust the States Attorney who had The unprecedented part of the strike was that helped engineer the cover-up.

www.peoplesworld.org Page 3 LOCAL NEWS Estudios revelan la importancia del voto Latino LOCAL CONTACT Emile Schepers [email protected] l primero de Noviembre en Para impedir que los Republica- esta carrera presidencial, nos tomen la Casa Blanca y no vuel- cualquiera de los dos can- van a tener mayoría en el Senado y ni didatos demócratas que en la Cámara de Representantes, los Bernie Sanders is Esobreviva tendrá que enfrentar un re- simpatizantes de ambos candidatos publicano supremamente peligroso. demócratas, Sanders y Clinton, tienen showing the way to Hemos estado poniendo atención a la que ser movilizados al más alto nivel conducta injuriosa de Donald Trump, posible de entusiasmo a favor del can- stop Trump pero las posiciones de Ted Cruz son didato demócrata finalista. De mane- igualmente pésimas. ra que hay mucho trabajo por hacer. By Rick Nagin Mucha más gente se está dando El posible electorado que tengamos cuenta que la prioridad para Noviem- en Noviembre será de alrededor de t has become increasingly possible bre tiene que ser no meramente de- 226 millones de votos, un incremento that we are witnessing the death tener a Trump sino detener al candi- del cinco por ciento respecto de la ul- throes of the Republican Party as we dato republicano, cualquiera que éste tima elección presidencial en el 2012. have known it. The party is hopelessly sea. Para efectuar esto, se va a necesi- Se va a presentar un cambio fuerte en Isplintered and there seems no way for it to tar una movilización sin precedentes la composición étnica del electorado, unite behind a consensus candidate capable de la base, ahora más que nunca ya con un aumento del 6% del electorado of winning in November. que los esquemas para suprimir el Afroamericano, un aumento del 17% The GOP has no one to blame for this voto han sido activados por los di- en el electorado Latino, un aumento predicament but itself. For decades, since rigentes del GOP (Republicanos) a del 16% en el electorado Asia ameri- the days of Barry Goldwater, the party has través de las legislaturas controladas cano, y sólo un 2% de aumento en el nurtured and cultivated a racist, xenopho- por el estado. Un nuevo estudio so- electorado blanco no Latino. bic, ultra-nationalist base in order to get bre el reciente comportamiento de los Este incremento importante de candidates elected and benefit its billionaire votantes latinos muestra claramente votantes Latinos se debe a que los funders. qué es lo que está sobre el tapete y ciudadanos Latinoamericanos van These funders are horrified by the fact qué trabajo se debe hacer. llegando a los 18 años de edad por that the party has been hijacked by Donald Estas primarias han puesto al des- nacimiento, otra parte por natural- Trump. Trump’s rise has also raised seri- cubierto dos señales peligrosas. La ización o porque van llegando en ous concerns about the danger of fascism. primera, la movilización de votantes grandes números gente de Puerto While this cannot be discounted entirely the a favor de Bernie Sanders y Hillary Rico debido a los problemas económi- Trump phenomena seems more in line with Clinton, es menor que la de Trump cos que tienen en esa Isla. Por una ley Karl Marx’s wry comment that “history re- y la de los otros republicanos. La de 1917, todos los Puertorriqueños peats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” segunda, diferentes sectores se han son ciudadanos de Estados Unidos y Fortunately, we have an important means movilizado en apoyo de cada uno de pueden votar en elecciones generales at our disposal in the campaign of Bernie los candidatos finalistas del campo si ellos viven en los Estados Unidos Sanders, who is moving and, to a growing demócrata: la juventud en apoyo de continental o en Hawái. degree uniting, the entire electorate in a pro- Sanders, y las minorías de más edad y gressive direction. las mujeres en apoyo de Clinton. Sanders is raising consciousness of the real challenges we face, thereby isolating the GOP candidates, all of whom support the right-wing program of war, austerity, cur- tailment of democratic rights and destruc- tion of democratic institutions like trade unions and public education. He is exposing the rigged nature of our NATIONAL CONTACT economic and political system and calling for taxing the billionaires to fund social Editorial: (773) 446-9920 Business: (212) 924-2523 needs. Email: [email protected]

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