US-Cuba Labor Solidarity – Building Relations with Cuban Labor
Fact Sheet on US-Cuba Relations
Passing Resolutions in Labor Organizations
International update – March 28 – End the U.S. blockade, for Cuban families
What Cuban-Americans started 9 months ago in Miami, bike/car caravans have spread across the U.S. and Canada month by month to call for bridges of love between the people of the U.S. , Canada and Cuba. U.S. unilateral sanctions — particularly the 240 measures instituted in the last 4 years — hurt Cuban families.
At least 16 U.S. cities have joined. Two, Miami and now Tampa, in Florida. Boston and Holyoke in Massachusetts; Hartford, Conn.; New York City and Albany in NY; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; Chicago; Minneapolis; Seattle; Las Vegas; Seattle; San Francisco; Los Angeles
March 27 and 28 the caravans have spread to Europe, Africa and more. Internationally: Windhoek, Namibia; Zurich, Friburgo, Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland; Finland; Denmark, Berlin, Bon, Oberhaussen and Frankfurt in Germany; Belgium; the UK; Spain. Check out @SiempreConCuba on Facebook or the web for international updates. The Facebook page of Carlos Lazo for reports from Florida and other parts of the U.S. and Canada. #unblockCuba2021
March 26 | US – CUBA COLLABORATION RESOLUTION PASSED BY MINNEAPOLIS. CITY COUNCIL
On Friday, March 26, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution Medical and Scientific Collaboration Between Minneapolis and Cuba. In addition the resolution emphatically calls on Congress and President Biden “to reverse the recent State Department designation of Cuba as a ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism,’ restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, end the decades-long economic blockade, and engage in all mutually beneficial areas of human endeavor.”
The resolution introduced by Council Member Cam Gordon and is included below. The Minnesota Cuba Committee and Solidarity on the Americas (SCOTA) jointly advocated for this resolution. This action reiterates and expands the May 25, 2018 resolution, plus more recent efforts in the Minnesota State Legislature for normalization of US-Cuba relations and successful individual medical collaboration that saved the life of noted Cuban-born Minnesotan musician, Ignacio ‘Nachito’ Herrera.
Today’s action by the Minneapolis City Council joins 11 other municipal actions since May 5, 2020, less than a year. These resolutions advocate medical and scientific cooperation with Cuba to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, ending the extra burden placed on the Cuban people by the unilateral U.S. sanctions also known as embargo or blockade. Chicago and Cleveland City councils, like this newest action taken by Minneapolis, call on ending the blockade of Cuba.
Nine months ago Cubans living in the United States initiated monthly caravans in Miami with bikes and cars calling for bridges of love between families in the U.S and Cuba. This effort calls attention to the harm felt by their families as a result of the 240 measures instituted by the U.S. government in the last few years. On Sunday, March 28, at least 14 U.S. cities will hold activities, including two in Florida, Miami and Tampa. Together these resolutions and caravans are living proof that the U.S. economic war against Cuba is not supported by the people here.
Promoting medical and scientific collaboration between the City of Minneapolis and Cuba to address the COVID-19 pandemic and urging the Biden administration and United States Congress to remove restrictions on collaboration by suspending economic and travel sanctions against Cuba.
Whereas, the United States has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world—30 million infected, with deaths exceeding 539,000; and
Whereas, the United States and Minnesota deaths fall disproportionately on Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities; and
Whereas, Cuba has reported 1.3 deaths per 100,000 people and the United States has reported 110 deaths per 100,000 people from COVID-19; and
Whereas, the per capita rate of total cases in the United States is 56 times the rate in Cuba and the per capita rate of total deaths is 85 times the rate of Cuba; and
Whereas, worldwide some 80 percent of COVID-19 patients in critical condition are dying; by contrast, in Cuba, 80 percent in critical and serious condition are now being saved; and
Whereas, in the face of this worldwide menace, now is the time for international cooperation and solidarity; and
Whereas, Minneapolis is home to many prestigious medical institutions, organizations, and businesses and is in a position to provide leadership to the rest of the country in medical research, treatment, and cooperation; and
Whereas, in December 2020 the University of Minnesota Department of Public Health and Department of Nursing conducted a successful virtual collaboration with the Cuban Ministry of Health with a follow up in April 2021; and
Whereas, the country of Cuba has a long history of providing international medical aid to other countries with many of its medical personnel directly involved in the fight against COVID-19 as members of the specially trained Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade against Disasters and Serious Epidemics; and
Whereas, the Medical Brigade distinguished itself in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and stepped forward to assist in many epidemics around the world, including dengue fever, HIV, swine flu, and hepatitis; and
Whereas, since the outbreak of COVID-19, Cuba has sent 52 medical brigades equipped with Cuban pharmaceuticals to over 45 countries with requests for assistance from many more; and
Whereas, there is precedent for collaborative initiatives between Cuba and other United States cities and states, as demonstrated by the fourteen United States cities that have passed resolutions urging the United States – Cuba collaboration; and
Whereas, there have also been multi-year joint ventures between Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology and Buffalo’s Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in developing CIMAvax, the Cuban lung cancer vaccine, as well as a collaboration between medical personnel from Cuba and the University of Illinois on infant mortality in Chicago; and
Whereas, in 2015 the World Health Organization recognized Cuba’s medical system as a worldwide leader in biotechnology, and Cuba has made significant contributions to the international medical field, including a drug that prevents 77 percent of diabetic amputations; and
Whereas, the United States blockade of Cuba has severely restricted collaboration on scientific and medical research; and
Whereas, the people of Minneapolis and the world would benefit from Cuban biotechnical, medical, and public health expertise in combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;
Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, by The City Council of The City of Minneapolis:
That the City Council directs the Minneapolis Department of Health to explore possible collaborations with Cuba regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, public health prevention methods, and treatments.
Be it further resolved that the City of Minneapolis encourages the Minnesota Health Department to explore collaborations with Cuba to jointly face the COVID-19 pandemic, including initiating knowledge transfer about Cuba’s public health prevention methods, methods for preventing infection of health workers, and innovative treatments now being used in China and elsewhere.
Be It Further Resolved that the City Council urges the United States Congress and the President to lift restrictions on access to Cuban medical expertise in order to more effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic by suspending United States economic and travel sanctions against Cuba.
Be It Further Resolved that the City Council calls on the federal government to cease ongoing measures that deter Cuba from importing medical equipment and medicines to confront COVID-19 and attempts to stop other countries from accepting Cuban medical brigades and assistance.
Be It Further Resolved that the City Council calls on the United States Congress and the Biden administration to reverse the recent State Department designation of Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism,” restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba, end the decades-long economic blockade, and engage in all mutually beneficial areas of human endeavor.
March 28 U.S.-Canada #unblockCuba caravans Solidarity with Miami families
Nine months ago Cuban Americans in Miami called attention to the harm caused by the U.S. embargo/blockade/sanctions with bike/car caravans. Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits are hurt by the intensified U.S. economic and media warfare against Cuba. We join their call with caravans across the U.S. and Canada. Do it in your city or town! Let us know by email: NNOCuba@gmail.com or ask us to co-sponsor your facebook event FB.com/CubaNetwork or on twitter @NNOCuba.
Hartford, Conn. Noon (local time) 50 New Park Ave. |
Holyoke, Mass. Noon (local time) 1866 Northampton St. |
New York City, NY 12:30 PM (local time) 125th at Adam Clayton Powell |
Albany, NY 1:00 PM (local time) Lincoln Park Rd. in Lincoln Park |
Detroit, MI 1:00 PM (local time) Michigan and Trumbull |
Washington DC 3:00 PM (local time) 1925 Vermont Ave |
Chicago, Illinois 2:00 PM (local time) Douglas Park across frm St. Anthony hospital |
Minneapolis, Minn. 1:00 PM (local time) 1200 S Washington Ave |
Los Angeles, Calif. Noon (local time) S. Parkview betwn 6th and Wilshire |
San Francisco, Calif. 11:30 AM (local time) 1875 Marin St. |
Seattle, Wash. 11:00 AM (local time) SW Alaska St near California Ave SW |
Toronto 12pm (local time) Queens Quay E/ Cooper St. beside LCBO |
Ottawa 1pm (local time) St. Laurent Shopping Center (Parking lot#3) |
Vancouver 12pm (local time) Killarney & E. 48th Ave |
Montreal, Quebec 14H (heure locale) Stationnement Coin Sherbrooke Et Calixa-Lavallée |
Winnipeg 11:50am (local time) Osborne and Pembina |
Calgary 12pm (local time) 662 St. Georges Dr NE |
Victoria (March 27) 1pm (local time) 1925 Blanshard |
March 14: Feminist Solidarity! Celebrating International Women’s Day and the advancement of Cuban women
Click here to register for March 14
March 20: African Women’s Emancipation Day
https://umassboston.zoom.us/j/99493565056
Meeting ID: 994 9356 5056
TRTworld: Hit by US sanctions, Cuba and Iran join hands to secure Covid-19 vaccine
Cuba and Iran are unable to rely on an international economy where the US is the main actor, a harsh reality that brought them together to secure a coronavirus vaccine.
Cuba and Iran’s Covid-19 response has shed light on their geopolitical alliance in the face of severe sanctions imposed by the United States. Soberana 02, produced in Cuba’s Finlay Institute, is entering its third clinical trial as an undertaking with Iran’s Pasteur Institute, enabling both nations to develop a vaccine due for release in May. Soberana 02 plans to produce 100 million doses to ship worldwide.
Soberana 02’s first trial began in 2020 with 40 volunteers and moved swiftly into Phase 2 with 100 Cubans indicating immunity within the first 14 days.
The small Caribbean island did not have enough Covid-19 cases to gather data for vaccine production nationwide. The Phase 3 trial is a global venture first confirmed in November 2020 when Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met with specialists from the Cuban Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, announcing their mutual solidarity in importing vaccines to Iran. 150,000 Cuban and 40,000 Iranian volunteers will test the vaccine.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation, the vaccine requires two doses. It is a conjugate vaccine containing only parts of the virus and does not require refrigeration.
Geopolitics has been critical in determining Cuba and Iran’s vaccine strategy. US sanctions have crippled both countries and pharmaceutical companies are often discouraged from trading with them. Hence why Soberana, which means ‘Sovereign’ in Spanish, is fitting for both.
Despite the UN calling on the US and other countries worldwide to stop sanctions, crucially those impacting medical and humanitarian aid, the Trump administration introduced almost 50 new measures since the start of the pandemic.
“The US increased sanctions against Cuba in the hopes that it would, combined with the pandemic and economic crisis, really tip Cuba over the edge”, a lecturer in Economic and Social History at University of Glasgow and author of We Are Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, Helen Yaffe, tells TRT World.
“The Cuban economy has been, yes, hard hit by the pandemic as most other economies in the world. The difference is Cuba doesn’t have access to international finance, so it can’t get through an economic crisis with a loan from the IMF, the World Bank, the inter-American Development Bank- it has no lender of last resort”, Yaffe continues.
Iran has one of the largest cases of Covid-19 in the Middle East, with its total case number surging past 1.68 million.
“The possibility of a fourth wave, the problem with emerging variants, require that Iran responds quickly. However, Tehran faces impediments in importing foreign vaccines, leading the country to look beyond the ‘West’,” explains Iranian Geopolitics expert and London School of Economics Research Fellow, Dr Ghoncheh Tazmini.
“‘Vaccine diplomacy’ must be seen within the larger rubric of Iran’s foreign policy imperatives: fostering non-European and non-Western alliance patterns, and alignments in order mitigate external (American and European) political pressure – which in the context of a humanitarian crisis, borders on coercion,” Tazmini adds.

The Cuban vaccine carries several benefits
Cuba is a perfect candidate and has been an active participant in combating the global fight against Covid-19, sending over a thousand health workers to Honduras, South Africa, Togo, Mexico and Italy in 2020. The Trump administration criticised this undertaking, aiming to obstruct Cuban cooperation, accusing Cuban medical missions of “human trafficking” of which no evidence has been found.
Nonetheless, Cuba’s health internationalism has been renowned by many officials from the United Nations and World Health Organisation; the case of 2014 when Cubans went to West Africa to help combat Ebola is one of countless examples. According to Yaffe, in 2017, Cuban medics were in 62 countries and 44 percent of them paid nothing. Their technology and medical innovation has attracted interest from the Global South in places such as Vietnam, Pakistan and India, and closer nations such as Venezuela and Bolivia have also been discussing agreements. Soberana 02 would also cost less than other candidates, presenting a viable solution to other Global South countries.
When the World Health Organisation approved 71 potential vaccines in April, four were Cuban, yet the Caribbean island’s success in biotechnology is nothing new; it also has the highest number of doctors in the world per capita. The Cuban vaccine carries several benefits. Cuba’s biotechnology sector produced the first successful Meningitis B vaccine in 1988 and was the first to eradicate mother-to-child HIV transmission.
“They have a really extensive grassroots or community-based public health care system, where the emphasis is on prevention, not cure,” Yaffe tells TRT World.
“It’s using a platform that’s tried and tested based on other vaccines. Cuban children, through the basic National Immunisation programme, receive eight domestically produced vaccines that have been approved by the World Health Organisation that are sold overseas, so they have experience with vaccinations” Yaffe continues. In her book, she unpacks how Cuba has historically prioritised health and biotechnology.
Pharmaceutical companies and transnational investments have enabled US and UK vaccines’ rapid developments, while the Cuban-Iranian initiative is founded on sovereignty and local efforts. “By cooperating with Cuba on its ‘Soberana’, which means ‘sovereign’ in Spanish, Iran is sending the message that it will not be crippled or coerced and that it will continue to pursue independence – the beating heart of Iran’s national narrative,” says Tazmini.
Cuba and Iran are unable to rely on an international economy where the US is the main actor. Today’s vaccine geopolitics has prioritised wealthier nations, requiring those remaining to build strategic alliances and find different routes to securing a vaccine.
U.S.– CUBA RESOLUTIONS – updated 3/1/2021
Since May 5, 2020
City Councils passed Saving Lives resolutions
Berkeley, Calif.
Cambridge, Mass.
Chicago, Ill. (resolution to end the embargo)
Cleveland, Ohio (resolution to end the embargo)
Oakland, Calif.
Pittsburgh, Penn.
Richmond, Calif.
Sacramento, Calif.
San Francisco, Calif.
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Seattle, Wash.
Municipal resolutions introduced or to be presented soon (not yet passed)
Minneapolis, Minn.
New York City
St. Paul, Minn.
Washington, D.C.
State resolution
State of Minnesota (Saving Lives resolution introduced in both houses)
Labor Councils
Sacramento, Calif. Central Labor Council (passed)
Washington State Labor Council (passed)
Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council, King County, Washington (passed)
San Francisco, Calif. Labor Council (passed)
Troy, N.Y. Labor Council (passed)
Albany, N.Y. Labor Council (passed)
AFSCME 3800, Minnesota (passed)
School Boards
Lennox Public Schools (Los Angeles)
Milwaukee Public Schools
Before May 5, 2020
City councils passed resolutions to end the US Embargo on Cuba
Berkeley, California
Brookline, Massachusetts
Detroit, Michigan
Hartford, Connecticut
Helena, Montana
Madison, Wisconsin
Meridian Township, Michigan
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oakland, California
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Richmond, California
Sacramento, California
Seattle, Washington
St. Paul, Minnesota
Both houses of State of Minnesota legislature passed a resolution to end the U.S. embargo
UPDATED 3/1/2021
Breaking News ! Chicago City Council Unanimously Passes Resolution to End Blockade of Cuba
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VACCINES AND SOVEREIGNTY (II): WHAT ARE VACCINES?
By: Luis A. Montero Cabrera
Cubadebate, 11 January 2021
http://www.cubadebate.cu/autor/luis-a-montero-cabrera/
This is the second in a series of articles.
The molecules of an invading biological entity that are identified and are accessible to the human immune system are often referred to as “antigens”. They are usually expressed in the outermost parts of the nanoscopic carrier and are a necessary part of its composition. They are the same when found in a virus, in a fungus, in a bacterium, or in the cells of an organ from another being transplanted into our body.
An important characteristic of the infection and self-healing process is that when an individual overcomes a disease by the action of the immune system, it usually remains prepared to defeat it in future reinfections of the same type. The system “remembers” the intruder antigen and thus we are prepared to reject its carriers again. It is a biological fabric very refined by natural selection through many generations and species.
By realizing this, and using scientific reasoning, human beings try to use this defense “memory” to ensure that people do not get sick with an infection, even if they have never suffered from the disease. It is about “teaching” the immune system of each individual to activate and destroy any morbid invasion once its antigens are detected. The challenge is great, because to invade the body with antigens from a certain infection without making the person sick requires wise processing.
The result is known as a “vaccine.” Its name is due to the fact that the first formulations were cultivated in cows. It is always a chemical-biological preparation of antigens to achieve active acquired immunity against a particular infectious disease. The first vaccines contained the organisms that caused the disease from weakened or dead forms of themselves. It was not known then that what the immune system recognized was only its antigens. These preparations thus “taught” the human body to “shoot” the actions that would destroy the invader. Vaccines can be prophylactic when they prevent and prevent the effects of a future infection, as it is desired that COVID-19 be, or therapeutic when they are used to fight a disease that has already invaded the body, such as cancer.
Most likely, the first disease to be prevented by inoculation was smallpox. It seems that the first recorded use of it occurred in the 16th century in China. The scientific and reproducible vaccine against smallpox was invented and duly reported in the specialized literature in 1796 by the English physician Edward Jenner. Smallpox was a contagious and deadly disease, and it is said to kill up to 60% of infected adults and 80% of children.
Tomas Romay y Chacón was a physician and scientist born in Havana in 1764. Having begun by studying law he switched to medicine and in 1791 at the age of 27 was 33rd medical graduate in Cuba. He became a professor at our University of Havana and co-founder of the Royal Patriotic Society of Havana, today the Economic Society of Friends of the Country. As early as 1804, just 8 years after the appearance of the vaccine in Europe, Romay implemented smallpox vaccination on our island with preparations made “in situ” with the support of the Patriotic Society. In this way, he used the local science instead of waiting for a delayed arrival of the vaccine from the Metropolis. He and his collaborators followed the procedures published and described by Jenner and manufactured the first Cuban vaccine, the smallpox vaccine. A marvelous success of a nascent, Creole, nation’s innovation and wisdom.
Time passed and scientific research led to the knowledge that the key to vaccines were the antigens and not the entire infectious entities.
Vaccines have been produced in Cuba for many decades. Two of them at least have been both original and exclusive. In 1987 Drs. Concepción Campa and Gustavo Sierra led a scientific group at the Finlay Vaccine Institute to obtain a vaccine that at that time was the first of its kind in the world. This vaccine was and still is very effective against a bacterium that attacks the meninges in the brain and nervous system, called group B and C meningococcus. This type of meningitis is particularly deadly in children. Cuban science at the University of Havana produced in 2004 the world’s first efficient commercial vaccine based on an antigen manufactured in the laboratory, that is, “synthetic”. Prof. Vicente Vérez, a scientist who has dedicated his life to the chemistry of sugars, his wife Dr. Violeta Fernández (who died very young) and their collaborators were the authors of this second great feat. Thanks to the work of these scientific groups, many Cuban children and children in many parts of the world are alive and active today as adults.
Vaccines don’t just contain antigens. The immune system is not equally effective in all people and at all ages. Certain antigens are more activating than others because they are more easily recognized and “trigger” the work of the entire system that feels invaded. Vaccines are made more effective with so-called “adjuvants” (helpers) which, when given together with the appropriate antigens, cause many people’s immune systems to wake up more quickly and efficiently.
New types of vaccines have recently appeared that do not contain antigens directly but rather RNA that allows our cells to synthesize them “in situ”, recognize them and learn to fight them. While the vaccines that contain only antigens without the need to supply the infectious agent are efficient and safe, these others are as well and furthermore allow for mutations of the virus to be taken into account with much greater facility and so ensure the utility of the vaccines over time.
It can be said that vaccines are pieces of biological technology that represent a lifeline for many human beings. Without them we would be at the mercy of Darwinian natural selection and an epidemic would be survived only by the few who could overcome it thanks to some singularity of their organism. This was the case before science intervened by inventing vaccines. The cost was immense in precious lives ending early. It could also be said that without vaccines some type of infection could come along that might lead to the extinction of homo sapiens as a living species, which has happened many times before with other species in the beautiful and harsh history of life on this planet.
And what will the current vaccines against COVID and very particularly the SOBERANAS, MAMBISA and ABDALA be like? How do you prove that they serve what they have been designed for?
Luis Alberto Cabrera Montero holds a Doctoate Chemical Sciences. He is Senior Researcher and Full Professor at the University of Havana. He is President of the Scientific Advisory Council of the University of Havana and is a Merit Member and Coordinator of Natural and Exact Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. For a full biography, see http://www.academiaciencias.cu/en/node/674
Translated by Merriam Ansara for CubaNews and other outlets