Lift Travel Ban on Cuba

From CPUSA.org

The Communist Party joins the many nonprofit organizations, churches and advocacy groups and people everywhere that call for an end to the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba.

The travel ban is a violation of the U.S. people’s right to travel and to see Cuba for themselves. We believe that lifting the ban will encourage friendship between the U.S. and Cuban peoples. It is a matter of basic rights.

Ending the travel ban is a demand that all people can agree on regardless of their political views, be they Left, Right or Center. We also believe it is an important first step toward ending the illegal and unprecedented nearly 50-year blockade of Cuba, which deprives the Cuban people of essential goods, trade and economic opportunities and deprives U.S. farmers, businesses and people of needed trade.

Now is our chance!

New legislation — the Peterson-Moran bill — has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to restore the right of U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba. Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN), Congressman Jerry Moran (R-KS) have introduced HR 4645, and at least 50 of their House colleagues are cosponsoring.

We call on everyone to call their congressional representatives to congratulate and support those who are on broad and encourage those who are not to sponsor he bill today.

You can easily send your message to Congress by using the online action tools at the Latin American Working Group.

For more on the bill, read the article on HR 4645 in the People's World.

How to travel to Cuba

Originally posted here

GAO Report: Bush Obsessed More with Cuba than with Terrorism

The New York Times is again behind the curve. Today it reported on a GAO study that found the Bush administration to be so obsessed with Cuba that it "may be distracting some American government agencies from higher-priority missions like fighting terrorism and combating narcotics trafficking."

The article goes on further to note that the GAO report asks "Treasury Department to scrutinize the priorities of its Office of Foreign Assets Control," which is supposed to enforce trade sanctions, especially by tracking the assets of terrorist groups. Over the past few years, the Times reports, of "the office opened 10,823 investigations into possible violations involving Cuba and just 6,791 investigations on all other cases."

In other words, the US systematically harasses and investigates the 37,000 Americans who go to Cuba annually but who have nothing to do with terrorism, but still can't tell you where Osama bin Laden is. Recall their investigation into Michael Moore's trip to Cuba to make his film Sicko.

Little, old Cuba. 11 million people. No longer a platform for Soviet missiles. Just a country that wants to be free from US influence and seeks expanded trade and business with farmers and other business persons in the US and other countries. Cuba is struggling to build a democratic society based on socialist principles rather than capitalism. But this is not the US government's business. Cuba poses no threat. It is time to lift the embargo and respect the fundamental human right of the freedom of travel.

But the point is that Political Affairs reported on the Bush obsession with Cuba a while back. This is not a new story.