The Venceremos Brigade comes to the Central Valley

Cuba Shows us What is Possible
By Rose Ana Dueñas

They are perhaps one of the largest groups of young people from the United States to visit Cuba this year. They are Chicano, Mexican, Puerto Rican, African-American, Asian, and white, many from working-class families. Coming from nine U.S. states, the 48 members of the Venceremos Brigade traveled to Toronto, Canada to fly together to Cuba, publicly stating their intention of violating the U.S. ban on travel to the island, a component of the imperialist blockade that has been intensified by the Bush administration.

"I feel very strongly about the right to come here, because it's such an amazing place," said "brigadista" Priscilla Bassett, a 15-year-old high school student from New York. "I think it's despicable that we call ourselves a democracy and have this blockade."

The Venceremos ("We shall Overcome") Brigade was created in 1969 when radical students in the United States "decided to support Cuba's Revolution and travel to Cuba," explains Kathe Karlson, 57. A social worker at a New York City public high school, Karlson herself has been on the brigade nine times, one of 9,000 people — most of them young — who have gone to the island with the group.

THERE'S A REASON WHY OUR GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT US TO COME HERE

Of the 48 brigade members this year, about 30 were under 30 years old, and nine were 19 or younger. Some are politically active in the United States, like Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, 24, who works in youth development in California, says she first learned about the "VB" when she read Angela Davis' autobiography. "I feel that there is a legacy of internationalism; it is something Black revolutionaries have been doing for 40 years. And for Black people in the United States, it is one of the greatest crimes: we are taught we're not part of something bigger. I work with young people who have been locked up in prison, and I explain to them that (coming on the brigade) is a meaningful way of breaking the law. I'm traveling for them, too."

"There's a reason why our government doesn't want us to come here," the young woman adds. "Cuba shows us what's possible. And as long as capitalism and white supremacy rules in our country, things aren't going to change." During their two-week visit, the group traveled through several provinces with the help of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples. They weeded cornfields in the Camilo Cienfuegos City-School in Bartolome Masó, Granma province, in the shadows of the Sierra Maestra Mountains, working side-by-side with veteran combatants of the Revolutionary War and Cuba's internationalist mission in Angola to defeat apartheid. They learned about the work of the National Center for Sexual Education and met with Ricardo Alarcón, president of Parliament, along with members of the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan.

SUBSTANTIAL HARM TO OFAC'S SANCTIONS PROGRAMS

On previous occasions, brigadistas returning to the U.S. have received threatening letters from the Treasury Departments's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the agency charged with enforcing U.S. trade and travel restrictions. Violators face the possibility of a $10,000 fine and/or 10 years in prison. Although the courts at some point could try to enforce the Trading with the Enemy Act, a criminal offense, the travel challenges are currently civil offenses and thus do not carry jail time as a consequence, she explained.

When this year's brigade returned on July 17, they crossed from Toronto into Buffalo, New York, walking over the Peace Bridge, and holding demonstrations and press conferences before and afterward. They were searched and routinely questioned, but not harassed the way Pastors for Peace members were.

"Crossing the border is just the first step of the travel challenge," explains Bonnie Massey, 25, of New York. It is during this drawn-out, two-pronged, legally and politically organized campaign that we expect to win; that is, to overturn the travel restrictions and eventually do away with the blockade."

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For more information see:
http://www.venceremosbrigade.org/
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/Martinez2.htm

or email:
vbbayarea [at] gmail.com