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 its such an amazing place, said brigadista Priscilla Bassett, a 15-year-old high school student from New York. I think its despicable that we call ourselves a democracy and have this blockade.
| ... coming here would be a very strong act of civil disobedience against the U.S. government, which I do not believe in at all... |
Steven Gustavo Emmons, 26, a waiter and radio journalist from New Mexico, commented, I knew that this was the only way for me to understand Cubas reality, to see it with my own eyes, and that coming here would be a very strong act of civil disobedience against the U.S. government, which I do not believe in at all.
The Venceremos (We shall Overcome) Brigade was created in 1969 when radical students in the United States decided to support Cubas 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. In the early years it was more about coming to see Cuba; now its about openly and publicly defying the blockade, Karlson explained. Now, even though the government has taken away 90 percent of legal travel, there is increased opposition to the ban, she affirmed.
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THERES A REASON WHY OUR GOVERNMENT DOESNT 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 Isaac Padilla, 27, an immigrant-rights activist from Los Angeles who has participated in mobilizations against the fascist-like Minutemen militias who attack people crossing the border into the United States. As a person involved in social change, I wanted to go to Cuba to challenge my beliefs and see if another world is possible, he comments.
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 were 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. Im traveling for them, too. | Cuba shows us whats possible. And as long as capitalism and white supremacy rules in our country, things arent going to change. |
Theres a reason why our government doesnt want us to come here. Cuba shows us whats possible. And as long as capitalism and white supremacy rules in our country, things arent 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 Cubas internationalist mission in Angola to defeat apartheid. As they rode their (non-air conditioned) bus, visiting historical sites, they saw scars of the devastation left by Hurricane Dennis last year. In Habana province, they labored alongside students and construction workers repairing a high school, and chatted with members of the Committees in Defense of the Revolution, who threw them a party. 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 OFACS SANCTIONS PROGRAMS
On previous occasions, brigadistas returning to the U.S. have received threatening letters from the Treasury Departmentss 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. The letters from the government literally say travel by groups such as the Venceremos Brigade, which publicized the fact that its members traveled without an OFAC license, results in substantial harm to OFAC's sanctions programs, Karlson notes. 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 years 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. Next come various letters from OFAC, possibly fines, and then the hearings within OFAC and eventually up to the Supreme Court. We continue to prepare people for the long haul and to make sure brigadistas are ready to refuse to pay fines and to support and back each other at hearings. 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.
One brigadista, Soffiyah Elijah, 51, is a criminal defense lawyer and deputy director of the criminal justice institute at Harvard Law School in Boston. She is representing some of those who have received OFAC letters, and since 1988 has been bringing law students and social activists to Cuba. I believe people have a human right and a Constitutional right to exercise their freedom to travel and exchange ideas and build friendships with whomever they please, she affirms. With this most recent report by the so-called Transition Commission referring to travel-related criminal sanctions, I feel it is even more important for me and for other criminal defense lawyers to be on the front lines for people facing these illegal sanctions. 
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