The Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba

We have a special guest at Laborfest this year!

It isn't the President- it's a boat! A historic boat in fact.

The Golden Rule is a sailboat credited with stopping nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere during the late 1950s and early 1960s in the South Pacific over the Marshall Islands. Radiation was being carried around the world by air currents and ended up in the milk in Wisconsin.

A group of Quakers set out with this boat to interfere with that nuclear testing, but were immediately intercepted and arrested soon after they left Hawaii. Within 5 years President Kennedy signed the treaty to stop testing weapons in the atmosphere.

The Golden Rule is currently on a voyage called the “Great Loop” and will be in Milwaukee for 4 days over Labor Day weekend.

Thanks to ATU Local 998, we have shuttles over to visit the boat, meet the crew, and learn its history. Shuttles will leave the Main Gate of the Summerfest grounds at 1pm and 2pm and bring you back when the visit is over.


https://www.facebook.com/events/652551450224935

🎵🔥 Exciting News for Music Lovers! 🔥🎵

The legendary Omara Portuondo, the grand dame of Cuban "feeling", is about to grace the stage with her mesmerizing performance! Even in her 90s, Omara continues to enchant fans with her pure and versatile voice, effortlessly moving between jazz, Nueva Trova, traditional Cuban music, son, danzón, boleros, and more.

Join us to celebrate her final performances before retirement, aptly named “Vida," a retrospective of her illustrious life in music. 🌟 This event is sure to leave you spellbound, so mark your calendars NOW! 🗓️

🔸You can secure your tickets directly from the Pabst / Riverside Box Office by clicking here:
👉 https://www.pabsttheatergroup.com/events/detail/omara-portuondo-2023 or by calling (414) 242-8200.

Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a musical maestro in action! Let's bid farewell to Omara with a standing ovation! 🎶👏

Omara Portuondo | The Pabst Theater Group Omara Portuondo is the grand dame of classic Cuban song. Even in her 90s — her seventh decade of performing — she remains a beloved chanteuse and celebrated entertainer. In her final performances before retirement, Portuondo will share a retrospective of her life in music, simply called “Vida....

Learn firsthand how Cuba is helping US students of color to become doctors -- debt free -- to work in underserved US communities.

EVENT: “Healthcare for All, in Cuba & the U.S.” Cuba Potluck, Film & Discussion, July 25th, 6 p.m. at Mitchell Park Library

Tonight, 7pm Central!

‘For all Families, Love is Law’: A Bilingual Webinar for International Days Against Homophobia and Transphobia Local Cuba Normalization Coalition sponsors Zoom event on June 29.

Creating banners and signs tonight for Saturday’s stand for peace asking Biden to change US policy towards Cuba, 12 noon-1pm at Farwell and E. North Avenue, MKE, 53211

A few images from milwaukee’s great pride parade in early June, and check out the June 29 Webinar and Cuba’s days against homophobia and transphobia and on its revolutionary Families code: https://www.facebook.com/events/248170334475286

https://jacobin.com/2023/06/us-cuba-embargo-terror-designation-blockade-hardship

The US Is Punishing Cuba to Send a Message to the Whole World The original goal of the United States blockade against Cuba was to worsen conditions and inspire Cubans to overthrow their government. Regime change hasn’t been forthcoming. Now the US maintains the devastating sanctions as a threat to other nations.

More US activists face harassment from authorities upon return from Cuba Members of the NNOC May Day Brigade were detained and harassed by US Customs and Border Protection

Friendshipment Welcome/Fundraiser Follow-Up Watch video of our Friendshipment Welcome/Fundraiser and/or support the Caravan with your donations

Honoring the Late Harry Belafonte Links to two articles remembering Harry Belafonte

Act NOW -- check below/click through and contact your elected representatives.

URGENT

A new bill would codify Cuba's status as a "sponsor of terror" into law.

As Cuba struggles to import crucial goods due to the US blockade, this bill could make those challenges virtually permanent.

Tell your members of Congress to vote NO.
https://buff.ly/42V6QLE

Comment from Art: I think this article and history is well worth reading. DeSantis has not only championed continuing to keep the US’s Guantánamo prison camp open, but was personally involved in its record of force-feeding prisoners held there held without charges. In contrast, note that Cuba has also been faced with hunger strikers on occasion, and has taken the position that force-feeding is medically unethical — risking and receiving some serious blowback in terms of public relations. The US has taken the opposite stance, as you can read below:
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Ron DeSantis was a 27-year-old Navy lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School when he arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, amid an escalating crisis at the U.S. military base. Hundreds of “enemy combatants,” held without charges, had gone on hunger strikes....

DeSantis’s pivotal service at Guantánamo during a violent year Ron DeSantis was a 27-year-old Navy lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School when he arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, amid an escalating crisis at the U.S. military base. Hundreds of “enemy combatant…

U.S. Docs Star in Cuban Film Fest Over 30 U.S. documentary filmmakers traveled to Santiago de Cuba this week to participate in the 20th annual Santiago Álvarez Documentary Film Festival.Drawi...

It was great to see Judge Mosley at the fantastic event he organized on Sunday night. I have big shoes to fill in Branch 2!

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed over the weekend to lead a worldwide movement to end the 61-year U.S. embargo of Cuba....

Mexican President Vows Global Push to End ‘Inhumane’ US Embargo of Cuba Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed over the weekend to lead a worldwide movement to end the 61-year U.S. embargo of Cuba.

The remarkable story of how a small island nation developed its own COVID-19 vaccines and then helped vaccinate the world

The EXTRAORDINARY Story of How THIS Country Beat BIG PHARMA The remarkable story of how a small island nation developed its own COVID-19 vaccines and then helped vaccinate the world

Scientists in Cuba believe that the breakthroughs they have made in the healthcare and technology sectors should be used to save and improve lives beyond the country’s borders. This is why the island nation has developed important scientific and medical partnerships with organizations and governments across the globe......

The US Blockade of Cuba Hurts Medical Patients in Both Countries Scientists in Cuba believe that the breakthroughs they have made in the healthcare and technology sectors should be used to save and improve lives beyond the country’s borders. This is why the isla…

It's a bit chaotic in the band room of the Guillermo Tomas music school, on the outskirts of Havana, where scores of young players tune up their instruments, ready to learn some new music. Troy Andrews, aka Trombone Shorty, the busy New Orleans musician, is sitting on the front row to take in the performance....

Musicians in New Orleans and Cuba Explore their Shared Heritage and Similar Sounds It’s a bit chaotic in the band room of the Guillermo Tomas music school, on the outskirts of Havana, where scores of young players tune up their instruments, ready to learn some new music. Tr…

Perhaps we can get permission to screen some of these films or have UWM do so?

13th Minnesota Cuban Film Festival May 26-June 30, 2022 | Minnesota Monthly Calendar Since 2010, the Minnesota Cuba Film Festival (MCFF) has brought to the Land of 10,000 Lakes some of the best Cuban films. This year’s festival will take place at MSP Film at the Main Theatre, 15 SE Main St, Minneapolis on six consecutive Thursdays, May 26-June 30. The MCFF features films that addr...

📢 📺 In case you missed Thursday's episode of Adelante on Milwaukee PBS, you can catch it again on Sunday evening at 5 pm on channel 36, **OR** watch at the link below! Milwaukee's own Dr. Olive Albanese is the featured story -- she is one of two Wisconsin women who graduated last year from Cuba's international medical school. The school offers free education to committed students from the U.S. and around the world who promise to return to their home country and work as doctors (debt free) in an under-served setting.

Adelante | Adelante #2307 Cuban Model of Medicine/World Water Day | Season 23 | Episode 7 Global Partners: Running Waters, celebrates World Water Day.

👇We will be dropping in to this virtual meeting TOMORROW (Tuesday) evening -- hope YOU'LL be there, too! 👇

(also, give IFCO/Pastors for Peace a follow to see their posts in your own feed)

Join us on the 24th at 7pm ET! Register Now: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpduygqDgvHd3qzKMua3poeaj7YIWGqOHY

📣 Some Welcome and positive moves from the Biden Administration!
After some 16 months of studying Trump's severe tightening of the longstanding US economic blockade of Cuba, contributing to serious food & medicine shortages and a sharp increase in Cubans attempting to enter the US without a visa, policy steps include increasing consular services and visa processing, and limited broadening of travel opportunities to Cuba.

Biden reverses some Trump policies related to Cuba, making it easier for families to visit relatives in country | CNN Politics The State Department on Monday announced a series of measures it said is aimed at supporting the Cuban people, including reinstating the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program and increasing consular services and visa processing.

He -- as do we -- welcome the fact that Biden has now begun to fulfill his campaign promise to resume the Obama approach to Cuba, but much more can & must be done. 60 years of an official (but long kept secret) US policy "to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government" in Cuba were heightened under Trump and continued by Biden, causing severe shortages of food, medicine and energy, by design, and leading to tens of thousands of Cubans seeking entry into the US -- a threat to Biden caused by his own policies.

Mexican president: U.S. embargo against Cuba is ‘genocidal policy’ President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the U.S. “looked bad” and urged an end to the policy.