 Support LAWGEF's Cuba Advocacy Efforts
Welcome to the Cuba Fund Campaign 2012 Headquarters!
This is not your typical Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) fundraising campaign. This is a seven month long campaign-- May 2012-December 2012. We know, we're trying to pace ourselves. There will be many opportunities to join our stellar honorary co-chairs and campaign committee and contribute to LAWGEF over the course of these seven months. So if you can give today, a big thanks. If you can give tomorrow, muchisimas gracias!! If you can give in our final push in December too, even better!!
The work that LAWGEF has done thus far in regards to changing our Cuba policy has proven to be even more important within our current political climate. Check out some of our achievements here. Since President Obama made changes to the travel regulations in January 2011, we've seen a huge wave of U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. As a result we've also been witness to the amazing stories and experiences that many have had on their travels. However, there are attempts coming from many angles in Congress that aim to roll back the progress we've made. We cannot let that happen. In addition, many of our traditional funders have limited or stopped funding Cuba advocacy because they think the job has been completed, yet this is not the case.
For the first time in decades, the political environment in both Washington and Havana is such that a sea-change in U.S.-Cuba relations is not only possible, but inevitable. Your contribution to the Cuba program of the Latin America Working Group Education Fund will assist us in taking advantage of these exciting developments and to ensure we don't return to the counter-productive policies of previous years.
Helpful Links:
Build the momentum and contribute today!
Who else has pledged support to LAWGEF's Cuba Fund Campaign 2012?
"I strongly endorse LAWG and its effort to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba. America is one of only two nations that has not recognized that the misguided policy has failed to produce any positive solutions. I encourage everyone to support LAWG in changing this failed concept."
Harry Belafonte is known worldwide for his achievements as a singer, actor, and producer, and for his commitment to human rights. Beginning with the American civil rights movement in the 1950’s, he has established a distinguished record of human rights advocacy, including serving as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience. An advocate for humanitarian causes throughout his career, Mr. Belafonte is a vocal critic of public policies that oppress and marginalize disenfranchised groups.
(Excerpted from http://www.unicef.org/people/people_harry_belafonte.html)
"With a history of success in working to change policy, LAWG is poised to play an important role in initiating a new era in U.S.-Cuba relations.”
James Early serves as a member of the Board of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, a community of public scholars and organizers linking
peace, justice, and the environment in the United States and globally. As a long-time advocate for cultural diversity and equity in the nation’s public cultural and educational institutions, he also serves as director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution. He specializes in cultural democracy policy and state-craft and works with Cuban cultural institutions, artists and intellectuals on grassroots cultural heritage. (Excerpted from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/china/JamesE.html )
“LAWG has been on the front lines of efforts to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba and to extend to all U.S. citizens our right to travel to our island neighbor.”
Actor, producer and humanitarian, Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 25 years. As an actor, his film credits range from the blockbuster The Color Purple to smaller independent features, some of which Mr. Glover also produced. Mr. Glover has also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa. He currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador, focusing on issues of poverty, disease, and economic development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
(Excerpted from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000418/bio)
“LAWG is a leader in the movement to end the travel ban and embargo on Cuba. I happily endorse their work and urge you to support LAWG generously. We need a just policy toward Cuba now!”
For more than 50 years, activist Dolores Huerta has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of marginalized communities. She is internationally recognized as a feminist, farm worker advocate, gay rights activist and labor leader. Along with Cesar Chavez, she co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). As a champion whose work transcends issue-specific movements, Dolores launched a “Weaving Movements” campaign at her 80th birthday celebration on August 13, 2010, calling on leaders of the progressive agenda to unite under one banner and work cooperatively towards the common goal of social justice. In May 2012, Ms. Huerta was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Obama. (Excerpted from http://www.doloreshuerta.org/)
 "In over my 15 years of advocacy work on behalf of a more realistic U.S. policy towards Cuba and on behalf of the freedom to travel to Cuba for all Americans, I have not had a more reliable, constant and caring partner than the folks at the Latin America Working Group. As a Cuban American residing in south Florida, my work has concentrated on speaking out on behalf of hundreds if not thousands who are deeply affected by harsh policies that continue to separate families and deny U.S. citizens’ basic rights. The LAWG has been a crucial partner in this outreach."
A native of Havana, Cuba, Silvia Wilhelm came to the United States as an unaccompanied child in January 1961 through the Operacion Pedro Pan. After returning to Cuba for the first time in thirty-three years later, Ms. Wilhelm became an active advocate for changing U.S. policy towards Cuba. Ms. Wilhelm is the founder and executive director of Puentes Cubanos, an NGO licensed to conduct educational, professional and cultural exchanges between the people of Cuba and the United States. She also serves as president of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights.
(Excerpted from http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Silvia_Wilhelm)
Achievements of the Cuba Program of LAWG/LAWGEF:
- Successfully helped pressure the White House to take executive action to expand travel to Cuba in 2011;
- Helped win passage of legislation allowing U.S. farmers to sell food and agriculture products to Cuba for cash;
- Co-sponsored people-to-people trips to Cuba to educate U.S. citizens and build momentum to end the travel ban;
- Mobilized supporters through social media such as Facebook [30,000+ "likes" on LAWG's "End the Travel Ban on Cuba" page], Change.org [an additional 30,000 new advocates], and Twitter;
- Compiled and published online resources on "How-to Travel to Cuba" to facilitate U.S. citizen travel to Cuba;
- Contributed to President's decision to end restrictions on family travel by bringing Cuban-American delegations to Washington, touring photo exhibit and publication;
- Mounted a campaign in late 2011 to convince the White House to successfully defeat efforts in the U.S. Congress to roll back Cuban-American family travel to the more punitive Bush-era regulations;
- Strengthened alliances with Cuban-American, cultural, religious, academic, business, and agricultural communities to press for changes in U.S. policy.
Read more »
On July 21st 2011, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed an amendment proposed by Rep. David Rivera (R-FL 25th) to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act FY 2012 (HR 2583). This amendment mirrors and extends language proposed by Mr. Diaz-Balart. Mr. Rivera’s amendment would repeal ALL changes made by President Obama since his inauguration, restricting travel for families AND for educational, religious, and people-to-people trips.
Look below to see if your representative sits on the HCFA and how he/she voted. Then click here to either "thank" or "scold" your representative for his/her action!
Voted FOR Rivera Amendment
• Ackerman, Gary L, D-NY-5
• Bilirakis, Gus, R-FL-9
• Buerkle, Ann Marie, R-NY-25
• Burton, Dan, R-IN-5
• Cardoza, Dennis, D-CA-18
• Carnahan, Russ, D-MO-3
• Chabot, Steve, R-OH-1
• Chandler, Ben, D-KY-6
• Cicilline, David, D-RI-1
• Connolly, Gerald E, D-VA-11
• Deutch, Theodore E, D-FL-19
• Duncan, Jeff, R-SC-3
• Ellmers, Renee, R-NC-2
• Engel, Eliot L, D-NY-17
• Faleomavaega, Eni F.H, D-AS-At-large
• Fortenberry, Jeff, R-NE-1
• Gallegly, Elton, R-CA-24
• Griffin, Tim, R-AR-2
• Higgins, Brian, D-NY-27
• Johnson, Bill, R-OH-6
• Keating, William, D-MA-10
• Kelly, Mike, R-PA-3
• Mack, Connie, R-FL-14
• Manzullo, Donald A, R-IL-16
• Marino, Tom, R-PA-10
• McCaul, Michael, R-TX-10
• Poe, Ted, R-TX-2
• Rivera, David, R-FL-25
• Rohrabacher, Dana, R-CA-46
• Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana, R-FL-18
• Royce, Edward, R-CA-40
• Schmidt, Jean, R-OH-2
• Sires, Albio, D-NJ-13
• Smith, Christopher H, R-NJ-4
• Wilson, Joe, R-SC-2
• Wilson, Frederica, D-FL-17
Voted AGAINST Rivera Amendment
• Bass, Karen, D-CA-33
• Berman, Howard L, D-CA-28
• Meeks, Gregory W, D-NY-6
• Murphy, Christopher S, D-CT-5
• Payne, Donald M, D-NJ-10
• Schwartz, Allyson Y, D-PA-13
PASSED/NOT VOTING
• Sherman, Brad, D-CA-27
NOT PRESENT
• Paul, Ron, R-TX-14
• Pence, Mike, R-IN-6
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They say "a journey begins with one step." Well, we feel like the President's decision to ease travel-to-Cuba regulations on January 14 marks the start of our 2011-and-beyond journey to end the travel ban. Does it seem like we've been here before?!
We've built-up a lot of momentum in the past few years-and tremendous support from advocates like you and from members of Congress. While we didn't get the full results that you or we wanted, we together did manage to elevate the Cuba issue to center stage, both in Congress and in the media. To review: In 2009, President Obama opened travel for Cuban Americans, and we applauded but pushed for more. In 2010, we pushed hard to pass bills in the House and Senate which would have ended the travel ban for ALL U.S. citizens; the calendar and scant political will stymied our efforts. In 2011, President Obama has opened travel for religious groups, academics and student groups earning college credit ("general licenses"; no permission prior to travel needed), and others (licensed people-to-people travel). Again, we applaud him, but we want more. We need more. We even deserve more. Don't you agree?
Help us produce more by donating to our work now, and please read on.
With Cuba making significant changes in their economy and society that open new opportunities for Cubans, it is important that our government recognize Cuba's openness to change. Today's Cuba is evolving in a way that is "Cuban-determined"; today's Cuba is different from yesterday's, and tomorrow's Cuba may be even more exciting and forward-looking than today's. Our elected officials need to know that they can ditch their "cold war lenses," especially when it comes to Cuba. To make that message heard loud and clear, we need your support. We need to regroup, renew, recommit, and develop a new strategy that circumvents a Congress that is less than friendly to our position on Cuba. We have already taken some significant steps toward creating a new approach designed for a new reality. With your enthusiastic help (about 16,000 of you!), we petitioned President Obama through Change.org to use his executive authority to broaden the regulations for licensed travel. Your participation was part of a broad and effective strategy to "get to" the President, and it worked! So, let's use that momentum, those new tools, that energy to our advantage. Let's use this current moment to get back to basics, building a bigger, broader, and even more effective network that can push the administration today, let the new and Tea Party-ish (read: libertarian) Congress know that we have not gone away, and be ready to again mobilize around the opportunity of the 2012 elections to emphasize our position on Cuba. What do you think? Are you willing to pitch-in?
Please pitch-in by supporting our work and by continuing to commit your energies to change this damaging policy.
We need to encourage more travel to Cuba at every opportunity by all kinds of new constituencies, find ways to make visits there ourselves (we'll have a new and innovative idea to share with you in a future e-update), and educate new activists/advocates of ending the travel ban. We need to produce materials that advise our supporters just HOW to travel to Cuba under the new regulations; we are in the process of doing just that. We need to reach out to new groups that can help us continue raising Cuba as an issue in both domestic and foreign policy. After all, that's what activism is all about, right?!
Please donate here so that we can continue building momentum, working for change, demonstrating our support for a fair and just policy to Cuba that is based on mutual respect between sovereign neighbors.
For those of you who'd like some details about how your donation will be used-our goal is to raise $5,000 in the next two weeks to help us carry out these projects that will get us to more:
• $50 will print new brochures explaining the new Obama travel regulations and walking new travelers through the process of people-to-people licensing-so more U.S. citizens will travel to Cuba;
• $100 will contribute toward organizing our action to demand more travel that will take place simultaneously in Cuba and around the United States (plans just developing; stay tuned);
• $250 will enable Facebook ads and Change.org petitions to add more energized activists to our on-line Cuba network;
• $1,000 will make your friends on the LAWG Cuba team more ecstatic than you can imagine!
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or call us at (202) 546-7010.
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