5-23-05, 10:54am
The Bush administration doesn’t believe that people in the US should have the right to travel where they want. It believes that the US government has the authority to restrict freedom of movement and to enforce laws selectively to punish people who do not agree with the administration’s foreign policy towards certain countries. It demonstrated this belief in April by ordering the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to issue a letter (dated March 30, 2005) to the US/Cuba Labor Exchange threatening that organization with fines and imprisonment if it failed to “cease and desist” its sponsorship of a trade union delegation to attend the International Conference to Confront Neoliberal Globalization – FTAA in Havana, Cuba.
The conference was critical of “free trade” agreements and especially condemned the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement that is strongly endorsed by the Bush administration.
The threat was based on the refusal by the Bush administration to issue a “license” to the Detroit, Michigan-based US/Cuba Labor Exchange to travel to Cuba. Various laws, including the “Trading with the Enemy Act” and the “Cuban Assets Control Regulation” – both of which limit the right of citizens to travel to, engage in business with, and bring their property to countries the Bush administration happens to dislike. Specifically, these laws govern the Treasury Department’s authority over travel to Cuba and, until April, were only rarely enforced.
The delegation traveled to Cuba on April 25 and returned April 30, 2005.
The US/Cuba Labor Exchange is a group of US trade unionists who believe in the right to travel where they choose, but more specifically in fostering exchange, discussion and friendly relationships with trade unionists in Cuba. Its members are also members of such unions as the Teamsters, UNITE, AFSCME, UAW, SEIU, and others.
The international conference they sought to attend was widely attended by labor and social activists from countries all over the world. The focus of the conference was on the concern that free trade agreements such as the FTAA will foster a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions for workers in both South America and the US. Opponents of FTAA point to the failure of other “free” trade agreements like NAFTA to create jobs. Trade unionists from across the hemisphere see “free trade” agreements as creating an environment where corporations are able to easily move jobs and operations overseas without having to guarantee the right of workers. Since NAFTA was enacted in the mid-1990s, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US were lost due to outsourcing. Meanwhile, no real net gain in jobs occurred in Mexico, a participant in NAFTA, as a result. Larger companies from the US that have moved operations to Mexico and other countries forced the closure of existing companies there.
The US/Cuba Labor Exchange points out the inherent hypocrisy in the Bush administration’s policy on travel to Cuba. While threatening trade unionists with fines and imprisonment for attempting to exercise their freedom of movement, the administration has fostered an environment in which US companies freely move jobs, technology and investment overseas without a second thought.
Additionally, the administration has attacked other countries for perceived restrictions imposed on their citizens’ right to free movement. For example, in its annual human rights report published by the US State Department, the Bush administration criticized North Korea for restricting the right of its citizens to travel to other countries by requiring them to obtain a travel license.
Even further, the US/Cuba Labor Exchange has helped organize numerous conferences that had to be held in Canada or Mexico because invited Cuban delegates were denied entry into the US. Neither Canada nor Mexico refuses travel visas to Cuban visitors, nor do they prevent their citizens from traveling to Cuba.
In a statement the US/Cuba Labor Exchange said:
The US/Cuba Labor Exchange continues to encourage international discussion, exchange and solidarity between workers in Cuba and the United States. We will continue to see for ourselves the realities faced by workers in other countries, to publish our findings and demand that the US government grant entry to Cuban union leaders whose visa applications are routinely denied.
The US/Cuba Labor Exchange joins with a growing non-partisan effort to end the ban on travel to and trade with Cuba and calls on supporters and others who are sympathetic to the right of free movement to write to their congressional representatives urging their support for an end to the ban. Send messages of support to
