From Prensa Latina, January 31, 2022
Washington, Jan 31 (Prensa Latina) One of the largest university professors’ unions in the United States on Monday asked President Joe Biden to lift the “devastating financial and commercial blockade” imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years.
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) of the City University of New York (CUNY), affiliated to the American Federation of Teachers, passed a resolution urging Biden to lift the coercive measures against Cuba, which were tightened during the Donald Trump administration(2017-2021).
Labor Today has published the text of the Resolution in their Newsletter, posted below:
In the text, sent to Prensa Latina, the organization described those policies as “inhumane and unjust,” and urged the Democratic leader and Congress to eliminate travel restrictions to residents in the United States and US citizens to Cuba.
The PSC said that Washington’s unilateral blockade has severely restricted collaboration in scientific and medical research that interferes with the potential to save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In this regard, it pointed out that despite the blockade, Cuba could develop its own vaccines to immunize its population against the disease.
The City University of New York, an institution with the most diverse student body in the United States, has educational exchange and solidarity programs with Cuba, it noted.
Therefore, the travel and exchange restrictions harm both US and Cuban students and professors, the resolution noted.
The document praised Cuba’s solidarity with the people of the United States, particularly in providing low-income Afro-American students with the the opportunity of receiving medical training.
The PSC highlighted “the long history of international medical assistance to the peoples of the world” by the Henry Reeve Contingent, whose work has been decisive to fight Covid-19, and before that to deal with Ebola in Africa and many epidemics in the rest of the world.