U.S. WOMEN AND CUBA COLLABORATION

From the beginning, Collaboration goals have been to effect changes in US policy toward Cuba, to pursue the work of normalizing relations with the people of Cuba, and especially to learn from the example of Cuban women and the Cuban Revolution about women's rights and racial and economic justice as a model to build a more progressive, anti-racist women's movement in the US. Since September 11, 2001, the Collaboration has also analyzed and redefined ideas of national security to call for real security based on just and peaceful relations, written fact sheets on the Right to Travel and on Reproductive Rights, edited a special Resist Fund newsletter on US-Cuba policy, contributed to the EveryWoman's Movement tabloids, appeared in Sojourner magazine, and spoken at numerous community, college, university and national and international conferences.

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The Collaboration founders, with like-minded others, begin an ongoing series of women's conversations and roundtables on Cuba to generate ideas, participation and endorsements for the Collaboration, and in May, 2002, the group held a National Women's Leadership Summit on Cuba in San Marcos, Texas, at the Stonehaven Retreat. Nearly forty women attended, including four from Cuba, representing nearly twenty organizations and networks. They struggled around issues of anti-racism, leadership and direction, but they deepened relationships, participation, and their commitment to the shared goals of collaborative work.

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As the Collaboration has developed, it has always worked closely with Cuban women. The Collaboration has strong ties with the FMC (the Federation of Cuban Women), Cuban women diplomats in the US and Cuba, the Cuba Interests Section in Washington, DC, Women's Studies programs at the University of Havana, the Casa de las Americas in Havana, as well as community development projects and Sister Cities throughout Cuba. They regularly sponsor Cuban women on US speaking tours so they can speak for themselves, and hold empty chairs at events when the US government has denied Cuban visitors their visas for travel to the US. They have held Cuba Film Festivals in Seattle which brought together a variety of solidarity activists, current and future travelers to Cuba, and the merely curious, for great cinema and discussion on how to change policy toward Cuba.

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In 2004 the Collaboration held a Leadership Retreat in Seattle for about forty women who came from across the country representing leadership in several areas of Cuba work, including education and media, advocacy and organizing, Sister City outreach and the campaign to Free the Five. Activities since then have included local, national and international work through networking, outreach, education, legislative advocacy, media, organizing national delegations, participation in International Women's Conferences in Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba, and strategic planning retreats.

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The broadly representative National Advisory Committee includes activists, artists, educators, media makers, organizers, and writers, and the Collaboration works with a wide range of national and international organizations to realize goals. In addition to the three founding organizations, groups the Collaboration currently works with, or has worked with in the course of its history, include:

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• 911 Media Arts Center

• 1199 SEIU Labor Union

• Association for Women's Rights and Development (AWID)

• Bolivarian Republic of VZ

• Center for Cuban Studies

• Center for Women and Democracy at the University of Washington

• Center for Women's Global Leadership

• Channel Foundation

• CODEPINK: Women for Peace

• Community Alliance for Global Justice

• Christopher R. Reynolds Foundation

• Community to Community

• Cuban American Alliance Education Fund

• Cuban Interests Section

• Democracy Now!

• Equality Now

• Feminist Peace Network

• Federation of Cuban Women

• Food First

• GIRE, Grupo de Informacion en reproduccion Elegida

• Gender Justice Working Group of the US and World Social Forums

• Global Exchange

• Global Fund for Women

• ICAP, Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos

• IFCO/Pastors for Peace

• INAMUJER and Venezuela Ministry of Women's Affairs

• Incite: The Color of Violence Against Women

• Institute for Survival and Beyond

• Institute for Women Policy Studies

• International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five

• International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

• International Women's Day

• International Women's Tribune Centre

• Kensington Welfare Rights Union

• Latin American Working Group (LAWG)

• LELO—Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing

• Lesbian Resource Center

• MADRE

• Media Consortium (Live from Main Street)

• MEDICC: Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba

• Mexico Solidarity Network

• Montana Business & Professional Women

• Montana Women Vote

• National Coalition of Immigrant Women's Rights

• National Committee to Free the Five

• National Network On Cuba

• NAPAWF—National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

• National Organization for Women

• National Women's Health Network

• National Women's Studies Association

• NW Women of Color and Allies Summit

• NW Social Forum

• Reclaim the Media

• Resist Fund

• Seattle University Women Studies and Center for Global Justice

• Service Employees International Union - Local 6

• Semillas: Mexican Women's Rights Fund

• Sister Fund

• Sisters in Action for Power

• SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective

• UNIFEM

• US Cuba Sister Cities Association

• Venceremos Brigade

• Venezuela Information Service

• Wallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice's Meaningful Movies

• WOLA: Washington Office on Latin America

• WILPF United Nations Office

• Women of Color Resource Center

• Women of Color United

• Women's Centers and Women's Studies Programs at many US Colleges and Universities

• Women's Funding Network

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