Paul Davidson, London

Mobile Alabama. Oct 8-9th.

The city of Mobile, Alabama was the setting for the conference of the recently formed US-Cuba Sister City Association (USCSCA) this weekend.

Over 80 participants from 20 US cities shared their experiences and expectations in this exciting venture which is charting a new course for the development of people-to-people relationships. Demonstrating the breadth of interest, conference participants included city-planners, municipal leaders, Cuban-American and African-American leaders, students, business-people, and representatives from organisations including the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, National Network on Cuba, IFCO/Pastors for Peace, the Caribbean American Children's Foundation, The Friendship Force, the Cuban-American Alliance, Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba, Student Exchange between Cuba and America Inc., the Academy of Experts, the Thanksgiving Coffee Company and the United Council of Churches.

Ambassador Fernando Ramirez, head of the Cuban Interests Section (Cuban Embassy) in Washington DC headed the three-person Cuban team, which reported to the gathering that whereas Cuba already has one- hundred sister-cities with 31 nations (including 74 with Spain, France and Italy), for the US, in the context of the continuing blockade and the unconstitutional criminalisation of travel, this effort by ordinary citizens nationwide was an extraordinary act of solidarity with the Cuban people.

Presently the US has four sister-cities officially set up with Cuba, organised through the Cuban National Assembly. Twelve more are in process and interest has been shown by many more US cities.. The conference aimed to consolidate these initiatives within a national framework and to provide a structure to enable and enhance the value of future projects within what is now a rapidly expanding movement.

Sister-Cites in the US have presently set up many varied projects including university, school and hospital twinning, student, academic and cultural exchanges, business trade-fairs, humanitarian aid, faith, municipal and other delegations. The Pittsburgh-Matanzas project has also helped send 700 students and staff to Cuba with the Semester-at-Sea programme and is preparing a dedicated, sculptured 'friendship' facade for a Matanzas bridge as part of the plan to twin bridges in both cities.

High-school students in Madison created a prize-winning 500 page Cuba website and have initiated a programme to construct a joint-site with their Cuban counterparts,

The strong feeling of the conference was that this enterprise should be organised on a national basis so that individual city-initiatives should not fall into the 'Track Two' trap, set by the Toricelli Act, whereby the term 'people-to-people' becomes in reality another means to undermine the Cuban Revolution. A vigorous debate took place regarding applying for US government licences to travel to Cuba, US state regulation being the antithesis of what USCSCA is trying to achieve. Several delegates recounted the problems and obstacles officialdom put in their way when attempts have been made to conform to the regulations, confirming the political price one pays to operate within unconstitutional laws, which attempt to turn the 'right' to travel into a 'privilege' for the few.

Situating the US blockade and travel restrictions and the need to confront them, firmly within the boundaries of the debate USCSCA president Lisa Valanti stressed not only the need to end the blockade, but also the need to begin to transcend it today, to begin to lay the long-term basis of relationships of partnership and equality which would be vital to Cuba, even after the blockade ended. In this she said, "Victory is our only option."

At the recent European Solidarity Meeting in London, the idea of developing sister cities as a way of creating closer in-depth relations with Cuba was endorced as part of the expanding campaign strategies. Sergio Corrieri, president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (I.C.A.P.) prioritised the need for developing influence within the centres of power in our societies, in each sector - business, political, trade-union and cultural - and at every level - regional, national and local - in order to end the blockade. It would seem clear that the sister-city idea is an excellent model through which to achieve that end, at the city level.

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article distributed by USA/Cuba InfoMed