All posts by Casa de las Americas

Casa de las Américas (Casa) is a New York-based organization of Cuban emigrants who support the revolution. Beginning in 1955, the July 26 Committee was established in NY for the purpose of supporting the armed struggle that was taking place in Cuba against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Shortly after the triumph of the revolution in 1959, the Committee was renamed Casa Cuba, which later became Casa de las Américas.

WHy there are no george floyds in cuba


Why there are no George Floyds in Cuba – July 7, 2020

Webinar: Tuesday, July 7, 8:00 PM (Eastern), 5:00 PM (Pacific)

(This Program will go for 2 hours with Q&A)

Register Here

Nesbit Crutchfield

Call meeting to order, welcome, the introduction of co-chairs:

Nesbit Crutchfield — Involved in Progressive Solidarity activities and movements for over 52+ years. Starting with his involvement and imprisonment with the BSU/TWLF Strike @ San Francisco State University in 1968, to his activism with the Anri-Apartheid Movement in support of the ANC in the establishment of a Democratic South Africa.
A long term veteran and activist in Puerto Rican, Haitian, and Cuban Solidarity work, and is now active in the Bay Area and National Venceremos Brigade.

Co-Chairs

Jamilah Bourdon

Jamilah Bourdon—Organizer, All-African Revolutionary Party; Jamilah has been studying and organizing around anticapitalism for over half her life; She has participated in community defense organizing, anti-foreclosure security, free breakfast programs, and liberation schools. Forward ever!

Kennedee Geffinger

Kennedee Geffinger — Universal Zulu Nation Hip Hop for Humanity Committee; Children’s Programs Director, JCC Harlem; Founder, Keys to Ubuntu

Panelists

August Nimtz

August Nimtz – Author: “Why There Are No George Floyds in Cuba.”  
Co-coordinator of the Minnesota Cuba Committee; Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota; Co-Author (with Esteban Morales), The Dynamics of Racial Discrimination in Cuba, Past and Present; Author, Marxism vs Liberalism: Comparative Real-Time Political  Analysis.

Yanet Pumariega Pérez

Yanet Pumariega Pérez  – Third Secretary, Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C.

Rodney A. Gonzalez Maestrey

Rodney A. Gonzalez Maestrey – Counselor to the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC (October 2018). Master Degree, International Relations (2011). Major in Economics, University of Havana, (2005).

Soffiyah Elijah, Esq

Soffiyah Elijah, Esq – Long Time Activist, Organizer, and Friend of Cuba

Michael Washington

Michael Washington —  Longtime Oklahoma-based Black Liberation freedom fighter and supporter of Second Amendment rights for African Americans in the tradition of Robert F. Williams and Malcolm X; Organizing project documenting African Americans killed by US police authorities to present a petition to International World Court; Certified Paralegal; Founder, Empower People Inc.; Leading organizer and participant of peaceful, legal mass actions, self-policed by Black and white-armed veterans, Oklahoma City on Juneteenth and in counter-protest to Trump’s Tulsa appearance.

Ahjamu Umi

Ahjamu Umi —  Organizer, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party for 36 years; Ahjamu does a weekly webinar series on subjects from formulating revolutionary parties and alternatives to the policing system; He has engaged in community defense for many years, standing in the face of armed white supremacists; Ahjamu has contributed to formulating liberation schools for youth in Oregon and California and around the clock anti-foreclosure house security and shutdowns. His writings can be seen at www.abetterworld.me

Gabriel Prawl

Gabriel Prawl —  President, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 152. Leading organizer of an unprecedented strike of ILWU members up and down the West Coast in solidarity with Black Lives Matter against police murder and brutality.

César Omar Sánchez

César Omar Sánchez — Organizer, New York/New Jersey Cuba Sí Coalition, Advisory Board Member of ProLibertad: Free All Political Prisoners Campaign.

Cuba Solidarity in Solidarity with
Black Lives Matter Movement

Chelliah Phillips —  An activist and organizer for POC Bergenfield Alumni and 4Change Bergen County. Also a leader and creator of a nonprofit organization 4Change Scholarship. Passionate about fighting social injustices and Human rights issues.

Vanessa Amoah —  Ghanaian-American 24-year-old Graduate Student fighting against racial injustice and part of POC Bergenfield Alumni and 4Change Bergen County organizations.

Pacey Hackett  —  LA activist and organizer at massive Black Lives Matter protests. Member, Bay Area Amazonians working to organize and unionize California warehouse workers. Active in LA US Hands Off Cuba Committee.

Mark Ginsburg —  Professor, University of Maryland. Mark has taught recently at the University of Havana in Cuba. Longtime activist with DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity With the Cuban Revolution. Participated in mass Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, DC.

PAYING HUMANITY’S DEBT: Cuba, AFRICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN

A US-CUBA NORMALIZATION TEACH IN WEBINAR

TUESDAY, MAY 19

8:00 PM (Eastern), 5:00 PM (Pacific)

Co-Chairs:
August Nimtz

August Nimtz — Co-coordinator of the Minnesota Cuba Committee; Professor of Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota; Co-Author (with Esteban Morales), The Dynamics of Racial Discrimination in Cuba, Past and Present; Author, Marxism vs Liberalism: Comparative Real-Time Political  Analysis.

Kennedee Geffinger

Kennedee Geffinger — Universal Zulu Nation Hip Hop for Humanity Committee; Children’s Programs Director, JCC Harlem; Founder, Keys to Ubuntu


Guest Speakers:

Ana Silvia RodriguezAna Silvia Rodriguez — Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations


Julia Imene-ChanduruJulia Imene-Chanduru — Deputy Permanent Representative of Namibia to the United Nations (FOCUS)


Fernando Gonzalez Llort

Fernando Gonzalez Llort — President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP); Cuban internationalist fighter in Angola 1987-1989; Cuban Five hero


Chris “Che” Matlhako

Chris “Che” Matlhako — Second Deputy General Secretary of the South African Communist Party; leading member of Friends of Cuba in South Africa (FOCUS)


Dr. Rosemari Mealy

Dr. Rosemari Mealy — Educator and long-standing activist for peace, social, and economic justice. Dr. Mealy’s work has involved years of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, including living and working in Cuba; Awarded “Friendship Medal” by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba; Author, Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of A Meeting; Rosemari is a member of the Board of Directors of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, the New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition; and National Conference of Black Lawyers.


Mwalimu KeitaMwalimu Keita —  Organizer, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC).


Don Rojas

Don Rojas — Press Secretary for the martyred Prime Minister of Grenada Maurice Bishop (1981-1983); Executive Political Editor, The Real News Network; Director of Communications and International Relations, Institute of the Black World; Founder of the award-winning The Black World Today


Dr. Isaac Saney

Dr. Isaac Saney — Co-Chair, Canadian Network on Cuba; Professor, Dalhousie University; author of the forthcoming book, Africa’s Children Return! Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End. 


Frantz Voltaire

Frantz Voltaire — Haitian scholar and activist living in Montreal, Québec; Author, Black Power in Haiti and A Brief History of Blacks in Canada; Founder and Chairperson of Le Center International de Documentation et d’Information Haitienne, Caribéenne, et Afro-Canadienne (CIDICHCA).


Obi Egbuna Jr

Obi Egbuna Jr — “Stay Out of Cuba’s Way Campaign”; Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association; Author, Cuba’s Greatest Army: A Tribute To The Cuban Doctors (Children’s Play)


Presentation followed by Q&A

In Solidarity, Organizing Committee, International Conference for the Normalization of US-Cuba Relations