National Network on Cuba – 2023 Annual Meeting “Victory in Unity”

JOIN THE NATIONAL NETWORK ON CUBA, KEY CUBA-SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATIONS & LABOR ACTIVISTS as we explore collaborative ways to support the future of the Cuba solidarity movement. We are inviting member organizations, students and youth activists, workers, and all friends of Cuba to join us in Boston, especially from cities close by. We want your voice included! Will you join us on October 13-15th in Boston? Register now!

This year’s annual fall meeting/conference of the NNOC, nnoc.org, set for October 13-15 at UMass/Boston, is being hosted by the University’s Africana Studies Department. In accepting the invitation to host, the Department’s Tony Van Der Meer, a long time Cuban activist who had helped celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in 2009 with July29.org, began: “This is a wonderful idea. It fits in with the MOU between the University of Guantanamo and the Africana Studies Department at UMass that is being reviewed by the administration.” A report back on the class trip to Cuba the Department had just completed is featured in these pages. Based upon the Boston Pan-African Forum’s previous webinar on “The PanAfricanism Crisis in Haiti and Cuba,” the Department worked with the BPAF to schedule a special program on Cuba that is being held Friday afternoon on campus, just before the NNOC gathering that usually begins in the evening.

There is extensive support for US-Cuba normalization efforts on the UMB campus. Local organizers make special note of the work of the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy and a history that harkens back to the First National Organizing Conference to End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba held 42 years ago. We look forward to helping build on this promising beginning.

To that end July26.org is developing three local and regional collaborative pre-NNOC meeting events: (1) a Lawrence Labor Day Heritage Festival program on Monday 9/4, (2) a Boston Harbor “Sunset Cruise for Cuba” out of UMass/Boston on Wednesday 9/20, open to cosponsorship by other organizations and (3) a special program at the Coolidge Corner Library that will follow the regular monthly eastern Massachusetts Stand-Out set in September for Coolidge Corner, Brookline on 9/24. Additional details about these programs are at  july26.org/2023/08/13/september-pre-nnoc-meeting-events/.