Tuesday, 24 September, 2024. Trade unions have raised £100,000 for the Cuba Vive anti-blockade medical aid appeal, Labour conference delegates heard on Monday night.
At a packed meeting organised by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign held at Liverpool's iconic Bar House, those present cheered the announcement by UK Prison Union general secretary Steve Gillan that his union was pledging a further £10,000. Cuban ambassador Ismara Vargas Walter thanked the British trade unionists for their solidarity with the socialist island and said that every delivery of medical equipment, however small, made a difference to Cubans who have been denied essential medicines by the illegal 62-year US blockade. Speakers, including MPs Richard Burgon, Bell Ribeiro Addy and Kim Johnson, called on the government to press Washington to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that was applied to the country in the final days of Donald Trump's administration and which Joe Biden has not removed despite international outcry over its injustice.