Think Tanks
Here's a look at documents from think tanks
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Center for American Progress: Virginia Joins Growing National Movement for Paid Family and Medical Leave
WASHINGTON, April 23 -- The Center for American Progress issued the following statemenet on April 22, 2026:* * *
Virginia Joins Growing National Movement for Paid Family and Medical Leave
Virginia has just guaranteed nearly all workers in the commonwealth access to paid family and medical leave, marking a major step forward for economic security and workplace protections. In response, Molly Weston Williamson, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
Virginians fought for a more affordable future for their families, and now guaranteed paid leave is ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 23 -- The Center for American Progress issued the following statemenet on April 22, 2026: * * * Virginia Joins Growing National Movement for Paid Family and Medical Leave Virginia has just guaranteed nearly all workers in the commonwealth access to paid family and medical leave, marking a major step forward for economic security and workplace protections. In response, Molly Weston Williamson, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement: Virginians fought for a more affordable future for their families, and now guaranteed paid leave isthe law. State by state, paid leave is becoming the standard, and others will follow Virginia's lead.
Workers should not have to sacrifice their financial stability in order to recover from illness, welcome a new child, or care for a family member in need. Paid family and medical leave is a core component of a modern economy that supports workers, families, and businesses alike. With this step, Virginia joins a growing number of states that recognize paid leave strengthens economic security, improves public health, and helps ensure that workers can remain active participants in the labor force throughout life's major moments.
To learn more about Virginia's law, read: "Fast Facts About Paid Leave in Virginia" (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fast-facts-about-paid-leave-in-virginia/) by Molly Weston Williams
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Christian Unkenholz at cunkenholz@americanprogress.org.
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Original text here: https://www.americanprogress.org/press/statement-virginia-joins-growing-national-movement-for-paid-family-and-medical-leave/
[Category: ThinkTank]
America First Policy Institute: States Have New Weapon to Combat Fraud in Safety Net Programs
WASHINGTON, April 23 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on April 21, 2026:* * *
States Have New Weapon to Combat Fraud in Safety Net Programs
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is combatting waste, fraud, and abuse across public assistance programs through a new public toolkit geared toward state legislators.
In recent months, fraud and improper payments in safety net programs like Medicaid have made headlines across multiple states, exposing enormous weaknesses in eligibility systems and oversight. In Minnesota, for example, decentralized local ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 23 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on April 21, 2026: * * * States Have New Weapon to Combat Fraud in Safety Net Programs The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is combatting waste, fraud, and abuse across public assistance programs through a new public toolkit geared toward state legislators. In recent months, fraud and improper payments in safety net programs like Medicaid have made headlines across multiple states, exposing enormous weaknesses in eligibility systems and oversight. In Minnesota, for example, decentralized localadministration and billing childcare providers based on enrollment rather than attendance allowed large scale fraud in federally funded programs to flourish, while multi state Medicaid fraud rings have exploited gaps in data sharing to recycle high risk providers and bill for phantom services. These are resources that should be going to vulnerable Americans in need, not fraudsters and not criminals.
The report, "Protecting the American Dream: Restoring Accountability and Combating Fraud in Safety Net Programs," outlines practical, state-level solutions to strengthen program integrity, improve eligibility verification, and enhance data sharing across agencies. Released just after President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance's new White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this toolkit gives state legislators concrete steps they can take to ensure that resources reach vulnerable Americans working to move up the economic ladder. This is a powerful, useful guide for legislators who are serious about safeguarding their constituents' tax dollars and restoring trust in public assistance programs.
AFPI has long championed reforms to safety net programs administered at both the federal and state level. By increasing transparency and restoring accountability, states can better safeguard taxpayer dollars while ensuring that assistance reaches those who truly need it.
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MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Chair of Healthy America, Governor Bobby Jindal, is available to comment on the report and its policy recommendations.
Please click here (https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/contact/comms-team) to request an interview.
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/states-have-new-weapon-to-combat-fraud-in-safety-net-programs
[Category: ThinkTank]
AFPI Condemns VA Redistricting Manipulation
WASHINGTON, April 23 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on April 22, 2026:* * *
AFPI Condemns VA Redistricting Manipulation
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) released the following statement from Brett Tolman, Chair of American Justice at AFPI:
"Virginia's misleading ballot initiative delivered a blatantly gerrymandered map. This power grab distorts voter will and undermines fair representation.
The initiative's intentionally confusing language deceived voters under the false promise of 'restoring fairness.'"
AFPI condemns this manipulation of redistricting ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 23 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on April 22, 2026: * * * AFPI Condemns VA Redistricting Manipulation The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) released the following statement from Brett Tolman, Chair of American Justice at AFPI: "Virginia's misleading ballot initiative delivered a blatantly gerrymandered map. This power grab distorts voter will and undermines fair representation. The initiative's intentionally confusing language deceived voters under the false promise of 'restoring fairness.'" AFPI condemns this manipulation of redistrictingand will support legal efforts to restore constitutional, fair maps that accurately reflect the people of Virginia.
Learn more about AFPI's election integrity work here (https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/policy-areas/election-integrity).
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/afpi-condemns-va-redistricting-manipulation
[Category: ThinkTank]
Sussex, IDS, and University of Ghana forge partnership for SDG acceleration
BRIGHTON, England, April 22 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Institute of Development Studies, an organization that conducts research, learning and teaching that aims to transform the knowledge, action and leadership needed for equitable and sustainable development globally, posted the following news:* * *
Sussex, IDS, and University of Ghana forge partnership for SDG acceleration
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As part of the ongoing tripartite collaboration between the University of Sussex (Sussex), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and the University of Ghana, Sussex, led by the Sussex Sustainability Research ... Show Full Article BRIGHTON, England, April 22 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Institute of Development Studies, an organization that conducts research, learning and teaching that aims to transform the knowledge, action and leadership needed for equitable and sustainable development globally, posted the following news: * * * Sussex, IDS, and University of Ghana forge partnership for SDG acceleration * As part of the ongoing tripartite collaboration between the University of Sussex (Sussex), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and the University of Ghana, Sussex, led by the Sussex Sustainability ResearchProgramme (SSRP), hosted the third in a series of events that focuses on international research cooperation.
The event, held in March, brought together researchers to discuss synergy drivers, integrated solutions designed to fast-track the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how to make the policies count with the limited time and resources available. Chaired by Dr Hikima Baah from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), the participants shared research and real-world experience, with the aim of moving beyond traditional, siloed approaches to development toward highly integrated, multi-impact policies and positive results across multiple global targets.
The keynote speaker, Professor Joseph Alcamo, Director of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP), introduced synergy drivers as evidence-based policies that advance multiple SDGs simultaneously and described these drivers as an engine for the final phase of SDG implementation. He pointed to clean cookstove programmes as a single intervention that substantively reduces health-threatening indoor air pollution (SDG 3), empowers women (SDG 5), lessens deforestation, and protects the climate (SDG 13), all at the same time. His remarks drew on the recent report " Synergy Drivers for Accelerating the SDGs " funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and produced by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme.
A Tripartite perspective on impact - panellist insights & case studies:
From solar-powered cooling in Nigeria to forest-linked health clinics, the panel demonstrated how the synergy drivers are already at work:
* Professor Albert Ahenkan (University of Ghana) argued that progress often stalls because water, energy, and climate are managed by separate ministries. By treating them as an interconnected nexus, Ghana can use renewable energy to power irrigation, securing both food and water for the future. It can optimise infrastructure, such as using renewable energy to power water irrigation, thereby boosting food security and climate resilience simultaneously.
* Dr John Thompson (IDS - Institute of Development Studies) redefined social safety nets not just as charity, but as essential infrastructure. He used the LEAP (Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty) program to show that the program creates a triple win, using cash transfers to reduce immediate poverty while ensuring children stay in school and families access healthcare.
* Sephora Imomoh (University of Sussex - SSRP) presented evidence that when women lead green energy businesses, the benefits double. These businesses do more than provide electricity; they provide women with technical skills and economic independence, which research shows is a direct deterrent to gender-based violence and a driver for community-wide SDG adoption.
* Dr Jo Middleton (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) shared the success of the Planetary Health approach. By establishing health clinics in or near conservation areas, researchers found that local communities were less likely to engage in illegal logging or poaching because their immediate well-being was tied to the presence of the conservation-linke health services.
* Representing industry, Dr Patrick Agese (PAM Africa Energy Group) provided his insight and argued that the technology is only a driver if people can afford it. His work on Solar Battery Hubs and So-Cool kiosks focuses on solving the affordability gap and providing green energy to the 30,000+ people who need it the most.
In breakout groups, the speakers and participants discussed learnings from the cases. Although results have been seen across the contexts, discussions raised the issues of how far synergy drivers were sustainable in various policies and finance contexts. The question of policy implementation also arose. In some cases, policy facilitates synergy drivers and the SDGs on paper, but implementation poses a stumbling block. In these cases, policy actors need to work closely with private and third sector partners to be realistic about what can be achieved and under which circumstances. The responsibilities of various actors need to be more precisely defined, and mechanisms for holding stakeholders to account are part of the necessary infrastructure.
Next steps
Participants noted the need for their shared experience to be collated into accessible resources that could be used to facilitate policy change to support SDG synergy drivers. An evidence database or map of high-impact strategies could be a useful resource for stakeholders including policy actors and researchers. In the context of their tripartite agreement, the three institutions will therefore continue work to make the viable synergy drivers uncovered in this event more visible to a range of stakeholders.
***
Original text here: https://www.ids.ac.uk/news/sussex-ids-and-university-of-ghana-forge-partnership-for-sdg-acceleration/
Common Cause President Solomo Condemns DOJ Action Against Southern Poverty Law Center
WASHINGTON, April 22 [Category: ThinkTank] -- Common Cause President and CEO Virginia Kase Solomo issued a statement denouncing the U.S. Department of Justice's indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center as a sham case built on illegitimate claims. Solomon characterized the legal action as a campaign of intimidation designed to create a chilling effect on organizations that track hate groups and white supremacist networks. She asserted that the indictment follows a pattern of turning the justice department into a political weapon against critics and opponents of the administration.
-- Shanskar ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 [Category: ThinkTank] -- Common Cause President and CEO Virginia Kase Solomo issued a statement denouncing the U.S. Department of Justice's indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center as a sham case built on illegitimate claims. Solomon characterized the legal action as a campaign of intimidation designed to create a chilling effect on organizations that track hate groups and white supremacist networks. She asserted that the indictment follows a pattern of turning the justice department into a political weapon against critics and opponents of the administration. -- ShanskarShaw, Targeted News Service
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Here is the text of the statement:
Common Cause, our National Governing Board, our executive team, our staff, and the more than one million members we represent across this country, stands firmly with the Southern Poverty Law Center in the face of yesterday's attack by the Department of Justice.
We are clear that this is a sham case built on illegitimate claims, and it is meant to create a chilling effect on anyone standing on the side of justice and civil rights; particularly those fighting hate groups, white supremacist groups, and those standing up against this administration's corruption and self-dealing.
For more than 55 years, the SPLC has done some of the most difficult and most necessary work in American society: tracking the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, neo-Nazi networks, and other violent extremist organizations that threaten the safety of Black communities, Jewish communities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone else these groups target.
The pattern here is unmistakable. This indictment follows a string of investigations into perceived opponents and critics of the Trump administration that have raised serious questions about whether the Justice Department has been turned into a political weapon. FBI Director Kash Patel publicly announced earlier this year that the FBI had severed its relationships with the SPLC, and the administration has made no secret of who it wants to protect and who it wants to destroy based on their loyalty to Donald Trump. Charging a civil rights organization with fraud for exposing the operations of violent hate groups turns the rule of law upside down.
The message this indictment sends is simple. If you investigate white supremacists, the federal government will investigate you. If you name extremism, you will be accused of manufacturing it. If you stand up to this administration, you will be targeted. That is the chilling effect, and it is by design.
The leadership, staff, and more than one million members of Common Cause will not be chilled. Democracy depends on civil society organizations being free to monitor hate, defend voting rights, challenge abuses of power, and speak the truth about those who seek to undermine our multiracial democracy. We have seen this playbook before, in other countries and in darker chapters of our own, and we recognize it for what it is.
We call on members of Congress, the legal community, philanthropic leaders, and our fellow civil rights and democracy organizations to speak out clearly until the Department of Justice drops its attack against the SPLC.
The SPLC has our full solidarity and support. We are confident they will prevail, and the entire Common Cause community will stand with them every step of the way.
***
Original text here: https://www.commoncause.org/press/common-cause-dojs-attack-on-splc-part-of-campaign-of-intimidation/
Center for American Progress: Trump and Congressional Republicans' Budget Plan Funnels Billions to ICE And Border Patrol While Offering No Relief for American Families
WASHINGTON, April 22 (TNSrep) -- The Center for American Progress issued the following news release on April 21, 2026:* * *
Trump and Congressional Republicans' Budget Plan Funnels Billions to ICE And Border Patrol While Offering No Relief for American Families
Senate Republicans' newly released budget resolution would direct roughly $70 billion toward immigration enforcement agencies while providing zero relief for American families facing high costs for health care, housing, and groceries, according to a new analysis (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trump-and-congressional-republicans-plan-to-pump-more-money-into-ice-and-border-patrol-is-a-missed-opportunity-to-help-americans/) ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 (TNSrep) -- The Center for American Progress issued the following news release on April 21, 2026: * * * Trump and Congressional Republicans' Budget Plan Funnels Billions to ICE And Border Patrol While Offering No Relief for American Families Senate Republicans' newly released budget resolution would direct roughly $70 billion toward immigration enforcement agencies while providing zero relief for American families facing high costs for health care, housing, and groceries, according to a new analysis (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trump-and-congressional-republicans-plan-to-pump-more-money-into-ice-and-border-patrol-is-a-missed-opportunity-to-help-americans/)from the Center for American Progress.
Congressional Republicans are using the reconciliation process to bypass a potential filibuster and pass legislation on a partisan basis. The resolution prioritizes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through fiscal year 2029. A reconciliation bill stemming from this budget resolution is expected to move forward in the coming weeks. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) still has tens of billions of dollars in previously allocated funds that remain unobligated.
"Congressional Republicans are choosing to spend billions on DHS to continue to fund human rights violations instead of doing anything to help struggling Americans," said Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress. "Budget decisions are about priorities. This resolution shows exactly who they're willing to spend on and who they're willing to leave behind."
CAP's analysis finds:
* Massive enforcement funding with broad deficit authority: The resolution allows up to $70 billion in deficit increases each for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, creating a potential ceiling of $140 billion, while current plans indicate roughly $70 billion in new DHS spending.
* No investment in lowering everyday costs for families: Despite authorizing tens of billions in new spending for DHS, the proposal includes $0 to lower health care costs, reduce grocery prices, or ease housing expenses.
* New funding layered on top of unused resources: DHS is set to receive additional funding even though it still holds tens of billions in unobligated funds from legislation enacted just nine months ago.
* Deficit spending with minimal guardrails: By going it alone in reconciliation, this funding is likely to have significantly less oversight and fewer constraints than typical DHS funding.
Read the analysis: "Trump and Congressional Republicans' Plan To Pump More Money Into ICE and Border Patrol Is a Missed Opportunity To Help Americans" (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trump-and-congressional-republicans-plan-to-pump-more-money-into-ice-and-border-patrol-is-a-missed-opportunity-to-help-americans/) by Bobby Kogan
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Original text here: https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release-trump-and-congressional-republicans-budget-plan-funnels-billions-to-ice-and-border-patrol-while-offering-no-relief-for-american-families/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Capital Research Center Issues Commentary: Cuban Regime's American Sympathizers
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on April 21, 2026, by senior research analyst Robert Stilson:* * *
The Cuban regime's American sympathizers
The Venceremos Brigade is a radical-left activist group that organizes trips to communist-ruled Cuba as a way for sympathetic Americans to demonstrate their solidarity with the country's government and their opposition to U.S. government policies.
Editorial note: This is a reproduction of the InfluenceWatch profile of the Venceremos Brigade, a radical-left American nonprofit that organizes trips to Cuba ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on April 21, 2026, by senior research analyst Robert Stilson: * * * The Cuban regime's American sympathizers The Venceremos Brigade is a radical-left activist group that organizes trips to communist-ruled Cuba as a way for sympathetic Americans to demonstrate their solidarity with the country's government and their opposition to U.S. government policies. Editorial note: This is a reproduction of the InfluenceWatch profile of the Venceremos Brigade, a radical-left American nonprofit that organizes trips to Cubafor sympathizers of the Communist regime.
*
Venceremos Brigade
The Venceremos Brigade is a radical-left activist group that organizes trips to communist-ruled Cuba as a way for sympathetic Americans to demonstrate their solidarity with the country's government and their opposition to related United States government policies. As of 2024, it is a fiscally-sponsored project of The People's Forum, a charitable nonprofit, and was formerly a project of the Alliance for Global Justice. The word "Venceremos" translates as "we shall overcome," and Venceremos Brigade participants are commonly referred to as brigadistas./1
Founded in 1969 by members of the radical New Left activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), 2 the original objective of the Venceremos Brigade was to help Cuba produce 10 million tons of sugar during the 1970 harvest, though this goal was ultimately not achieved. The first two brigade contingents, which traveled to Cuba between November 1969 and April 1970, primarily worked in sugarcane fields, 3 while later contingents have performed a variety of other work such as housing construction, building maintenance, small-scale manufacturing, and agricultural labor. 4 Though individual beliefs varied, brigadistas generally adhered to some form of radical-left political ideology, supported the communist Cuban Revolution, and favored broadly similar revolutionary changes in the United States./5
Particularly in its early years, the Venceremos Brigade was extensively investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Congress, and local law enforcement. Investigations focused on whether the brigade was functioning as an instrument of pro-Cuban propaganda within the United States, whether brigade members were secretly being trained in guerrilla warfare, and whether the Cuban government was using the brigade for espionage purposes. 6 The FBI ultimately produced at least 23,000 pages worth of files on the group, though no brigadistas were ever convicted of crimes related to having traveled to Cuba./7
Numerous prominent left-wing academics, activists, and political figures have been affiliated with the Venceremos Brigade, including Los Angeles Mayor and former U.S. Representative Karen Bass (D-CA), 8 former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), 9 prominent labor union official and Clinton administration appointee Karen Nussbaum, 10 former Spelman College and Bennett College president Johnnetta Cole,/11 Georgetown University professor and former Dissent magazine co-editor Michael Kazin,/12 former Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner,/13 Pueblo Action Alliance director Julia Bernal, 14 and former member of the domestic terrorist group May 19th Communist Organization and Thousand Currents board member Susan Rosenberg./15
Approximately 10,000 brigadistas have traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade since 1969. 1 The 50th anniversary contingent in 2019 featured 155 participants, 60 of whom had traveled with at least one previous contingent./16
History
The Venceremos Brigade was formed in 1969 as a way for sympathetic Americans to travel to Cuba and demonstrate their solidarity with the communist-ruled country through manual labor. Originally, the work performed involved harvesting sugarcane. Individuals associated with the radical New Left activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were responsible for creating and organizing the original Venceremos Brigade, and numerous SDS members traveled to Cuba with the first contingents in 1969 and 1970./1/2
New Left Origins
Carl Oglesby, who had been president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from 1965 to 1966, 17 claims credit for the idea behind what would become the Venceremos Brigade. 18 According to Oglesby's 2008 memoir Ravens in the Storm, the Cuban government had invited a SDS delegation to visit the country in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in January 1969. Oglesby was one of six SDS members who made the trip./19
To commemorate the occasion, the Cuban regime under Fidel Castro announced that the country would attempt to harvest enough sugarcane to produce 10 million tons of refined sugar, which was far more than the previous record of 7.2 million tons set in 1952. 20 The lack of modern agricultural machinery meant that this sugarcane would primarily need to be harvested by laborers working by hand with machetes. Oglesby suggested that American SDS members could come to Cuba and help supply the necessary workforce. His idea was received favorably by the Cuban authorities, who asked him to submit a formal SDS proposal upon his return to the United States./21
Oglesby attempted to persuade the group's then-interorganizational secretary Bernardine Dohrn that SDS should undertake the project, but she was reportedly hesitant. Dohrn, who described herself as a "revolutionary communist" and would go on to become a top leader in the Weather Underground domestic extremist group, was less interested in how the project might help the Cubans and more interested in its potential to radicalize future American revolutionaries, according to Oglesby. At SDS's March 1969 national council meeting in Austin, Texas, Oglesby presented the proposal to the group's leadership, but he was personally attacked for allegedly being a "liberal" and for rejecting Marxism-Leninism. The SDS national interim committee then presented him with an ultimatum that it would only support the proposed Cuba sugarcane project if Oglesby agreed to play no further part in it./22
Oglesby had no official role in organizing what soon became known as the Venceremos Brigade after the SDS national council meeting in Austin. However, his abrupt withdrawal from the project alarmed Cuban government officials, who had concerns about Dohrn and were wary of getting involved in SDS's internal political disputes. According to Oglesby, in New York City he personally helped persuade Cuba's then-ambassador to the United Nations Carlos Rafael Rodriguez to proceed with the brigade. The Cuban government agreed, but only on the condition that Oglesby secretly consult with them about its planning, including reviewing the list of potential brigadistas. Oglesby claimed that he did so approximately once per month for the first year of the project./23
Meanwhile, Dohrn proceeded to devote "considerable time" to organizing the Venceremos Brigade, with fellow SDS members Julie Nichamin and Brian Murphy also playing a leading role. SDS itself, however, effectively collapsed amid factional infighting after its June 1969 national convention, which "kept it from playing a major role as an organization in the final working out of [the Venceremos Brigade]," according to author Kirkpatrick Sale./2
First Brigades (1969-1970)
Prospective brigadistas were interviewed with the goal of creating "a racially and sexually mixed group which exhibited no racist or chauvinist attitudes," though this reportedly proved difficult. Recruitment was handled by regional committees, which in later years were run almost exclusively by experienced brigadistas./24 Fundraising for the trip was conducted in part through screening films about Cuba, including future Institute for Policy Studies fellow Saul Landau's 1969 documentary Fidel. In at least one instance, this provoked a violent confrontation with anti-Castro Cuban exiles./25
United States law prohibited American citizens from traveling to Cuba, and the Venceremos Brigade considered their noncompliance with this law to be among the group's most important purposes. Many brigadistas believed that the travel ban's real purpose was as much about preventing Americans from seeing the Cuban Revolution for themselves as it was about embargoing the country's hostile government. The opportunity to support communist Cuba through direct physical labor, rather than by protesting from within the United States, was also attractive to many brigadistas./26
The first contingent of 216 brigadistas traveled to Cuba via Mexico in late November 1969. They returned via Canada in early February 1970, after having spent six weeks harvesting sugarcane and two weeks touring the country. A second contingent of 687 brigadistas departed almost immediately after the first group returned, and they traveled back to the United States in April 1970. A third contingent of 409 brigadistas left for Cuba in August 1970 and returned in October. The third contingent arrived too late to participate in the sugarcane harvest, so it performed other agricultural and construction tasks. 27
Numerous SDS members, including some affiliated with the extremist Weathermen faction, would ultimately travel to Cuba with the early Venceremos Brigade contingents in 1969 and 1970. 2 7 One brigadista later recalled that "at least a dozen Weathermen" traveled with the first contingent in 1969. 28 Multiple members of the radical-left National Lawyers Guild were also early participants, including the Guild's former national president and its former international committee chair, both of whom traveled with the second contingent in early 1970. 29 Members of the Black Panther Party also traveled with early Venceremos Brigade contingents./30
A 1971 account of these early brigades noted that many brigadistas were "middle-class Americans, unused to physical labor of any kind."/31 Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin, who as a young radical activist had traveled with the first contingent, recalled that they "must have been the least efficient macheteros in history." Still, Kazin wrote that the Americans received far better treatment than Cuban laborers, including frozen yogurt breaks, three-course meals, music and entertainment, and "all the cigars we could smoke." 12 Other accounts from early brigadistas mentioned occasional "feasts of lobster or crab or sea bass."/32 In 1972, the fifth Venceremos Brigade contingent was reportedly fed a simple but adequate diet primarily of rice and beans, fish, and occasionally meat. They were told that it was the same food that the Cubans themselves typically ate./33
Fidel Castro interacted with the Venceremos Brigade while the brigadistas were in Cuba, reportedly spending seven hours personally cutting sugarcane with the first contingent on Christmas Day 1969. The following year, Castro praised the third contingent as "a splendid movement of great revolutionary and internationalist content, and an expression of the sentiments and the moral reserves of the best people of the United States." 34 To the second contingent, Castro was recorded as remarking that "they tell me that there are eighty organizations represented here. I am surprised that there are not eight hundred, because the problems in the U.S. are so many and so complex that I can imagine how difficult it is to find solutions."/35
The 1970 Cuban harvest failed to produce 10 million tons of sugar. A U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) memorandum reported that it had yielded 8.5 million metric tons, which was an all-time record for the country but still 1.5 million tons short of the government's publicized goal. The report noted that the additional resources which had been diverted to assist with the harvest had negatively impacted other sectors of the Cuban economy--such as construction and manufacturing--and speculated that the increased sugar yields would probably strike "many Cubans as a hollow victory, without benefit to the population."/36
According to a 1974 article in the New York Times, over-saturation of the global sugar market depressed prices to such an extent that the 1970 Cuban harvest was one of the least-profitable in the country's history up to that point. The extra manpower and other resources devoted to the harvest had resulted in a 25 percent drop in milk production and a 38 percent drop in steel production, among other negative economic impacts. The article concluded that "however one looked at it," the effort had been a "disaster." 37 Nevertheless, some prominent brigadistas criticized what they called "the predictable American habit of defining 'success' in terms of quantity," and argued that the harvest had not been a "qualitative" failure because of the "degree of commitment, revolutionary consciousness and energy to work" that the effort had demonstrated./38
Politics and Ideology
Early members of the Venceremos Brigade typically adhered to some form of radical-left political ideology, though the specifics varied. Brigadistas were broadly united in their support for the communist Cuban Revolution and their desire to promote its supposed virtues, and they often favored similar radical revolutionary changes in the United States./5 A law enforcement officer who infiltrated the Venceremos Brigade in 1972 testified before Congress that prospective brigadistas were generally Marxist-Leninists./39
A Venceremos Brigade internal document from September 1971 listed four objectives upon which all of the group's activities were to be based:
1. To develop solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and the peoples of the Third World.
2. To promote and develop the political formation of the progressive forces in the US through the Brigade process in Cuba and in the US.
3. To educate the US movement to an anti-imperialist consciousness and to the necessity for and the possibility of unity in strategic terms.
4. To facilitate dialogue among different US movement groups as they work in the context of a common and constructive task./40
Julie Nichamin, a SDS member who had played a key role in organizing the original Venceremos Brigade, reflected that being in Cuba and learning to think "in a Communist way" led some brigadistas to question whether they themselves had been doing enough to support a similar revolution in the United States. She speculated that after returning, those who had traveled with the brigade would ask themselves "if they're really making a contribution toward destroying Amerikan [sic] imperialism and building a revolution in this country."/41
A belief among some brigadistas that certain participants in the early brigade contingents had been insufficiently dedicated to radical-left activism led to changes that placed even more emphasis on an applicant's political commitment during recruitment./42 An application to join the fifth Venceremos Brigade contingent in 1972 asked applicants about their background and reasons for wanting to travel to Cuba ("other than demonstrating solidarity with the Cuban Revolution"), and for three references from "movement people." A follow-up questionnaire asked for further details on the applicant's "movement work," education, criminal record, military service, travel history, and work experience./43
Material published by the Venceremos Brigade emphasized the supposed benefits that communism brought to the people of Cuba in areas such as healthcare, education, food, and housing. According to historian Teishan A. Latner: "The Brigade argued that communism, far from making Cubans unfree, had allowed them to attain a different kind of freedom, one that was foreign to Americans, who had been inculcated with notions of a western liberal democracy that equated freedom solely with individual liberty, free enterprise, and private property rights."/44
Despite their common objective, conflicts occurred between brigadistas. Latner wrote that "the early brigades experienced debilitating factionalism and interpersonal rifts, especially along the lines of race, sexual identity, and gender." He singled out racial tension as the single greatest source of conflict within early brigade contingents, writing that "it was the politics of identity that most complicated [the Venceremos Brigade's] unity while in Cuba./45 Brigadistas organized themselves into "caucuses" primarily along racial or ethnic lines, but also by gender and military veteran status./46 While the first Venceremos Brigade contingent was approximately 80 percent white, by the 1980s most contingents were majority non-white./47
One anonymous brigadista who traveled with one of the first two contingents wrote:
All in all there is a lot of hostility and confusion developing among brigadistas. Blacks and whites are not relating too well. Weathermen are fairly abundant in camp. Women's Liberation people are regarded by almost all others with biting sarcasm. Everyone is just so untogether. Someone has been writing "Off the People!" and "Off Chicks!" on the tents--and no one knows who's doing it. The Cubans must be tearing their hair out trying to deal with us./48
Mirroring the policy of the Cuban government at the time, the Venceremos Brigade originally adopted a strong stance against homosexuality and actively discriminated against gay brigadistas. During the early 1970s, the brigade's central committee declared that "homosexuality in Cuba is a social pathology left over from the decadent bourgeois order" and "in general, homosexuals in Cuba have not participated in the revolutionary process...and are essentially parasites in the revolution." Years later, coinciding with shifts in Cuban government policy, this position was softened./49
Law Enforcement Infiltration of the Fifth Brigade (1972)
In October 1972, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Internal Security held hearings on the Venceremos Brigade. One of the witnesses who testified was Dwight Crews, a deputy sheriff from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana who had performed undercover investigations into left-wing movements in the New Orleans area. After infiltrating a local chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in 1971 Crews was given the opportunity to apply for the fifth Venceremos Brigade contingent, which would travel to Cuba from March to May 1972./50
The application process reportedly included training and political education, though Crews testified to the committee that a prospective brigadista was generally "already a Marxist-Leninist" and that the purpose was "to further [their] political education and to be able to bring more people over to the communist side." According to Crews, there were approximately 135 members of the fifth Venceremos Brigade contingent, and the cost was $230 (slightly over $1,700 in 2024 dollars) per individual. He testified that he had been told some brigadistas raised this money by claiming that they were collecting funds to support American prisoners of war in Vietnam./51
Though the fifth contingent had expected to harvest sugarcane, they were instead put to work building houses. According to Crews, three days a week the brigadistas were shown propaganda films on "how bad life was in the United States, and how good life was in the socialist countries" such as Cuba and North Vietnam. Crews testified that the Cubans were adamant that socioeconomic conditions in the country had improved since the Cuban Revolution, though brigadistas were nevertheless advised not to give small gifts (such as pens or chewing gum) to Cuban children "because this would make them want more than the Cuban Government can provide." The Venceremos Brigade was also reportedly told that the reason so many Cuban shops had no goods to sell was because the people already had everything that was in them./52
Crews testified that one purpose of participating in the Venceremos Brigade was to become more skilled in propaganda "supporting the Cuban revolution and furthering the cause of communism in the United States." He explained that "we were told that we were the vanguard of revolution in the United States," and that "we were to use our discretion depending on the circumstances as to whether it would be violent or peaceful." According to Crews, propaganda with the image of radical-left activist Angela Davis was "everywhere" in Cuba./53
Several visiting North Vietnamese nationals were assigned to work with the brigadistas. Crews testified that he was interviewed by one of them about American military matters, including veterans' benefits in the United States and public opinion about the Vietnam War. The individual reportedly told Crews that he would soon be returning to North Vietnam, where he expected to become a prisoner of war interrogator./54
According to Crews, Cuban officials were keenly interested in left-wing activist movements in the United States. Each brigadista was instructed to prepare a report on such activities within his or her local area, to be given to the Cubans. They were also asked to bring copies of underground newspapers and similar publications with them. After their arrival in Cuba, the brigadistas were asked to produce even more detailed reports, and Crews stated that the Cubans specifically requested information covering the previous year. He testified to his belief that at least one brigadista had voluntarily provided information about American military bases to the Cubans, despite having been told by a Venceremos Brigade leader that espionage was not the brigade's purpose./55
Report in The Nation (1977)
In 1977, assistant editor of The Nation magazine Harry Maurer, who was admittedly "sympathetic to the socialist ideal," traveled to Cuba to report on the Venceremos Brigade, which by that time had sent ten contingents totaling approximately 2,700 brigadistas. Maurer described the 1977 contingent as representing a cross-section of virtually the entire American Left, except there were no Maoists or Trotskyists (who opposed the Soviet Union), and "no people from the Gay Liberation groups (who presumably would not fit in, since the Cubans discriminate against homosexuals)." Maurer wrote that he witnessed constant political debates between the various leftist factions, which "often strayed from comradely exchange toward uglier emotions" including "charges of sexism, racism, liberalism, revisionism, and ultra-leftism."/56
Maurer wrote that the Venceremos Brigade resembled "a blend of summer camp, religious retreat and political convention" and that its real purpose was not to contribute labor, which was of minimal acutal value, but rather to build solidarity, both among disparate American leftists and between them and their Cuban hosts. The brigadistas reportedly embraced Cuba "passionate[ly] and indiscriminate[ly]," and Maurer commented on how their response to what they were being shown often "did not go beyond 'Oh, wow.'" He also found it notable that a Venceremos Brigade pamphlet entitled Democracy in Cuba, which presumably had been approved by the Cuban government, did not once mention Fidel Castro in a section discussing the country's political system./56
Remarking on the "adoring eyes" of the brigadistas toward Cuba, Maurer wrote:
One extreme example came after we had visited the famous mental hospital on the outskirts of Havana. A group of psychotic patients there gave a remarkable performance of theatre and music, during which they sang songs about Angola, imperialism, etc. Later I overhead one brigade member telling others that the performance showed that in Cuba, even mental patients have a higher level of political understanding than do the vast majority of Americans. No one disagreed./56
United States Investigations and Cuban Intelligence Connections
Virtually from its inception, the Venceremos Brigade was extensively investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Congress, and law enforcement. In his 2018 book Cuban Revolution in America, historian Teishan A. Latner wrote that investigative interest in the Brigade stemmed from three primary concerns. First, that it was being used to disseminate pro-Cuba propaganda within the United States. Second, that it provided an opportunity for the Cubans to secretly train brigadistas in guerrilla warfare. Third, that the Brigade was closely tied to the Cuban government and its intelligence apparatus, then known as the Direccion General de Inteligencia (DGI), and therefore facilitated Cuban espionage against the United States./6
In 1969, brigadistas who traveled to Cuba via Mexico City had their photographs taken at the airport. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) investigated the Brigade that year, however according to Latner it is unclear to what extent it did so after this time because most of the relevant documents remain classified./57
The FBI had access to informants within the Venceremos Brigade, collected the group's statements and publications, and engaged in direct surveillance. 58 Ultimately, the Bureau produced at least 23,000 pages worth of files on the Venceremos Brigade, which in Latner's estimation represents "the most extensive archive on the group ever produced, surpassing any university's holdings" and made the FBI the brigade's "clandestine biographer." Despite these investigations, according Latner no brigadistas were ever convicted for having traveled to Cuba./7
Dwight Crews, a Jefferson Parish, Louisiana undercover deputy sheriff, infiltrated and traveled with the fifth Venceremos Brigade contingent in early 1972. In a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Internal Security, he said that "to my knowledge, no members of the fifth contingent of the Venceremos Brigade were given training or instruction in terrorism, sabotage, or guerrilla warfare while in Cuba." Crews stated that "I was never contacted, questioned, or instructed by anyone in Cuba whom I suspected to be connected with intelligence," and that "I was not requested to engage in any activity in Cuba or in the U.S. by anyone in Cuba or anyone connected with the Venceremos Brigade which I could construe as an intelligence-connected assignment."/59
In April 1975, the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee produced a report dealing in part with the Venceremos Brigade, which was entered into the Congressional Record by then-Sen. Richard Stone (D-FL). The report alleged that "the Venceremos Brigade is one of the most extensive and dangerous infiltration operations ever undertaken by a foreign power against the United States." It claimed that the group's activities were under the direct supervision of then-DGI deputy director Ramon Oroza Naveran, and that the Cubans who were assigned to work with the brigadistas were nearly all DGI operatives. According to the report, the Cubans hoped to recruit and develop potential agents from among the American brigadistas./60
In October 1977, the New York Times reported on a top-secret FBI report from 1976, which had concluded that the DGI's ultimate objective for the Venceremos Brigade was "the recruitment of individuals who are politically oriented and who someday may obtain a position, elective or appointive, somewhere in the U.S. Government, which would provide the Cuban Government with access to political, economic and military intelligence." The report claimed that "a very limited number of [Venceremos Brigade] members have been trained in guerrilla warfare techniques, including use of arms and explosives," though it said that "this type of training is given only to individuals who specifically request it and only then to persons whom the Cubans feel sure are not penetration agents of American intelligence."/61
In early 1982, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism heard testimony from Gerardo Peraza, a former high-ranking DGI officer who had defected to the United States in 1971. 62 Peraza testified that DGI agents interacted with the Venceremos Brigade, and that brigadistas had specifically been tasked with obtaining American telephone books for the Cubans. According to Peraza, "the Venceremos Brigade helped by sending those telephone books and information, including the U.S. Senate, because among the members of the brigade there were persons who knew some Senators and relatives of Senators." According to Peraza, much of the information that the Cuban government had obtained about American citizens prior to 1969 "came from public sources, and it was confusing." He testified that "The Venceremos Brigade brought the first great quantity of information through American citizens that was obtained in the United States."/63
In his 2018 book Cuban Revolution in America, Teishan A. Latner called the FBI's claims about the Venceremos Brigade "spurious" and described the charge that brigadistas might have received military training while in Cuba as "tenuous" and based on sparse evidence. However, he acknowledged that "the notion that Cuba might be aiding armed revolutionaries inside its northern neighbor was not entirely fantastical" and wrote that "certainly, the potential for insurrectionary collaboration was present in the volunteer camps, in which Venceremos Brigade members sometimes encountered global revolutionaries." Latner noted that while some individual brigadistas who intended to carry out acts of violence may have unilaterally sought advice or assistance in such matters, the Cubans were broadly skeptical and unreceptive to these overtures./64
While conceding what he called "the remote possibility" that the Venceremos Brigade may have provided the opportunity for DGI agents to recruit sympathetic Americans as spies, Latner wrote that "the FBI ultimately produced no evidence that this had in fact occurred." He also speculated that returning brigadistas would generally not have been able to conduct espionage of much real value, given the scrutiny that their activities would have been under./65
In 2010, FBI agents contacted multiple recent Venceremos Brigade participants with questions about their travels to Cuba. Michael Ratner, who was then president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and who had previously represented brigade members, told the Huffington Post that he would advise brigadistas not to speak to the agents. Ratner also explained that the FBI had questioned returning brigadistas more regularly during the 1970s and 1980s, but that it had done so relatively infrequently during the 1990s and early 2000s./66
In 2019, the Venceremos Brigade held its 50th anniversary celebration in Havana, where its work was praised in a speech by Fernando Gonzalez Llort. 16 In 1998, Gonzalez Llort had been one of the "Cuban Five," who were arrested in the United States and subsequently convicted on espionage charges. He was released in 2014 after serving more than fifteen years in prison, reportedly returning to a "hero's welcome" in Cuba./67
In 2023, former U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting director Jeffrey Scott Shapiro wrote in the Washington Times that "Cuba's intelligence apparatus helped create" the Venceremos Brigade./68
Activities and Positions
The primary activity of the Venceremos Brigade involves organizing trips to Cuba for Americans, known as brigadistas, who wish to demonstrate their solidarity with the communist country and their opposition to United States government policy toward the island. Approximately 10,000 brigadistas from the United States have traveled to Cuba since the first Venceremos Brigade contingent in 1969. 69 A large proportion of brigadistas have traditionally come from California and New York, as well as from other parts of the Northeastern and Southwestern United States./13
In addition to touring and learning about the country, brigadistas perform work while in Cuba. In the past, this has included agricultural labor, construction and building maintenance, small-scale manufacturing, and gardening. 4 Recent trips have tended to place higher emphasis on tourism and education relative to labor./1 Brigadistas visit local facilities and meet with representatives from institutions such as the Union of Communist Youth and Cuba's one-party legislature, the National Assembly of People's Power. They also attend cultural events and performances. 70 In a video documentary produced for the group's 46th anniversary in 2015, brigadistas are shown traveling around Cuba, dancing, singing, swimming, and visiting tourist sites, in addition to performing some work./71
The Venceremos Brigade cautions prospective brigadistas that in Cuba they "will experience living conditions familiar to the majority of people in the world, but unfamiliar to most in the United States," including rudimentary group accommodations and possible shortages of water and other supplies. The group attributes these conditions to American "economic warfare" against Cuba./70
155 brigadistas, including 60 who had participated in earlier brigades, traveled to Cuba in 2019 for the Venceremos Brigade's 50th anniversary. They were given presentations on Cuban politics and society, toured locations of significance to the Cuban Revolution, and performed some agricultural work. The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples hosted the brigade for an official celebration in Havana. According to the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party, which counted five of its members among the 50th anniversary contingent, the brigadistas were shown "the many advances Cuba has made despite attempts by the U.S. government to undermine the country at every level."/16
In 2025, 28 brigadistas traveled to Cuba as part of the 53rd Venceremos Brigade contingent, which was "the first queer and trans" brigade. Among other things, its goal was "to connect queer and trans people living in the United States with Cubans focused on supporting the LGBTQIA+ community."/72
The Venceremos Brigade generally espouses far-left ideological positions. It describes itself as "an anti-imperialist project of political education and voluntary labor in solidarity with Cuba." The group's goals include ending United States government sanctions on Cuba, removing Cuba from the U.S. Department of State's list of state sponsors of terrorism, closing the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, and strengthening left-wing activist movements in the United States./73
On its website, the Venceremos Brigade lists five "points of unity":
* We believe in Cuba's sovereignty and right to self-determination.
* We believe in the constitutional right of US citizens to travel, move, and freely associate.
* We believe in internationalist struggle and solidarity.
* We believe in building equity and justice in the struggle against capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and colonialism.
* We believe that people are not disposable./73
The Venceremos Brigade contends that "the imperialist policies of the US government which constrain Cuban development and seek to overthrow socialism in Cuba are the foreign arms of a system which at home dehumanizes, criminalizes, exploits, and punishes with impunity masses of oppressed people." By traveling to Cuba, brigadistas hope to develop their ability to "practice revolutionary values of collectivity, equity, and transformation."/73
Structure and Financials
The Venceremos Brigade is organized as a fiscally-sponsored project of The People's Forum, a United States-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and therefore it does not publicly disclose its own financial information./69 It was formerly a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, which was listed on the Venceremos Brigade's website as the group's fiscal sponsor through at least February 2024./74 As a 501(c)(3) fiscally sponsored project, the Venceremos Brigade is able to accept tax-deductible donations./75
The People's Forum reported total revenues of $4,428,869 and net assets of $11,577,157 in 2022./76 Major funders of The People's Forum have included the donor-advised fund Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund ($22,440,000 from 2017-2022)/77 and the United Community Fund ($3,015,000 in 2019)./78
Multiple media outlets have identified Thoughtworks founder Neville Roy Singham as a key funder of The People's Fourm./79 The New York Times has described Singham as an ideological Marxist and "socialist benefactor of far-left causes" who operates at the center of "a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda." Singham is married to Jodie Evans, a co-founder of the left-wing activist group Code Pink, which also organizes its own solidarity trips to Cuba. 80 81 As of 2024, there is no evidence that Singham has provided funding directly to the Venceremos Brigade.
Participants in the Venceremos Brigade pay for their trip to Cuba. The cost to travel with the 52nd contingent in July 2024 was $2,400. Financial assistance is available for low-income brigadistas, and the group suggests that individuals host events and fundraise from family or friends to help them afford the trip./82
Brigadistas pay significantly more money to travel with the Venceremos Brigade than the typical Cuban worker earns in a year. In 2022, the average salary in Cuba was approximately 4,000 Cuban Pesos per month, which is pegged by Cuban law at $166.67 but roughly equivalent to between $20 and $40 at prevailing informal exchange rates that year. Research published by the Cuba Capacity Building Project at Columbia Law School concluded that "despite the direct and indirect government subsidies, the 'cost of living' in Cuba is completely disproportionate to workers' earned income. As a result, Cuban families face a high monetary income deficit and the average Cuban struggles to make ends meet."*/83
Notable Members
Commenting on the Venceremos Brigade's influence, historian Teishan A. Latner wrote that hundreds of early brigadistas subsequently "turned up throughout the spectrum of U.S. left-wing politics," and that the group's "legacy includes a substantial activist presence" in areas other than those related to Cuba or American foreign policy./13
Notable individuals who have traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade or otherwise affiliated with the group include:
* Karen Bass, 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, California and former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Bass traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade in 1973 at the age of 19, where she worked on housing construction and saw Fidel Castro speak in Havana. She has returned to Cuba many times since, though not as part of the Venceremos Brigade./8
* Julia Bernal, director of the Pueblo Action Alliance. 84 Bernal traveled to Cuba in 2019 as part of the Venceremos Brigade's 50th anniversary trip. Her association with the brigade was promoted on social media by another Pueblo Action Alliance employee, Somah Haaland, who is the daughter of Biden administration Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland/14
* Diana Block, member of a radical-left Weather Underground offshoot called the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. During the 1970s, she lived in "clandestinity" for thirteen years "with a political collective committed to supporting the Puerto Rican independence and Black liberation movements." Later, she was a founding member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and of the Jericho Movement./85 Block traveled to Cuba in 1977 with the tenth Venceremos Brigade contingent, and in 2019 with the 50th anniversary contingent./86
* Leslie Cagan, radical-left activist who was involved in anti-Vietnam War, feminist, and gay rights protest movements during the 1960s and 1970s. Cagan later became field director for David Dinkins' successful 1989 campaign for mayor of New York City. 87 She was the former national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, former co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, and former chair of the Pacifica Foundation./88 Cagan traveled to Cuba with the first Venceremos Brigade contingent in 1969, and later returned with the 50th anniversary contingent in 2019 where she spoke at an official celebration for the group in Havana./89/90
* Johnnetta Cole, former president of Spelman College and Bennett College, former director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, and former national chair of the National Council of Negro Women. 91 After the 1992 United States presidential election, Cole served as head of the incoming Clinton administration's transition team on education, labor, the arts, and humanities. She was rumored to have been under consideration for Secretary of Education, but media reports revealed her past associations, including her membership on the Venceremos Brigade's national committee. Clinton administration officials were said to have subsequently clarified "that she would have no say in Administration policy and would not receive a top Administration position," according to the New York Times./11/92
* Fania Davis, attorney and activist, founder of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY), and sister of Angela Davis. 93 Fania Davis traveled to Cuba with the third Venceremos Brigade contingent in 1970./94
* Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, former professor of ethnic studies at California State University and author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. She was an activist during the 1960s and 1970s with a "militant feminist" group called Cell 16, and with the American Indian Movement and the International Indian Treaty Council. 95 She was listed as a featured speaker at the Socialism 2024 conference hosted by Haymarket Books. 96 Dunbar-Ortiz traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade in 1970./97
* Yuri Kochiyama, radical-left activist known for her work during the 1960s and 1970s with groups including Asian Americans for Action, the Young Lords Party, the Revolutionary Action Movement, and the Republic of New Afrika, as well as for her close association with Malcom X. Later, she openly praised the Peruvian revolutionary communist terrorist group Shining Path and professed admiration for Osama Bin Laden in the years following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 98 99 Kochiyama is quoted on the Venceremos Brigade's website as having described her experience as a brigadistas as a "golden opportunity to work, study, and learn about global liberation struggles and socialism in Cuba."/100
* Michael Kazin, professor of history at Georgetown University and former co-editor of Dissent He was briefly associated with the Weathermen factional outgrowth of Students for a Democratic Society. Kazin traveled with the first Venceremos Brigade contingent in late 1969, where he heard Fidel Castro speak and met a visiting Vietnamese soldier who boasted of having killed 20 Americans. Upon returning to the United States, he initially expressed "unqualified admiration" for Cuba and spoke publicly "about the glories of the Cuban Revolution," but later became gradually more critical of the country's political system./12
* Sandra Levinson, executive director of the Center for Cuban Studies in New York City and former New York editor for Ramparts. She has reportedly traveled to Cuba at least 300 times./101/102 Along with Carol Brightman, Levinson co-edited the 1971 book Venceremos Brigade: Young Americans Sharing the Life and Work of Revolutionary Cuba, which contained first-hand accounts from early brigadistas./103
* Karen Nussbaum, co-founder and former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, former president of District 925, SEIU (a predecessor to SEIU Local 925), 104 director of the S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau during the Clinton administration, special assistant to former AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, and founding director of Working America. 105 Nussbaum traveled to Cuba with the second Venceremos Brigade contingent in early 1970 at age 19, an experience that she later described as "fantastic," and which had helped her come "to the understanding of what it meant to be a radical."/10
* Sandy Pollack, former Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) national council member and treasurer/solidarity coordinator of the U.S. Peace Council. Pollack traveled to Cuba for the first time in 1969 and was later a member of the Venceremos Brigade's national committee. She died in a plane crash while flying from Cuba to Nicaragua in 1985./106
* Michael Ratner, former president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild. Ratner traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade and also advised brigadistas on how to interact with federal law enforcement agents who questioned them about their trip./66/13/107
* Susan Rosenberg, former member of the domestic terrorist group May 19th Communist Organization, Rosenberg was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 58 years in prison for weapons and explosives offenses. She was pardoned in January 2001 by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office. 108 Later, she worked at American Jewish World Service, became an adjunct professor at Hunter College, sat on the advisory board of Alliance of Families for Justice, and was a board member at Thousand Currents while the group served as fiscal sponsor for the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. 109 Rosenberg traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade in 1976./15
* Antonio Villaraigosa, 41st mayor of Los Angeles, California and former speaker of the California State Assembly. The New Yorker reported in 2007 that Villaraigosa had previously traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade./9
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Robert Stilson, Senior Research Analyst
Robert runs several of CRC's specialized projects. Originally from Indiana, he has a B.A. from Hanover College and a J.D. from University of Richmond School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-cuban-regimes-american/
[Category: ThinkTank]