BY MEG NOVAK
CHICAGO - Across the country, delegations planning to attend the World Festival of Youth and Students have launched a protest campaign against the U.S. Department of Treasury's denial of licenses for young people planning to attend. The festival will take place in Havana, Cuba July 28 -August 5.

Nearly 8,000 delegates from 126 countries are expected to participate in the festival. Topics of discussion will include anti-imperialist and antiracist struggles, women's liberation, protection of the environment, and how to stand up to rising fascist movements.

Over the last two years, the Clinton administration has tightened restrictions on travel to Cuba, banned direct flights from Miami to Havana, and made it easier to impose administrative fines on people the government claims violated its regulations. In this case, Treasury officials claimed that the youth festival is not "within the scope of clearly defined educational activities," and on that grounds denied travel licenses to 50 youth who applied.

The committee building the festival in Minnesota called a July 8 news conference at the state capitol in St. Paul to demand the government reverse this decision. Local and national newspaper reporters attended from Associated Press, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and the Minnesota Daily, as well as National Public Radio, KITS New Radio, and the local television station KSTP Channel 5.

They heard representatives from different student and political organizations speak out against the denial of the licenses. Gary Prevost, a professor of political science at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, stated, "This kind of opportunity to see Cuba firsthand represents the kind of policy that should exist. They should be able to travel to Cuba freely and see that society, and make their own judgments."

As well as Prevost, the panel included April Knutson, representing Pastors for Peace; Jamil Salam from the Africana student cultural center; Heather Wood from the Minnesota Organizing Committee for the festival; and Jenn Udelhofen of the Progressive Student Organization.

In Miami, the Spanish-language daily El Nuevo Herald printed an AP story on the denial of travel licenses in its July 8 issue.

Jahannah Sistrunk, a 23-year-old student government senator at the University of Illinois in Springfield, Illinois, is planning to go to the festival. She attended the July 4 -6 national conference of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Memphis, Tennessee, where she helped to circulate petitions protesting the denial of licenses. "The NOW convention was a good opportunity to speak with people about the relations between Cuba and the U.S., and how the blockade restricts travel and violates civil rights." Sistrunk stated. "Every human being should have the right to travel."

Cynthia McKinney, a U.S. congresswoman from Georgia, and Rosemary Dempsey, the outgoing vice-president of action for NOW, both signed petitions to support the fight against the denial of the licenses, as did dozens of the convention delegates.

On July 10, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California will be hosting a press conference in Los Angeles to protest the travel restriction. Sam Mistrano, the legislative director for the ACLU, will be speaking along with Debra Antscherl, the Cuba Youth Conference Coordinator; William Paparian, the former mayor of Pasadena; Joe Harvey, chair for Irish Northern Aid in Orange County; and students from the area who are planning to attend the festival. The press conference will include the reading of statements from actors Ed Asner and Martin Sheen, and from Los Angeles City Council member Jackie Goldberg.

As of July 9, more than 1,100 people had applied to attend the festival from the United States, including 550 with the U.S. Organizing Committee for the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students and more than 300 with the National Preparatory Committee, initiated by the Young Communist League and Communist Party.

About 60 people are planning to go to Havana with the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange to attend the International Workers Conference Confronting Neoliberalism and the Global Economy. The trade union meeting, sponsored by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers, will take place August 6 -8 immediately following the festival. Many of those traveling to the Labor Exchange will participate in the youth festival as well.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control says it is reviewing the decision to deny the travel licenses.  
 
 
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