tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12013651550713100862024-03-05T00:30:09.355-08:00《hasta siempre ‧ Cuba 》Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-77465977559007304132009-10-04T08:08:00.000-07:002009-10-04T08:37:20.066-07:00Concert for Peace without Borders in Havana<p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:100%;" >A moment missed by <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place> performing artists</span></p><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">Louis Head</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Latin American Working Group (LAWG)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">September 22, 2009</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Louis Head</span> is Director of Cuba Research & Analysis Group in Albuquerque, NM, co-founder of US-Cuba Cultural Exchange and a member of the LAWG board.</blockquote><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"></span></i></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold;"><i><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"Peace without Borders" video links:</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">1) <a href="http://www.pazsinfronteras.org/">http://www.pazsinfronteras.org/</a></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">2) <a href="http://www.pazsinfronteras.org/video2009/">http://www.pazsinfronteras.org/video2009/</a></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">3) <a href="http://www.cipcol.org/?p=572">http://www.cipcol.org/?p=572</a><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i></i></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi65LyFYoZLWT3LER7gURow2atGaHx_hRef74PMyCy5kYUqsRaSY1fC3mmXkdb_mlVrPHOjPY_EAABITxg8Xo7ekCGv3ve9K5ovC1Eo9Vv6UTMmZoZ5NOz0PM8Q44ZEmkS8Z5Xk7rxcIBpD/s1600-h/HavenaConcert1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi65LyFYoZLWT3LER7gURow2atGaHx_hRef74PMyCy5kYUqsRaSY1fC3mmXkdb_mlVrPHOjPY_EAABITxg8Xo7ekCGv3ve9K5ovC1Eo9Vv6UTMmZoZ5NOz0PM8Q44ZEmkS8Z5Xk7rxcIBpD/s400/HavenaConcert1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388762782058890882" border="0" /></a>It seems that a day cannot go by without an article in the MSM declaring that “<st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region> is opening up to the world.” There’s a lot of tricky logic going in such statements, and this past Sunday’s Concert for Peace without Borders organized by Colombian pop star Juanes can help us to reflect on this a bit, and also to act to change United States restrictions on travel by Americans to Cuba. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="">Being the music lover that I am, before anything else I have to comment: <b>What a spectacular display it was! Well over a million people – half of Havana’s population according to Cuban press sources – filled the Plaza of the Revolution to see performances by Cuban artists living on the island and abroad whose work most epitomizes their homeland,</b> such as Los Van Van, Orishas, Silvio Rodríguez, Yerba Buena, Carlos Varela and Amaury Pérez. Hats off to saxophonist and music director extraordinaire Juan Manuel Ceruto and an amazing ensemble that accompanied many of the Cubans, as well as their foreign guests such as Luis Aute, Miguel Bosé, Olga Tañón and Danny Rivera, among others. It was great to see Cuban musicianship on display again here in the <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place>, if only via an online video stream provided by Univisión, something unheard of not so long ago. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span><span style="display: none;"><input type="hidden"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7gQqFvnuCpaguJ8IG0ALfogsyot_pk9gZ1wZK7L4vYkEEfdSjRZdRFV_aiqKk97inN7m7UUZJj9B3VFOVY6V6KQEr6FiGEDdBN_4tJ2ADlMkkBEKXmk0u7Z6Ojn9BrOyHSxcF2D9b1l4/s1600-h/HavenaConcert2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 137px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7gQqFvnuCpaguJ8IG0ALfogsyot_pk9gZ1wZK7L4vYkEEfdSjRZdRFV_aiqKk97inN7m7UUZJj9B3VFOVY6V6KQEr6FiGEDdBN_4tJ2ADlMkkBEKXmk0u7Z6Ojn9BrOyHSxcF2D9b1l4/s400/HavenaConcert2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388763118544549922" border="0" /></a>Latin America was definitely in the house in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Havana</st1:city></st1:place>. <b>Performers from throughout the continent came together to celebrate their artistry, and to call for peace.</b> The peace message may have seemed a little diffuse when the effort was proposed some months back. Then came the “death tweets” and assorted vitriol spewed against Juanes by a tiny sector of the south Florida Cuban-American community. As the concert approached the singer realized the larger than life role he was taking on. <b>In the end he provided a bridge not only between the artists, but between all Cubans. This concert was above all else about <st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, framed within the context of <st1:place st="on">Latin America</st1:place>. Today <st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> has stronger relations with <st1:place st="on">Latin America</st1:place> than ever before in its history.</b> Meanwhile, there are more than a few Cuban-Americans who identify with their<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfkxkXN5y2YHYunBOUMbsiQXh-yBEMQF8batHlIwhZ4BRbNTwayicNdBlNugcJKfGDfk87Qc0hmd3UVHxvdS_NIMEGCnYrOFqNtMFR2xtffWbP-lq2fJ8BJyZ9FtF6m1sdDmQ52TffENYD/s1600-h/HavenaConcert3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfkxkXN5y2YHYunBOUMbsiQXh-yBEMQF8batHlIwhZ4BRbNTwayicNdBlNugcJKfGDfk87Qc0hmd3UVHxvdS_NIMEGCnYrOFqNtMFR2xtffWbP-lq2fJ8BJyZ9FtF6m1sdDmQ52TffENYD/s400/HavenaConcert3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388763774129273794" border="0" /></a> homeland, their culture and their people, not as fifty year old artifacts but as they exist today in real time. The Concert for Peace without Borders added big exclamation points to these realities. For American observers and no doubt many of the artists and of those in attendance, the five hour festival begged the question as to the whereabouts of performing artists from the <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><br />At the risk of simplistic treatment, <st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> and the <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place> have a long and rich history of collaboration when it comes to </b><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHEg1Hf_zYF3hcc7RH369AV_5zbMQ_5hIBEMUz-BRlJjpeMLduQymvu8wDJbMMarN4rCzln1dKHb8Ug-hPk8_N-1UnAY8iVzkpQLatj-fx-ZKA9W6AxN7irOUv8cwanuV8Q44iEmtY04LH/s1600-h/HavenaConcert4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHEg1Hf_zYF3hcc7RH369AV_5zbMQ_5hIBEMUz-BRlJjpeMLduQymvu8wDJbMMarN4rCzln1dKHb8Ug-hPk8_N-1UnAY8iVzkpQLatj-fx-ZKA9W6AxN7irOUv8cwanuV8Q44iEmtY04LH/s400/HavenaConcert4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388764102911819346" border="0" /></a><b>music.</b> Such was the case from the mid-19th century up until the early 1960s. During Jimmy Carter’s presidency in the late 1970s, musical collaboration in the form of Havana Jam and other projects took advantage of an opening and appeared to presage normalization of relations. Reagan all but shut the door on that hopeful period. The “People to People” era of Bill Clinton made the annual Havana International Jazz Festival part of the circuit for many U.S. musicians, and efforts such as 1999’s Music Bridges – a concept not unlike what Juanes brought us on Sunday – again raised expectations as travel to Cuba for Americans began to take on an air of normalcy for some. Then came George Bush, who by 2005 had implemented a policy characterized by what State Department officials termed “unprecedented disengagement” with <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Another time of hope and high expectations came to an abrupt end. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Wp1CneYIIBa3v013u5bMhgT6s400mS7hvHjvQ7FiVWR7JgD7Hh7RD-E6eixuJeWxS5NAQ3K78wcQNPoigWFcKIuGgDRfZ0t7wRdLylQKIMCVF4M_6X0mlV7h8qCXhE70-rp0suNQZB4o/s1600-h/HavenaConcert5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 147px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Wp1CneYIIBa3v013u5bMhgT6s400mS7hvHjvQ7FiVWR7JgD7Hh7RD-E6eixuJeWxS5NAQ3K78wcQNPoigWFcKIuGgDRfZ0t7wRdLylQKIMCVF4M_6X0mlV7h8qCXhE70-rp0suNQZB4o/s400/HavenaConcert5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388764726027018194" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="">In spite of the rhetoric and actions of the Bush Administration, that same year <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place> attempted to pierce the wall. Following hurricane Katrina and the ensuing flood that devastated <st1:city st="on">New Orleans</st1:city>, <st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> dedicated the 2005 Havana Jazz Festival to the music of <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">New Orleans</st1:city></st1:place> and invited performers from that cradle of North American culture to participate. Bush Administration officials made it clear that no one would be authorized to perform there. This mirrored the Bush refusal to even acknowledge <st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>’s offer to send hundreds of medical professionals to the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Gulf</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype st="on">Coast</st1:placetype></st1:place> to assist with disaster relief efforts, an offer made even prior to Katrina making landfall. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFqB3YG99yCj6mkcrJkIxchUukKZuj3MhSBR7hKjllH3cuWdXIo8ZRC8L58_p8edAlNTYzBuOE2hcAjmcVDi87f2JbGFnIXaJ41CEI4xMAFRjZL0HbfYFYin_QtwfOZNmYssj6ImswyMf/s1600-h/HavenaConcert6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFqB3YG99yCj6mkcrJkIxchUukKZuj3MhSBR7hKjllH3cuWdXIo8ZRC8L58_p8edAlNTYzBuOE2hcAjmcVDi87f2JbGFnIXaJ41CEI4xMAFRjZL0HbfYFYin_QtwfOZNmYssj6ImswyMf/s400/HavenaConcert6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388765231874254242" border="0" /></a>In 2007, Cuba’s prima ballerina Alicia Alonso called on the North American artistic and cultural community to work with their counterparts in Cuba so that “you are not prevented from coming to our Island to share your knowledge and values; so that a song, a book, a scientific study or a choreographic work are not considered, in an irrational way, as a crime. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b>When thousands of us here relayed that message to the Bush Administration, the response was complete silence. The Obama Administration has taken some positive steps towards changing the situation.</b> The most significant by far has been a blanket authorization to <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tcn0BGQ7YcJ0IAuok4-EdnlN2bC_LzRogeLFZaEloU5FcqV2oeTivBb86U4HPOXM8t-4hpHYbdKOz2QeONv4l59IqwbS9QTe11cJ7NIQr-tLc9uOqgWKr3VyXvzRAq-KOi936p78PPNc/s1600-h/HavenaConcert7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 123px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tcn0BGQ7YcJ0IAuok4-EdnlN2bC_LzRogeLFZaEloU5FcqV2oeTivBb86U4HPOXM8t-4hpHYbdKOz2QeONv4l59IqwbS9QTe11cJ7NIQr-tLc9uOqgWKr3VyXvzRAq-KOi936p78PPNc/s400/HavenaConcert7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388766237120642434" border="0" /></a>Cuban-Americans to travel to their homeland as often as they want, and to send to their families as much money as they may. There <b>were many Cuban-Americans in the audience at Sunday’s concert, and there were a few Cuban-Americans on stage performing. </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b>But this does nothing for millions of Americans who have expressed the desire to travel to <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>, if only they could do so without fear of punishment and harassment. This includes any number of musicians who would have been likely candidates to perform on Sunday and to share in the celebration with their brothers and sisters from <st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, <st1:place st="on">Latin America</st1:place> and elsewhere. </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dg2Ot9ym5FPJr8J4Wr2j8QS8rZ7Cx6U1xzRXSJC8gMLIYI1ZlAsEhJyq86Q1SZJmmebahrfj-PXqbpoWZHS5NRsNIc7FW-zq4dbd37RRyx2AzoEohmnmQi9lbjLk6vyIwoAvn8V5U4L2/s1600-h/HavenaConcert8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dg2Ot9ym5FPJr8J4Wr2j8QS8rZ7Cx6U1xzRXSJC8gMLIYI1ZlAsEhJyq86Q1SZJmmebahrfj-PXqbpoWZHS5NRsNIc7FW-zq4dbd37RRyx2AzoEohmnmQi9lbjLk6vyIwoAvn8V5U4L2/s400/HavenaConcert8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388766463258394498" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><st1:country-region st="on"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >photo: From left, Puerto Rico's Danny Rivera, Juan Formell, director of the musical group Los Van Van, Cuba's Amaury Pérez, Colombia's Juanes, Spain's Miguel Bosé and Víctor Manuel, and Venezuelan singer Cucu Diamantes<br />Photograph: Javier Galeano/AP<br /></span></st1:country-region></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> has been open to the <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place> for many years. The <st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region> meanwhile refuses to allow its own citizens to visit <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place> except under the most limited circumstances. <b>As author Ned Sublette states, “the embargo of <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place> is an embargo against us.” </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b>And it is up to us to change this. </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFt_DrP5UiH4FpvyR8_8-lTNUrDZ3eZbXbOmmj7YZGOSSdiV_KOVjxmLOeQF7feOGLxw7i5icnE_VsMS_a4hQyt1bMFNMeKNpSCrBlpJQG0QNFpK5zzsinvgSr3Ucj63vq6IyHE58oGFCq/s1600-h/HavenaConcert9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 185px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFt_DrP5UiH4FpvyR8_8-lTNUrDZ3eZbXbOmmj7YZGOSSdiV_KOVjxmLOeQF7feOGLxw7i5icnE_VsMS_a4hQyt1bMFNMeKNpSCrBlpJQG0QNFpK5zzsinvgSr3Ucj63vq6IyHE58oGFCq/s400/HavenaConcert9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388767179757701874" border="0" /></a>Anyone who was moved by what they saw taking place at the Concert for Peace without Borders should be so moved to support the pending “Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act” – HR 874 in the House and its counterpart S 428 in the Senate – which are due to be considered by Congress this Fall. <b>Take a moment on September 30 and join other Americans who will be contacting their elected officials that day. Ask them if they are supporting these critical bills, and if they are not, tell them why you believe that it is important that they do. Let us be inspired by the example of the Concert for Peace to take our own steps towards ending our own isolation from our island neighbor.</b> <span style="display: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-3700977021097331342009-09-26T08:29:00.000-07:002009-09-26T08:32:48.820-07:00Cuba Undertakes Reforms in Midst of Economic Crisis<span style="font-weight: bold;">Roger Burbach</span><br />Global ALternatives<br />September 20, 2009<br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Roger Burbach</span> is the author of “The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice,” and the Director of the Center for the Study of the Americas based in Berkeley, CA. He is working on a new book with Gregory Wilpert, “The Renaissance of Socialism in Latin America.”<br /><br /></blockquote>Carlos picks me up with his dated Soviet-made Lada at the Jose Marti International Airport on a hot sweltering day in Havana. It’s been eight months since I’ve seen him, last January to be precise, when I came to the island on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. “How’s it been?” I ask him as we begin the 20 minute drive to central Havana. With a scowl, he replies: “Not so good, nothing seems to get easier.” He goes on to say that foodstuffs are as difficult as ever to come by, necessitating long waits in line for rationed commodities.<br /><br />I am not surprised, as I had been reading in the international press that Cuba has been compelled to curtail its food imports. Hit by the global economic crisis, spending by tourists dropped off while the price of nickel, Cuba’s main mineral export, fell by more than half. This meant that Cuba has no choice but to cut agricultural imports from its main supplier, the United States. Credit purchases are not an option, as the U.S. legislation in 2000, opening up agricultural sales to Cuba, requires immediate payment in hard currency.<br /><br />To add to its woes, devastating hurricanes hit Cuba in 2008, decimating some of the country’s sugar plantations, as well as its production of vegetables and staple foods. The only bright light in the midst of this food crisis is the implementation of reforms in the agricultural sector under Raul Castro, who became acting president in July 2006. He officially assumed the presidency from his brother Fidel after a vote by the Cuban National Assembly in February 2008.<br /><br />I am particularly interested in knowing how the distribution of 690,000 hectares of idle lands to 82,000 rural families, in process when I left Cuba in January, has affected the domestic supply of fresh produce. On my second day, I go to one of the open markets in Havana where I talk to Margarita, who is selling undersized tomatoes. She says they come from her father’s new farm. “We started cultivating tomatoes, as well as other vegetables,” she says. “We even hired workers, which is now allowed. But then, as the crops began to mature, we got very little water from the state-owned irrigation system.” Fearing the worst, I ask her if the state is discriminating against the new producers. “No” she says, “the wells and the irrigation system simply didn’t have any gas for the pumps.”<br /><br />Later in the day, I meet with Armando Nova, an agricultural economist at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy. I had also talked with him in January and he had then been optimistic about the coming year. I ask him what’s gone wrong and he says, “We’re caught between the effects of the global economic crisis and the difficulties of implementing the reforms.” He goes on to say that there has actually been an increase in fresh produce since the beginning of the year, but it is hardly noticeable in the markets because of the increased demand, a result of the drop in international imports.<br /><br />As to the economic reforms, Nova says: “The top leadership around Raul is committed to a fundamental shake up of the economy, but change is slow because of bureaucratic obstacles.” The very process of distributing idle lands requires 13 steps of paper work submitted to different agencies. And while the government is committed to providing the new farmers with the inputs needed to start up production, many of them are not delivered because they are simply not available due to the economic crisis.<br /><br />Nova’s view that reforms are inevitable is reinforced in a special report on the economy released by Inter Press Service (IPS), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Relations: “There is an ever broadening consensus about the necessity of a profound transformation of the Cuban economic model. … It is recognized that the future strategy should include non-state forms of property — not only in agriculture, but also in manufacturing and services.” The publication asserts, “Fifty years of socialism in Cuba have to be re-evaluated,” particularly the role of the state and the need to use market mechanisms.<br /><br />To facilitate this transformation, the government is opening up a 45-day public discussion that includes union centers, schools, universities, community organizations and the base of the Cuban Communist party. According to materials sent out to orientate the discussions, the participants should “not only identify problems, but also suggest solutions…The analysis ought to be objective, sincere, valiant, creative, … carried out in absolute liberty with respect for discrepant opinions.”<br /><br />According to Orlando Cruz of the Institute of Philosophy, whom I met at a conference in Havana on social movements, “socialism is to be re-founded in Cuba. We have to totally discard the Soviet model that so badly served us.” I ask whether Cuba will now move towards the Chinese model. Like others in Cuba in the party and the government I have asked the same question. He responds somewhat curtly: “We respect the Chinese model, but we have to follow our own process and history. China is a totally different country.” Cruz makes clear that there will be meaningful democratic participation in the new Cuba: “We will not allow the formation of a petit-bourgeoisie to control or distort the process. We want to construct an authentic democratic socialism. It will be deeper and more participatory than that of the social democracies of Europe.”<br /><br />I first went to Cuba in 1969 and have visited the country every decade since then. There have been many challenging moments in the revolution’s history, and now we are witnessing another one, as the country embarks on an endeavor to free the economy from the shackles of its bureaucracy. The fate of this move depends on the ability of society at the grass roots to exert a greater role in the country’s economic and political institutions. If this effort succeeds, the Cuban revolution will be opening a new path for socialism in the 21st century.<br /><br />© 2007- 2009 CENSA: Center for the Study of the Americas 2288 Fulton St., Suite 103, Berkeley, CAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-26602694529718604682009-08-10T14:55:00.000-07:002009-08-10T15:03:25.162-07:00Cuba will stay socialist, insists Raul Castro<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">-- CubaPresident s ays softened US stance will not lead to radical change</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mark Tran</span><br />guardian.co.uk<br />August 2,2009<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgku0Cq2Vh9UaAM5oA35cw3KxbkMzu6_upsG1BRzGM94s1KGq7iS9SAD5no8MfkP_WdUxH51ctvIGUjlbxr4QGY72hpn3r6Lg9Qfjvs07dS3ju5zQ2Zc2xfbYPZ0YmoT-tDQllDMd0C73kx/s1600-h/raulCastro.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgku0Cq2Vh9UaAM5oA35cw3KxbkMzu6_upsG1BRzGM94s1KGq7iS9SAD5no8MfkP_WdUxH51ctvIGUjlbxr4QGY72hpn3r6Lg9Qfjvs07dS3ju5zQ2Zc2xfbYPZ0YmoT-tDQllDMd0C73kx/s400/raulCastro.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368457434619550594" border="0" /></a>Raul Castro yesterday acknowledged that the US has softened its rhetoric towards Cuba under Barack Obama but insisted that the island would remain a socialist country even after the death of its revolutionary leaders.<br /><br />The former defence minister, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel as president last year, repeated his willingness to discuss all issues with the US but vowed that Cuba would not see fundamental change even after he and his older brother were gone.<br /><br />"I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not destroy it. We are ready to talk about everything, but … not to negotiate our political and social system," Castro told the Cuban national assembly to a long standing ovation.<br /><br />As for those who thought that Cuba's political system would crumble after "the death of Fidel and all of us", Castro said: "If that's how they think, they are doomed to failure."<br /><p class="DL-caption"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5_eZ-MfjObwz6aIRnlE-KGTI7Ur5TJxCtYnB8HAqgk9raUXB2hJ6d6Kib9EHP7puonBj9bvab7ZTgehQDK4Nn9rc1aRmrgxSICyq47fUQlFxMGMyKWMB7yWurJ6YPjQq1QpXMVextZQa/s1600-h/cubanLeaders.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5_eZ-MfjObwz6aIRnlE-KGTI7Ur5TJxCtYnB8HAqgk9raUXB2hJ6d6Kib9EHP7puonBj9bvab7ZTgehQDK4Nn9rc1aRmrgxSICyq47fUQlFxMGMyKWMB7yWurJ6YPjQq1QpXMVextZQa/s400/cubanLeaders.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368459053961159042" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >Cuba's President Raul Castro (L) talks to United Nations General Assembly Chief Miguel d'Escoto (C) and Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly during the May Day parade on Havana's Revolution Square May 1, 2009. </span><br /><a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/0cXQcFi8086XI?q=Miguel+D%27Escoto+%28politician%29" class="DL-full-link" title="View photos of Miguel D'Escoto (politician)"><span class="DL-chevron"></span></a> </p> Obama has said he wants to improve relations with Cuba – as with Iran. He has relaxed the 47-year-old US embargo by allowing Cuban-Americans to travel and send money freely to the island 90 miles from Key West, Florida, and has reopened immigration talks with the Cuban government that were suspended by his predecessor, George Bush.<br /><br />In another conciliatory gesture, the US recently turned off a news ticker on the US interests section in Havana that Cuba viewed as a constant provocation.<br /><br />But Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have said further improvements depend on Cuba making progress on human rights.<br /><br />In much of yesterday's speech, Castro gave a bleak overview of the economy, saying the government had cut its budget for the second time this year because of the country's worst financial crisis since the 1990s. Conditions are so bad that the authorities on Friday postponed a Communist party congress that would have been the first of its kind in 12 years.<br /><br />Castro said the economy, hit by the global financial crisis and three hurricanes last year, grew just 0.8% in the first half of 2009. He said growth of 1.7% was expected for the full year.<br /><br />As combined economic shocks reduced income from exports and boosted spending on imports of food and other items, Castro held out the prospect of cuts in Cuba's admired healthcare system. Healthcare, along with free education through university, subsidised housing and food provided on a monthly ration system, forms the basis of Cuba's socialist model.<br /><br />Castro's biggest reform has been the decentralisation of decision-making in agriculture and putting more land in the hands of private farmers to increase food production. He has also pushed for Cubans to be paid based on their production, to create incentives for them to work harder.<br /><br />In the fight against corruption which he says is choking the Cuban economy, Castro has created a comptroller general's office, with powers to audit and control all government and economic activities.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-3249557293950663472009-07-19T13:13:00.000-07:002009-07-19T13:15:38.618-07:00Ghost of “Communism” Walks Havana<span style="font-weight: bold;">Esteban Diaz</span><br />Havana Times<br />July 19, 2009<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Esteban Diaz</span> is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently in his sixth year of studies at the Latin American Medical School in Havana. He likes to travel in Cuba when there is no class in school.</blockquote><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOYiR-CBKiyGJqVvwBg7AH0dwXWbLltZ9m9pvNavuwU84Ozp7blTgYETLu0WlWoUm8l_UddDr5lzTAc57cbua62FFcC61YMSygU1PBOtky17f7G5ZAjgxxXGhjVYkzkqWwd9ycNQ5g-TV/s1600-h/havana.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 123px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOYiR-CBKiyGJqVvwBg7AH0dwXWbLltZ9m9pvNavuwU84Ozp7blTgYETLu0WlWoUm8l_UddDr5lzTAc57cbua62FFcC61YMSygU1PBOtky17f7G5ZAjgxxXGhjVYkzkqWwd9ycNQ5g-TV/s400/havana.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360267359106508946" border="0" /></a>They touch on issues that they would like to see improve:<br /><br />- The struggle against national bureaucracy.<br /><br />- The participation of workers in making decisions related to the trajectory of the country.<br /><br />- The combination of agriculture and industry; a measure to gradually erase the differences between the cities and rural areas.<br /><br />- Industrialization in order to decrease imports that drain the national economy.<br /><br />- The inclusion of information in the media regarding problems affecting the daily lives of workers as well as social groups; together with all the news of revolutionary processes occurring in the world, especially those arising from workers’ organizations.<br /><br />- Collectivization of the economy.<br /><br />- etc., etc…<br /><br />In general I am satisfied to participate in discussions with Cubans. Of course, what I listed above, I expressed in the form of conclusions, but in the end, it’s all centered on the same ideas.<br /><br />These ideas for the development of a socialist country shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with Marxist theory.<br /><br />However it is not the conclusions that surprise many Cubans I know, but the fact that I confess to them that ¡OOOOH, HORROR!!! I am a Communist.<br /><br />This fact has been a cause for alarm for the majority of Cubans that I have met.<br /><br />This does nothing but confirm the bad reputation of this political movement stemming from the distortion created by Stalinism with its bureaucratic character, exchanging democratic centralism for bureaucratic centralism and absolute top-down decision making, which destroys a true democratic proletariat.<br /><br />But, don’t be mistaken, the people are not against Marxism, but instead are against those who carry the Marxist flag but nullify its theories with their inconsequent practices.<br /><br />Faced with such an “organized” phobia, all which is left for me is the revolutionary role of the worker ant: interacting with the workers and learning from one another.<br /><br />However if we do not succeed in breaking the subjective-objective barrier that separates theory from praxis, we will be lost to empiricism.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-74277136110018346672009-05-02T19:41:00.000-07:002009-05-02T20:32:17.374-07:00Response to a Misinformed “Left” Critique of Cuba<span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Roman, Hobart A. Spalding</span><br />Socialism and Democracy<br />Volume 21, Issue 2<br />July 2007<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Peter Roman</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> is a professor in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Department at Hostos Community College and in the Political Science Program at the City UNiversity of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. He is also a faculty advisor for the Bildner Center Cuba Program. His book, </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">People's Power: Cuba's Experience with Representative Government</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"> </span>was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2003. His article "<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255); font-style: italic;">Electing Cuba's National Assembly Deputies</span>" was published by the European Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies in April, 2007. His article "<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">The Lawmaking Process in Cuba</span>" was published in the journal Socialism and Democracy in 2005. His article "<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">The National Assembly and Political Representation</span>" was published in <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Cuban Socialism in a New Century</span>, edited by Max Azicri and Elsie Deal and published in 2004 by the University Press of Florida in Gainsville. He is on the board of editors of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Socialism and Democracy</span>.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hobart A. Spalding</span> is a Prof. Emeritus at the Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center, teaching Latin American and Caribbean history. He has published two books including <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Organized Labor in Latin America</span> (Harper and Row, 1977), a similar number of monographs, and over forty-five articles, mostly in the field of Latin American labor history and relations between workers in the United States and those in Latin America. He has also done research on Argentina since the 1880s, recent Dominican migration to New York, and contemporary Peru. His articles have appeared in diverse journals such as<span style="font-style: italic;"> Latin American Research Review</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Latin American Perspectives</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Science & Society</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Caribe Contemporaneo</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Monthly Review</span>,<span style="font-style: italic;"> International Labor and Working Class History</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Journal of Interdisciplinary History</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Migration</span>,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Nueva Sociedad</span>, and NACLA's <span style="font-style: italic;">Report on the Americas</span>, as well as in books and anthologies. His current research concentrates upon the Latin American policy of the AFL-CIO, 1960-1990. </span></blockquote><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfkFs5w1fpykCxkXKbw-lyN6LKz-vTKU6lWlSr275AODuF2PSeCu3q0sKXsVDFBGAPTN7FphVx6aMJaNUS04obxKRwNGr-OzXcLBY30GcRnbQqymlLeTg2GIGk2wJDcy6L-LXoWlMphtbb/s1600-h/journalSocialism&democracy.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfkFs5w1fpykCxkXKbw-lyN6LKz-vTKU6lWlSr275AODuF2PSeCu3q0sKXsVDFBGAPTN7FphVx6aMJaNUS04obxKRwNGr-OzXcLBY30GcRnbQqymlLeTg2GIGk2wJDcy6L-LXoWlMphtbb/s400/journalSocialism&democracy.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331432559720161170" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Socialism and Democracy</span><br />Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy<br />ISSN: 1745-2635 (electronic) 0885-4300 (paper)<br />Publication Frequency: 3 issues per year<br />Publisher: Routledge</span><br /><br />Recent months have seen a resurgence of articles about Cuba, spurred in no small measure by the transfer of leadership from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul. Opponents both hard and soft line openly discuss “transition” as if it were a given that Cuba will soon become some kind of capitalist society. Those who are preparing to dance in the Orange Bowl as soon as the word arrives that Fidel has passed (the word has come several times already but proved false) even hope to return to the good old days when Cuba was a virtual colony of the United States. Sometimes, lost in all this noise from Cuba's enemies, is the fact that the left attacks Cuba too. Often these two lines of criticism display the same kind of errors, usually based on ignorance or deliberate distortion. One case would be Paul D'Amato, Managing Editor of International Socialist Review, whose article “Cuba: Image and Reality” (ISR, Jan.-Feb. 2007, 38-49) [<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >1</span>] shows no more understanding of the historical process in Cuba than do Bush's firm allies in Miami.<br /><br />D'Amato's diatribe breaks down into several parts. One, sectarian infighting with the Workers World Party and Sam Marcy; two, a whirlwind tour of the revolutionary process from 1952 to the present; and three, an all-out criticism of present Cuban institutions leading to the conclusion that Cuba is far from a socialist state (pp. 47-48). In the process he becomes so tangled as to say that one should oppose the US blockade of Cuba but that its lifting would lead back to colonization. If this were true, any real friend of Cuba would struggle to uphold the blockade!<br /><br />Our concern in this short comment is not points one and two above, but rather the final one. In fact, D'Amato is correct in asserting that the Cuban Revolution was not the product of a mass workers' uprising nor even of a mass peasant mobilization. Rather, it was the work of a relatively small cadre around the 26th of July Movement in alliance with other broad sectors of Cuban society (students, some workers and peasants, middle sectors, etc). Be that as it may, and despite its strong impact on how things developed after the fall of Batista in 1959, what is important for us here is the current situation.<br /><br />D'Amato's article is filled with factual errors and lacks understanding of how Cuba's socialist institutions function. One example of this is his treatment of representative government, called People's Power (Poder Popular). D'Amato misrepresents the nature, purpose, and mechanisms of Cuban democracy and fails to understand how it differs from so-called democratic regimes under capitalism. Cuban sociologist Juan Valdeacutes Paz notes that citizen participation in capitalist countries is largely limited to elections. Under socialism it is defined by participation in government and involvement in government decisions. Whereas the former stresses competition and rivalry, the latter is defined by consensus and consultation.<br /><br />The description of Cuba as “democracy without substance” (p. 43) fails to take into account that municipal and provincial assemblies, while lacking legislative powers (which fall under the purview of the National Assembly), monitor and control all economic, social, educational, and health-related activities within their territories. They appoint and oversee administrators, elect judges, root out corruption, formulate economic plans and budget proposals, initiate and carry out policies, and act on citizen complaints and suggestions (planteamientos). Through semi-annual meetings with municipal delegates, constituents have direct input into decision-making. Under the socialist theory of mandat impeacuteratif, the municipal delegates must attempt to resolve all planteamientos, with the assistance of groups of delegates at the neighborhood level called the People's Councils (Consejos Populares), which also mobilize constituents and provide opportunities for citizen involvement in resolving problems. [<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >2</span>]<br /><br />D'Amato also misreads elections and the role of the Cuban Communist Party (Partido Comunista Cubano or PCC). At no level is the PCC involved in candidate selection, since it is not an electoral party. Municipal assembly delegate candidates are selected by constituents in neighborhood meetings in the electoral districts, and by law there must be between two and eight candidates. Candidates for provincial assemblies and the National Assembly are selected, after extensive consultation with constituents, by candidacy commissions led by union leaders and on which, contrary to the ISR article, the PCC has no representation. They are submitted for approval to the municipal assemblies and then elected by the voters. Never (as claimed on p. 43) were only 55% of the National Assembly deputies elected. What D'Amato is probably referring to is that up to 50% of the National Assembly deputies are also elected municipal delegates. When the author complains that voters can vote for all or some of the candidates, he fails to understand what slate voting means, as prevalent in, for example, union elections in the US.[<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >3</span>]<br /><br />The fact that the National Assembly meets in regular session only twice a year does not make it a “rubber-stamp body” (p. 43). To claim so ignores the varied sources of legislative initiative and the role of National Assembly commissions that meet regularly all year round and where most of the legislative work gets done. The Agrarian Cooperative Law of 2002 provides a typical example of the Cuban legislative process. The initiative behind the law and first draft came from the National Association of Small Farmers (Asociacioacuten Nacional de Agricultores Pequentildeos or ANAP). It then went for revisions to governmental ministries and various professional groups. After several drafts, the National Assembly commission on productive activities led discussions with National Assembly deputies and cooperative farmers in the provinces, which resulted in major changes in the draft law. At no point did President Castro become involved nor did the PCC run the show. Further, the changes gave something to all parties involved; no one imposed upon the other. For example, following demands made by farmers and their National Assembly deputies, revisions were made regarding the legality and ownership of existing housing on cooperative land, state aid, marketing of surplus production, and distribution of profits. [<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">4</span></span>]<br /><br />The authors D'Amato cites to support his arguments are, predictably, mostly opponents of the Revolution: Samuel Farber, Marifeli Peacuterez-Stable, and Carmelo Mesa-Lago, to name a few. Obviously he takes their word regarding Cuba without bothering to investigate further. One also wonders if the author has ever been to Cuba to see for himself, always a wise thing to do before pontificating. He also states that since Cuba has not reached what he considers to be socialism (“Socialism is the self-emancipation of the working class or it is nothing,” p. 48), the Revolution cannot be socialist. This kind of idealistic, ahistorical mindset rejects any notion of process. Clearly the Revolution was not born socialist and it has some distance to go before achieving that goal. If one reads the frequent criticism and self-criticism in Ignacio Ramonet's recently published book-length interview with Fidel Castro, [<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >5</span>] it becomes clear that Cuba's socialist development was impeded not only by ferocious US-led imperialist opposition, but also by real mistakes made by real human beings inside Cuba. For example, as Fidel observes to Ramonet, Cuba would not have survived without the Soviet Union, but the adoption of the Soviet model without consideration for local conditions proved to be a major error (see, in particular, chapter 17). The important question, however, is the direction in which things are moving. What differentiates Cuba from other countries claiming the socialist mantle is the process that builds on the history and tradition of the Paris Commune and the 1905 and 1917 Soviets, as well as on the theories of Rousseau, Marx, Engels, and Lenin, with changes marking its own path.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Notes</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">1</span>. Online at www.isreview.org/issues/51/cuba_image&reality.shtml<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">2</span>. For case examples of the system at work, see <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Roman</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">People's Power: Cuba's Experience with Representative Government</span> (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">3</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Roman</span>, “<span style="font-style: italic;">Electing Cuba's National Assembly Deputies</span>,” European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 82, April 2007.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">4</span>. See <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Roman</span>, “<span style="font-style: italic;">The Lawmaking Process in Cuba</span>,” S&D #38, July 2005.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">5</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">Biografia cutea a dos voces</span> (New York: Random House; Madrid: Mondadori, 2006) (reviewed in S&D #43, March 2007).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-42018544539068782442009-04-21T21:17:00.000-07:002009-04-21T21:27:00.161-07:00Cuba: Freedom of Expression & Socialism<style type="text/css" media="screen"><br /><br />.wp-caption {<br />border: 1px solid #ddd;<br />text-align: left;<br /><br />background-color: #f3f3f3;<br />padding-top: 7px;<br />padding-right:0px;<br />padding-left:7px;<br />margin: 10px;<br />/* optional rounded corners for browsers that support it */<br />-moz-border-radius: 3px;<br />-khtml-border-radius: 3px;<br />-webkit-border-radius: 3px;<br />border-radius: 3px;<br />}<br />.wp-caption img {<br />margin: 0;<br />padding: 0;<br />border: 0 none;<br />}<br />.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text {<br />font-size: 8px;line-height: 9px;padding: 0 4px 5px 5px ;<br />margin: 0;<br /><br />}<br /></style><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ron Ridenourd</span><br />Havana Times (www.havanatimes.org)<br />March 12, 2009<br /><br /><div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 400px;"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 224px; height: 149px;" title="“It is not a question of luxury, an alternative which one can choose or not: worker democracy is a condition sin qua non for the normal unfolding of a socialist economy.”" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCzdRaswERxT8OC_PjvVUwhKfbsRVXcWrc_bUR9X7BfrgYih9Vh9gEaeRDjs1GZJGp3jTK_j3q7GWTYkTaVd2GaR_1BJ-Kl_ey8DYmPq5Jmnfrlu17ynJVKHKbxcrNXl4C754gPdAuAOz8/s400/CubaFreedom1.png" alt="“It is not a question of luxury, an alternative which one can choose or not: worker democracy is a condition sin qua non for the normal unfolding of a socialist economy.”" width="355" height="236" /><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" class="wp-caption -text"><span style="font-size:78%;">“It is not a question of luxury, an alternative which one can choose or not: worker democracy is a condition sin qua non for the normal unfolding of a socialist economy.”</span></p></div><span style="font-weight: bold;">HAVANA TIMES, March 12</span> - How much freedom of expression and real (active) power the Cuban working class and the population as a whole, possess and exercise is a vital matter for the very survival of socialism and its development, a question that is being addressed by a few hundred university students, professors and professionals in Havana since November 2007.<br /><br />Over the last 50 years, the Communist party and government strategy for survival has focused on unity: unity in decision-making, unity around the top leaders, and unity in the media. This strategy has enabled the country to resist the United States and allied efforts to smash it.<br /><br />However, this approach has prevented leaders and the bureaucracy from believing that it can afford the “luxury” of allowing any significant active participation on the part of the population to discuss and decide what the nation’s politics and economy ought to be. Nor do the media question decisions taken.<br /><br />When questioned about the wisdom of this control, officials either ignore the question or respond with examples of how the US intelligence apparatuses intervene in other countries´ processes when they are not in what Washington perceives as its interests.<br /><br />Suffice it here to note the successful interventions in media organs during the Allende government in Chile (1970-73), and in Nicaragua during the first Sandinista government from 1979-1990.<br /><br /><div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 400px;"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 224px; height: 149px;" title="“The University of Havana (Photo by Maycgx).”" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirZmE_VUnIAi7wY1MsxV8lbcQOBufDNv3NHpvcFsKddDxvU3S2AvqOfae4w5ZtPjQpBi8Y-f92BIXstiKt4qZsIUgTh3bZgeKH-Iv447kPXbw8rcsor46KMMuzbuNv64u1EnqSFgiu6A84/s400/CubaFreedom2.png" alt="“The University of Havana (Photo by Maycgx)”" width="355" height="236" /><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" class="wp-caption -text"><span style="font-size:78%;">“The University of Havana (Photo by Maycgx)”</span></p></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Hunger for More Information</span><br />Cuba’s leadership has maintained that broader freedom of expression can place the nation’s very sovereignty in peril. While there is some truth to this historically, strict government control of the media and other channels of information and debate cripple the ability of the common man and woman from acquiring adequate information and ideas necessary for them to become empowered.<br /><br />This had led a sizeable segment of the population, and especially the younger generations, to be, disbelievers of what they are told by the media. They hunger for more and open information.<br /><br />Cuban historian and professor of the University of Oriente, Frank Josue Solar, recently wrote:<br /><br />“It is not a question of luxury, an alternative which one can choose or not: worker democracy is a condition sin qua non for the normal unfolding of a socialist economy. Without this it is deformed, and finally perishes.”<br /><br />In the past two years or so some leftist voices have begun to hold indoor workshops to discuss these questions. There are also handfuls of students at the University of Havana and the Cujae University who meet to discuss socialism’s future.<br /><br />This is the first time in decades that the government has allowed such open critique, albeit confined indoors until now.<br /><br />A group of university students, professors and professionals formed the Bolshevik Workshop to pay homage to the Russian revolution, at the 90th year anniversary in November 2007, and to discuss its trajectory and collapse.<br /><br />Some 500 people assembled at the University of Havana. One of the workshop organizers, Ariel Dacal Diaz, a professor of law, delivered a paper on the subject. The English translation is available at: [1] http://www.marxist.com/cuba-october-youth-future.htm<br /><br /><div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 400px;"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 224px; height: 149px;" title="“A sizeable segment of the population is hungry for more and open information (Photo by Caridad)”" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMW0RnYWtuhPkaJqQQV450sHalkzZ6B4ZoJBsr1fxp-tsoDse5R-FYKPPicQgiHICw_EqavebRCz3MG3peZSUJDycx_f8Xhf06TdtD7zvb_fXsx6ZG22XdIn3H3J7HhOZRoVnk58f2m33-/s400/CubaFreedom3.png" alt="“A sizeable segment of the population is hungry for more and open information (Photo by Caridad)”" width="355" height="236" /><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" class="wp-caption -text"><span style="font-size:78%;">“A sizeable segment of the population is hungry for more and open information (Photo by Caridad)”</span></p></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Revitalizing Revolutionary Marxism in Cuba</span><br />At this assembly, and at a subsequent workshop, participants viewed the need to revitalize revolutionary Marxism, also in Cuba. The dozen coordinators of the original workshop continued writing but did not organize other meetings in 2008 although they did create a lively Spanish language website, [2] www.cuba-urss.cult.cu. They propose to “contribute to the empowerment of persons and groups in their practice as citizen-subjects within the Cuban revolution as a process and with socialism as its project.”<br /><br />The website has hundreds of essays and articles by readers and past and current theoreticians and leading activists such as: Lenin, Trotsky, Gramsci, Luxemburg, and Che…<br /><br />At the end of January this year, the coordinators organized another workshop by the name: “To live the revolution 50 years after the triumph.” They now meet monthly at the Ministry of Culture’s Juan Marinello Center, close to the Plaza of the Revolution.<br /><br />The Ministry’s Antonio Gramsci Department and the Superior Art Institute (ISA) are cosponsors. The meeting hall allotted can hold just under 100 persons. It was full at the initial workshop where the theme was: Sentidos y significados de la revolucion en la vida de nosotros. (The significance and meaning of the revolution in our lives).<br /><br />This lay the basis for the following workshop- “The political system of the revolution: participation, popular subject and citizenship”–which I attended.<br /><br />In its announcement folder, the coordinators wrote: “This workshop seeks to contribute to the analysis on the place of citizen participation in the political system, its forms of expression concerning sovereignty, the necessity of a political and legal culture consistent with the social protagonism at the moment to create, control, limit and enjoy the political and the law.”<br /><br />Specific topics were: how does socialism reformulate the concept of citizenship; mechanisms of actual popular participation; how to contribute to empowerment, all within the context of Hagamos nuestra la revolución (Making the revolution ours).<br /><br />After a brief introduction and a short Cuban film, “The revolution we make,” the filled meeting hall broke into four groups to discuss what experiences we had with active participation and with forced participation, and how we felt as subject-citizens. (My participation was mainly as an observer since I do not currently live and work in Cuba, which I did from 1987 to 1996.)<br /><br /><div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 400px;"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 224px; height: 149px;" title="Paulo Freire: “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed.” (photo by Distant Camera)" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_yeFwe2oMAgmZBl08ziyWHYzeGrTFDPl95VxQCeDxxO-QrGdD4CIVFfbBIBnTBI1cZ_arJsQ2ELpLKfFwp2Yih8fgcSN6-WGsCi2Ye8D1lyZx7RlQ5klttdIoqp86pqqmGDtu69rSI3f/s400/CubaFreedom4.png" alt="“Paulo Freire: “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed.” (photo by Distant Camera)”" width="355" height="236" /><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" class="wp-caption -text"><span style="font-size:78%;">“Paulo Freire: “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed.” (photo by Distant Camera)”</span></p></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Frustrations and Impotence</span><br />Diverse expressions surfaced regarding active and “obligatory” participation. When people had felt they could participate and, perhaps make a difference they felt positive. The reverse was the case when their experiences were not truly voluntary.<br /><br />A student said that it was possible “to participate but `they´ make the decisions”. A young woman student spoke enthusiastically about this workshop initiative, which allowed her to feel as an active subject, “hoping it can lead to making a difference for the society.”<br /><br />A Colombian studying here said he felt more as a subject in Cuba than in Colombia but hoped for greater active participation.<br /><br />An older woman, who classified herself as an ordinary worker, said she felt isolated. “`They´ don’t give me a chance to participate in any real sense. `They´ don’t take our commentaries seriously, so I feel like a crazy old woman.”<br /><br />During a break, she said she believed the revolution has stood still since the mid-60s. A couple of older professional men, remembering those activist days when peasants and militia still carried weapons to defend the nation-which they did at the Bay of Pigs invasion and against counter-revolutionary groups infiltrated and financed by the CIA (Operation Mongoose)-believed the revolution died after that.<br /><br />The walls were covered with handwritten quotations by Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Silvio Rodriguez and others. On one wall were posted words by Paulo Freire: “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed.”<br /><br />Summaries of each group’s discussion were read during the last plenary session. The experiences and sentiments were similar. Bureaucratic mechanism’s of control were outlined and criticized during the discussion period.<br /><br />There was ample self-critique as well. We must overcome self-censorship. We must not yield to the fear of losing what we may have or hope to obtain, such as a better position, and thereby remain silent in face of unfairness or wrong decisions.<br /><br />One young man said each of us should find ways to improve our own behavior. For example, we must stop throwing trash anywhere we feel like it. We should intervene in all our surroundings with a positive spirit that we can make change.<br /><br />He said we can make “them” listen to us, because we are the producers, the people for whom the political structure serves. An older professor suggested we invite bureaucrats to meet with us, “because they are Cubans too and we could learn from one another”.<br /><br />A young professor of law, Julio Antonio Fernandez, gave a brief talk, first giving a brushstroke of revolutionary political and legal history. He then defended the constitution of 1976 as a revolutionary one, and one legalizing an active citizenry for socialism, one that establishes popular control of all mechanisms for sovereignty. The audience was so attentive a pin could be heard to drop.<br /><br />“We do not seek to regress to before the revolution: we must be designers and controllers… What is most important now is a critique of current state organisms and not the possible creation of ideal institutions,” said Fernandez.<br /><br />He continued by asking: If a dominating regime is necessary how can it act without alienating the people? How can we democratize power?<br /><br />We have formal rights of control, Fernandez said, but need to actualize them. The law is not that of the state but that of and for the people. Citizenry duty must be restored. He also spoke against continuing discrimination both of race and gender. The individual and the collective must recognize and confront these ills.<br /><br />“The danger of imperialism is real and we must find forms to act taking this reality into account,” he concluded.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Participation Leads to Solutions</span><br />Following his well received analysis, the body was asked for comments, especially concerning the question of how one can participate in a revolutionary manner. One-fourth of the audience-25 people-made comments and offered ideas to further the revolutionary process, and some called for action.<br /><br />Several people young and old said that the workshop process and its ideas should go public. There must be ways of involving workers, vital producers. Some said that while laws protect the right to associate and to organize associations, and no law prohibits strikes, the reality is something different.<br /><br />No one dare try to organize strikes, and many who petition for permission to organize associations are ignored or denied their right.<br /><br />An older lawyer said he was still waiting, now ten years, for a reply from the Ministry of Justice to his several petitions to organize a harmless, social association of descendants of Slavic people in Cuba.<br /><br />A sociology professor said that while some professions were allowed to form associations, those in sociology-a study prohibited in Cuba for three decades, which the government reinstated in the mid-90s-were not. Yet no reason was given.<br /><br />A history professor said it was necessary to define what socialism really is and what it should be. Among other things, socialism must be personal as well as collective. One must feel that he/she is a decision-maker. Without that sense, what occurred in Russia and Eastern Europe could well occur in Cuba.<br /><br />“Participation leads to solutions and that is liberating,” he concluded.<br /><br />Another person said that Internet is a liberating tool. The Cuban Ministry of Telecommunications has repeatedly said that broader access will be technologically possible when the Venezuelan undersea cable reaches Cuba later this year or next.<br /><br />One participant raised doubts about whether a dominating state power was any longer a necessity, especially one in which many leaders retain power positions for many years, even decades.<br /><br />A young female student said she felt stimulated by these workshops and was optimistic that positive changes could be made. Several youths echoed her sentiment. The last speaker, a Brazilian student, said that it was most important that the group not degenerate into sectarianism as do so many left groups around the world.<br /><br />The next workshop, open to all, will take place on March 27, at 9:30 a.m. at the Centro Juan Marinello. Its theme will be: state property, social property and the socialization of production.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Other pieces will be forthcoming.)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-83866342978685896592009-01-27T09:01:00.001-08:002009-01-27T09:03:56.631-08:00Winds of Change Blow Across Cuba<span style="font-weight: bold;">Roger Burbach</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">New America Media</span><br />January 25, 2009<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Editor's Note:</span> Cuba celebrated its 50th anniversary of the revolution as a new administration moved into Washington with the promise of change, and as the transition in Cuba's own government faces inevitable change, much of it percolating up from the people. Roger Burbach is the director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.</blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">HAVANA, Cuba</span>--The Cuban revolution is in a process of transition and transformation as it marks its 50th anniversary. I have visited the country every decade since the revolution’s triumph, and excepting the 60s, I have never experienced the Cuban people more open and discursive about their future. As Rafael Hernandez, the director of the widely read social and cultural journal Temas tells me, “We are rethinking the very nature of society and what socialism means. A discussion is opening up on many fronts over where we are headed, how property is to be defined, what is the role of the market, and how we can achieve greater political participation, particularly among the youth. Within the upper levels of the state and the Communist party there is real resistance to this, but the debate has been joined.”<br /><br />To be sure there are many differences expressed over what the future of the revolution holds under Raul Castro who replaced his brother Fidel as president two and a half years ago. I watched Raul’s speech on the 50th anniversary on TV at a café in Old Havana with a couple I first met 16 years ago, both of whom work in the field of education. Adriana, at the end of the speech comments, “While Raul did not say much about the current moment, he presented a good summation of what have been the revolution’s advances and challenges.” She and her husband, Julio, take particular note of Raul’s words that “this is a revolution of the humble and for the humble:” The leadership “will never rob or betray this trust.”<br /><br />Yaneli, the women who cooks at the house where I am staying, has a different take. As I am reading Raul’s discourse over breakfast the next morning in the official newspaper Granma, she glances over my shoulder, and I ask her what she thinks of Raul’s speech. She says “Nothing, its unimportant.” I nod, understanding how she could view Raul’s words as platitudes meaning little for her daily life. Then, as she is about to go back to the kitchen she notices a photo in the paper of a ballet performance presented before Raul’s speech that was dedicated to a political martyr of the revolution. “Ah,” she says, “one of the performers might be an instructor of my 12-year-old son who loves ballet. He has taken lessons at school since he was six and has placed first in several competitive events.”<br /><br />In old Havana I am struck by the presence on the streets and cafes of gays and transvestites. They are not harassed by the police unless they sell their favors to foreigners, who tend to be Italians, according to Adriana and Julio. A toleration and discussion of sexuality diversity became more wide spread in 2006 when Raul’s daughter, Mariela Castro Espin, published a special issue of the magazine she edits, “Sexology and Society.” On the inside of the cover page the very first words are: “To be homosexual, bisexual, transsexual or transvestite is not an illness nor a perversity, nor does it constitute any type of offense.”<br /><br />Much like the United States, many Cuban gays still feel oppressed by the mores of their society. At a book store several blocs from the Havana Libre Hotel, the old Havana Hilton of pre-revolutionary days, I meet Elieser, the 38-year-old owner of the stores’ impressive collection of new and used journals, magazines and books. I ask him what he has in the way of analytical or critical publications on the revolution. He goes to grab several boxes on the far side of the store, comes back, pushes close to me and says “You know we gays have been terribly abused and oppressed in Cuba.” I move back a bit, making it clear I am not gay, but query empathetically what he means. “We have been arrested by the scores at night and thrown in jail, even though no laws were broken.” When did this happen I ask. “In the 1970’s,” he says.<br /><br />“What about now, what do you think of Raul?” He responds, “I like what he says and think he is good for Cuba.” But he then goes on to lament that in spite of the change in official attitudes a “couple of my gay friends who are teachers in schools are shunned and encounter discrimination in the classroom.”<br /><br />Elieser then moves on to another point of contention in Cuba: “Most of the books I sell are in the convertible peso currency bought by foreigners like you, so I am able to get along, but I can’t change them into dollars and go to Miami. I will probably die with the United States always remaining a dream to me.” I turn and am about to leave and he says, “wait,” rushes into the back of the store and brings me out the first four issues of Temas published in 1995. He says “these are of historic importance, they were sharply attacked and criticized for being anti-revolutionary, but they paved the way for the vital political developments that are taking place now.”<br /><br />The most widespread and heated discussions one hears in Havana are not over sexual rights or politics, but the economy, particularly agriculture and the availability of food stuffs in the state and public markets. I arrange an interview with Armando Nova, a leading agricultural economist at the Center of Cuban Economic Studies. As we sit outside his office on a warm sunny afternoon, he flat off declares, “Our agricultural system is in crisis. Sixty percent of the caloric intake and 62 percent of the protein consumed by the average Cuban are imported.” Cuba is a rich agricultural country, yet approximately half of its tillable agricultural land is in open pasture or lays idle.<br /><br />Nova goes on to describe the agricultural reforms that were introduced in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed and cut off its food exports as well as agricultural inputs from fertilizers to tractors and irrigation systems. “We encouraged urban and rural gardens for family consumption, pushed cooperatives and allowed some free marketing that helped see us through the difficult times. But the current system is an inefficient mishmash.” It is comprised of state farms, state directed cooperatives, and more autonomous cooperatives usually formed by peasants with “no one knowing from one year to the next what to expect in terms of government policies or supplies,” he says.<br /><br />Added to this is the lack of an agricultural work force, as most of the Cuban rural youth who have access to free education at all levels have no interest in the long hours and back breaking labor of the fields, be it even as independent farmers. The most shocking aspect of Cuban agriculture is the collapse of sugar production. The country that served as a “sugar bowl,” first to the United States and then to the Soviet Union, today imports the high caloric sweetener to meet the needs of its people.<br /><br />In an effort to remedy the situation, new legislation was passed under Raul last year that permits anyone to solicit the government for 10 hectares of idle land that can be held and farmed in usufruct, i.e., for an indefinite period of time. The new farmers have the right to work the land independently and sell their produce on the open market. But the tendency is to join a cooperative because of the availability of regularized inputs, not because the state is trying to deny them access, but because the coops have more purchasing clout.<br /><br />“As of October, says Nova, there have been 80,000 petitions submitted for 800,000 hectares of land.” He is hopeful, but says “we still need to set up an open market for the distribution of inputs, which at present are allocated by the state at fixed prices.” He does not believe that all lands should be thrown open to small scale farming; there are efficiencies in state farms and state directed coops in the production of crops like sugar cane, potatoes, and perhaps some areas of beef and poultry production.<br /><br />Rafael Hernandez of Temas concurs with Nova’s perspective on the need to open up the market to smaller producers in agriculture as well as commerce and industry. When I ask him if this means Cuba is moving towards the Chinese model, he responds that “a group of technocrats are bent on narrowly following in the economist tracks of the Chinese. But there are others like me who argue that political reforms have to go hand in hand with economic changes. Workers and small farmers need to participate in the discussion of what political changes they would like to see from the bottom up in the economy and the society around them. If we don’t have reforms in both areas, our socialist future will be in jeopardy.”<br /><br />Alvaro Alonso, a sociologist and the assistant director of the country’s internationally renown publishing house, Casa de las Americas, traces the current opening to experimentation back to the “Special Period” of the early 1990s. “We had a dependency on the Soviet model, not unlike that which we had before the revolution with the United States. The severe economic hardship we experienced forced us to experiment in different forms of production, and there was a greater push for political as well as economic reforms from below.”<br /><br />I ask Alonso if he thinks Cuba is more open under Raul then Fidel. “Yes, but not because Fidel imposed his views and ideology on others," he responds. "He was such a brilliant revolutionary leader and thinker that others deferred to him. They took as a starting point in their discussions or writings what he had to say. Raul is not the same commanding figure, he delegates authority, and does not dominate the political discussions. The ferment for change is widespread as our society enters a broad participatory dialogue over where we want to go.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-22915289734379205982009-01-06T23:42:00.000-08:002009-01-07T05:32:48.642-08:00Cuba's Revolution: 50 Years of Resistance<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">'</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">A </span>Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble'</span><br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Speech by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Raul Castro Ruz</span>, president of the Council of Ministers of Cuba, at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, in Santiago de Cuba on January 1, 2009, "Year of the 50th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Triumph."</blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Men and women of Santiago, People of Oriente;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Combatants of the Rebel Army, of the underground struggle and of every battle in defense of the Revolution throughout these 50 years;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fellow Cubans:</span><br /><br />On a day like this, our first thoughts are for those who fell in this long struggle. They are a paradigm and a symbol of the effort and sacrifice of millions of Cubans. Together, armed with the powerful weapons of Fidel's leadership, teachings and example, we learned from the struggle to transform our dreams into a reality; to keep our heads cool and our confidence in the face of dangers and threats; to overcome big setbacks; to turn every challenge into a victory and to overcome adversity, no matter how insurmountable it might seem.<br /><br />Those who had the privilege of experiencing the intensity of this stage of our history are well aware of the truth of the warning Fidel gave us on January 8, 1959, in his first speech after entering the capital:<br /><br />"The tyranny has been overthrown. Our joy is immense. However, much remains to be done. Let us not deceive ourselves into believing that in the future everything will be easier, because perhaps everything will be more difficult."<br /><br />For the first time, the Cuban people had attained political power. The mambises [pro-independence guerrillas] finally entered Santiago de Cuba, together with Fidel. Sixty years earlier, U.S. imperialism had revealed its real objective of absolute domination by preventing the Liberation Army from entering this city.<br /><br />The U.S. intervention caused great confusion and enormous frustration but the Mambí Army, although formal dismantled, always preserved its fighting spirit and the ideas that led Céspedes, Agramonte, Gómez, Maceo and so many other heroes and independence fighters to take up arms.<br /><br />We endured five decades of corrupt governments and new U.S. interventions, the Machado tyranny, and the failed revolution that overthrew him. Later, in 1952, a coup d'état supported by the U.S. administration reinstated the dictatorship, following the pattern it commonly applied in those years to ensure its dominance in Latin America.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Armed struggle was the only way</span><br /><br />It was clear to us that the armed struggle was the only way. Again, the revolutionaries would have to face — as Martí did before us — the challenge of renewing the unavoidable war for the independence that was cut short in 1898.<br /><br />Thus, the Rebel Army took up again the weapons of the mambises, and after the triumph, was forever transformed into the undefeated Revolutionary Armed Forces.<br /><br />The Centennial Generation, which in 1953 stormed the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, was inspired by Marti's vital legacy and by his humanistic global vision, which extended beyond the attainment of national liberation.<br /><br />In historical terms, the lapse of time from the frustration of the mambises' dreams to the triumph of the War of Liberation was short. Early in that period, Mella, a founding member of our first communist party and of the FEU (University Students Federation), was the legitimate heir and the bridge connecting Marti's thoughts to the most advanced ideas.<br /><br />Those were the years when the consciousness and activity of the workers and farmers matured, when a genuine, brave and patriotic intelligentsia was formed that has stood by their side to this day. Cuban teachers, a loyal repository of the fighting traditions of its predecessors, planted the seeds for the best of the new generations.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">A cataclysm of social justice</span><br /><br />Right after the triumph, it was clear to every man and woman that the Revolution was a cataclysm of social justice that touched every home, from the large palaces on the Quinta Avenida in the country's capital, to the poorest shanty in the most remote farm or mountain.<br /><br />The revolutionary laws not only fulfilled the program of Moncada, but surpassed it, as we followed the logical evolution of the process. At the same time, they set a precedent for the peoples of the Americas, who had been fighting for emancipation from colonialism for 200 years.<br /><br />In Cuba the history of the Americas took a new turn. No moral virtue was absent from the whirlwind that — even before January 1, 1959 — started blowing away oppression and inequity. It opened the way for the enormous effort an entire people to control their own lives, to lift themselves up with their own sweat and blood.<br /><br />Millions of Cubans, men and women, have been workers or students or soldiers, and sometimes all three when circumstances demanded.<br /><br />Nicolas Guillén's masterly verses synthesized what the January 1959 triumph brought to our people. "I have what I was meant to have," he said in one of his poems, referring not to material wealth but to being the masters of our own destiny.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Constant attacks</span><br /><br />This victory is twice as worthwhile, for it has been attained despite the hatred and vindictiveness of our powerful neighbor.<br /><br />The promotion and support of sabotage and banditry; the Playa Girón [Bay of Pigs] invasion; the blockade and other forms of economic, political and diplomatic aggression; the permanent campaign of slander against the Cuban Revolution and its leaders; the October [Missile] Crisis; the hijackings of and attacks on civilian planes and boats; state terrorism that has left 3,478 dead and 2,099 maimed; the attempts on the life of Fidel and other leaders; the murders of Cuban workers, farmers, fishermen, students, diplomats and combatants — these and many other crimes bear witness to a stubborn determination to put out, at any cost, the beacon of justice and honor symbolized by January 1.<br /><br />One way or another, with more or less aggressiveness, every U.S. administration has tried to impose regime change in Cuba. Resistance has been our slogan and our key to success in every one of our victories throughout this half century of continual fighting. Notwithstanding the extensive and decisive solidarity we have received, we have consistently acted on our own and taken our own risks<br /><br />For many years, Cuban revolutionaries have abided by Martí's call: "Freedom is most precious and one must either decide to live without it or resolve to pay its price."<br /><br />On the 30th anniversary of the victory, Fidel said in this square: "We are here because we have been able to resist." Ten years later, in 1999, from this same balcony, he said that the Special Period was "the most extraordinary page of revolutionary and patriotic glory and firmness … when we were left absolutely alone in the West, only 90 miles away from the United States, and we decided to continue forward." We repeat the same thing today.<br /><br />Our resistance is based not on fanaticism but on sound convictions, and on the resolution of all of the people that the price of defending those convictions must be paid. Our glorious Five Heroes are a living example of that unshakable determination. (Applause, cheers)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255); font-weight: bold;">Today we are not alone</span><br /><br />Today, we are not alone on this side of the ocean facing the empire, as it was the case in the 1960s when in January 1962 the United States of America absurdly forced the OAS to expel Cuba. Only shortly before, Cuba had been the victim of an invasion that was organized by the U.S. administration and escorted to our coasts its warships. It has since been proven that the expulsion was supposed to be a prelude to direct military intervention. This was prevented only by the deployment of the Soviet nuclear missiles, leading to the October Crisis, known to the world as the Missile Crisis.<br /><br />Today, the Revolution is stronger than ever; it has never failed to stand by its principles, not even in the most difficult circumstances. This truth cannot be changed in the least, even if some get tired or even renounce their history forgetting that life is in itself an eternal fight.<br /><br />Does that mean there is less danger? No, it doesn't. Let's not entertain any illusions. As we commemorate this half century of victories, it is important to look to the future, to the next fifty years of permanent struggle.<br /><br />A look at the current turbulence in the contemporary world tells us that the coming years will not be easier. This is simply the truth; I am not saying this to scare anyone.<br /><br />We should also keep in mind what Fidel told us all, but especially the youth, at the University of Havana on November 17, 2005: "This country could destroy itself, this Revolution could destroy itself, but they [the enemy] cannot destroy it. We could destroy it ourselves, and it would only be our fault," he argued.<br /><br />In the face of this possibility, I ask myself: what would guarantee that such a horrible thing would not happen to our people? How can we avoid a blow that would take a long time to recover from?<br /><br />I speak for all those who have been fighting from the moment the first shots were fired on the walls of the Moncada barracks 55 years ago and for those who carried out heroic internationalist missions.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255); font-weight: bold;">We must never abandon our principles</span><br /><br />And of course, I speak for those who fell in the wars of independence and more recently in the War of Liberation. I speak for them all, and for Abel and Jose Antonio, for Camilo and Che, when I say, in the first place that this requires that tomorrow's leaders never forget that this is a Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble. (Applause) It requires that that they never be misled by the enemy's siren songs and know that the enemy will never cease to be aggressive, treacherous and dominating. They must never distance themselves from our workers, our farmers and the people at large. It requires that the party members prevent the destruction of the [Communist] Party.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">We must learn from history</span><br /><br />If tomorrow's leaders act consistently, they will always have the support of the people, even if they make mistakes, so long as they do not abandon basic principles. But if their actions are inconsistent with those principles, they my be powerless to correct their mistakes, because they do not have the moral authority that the masses only grant to those who never back away from the struggle. They could end up powerless before internal and external dangers and unable to preserve the achievements that are the fruit of the blood and sacrifices of many generations of Cubans.<br /><br />Let no one doubt that if that happened, our people will know how to fight, that today's mambises will be in the frontline; that they will never be ideologically disarmed nor will they ever lay down their swords. (Applause, cheers)<br /><br />It is the responsibility of the historic leadership of the Revolution to prepare the new generations to take up the enormous responsibility carrying the revolutionary process forward.<br /><br />This heroic city of Santiago — and all of Cuba — was witness to the sacrifices of thousands of compatriots. It felt the accumulated rage that for so many lives cut short by crime, and the endless pain of our mothers, and the sublime courage of its sons and daughters.<br /><br />This was the birthplace of a young revolutionary who was killed when he was only 22, a man who symbolizes willingness to make sacrifices; purity, courage and serenity; and the love for our people: Frank País García.<br /><br />This eastern land was the birthplace of the Revolution. It was here that the call to duty was made in La Demajagua and on July 26; it was here that we landed in the Granma and started the struggle on the mountains and the plains, the struggle that extended later to the entire island. As Fidel said in <span style="font-style: italic;">History Will Absolve Me</span>, "every day here looks like it will be again the day of Yara and Baire." [the cities where the war of independence began.]<br /><br />Never again shall poverty, humiliation, abuse and injustice return to our land!<br /><br />Never again shall pain be felt in the hearts of our or shame return to the souls of every honest Cuban!<br /><br />Such is the firm resolution of a nation that is prepared to fight, a nation that is aware of its duty and proud of its history. (Applause)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">We are our own strongest critics</span><br /><br />Our people are well aware of every shortcoming in the work they have built with their own hands and defended with their own lives. We, the revolutionaries, are our own strongest critics. We have never hesitated to publicly discuss our flaws and mistakes. There are plenty of examples, past and present.<br /><br />Following October 10, 1868, disunity was the main cause of our defeats. After January 1st, 1959, the unity forged by Fidel has been the guarantee of our victories. Our people have been able to preserve that unity despite all of the difficulties and the attempts to divide us, and have rightly placed our common aspirations above our differences, crushing pettiness with the strength of collectivism and generosity.<br /><br />Revolutions can only advance and endure when they are carried forward by the people. Full understanding of this truth and consistent and unshakable action to carry it forward has been decisive in the victory of the Cuban Revolution over its enemies, and over seemingly insurmountable difficulties and challenges.<br /><br />As we complete the first half century of the victorious Revolution, let's pay homage first to our wonderful people and to their exemplary decisiveness, courage, loyalty and spirit of internationalist solidarity; to their extraordinary will power, its willingness to sacrifice and their confidence in victory, in the Party, in their leader and, above all, in themselves. (Applause)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Homage to Fidel</span><br /><br />I know that I am expressing the feelings of my compatriots and of many revolutionaries around the world, when I pay homage to the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz. (Applause, cheers)<br /><br />One man alone doesn't make history, but some men play an indispensable role in influencing the course of events. Fidel is one of them; nobody doubts it, not even his most bitter enemies.<br /><br />Ever since his early youth he adopted as his own one of Martí's thoughts: "All of the glory in the world fits in a kernel of corn." This thought was his shield against everything superfluous or transient, his way of transforming praise and honors — even if well-deserved — into greater humility, honesty, fighting spirit and love for truth, which he has invariably placed above all else.<br /><br />He made reference to these ideas 50 years ago in this same square. His words that night are absolutely valid today.<br /><br />At this very special moment when we think of our past journey and particularly of the long way ahead, when we reiterate our commitment to the people and to our martyrs, allow me to conclude by recalling the alert and call to combat made by the Commander in Chief in this historic place on January 1, 1959, when he said:<br /><br />"We do not believe that all of the problems can be easily solved; we know that the path is fraught with obstacles, but we are men of faith, we are used to facing great difficulties. Our people can be sure of one thing, and that is that we can make one or many mistakes, but we will never steal and we will never betray you."<br /><br />And he added:<br /><br />"We shall never let ourselves be carried away by vanity or ambition, … there can be no greater reward or satisfaction than the fulfillment of our duty."<br /><br />On this day, full of significance and symbolism, let's reflect on those ideas, which stand as a guidance for true revolutionaries. Let's do so with the satisfaction of having fulfilled our duty and of having lived a life with dignity in the most intense and fruitful half century of our history. Let's do so with the firm commitment that we will always be able to proudly claim in this land:<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Glory to our heroes and martyrs!</span> (Cheers)<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> Long live Fidel!</span> (Cheers)<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Long live the Revolution</span>! (Cheers)<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> Long live Free Cuba!</span> (Cheers)<br /><br />(Ovation)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-62637601703541916042008-11-20T21:23:00.000-08:002008-11-20T21:25:24.790-08:00Castro's Reflection on Meeting Hu Jintao<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br />MEETING HU JINTAO</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">Reflections by comrade Fidel</span><br />Nov 20, 2008<br /><br />I didn't want to speak much, but he forced me to elaborate. I asked a<br />few questions but I mostly listened to him.<br /><br />He related the exploits of the Chinese people in the past 10 months.<br />The enormous nation with a 1.3 billion population has been hit by<br />heavy and out-of-season snow, and an earthquake which devastated<br />areas three times that of Cuba; in addition to the most serious<br />international economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.<br /><br />I could see in my mind the great efforts of the Chinese people, its<br />workers, its peasants and its manual and intellectual workers; the<br />traditional hard-working spirit and the millennium-old culture of<br />that country that preceded by thousands of years the colonial period<br />imposed by the West, the same West where the current G-7 powers sit<br />today with their force and wealth, playing a hegemonic role in the<br />world economy.<br /><br />What a great challenge for this leader in these times of<br />globalization who in a gesture of goodwill came to visit our<br />blockaded, harassed and threatened homeland! Are we not one a rogue<br />state among 60 or more that can be the target of a pre-emptive<br />attack? That much was said by the insane leader of the empire six<br />years ago, the same man who just five days ago met in Washington with<br />the G20!<br /><br />China is the only member of that group whose State can regulate a<br />high growth rate, at the pace it chooses, no less than 8% in 2009.<br />The idea raised during the last Party Congress was to quadruple the<br />per capita Gross Domestic Product between 2000 and 2020, measured in<br />2007 present values; that was the year the Congress was held.<br />He spoke to me about that in detail. Thus, in conditions of peace,<br />China will reach by the end of that period the figure of no less than<br />4 thousand dollars per capita income. I think that it should not be<br />forgotten that China is an emerging nation whose per capita income at<br />the time of the revolutionary victory --with a smaller population?<br />hardly reached $400 per capita, and the country was completely<br />isolated by imperialism. Just compare this with the $20 thousand per<br />capita, or more, that developed capitalist countries such as Japan,<br />the Western European nations, the United States and Canada currently<br />enjoy. The per capita income in some of these exceeds the $40<br />thousand annually, even if their distribution in society is far from<br />fair.<br /><br />It is only by using $586 billion from its foreign reserves amounting<br />to almost $2 trillions, accumulated through much hard work and<br />sacrifices that this country is facing the present crisis and<br />advancing. Is there any other country as sound as this?<br /><br />The President of China, Secretary General of the Party and Chairman<br />of the Party and Government Central Military Commissions, Hu Jintao,<br />is a leader who's aware of his authority and exercises it to the<br />full.<br /><br />The delegation he headed signed with Cuba twelve draft agreements<br />towards a modest economic development in an area of the planet where<br />the small territory in its entirety can be battered by increasingly<br />intensive hurricanes, an evidence of true climate changes. The area<br />affected by the earthquake in China is hardly 4% of the total area of<br />that great multinational State.<br /><br />Under certain circumstances, the size of an independent country, its<br />geographical location and the size of its population can play a major<br />role.<br /><br />Would a country like the United States, which robs already trained<br />minds everywhere, be in a position to apply an Adjustment Act to the<br />Chinese citizens similar to the one it applies to Cuba? Obviously<br />not. Could it apply it to the entire Latin America? Of course, it<br />couldn't there either.<br /><br />Meanwhile, our marvelous, contaminated and only spaceship continues<br />to circle around its imaginary axis, as one popular Venezuelan<br />program likes to repeat.<br /><br />It's not an everyday occurrence for a small state to have the<br />privilege of receiving a leader of Hu Jintao's stature and prestige.<br />He shall now continue his trip to Lima. There will be another great<br />meeting there. Again, President Bush will attend, this time seven<br />days closer to the end of his mandate.<br /><br />It is said that in Washington, with only 20 leaders of the attending<br />nations, the local security measures and those required by the host<br />to thwart any attempt at physical removal, changed the habits and<br />every day life in that city. How would it be in the great city of<br />Lima? The city will surely be taken over by the security forces.<br />It will be difficult to move around it because the well-trained members<br />of the US supranational bodies will be there, and their interests and<br />plans will only be known many years after the presidential terms of<br />the eventual leaders of the empire are over.<br /><br />I summed up for him some of our country's assessments on the habits<br />of our neighbors to the north, which tries to impose on us its ideas,<br />its mindset and its interests with its fleet full of nuclear weapons<br />and fighter planes; also our views on Venezuela's solidarity with<br />Cuba from the most critical days of the Special Period and the hard<br />blows dealt by the natural disasters. Likewise, that President<br />Chavez, a great admirer of China has been the steadiest advocate of<br />socialism as the only system capable of bringing justice to the<br />peoples of Latin America.<br /><br />In Beijing, they treasure good memories of the Bolivarian leader.<br /><br />President Hu Jintao reaffirmed his wishes to continue developing<br />relations with Cuba, a country for which he feels great respect.<br /><br />The conversation went on for 1 hour and 38 minutes. He was warm,<br />friendly and modest, and his affection was obvious. I found him<br />young, healthy and strong. We wish our distinguished and fraternal<br />friend the best in his endeavors. Thanks for his encouraging visit<br />and the honor of showing an interest in a personal meeting with me!<br /><br />Fidel Castro Ruz<br /><br />November 19, 2008<br /><br />1:12 p.m.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-33760523169855954252008-11-20T16:09:00.001-08:002008-11-20T16:09:57.581-08:00Castro serenades China's Hu on landmark Cuba visitAFP<br />Nov 20, 2008<br /><br />HAVANA– China's President Hu Jintao made a landmark visit to Cuba Tuesday, bearing millions of dollars in aid and promises of closer future trade ties.<br /><br />The Chinese leader brought 4.5 tonnes of humanitarian aid for victims of three hurricanes that battered Cuba this year, which was handed over late Monday after Hu's arrival at the Jose Marti International Airport.<br /><br />Receiving the gift, Cuba's Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Rodrigo Malmierca said that Cuba "deeply appreciates the visit of President Hu Jintao, at the exact moment the country is struggling to recover and continue its development."<br /><br />It was the third donation China has made to assist Cuba in its recovery from hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma, which caused 10 billion dollars worth of damages in the space of two months. Hurricane aid from the Chinese government and businesses has totalled more than 2.5 million dollars.<br /><br />Later he accompanied President Raul Castro on a visit to a school for Chinese students, where the Cuban leader sang snippets of a song in Chinese praising late Communist Party Leader Mao Zedong.<br /><br />"I learned to be a student like you, young like you and will remain so all my life," Castro told Hu and 300 Chinese students in the town of Tarara, east of Havana.<br /><br />During the ceremony, President Hu thanked the Cuban authorities for supporting young Chinese students in Cuba, noting that by 2011, some 5,000 Chinese will have learned Spanish in Cuba since the inception in 2006 of the exchange program which he called a "sign of friendship and cooperation ... between the Cuban people and the Chinese people."<br /><br />During his 36-hour visit -- his first to Cuba since 2004 -- Hu plans to oversee the signing of various cooperation deals.<br /><br />Hu also visited convalescing former president Fidel Castro, 82.<br /><br />The Chinese leader held a "long conversation" with the former Cuban leader and described finding Castro "very recovered," according to the Chinese official Xinhua news agency. The two appeared in a picture published on the website.<br /><br />Fidel Castro has met with several foreign leaders in recent months, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.<br /><br />Hu arrived in Havana late Monday after attending the world economic crisis summit in Washington and making a stopover in Costa Rica, where he launched free-trade talks and a string of cooperation deals.<br /><br />His Latin America tour, which also includes an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru, comes as China expands its diplomacy and investment around the world, eyeing natural resources and developing markets for manufactured goods and even weapons.<br /><br />Chinese exports to Latin America grew 52 percent in the first nine months of 2008 to 111.5 billion dollars, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.<br /><br />China was Cuba's second business partner, after Venezuela, in 2007 with 2.7 billion dollars of combined trade, and one of its main creditors.<br /><br />The two countries have remained close for decades, their Marxist Socialist past a driving force in relations, and they have increased ties since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.<br /><br />"This visit is an expression of the excellent existing links between both parties and governments," said an official statement published in Cuba's official government paper Granma on Monday.<br /><br />Hu's visit comes less than two weeks before the arrival of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in another Russian bid to fortify relations with outspoken US adversaries in Latin America on the back of a trip to Venezuela.<br /><br />China offered key support to former Cuban leader Fidel Castro when Cuba fell into dire economic straits after the former Soviet Union collapse, forging a divide which Russia has recently sought to reduce.<br /><br />Current deals include Chinese oil prospecting and extraction in Cuba -- onshore and offshore -- and two Cuban eye hospitals in China and a third under construction.<br /><br />Since Raul Castro officially assumed power in February, taking over from his ailing older brother Fidel, analysts suggest he is moving toward China's market economy model, although authorities still underline support for Cuba's state controlled economy.<br /><br />Raul Castro recently sought foreign investment for prospecting and exploitation of gold, silver, zinc and copper deposits.<br /><br />China already invests in nickel, Cuba's main export, and hydrocarbons on the island which produces the equivalent of 80,000 barrels of oil and gas per day.<br /><br />Granma on Monday lauded the Chinese model but underlined "an unequal distribution of wealth in the country, marked difference between city and countryside and the erosion of the environment."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-10575248006962746492008-10-13T21:48:00.000-07:002008-10-13T21:49:56.646-07:00Cuba begins leasing land in key Raul Castro reform<span style="font-weight: bold;">Marc Frank</span><br />Reuters<br />October 10, 2008<br /><br />Communist Cuba has begun leasing land to private farmers, cooperatives and state companies for the first time in decades in a step forward for one of President Raul Castro's main economic reforms, official media said this week.<br /><br />The move could not come at a better time, local economists said, as the country struggles with food shortages after hurricanes Ike and Gustav devastated crops last month.<br /><br />"First parcels of vacant land handed over in Granma" said a headline in Demajagua, the Communist party newspaper for the southeastern province of Granma.<br /><br />The report was the first mention in Cuba that land has actually been turned over since the plan was announced in July and applications were opened in September. The weekly paper said 33 parcels totaling 350 hectares (865 acres) were leased to farmers, cooperatives, individuals and other entities.<br /><br />Demajagua said applications had been submitted for 61,808 hectares (152,725 acres) of the 76,675 hectares (189,461 acres) of state lands in Granma.<br /><br />There has been no announcement at the national level that handovers have begun and it is not clear if the process has started in other provinces.<br /><br />Farmers in central Camaguey province told Reuters they had been advised that land leases there would begin within a few weeks.<br /><br />The handovers are the latest of several limited reforms implemented by Castro to try to make Cuba's state-run economy more productive since he formally replaced his ailing brother, Fidel Castro, as president in February.<br /><br />Raul Castro's broadest reform has been in agriculture, where he has decentralized decision-making, reduced bureaucracy and increased prices to raise food production in the import-dependent nation.<br /><br />Getting more land into the hands of private farmers, who have been more productive than state farms, is a key part of his plan.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">CROP DAMAGE</span><br />The issue has become more critical in recent weeks after hurricanes Gustav and Ike destroyed 30 percent of Cuba's crops when they struck a month ago.<br /><br />A decree law issued in July said private farmers who have shown themselves to be productive can increase their current land to a maximum of 40 hectares (99 acres) for a period of 10 years. The deal can be renewed.<br /><br />Cooperatives and state farms also can request additional land to work for 25 years, with the possibility of renewing for another 25, according to the law. It did not specify how much more land the cooperatives can get.<br /><br />The Cuban state owns more than 70 percent of arable land, of which more than 50 percent is fallow.<br /><br />For many years the government has leased land to individuals who want to farm for the first time, but balked at doing the same for private farmers and cooperatives, by far the country's most productive.<br /><br />The state-run National Information Agency said 5,692 land applications have been submitted in Granma, but figures for the entire country were not available.<br /><br />The process of handing over lands will take time because of the need to do land surveys and other issues, a local official told Demajagua.<br /><br />(Editing by Jeff Franks and Frances Kerry)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-29346456279427338102008-10-13T12:53:00.000-07:002008-10-13T13:03:26.307-07:00Cuba Parliament Appeals to parliamentarians throughout the world<blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"></span></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 13 (</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">acn</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">) The National Assembly of the Peoples’ Power (Cuban Parliament) issued a declaration calling on parliamentarians throughout the world to urge the US Congress and the government of the United States to unconditionally lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba and to respect the legitimate and sovereign right of the Cuban people to build their own destiny. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"></span></blockquote><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">DECLARATION</span><br /><br />On October 29, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly will discuss and put to the vote the draft resolution “Necessity to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”.<br /><br />For 16 consecutive years, the very General Assembly has approved similar resolutions by a growing and overwhelming majority. The last of these, which was voted on October 30, 2007, was supported by 184 countries.<br /><br />However, as was irrefutably demonstrated in the report presented by Cuba to the General Assembly on the resolution that was adopted last year, the government of the United States, with its customary arrogance, has ignored the express mandate of the international community and, far from ending that genocidal policy, is intensifying it in an attempt to kill our people by hunger and diseases.<br /><br />In the course of last year, the main targets of the blockade have been maintained and reinforced, which was evidenced by the systematic persecution and application of sanctions against companies and financial institutions that have or could have business with Cuba, while organizing or increasing subversive operations which, by virtue of the Bush Plan, pursue the goal of overthrowing the legitimate constitutional order that has been established and endorsed by the Cuban people and initiating the re-colonization of our country.<br /><br />As the international community knows full well, Cuba has suffered recently from the destructive swathe cut by hurricanes Ike and Gustav. According to unofficial figures, losses are estimated at more than five billion dollars, which basically focus in highly sensitive areas for the population such as housing, agriculture, energy and the infrastructure.<br /><br />The Cuban government, along with the determined and selfless efforts of the vast majority of our people, is deploying all its energy so that, in the shortest time possible, we may recover from the damages inflicted, look after the enormous needs of Cuban families, construct or reconstruct tens of thousands of houses and increase the production of foodstuffs. All of this should be done amidst the difficult conditions facing the world today, which is plunged in a financial crisis of unforeseeable effects for the entire planet.<br /><br />In that titanic battle we are waging, we have experienced the solidarity of many governments and peoples throughout the world who, through magnificent gestures, have sent contributions of donations and help of inestimable moral and material value, in spite of some of their own shortages. The Cuban people, the exceptional protagonist of the systematic practice of solidarity, understand in their entire dimension and convey its appreciation for these unselfish acts However, we cannot say the same about the government of the United States. First, they offered the presumed aid of one hundred thousand dollars accompanied by in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">situ</span> inspection of the damages caused by both hurricanes. The only answer we could give was that of not accepting any commission to evaluate damages, since our experience accumulated during all these years has enabled us to rigorously and objectively evaluate the ravages of this kind of meteorological phenomena.<br /><br />As a matter of principle, Cuba could not accept either any presumed aid from the government that has perpetuated the criminal blockade that has lasted almost 50 years.<br /><br />Cuba did not ask for help from anyone, much less the United States. Cuba did ask the government of that country to allow Cuba to buy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">fromAmerican</span> companies, under the same conditions in which these companies sell to the world market, the resources needed for the reconstruction of the country. Many were the voices in the United States, including those of presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican members of Congress, influential newspapers, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">NGOs</span> and humanitarian organizations, that asked the American administration not just to lift the blockade, but something much simpler: to relax for a few months its Draconian measures, including the travel ban on Cubans living in that country and the ban on remittances to their relatives in Cuba, something that, in their opinion, could have an impact on the assistance to the Cuban people.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the government of the United States reiterated that under no circumstances would it relax the application of its criminal policy. There is no more eloquent example of the true objective of the blockade: the attempt to destroy the Revolution by causing “hunger and despair” and undermine the support of the people, as recognized by that government on April 6, 1960. That policy, which clearly classifies for the international crime of genocide, will soon observe half a century of existence.<br /><br />In the face of the stubbornness and arrogance of the United States government, Cuba will continue forward. Fifty years of aggressions and economic war inflicted by the greatest power known to history will never crush the will of our people. In the arduous circumstances that we struggle today, we shall continue working for the country's recovery so that we may conquer, as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Martí</span> wished, all the justice.<br /><br />The National Assembly of the Peoples’ Power of the Republic of Cuba calls on parliamentarians throughout the world to demand from the Congress and the government of the United States to unconditionally lift its genocidal blockade and respect the legitimate and sovereign right of the Cuban people to build their own destiny.<br /><br />Havana, October 13, 2008.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-14072834370841399722008-10-07T16:57:00.000-07:002008-10-07T16:59:15.112-07:00Cuba to become oil exporter2008-10-04<br /><br />Havana (VNA) – Cuban former President Fidel Castro has said that Cuba might become an oil exporter in a relatively short period of time.<br /><br />On his article published in October 3 on the Granma newspaper, the former President added that “We are already partly so”.<br /><br />Cuba is cooperating with Vietnam, Canada, China, Spain, India, Norway and Malaysia to carry out oil and gas exploration and exploitation projects on land and off the Gulf of Mexico.<br /><br />Cuba has also granted exploitation and exploration permits to seven foreign companies and a joint venture between Spain, India and Norway, who are expected to exploit oil in their first oil well in early 2009.<br /><br />According to a geological research, Cuba’s oil reserves are estimated to reach 4.6 billion barrels and the Caribbean country can produce 525,000 barrels of oil per day in the next ten years.<br /><br />Currently, Cuba has spent up to 8 billion USD on its annual energy consumption while, the country earns 2 billion USD from its three economic spearheads including nickel, sugar and pharmaceuticals.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-28927649658337123422008-10-05T18:02:00.000-07:002008-10-05T18:08:45.421-07:00Cuba at UN: 'The very existence of the human species is at risk'<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.72in; margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></p><p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.72in; margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><i><b><br /></b></i></span></p><p style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.72in; margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><i><b>Speech by <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">José Ramón Machado Ventura</span>, First Vice-President of Cuba's Council of State and Ministers, to the general debate of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 24, 2008.</b></i></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><br /><br /></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We are living a decisive moment in the history of humankind. The threats looming over the world put the very existence of the human species at risk.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The promotion of peace, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development is the only way to ensure the future. The prevailing world order, unjust and unsustainable, must be replaced by a new system that is truly democratic and equitable, based on respect for International Law and on the principles of solidarity and justice, putting an end to the inequalities and exclusion to which the great majorities of the population of our planet have been condemned.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">There are no alternatives. Those responsible for this state of affairs, the industrialized nations and, in particular, the sole superpower, have to accept their responsibilities. Fabulous fortunes cannot continue to be wasted while millions of human beings are starving and dying of curable diseases. It is not possible to keep on polluting the air and poisoning the oceans; this destroys the living conditions of our future generations. Neither the peoples nor the planet itself will permit this without great social upheaval and extremely serious natural disasters.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The wars of conquest, the aggression and illegal occupation of countries, military intervention and the bombing of innocent civilians, the unbridled arms race, the pillage and usurping of the Third World's natural resources and the imperial offensive to crush the resistance of the peoples who are defending their rights, constitute the greatest and most serious threats to peace and international security.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Concepts such as limitation of sovereignty, pre-emptive war or regime change, are an expression of the desire to mutilate the independence of our countries.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The so-called war on terrorism or the false promotion of their freedoms, are an excuse for aggression and military occupation, for torture, arbitrary arrests and the denial of the right of self-determination of peoples, for unfair blockades and unilaterally imposed sanctions, for the imposition of political, economic and social models that facilitate imperial domination, in open disdain for history, cultures and the sovereign will of the peoples.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The gap between the rich and the poor widens with every passing day. The very modest Millennium Development Goals constitute an unreachable dream for the vast majority.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">While a trillion of dollars is spent on weapons in the world, more than 850 million human beings are starving; a 1.1 billion people don't have access to drinking water, 2.6 billion lack sewage services and more than 800 million are illiterate.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">More than 640 million children lack adequate housing, 115 million do not attend primary school and 10 million die before the age of five, in most cases as the result of diseases that can be cured.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The populations of the South are suffering with increasing frequency from natural disasters, whose consequences have been aggravated by climate change. Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and other Caribbean countries are examples of that. Let us make a plea for solidarity especially for our sister country of Haiti as it faces its dramatic situation.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The rise in oil prices is the result of irrational consumption, strong speculation and imperial war adventures. The desperate search for new sources of energy has pushed the criminal strategy driven by the United States government to transform grains and cereals into fuel.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">For a large part of the Non-Aligned countries, the situation is becoming unsustainable. Our nations have paid, and they will continue to pay the cost and the consequences of the irrationality, wastefulness and speculation of a few countries in the industrialized North who are responsible for the world food crisis. They imposed trade liberalization and the financial prescriptions of structural adjustment on the developing countries. They caused the ruin of many small producers; they denied, and in some cases destroyed, emerging agricultural development in the countries of the South, turning them into net food importing countries.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">They are the ones who maintain obscene agricultural subsidies, while they force their rules on international trade. They set prices, monopolize technologies, impose unfair certifications and manipulate the distribution channels, the financing sources and trade. They control transportation, scientific research, genetic banks and the production of fertilizers and pesticides.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We have not come here to complain. We have come, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned countries, to demand and defend the vindication of thousands of millions of human beings who claim justice and their rights.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The formula is not difficult nor does it require great sacrifices. All we need is the necessary political will, less egotism and the objective understanding that if we do not act today, the consequences could be apocalyptic and would affect the rich and poor alike. For this reason, Cuba once again calls on the governments of the developed countries, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned countries, to honor their commitments and, in particular, Cuba urges them to:</span></span></span></p> <ul><li><p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Put an end to the wars of occupation and to the plunder of the resources of the Third World countries and to free up at least a part of their millions in military spending to direct those resources towards international assistance for the benefit of sustainable development.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cancel the foreign debt of developing countries since it has been already paid more than once, and with this, additional resources would be released that could be channeled to economic development and social programs.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Honor the commitment of directing at least 0.7% of the Gross Domestic Product for Official Development Assistance, unconditionally, so that the South countries would be able to use those resources for their national priorities and promote access of poor countries to substantial sums of fresh financing.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Direct one-fourth of the money that is squandered each year on commercial advertising to food production; this would free up almost 250 billion additional dollars to fight hunger and malnutrition.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Direct the money being used for the North's agricultural subsidies to agricultural development in the South. By doing this, our countries would have about a billion dollars per day available to invest in food production.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Comply with the Kyoto Protocol commitments and set commitments to reduce emissions more generously starting in 2012, without wanting to increase restrictions for countries that, even today, maintain per capita emission levels that are much lower than those of the North countries'.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Promote the access of the Third World to technologies and support the training of their human resources. Today, in contrast, qualified personnel from the South are subjected to unfair competition and incentives presented by discriminatory and selective migratory policies applied by the United States and Europe.</span></span></span></p> </li><li><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And something that is today more urgent than ever, the establishment of a democratic and equitable international order, and a fair and transparent trading system where all States will participate, in sovereignty, in the decisions that affect them.</span></span></span></p> </li></ul> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Moreover, it is our deepest belief that solidarity between peoples and governments is possible. In Latin America and the Caribbean, ALBA and PETROCARIBE have demonstrated this.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has remained faithful to its founding principles.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We support the cause of the Palestinian people and their inalienable right to self-determination in an independent and sovereign State, with its capital in East Jerusalem.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We support the cause of all those other peoples whose sovereignty and territorial integrity is being threatened, like Venezuela and Bolivia, and we endorse the right of Puerto Rico to be independent.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We condemn the imposition of unilateral coercive measures in violation of International Law, and attempts to implant a single model for a political, economic and social system. We object to the negative practices of certifying countries according to the patterns and interests of the powerful. We strongly oppose political manipulation and the application of double standards in the matter of human rights, and we reject the selective imposition of politically motivated resolutions against the member countries of the Movement.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The establishment of the Human Rights Council gives us the opportunity to open up a new era in the promotion and protection of all human rights for all, on the basis of international cooperation and constructive dialogue. Those who caused the demise of the old Human Rights Commission are now trying to disqualify the Council because they have not been able to bend it to serve their own self interests. They refuse to participate in its work to escape the scrutiny of the international community in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The legitimacy of the Council does not depend on the perception that the Empire has about its work, but on its capacity to discharge its mandate with the strictest adherence to the principles of universality, objectivity, impartiality and non selectivity in the treatment of human rights issues.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries will continue to defend the interests of the Third World and promote the building of a world which is more just, more democratic and with more solidarity.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cuba has had to pay a very high price for the defense of its independence and sovereignty.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The heroic people of Cuba have endured the longest and cruelest blockade in history, imposed by the most powerful nation on Earth. Despite the fact that this Assembly has repeatedly and resoundingly pronounced itself in favor of ending this genocidal policy, the United States government has not only ignored the will of the international community, but in marked disregard of the same, has gradually intensified its economic war against Cuba.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Never has the foreign policy against a country been armed with such a broad and sophisticated arsenal of aggressive measures in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, military, psychological and ideological domain.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cuba has just been lashed by two intense hurricanes which have devastated its agriculture and seriously affected part of its infrastructure and damaged or destroyed more than 400,000 homes.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Allow me to take advantage of this opportunity, on behalf of the Cuban government and people, to thank all those countries, organizations and persons who in one way or another have honestly and sincerely contributed with resources or moral support to the reconstruction efforts undertaken by my country.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">That stands in contrast with the position of the United States government which continues to ruthlessly apply their blockade.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cuba has asked for no gifts from the United States government. It has simply asked and asked again that it be allowed to purchase in the United States the materials that are indispensable for the reconstruction of homes and power grid and that US companies be authorized to grant Cuba private commercial credits to buy food. The answer has been negative, and it has been accompanied with an attempt to manipulate information in such a manner that the government of the United States seems to be concerned for the wellbeing of the Cuban people while the government of Cuba is perceived to be turning down their offer.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">If the United States were really so concerned for the Cuban people, the only moral and ethical behavior would be to lift the blockade imposed on Cuba for the last five decades, in violation of the most elemental rules of International Law and the Charter of the United Nations .</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">This irrational policy has a clear aim: to destroy the process of profound revolutionary transformations undertaken by the Cuban people from 1959, in other words, trampling on its right to self-determination, wresting away its freedom and its political, economic and social conquests and plunging it backwards to its former neocolonial status.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Bush administration intends to justify the intensification of its policy against Cuba by turning once more to fraud and deceit, with the cynicism and hypocrisy that characterizes it. Its determination to dominate and re-colonize Cuba is being presented, no less, like an endeavor to liberate and democratize.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Who, other than its accomplices, recognizes that the United States government has any authority in this world in the matter of democracy and human rights? What authority would such a government claim, one that hunts down and cruelly mistreats the illegal migrants at its southern border, that legalizes the use of torture and keeps in concentration camps, such as the one installed in the territory illegally occupied by the U.S. base at Guantánamo, people who have not been proved of or even charged with any crime?</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">What respect is due to a government that attacks the sovereignty of other States using the excuse of the fight against terrorism, while at the same time guaranteeing impunity to anti-Cuban terrorists?</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">What kind of justice can be promoted by an administration that illegally keeps imprisoned five Cuban patriots who were only seeking information to prevent the actions of the terrorist groups operating against Cuba from the United States?</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr. President:</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cuba appreciates the solidarity which it has received from this General Assembly in its fight against the blockade and the aggressions which it has had to confront for almost five decades.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cuba reaffirms its unyielding decision to defend its sovereignty and independence.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cuba reaffirms its will to carry on, together with members of the Movement for Non-Aligned Countries, in the battle for a better world, where the rights of all peoples for justice and development are respected.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">To conclude I would like to recall the words of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, comrade Fidel Castro Ruz: "A world without hunger is possible … A just world is possible. A new world, which our species eminently deserves, is possible and will become reality".</span></span></span></p> <p lang="en-CA"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Thank you very much.</span></span></span></p> <p><span lang="en-CA"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Translation by </span></span></span><a href="http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art002.html" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Granma</span></span></span></i></span></a></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-25064275653503499712008-09-27T06:43:00.000-07:002008-09-27T06:50:57.776-07:00Cuba: 'A world without hunger is possible … A just world is possible'<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b>José Ramón Machado Ventura</b></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Vice-president of Cuba</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, at the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">September 24, 2008 -- We are living a decisive moment in the history of humankind. The threats looming over the world put the very existence of the human species at risk.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The promotion of peace, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development is the only WAY to ensure the future. The prevailing world order, unjust and unsustainable, must be replaced by a new system that is truly democratic and equitable, based on respect for international law and on the principles of solidarity and justice, putting an end to the inequalities and exclusion to which the great majorities of the population of our planet have been condemned.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">There are no alternatives. Those responsible for this state of affairs, the industrialised nations and, in particular, the sole superpower, have to accept their responsibilities. Fabulous fortunes cannot continue to be wasted while millions of human beings are starving and dying of curable diseases. It is not possible to keep on polluting the air and poisoning the oceans; this destroys the living conditions of our future generations. Neither the peoples nor the planet itself will permit this without great social upheaval and extremely serious natural disasters.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The wars of conquest, the aggression and illegal occupation of countries, military intervention and the bombing of innocent civilians, the unbridled arms race, the pillage and usurping of the Third World’s natural resources and the imperial offensive to crush the resistance of the peoples who are defending their rights, constitute the greatest and most serious threats to peace and international security.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Concepts such as limitation of sovereignty, pre-emptive war or regime change, are an expression of the desire to mutilate the independence of our countries.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The so-called war on terrorism or the false promotion of their freedoms, are an excuse for aggression and military occupation, for torture, arbitrary arrests and the denial of the right of self-determination of peoples, for unfair blockades and unilaterally imposed sanctions, for the imposition of political, economic and social models that facilitate imperial domination, in open disdain for history, cultures and the sovereign will of the peoples.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="color: rgb(35, 0, 220);">Rich and poor</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The gap between the rich and the poor widens with every passing day. The very modest Millennium Development Goals constitute an unreachable dream for the vast majority.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">While a trillion of dollars is spent on weapons in the world, more than 850 million human beings are starving, 1.1 billion people don’t have access to drinking water, 2.6 billion lack sewage services and more than 800 million are illiterate.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">More than 640 million children lack adequate housing, 115 million do not attend primary school and 10 million die before the age of five, in most cases as the result of diseases that can be cured.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The populations of the South are suffering with increasing frequency from natural disasters, whose consequences have been aggravated by climate change. Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and other Caribbean countries are examples of that. Let us make a plea for solidarity especially for our sister country of Haiti as it faces its dramatic situation.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The rise in oil prices is the result of irrational consumption, strong speculation and imperial war adventures. The desperate search for new sources of energy has pushed the criminal strategy driven by the United States government to transform grains and cereals into fuel.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">For a large part of the non-aligned countries, the situation is becoming unsustainable. Our nations have paid, and they will continue to pay the cost and the consequences of the irrationality, wastefulness and speculation of a few countries in the industrialised North who are responsible for the world food crisis. They imposed trade liberalisation and the financial prescriptions of structural adjustment on the developing countries. They caused the ruin of many small producers; they denied, and in some cases destroyed, emerging agricultural development in the countries of the South, turning them into net food importing countries.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">They are the ones who maintain obscene agricultural subsidies, while they force their rules on international trade. They set prices, monopolise technologies, impose unfair certifications and manipulate the distribution channels, the financing sources and trade. They control transportation, scientific research, genetic banks and the production of fertilisers and pesticides.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We have not come here to complain. We have come, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned countries, to demand and defend the vindication of thousands of millions of human beings who claim justice and their rights.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="color: rgb(35, 0, 220);">Commitments</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The formula is not difficult nor does it require great sacrifices. All we need is the necessary political will, less egotism and the objective understanding that if we do not act today, the consequences could be apocalyptic and would affect the rich and poor alike. For this reason, Cuba once again calls on the governments of the developed countries, on behalf of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, to honour their commitments and, in particular, Cuba urges them to:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Put an end to the wars of occupation and to the plunder of the resources of the Third World countries and to free up at least a part of their millions in military spending to direct those resources towards international assistance for the benefit of sustainable development. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cancel the foreign debt of developing countries since it has been already paid more than once, and with this, additional resources would be released that could be channeled to economic development and social programs.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Honour the commitment of directing at least 0.7% of the gross domestic product for Official Development Assistance, unconditionally, so that the South countries would be able to use those resources for their national priorities and promote access of poor countries to substantial sums of fresh financing.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Direct one-fourth of the money that is squandered each year on commercial advertising to food production; this would free up almost 250 billion additional dollars to fight hunger and malnutrition.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Direct the money being used for the North’s agricultural subsidies to agricultural development in the South. By doing this, our countries would have about a billion dollars per day available to invest in food production.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Comply with the Kyoto Protocol commitments and set commitments to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions more generously starting in 2012, without wanting to increase restrictions for countries that, even today, maintain per capita emission levels that are much lower than those of the North countries.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Promote the access of the Third World to technologies and support the training of their human resources. Today, in contrast, qualified personnel from the South are subjected to unfair competition and incentives presented by discriminatory and selective migratory policies applied by the United States and Europe.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">And something that is today more urgent than ever, the establishment of a democratic and equitable international order, and a fair and transparent trading system where all States will participate, in sovereignty, in the decisions that affect them.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Moreover, it is our deepest belief that solidarity between peoples and governments is possible. In Latin America and the Caribbean, ALBA and PETROCARIBE have demonstrated this.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has remained faithful to its founding principles.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We support the cause of the Palestinian people and their inalienable right to self-determination in an independent and sovereign State, with its capital in East Jerusalem. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We support the cause of all those other peoples whose sovereignty and territorial integrity is being threatened, like Venezuela and Bolivia, and we endorse the right of Puerto Rico to be independent.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We condemn the imposition of unilateral coercive measures in violation of international law, and attempts to implant a single model for a political, economic and social system. We object to the negative practices of certifying countries according to the patterns and interests of the powerful. We strongly oppose political manipulation and the application of double standards in the matter of human rights, and we reject the selective imposition of politically motivated resolutions against the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The establishment of the Human Rights Council gives us the opportunity to open up a new era in the promotion and protection of all human rights for all, on the basis of international cooperation and constructive dialogue. Those who caused the demise of the old Human Rights Commission are now trying to disqualify the council because they have not been able to bend it to serve their own self interests. They refuse to participate in its work to escape the scrutiny of the international community in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The legitimacy of the council does not depend on the perception that the Empire has about its work, but on its capacity to discharge its mandate with the strictest adherence to the principles of universality, objectivity, impartiality and non selectivity in the treatment of human rights issues.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries will continue to defend the interests of the Third World and promote the building of a world which is more just, more democratic and with more solidarity.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="color: rgb(35, 0, 220);">High price</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cuba has had to pay a very high price for the defence of its independence and sovereignty.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The heroic people of Cuba have endured the longest and cruelest blockade in history, imposed by the most powerful nation on Earth. Despite the fact that this General Assembly has repeatedly and resoundingly pronounced itself in favour of ending this genocidal policy, the United States government has not only ignored the will of the international community, but in marked disregard of the same, has gradually intensified its economic war against Cuba.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Never has the foreign policy against a country been armed with such a broad and sophisticated arsenal of aggressive measures in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, military, psychological and ideological domain.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cuba has just been lashed by two intense hurricanes which have devastated its agriculture and seriously affected part of its infrastructure and damaged or destroyed more than 400,000 homes.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Allow me to take advantage of this opportunity, on behalf of the Cuban government and people, to thank all those countries, organisations and persons who in one way or another have honestly and sincerely contributed with resources or moral support to the reconstruction efforts undertaken by my country.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">That stands in contrast with the position of the United States government which continues to ruthlessly apply their blockade.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cuba has asked for no gifts from the United States government. It has simply asked and asked again that it be allowed to purchase in the United States the materials that are indispensable for the reconstruction of homes and power grid and that US companies be authorised to grant Cuba private commercial credits to buy food. The answer has been negative, and it has been accompanied with an attempt to manipulate information in such a manner that the government of the United States seems to be concerned for the wellbeing of the Cuban people while the government of Cuba is perceived to be turning down their offer.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">If the United States were really so concerned for the Cuban people, the only moral and ethical behaviour would be to lift the blockade imposed on Cuba for the last five decades, in violation of the most elemental rules of International Law and the Charter of the United Nations .</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">This irrational policy has a clear aim: to destroy the process of profound revolutionary transformations undertaken by the Cuban people from 1959, in other words, trampling on its right to self-determination, wresting away its freedom and its political, economic and social conquests and plunging it backwards to its former neocolonial status.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Bush administration intends to justify the intensification of its policy against Cuba by turning once more to fraud and deceit, with the cynicism and hypocrisy that characterises it. Its determination to dominate and re-colonise Cuba is being presented, no less, like an endeavour to liberate and democratise.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Who, other than its accomplices, recognises that the United States government has any authority in this world in the matter of democracy and human rights? What authority would such a government claim, one that hunts down and cruelly mistreats the illegal migrants at its southern border, that legalises the use of torture and keeps in concentration camps, such as the one installed in the territory illegally occupied by the US base at Guantánamo, people who have not been proved of or even charged with any crime?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">What respect is due to a government that attacks the sovereignty of other states using the excuse of the fight against terrorism, while at the same time guaranteeing impunity to anti-Cuban terrorists?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">What kind of justice can be promoted by an administration that illegally keeps imprisoned five Cuban patriots who were only seeking information to prevent the actions of the terrorist groups operating against Cuba from the United States?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cuba appreciates the solidarity which it has received from this General Assembly in its fight against the blockade and the aggressions which it has had to confront for almost five decades.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cuba reaffirms its unyielding decision to defend its sovereignty and independence.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Cuba reaffirms its will to carry on, together with members of the Movement for Non-Aligned Countries, in the battle for a better world, where the rights of all peoples for justice and development are respected.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size:100%;">To conclude I would like to recall the words of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, comrade Fidel Castro Ruz: “A world without hunger is possible… A just world is possible. A new world, which our species eminently deserves, is possible and will become reality”.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-41356862546983849352008-09-27T06:38:00.000-07:002008-09-27T06:41:09.730-07:00Cubans Line up for Chance to Use Idle State Land<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-family: times new roman; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Will Weissert</span><br />Associated Press<br />HAVANA September 17, 2008<br /><br /><br />Yenisel Rodriguez is a city-dwelling, 27-year-old anthropologist with zero experience working the land. But he thinks taking up urban farming could put more food on his table, and so he lined up Wednesday to ask Cuba's communist government for permission to try it himself.<br /><br />"I saw the announcement on TV and that motivated me," Rodriguez said. "I don't have experience. I'm hoping they can tell me what to plant and where."<br /><br />Cuba has begun accepting applications from private farmers and ordinary citizens like Rodriguez, hoping they'll put idle government land to better use than state planners have. It's part of a campaign by President Raul Castro to revive an agricultural sector crippled by decades of government mismanagement.<br /><br />Landless Cubans can apply for about 33 acres (13 hectares), while productive farmers can increase their holdings to 100 acres (40 hectares) of state land. Officials pushed up the first day to apply after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike roared through Cuba, dealing a serious blow to food production.<br /><br />Rodriguez, in his polo shirt and Mercedes-Benz baseball cap, stood out in a crowded government office in the Arroyo Naranjo district of southeastern Havana, where applicants in cowboy hats and mud-caked boots waited their turn.<br /><br />He said he plans to farm in the evenings after his research shift at Cuba's Anthropology Institute, growing only enough to feed his family.<br /><br />But Cuba will need thousands of farmers to produce much more than that in order to reduce food imports expected to cost the government US$2 billion this year.<br /><br />While thousands of small farmers kept their plots after Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and still grow much of Cuba's food, the bureaucrats who took over large farms have made a mess of things: 55 percent of Cuba's arable land went underused last year, and on state farms, just 29 percent was actively used, the government said.<br /><br />Cuba has not said how much land it will redistribute. Gilberto Zayas, Arroyo Naranjo's land control delegate, said most of those who want land will likely get it, but that inexperience is a major strike against applicants.<br /><br />"It's obvious that we are going to take those with more experience," Zayas said. "What the country needs is willingness first, but also know-how."<br /><br />Even if Rodriguez is allowed to try his hand at farming, most of what he produces will not go to his family. Zayas said farmers getting new land will be required to sell almost everything they produce to the state. In cases of simple subsistence farming, typically 80 percent of overall output goes to the government, he said.<br /><br />Still, Rodriguez remains hopeful, saying he has brothers, uncles and neighbors who will help him out.<br /><br />The state will provide seeds and fertilizer, a machete and watering tools to program participants. Private farmers can get concessions of up to 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms.<br /><br />Zayas said the government will encourage those receiving new land to graze milk cows or plant fast-growing, leafy vegetables like lettuce, which thrive in Cuba's mild climate but are nonetheless hard to find here.<br /><br />"What we need is production, no matter where it comes from," he said. "If the state had the necessary means, we wouldn't be going through this process."<br /><br />Juan Corales, a 60-year-old retired police officer who said he spent all his life working a small family plot, asked permission Wednesday to raise pigs, goats and chickens on a tract of land near the corner of 100th Street and Flores Avenue in Havana.<br /><br />"This is the best thing the state could have done," said Corales, a self-described hick.<br /><br />"There is a lot of land, and lots of people who want to work," he said. "But before, there was always fighting and bureaucracy that made everything difficult."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-44763916722170032832008-09-26T13:14:00.000-07:002008-09-26T13:19:47.248-07:00Vices and Virtues<span style="font-weight: bold;">Refections by Fidel Castro</span> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Yesterday we referred to the financial Ike that is driving the empire mad. It can't find a way of reconciling consumerism with unjust wars, military spending and the massive investments in the industry of weapons, which kill peoples, rather than feed them or otherwise satisfy their most basic needs.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Nothing could better describe the alienating contradiction than the words of Senator Richard Shelby, the senior Republican in the US Senate's Banking Committee, when he told BBC television: “We don't know how much this is going to cost. It's probably $500 (billion) to a trillion dollars and that's going to visit the taxpayers sooner or later; it's either going to be a debt charged to all of us or to all our children", as reported by the British news agency Reuters.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">No-one can have doubts about the destiny of the industrialized capitalist world or the fate it promises to billions of people on the planet.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The only way in which peoples today could live their lives in a community with social justice and decorum, which are the antithesis of capitalism and the principles that govern that hateful and unjust system, is through struggle.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In the tough battle to achieve those goals, the worst enemy would be the human being's instinctive egoism. If capitalism means perpetual free rein to that instinct, socialism would then be the ceaseless battle against that natural impulse. While at other times in history the alternative was to return to the past, that choice no longer exists. The battle is one to be waged basically by our glorious Party.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Every manifestation of privilege, corruption or robbery must be eradicated; for a true communist, there can be no possible excuse for such conduct. Any weakness of that sort is totally unacceptable. This was never the feature that characterized the thousands of men and women who volunteered to accomplish the internationalist missions which filled the Cuban Revolution with glory and prestige. Such principles of ethics and purity were the ones that inspired the thinking of José Martí and all those who preceded him.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It is now, in the aftermath of the recent and demolishing blow dealt by the hurricanes, when we must show what we are capable of.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stealing from factories, warehouses, automotive service stations, hotels, restaurants and other establishments where money or goods are kept must be relentlessly combated by Party militants. And if any of the latter is found to have committed such shameful acts, he or she must receive the sanctions imposed by the Party, in addition to the relevant legal sanctions, which should be done without adopting extreme positions and in a responsible and effective way. Capitalism is a victim of common crime, from which it defends itself by means of sophisticated technology, unemployment, marginalization, murder and even extreme violence, which are already useless against the traffic in drugs that takes a toll of hundreds and even thousands of lives every year in some Latin American countries.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cadres have no easy task in a world where incitement to consumerism is ever more present through radio, television, electronic media and the press, while the techniques for seducing human beings emanate from laboratories and research centers. Consider what happens with the so called advertising, which costs consumers more than a trillion annually. Commercials repeat over and over to the point of exasperating almost everyone with their banality.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But stealing is far from being the only evil that harms the Revolution. There are also the known and tolerated privileges and the bureaucratic maneuverings. The resources allocated to meet a temporary situation become permanent expenses and consumption.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Everything conspires against the country's material and hard currency reserves, a situation that can result in shortages of goods and an excess of circulating capital. The same thing happens when the well-heeled rush to buy up excessive quantities of the goods sold in the hard-currency retail outlets.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There are state agencies with a tendency to lavish privileges or give away much more in the competition they unleash for the available technical personnel and workforce. Sometimes they become cheapjacks, using genuinely capitalist methods in their quest for revenues, to manage resources so as to gain a reputation for efficiency and secure the willing support of their peers. These are bourgeois habits - not proletarian - and we all have a sacred duty to combat them in ourselves and in others.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There are certain countries which do not hesitate in resorting to the death penalty to punish these crimes. Honestly, I don’t think that would be necessary in our case, just as we do not think it is necessary either to idiotically reward the inveterate in our prisons. Let them learn a trade, but we should not dream about turning them into scientists.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Throughout my life as a revolutionary, I have seen how these vices develop alongside virtues. Weaknesses also appear among some citizens who become accustomed to receiving, and dedicate little time to meditating, reading the newspapers and being informed about today’s realities. In its quest for spies and traitors, the enemy understands human frailties only too well, but ignores what is on the other side of the coin: the enormous human capacity for self-sacrifice and heroism.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Parents would like to pass material goods on to their children, but they would rather leave them the legacy of a decent life of good repute that could always accompany them.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">On this island, the enemy has come up against a people ready to resist its blockade and aggressions for decades. That is why it is stepping up its measures against Cuba. It tries to deprive the country from its skilled professionals and workforce; it selects those who are granted the thousands of visas agreed upon annually, while encouraging illegal departures; it maintains and tightens up the Cuban Adjustment Act, which grants special privileges to illegal immigration from just one country in the world: Cuba. If the same facility were extended to the rest of Latin America, in no time Latin Americans would account for half the US population.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Even more cynical is the fact that it recruits mercenaries, who claim impunity and to whom it provides training and resources as well as international promotion. It takes pleasure in trying the patience and equanimity of the Cuban government.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Our people will never be in ignorance of the truth.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Not only will we struggle ceaselessly against our mistakes, weaknesses and vices, but we will also win the battle of ideas we have committed ourselves to.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If there is one thing the empire's leaders can always be sure of, it is that neither natural hurricanes nor hurricanes of cynicism could ever bend the Revolution.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Before that happens, as Martí said, the North sea will join the South sea and a snake will hatch from an eagle's egg.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fidel Castro Ruz</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">September 19, 2008</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">8.45 p.m.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-12926749421465046512008-09-17T21:48:00.000-07:002008-09-17T21:49:29.205-07:00In Support of Cuba<b><span style="font-size:100%;">Worldwide Call to Artists and Intellectuals</span></b><p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"> </span> </p><br /><p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Our country is facing a dramatic situation. We have suffered the wrath of two powerful hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, in just eight days. These natural disasters have seriously affected food production and essential sectors of the economy throughout the country. Although very few human lives were lost, a massive amount of houses, schools and cultural institutions were damaged or completely destroyed. </span> </p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">In view of this tragedy, a debate about the restrictions imposed by the US on Cuban residents to visit and send supplies and money to their families in Cuba has begun. Cuba has requested authorization to buy materials from the US to repair homes and power lines. In addition, Cuba has requested that US companies receive authorization to extend commercial credits to the island to buy food. The Bush Administration's reply has been a ridiculous offer of aid while ratifying their policy of political and economic blockade, even more cruel and immoral under the present circumstances. </span> </p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">We are sending an appeal to artists and intellectuals around the world to demand an immediate end to the criminal US blockade and to promote solidarity and support of our country. </span> </p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">First Signatures</span></p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><br /><br /></p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">Alicia Alonso, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Silvio Rodriguez, Cintio Vitier, Pablo Milanes, Miguel Barnet, Chucho Valdes, Omara Portuondo, Eusebio Leal, Leo Brouwer, Alfredo Guevara, Fernando Alonso, Nancy Morejon, Cesar Portillo de la Luz, Rosita Fornes, Harold Gramatges, Graziella Pogolotti, Pablo Armando Fernandez, Angel Augier, Julio Garcia Espinosa, Anton Arrufat, Alexis Leyva (Kcho), Digna Guerra, Cesar Lopez, Fernando Perez, Manuel Mendive, Juan Padron, Roberto Valera, Guido Lopez Gavilan, Maria de los Angeles Santana, Frank Fernandez, Fina Garcia Marruz, Roberto Fabelo, Fernando Martinez Heredia, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Vicente Revuelta, Antonio Vidal, Carilda Oliver, Loipa Araujo, Aurora Bosch, Ramona de Saa, Abelardo Estorino, Ambrosio Fornet, Luis Carbonell, Electo Silva, Santiago Alfonso, Rogelio Martinez Fure, Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Leonardo Acosta, Ramiro Guerra, Rene de la Nuez, Daysi Granados, Eduardo Rivero, Alberto Mendez, Eslinda Nunez, Hector Quintero, Alfredo Sosabravo, Veronica Lynn, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Flora Fong , Salvador Wood, Maria Elena Molinet, Zayda del Rio, Jose Milian, Maria del Carmen Barcia, Jaime Sarusky, Martha Rojas, Francisco de Oraa, Eugenio Hernandez Espinosa, Enrique Pineda Barnet, Juan Carlos Tabio, Alfredo Diez Nieto, Mario Balmaseda, Sergio Vitier, Nelson Dominguez, Pepe Rafart, Jose Antonio Choy, Jorge Ibarra, Maria Teresa Linares, Eduardo Roca (Choco), Pachi Naranjo, Rolando Rodriguez, Jose Villa Soberon, Senel Paz, Aida Bahr, Omar Valino, Omar F. Mauri, Hilda Oates, Alberto Lescay, Enrique Molina, Pancho Amat, Raul Pomares, Maria Felicia Perez, Patricio Wood, Carlos Diaz, Nelson Dorr, Miguel Iglesias, Roberto Chorens, Adolfo Alfonso, Isabel Monal, Domingo Aragu, Zenaida Armenteros, Ever Fonseca, Berta Martinez, Cristy Dominguez, Adigio Benitez, Humberto Arenal, Adelaida de Juan, Carlos Alberto Cremata, Ivan Tenorio, Gina Rey, Rebeca Chavez, Jose Rodriguez Fuster, Lorna Burdsal, Juan Carlos Cremata, Osneldo Garcia, Zoila Lapique, Eduardo Arrocha, Yolanda Wood, Rene Fernandez Santana, Lesbia Vent Dumois, Fatima Patterson, Rosalia Arnaez, Carlos Padron, Sara Gonzalez, Eduardo Heras Leon, Alex Pausides, Agustin Bejarano, Angel Alderete, Raul Santos Serpa, Marilyn Bobes, Carlos Marti, Sigfredo Ariel, Alberto Guerra, Corina Mestre, Xiomara Blanco, Rey Montesinos, Gerardo Alfonso, Alden Knight, Rafael Lay, Jesus Ortega, Edesio Alejandro, Teresita Junco, Teresa Melo, Arturo Arango, Magda Gonzalez Grau, Cary Diez, Alberto Luberta, Caridad Martinez, Lourdes Gonzalez, Iraida Malberti, Gerardo Fulleda, Felix Contreras, Esteban Llorach, Ana Maria Munoz Bachs, Radames Giro, Juan Valdes, Jorge Nunez, Rodulfo Vaillant, Juan Gonzalez Fiffe, Sergio Morales, Jorge Hidalgo, Carlos Tamayo, Ada Mirtha Cepeda Venegas, Sixto Bonachea, Antonio Perez, Orlando Garcia Martinez, Jose Alberto Garcia Alfonso, Enrique Gonzalez, Jose (Pepe) Vera, Alberto Faya. </span> </p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><br /><br /></p> <p style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;">To sign up: <<a href="http://www.concubahoy.cult.cu/">www.concubahoy.cult.cu</a>>.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-65011905505046542272008-09-02T21:13:00.000-07:002008-09-02T21:21:24.181-07:00First-hand report from Cuba :- during and after Hurricane Gustav<style> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --></style><b>( The following is an email sent to Karen Lee Wald, an activist in the US, from Cuba)</b> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Karen,</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Isla de la Juventud: practically 100 % destroyed. Boats lifted from the sea and parked in the middle of Nueva Gerona, buses twisted and lifted in the air, doors and windows ripped off, banana plants of course ripped out, communications down 100 percent, and I have not yet seen any videos because I got my electricity back just one hour ago, a flamboyan fell on the lines feeding just our house soI have been without any electricity for 48 hours,but enough water, small radio, gas to cook on and the most wonderful neighbors and solidarity that only peoplewho have lived in Cuba can understand.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But I have been able to listen to the daily Mesa Redonda, where Arleen has spoken over the phone with the heads of Defensa Civil and other organizations and everything is "bajo[under] control". Never before has there been such palpable organization: here in the city, loudspeakers all over town calling on people to go home and not put their life in danger with electric cables, and on Sunday calling everyone to come out and cooperate with cleaning up the city. Trucks started cleaning up the city on Saturday evening already, and yesterday everyone was out with brooms, saws, etc.. We had to put up signs and yellow ribbons so people would not go near the fallen cable, they could have been electrocuted.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Pinar del Rio: also very very bad situation, south coast had up to 7 km sea inland, not a single life lost, not a single person wounded badly so you might fear for his life, but very serious destruction in schools, tobacco drying houses, communications and electric systems (already "linieros" from all over the rest of the country have arrived with their trucks to help.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Las Terrazas: very very bad situation with most of the facilities (as you know, they are ranchones, the roof just flies away and there is practically nothing you can do about it); only rio San Juan and Las Ruinas de Buenavista held out; private homes have also been very badly damaged, I am not going to call to distract anyone from their intensive duties and only regret that because of age I cannot join in the reconstruction brigade. The problem is going to be now that such a huge part of the country must be reconstructed that building materials are going to be hard to get.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But everyone is very grateful because for the very first time ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE FROM THE HIGH SPHERES WAS GOING AROUND THE AFFECTED PROVINCES: Machado Ventura and Lazo in provincia La Habana, Lage in Pinar del Rio after having been in Isla de la Juventud, police cars all over the place helping neighbors out, and of course all this makes people think how different things would have been if we compare ourselves with poor Haiti or even Jamaica. Let us all hope for the best for New Orleans.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have plenty of mails to write to put people at ease, a lot of international solidarity, I got a lot of calls from the US and Europe, it does a lot of good to know people are really worried for you!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Love,</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Maria Carla</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-29992718372080749932008-06-24T06:11:00.001-07:002008-06-24T06:11:58.682-07:00Cuba determined to perfect statist economy<span style="font-weight: bold;">Marc Frank</span> in Havana<br />Financial Times<br />June 23 2008<br /><br />At the recent metal workers’ union congress in Havana little seemed to have changed since Fidel Castro, former Cuban president, became ill almost two years ago, temporarily handing power to his brother Raúl before resigning and leaving the country’s leadership to him last February.<br /><br />There was no jockeying among cadres for a piece of privatised industry pie. There was no talk of competition, markets, strikes or other action against management, or turning state-owned businesses into co-operatives. Speeches calling on members to work harder for Cuba, Fidel, Raúl and revolution resounded through the hall as they have for decades.<br /><br />“The key is in perfeccionamiento empresarial” – perfecting the state company system – read the banner headline in Workers, the trade union federation’s weekly newspaper.<br /><br />The union meeting was the latest evidence that a debate fostered by Raúl Castro has for now been settled in favour of those who want to improve one of the world’s most statist economies – not dismantle it – using a business model developed when the president was defence minister to improve the performance of armed forces suppliers.<br /><br />Perfeccionamiento empresarial is based on adopting modern management and accounting practices, often gleaned from the study of private corporations, for state-run companies. It grants management more authority over day-to-day decisions and imposes more discipline on workers while also increasing their participation in decisions and incentives for labour.<br /><br />“Perfeccionamiento empresarial has no exact analogy in capitalist economies and is not borrowed from other socialist countries’ models of reform,” Phil Peters, an expert on Cuba at the Lexington Institute in Virginia, wrote in a study of the military’s economic model.<br /><br />Raúl Castro signed a 200-page law last August ordering all 3,000 state-run companies to adopt the model. He also promoted General Julio Casas Regueiro, who was in charge of the military’s businesses, to defence minister and top spots in the Communist party and government when he officially became president on February 24.<br /><br />The policy does not contradict Raúl Castro’s recent moves to lift restrictions on the use of mobile phones, computers and other goods and services, nor partnerships with foreign companies and more private initiatives. The bulk of the economy and its core industries and finances will remain in state hands.<br /><br />Raúl Castro is not waiting for all companies to adopt his model – a lengthy process of sorting out bad books, Soviet-style management and paternalism.<br /><br />Cuba’s economy is on a better footing than in the 1990s. Foreign exchange earnings are relatively strong due to the export of medical and other professional services – mainly to Venezuela – as well as tourism, high nickel prices and soft Chinese loans.<br /><br />But the state has had problems investing these revenues through its many companies, many of which suffer from poor accounting and management.<br /><br />“Perfeccionamiento does not aim to turn Cuba into a China or Taiwan in terms of level of development and integration into globalisation. In the end, the objective is political,” said Frank Mora, Cuba expert at the War College in Washington.<br /><br />“Raúl Castro needs to defuse the social, economic and political pressure of rising expectations and increasing food costs by implementing and broadening a set of very focused economic reforms.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-27771739342696988952008-06-19T05:15:00.000-07:002008-12-09T16:01:36.155-08:00Cuba's socialist planning and principles in adjustment to the worldwide sharp rises of prices<b>Carlos Lage</b> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-right: 0.57in; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="color: rgb(71, 0, 184);">This is the speech of Carlos Lage Dávila to the municipal People's Power Assembly presidents in June 8, 2008. Lage is the Vice President of the Council of State of Cuba, member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba, and the current Executive Secretary of the Council of Ministers </span><span style="color: rgb(71, 0, 184);">of Cuba.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Original</b>:<br /><a href="http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2008-06-08/discurso-de-carlos-lage-davila-en-la-reunion-de-los-presidentes-municipales-del-poder-popular/">http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2008-06-08/discurso-de-carlos-lage-davila-en-la-reunion-de-los-presidentes-municipales-del-poder-popular/</a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Comrades:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It would be neither possible nor necessary to talk about all the topics we have discussed here in the last three days, so I have selected some of them:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.49in; margin-right: 0.57in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-WaUBVbBEEqL2g8DPhiNulRzFaf0JsplnVPttoK3UmiTHR2hPLJGuvclt7cP0LBCTjFdPNfsnERKPjHCUhtqwG_3NauC4O9U_HS5PlV-RhZyRMBwua0hNe2NqF3S_VHC8SX0tNCyRymR/s1600-h/CarlosLage1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho-WaUBVbBEEqL2g8DPhiNulRzFaf0JsplnVPttoK3UmiTHR2hPLJGuvclt7cP0LBCTjFdPNfsnERKPjHCUhtqwG_3NauC4O9U_HS5PlV-RhZyRMBwua0hNe2NqF3S_VHC8SX0tNCyRymR/s320/CarlosLage1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213568369440029138" border="1" /></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As a result of the economic effects of the sharp rise in the price of fuel, food and almost everything we import and our priority efforts to plan on the basis of our available resources, there have been cuts in some major investment programs, and further reductions are bound to follow. But none will be abandoned, as this is only an adjournment while we streamline their scopes.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This urgent economic situation has led to investment plans more in keeping with our current building capacity, which will make it possible to cut costs, meet deadlines and, contradictory though it may sound, step up our progress.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Nonetheless, our investment plan for 2008 is 29% higher than last year’s and 2.4 times that of the year 2000.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As we speak, and given the urgent need to increase our construction capacity, the Ministry of Construction and a Political Bureau Commission are making a comprehensive revision of the construction program, and all the necessary steps will be taken in due course.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But one thing cannot wait that is essential for any program to succeed: discipline in carrying out the works.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Our Boards of Directors must give support to and demand the following:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Full control of material resources in building sites. Control by the managers and the workers alike. Rather than asking whether the work will be finished on schedule, they must ask –and check– whether anything has been stolen. And I am not talking about deficits or diversion of resources, but using the right term. A boss’s prime task is to make sure that nothing is stolen from the pr</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">emises.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Every work must be part of the economic plan; therefore, they must be able to count from the outset on all the resources they need.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Construction work must be preceded by detailed preparations, including sufficiently advanced projects.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The workers are part </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">of the planning, so they must be selected in advance and never reassigned to other works.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Before work starts, the investor and the constructor must agree on a strict and precise timetable and demand that it be fulfilled without excuse.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Once started, work must proceed nonstop until the end. Organizing two or even three shifts a day may be justified in some cases.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The ultimate purpose must be to have highly productive eight-hour working days. Where construction </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">is concerned, overtime is almost always the consequence of low productivity during the regular working hours.</p> </li></ul> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Steps must be taken to provide the proper work clothes and shoes, meals and living conditions, which are no less necessary than the construction materials needed to do the job.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We feel anger, and rightly so, when we are told that a certain amount of money was lost owing to, say, a wrongly signed contract. However, we put up with delays as if they were the most natural thing in the world, even if in those cases we end up losing a lot more money in revenues we never get to receive. Time is also an economic resource that we can measure in convertible pesos.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Concerning the housing program, this is what we learned in the last two years:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We need to produce more prefabricated construction materials, a fact imposed by the lack of sufficient skilled labor and transportation means. Molds, double shifts and measures to eliminate bottlenecks in the production line are some alternatives worth considering in every factory while we wait for centralized decisions about new investments.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> The steady efforts of People’s Power-run construction brigades engaged in housing and repair work in every municipality is extremely important, and they are and will be supported with working instruments and means by the Ministry of Construction (MICONS) and the Housing Institute. Besides, the Ministry’s provincial delegations must reinforce the construction brigades devoted exclusively to housing, as these workers should not be used to resolve backlogs in other sites or undertake new works outside the plans.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> It is at municipal level where the housing plans for 2009 should be designed. By allocating resources in the same way we used in 2008, the municipal office will propose what housing developments should be started, continued or terminated, so that we give priority to the most serious and pressing problems in every place.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We must never abandon the principle of widespread popular participation. Families, communities and workplaces must join the construction brigades after working hours and through voluntary work mobilizations. There must be a great spirit of solidarity, and measures to prevent anyone involved in the housing plan from having to seek private help to move the materials or take care of any other task.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A house can only be deemed finished when delivered to its dweller. Meeting the requirements to fulfill the job cannot allow for fraud. Our prime demand is that the reports be truthful, and then ask about the progress of the plans, and that goes too for any conservation and rehabilitation work. This year we aim to undertake 110,000 conservation and 140,000 rehabilitation actions, more than ever before, in line with the priorities identified by deputies and delegates from every constituency, but we must make sure the reported figures really square with the work performed and its magnitude.</p> </li></ul> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNhzNHAeoeSaC-MfQ-cr4QqxHCZAYRzmSgdoDGckGW8rFwqAKFUCujNoecAwBBFcXerTvLK99xzJVW4T0baF3Obb4Byugt-vsddTyVv-7LZjh1QK3ytFuoY-uoVDjH8M7q0mR7PF3likI/s1600-h/municipleAssembly.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNhzNHAeoeSaC-MfQ-cr4QqxHCZAYRzmSgdoDGckGW8rFwqAKFUCujNoecAwBBFcXerTvLK99xzJVW4T0baF3Obb4Byugt-vsddTyVv-7LZjh1QK3ytFuoY-uoVDjH8M7q0mR7PF3likI/s320/municipleAssembly.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213569827362800050" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The old problem of insufficient maintenance at almost all levels of production and service is no doubt related to the shortage of resources and labor, but it’s also a matter of culture, priority –or lack of it– and poor planning.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Important plans are under way to reconstruct and retrofit health institutions, schools, service centers and many other factories and establishments. It would be pointless to keep repairing polyclinics or hospitals if we’re not capable of maintaining those already repaired.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Maintenance should be our top priority when allocating resources anywhere. What we have we must use first to maintain and then to grow.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Seeing destroyed and out of order what was once in shipshape condition and operating properly is unfortunately a common occurrence, the consequence of not devoting to maintenance the amount of time and degree of demand that we do new investments.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Boards of Directors at provincial and municipal level, as well as the State Central Administration bodies, must understand that unity means progress. We can and must work harder to answer to and meet people’s needs. It is the duty of the above bodies and the People’s Power to give the delegates all the necessary information and support to provide a solution or an answer to every problem. All municipalities should study each and every statement made in the current account-rendering process, the first to be held in this term of office. If a matter cannot be solved or there is not enough information to give about it, it must be submitted to the provincial authorities, and from there to the Council of Ministers, where we will meet to evaluate the outcome of this process.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We will be better prepared to answer people’s questions insofar as we know each one of their statements and strengthen our economic plans.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A plan to produce construction materials and asphalt, build dwellings, provide street lighting and waterworks, etc., will make it possible at municipal and provincial level to have a say in decisions about annual priorities, since as we know, not all things can be solved right away, and many need a longer time.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today’s emphasis in the importance of planning and discipline in performance, as instructed by comrade Raúl, also comprises a greater involvement of the Boards of Directors at municipal and provincial level in designing plans.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">From the Battle of Ideas, triggered and guided by Fidel, countless programs of great social consequence were drawn and boosted which reaffirm our Revolution’s sense of justice and solidarity.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">People with disabilities, children who are underweight and undersized for their age or whose normal growth is affected by any other biological or social factor, senior citizens who live alone, patients with low-prevalence illnesses who need special care, youths who neither study nor work or are otherwise prone to become marginals or criminals, convicts and ex-convicts: they are not just a cold set of statistics, but people who have a name and are taken care of by social workers, political organizations and other community factors and forces.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Not one of them can go unattended. That is a unique privilege of our Socialist Society, made possible by 40,000 young social workers. Conditions have been created as well to see to their material needs and gradually satisfy their needs, starting with the most critical solutions.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Controlling our resources and saving everything, and especially fuel and food, has become an essential, decisive need that cannot be postponed.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Strict consumption rules, properly scheduled inventories, regulations against the creation of reserves or changes in the destination of the resources we allocate to one site are some of the criteria we must apply with full rigor. To that effect, we will receive from you specific proposals to reduce assignments, and by their number and extent we will measure the rate of fulfillment. In particular, we must work faster to centralize transportation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">By saving we ensure a source of wealth only possible through discipline, ability and efficiency.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Absorbed as we are in the intensity of our work, I invite you to find some time to read, study and meditate about the problems of the world, the country, the province and the municipality. Think about how the world economy has been turned into a casino by the blind laws of the market; the impact of a superpower’s hegemonic and selfish purposes; regional conflicts the world over; production and pricing trends; climate change; the advance of computer science, biotechnology and nanotechnology; the way some countries lag behind while others move forward…</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One of your crucial obligations is to keep up with, think about and appraise a number of issues, including the features of socioeconomic development and the political situation in the provinces and municipalities that you manage, their birth and death rates, people’s main pathologies, students’ degree of devotion to their duties, labor discipline and productivity, youth employment rate, figures about migration, how much your municipality contributes to and spends from its budget, resource management, ability to meet people’s most pressing needs, and level of revolutionary morals, to name a few.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Your twofold duty as Constituency Delegates and Presidents of the People’s Power’s Councils are difficult and demanding, albeit encouraging and pivotal. Example above all else: if your conduct and that of your subordinate leaders is impeccable in and out of your office, half the battle will be already won. Only by practicing what we preach will we able to exert influence on people, curb corruption and work effectively.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Truth is to be sought by coming into contact with our people, for they are the ones who know what is really going on and can provide solutions to problems.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We must learn to listen, be ready at all times to hear someone’s opinion, and stop in our tracks whenever we hear something different to what we thought.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Never lie about anything, significant or otherwise, under any circumstances. Not even phrases like «Tell them I’m not in», or «I’ll meet with you later» if you don’t actually intend to, or others along those lines can be justified, because that is how a leader’s will to face up to the problems begins to fade and the airtight plating of their honesty begins to crumble.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Act quickly whenever possible: well and quickly outmatch well.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Our multiple tasks and the urgency of some of them should not make us look away from collective management: when taken by all together, a decision sets everybody’s intelligence and skills in motion until its completion.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Sleeping less than 6 hours is held to be a cause for obesity, and that is a risk to be avoided. Yet, as I reread [Cuban National Hero José] Martí’s diary a few days ago I found these words: «sleeping is guilty for as long as something remains to be done».</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Our people respect those who work, and prove to be understanding when they notice that the person who gives them an explanation grasp the essence of their problem and make it their own.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I will not go over our difficulties here and now. You know them and live with them; our media is increasingly covering them with great skill, while foreign media magnifies and multiplies them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Regardless, the Revolution can be said to have made undeniable progress in these years of the new century when compared to the hardest years of the Special Period: power supply is more stable, we have more medicines and food, many schools and hospitals have been repaired, greater efforts have been made in the fields of construction and transportation, there have been improvements in water supply for a growing number of people, and so on, all in the midst of and despite a very difficult and complex international situation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Last year our country spent 1,470 billion dollars to import 3,423,000 tons of foodstuffs. Importing the same amount at the current prices would mean an expenditure of 2,554 billion dollars, or a billion more than the previous year.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Last year we consumed 158,000 barrels of oil per day, for which we paid 8.7 million dollars. The same amount costs 32% more this year, that is, 11.6 million dollars per day.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">These are facts to bear in mind and explain, as they unavoidably affect our life and compel us to make economic adjustments. In capitalist countries this is a spontaneous phenomenon that spares no one, while in a socialist society the effects can be mitigated and controlled to protect some social groups, although they cannot be avoided. These realities are still unbeknown to many people, and others are aware of them but fail to link them to our problems. It is fair to expect our living conditions to improve, but in the meantime we must keep our feet on the ground. Only by working more, doing better, saving more and planning better will we carry out successfully.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Comrade Raúl recently called upon us to work hard. To close this meeting, where we have seen so much discussion about the problems we are yet to solve, the mistakes we are making, the goals we want to reach and the grave consequences of the increasing prices of the resources we import, I can think of no better way to finish than by saying these words: let’s get down to it!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Homeland or Death,<br />We shall overcome!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-3194358550577402902008-06-15T21:14:00.000-07:002008-06-15T21:15:44.536-07:00Cuba to abandon salary equality<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b></b></span></span><b>BBC</b><br />12 June 2008</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cuba is to abolish its system of equal pay for all and allow workers and managers to earn performance bonuses, a senior official has announced.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Vice-Minister for Labour Carlos Mateu said the current system - in place since the communist revolution in 1959 - was no longer "convenient".</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He said wage differentiation should improve production and services.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">President Raul Castro has introduced a series of reforms since succeeding his ailing brother Fidel in February.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Writing in the communist party newspaper Granma Mr Mateu said workers would receive a minimum 5% bonus for meeting targets but with no ceiling on salaries.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Managers could earn a 30% bonus if the team working under them increased production, he said.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The minister pointed out that the current wage system sapped employees' incentives to excel since everyone earned the same regardless of performance.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"It's harmful to give a worker less than he deserves, it's also harmful to give him what he doesn't deserve," the newspaper article said.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Challenging Marxist orthodoxy</span><br />But the impact in terms of purchasing power will be limited, the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says. Raul Castro has brought in a series of gradual social reforms The average wage in Cuba for everyone - from doctors to farm labourers - is about $20 (�10) a month.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Even before the recent sharp rise in oil and food prices Cuba was spending billions of dollars on imports, and that bill is likely to rise sharply, our correspondent says.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So far most of the reforms announced since Raul Castro took over the presidency have involved lifting restrictions such as the bans on mobile phones and computers.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The latest change is a more fundamental challenge to Marxist economic orthodoxy, our correspondent adds.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">===========</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Comments:</b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">1) </span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Simon McGuinnes</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">CubaNews list</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">12 Jun 2008.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This is part of a carefully orchestrated plan aimed at eliminating the dual currency and restoring the strength of the National currency. The dual currency has been identified by the Government, through its 3-year national consultation process with the population, as the source of greatest income disparity within Cuba. The CUC is pegged to the US dollar, the recent weakness of which has dragged down the value of the CUC, greatly assisting the Cuban government in that process.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The effects of the plan are already being felt on the ground where the value of the Pesos has risen against the CUC and people are converting their CUC savings into the national currency in anticipation of it rising further. Those who receive CUC from remittances are quick to change the currency for pesos for fear of being left with a devaluing currency.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This is a complete reversal of the situation that pertained in Cuba in the 1990s. Far from increasing income disparity, it is part of a suite of policy changes which will reduce it by the gradual elimination the greater distorting effects of the dual currency economy.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">That suite of measures also includes stimulation of local production (especially food production) to ensure that privately produced goods flow back into the pesos markets. The sectors of the economy where these production bonus payments will be applied are likely to be strictly regulated to ensure maximum public benefit. The removal of the income ceiling means that Cubans will also be encouraged to work harder. Quite where this is in conflict with the socialist motto of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work" is difficult to tell, but it is likely to be the media spin that the story attracts in the west.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">These measures are likely to be popular with Cubans, strengthening the position of the government and increasing its ability to cope with international developments like the rise in oil and food import prices.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Meanwhile, European governments struggle with blockades by truck drivers, farmers and fishermen facing bankruptcy as a result of the 40% rise in diesel fuel prices. They are lucky, they pay for their fuel in Euro, an appreciating currency, unlike their dollar touting US counter parts.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">=================</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><b>2)</b></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Micheal A. Lebowitz</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">13 Jun 2008</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Just a quick passing shot:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">1. Marx did not distinguish between a socialist society and a communist society; rather, he referred to a single society in the process of 'becoming'-- moving from a point where it relies upon historical premises which it itself has not produced, through a process of 'subordinating all elements of society to itself, or in creating out of it the organs which it still lacks', to the point where it produces its own premises (i.e., rests upon its own foundations). </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">2. Distribution in accordance with contribution was for Marx the result of a 'defect'-- an inherited historical premise, the continuation of bourgeois right (in this case the treatment of one's own labour-power, 'the personal condition of production', as your property. Nowhere does Marx advocate 'building upon defects' (cf. my note with this title in the October 2007 Science& Society for the barebones argument). In fact, it is essential to struggle to subordinate this defect--- something that Che clearly understood.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">3. It was Lenin who said there were two 'stages', and that there was the 'socialist principle' of to each according to her contribution. Stalin and many others have followed. In fact, my note referred to above was originally presented in May 2006 in Havana at the Marx Conference and was directed (not openly-- but the Cubans all knew what I was talking about) against this very argument already emerging in Cuba (and most explicitly in the December 2005 speech of Soberon, president of the Cuban Central Bank).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">in solidarity,</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Michael</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">==========</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>3)</b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>S. Artesian</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">13 Jun 2008</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">More than that-- there are quite simply errors of fact. Neither, China, Brazil, nor India and let's not leave out the R in the BRIC, Russia, is anything approaching an "economic powerhouse." </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">An economic powerhouse would have productivity levels far above those of the BRIC, would have the portion of the population tied to agriculture at much lower levels-- and that's just for starters.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But it is this faux erudition, this faux realpolitik, which says, in justification of steps backward, or steps not even analyzed-- 'it's a different world, than the one of such and such an era.' Sounds like Bernstein, Kautsky, etc to me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Nobody has denounced Cuba for these steps, but we need to recognize them for what they are, and what their origin is-- the isolation of the Cuban Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the development of capitalism, internationally financed, locally administered capitalism in China and Vietnam, the defeat of the revolutionary impulse in South Africa.... </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">==========</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>4)</b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>S. Artesian</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">13 Jun 2008</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But fundamental to socialism is that the tasks of management be shared by all. I think Lenin said something like "Every cook can govern." I don't think he was kidding.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So if expertise is to be rewarded, than the reward should be distributed socially not individually, as should the expertise. And all must have the opportunity, and obligation, to "manage." That's not going to happen under a bonus plan.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What will happen is that a professional caste of managers will be created, who will achieve their bonuses not through their own labors, but through the labors of others-- and that becomes a point of differentiation along class lines.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A professional caste of managers will then populate itself by selecting others who subscribe to further differentiation from workers; the professional managers will inevitably, as managers, exercise political power based on their status, rather than the soundness of their proposals for advancing the "unhelpful" egalitarian basis for society.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">===============</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>5)</b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>S. Artesian</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fri, 13 Jun 2008</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To Ruthless: I read the article. I know that both workers and managers will get the bonus. Changes nothing.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In answer to "guava tree" I am also aware that these changes have been seeping through the Cuban society for some time, particularly since the withdrawal of Soviet support and the turn to tourism as the single greatest source for foreign exchange. Which means that this is not a case of the current leadership "straying from the true path of Fidel." </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Nevertheless the Cuban economy and society has been organized with a remarkable, and sustained, degree of egalitarian commitment.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Certainly, petty favoritism, and individual abuse can exist. But petty favoritism is not the issue-- what is the issue in Cuba as in China, as in the former Soviet Union before, is what class relations are being engendered by this policy? What property relations will be strengthened by this?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So we need to ask: How are these rewards to be generated? And the answer is: they will be generated by the world markets-- and that means production not for need, or use, of all, but for need or use of exchange. Look for example at tourism.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Despite the US embargo, Cuba is in no way or shape isolated from the world market-- no more than the former Soviet Union was, or Poland was before it in 1980. The penetration of the market into the economy is certainly less, but, tourism is the largest foreign exchange earner, and tourism has created tremendous income differentials in the work force, and serious inequalities in production and distribution of services-- such as electricity, varied foodstuffs, etc. In addition, the ecological footprint of tourism is pretty destructive.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I don't know how the system can be changed in a different way without a resurgence of international revolution. But we need to know what is driving this process in reverse, a reversal that echoes in these inroads against egalitarianism.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-64882750831495606172008-06-15T20:40:00.000-07:002008-06-15T20:41:10.491-07:00Cuba to abandon wage caps<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Lee Glendinning and agencies</b><br />guardian.co.uk,<br />June 12 2008</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cuba is to abandon egalitarian salaries after decades of government control in a bid to improve he nation's productivity, a senior government official has revealed.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It is thought that an end to the capped wages set up by Fidel Castro in 1959 could spark the beginnings of a new middle class in Cuba.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In an interview published in Granma, the Communist party's daily newspaper the minister for labour and social security, Carlos Mateu, said the current system gave employees little incentive to excel because everyone earned the same regardless of how much work they put in.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Many government-run companies had already stopped caps on salaries and the rest must do so by August, Mateu said.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"This salary system should be seen as a tool to help obtain better results in output and services," Mateu said.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"Generally there has been a tendency for people to earn the same, and that egalitarianism is not helpful.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"That is something that we have to fix ... because if it is harmful to pay workers less than they deserve, it also is harmful to pay them what they have not earned," he added.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He said that the new compensation system fits with the mantra of "socialist distribution" mentioned regularly by new President Raul Castro: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">For years in Cuba, jobs as varied as farm workers and doctors only had a difference in their wages of the equivalent of a few US dollars a month. The average monthly wage in Cuba is around $20 (?10) leaving many Cubans struggling to make ends meet.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Details of the new system have not been specified as yet and it remains unclear if officials plan to pay higher regular salaries for better workers, or if they would just receive bonuses for good performance.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Lizette Fernandez, a former dissident who campaigned for a change in Cuba's dual currency system until she moved to Florida last year told the Miami Herald: "I think of all the changes made so far, this one is the most important.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"If you worked in an office in Cuba, you often got paid the same as the person who cleaned the office. Slow and lazy people got the same or even more, because the bosses got their jobs through political connections and didn't do any work."</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In real terms, she added, the change could mean as little as 50 cents.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"Fifty cents may not sound like a lot, but at the end of the month, it's the difference between being able to buy one bar of soap and two bars of soap," she said.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"This change offers hope that they will increase salaries even more."</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Raul Castro, 77, who came to power officially in February taking the place of his older brother Fidel, 81, when his ailing health finally became too much, has made significant changes allowing Cubans for the first time to buy their own mobile phones, computers and spend nights in hotels.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Some of his policies are still at issue, including opening the country to private enterprise and the freedom for Cubans to travel abroad.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-71629775069638249052008-06-15T20:30:00.000-07:002008-06-15T20:31:48.275-07:00Cuba Has New Pay Incentive System<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><b>Lourdes Perez Navarro</b><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">GRANMA</span><br />June 11, 2008<br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cuba's Ministry of Labor and Social Security has issued a new resolution that regulates types and systems of payment and introduces new worker incentives.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The new resolution aims to create a uniform salary policy for companies already in the management improvement program and others that are not in the process, said Carlos Mateu Pereira, vice minister of Labor and Social Security.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The resolution stipulates the concept that businesses should have pay incentive mechanisms for their different activities, according to the nature of the work carried out by the worker.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This includes piecework with direct indicators according to the production and services or other markers and efficiency in general, said the Mateu Pereira.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The vice minister of Labor and Social Security said that for many years the pay system has been based on results according to a general indicator; be it profits, sales or revenue. The worker, whether in production, services or management was paid for meeting the norm or surpassing it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now workers in each specific area will be paid for meeting or surpassing production targets. If they provide a service they will be paid for quality. Management, for the most part supervisors, will be paid according to certain general or specific indicators, but not by direct parameters.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Importance of Incentives</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Resolution 9/08 states there is no limit to bonuses from surpassing production norms of workers who are paid according to production results for goods and services, providing that other efficiency indicators incorporated in the pay system do not deteriorate.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The rest of the personnel working in the area of regulation and control such as managers, technicians and specialists in marketing, human resources and economy will normally have general and specific indicators with a limit of a 30 percent incentive. The head of a workshop can be considered a direct employee and as such has no pay limit.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mateu Pereira also said that all workers will receive up to a five percent bonus for meeting their target goals.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Implementing the Resolution</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cuban companies that have not already implemented the management improvement program have until August to redesign and adjust their pay incentive indicators. If a firm has already made this redesign of its payment system and had it approved by the corresponding ministry they can immediately begin to apply it, said the vice minister.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mateu Pereira said that with the correct implementation of the resolution, the worker will earn what they are capable of producing according to the socialist principle of distribution, each according to their contribution; that is, pay according to quantity and quality.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There has been a tendency in Cuba for everyone to earn the same salary, a type of egalitarianism that is not advisable, said Mateu Pereira. "That is something we have to work on since it has at times led to a prevalence of paternalism where people, to avoid problems, say 'I'll pay everyone the same and nobody will protest.' But it is not fair, it is just as damaging to pay a worker less than they deserve than it is to pay a worker more than they deserve."</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mateu Pereira said the new pay system should be seen as a tool to help obtain increased productivity and better service. The system will have to incorporate adequate controls, so that there is a fair distribution of salaries and so that those who contribute more receive more.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201365155071310086.post-70876609244386407232008-04-21T13:45:00.000-07:002008-12-09T16:01:36.448-08:00Fidel Castro Speaks at University of Havana (II)<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Fidel Castro<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 51);font-size:85%;" ><b>November 17, 2005</b></span> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I asked you a question, comrade students; don't worry, I haven't forgotten, and I'd like to believe that you will never forget it. It is the question that I ask in view of historical experiences we have known, and I ask you all, without exception, to reflect on it: <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Can the revolutionary process be irreversible, or not? Which are the ideas or the degree of conscience that would make the reversal of the revolution</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxveXx-qsqiYP6RTT-T5XPUg93G9G88FaOF95tbHAHe4sv5_94cRnsP2aq6akDlWtkUNJYKAvUByDMB1XsJGff0Zc-xtI5GTNp9J_lbY4O37DRMsZ5teVrPL5hXK6VFpGHOGwjNYCmHw3/s1600-h/fidelCartoon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxveXx-qsqiYP6RTT-T5XPUg93G9G88FaOF95tbHAHe4sv5_94cRnsP2aq6akDlWtkUNJYKAvUByDMB1XsJGff0Zc-xtI5GTNp9J_lbY4O37DRMsZ5teVrPL5hXK6VFpGHOGwjNYCmHw3/s320/fidelCartoon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191803245496195922" border="0" /></a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ary process impossible? When those who were the foreru</span>nners, the veterans, start disappearing and making room for new generations of leaders, what will be done and how will it be accomplished? After all, we have been witnesses to many errors, and we didn't notice.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A leader has a tremendous power when he enjoys the confidence of the masses that put full trust in his abilities. The consequences of errors committed by those in authority are terrible, and this has happened more than once during the revolutionary processes. Such is the stuff for meditation. One studies history, one meditates on what happened here and there, on what happened today and on what will happen tomorrow, on where each country's processes will lead, what path our own process will take, how it will get there, and what role Cuba will play in this process.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The country has endured limitations in resources, many limitations; but this country has wasted resources, thoughtlessly. So, while you received the soaps that had no perfume and the toothpaste, regularly every month, and even though sometimes certain activities in the schools were neglected which, for example caused the excellent state of dental health among our youth to decay, some thought that socialism could be constructed with capitalist methods. That is one of the great historical errors. I do not wish to speak of this, I don't want to theorize. But I have an infinite number of examples of many things that couldn't be resolved by those who called themselves theoreticians, blanketing themselves from head to toe in the books of Marx, Engels, Lenin and many others.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">That was why I commented that one of our greatest mistakes at the beginning of, and often during, the Revolution was believing that someone knew how to build socialism. In my opinion, today, we have relatively clear ideas about how one goes about building socialism, but we need many extremely clear ideas and many questions answered by you who will be the ones responsible for the preservation, or not, of socialism in the future.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What kind of a society would this be, how worthy of joy could we be when we assemble on a day like today, in a place like this, if we were not minimally aware of what we need to know, so that on our heroic island, this heroic people, this nation which has written pages in the history books like no other nation in the history of mankind can preserve the Revolution? Please, do not think that this who is speaking to you is a vain man or a charlatan, or someone inclined to bluff. Forty-six years have passed and the history of this country is known and the people of this nation know it well. They also know their neighbor very well, the empire, with its size and its power, its strength and its wealth, its technology and its control over the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, all the world of finances. That country has imposed on us the most incredibly iron- clad blockade, which was discussed at the United Nations where 182 nations supported Cuba, voting freely even though they ran a risk voting against the empire. The island has achieved this today, not during the days when the European socialist countries stood together with us, but after the socialist camp had disappeared and the USSR had fallen apart. We forged this Revolution alone, against all risk, for many long years and we had realized that if the day ever come when we would be under direct attack by the US, no one would ever fight for us, nor would we ask anyone to do so.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It would have been naïve of us to think, or to ask for, or to expect that one super-power would fight against the other, in this day and age of modern technological development, to intervene in this island 90 miles away. We came to the conclusion that such support would never happen. And another thing: once we asked them directly, a few years before the collapse: "Tell us frankly." : "No," they said. It was the answer we knew they would give and from that point on, more than ever, we accelerated the development of our concept and we perfected the tactical and strategic ideas which have seen to the triumph and victory of the Revolution. The Revolution's strength began with the struggle of seven armed men against an enemy with 80,000 troops including marines, soldiers and police, tanks, airplanes and all kinds of modern weaponry of the time. What an infinitely huge difference between our weapons and the weapons of that army, trained by the US, supported by the US and supplied by the US. After we received our reply, we held on to our concepts more firmly than ever, we deepened them and we gained in strength to the point where we can affirm today that our country is militarily invulnerable, and not because of arms of mass destruction. They may have tanks to spare, but we have just what we need, not one to spare! All their technology collapses like ice-cubes beneath the noon-day sun in a hot summer. And again, just like when we possessed only seven guns and a handful of bullets. Today, we possess much more than those seven guns. We have a people who have learned to handle weapons; we have an entire nation which, in spite of our errors, holds such a high degree of <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">culture, education and conscience that it will never allow this country to become their colony again. This country can self-destruct; this Revolution can destroy itself, but they can never destroy us; we can destroy ourselves, and it would be our fault.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have been fortunate to have lived many years. That is not a special merit but rather, it is an exceptional opportunity to share with you everything that I am telling you, young leaders, all the leaders of the masses, all the leaders of the workers' movement, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the women's groups, the farmers, the veterans of the Revolution, organized throughout the country, hundreds of thousands who have struggled through the years carrying out glorious internationalist missions, students like yourselves, intelligent, well prepared, healthy, organized. You are everywhere, in each one of those 900 or so campuses and the 1000 plus and the 2000 plus that we shall quickly have; and it will continue growing until more than 500,000 and 600,000, with new graduates every year. And those that graduate, like our physicians in Venezuela, will be studying with the aid of computers, videos and cassettes, all the audio-visual means necessary, to attain that scientific degree, that Master's or that Doctorate in medical sciences, everyone, one hundred percent of them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today we may speak about thousands of specialists in comprehensive general medicine and tomorrow we will be speaking about thousands of professionals in medical sciences, just to mention one branch. Let's not forget that once we had 3,000 doctors and no university professors. Many left this very university. Today, we can say that in a few short years, there will be 100,000 doctors. When those are not enough, there will be 150,000. And we will have university professors, just as we have thousands of programmers and program designers and researchers. Many changes are coming because we need to know much in a short time.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I was just telling you about a battle and I asked how much it cost. Don't think that these 28,000 social workers will be working for nothing. I've already told you how I knew that they came from the most modest of the segments of the population; I saw it in their faces. Involuntarily, I have developed the habit of guessing the province from which my compatriots come. I mentioned it in jest, and I say it to the doctors who are leaving on their missions, to the social workers, that each one belongs to a micro-tribe. I recognize those that come from Manzanillo, for example, those from Havana, from Guantanamo, from Santiago; it is impressive to see people from the most humble backgrounds in this country transform into 28,000 social workers and thousands of university students, university students!! What a force! And soon we shall also be seeing those who graduated a while ago in the Sports Coliseum.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The coliseum teaches us about Marxist-Leninism; it teaches us about social classes. A short while ago, about 15,000 doctors and medical students, some of them from ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine), and some from as far away as Eastern Timor, were gathered in the coliseum. It was an unforgettable event.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The image of those 15,000 white coats all together on graduation day can never be forgotten. That was the day that the "Henry Reeve" Contingent was created following in the tradition of many doctors who have been to places where exceptional events have taken place, in a time span much too brief to even imagine.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A short while later, the more than 3,000 young art instructors graduated; it was the second group, following that first graduation in Santa Clara. There are now 3,000 more of them already working. The next 3,000 that are in their last year of studies are also at work. And so they multiply. One day we shall assemble half at least of the social workers that are today developing one of the most transcendental tasks ever taken on by a group of young people. There is a group of Social Work Specialists who have joined forces with these young university students and they have become as one.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And what can we expect from the work of these youth? We shall put a stop to many of these vices: thievery, diversion of materials and money draining away towards the new rich.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Does anybody think that we are going to confiscate funds? No, money is sacred; everybody who has their money in the bank cannot be touched.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But look at something new, we are going to battle against an abundance of vices, theft, re-routing, one by one, we will get to them all, in some order. They don't suspect it. Do you have any ideas? Very good, then!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Certain vices can be very deep-seated. We started with Pinar del Rio to ascertain what was happening in the gas stations that sell gas in dollars. We soon discovered that there was as much gas being stolen as sold. Almost half the amount was being stolen and in other places more than half.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Well, what is happening in Havana? Will they mend their ways? Not really, everything is fun and games. Perhaps they thought that the social workers were idiots, little boys and girls. It is interesting to note that 72% of the social workers are women --I don't think something like that has happened before-- just as the doctors who are raising the prestige of our country and opening the way so that this country can use her human capital, something which is much more precious than oil. I repeat; it is much more precious than oil or gold, and any country that has oil is saying: "Wow, how lucky! I have this natural resource that is running out!" We do too, and we are going to increase oil production, of course. It's fortunate we didn't discover it earlier, because it would have been wasted.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Human capital is not a non-renewable product. It is renewable, and better, still it can be multiplied. Each year human capital increases and receives what was called, in my time, a compound interest. Add up what it is worth and receive an interest for what it is worth and for what it has earned; in five years you have much more capital, and in 100 years, it boggles the mind.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Allow me to tell you that today, human capital is practically superior to almost all of the others put together, and it is advancing very quickly to become the country's most valuable resource. I'm not exaggerating. I was asking about the cost; what was the economic cost of all our universities.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Just by using the new income collected by the gas stations in three months –and, of course, they are not going to be doing this forever, as you may guess-- but if they were to grow another 50% next year, they would collect the necessary funds in four months. All they have to do is force the new rich to pay for the fuel they consume, and in this way, within a year, they would pay no less than four times over what 600,000 university students and their professors cost. That's something, isn't it? And there would be a couple extra.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Do you know what a "couple extra" is? The people from Santiago know it. When you bought something at the store, they would give you something extra as a prize, a candy made of coconut or some such thing. That was the "couple extra". The social workers pay for this with a "couple extra." They arrived in Havana and suddenly they were collecting double. And didn't those who were there collect more? No, the social workers had to come. So I said to myself: "Is it possible that they have not learned their lesson and correct themselves?"</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Eventually, those that don't want to understand will correct themselves, but in a different way: they are going to cover themselves in their own garbage. They just don't want to understand. So what was happening in the meanwhile in Matanzas and in Havana Province? The collection increased just a bit: 12 %, 15 %, 20 %. But they were just like Pinar del Rio and the capital before the controls were in place.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In Havana Province people learned to steal like crazy. Today, the social workers are in the refineries; they get on board the tanker trucks that carry 20,000 or 30,000 liters and they watch, more or less, where that truck goes, and how much of the oil is re- routed. They have discovered private gas stations, supplied with oil from these trucks.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We all know that many of the state owned trucks go all over the place, and sometimes they visit a relative, a friend, a family or a girl-friend. I remember the time, several years before the Special Period, I saw a brand new Volvo front-loader on Fifth Avenue…one of those at the time would have cost 50,000 or 60,000 dollars. I wanted to know where the truck was heading at that speed so I asked my escort: "Hold on, ask him where he's going; try to get an honest answer." The driver confessed that he was off to visit his girl- friend in that new Volvo, going down Fifth Avenue at top speed. Some things you'll see, Mio Cid –I think it was Cervantes who said this— that would make the stones talk.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So, this is some of what has been happening. In general, we all know, and many have said: "The Revolution can't do that; no, it's impossible; no, nobody can fix that." But yes, the people are going to fix it this time, the Revolution is going to fix it, any way we can. Is it merely an ethical matter? Yes, it is above all an ethical matter; but even more, it is a vital economic matter. Our nation is one of those that waste the most combustible energy in the world. We had proof of it right here, and you very honestly pointed it out; it is very important. No one knows the cost of electricity; no one knows the cost of gasoline; no one knows its market value. I was about to tell you that it is very sad when a ton of oil can cost 400 dollars and a ton of gasoline can cost 500, 600, 700 or on occasion 1000; this is a product which does not get cheaper. Whenever that happens it is circumstantial, and it does not last long. But the product itself will run out. It's very simple: oil will run out just as many of the world minerals. Take a look at our nickel mines, leaving great holes where once there used to be a lot of nickel. This is happening to oil; the great oil fields have all been found and every day there is less of them. This is a subject about which we have had to think long and hard.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">For example, do you know how many kilometers per liter it takes to operate a Zil-130? 1.6 kilometers. It transports sugar cane or delivers snacks to the secondary school students. The Ministry of Sugar was told: Look, the Ministry of Food Industries needs your help to distribute the snack to the junior high schools. How many trucks can you spare? We have to reach 400,000 children, free of charge, to bring them their yoghurt and their bread. Of course, of those they could spare they offered the ones running on gasoline, the most cost inefficient.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If you were to exchange this Zil running on 1.6 kilometers per liter for a vehicle that has the appropriate size, let's say a two ton truck, and that one was a 5 ton truck, even a 1.2 ton truck would do. We started to see this in a discussion with the electrical industry company. They raised the problem of trucks needed to repair power grids and said: "We have to exchange 400 Soviet gas-guzzlers, because we're spending too much on gasoline." We studied them one after another, to see how much they used and what should replace them. The discussions were long; don't you think that the directors of our companies outstand for their discipline. And everyone can't be happy, I warn you; and I warn all of you as well, because this promises to be a tough fight. Till now, nobody has complained but, if I remember correctly, there were around 3,000 entities that were handling convertible currency and were managing their profits with generous expenditures in convertible currency, buying this and that, painting their houses, buying a new car and getting rid of the old clunker. We realized that, given the conditions this country is living in, such habits must be broken. We called a meeting with the main companies and they commenced to put some changes into place.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">When you go to war with a lot of bullets, you're not too worried whether the guns are shooting that efficiently, however, if you have few bullets (something that always happened to us in the war) you must be familiar with each gun's bullets, even knowing the brand name, even though they may be of the same caliber, some bullets function better with a certain gun, others may jam up. Sometimes, in the name of economy, you have to prevent them from being fired and just shoot when the enemy is breeching the trenches. For example, there is nothing as terrible as an automatic weapon being fired, and that's how we operated.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Let's speak of banks. We have excellent banking institutions. The banks today manage all the resources for all the expenses of the nation; they pay out in accordance to the established programs. You will never see the director of any bank out to lunch with the representative of some powerful corporation. Directors are never invited to dine in a restaurant, or to travel to Europe and stay in the owner's house or some luxurious hotel. Some of our business men make million dollar deals, and the fine art of corruption as it is practiced in capitalist circles is as subtle as a serpent and worse than a rat. They will anesthetize you while you are being "bitten" and it can rip off a hunk of flesh in the middle of the night. This was the way the Revolution was being put to sleep so that a piece of flesh could then be ripped away. In a few cases, corruption was out in the open. Many knew about its existence, or they suspected it, when they observed the life-style changes the new car, the house being redecorated, adding little decorative touches here and there because of pure vanity. We have heard such stories time and time again, and measures must be taken even though it will not be resolved easily.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now we come to larceny, or the re-routing of resources from the gas stations. There are ways to deliver gasoline because that gentleman, who is my very good friend, uses his vehicle in a very useful way and so I can see that he gets a certain amount of gasoline. This is just one way of thousands. There are dozens of ways to waste or to re-routing resources. If the controls in place are not enforced, or if we cannot find the best solution to stop this, theft will continue and increase. Today, in our country, we could be saving more energy, more than is possible in any other country. There are 2,400,000 vintage refrigerators in family dwellings which use four or five times more electricity per hour, on a 24 hour basis.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A single data, so that you don't forget it. In Pinar del Rio there are 143,000 refrigerators; of this number, 136,000 are INPUDs, Minsks and other ancient Soviet brands, Frigidaire and the other capitalist brands consume, according to my calculations, around 20% - -I am using another figure but here I will use the most conservative one-- of the electricity generated by power plants for Pinar del Rio during peak hours. Earlier on, I was speaking of a Zil truck; we have thousands of these. Worse than that, there are many institutions with old trucks, which are not operational, but they are not reported in that condition and the central administration has become accustomed to negotiating with government ministers. The central State Administration doesn't need to negotiate with any minister; it must issue orders to the ministers. "How many trucks do you have?" "This is how many." It is necessary to delve into the problems and then make decisions.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The sugar industry produced eight million tons and today this figure barely reaches one and a half tons. We had to radically cut back on tilling and seeding the land while oil was costing 40 dollars a barrel, it was ruinous for the country, particularly if you added to that equation the hurricanes that were passing through with increasing frequency, the prolonged droughts, and because the cane fields had a life span of four or five years when once they lasted 15 or more, and when the market price was 7 cents. I remember that one day I asked a company which sells our sugar about the price of sugar and about production at the end of March, and they didn't even know how much sugar was being produced for months, much less the cost of a ton of sugar in American dollars, the answer came up about a month and a half later. Quite simply, we had to shut down sugar mills or we were going to disappear down the Bartlett Trench. The country had many, many economists and it is not my intention to criticize them, but speaking with the same honesty I used to describe the errors of the Revolution, I would like to ask why we hadn't discovered that maintaining production levels of sugar would be impossible. The USSR had collapsed, oil was costing 40 dollars a barrel, sugar prices were at basement levels…so why did we not rationalize that industry instead of sowing 20,000 caballerias that year, equivalent of almost 270,000 hectares, obliging us to till the land with tractors and heavy ploughs, sowing cane that afterwards had to be cleaned using machinery, fertilize with expensive herbicides, etc. None of our economists seemed to have noticed any of this, and we practically had to instruct them, order them, to stop the procedure. It is like saying: "The country is being invaded"; you cannot reply: "Hold on, let me have a thirty meetings with a hundreds of people." It's as if we had said in Giron: "Let's hold a meeting for three days to discuss what we should do to repel the invasion." I assure you that the Revolution, throughout her history, has been a constant and real war, with the enemy stalking us and ready to strike at us if we should let down our guard. I called the minister and I told him: Tell me please, how many hectares are ploughed?" The answer: "Eighty thousand." My response was: "Not one hectare more." That wasn't really up to me, but I had no option; you just can't let the country go down the tubes, and in April I was looking at 20,000 caballerias of land being ploughed.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We have had to do many more things like this, things that would make the stones speak. It's not your fault, but, what was happening to us? Why did we not see all this? The USSR had already collapsed, we had been left without oil overnight, with no raw materials, no food, no cleaning products, nothing. Probably, it was good that this happened, after all. Maybe it was necessary that we suffered as we did, so that we are ready to give our lives a hundred times over before we surrender the country or the Revolution, the Revolution we so deeply believe in. Maybe it was all necessary, for we have committed many errors. It is these errors that we are trying to correct, if you will, that we are in the process of correcting.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One of the corrections made by the Party and the Government was to put an end to the prerogative of 3,000 citizens to manage the country's currency, in the situation of debt –they could have a debt of such and such a size-- nobody was guaranteeing the payment of that debt; when the debt expired the State was obliged to pay it. It might have been an unnecessary or subjective debt, and if the State did not pay it, its credit could be considerably affected. Today that has changed; I would like to tell you that the country is paying off every last cent, with not even a second's delay, and credit grows constantly. Money is not being thrown out of the windows; it is spent in great quantities, yes, but not in those colossal amounts that we saw in the sugar industry.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You will be even more amazed when I tell you that, according to its inventory, the Ministry of Sugar has 2000 to 3000 more trucks than it had when it was producing 8 million tons of sugar. It's tough, but I'm going to tell it like it is; I'm going to talk about it, and no matter how many times I tell it, and no matter how I criticize this in public, I am not afraid to shoulder the responsibility for what needs to be done, we cannot afford to be soft. Let them attack and criticize me, I know the reality of the situation, I know it very well. There must be quite a few who are hurting: kings, czars, emperors. Is everyone like that? No! Are all our ministers like that? No. Some ministers have been very inefficient. Sometimes we are soft on officials who hold important positions, but I have this old habit: I like to work with the comrades who have made mistakes. I've done that many times over. As long as I see positive qualities and what is missing is the correct guidance. Sometimes it is just a question of short-sightedness, in spite of all the mechanisms and institutions in the country to defend itself, to struggle and to fight with honor, without abuse of power, for nothing would ever justify the abuse of power. We must be audacious enough to tell the truth, but not all of it, because we don't need to say everything at once. Political battles follow certain tactics, with adequate information, following their own path. I am not telling you everything; I am telling you the indispensable. Don't worry about what the bandits are saying or what the news services will report tomorrow or the day after: he who laughs last, laughs best.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There are some news reports saying that Castro is launching an offensive, Castro is launching his social workers that we are renouncing all the progressive advances made so far. The progressive advance means that you are selling a pound of rice for four pesos, it's robbery! What retiree would be able to buy that? A pensioner with his 80 pesos and five pounds of rice in his ration book cannot buy that. Havana had privileges and used to receive six. Havana used to receive one additional pound, and so did Santiago, but the rest of the provinces received five. We must measure it, ounce after ounce, 100 grams, how it grows. What's happening with the ration book? You have rice and you exchange it for sugar, and so on.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today, everybody receives two more pounds of rice. I'd like to see the day when that will be enough. It's not far, but now they throw it at the chickens. Well, that's a whole other story. We are getting close to the time when everyone will have enough rice. We are also preparing conditions so that the ration book will be a thing of the past. We want to change something that was once useful and now is in the way. And if you would like to buy more rice, buy more rice and less sugar, or something else, not just red beans or black beans. You can buy whatever color of beans you like and cook them as you like. I warn you, you will have to pay a lot of attention to cooking, and quite soon.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Some were also commenting on the chocolate: "I'll believe it when I see it." That's what happened with the pressure cookers, and today there are millions of believers. Others said: "How is this chocolate?" "What does it cost?" "Eight pesos." "It's pretty expensive to be subsidized." Moral of the story: Everything subsidized should be as economical as electricity. "So, how much does it cost?" "Ah! Eight pesos." "How many cents of a devalued dollar?" Thirty two cents. What's it like? It has 200 grams; in each 11 grams seven are whole milk powder. Let everyone check for himself. Take it to a lab and get it examined. Four grams of cocoa, the strongest…as strong as it is healthy. Cuba today is probably the country that consumes most cocoa per capita in the world; children eat it, but so does Dad, just as Dad drinks the child's coffee. Children are born and registered, and they receive their little packet of coffee, real coffee, for five pesos. "It's too expensive to be subsidized!" You should really say: it is a little short of a gift.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The road to reach what I am saying is: the worker must receive more. Everyone who works should receive more. All pensioners should receive more. We are really talking about more income and more products.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There are two over there, they're not bad, and some of you are discovering the chocolate. I know that our doctors over there in Kashmir drink our chocolate every night; this packet which is so expensive, and you can add milk. For the children, if you like, add more; add water and add milk, and then there is protein.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I assure you that we are measuring all the protein in every bean and in every egg. Most of the country is getting five. Havana is getting eight. Today there are more than 100 municipalities that are receiving 10, and every new one receives an increase. Add it up: 5 times 9 make 45. That's 4.50 plus 5 times 15cents, 75, that means that with 5.25 cents you can buy 10 eggs. Those on social assistance can get 5 new eggs for 4.50. Correct. Yes, but then came the chocolate and you need to get 8 pesos, and the coffee and you need 5, and 8 more, 13; add it to the 5.25, 18.25. Well, you have two more pounds of rice, and this cost 90 cents of a peso each one, let's call it a little less than 4 cents of a dollar. That's new: the country must spend 40 million dollars on those two additional pounds of rice, and we don't hesitate in doing so. And the one who got a raise of 50 pesos, now he is left with a little less. But we are thinking how much of an increase the pensioner will get so that he can buy more…and the money must be guaranteed before it is distributed. It's not just a matter of printing bills and distributing them without having them backed up with merchandise or services, because then those magnificent intermediaries will charge five pesos for the rice instead of three. Don't forget that those who can will charge what they like. "Pay me eight pesos for a pound of beans," they'll say.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All 5 million in the country, who received 10 ounces, will be receiving 20, and those who were receiving 20 will be getting 30, and those who were receiving 10 and then 20 will be getting 30, tripling the amount of beans, or grain as they call it, not including rice or corn. Five million, three times more, and the rest at 50% more. This too cost us several million dollars. I am not going to ask you where we got it, because that is a subject for the great theoreticians: "That's too little for a salary raise," they ay say. Sure, the ideal would be triple. And where do we get it from? My dear sir, are you going to tell me where we are going to get this, who do we have to rob, or are we going to have to pull your leg to give you much more than this so that you are deceived? There are a few questions that we need to ask the fools, not that everything they think is foolish, but there are many foolish remarks that are due to ignorance: the price is high, the price is high, and price is always high. We ended up giving away the houses, some people bought theirs, they were the owners, they had paid 50 pesos a month, 80 pesos, or, if the money was sent to them from Miami, it amounted to about 3 dollars; some sold theirs in 15 000 or 20 000 dollars, when they had originally paid less than 500.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Can the country resolve its housing problem by giving away houses? And who will get them, the proletariat or the humble people? Many humble people were given houses for free and then they sold them to the new rich. How much can the new rich spend on a house? Is this socialism? Maybe it's down to necessity at a certain moment in time, maybe it's a mistake, because the country suffered a shattering blow when overnight the great power fell and we were left alone, all on our own, and we lost all the markets on which to sell our sugar and we stopped getting supplies, fuel, even the wood with which to give a Christian burial to our dead. And everyone thought: `This will fall apart', and the idiots still believe that it is all going to fall apart here and that if it doesn't fall apart now it will fall apart later. And the more illusions they entertain and the more they think, the more we should think, the more we should draw our own conclusions, so that this glorious people who has so trusted all of us is never defeated. (Applause) Let there never be a USSR situation here, or broken, disperse socialist blocks! The empire shall not come here to set up secret jails in which to torture progressive men and women from other parts of this continent that are today rising to fight for the second and final independence!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Before we go back to living such a repugnant and miserable life there better not be any memory, even the slightest trace, of us or our descendents. I said that we are more and more revolutionary and I said this for a reason. Now, we understand the empire better and better, we are increasingly aware of what they are capable of while before we were skeptical with regard to some things, they seemed to us impossible.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">They had fooled the world. When the mass media grew in full force it took control of peoples' minds and exercised its power through not only lies, but also conditioned response. A lie isn't the same as a conditioned response: a lie affects one's knowledge whereas the conditioned response affects one's ability to think. And being misinformed isn't the same as having lost the ability to think, because responses have been created for you: `This is bad, that is bad; socialism is bad, socialism is bad', they say, and all the ignorant people and all the humble people and all the exploited people are saying: `Socialism is bad'. `Communism is bad'. And all the poor people, all the exploited people and all the illiterate people are repeating it: `Communism is bad'. `Cuba is bad, Cuba is bad', the empire has said it, it has been said in Geneva, it has been said all over the place, and all the exploited people around the world, all the illiterate people and all those who don't receive medical care, or education or have any guarantee of a job, or of anything are saying: `The Cuban Revolution is bad, the Cuban Revolution is bad'. `Listen, the Cuban Revolution did this and that'. But listen to this too: `No-one is illiterate in Cuba'. Listen, `infant mortality rate is such and such'. Listen, `everyone can read and write'. Listen, `freedom can't exist without culture'. Listen, `there can't be choice'.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What are they talking about? What can the illiterate people do? How can they know if the International Monetary Fund is good or bad, or that interest is higher, or that the world is being ceaselessly subjugated and pillaged by a thousand different methods put into practice by this system? They don't know.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">They don't teach the masses to read and write, yet they spend a million dollars on publicity every year; but it isn't the fact that they spend it, it's the fact that they spend it on creating conditioned responses, because someone bought Palmolive, someone else bought Colgate, and someone else bought Candado soap, just because they were told to a hundred times over, because they associated the products with a pretty image and this sowed its seed and carved its place in the brain. They who talk so much of brainwashing, it is they who carve their place, who mould the brain, who take away from the human being his capacity to think; it would be less serious if they were taking away the ability to think from someone who had been to university, who could read a book.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What can the illiterate read? What means have they of realizing that they are being conned? What means have they of knowing that the biggest lie in the world is the one that claims that the rotten system that reigns over there and what they have in many places, if not almost all of the countries that copied that system is a democracy? The damage that they are doing is terrible. And people are becoming aware of this, and day after day more people are becoming aware, day after day, after day, they feel more disdain, more disgust, more hatred, more condemnation, and more desire to fight. This is what, in the end, makes everyone much more revolutionary than they were when they were unaware of many of these things, when they only knew about elements of injustice and inequality.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">At the moment, while I'm talking to you about this, I'm not theorizing, although it is necessary to theorize; we are working, we are moving towards full changes in our society. We have to change again, because we have gone through some very difficult times, and these inequalities and injustices have arisen, and we are going to change this situation without abusing anyone's rights in the least, and without taking money away from anyone. No, we're not going to take anybody's money; in our eyes, the faith that our people have in the bank is the most important thing of all. And because the Revolution is creating wealth, and because the Revolution is going to create a significant input that isn't derived from the sugar industry or any of that, it will mainly come from that capital, and also from experience, because knowing what must be done is very important.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If I tell you about the gas stations in the capital you're going to be amazed; there's more than double the amount that there should be, its total chaos. Every ministry wanted one and got one, and they're scattered around everywhere. The People's Power institution is a disaster, total chaos, in the sense that all the oldest trucks, the ones that consume the most fuel, and all that, were given to the People's Power. When it seemed that the use of these trucks was being rationalized, really the country was being permanently mortgaged.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Can we do the same when fuel costs 2 dollars as when it costs 10 or 20, or 40, or 60? One of the worst things that happened to us was precisely that we believed in the strategies of the power system. Many questions were asked, and, really, we discovered that the main problem was that we were operating on a concept that corresponded to the days when fuel cost 2 dollars; the sugar policy corresponded to the days when that cost two dollars, too. The price of oil nowadays is not in keeping with any supply and demand rule; it conforms to other factors like the shortages, the extensive squandering by the rich countries, and it's not a price that is anyway in keeping with economic rules either. The reason behind it is the shortage of this product together with the increasing and extraordinary demand for it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In fact, this very morning I was informed of some news: by next year there will be a demand for 2 </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">million more barrels a day; the year after that the demand will have risen to more than 84 million barrels a day, and the United States, which is the empire's main territory, goes through 8.6 million barrels of fuel a day. This is one of the key points. We invite everyone to take part in a great battle, it's not just a fuel and electricity battle, it's a battle against larceny, against all types of theft, anywhere in the world. I repeat: against all types of theft, anywhere in the world. What is the cost of the total amount of energy that the country uses at the current oil prices? It's around 3 billion dollars.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, saving measures aren't the only way to increase income, there are several ways. Let me tell you that there are quite a few and they are significant. I am almost certain –the final result could be a bit more or a bit less, I don't want to say for certain, I'm always conservative when it comes to calculations– that this country, in light of all the information that we now have, can save, in a short amount of time, two thirds of the energy that it now consumes, adding up all the factors: electricity, oil, diesel, fuel oil, etc; with a price like that currently charged it could decrease slightly and then increase considerably. This would mean more than 1, 5 billion dollars. And you may ask: What does the country currently do with those 1, 5 billion dollars? My answer to that would be: one part is stolen, another part is squandered and the rest is thrown away. As we are in the middle of this offensive, in the middle of the activity, I can't give you all of the information; but I think that within 10 years the work of these young social workers may save the country up to 20 billion dollars with regard to energy. Did you hear that? You know how much a million is, don't you? And 100 millions? And 1 billion in convertible pesos?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Carlitos, you gave me a document:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">`The total cost of education: 4,117 million pesos; the cost of higher education: 886 million.' `Information from the Ministry of Economy and Planning, confronted with the Ministry of Finance and Prices, on November 17, 2005'.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So, it is 886 million pesos. We have that 700 million pesos is 35.4 million dollars. And let me say once again: it's a small part of what is stolen or extracted from the fuel reserves, less than 20%. That is what the universities cost, according to this information.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">When I say 1 billion dollars saved, I am talking about 25 billion pesos. All the wages paid in this country, at international exchange rates, which are exceedingly arbitrary towards Cuba, amount to around 14 billion pesos, a currency which has true value in our country, and has a very high real purchasing power. It has also been revalued and it may be revalued again.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Every word uttered has to be carefully weighed. I'm not improvising, I have reflected extensively on this information and I have it in my mind, and I weigh my words: I'll say this, I won't say that, because we have enemies who are trying to thwart everything and mix everything up, like those who say that we are abusing the sacred freedom of trade. And they say other things besides, one example is: `What can they get with a dollar that was sent over by someone who is most probably a university graduate? As you all know, they didn't have to pay a cent. Following the triumph of the Revolution no-one who left here for the United States was illiterate.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And every year was the same, those who had sixth grade, a seventh grade of education, those who new a thing or two, those sectors that went to university were the first to go there, the richest sectors of society, and for more than 40 years the empire stole tens of thousands of university graduates and hundreds of thousands of skilled workers, whom they now try, at all cost, to prevent from sending remittances to Cuba. What bitterness there was that day when the dollar shops opened, as a means to collect a little bit of the remittance money, and those with this money went to spend it in those shops, that were expensive, and aimed at collecting a bit of this money and redistributing it to those who didn't get any, at a time when the country was in a very difficult situation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now then, what do they do now with a dollar? They send it over here. I don't know whether they send you a dollar or two. (Talking to someone) I have relatives who receive money. I don't mess about that. One day we asked and were told that in some provinces 30% or 40% of the people receive something, a little; but sending over a dollar is a good deal, a really good deal! So good that it could easily ruin us because of the enormous purchasing power they have in a blockaded country, with highly subsidized rationed products and free or amazingly cheap services.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have an example of this, going back to electricity. Do you know how much it costs the country in convertible pesos to produce one kilowatt with this system that has had so many problems, with the `Guiteras', the Felton and other power plants, that have caused so many power outages and many other problems? Do you know how much it costs the country in convertible pesos? Around 15 cents per kilowatt, but if you –this comrade, undoubtedly an intelligent man, who spoke so well– were to receive, say, one dollar, what could you do with it? You've acknowledged that electricity is very cheap, it's practically given away; we give it away to the pensioners and to the workers, we give it away; but we are also giving it away to the hustlers, to those who made 1000 pesos from here to Guantánamo, or who make twice what a doctor earns in a month by taking him from Havana to Las Tunas, with stolen fuel, bribing the gas station attendants. I'm not against anyone, but neither am I against the truth. I don't believe any lies, I'm sorry, but I'm telling them all now that they are going to loose the battle, and it won't be an act of injustice or abuse of power. We are giving away electricity to those who sell a pound of beans for 8 pesos. And, please, don't stop selling them, don't go doing that and blaming it on me. Sell them, we're not going to prohibit it, what I want is to know what they're going to do when beans are more plentiful. I don't know if they'll drop the price or not, but half of the population has seen their quota triple, and the other half has seen it increase by 50%. I think that they'll have to lower it somewhat. Most probably, sometime in the future, with a bit of money, from the energy that we will be saving, we will assign another 10 ounces and the moment will come in which all sellers will be honest and not one single bean will go astray and produce that isn't bought is returned, because there will no longer be any means by which to pinch it, nor reason, nor circumstances, the speculator will end up with nothing to sell and will have to eat it all himself.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The farmers eat their produce and sell the rest. The speculator steals and doesn't produce anything. A cable from Reuters portrayed the government as beating down the `progressive advances' of the special period. Progressive is what I have been talking about. They don't mention that the crook, or whoever, he's probably not a crook, the lucky fellow over there sends you a dollar and you spend very little on electricity, you consume less that 100, you have spent 9 Cuban pesos for 100 kilowatts of electricity. Okay? Divide 24 by 9 (he works out the sum) You spend 2400 cents, and for your 100 kilowatts you paid 900 cents, that's not even half a dollar, you've still got 1500 cents left, you've only used 100; you are a very thrifty young lad, you turn off the lights, you turn everything else off as well, you don't have any incandescent light bulbs, all yours are fluorescent light bulbs, your refrigerator uses less than 40 watts an hour, you don't have one of those old Frigidaire models that once belonged to your grandmother, you are very good. (Laughter)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now, maybe you spend 150 kilowatts, but it's going to be a bit more expensive for you because the extra 50 cost 20 instead of 9, which is 10 pesos; so you, who paid a bit more because of those 50, have spent 19 pesos. But, listen, you still haven't spent a dollar, you don't live in Florida, you live in Cuba. In Florida it's stingy and shameless, the electricity costs him 15 cents of a dollar, but he sends you a dollar so that with less than a dollar you can pay for 150 kilowatts; but, in spite of this, you use in moderation, you have many gadgets, new and old, possibly an air conditioner and a few other things, and you use 300 kilowatts. You work it out, the first 100 are worth 9 pesos; the second 200, 40 pesos, together that equals 49 pesos. In total you spend 1.9 dollars for 300 kilowatts of electricity; that is to say, 0.63 cents of a dollar for one Cuban kilowatt of electricity. How amazingly brilliant! How much do the Cuban people spend because of that dollar that is sent to you from over there? Because that wasn't a dollar that you earned, or a peso, by working for it, or that that middleman made by selling a pound of beans for eight pesos; it was sent to you by a healthy person, who studied free of charge right from primary school, who isn't ill, they are the healthiest citizens that go to the United States, where there is an Adjustment Act, and where the sending of remittances is also prohibited.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Okay, so for less than two dollars the country had to spend 44 dollars to subsidize that dollar that was sent from the United States. This country is a noble one, it subsidized those dollars from over there, that instead of helping you are going to say: `Look, I'm going to send you 2 dollars for the electricity, but don't use so much, please, be careful, turn off the lights. Look, I'm also going to send you a refrigerator, or I'm going to give you the money to buy yourself one in the `shopping'. The generous sender of dollars then continues: `Don't worry, I'll send you everything you need, I am good, I am noble, I'm going to heaven, I guarantee you those 300 kilowatts that you are costing that stupid socialist State that says that it is revolutionary and that it is going to fight until death to defend the Revolution'. It may be a person who knows that we are good, but he may also think that we are fools; and, even, be partly right about that. Watch out!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now, to collect 45 dollars I have to collect 4500 cents. I have to collect them from all of you. How many people are there here? (He is told 405) So, it's four hundred and five? Well then, before you all go can you please hand over 11 cents, that is what you pay, that money with which the State pays is your money, that is to say, the Cuban people's money. All of you hand over 11 cents to subsidize the electricity bill of that person for one month. Don't forget! We are going to put someone in charge of watching you all and registering the information as well. (Laughter) Isn't that right? So if this person is given his quota of rice, how much do those five pounds of rice cost him? Let's see, with a dollar. How much does it cost him? How much can he buy with a dollar, even with the deduction, even with the revaluated price of the peso? He buys a hundred pounds of rice, not in one day as some fools believe, but saves it for this month, and the next month, and the following months.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Obviously, you didn't spend any of what they sent you on medicine, for medicine here are subsidized, if you bought it in the drugstore, that is, what wasn't stolen and resold, and then you spent 10% of what it costs in hard currency. If you went to the hospital and had an ankle or even heart operation, your operation could cost 1000, 2000, 10,000 in the United States; if you suffer a stroke and are given a valve, this could cost one of our employees over in the Interests Section 80,000 dollars, but here you're treated. There could an incident of mistreatment in a hospital, but have you ever been to a hospital where you have not been treated?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, our system didn't have the organization that it is now starting to have and will have, fully, in the future, or the equipment that is now starting to be used in the majority of hospitals, high quality standardized equipment, that therefore can receive maintenance, or the computerized multi-section tomography machines, with 64 sections, the best in the world, that are now starting to arrive, that have been bought and paid for. You see. And how have they been paid? They have been paid with the savings and with the country's newly increasing income. It doesn't cost you anything.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">From the moment that you enroll in nursery school until the day that you graduate with the honorable PhD in agricultural science, physical science, medical science, it never costs you penny. If you're lucky you get an apartment, although it is likely that you will never be that lucky –okay, let's say your father was given it because he was a construction worker--, but you don't pay rent, you don't pay taxes. Perhaps you are quite sharp and you say: `I am going to rent it out to some visitors, in convertible pesos. So, I am charged 30 cents in tax for every dollar that I receive; okay, I was practically given this house, it cost me 500 dollars, I make 800 a month and I give 240 to the State, a few dollars here and there, and I earn 500 dollars; 5 times two 10, 12 500 pesos. You can go, by virtue of those sacred freedom of trade laws, and buy a pound of rice for 3 pesos on the open market, you can go up to a gas station attendant and say: `Look, I have a 1950's car because I bought it from such and such a person, I paid for it in hard currency or in convertible pesos, and I have someone who gets me the fuel, and I'm going on a 300 km trip, and I have three girlfriends', and this hunk of tin is an attractive offer with all the problems with transport. Who's not going to want me with this car?' (Laughter)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If you want, dear students, I could add that those who use 300 kilowatts consume 40% of the residential electricity produced in the country; 40% of this electricity could represent –a cautious and conservative figure– 400 million dollars generously and benevolently given by the State to the biggest users. And who are the biggest users? Go and visit one of the new rich and take a look at how many electrical appliances they have.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I remember that when we were analyzing the issue of power consumption we discovered that a `paladar' [private] restaurant consumed 11,000 kilowatts and that this stupid State was subsidizing the owner, the owner of the place where the bourgeoisie likes to take their guests so that they can taste the lobster and the shrimps, all of it stolen from Batabanó, a miracle of the private business, that little place with four or five tables. But, of course, this totalitarian, abusive State is against progress because it is against plundering. So, the State is subsidizing the `paladar' with more than 1,000 dollars a month, and I found this out because I asked how much they spent, how much it was worth, and this fellow was paying the electricity at that price, 11,000 kilowatts; I think that once the total exceeded 300 he was paying 30 cents of a peso per kilowatt. Didn't you know? No, none of you know anything. (Something is said to him) No, don't make things up, I have made a lot of enquiries and I have been misinformed on many occasions. It is 30 cents, 11,000 kilowatts, he was paying 3,000 pesos. Look what he was paying, the State was getting rich because he paid 3,000 Cuban pesos, some 120 dollars; but it costs the State…, on that occasion I calculated that a kilowatt was 10 cents of a dollar, now 11,000, at a cost of 15 cents for the State, we'll have to pass the collection plate here, I don't know how you are all doing for cash but we have to subsidize that `paladar', and as it costs 1,250 dollars a month and there are 400 of you, don't just hand over the 20 cents when you leave, also donate around 3 dollars please, for the monthly payment, pay the bill because someone has to subsidize that `paladar'. That's free trade, that's progress, that's development, that's a step forward.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We are going to show them what progress is, what development is, what justice is, what it is to end the theft. And I warn them: it will be with the wholehearted support of the people. We know what we are doing, it is pure math and it's in the numbers. We know how much everything that we are going to save is worth. I don't want to talk about what we are buying now, nor do I want to elaborate much more about the billions, regardless of whether or not the power cuts will come to an end, and believe me, they will end, of that you can be sure.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Now we have around two and a half million electrical pressure cookers, we've not just got the rice cookers, we're also going to have some gadget that saves more than 80% of the energy that you use to boil one liter of water. I'm sure that I can ask you a question and that you will answer it. Raise your hands all of you who don't use warm water to wash with in August. Honestly now. Be careful, don't get mixed up. (A girl raises her hand)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Okay, so you've never used warm water? (She tells him that she hasn't) And what about winter? (Again she replies negatively) Congratulations. You make up approximately 10% of the population. You do, in winter? (A boy answers that he does) What a responsible man you are (laughter) And you know I have asked other people, not like I have here, I asked students and work colleagues, and I asked them to raise their hands if they didn't use it. Do you know when that was? It was on my birthday, on August 13. I asked 10 of them to tell me if they didn't heat the water to take a shower and none of the 10 raised their hands. I'm talking about water to take a shower, people also heat water to purify it, and for the children, in summer. When it's cold I want to see which of you takes a shower without heating the water first. (Laughter)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And do you know what university students in the halls of residence do with cans to heat water? Do you know? Ah! And why don't you find out how much electricity they use? I can tell you, I can tell you that there are some methods of heating water that use more than forty times more energy. Forty times!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Tell me honestly, have any of you ever used electricity to heat a homemade burner when the gas has run out? I'm not referring to those of you who have mains gas, that is the most economic, and should not be touched on. Those of you who cook with liquid gas or kerosene, have you ever used a homemade burner to cook anything? Raise your hands if you have never used one.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Let's see. Who's here? What about that person there who raised their hand. Have a look, find out about that gentleman, maybe my eyesight's failing me, and let's see. Really, raise your hand if you have never used one. One. Stand up young lady. Please, come here. Yes, you who raised your hand, yes you, stand up. Come here please. Now then, answer my question. You're telling the absolute truth? (She tells him that she is) You have never used one. Where do you live? (She tells him that she lives in the country, in Santa María) Is there electricity there? (She answers affirmatively)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I wanted to find the ideal citizen, someone who has never used a homemade burner. Tell me something, is it ever hot there? And another thing: do you have an electric fan? Because I'm sure there are mosquitoes out there, aren't there? What type of fan do you have? What type of motor does this fan have, Aurika? (Laughter) (She tells him that it is a Sanyo with an efficient electric motor) Your parents are farmers, is that true? (She says that it is) But you don't sell anything on that market do you? (Laughter) She is honest, she has slightly more resources. Do you have any incandescent bulbs? (She tells him that she does) How many? What size are they? How powerful are they? (She tells him that they are 60 watt bulbs) And can you see okay with those? (She answers affirmatively) How many hours a day do you have them on for? (She tells him that they are on for quite a few hours) What, five, six? (She tells him that there is one that stays on all night) One is on all night? How many hours is that? Of course, it's so that the place isn't shrouded in darkness. So that's 10, 12? (She tells him 12 hours) Twelve hours. Oh my! And the other light, how long is that on for? (She tells him that it is on from six in the evening until after ten) After ten, that is, so let's say six hours. Twelve plus four, 16 hours; times 60 equals 960 watts. Instead of using 960 watts you are going to be given 2 fluorescent light bulbs that use 7 watts each if they're on for 12 and 4 hours; 16 times 7 equals 112 watts and more light.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Do you want to do something for your country? Do you want to? I'm sure that you do. Do you live there? I didn't want to ask, but anyway, the problem has now been solved. I am going to tell you how much you are going to give your country very soon, starting from tomorrow if you wish.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Enrique, send them two 7 watt bulbs, or 15 or 20 if you want, you'll be able to see better that you do with the incandescent bulbs and you'll have less thieves sneaking about nearby, The cost of these little 7 watt bulbs, I've already worked it out, is 112 watts, which I'll subtract from the 960 that the incandescent bulbs use: 960 minus 112 equals 858 watts, multiplied by 365, the number of days in a year, if it's not a leap year, equals 313.170 watts, divided by 1000 it would be 313,17 kilowatts, multiplied by 15 cents, with the cost of production in hard currency, brings the total to 46 dollars and 97 cents.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I would like to thank you in advance, you, who are going to give the country –wait a minute, don't go, yet– from the payment that you have to make now, you are going to give Cuba 12.7 cents a day, in 100 days you would have given the country 12.7 dollars, and by next year you will have given all of us 46.45 dollars, with which to buy a few more beans or whatever. So, let me tell you, and this isn't some kind of tax, and you will see better, by just changing two light bulbs you are going to give us 46.45 dollars; we're not going to charge you or anyone for the two light bulbs. They last five times longer that the incandescent light bulbs and they generate less heat, you won't have to use that Sanyo fan of yours so much.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So that's the situation, explained with that example. Imagine if there were 15 million light bulbs instead of 2, and not just those in people's houses, who have more than calculations show, but also in the schools, general stores, and in all types of shops and stalls; 15 million. Of course, she only has two and she uses them quite a lot, there are others who use them much less and some people use them very often, so we can't extrapolate like that. But we must save, maybe for quite a few hours, between two and three 100,000 kilowatt power generators, plus the cost of fuel and other things needed to produce the electricity that is squandered, a power the country needs in order to ensure that these bulbs are on for an hour, which make this expenditure necessary.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What are you all talking about? What are you laughing at? (They point up to the ceiling of the theatre hall where there is a large amount of small incandescent bulbs) Ah! No, I'm prepared to pay for those to stay there, they are very pretty. It isn't a waste, it's a traditional and historical setting and, besides, there aren't events here all day every day, and in any case, the guilty party here is me, because this building has been lit up the whole time that I have been up here on this rostrum.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Well, thank you very much. (He turns to another young woman from Ciego de Avila, who stood next to the other young woman from Havana) Is there a refrigerator in your house? (She tells him that it is not working) It's not working? Wasn't it fitted with the seal or the thermostat? (She tells him that it was) So why did it break again? (She tells him that the motor burned out) The motor burned out? When? (She tells him that it was a while ago) What type is it? (She tells him that it is Russian) Russian, Minsk, or made with a Russian motor, INPUD, in Santa Clara and now it's not working, you were using much more energy that those light bulbs.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Let us assume that it is working, we'll have to say what we must do in your case, because we'll have to change the refrigerator as it uses too much energy. The day before yesterday I was seeing off some of the social workers who were going to go and talk to the truck and tractor drivers, they were going to find out where they were, where they lived, what they were called, what their identity numbers were, how much fuel they used, if they used diesel how many kilometers did they travel on one liter; but it's not necessary to know a lot to realize that your non operational Minsk used a lot of energy.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Don't you remember? It must have been using around 300 watts an hour; you certainly were ruining the republic, because this one faulty refrigerator must consume seven kilowatts a day. If instead of this you had a new one, that consumed less than 40 watts an hour, you could be –I'm going to tell you how much you would be saving, I am going to try, I am going to calculate just 200 watts per hour– using 4.8 kilowatts a day. Learn to multiply, because you are all going to have to do this. (He makes the calculation) At 15 cents per kilowatt, she is going to be giving us 15 and 15, 30 and 30, 72 cents a day. She shall have her refrigerator. Let's note that down, Enrique.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You don't have one at the moment? (He is told that the situation is being sorted out) Where are you going to get the machine from, tell me that? (He is told that the motor is going to be repaired by self-employed workers)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Wait, we're going to be increasing rates by about 30% then because those repaired motors are a disaster. Enrique, how much do the repaired motors consume? Many people have done that because their motors have broken and they didn't have any other choice, we can't blame them. But the State can be blamed. I can assure you this: within six months you will have a refrigerator that won't consume more than 40 watts an hour. I'm talking about what is wasted, what is thrown away, in your case we'll be set to save 200 per hour. That's what you'll save yourself, it's a pity that the 150 that we had in stock have just been distributed. Maybe, Enriquito, we've got seven left, we could have a trial over there. At the moment we have 150 trials underway in the city, we are going to hold a short meeting with the representatives of Arroyo Naranjo, where 30,000 use liquid gas. We are going to visit them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Enrique, how many went to visit the residents of Arroyo Naranjo, the 50,000 homes? (Enrique tells him that that day 1,098 social workers had gone to visit around 55,000 homes. He points out that each worker visits an average of 20 houses a day, so according to calculations, they would have visited 20,000)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So, in two days they will have visited them all. They will have recorded what domestic appliances are used in this municipality. We are carrying out important social experiments. We are going to change the gas, they may be listening to me now, they are the lowest income people in this city and they have been given liquid gas. The price of liquid gas is more than 700 dollars per ton. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">(Calculating) That's 300,000 kilograms, 300 tons of liquid gas, as a minimum, the monthly cost for Arroyo Naranjo. The approximate yearly cost for Arroyo Naranjo's liquid gas is 3 million dollars, if it is really only 30,000 consumers; we should send a team to check on whether it is running out or not.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We'll do an important experiment, we'll collect all the data and then we'll meet with the direct representatives from the communities, the popular councils, the trade unions, the mass organizations, 1,500 of the people closest to the neighbors to discuss this experiment that we propose to carry out and I'm sure that it will be a success, and you will immediately be saving the energy expenses.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We'll see the winter consumption rate; we'll see what the new light bulbs we are distributing from now until the end of December will save us; we'll see those new fans that will substitute the homemade ones, which amount to one million, and then we'll add to that an equal amount of the simple but highly efficient manual electrical water heaters that are going to considerably reduce the cost from what it takes to boil water.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In December we will be distributing 14,000 pieces of equipment: rice cookers, electrical pressure cookers, water heaters. The energy efficient light bulbs replacing the incandescent are not included in these figures. We shall see what happens to certain vehicles after the conversations with the social workers, and how many of them will receive a good Christian burial. When each Ministry receives the appropriate number of trucks and they are asked to keep 90% of them on the road and that all of them should be registered, it will be surprising to see how much energy is saved.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Actually, we have ideas that we won't be explaining now: the exact time it will take to remove every single one of the gasoline powered trucks and other gas guzzlers off the road. We've been speaking about saving two-thirds of the same. By the end of 2006, we believe we shall have saved no less than a million kilowatt/hours in electricity. Today this amount is generated and inefficiently used. With the new equipment, we shall have the capacity to generate at least 1.4 million kilowatt/hours, not counting the plants that are being built. That is more certain than everything which has been announced and accomplished, and everything that has not been mentioned and accomplished.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I don't like to talk much about it, but there are ideas which we have already begun to apply extensively. We will take advantage of the fact that in winter there is a 15% decrease in energy consumption, since each new piece of equipment must have its energy assured. We need to be sure that the family has cooking facilities if this should fail; now there are many problems, but they are all being studied in detail, and all of them are being solved conscientiously, as Marx would have said. I won't go on any more, but soon I shall return and we will continue talking.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have broached many different subjects. We have to be resolute: either we defeat these deviations and strengthen the Revolution by destroying any of the illusions that the empire may have, or we can rather say: either we radically defeat these problems or we die. We must repeat the motto: Patria o Muerte! (Homeland or Death!) This is all very serious and we must use all necessary forces, if need be, the 28,000 social workers. I would guess that all those who are out there re-routing gasoline should be well advised so that we don't have to discover, point by point, who it is that is stealing fuel. The 10,000 social workers are ready and the city of Havana has been transformed into a spectacular school where we are learning what it is that we have to do. They learn more every day. The 28,000 will be joined by the 7,000 who are still studying.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If 28,000 are not enough, and some of these are already on the job creating anti-corruption groups, so that each problem needing observation is in the hands of a group; you can find members of the communist youth, of the mass organizations, of the veterans of the Revolution, as we said at the coliseum. The problems I have mentioned are all being seriously addressed; you cannot imagine the enthusiasm, the seriousness, dignity, and pride they feel when they realize the great good that they are bringing to the country.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fuel and energy are the most important issues, but not the only ones. How much has been stolen from factories such as those that produce medicines. There is one such in La Lisa where it was necessary to remove the manager and almost 100 others; they were involved in the theft of medicines. A hundred were let go; now we need find people to replace them. This is not enough, nor is it the only solution.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And what's next? We must also use all the technical means available. We have already acquired a large number of the new pumps needed for one third, approximately, of the gas stations that will remain in operation in the country, and also a number of new tanker trucks that won't be an obstruction in traffic or cause traffic jams or accidents. For the most part, they will be operating at night when there is less traffic. We haven't drawn up the figures yet of fatalities that occur because of accidents.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">One day, the Revolution will be able to trace the location of every truck anywhere, using the most sophisticated technical instruments. Nobody will be able to take that truck to pay a visit to auntie or to the sweetheart. Not that there is anything wrong with looking after your private business, but it cannot be done in a vehicle used for work, much less at a time when there is a worldwide fuel crisis; then it becomes a crime. We will not forget any detail that is within our means to improve, whether it is that little soap with no smell, or the toothpaste or any other essential. We have already bought 1000 busses, but not to charge the historical prices. Some of these are already resolving some of those problems mentioned, and the others will be here in a few months time. Transportation will receive some subsidy, but not 90%; that would ruin us, so it must be minimal. We have to apply maximum rationality to salaries, prices, pensions. There should be zero over-spending and wastage. We are not a capitalist country where everything is left to chance.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Subsidies and free services will be considered only in essentials. Medical services will be free, so will education and the like. Housing will not be free. Maybe there will be some subsidy, but the rents that are paid in installments need to come close to the actual cost. You may well ask: "What are we going to pay all this with?" It will be in a large part from what is being wasted and stolen today, and from the non-negligible income the country is receiving. Everything that is within our reach, everything belongs to the people, the only thing not to be allowed is egotistical and irresponsible wastage of our wealth.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I really had no intention of getting involved in a dissertation on such sensitive matters, but it would have been a crime not to take advantage of the moment and tell you some of the things related to the economy, to the material life of the country, to the future of the Revolution, to revolutionary ideas, to the reasons why we began this struggle, to the colossal strength we possess today, the country we are today and we may continue to be, which is much more than we are now. I could never show my face again if I were lying or exaggerating. I prefer to do things rather than to make promises. In any case, I do not do anything, because a man alone cannot do a thing. I avail myself of the experience or the authority which I have in order to wage this battle. There are millions of Cubans ready to wage this war which is a war of all the people. I mentioned that we have reached military invulnerability, that this empire cannot afford the price of the lives that would be lost, numbering as many or more than in Vietnam, if they try to occupy our land. The American people are not willing to allow their leaders to waste thousands of lives on their imperial quests. Let's see if the tally reaches 3,000 in Iraq; it is at 2,000 already, and on a daily basis the news is grimmer for those who started that war.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And let's see what will happen with this dirty blockade. There are many Americans upset because they couldn't accept the help of our Cuban doctors; the majority was in favor and the local authorities more so. Let's see, because we can show them that it would be better to get rid of that trash, because it will never destroy our Revolution. We can tell Europe: Keep your humanitarian aid, you hypocrites, keep it all, because we don't need it. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to say that we do not need the help of Europe or of the empire! Finish it whenever you want even though we don't care if you do or not, because we have learned how to save, to think, to grow; we have learned to multiply our efforts so that we can rise to the challenge of our colossal adversary. I have been speaking to you with all the trust that I can. I have told you about every one of the main tasks facing the social workers' brigades and about their important activities. Sometimes they had to go out without warning, quickly and with discipline and efficiency. We had thousands in the city of Havana and we mobilized thousands more as a reserve.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">They are already accomplishing many tasks. If we don't have enough of them, how many students are there in this university? Right now I will say to you what I said to them: if 28,000 are not enough, we will meet with you, students of the glorious Federation of University Students and you will find 28,000 other students for us (Applause), and in pairs, together with the social workers who have been acquiring some experience, you will be mobilized; and if 56,000 are not enough we will meet with you again and you will find 56,000 reinforcements for us. You know who will shelter them? The people will, for they have great respect for these kids, and they no longer say: "These can't fix anything.", "This will never finish." And together with you, together with the people, we will be proving that it can be done. And I think that we shall have many more resources, not just to meet the necessities, but so that we may further develop; because we are managing things much better. Much of what we accomplish, we do with the resources that we have saved. We are saving hundreds of millions of dollars and now it will depend on the rhythm and efficiency with which we proceed on every task. New ideas come up everyday. What we can save in energy we can immediately convert into resources. The worst and most inefficient thermo-electric plants will still be around, but we won't need them; they will be around as back up, ready to fill in if anything unexpected happens on each step of the way.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The country spends 3,800,000 tons of fuel yearly just for the production of electricity. Today, our energy system works at only 60% capacity. We shall never again build a thermo-electric plant. The plants that shall be built will be using gas, the one that comes with extraction of oil; they will be plants running on combined cycles that can be paid off within four or five years and can produce a kilowatt for 2 cents of a dollar. We shall never again build a "Guiteras". Those were crazy schemes, born out of dogma and shortsighted plans. In a system that needs to produce around 2 million kilowatts, buying a plant for 330,000 means that you are concentrating more than 15% of all effective generated electricity in one single plant; when it goes out, or is hit with lightning as it happened a few weeks ago in "Guiteras", the black- out strikes with a fury, affecting both the population and the economy. How long was the revolution going to put up with such an erroneous concept in the development of the power system? Such concepts, I assure you, are not limited to Cuba, and today we are the first country in the world to discover this. They will be coming to Cuba to see what we are doing. I won't say more on this, because I could be adding details that have much more importance.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We will make the transition from being an idiot country to one that will leave everyone else far behind. I'd like to warn others that they are limping badly and repeating the same mistakes. No, I won't be going into detail. I promise that one day I will tell you, student leaders, the whole story, maybe when we are all together again. But it won't be today. Today, I must keep quiet because talking too much could tip off the enemy or give them information. Still, there are things that they cannot stop, like the two and a half million electric pressure cookers that are already here and on their way, that, they cannot stop. Domestic appliances are also on their way from China. China is one of the largest countries in the world, having become today the principal motor force of the world economy. China produces many things and we are negotiating other purchases and exchanges at an accelerating pace. I told you that our credit has grown. Our country has the ability to mobilize millions and millions of dollars. Tell that to "little Bush" so that he and all his schemers can become bitter if they want. Let them say what they want tomorrow, about the "poor guys", these "noble individuals" who were stealing "ever so little", about those persons who charge anything they want for just about anything. I tell them as I am telling you: "Pay for the fuel that you are using." Actually, why are we handing over everything to that bandit, that miser or that egoist who would like us to pay 15 cents for every kilowatt that he uses? What world economic law obliges us to do that? Let them get ready for the bill that we are preparing for them. We have already devaluated the dollar, but that dollar is still enjoying too many privileges.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, neither the dollar nor those that go around stealing; they don't have our Meteorological Institute and our Dr. Rubiera, and now a hurricane is coming. Nobody knows where this hurricane is going or how strong the winds are going to be. The only sure thing is that it is a Category Five Hurricane. (Laughter) A Category Five Hurricane is one that leaves nothing standing and it won't abuse anyone, it won't starve anyone, it just uses the simplest of principles: the ration book must disappear; those who work and produce will receive more, and they will be able to buy more; those who worked for decades will receive more and will have more. The country will have much more but it will never be a consumer society. It will be a society of knowledge, of culture, of the most extraordinary human development imaginable, development in art, culture, science but not for chemical weapons, with a breadth of liberty that no one will be able to dismantle. We know this already, we don't need to proclaim it, but it is worth remembering.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We have earned the right to do what we are going to do today, to have at our disposition almost a million professionals, intellectuals and artists, to have at our disposition 500,000 university students, in all areas of science, capable of all activities.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I am proclaiming that our society will truly be an entirely new society. In this long distance race, we are already several laps ahead of our closest competitors. The merit lies with the empire for it presented us with an enormous threat and it was this challenge that spurred us on. Theirs is the merit and the only thing our noble, generous, brave and intelligent people have done is to take up that challenge; today it does so, with the force of a multitude of developed intellects.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today, as we speak of 500,000, we know that this number was produced in a very short time, just three short years ago, and look at how many are here today, and how many there will be tomorrow.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And there will be more for we have thousands of Latin American students studying medicine. In our country alone, we will be educating 100,000 doctors in the next 10 years. We are involved in creating the best medical capital in the world, not just for us, but for the peoples of Latin America and other parts of the world. We are being asked to educate more doctors, and we have the ability and the facilities, and no one can educate them better than we can. We have developed educational methodologies that we have not even dreamed of. We shall see all this, and very soon.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The ELAM ([Latin American School of Medicine] will have not just 12,000 medical students, there are also 2,000 Bolivian undergraduates here; some are at the ELAM, others are in Cienfuegos living with serious, professional and culturally prepared families whose psychological profile was investigated together with that of the student and his or her family; a new and unique experience.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I was talking about this yesterday, calling it solidarity transformed into a colossal wealth. How could we house 100,000 higher education students? We know what it costs to house and feed each one of them.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In the first phase of the Revolution, we constructed hundreds of high schools and today we have less than half of the enrolment of the seventies. We know what it costs to repair these schools and how long it takes to do so. There will be many medical schools for 400 to 450 students with excellent conditions, with all the necessary materials for study, audiovisual equipment and interactive programs. As we all know, and as comrade Machadito said, if he had had such resources during the five years of his education, he would have been able to acquire in one year all the information it took him five years to achieve at that time. This doesn't mean that we shall produce doctors in one year, but that in the course of six years of study, a doctor will acquire the knowledge that traditional methods would have given him in 20 years! We are thinking of excellence, and this is what we are constantly increasing.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We are aware of what our compatriots are doing in other areas. We are in constant communication. They are the `Henry Reeve' Contingent and many others like them. A beautiful story is being written these days, the like of which has not been seen in history or during the life of our Revolution.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I am very happy that on a day like today, the Day of the Student, and the date you have chosen to celebrate the 60th anniversary of my entry into this university, I feel very well both physically and spiritually, meeting with you here. There were many ideas running through my mind, and I had to organize my memories of yesterday with the new ideas of today, and be careful so that I wouldn't say anything I shouldn't and so that I would say everything that I wanted to.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This month I think that we will have to take some measures; I was discussing this with the comrades. We cannot lose a second because things are going on constantly, and so it must begin this month.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We urgently need to discourage the wasting of electricity. I call it "discouragement"; it is not the definitive formula. That will be something else. But as of now we need to be distributing a massive amount of equipment. The more we save, the more equipment we can distribute, and the more equipment we distribute, the more energy we'll save and the more money we'll begin to collect starting at the end of this month and going to the beginning of next year. That is why it is urgent to begin in December, establishing certain limitations on the wasting of electricity. Not a cent more of increases for those who are consuming 100; a little more for those consuming 150, 200 and 300 kilowatts. There will be people who consume 300 who will have to pay a bit more, but not too much. Instead of two dollars they will have to pay, perhaps four for 300. But don't consume more than 300; turn off your lights and the fan; don't leave the TV turned on. I haven't even mentioned that there are a million television sets, 40,000 already here and more coming, 50 watts, so that there will be no more black and white sets. And we we'll continue saving. The laboratories will determine what each piece of equipment consumes, everything will be measured and all calculations will be less than the figures show; no detail will escape notice, or at least very few. Every day there will be more experiments, and more experiments. There will be a test run in a municipality, the poorest one, and that's why all the social workers are here today. Another group is covering Cienfuegos delivering the new light bulbs. Enrique, when will the gas stations in that province be occupied? It doesn't matter, they know it's going to happen, they can imagine.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">(Enrique explains that it will begin on Saturday; that 158,000 light bulbs have been replaced in Cienfuegos and the rest will be finished tomorrow.) (Two energy efficient light bulbs are handed to the Comandante so that he can give them to the student from the province of Havana.)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hey, Enrique, come over here. The one she is holding is not the right one. You are consuming electricity for no reason. Quickly, we are finishing up here.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ah, the girl is over there. No, this one is 7. (Enrique explains that one is 7 and the other is 15) No, she has two 60s. Don't turn off the lights at home. She told me that she had two 60s. I asked for her to be given two 15s. Here, not you, her. Take it to her; tell her she already has one. (They give her two 15 watts bulbs.) We already know what we will save each year. It's quite a bit. (Applause)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We'll discount it from what she has to pay for the subsidy for the one over there. They are changing. How many bulbs are they going to exchange in Cienfuegos? (Enrique tells him that 207,000 had to be exchanged) How many more did they find? (He is told that there was more demand and they will send 100,000 more) We had said a hundred and fifty thousand for Havana province. (It is explained that they are on the way; 158,000 have been exchanged by the 400 social workers, with 360 reinforcements. He repeats that on Saturday they begin with the gas stations)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Correct. The day after tomorrow we are in the gas stations. Let them get everything ready. In any case we will be finding out what the people are buying, and then they will install the perfect distributing machines and the nation will know where each one is located. How much gas do the vehicles use, not the trucks, the front loaders used in construction, like the last time? What do all the MINAZ [Ministry of Sugar Industry] tractors consume? What do all the tractors in the fields use? There are thousands of them being used instead of jeeps. When they don't have enough kerosene, how much do they use? What do most of them use, do they use diesel to cook? There are hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Besides that, I'm telling you, entirely new machinery to drill, new seismic, that's very modern, drilling everywhere and using accompanying gas to build plants on the combined cycle. This will replace the "Guiteras" [power plant] and those enormous plants in Santiago de Cuba which would consume half a million barrels of diesel turned out by that city's refinery, using up between 300 and 500 grams of fuel oil for every kilowatt of electricity. Or those machines gobbling up diesel in San Jose de las Lajas, using 400 grams of diesel for every kilowatt to produce 60,000 kilowatts in the peak hours. Don't be surprised the day you hear that they have been definitely retired. They will be around until we are sure there will be no deficit, we need to be very sure. Wherever we substitute one fuel for another, we will always hold on to the old one just in case, so that everything has been guaranteed. They are going to be great changes.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I've already told you that there are 1000 buses for long distance rides, and they will have their cost. Not just yet, because we prefer to wait. Sometimes it's better to wait in order to understand something better. To better understand, for example, some measure. The Revolution always needs the understanding and the support of the people for every step that it takes. I assure you and I repeat it, that everybody who works will receive more, everyone who works for the country and the Revolution will receive more. The abuses will end; many of the inequalities will disappear, as will the conditions that allowed them to exist. When there is no one left that needs to be subsidized we will have advanced considerably in our march towards a society of justice and dignity. That is what true and irreversible socialism demands. The empire was hoping that Cuba would have many more `paladares' but it appears that there will be no more of them. What do they think that we have become neo-liberals? No one here has become a neo- liberal. We will prove to them the irrefutable crisis of their theories, just as we have shown them the disaster of their blockade, their aggression and their destabilizing actions.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Next year there may be fewer abstentions when the United Nations votes against the blockade, even though really there is no one left besides the fascist and genocidal ally that always votes unscrupulously with the empire. The world has to wage this battle.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Firstly, nobody should have the right to manufacture nuclear weapons. There should be no privileges for imperialism to impose its hegemonic rule and to take the natural resources and raw materials away from the nations of the Third World. We have denounced that a thousand times, but that is not the solution. The first solution for any Third World country is to not fear the empire; we have always acted that way and they are beginning to feel demoralized.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Secondly, we will strictly defend, in all the public squares of the world, the right to produce nuclear fuel. And we are not afraid to do so, let us make that perfectly clear. (Applause)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There must be an end to stupidity in the world, and to abuse, and to the empire based on might and terror. It will disappear when all fear disappears. Every day there are more fearless countries. Every day there will be more countries that will rebel and the empire will not be able to keep that infamous system alive any longer.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Salvador Allende once spoke of things that would happen rather sooner than a later. I believe that sooner rather than later the empire will disintegrate and the American people will enjoy more freedom than ever, they will be able to aspire to more justice than ever before; they will be able to use science and technology for their own improvement and for the betterment of humanity; they will be able to join all of us who fight for the survival of the species; they will be able to join all of us who fight for opportunities for the human species.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It's only fair to struggle for that and that is why we must use all our energy, all our effort and all our time to be able to say with the voice of millions, or hundreds of thousands of millions of people: It is worthwhile to have been born! It is worthwhile to have lived! (Ovation)</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxveXx-qsqiYP6RTT-T5XPUg93G9G88FaOF95tbHAHe4sv5_94cRnsP2aq6akDlWtkUNJYKAvUByDMB1XsJGff0Zc-xtI5GTNp9J_lbY4O37DRMsZ5teVrPL5hXK6VFpGHOGwjNYCmHw3/s1600-h/fidelCartoon.jpg"><br /></a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0