Public Debate on the Shape of Socialism in Cuba
The absence of more open social policies and real citizen participation are some of the concerns being debated in the run-up to the Sixth Congress of the ruling Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in April.
By Feb. 7, more than seven million people had taken part in meetings called by the Party to discuss the 'Proyecto de Lineamientos de la Política Económica y Social del Partido y la Revolución' (Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution), the keynote document for the Party Congress, according to Marino Murillo Jorge, vice president of the Council of Ministers.
At the same time, in alternative debates that have become increasingly common on the island, various representatives of Cuban civil society have circulated their opinions through parallel channels, such as web sites, blogs, social networks, and especially e-mails lists, which read a wide audience. 'The only guarantee of democracy in a society is people's participation,' Mariela Castro, head of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), told IPS. 'The fact that this is being given the importance it deserves fills me with the hope that we will follow the path to a kind of socialism that is closer to the one I imagine.'
The daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro and his late wife, women's rights advocate Vilma Espín, Mariela Castro said it was 'a very complex task to redesign the economy in a crisis situation, while continuing to maintain subsidies that cannot be abolished immediately because that would leave the population unprotected.'
The Sixth PCC Congress, postponed since 2002, will be the first to be held since Raúl Castro became president in February 2008. The historic leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, stepped aside as president in July 2006 due to serious illness, and transferred power to his brother. However, Fidel remains First Secretary of the PCC, defined by the constitution as 'the highest leading force of society and of the state.'
The Congress in April, to be followed by a Party Conference before the end of the year, must chart the economic and structural reforms regarded as essential by authorities and experts if the socialist model, which has so far been characterised by a strongly centralised state, is to be preserved on the island.
Sources interviewed by IPS said that most of the proposals collected so far at official consultations have been limited to concerns about short-term, circumstantial issues. Among them are the gradual disappearance of the ration book for subsidised food distribution, a system in effect since the 1960s, or the recently implemented labour reform which involves massive lay-offs.
According to the official newspaper Granma, the meetings prior to the Congress resulted in '619,387 proposals for deletions, additions and modifications, and expressions of doubts and concerns' regarding the 32-page Draft Guidelines. At the conclusion of the discussion process, 'the people will be provided with detailed information about its results.'
'We are very unused to in-depth discussions, and very used to vertical decision-making,' writer Fernando Martínez Heredia told IPS, referring to what many people still regard as one of the major obstacles to any process of debate and change in Cuba.
However, Martínez Heredia described as encouraging a late 2010 speech by President Raúl Castro, in which 'he set out in tough language the need to discuss very different criteria, as well as the need for people who have responsibilities to meet their obligations.'
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service