The CTC leadership has issued a call to trade unionists and other workers from around the world to attend the congress (for travel from the United States see ad below).
CTC leaders, including the organization's general secretary, Pedro Ross, will also travel to Montreal for a March 15-16 conference in solidarity with Cuba sponsored by the Canadian Labour Congress. This event will help build international participation from North America to the CTC gathering (see ad below).
The theses, prepared by the organization's National Committee after a round of CTC conferences organized in every municipality in Cuba last year, consist of 11 sections. The Militant will publish major portions of the document over the next several weeks. The first installment, printed below, consists of the preamble and the first three sections.
The theses were published as a special supplement to the Nov. 20, 1995, issue of Trabajadores, the CTC's weekly newspaper. Translation from Spanish and footnotes are by the Militant.
1. The central focus of the 17th Congress, as expressed in the call from our National Committee, will be to:
2. Decide how workers and the trade union movement should take responsibility for the present and future transformation of our country, and for perspectives for its development.
3. Assess how to preserve, in these new conditions, the unity that has been and remains the indispensable condition for our strength.
4. Determine what we - together with our people, their organizations, and their institutions - should do to assure, under whatever circumstances, the revolutionary power of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers.
5. These theses seek, from the standpoint of the Cuban trade union movement, to help us find a way forward to these objectives, and to chart a course of action for the years ahead.
I. The world, the workers, and the situation in Cuba
6. In a world that has long been marked by a deep economic
and social crisis, injustice, and violence, the disappearance
of the USSR and of socialism in the countries of Eastern
Europe signaled a sharpening of all these problems, an
unprecedented recession, and a worsening of the catastrophic
situation of the underdeveloped countries - conditions that
now hit with growing force the workers in the highly
industrialized countries as well.
7. These events, occurring completely independent of the situation in Cuba, nonetheless struck a harsh blow against our country. We found ourselves suddenly deprived of 70 percent of our imports. The mutually advantageous relationships we had developed with the Soviet Union and other countries were terminated.(1) And the U.S. government seized the opportunity to tighten the blockade, convinced that Cuba could not survive under such adverse circumstances.(2)
8. Our people remained faithful to their glorious history, to the genuine character of their revolution, and to the firmness of their leaders. They did not hesitate a second to step forward to defend at any price our national independence, the extraordinary social gains we have won over the years, the correctness of our ideas, and the unquestionable right to decide for ourselves our future with dignity in a homeland that is free.
9. The years since the previous 16th Congress have seen the most critical moments of these challenges.(3) Perhaps only in the fight for independence in the last century can one find a comparable example on a mass scale of stoicism, spirit of sacrifice, and determination to fight in face of enormous adversities.
10. As Fidel said last July 26, "it is an historically unprecedented feat that even under these circumstances, not a single school, hospital, senior citizens' home, or day-care center has been closed."(4)
11. Our people, our workers, our heroic working class, have not only been able to resist but have even begun, step by step, to gain ground again.
12. We still have enormous problems ahead of us. No one can now doubt, however, that the course we have chosen is the only one possible - faced, as we were, with a perspective of returning to slavery, of ceasing to exist as a nation, and of being incorporated as a bottom-ranked country into a so-called new world order (in reality nothing more than an empire made up of a handful of powerful countries, in which the United States seeks to become the single pole of domination).
13. The road will not be easy, but we continue being masters of our own destiny in a world of sharpening unemployment, decline in the purchasing power of wages, exploitation of child labor, deterioration in the situation of working women, brutal attacks and acts of neofascist xenophobia against ethnic minorities, discrimination of all kinds, and worsening health, illiteracy, and living conditions for workers and the peoples as a whole.
14. We continue to confront great difficulties, but Cuba stands today in Latin America as an alternative to the merciless neoliberal policies, to the weakening and destruction of the trade union movement they pursue, and to the enormous social costs and suffering that they bring on. We also stand as proof that our ideals of independence, solidarity, and justice remain in full force in spite of everything.
II. Our strategy does not lead to capitalism
15. The economic strategy charted by the revolution is
aimed at confronting the harsh consequences of the
disappearance of European socialism, and enabling us to resist
and to emerge from the crisis. At the same time we do not
renounce a perspective of development, even amid an
intensified U.S. blockade.
16. In the brief period of two years, this strategy has involved a number of measures. These include, among others: broadening the possibilities for foreign investment, creating the Basic Units of Cooperative Production in the countryside,(5) legalizing the circulation of foreign currency, instituting measures of financial reorganization, recasting the tax system and finances in general, creating markets for agricultural and industrial goods, decentralizing foreign trade, expanding self- employment, and reorganizing the state and the administrative apparatus to promote greater efficiency.
17. Any country that aspires to a sound economy - especially in a situation like ours - would need to reorganize its internal finances, balance the state budget to avoid spending more than is taken in, reduce inflationary pressure, restructure employment, and encourage the investment of capital in sectors that can give an impetus to the rest of the economy.
18. The radical difference lies in the objectives we pursue and the methods we utilize to attain them.
19. In other countries the type of economic readjustments Cuba requires are imposed through neoliberal and antipopular policies of cutting public spending, above all in health care, education, and social security; massive unemployment, privatization, and the loss of workers' benefits and social benefits achieved over decades of organized struggle. At the same time, the foreign debt increases, the national patrimony shrinks, and governments become more dependent.
20. The trade union movement fully supports our government's policy of leading this process in a directed, ordered, and gradual way, without sudden lurches, and in every step relying on the active and real participation of the workers and their union representatives, so that all opinions can be taken into account.
21. As a result of the changes forced on us, the structure and relative balance of the different sectors of the economy have been modified.
22. The fundamental weight will continue to lie in the state sector, the essential base of our power, consisting of state enterprises that are the property of the entire people; and in the cooperatives, the collective property of all its members. This corresponds to the will of the workers and has our most determined support.
23. The state sector will at the same time be required to coexist with mixed enterprises and different forms of operation of foreign capital, with a private property sector, and with self-employment, which will grow even more in the coming years. These factors will increase the role of the market in our domestic economy.
24. Like the other forces of the revolution, the CTC and the unions do not want an alienating market that imposes its blind laws on society. Rather we aim for a market subordinated to our system, that functions within certain limits, and that is an instrument contributing to revitalizing the economy and reestablishing the value of work.
25. What distinguishes our economic transformations is that they are being carried out under the sponsorship and control of the state, and their highest objectives are to safeguard the interests of the revolution and the workers. This includes the aspiration of resuming the construction of socialism when the conditions for doing so are created.
26. Another fundamental characteristic - and guarantee of our course - is that nothing we are doing implies concessions on any basic political principles, or weakening the leading role of our vanguard party(6). Neither are we renouncing our historic values, national identity, culture, morale, or the dignity of our people.
27. The class and patriotic consciousness of the workers and their unions are measured today, in large part, by their understanding of our country's need to introduce elements of capitalism, of the inequalities these inevitably breed, and of our duty to continue defending the revolution's values and principles in this new context.
28. Our country cannot aspire to a degree of justice, well- being, and equality greater than is permitted by its own level of development and its daily efforts. Cuba has done much in matters of social policy and fairness for all citizens. In past years we even went beyond our real economic capacities and often fell into well-intentioned but erroneous practices of egalitarianism.
29. Our union movement will fight to make all its affiliates conscious of the central importance of defending our people's right to universal and free health care; our children's right to equal opportunities in education; workers' rights to social security benefits; the right of families who need it to the state's economic protection; the right of citizens of working age to equal access to honorable employment generated in the country; and the right of all Cubans to equality before the law, without discrimination due to skin color, sex, creed, or any other reason, as well as the full exercise of their freedom and democratic rights.
30. The union movement similarly reaffirms that the essential basis of equality in our country must be applying the principle of remuneration to each person according to the results of the work they contribute to society.
31. Under the country's new conditions, however, certain inequalities have necessarily arisen, and others have appeared deriving from the conditions of work and incentives, from the possibility of receiving greater income through participating in a market ruled by supply and demand, and from access to freely convertible currency(7).
32. Even before the special period, a decision had been adopted to attract foreign investment to obtain capital, technology, and markets not available from the socialist countries, with the aim of developing specific branches of the economy. What constituted an additional but not decisive resource in the 1980s becomes today an imperative necessity to complement the functioning and development of the economy.
33. The alternative to broadening the role of foreign capital would have been to cross our arms, let industry remain paralyzed, and leave the country without production or employment.
34. In accepting these investments, Cuba does not sell land to foreign interests or give up its fundamental resources. What it is agreeing to are business arrangements for a specific period of time, and a sharing of income in exchange for the benefits the country receives. Foreign investments, moreover, must be completely subordinated to Cuban law, including labor legislation.
35. In face of these changes and approaches taking shape in the country, the union movement's stance must be to resolutely support the revolution under all circumstances, so that the measures that increasingly mold our economy serve to maintain its predominantly socialist character, and become translated in practice into a greater increase in production and efficiency.
36. We must help the state to realize the potential of these measures to benefit society and we must oversee the proper management of resources. In particular we must demand that in the functioning of the system of taxes, audits, inspections, and other measures of state regulation, workers are protected from irregularities and arbitrary acts.
37. Finally, the union movement must energetically oppose tendencies that under these circumstances can undermine honesty, a sense of dignity, and moral values, both among those who manage resources and among workers. In this way an increase in indiscipline and improper behavior, economic crime, and corruption can be prevented.
III. Fighting for an efficient and competitive economy
38. The future of the country is closely linked to
scientific and technological development, to the growth of
traditional sectors and new branches of industry, to the
multiplication of international commercial and financial ties
and, above all, to the effect of the current transformations
and measures on consolidating greater economic effectiveness.
39. An efficient and competitive economy is a basic condition for ensuring the vitality of the country, and also for becoming stronger and more efficient in politics, in ideas, in culture, and in defense.
40. We are obligated to find the road to that efficiency, because we now have to base everything on our own efforts, and we must make our way in a world dominated by the laws of the market and competition.
41. To reach this objective, our activity should lead, systematically, to the struggle of each economic unit to generate income in excess of its expenses, to the resulting lowering of costs, and to a rising awareness of the need for an accounting system that guarantees objective decision making and an exact accounting of resources and their use.
42. The trade union movement should intensify the struggle with the goal of generalizing a culture of work, based on efficiency, whose essence is not only discipline in work, but order and discipline in the use of technology, in administration, and in finances as well.
43. In this battle, it is fundamental for the unions to strengthen their role in the fight to save fuel and all energy resources, for optimal use of raw materials, and for the highest quality in the products they create and the services they provide.
44. We must challenge ourselves to elevate the place of emulation(8), free it of swagger and formalism, and constantly perfect it and adapt it to differing workplace conditions and types of work. Today more than ever we must make emulation a vital weapon in the struggle for economic efficiency.
45. Prior to the special period the union movement possessed an enormous mass of resources to reward vanguard workers. At present we have only a fraction of that, although we still distribute a lot this way. At the same time, other means and initiatives have arisen to provide incentives to workers. Our position is that all available types of material incentives, together with moral recognition - which continues to be fundamental - should be integrated in the system of emulation in each area and jointly awarded by the union and enterprise.
46. The Efficiency Assemblies will continue to be an essential tool to encourage the direct participation by workers in orienting and overseeing the management of their workplace.(9)
47. We propose to defend this method, watch over the quality and effectiveness of its implementation, focus it on the aims it was conceived for, and work simultaneously to eliminate all deficiencies that have already been found. This includes, above all, shortcomings dealing with administrative and union training, with strict compliance with agreements, and with providing adequate information to the workers at every step of the process.
48. Cuban trade unionism has to pose the problem of economic efficiency in all its dimension, not simply from the angle of work and working conditions. The interest of workers is not reduced simply to their jobs. We are socialist owners of the economy and the stability of the revolution and the quality of our lives today and tomorrow depend upon the success of our enterprises and units.
49. For this reason, we cannot overlook the efforts being studied or undertaken today to utilize the factories, or a part of them, at a level that allows the best use of resources; to replace backward technologies or those using high levels of energy and raw materials with more efficient ones; and in other cases to concentrate production in those workplaces that can produce more economically.
50. We in the unions are called upon to participate in this reorganization of production with a broad perspective, looking to the future. We must be alert to its consequences for labor, society, technology, politics, and the nation's territory.
51. It is particularly important to be sure that narrow criteria are not followed, applicable only to the moment we are living in. We must take into account the need to fully restore the productive capacity created here, even expanding it where possible, to solve the accumulated economic and social problems.
52. The National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers (ANIR) should take its place in the vanguard of the struggle for economic efficiency and strengthen even more its activity in the workplaces.
53. ANIR, with its impressive numeric and qualitative strength, is called upon to closely coordinate its work with the rank and file of the unions and the Youth Technical Brigades, take action on a daily basis to solve problems that arise, and, in terms of the economy, project itself systematically in three main directions: the development of technology and methods of administration, the struggle for productivity, and encouragement of disciplined use of technology. Giving increased support to the movement of the Technical and Scientific Forum should be the reflection of this daily and decisive battle.
Notes
1. Beginning in 1989, the collapse of aid and trade at preferential prices with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries-which used to account for 85 percent of Cuba's trade-triggered acute shortages of fuel, food, and other basic necessities. Cubans refer to these straitened conditions, and the measures they have been compelled to take in face of them, as "the special period."
2. In 1992 the U.S. Congress enacted the "Cuban Democracy Act," sponsored by Rep. Robert Torricelli. The law tightened the U.S. embargo by barring foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba and refusing merchant ships that docked in Cuban ports the right to enter U.S. harbors for six months.
3. The CTC's 16th Congress was held Jan. 24-28, 1990. In his closing speech to that gathering, Cuban president Fidel Castro laid out a perspective and initial measures to confront the unfolding "special period in peacetime."
4. From the speech by Fidel Castro at the main ceremony marking the 42nd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada garrison. This celebration of the opening battle of the Cuban revolution was held at Guantánamo's Mariana Grajales Revolution Square on July 26, 1995. The entire transcript of Castro's address was published in the Aug. 9, 1995, issue of the Cuban weekly Granma International and the Aug. 28, 1995, issue of the Militant.
5. The Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPCs) are new agricultural cooperatives that have replaced most state farms since the end of 1993, in an effort to revive food production. Members of the UBPCs-mostly workers who were formerly employed at state farms-own and sell what they produce, but the land itself remains nationalized.
6. The Communist Party of Cuba.
7. In Cuba today, self-employed workers, especially those
with special skills, often earn many times the salary of most
factory workers. Individuals who receive money in hard
currency from relatives abroad, or from special bonuses in
some industries, are able to purchase scarce essential items
like soap and oil that many Cubans are unable to obtain.
8. Emulation, as opposed to the cutthroat competition inherent in all social relations under capitalism, refers to the organized effort to increase productivity and efficiency and improve on what other production units are already doing.
9. Economic efficiency assemblies are meetings in the factories and countryside where workers discuss and make decisions on concrete measures affecting productivity in the plants and on the farms (see series of three articles in the Jan. 30, Feb. 6, and April 10, 1995, Militant).
The CTC initiated the workers' assemblies in January 1994, following the December 1993 meeting of Cuba's National Assembly. During that session of the National Assembly, deputies discussed but deferred decisions on a series of proposed fiscal and other measures aimed at reviving industrial and agricultural production. Since the measures under debate by the National Assembly would have an impact on the cost of living of Cuban workers, the deputies decided to first organize discussion of the country's economic crisis in every factory and solicit opinions from the workers on the measures being considered (see three articles in the April 4, 11, and 18 issues of the Militant in 1994 and the article "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's socialist revolution" by Mary-Alice Waters in the magazine New International no. 10.)