Apart from their original purposes, the trades unions must now learn to act deliberately as organizing centers of the working class in the broad interest of its complete emancipation.
- Karl Marx, 1866
Cuban workers and their unions are living up to this challenge.
The opening paragraphs of the Theses for the 17th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) state that a central focus of the meeting will be "to assure, under whatever circumstances, the revolutionary power of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers."
What makes this document so different from the empty and false proclamations by union officials in nearly every country is where it comes from.
The theses are a product of mass discussion by the working class, which defends the Cuban revolution with arms in hand, in the face of an unrelenting economic war and military provocations by Washington. They come out of the concrete experiences of the tenacious fight by Cuban workers and peasants to deal with the effects of the precipitous drop in their living standards, including caloric intake, over the past six years, in the wake of the collapse in trade on favorable terms with the Soviet Union.
The CTC document begins by putting Cuba in the world. It points to the "deep economic and social crisis...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."
Reaffirming the internationalism that has been a hallmark of the Cuban revolution since 1959, the theses state, "Defense of the revolution is also a duty of international solidarity toward all progressive forces around the world, who see Cuba as a beacon of hope."
The CTC theses provide a glimpse of what a revolutionary union is, what all trade unions should be.
Many of the points in the theses, which take up broad social questions that the working class shoulders and confronts upon taking power, were discussed and debated in several rounds of workers assemblies in every factory and workplace over the last couple years. These workers assemblies "became genuine schools of economics and politics for the masses, the fullest expression of socialist democracy. And they embody a way of functioning we should adopt in circumstances that pose similar challenges."
The document explains that the rights of women workers must be defended. It describes plans for increasing the production of sugar, Cuba's main crop.
It takes up the question of reduction in workforce posed in many Cuban industries today, making the point that "no worker will be left to his or her own resources as a consequence of this process."
How can the Cuban revolution, while making necessary concessions to foreign capital, combat the inevitable effects of growing differentiation and privilege? The theses raise that in the coming years the CTC needs to promote the practice of contributing a portion of tips and payments received in hard currency by some workers for use in buying medicines for the Cuban people. They also point out that union leaders must "give the rank-and-file organizations the support they need," and "speak their own mind and consistently defend their points of view."
How can the Cuban labor movement combat the creeping effects of capitalism's law of value? One example is provided by the brigades of the Youth Army of Labor, which produced nearly half the food crops for two provinces surrounding Havana in 1994, and consciously sell the produce in the cities at low prices to drive down prices of unregulated markets.
No matter what country we live in, workers have a common struggle with working people in Cuba. Fighters in the U.S. labor movement in particular have a special responsibility to learn from and share experiences with our Cuban sisters and brothers.
This is a good time to read their document and discuss it, including at the Militant Labor Forums already planned in several cities across the United States and elsewhere. It is an even better time to organize to make the trip to Cuba to attend the CTC Congress.