BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS AND BRIAN TAYLOR
HAVANA, Cuba - "Five or six years ago our country was dealt a stunning blow," said Cuban president Fidel Castro, referring to the abrupt termination of long-standing trade relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries that led to the virtual collapse of production in the Caribbean nation at the opening of the 1990s.
"But like a boxer with a strong jaw, we couldn't be knocked out. We withstood the ideological blows and we proved capable of withstanding the economic blows as well." Castro was addressing the closing session of the 17th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), which took place here April 27-30.
"This accomplishment became clear and palpable in the tone, spirit, and dignity that permeated the remarks of many at this congress," the Cuban president said. "For this reason, one of my very first conclusions is that the revolution is stronger than ever."
"We can't forget that we had to resolve seemingly unsolvable problems," Castro stated. Overnight Cuba lost "markets, raw materials, fertilizers, fuel, credits, and on top of that we were blockaded." In 1993 Cuban industry operated at 15 percent of capacity, down from 85 percent in 1989. Imports in early 1994 stood at one-quarter their 1989 level, and the gross domestic product (GDP) at an estimated 65 percent of the 1989 figure. This is what Cubans refer to as the "special period."
Last year industrial and agricultural production edged upward with a 2.5 percent growth in the GDP, a trend that continued in the first quarter of this year.
The imperialist powers cannot stand the fact that the Cuban revolution did not "collapse on the fourth day after the fall of the socialist camp and the USSR, and that, to the contrary, they see that years pass and, without exaggeration, we can say it is stronger," Castro said, "and it has began to make advances."
It is out of frustration, the Cuban leader noted, that Washington imposes new laws and a more rigorous economic blockade with "the obsessive idea of destroying the revolution."
As the theses for the CTC congress explained, and as thousands of workers said in workplace assemblies to discuss the resolution, Castro stated, "What we are building is socialism, what we want is socialism, and what we defend is socialism. Let no one have the slightest doubt about it." The audience rose to a standing ovation and chants of "Long live socialist Cuba!"
The Cuban president said he very much agreed with the comments of a delegate earlier that evening that the most important conquest of the revolution is that the working class took political power and continues to hold it.
"The spirit our people showed in their work in the last six or seven months, since June or July of last year, in planting, cleaning fields, constantly mobilizing, is a spirit we haven't seen for a long time," Castro said.
The reversal of the decline of sugar production this year, he noted, is largely due to the decision by tens of thousands of workers to go cut sugarcane with machetes where even the best combines could not enter the fields because the ground was damp. By the closing of the CTC convention on April 30, the country's mills had refined 4.15 million tons of sugar, well on the way toward meeting the national quota of 4.5 million tons in May, Castro announced. This marked a big improvement over the 50-year-low of 3.3 million tons in the previous harvest.
During this period the Cuban government was able to obtain some credits for investments in production of sugarcane, tobacco, rice, and other products "even though we have to pay the highest interest rates in the world for these loans."
The Cuban people have won this breathing space because of "our own efforts, our own resistance," Castro said. "That is what makes them [Washington] despair."
Imperialists not euphoric
The U.S. government and other capitalist powers are "no longer
in a state of euphoria and hope, as they were five years ago," the
Cuban leader said. They have poured billions of dollars in loans
and donations into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in order to
sweep socialism away. But production in those countries is falling
and the economic crisis deepens, he remarked.
"Every time their illusions cost them more and more," Castro stated. "Capitalism does not resolve anything. Not only where socialism existed, but even in capitalist countries they are marching toward ruin. So they are bitter about these problems. But they are bitter because of their own contradictions and their intercapitalist conflicts."
The competition between the imperialist powers leads them to "dogfights over markets and raw materials," Castro said.
And how do the U.S. rulers and imperialist institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank try to solve these problems? the Cuban president asked. "They throw millions of workers onto the unemployment lines, close schools, shut down hospitals, and slash indispensable social services without consulting anyone."
"In the United States they have unleashed a barbaric barrage of measures to cut social benefits for the U.S. people to the detriment of the retired, the elderly, the sick, everybody," Castro said. "They do it with a fanatical faith that the laws of the market will solve everything."
And what is the difference with what Cuba had to do during its special period? Castro asked. As one of the international guests at the congress noted, the Cuban president said, in the capitalist countries a handful of representatives of the ruling class meet, adopt their measures, "and then impose them on the people, without pity, with horses in the streets, with tear gas and police cars."
These are the people who accuse Cuba of human rights violations, Castro said. "These are the people who have backed bloodthirsty regimes that have disappeared tens of thousands - and there are those who say more than 100,000, as was the case in Guatemala and in South America - with their weapons and their instructors. These are the champions of torture, of using inconceivable methods they learned during the war against Vietnam and then passed on to the repressive forces throughout Latin America to prevent another Cuban revolution from succeeding."
`We always consult the workers'
"We can say that during the entire special period we did not
adopt any measures without first consulting the people, especially
the workers," the Cuban leader said.
During the first half of the 1990s, entire factories were idled due to lack of electricity, spare parts, and raw materials. In Havana alone daily bus routes were reduced from 30,000 to 6,000 because of lack of fuel, Castro said. "We had to obtain 2 million bicycles in order to ease the transportation crisis." Cuba was able to import only a tiny fraction of animal feed, powdered milk, cloth, and other raw materials that now have to be purchased at world market prices.
"What did the revolution do to confront the tremendous economic difficulties?" Castro asked.
"In the first place no one was thrown into the streets. The workers in the factories that shut down continued to be paid, and even if they didn't receive 100 percent of their wages, they got enough to be able at least to buy the few things that were available," he said. These problems began to be addressed in 1994 with a series of leadership moves, fiscal measures, and efforts to reallocate the workforce.
The measures included increased foreign investment; raising prices on some nonessential items, like cigarettes and rum; charging for sporting and cultural events, which had been free; raising or instituting fees on electricity and other services; and establishing an income tax. These steps were aimed at bringing down the rapidly rising rate of inflation, which was seriously eroding the purchasing power of the peso. The inflation was spurred by the fact that few workers were laid off or lost unemployment benefits, despite many closed plants and declining production. Cuba's revolutionary government was trying to lessen the impact of the economic crisis on workers and farmers.
Castro described how these measures were adopted. During the December 1993 session of the National Assembly, deputies discussed, but put off decisions on these steps. Since the measures under debate would have an impact on the prices Cuban workers paid, the deputies agreed to the proposal by the CTC leadership to first organize discussions in every factory and solicit the opinions of the workers. Millions took part in a round of workers assemblies in 1994 and subsequent "economic efficiency meetings."
"At a moment when it was raining advisors of all types," Castro said, "we stayed firm and did what we thought had to be done: we discussed in the National Assembly, then we went to the streets, we brought it back to the National Assembly, then returned to the streets to talk about all the measures, the economic openings, the joint ventures, the possibilities for foreign investment."
"We began to win the battle with revolutionary and democratic methods."
Build monument to special period
"Some day we'll have to build a monument to the special
period," Castro stated. "If we continue to learn as we have been
learning, if we can have another two or three congresses like this
one, we will be laying the first stone for such a monument."
Castro noted that after half a decade of economic decline the country's budget deficit was reduced from 34 percent of the GDP in 1993 to 5 percent in 1995. The peso has been revalued from the low of 150-1 in the exchange rate with the U.S. dollar in mid-1994 to 22-1. Nickel, machine manufacturing, and sugarcane production are on the upswing. Production of fruits and vegetables has increased significantly, and availability of food is greater through agricultural markets even though prices remain high. Blackouts have been reduced to a few hours per week, while public transportation is beginning to improve.
All these are visible achievements, Castro said. "But there is one that has caught my attention above all. That is how the reaction of the people has evolved... to the point that the idea of economic efficiency has sunk roots among the people - one of the most important and decisive results registered at this congress." Workers are playing a more direct role in improving production, productivity, and working conditions, as well as reducing waste and cutting losses by state enterprises, he stated.
Today with one ton of oil, one ton of steel, and the same machines, workers in many factories produce three times what they produced a few years ago, Castro said. The Cuban president praised the innovators among the workers, as well as researchers and scientists, who have made tremendous efforts to ensure that machines run even with a shortage of spare parts. In many cases they have made the difference on whether plants would continue production.
Castro pointed to the example of a delegate from Holguín who donated to the state $16,000 she received in tips while working in tourism over the last few years. Another delegate from Ciénaga contributed $20,000 during the congress. At the CTC congress, the minister of tourism reported that in the last year workers in tourism have made such voluntary contributions from tips they receive in hard currency amounting to $1.8 million. The contributions are used by the state for the import of medicines that are in short supply.
"It's not that we are exhorting citizens to do what those [two delegates] did, that would not be conceivable," Castro said. "But you feel pride and admiration for the human species when you meet people who are so selfless, so generous."
"This spirit of solidarity among our people, their generosity, their willingness to help out... this communist spirit is unparalleled," Castro said.
"The measures the government has adopted during the special period - including the decriminalization of the use of U.S. dollars, legalization of self-employment in dozens of occupations, and the opening of agricultural markets - have also led to greater social inequalities," Castro stated.
Wages for most workers in Cuba reflect the high social wage represented by free medical care and education, low rents, and subsidized prices for basic food rations. But the self-employed today often earn many times the salaries of factory workers.
Castro pointed to the what happened in Las Tunas, where buses virtually disappeared and "private drivers appeared - they solved the problem but they charged one peso for a 10-minute ride and began making 3,000 to 4,000 pesos per month."
Along with the agricultural markets at unregulated prices, "the middlemen also inevitably surfaced," charging high prices, he noted.
"If we are not careful we can allow a new layer of rich people to emerge who can make up to millions, while we have to continue to pay for child-care centers, schools, hospitals, clinics, family doctors, and all the services the revolution provides, which we are not willing to renounce," Castro said. "We are even less willing to allow a layer of millionaires to emerge."
The way to deal with this amassing of wealth at the expense of society, Castro said, is to ensure that anyone with excessive income pays an equitable tax. Since Cuba's National Assembly adopted a new tax code in August 1994, the government has not been able to properly organize the collection of taxes from these middlemen or from those who are self-employed, the Cuban president said. Steps are now being taken to implement these measures.
"We do not hold anything against the rich. What we want is that they not rob the people and that they pay taxes," he stated.
At the same time, Castro noted, the government has put off implementation of a special contribution from workers' wages toward the social security fund, which was also approved in principle as part of the new tax code. During workplace meetings organized by the CTC, many workers expressed strong concerns and reservations about the impact of a social security tax on wages. "We do not want to rush with any such measures," especially when wages are under pressure, Castro said.
Responding to a question raised by a delegate about regulating the prices on the agricultural markets, Castro noted that the opening of those markets "was not an ideal formula... but a measure that had to be taken, with its advantages and disadvantages. You either establish this measure and the prices are free, or you don't establish it at all." The Cuban president said these markets have helped make food more accessible and affordable than when the black market predominated in 1993 and 1994. But, he said, only further increases in food production will lead to lower prices.
Castro pointed to several stories told by delegates during the congress where members of Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPC) and volunteer work contingents in agriculture took initiatives that led to leaps in raising production of fresh fruit and vegetables, and milk in a few cases, as well as improving the living conditions of agricultural workers.
`We are winning the battle'
"We are following the correct road," Castro stated, "and it is
an enormous pleasure to see how our working class understands this.
That means we have won the battle."
Pointing to the increased challenges the Cuban people face from Washington's intensified economic war, Castro said working people "are not fighting primarily for ourselves."
Cuba has become a symbol for the peoples of the world, Castro noted in concluding his speech.
"For this reason we are pleased when they call us internationalists, when they call us socialists, when they call us communists. For those who have any doubts about what we are doing... let it be clear that we will continue to be socialists and communists. Because those who do not change banners win more respect.... Those who do not betray their ideals, their principles win more respect. That's why Cuba and the Cuban people are more respected today."