Over the past several months, hundreds of thousands of workers across the island have discussed the CTC Theses in factory assemblies and other workplace meetings in preparation for the congress.

The initial section of this document takes up the central importance of Cuban workers strengthening their active political role in defense of the revolution. It calls for the union movement to join in an "offensive of revolutionary ideas" to promote what Cuban president Fidel Castro has called "a general, rounded culture" that reinforces Cuba's national identity.

The document notes that Cuba has been gradually recovering from the worst years of the economic crisis known as the Special Period, precipitated in the early 1990s by the collapse in trade at preferential prices with the former Soviet bloc countries. For the last decade the Cuban people have faced more directly the unequal trade relations and exploitation imposed through the world capitalist market.

The Theses explain that the Special Period continues however, and that the union movement must fight to counteract the social inequalities that have increased. The trade unions must work for "greater efficiency and increased production and services" in order to maximize resources available to meet social needs; giving priority to "families with very low incomes, including retired people, elderly people living alone, and single mothers"; and workers taking the initiative in their workplaces to combat theft and corruption.

The following are theses 25–68. The translation is by the Militant, as are the footnotes and text in brackets.  
 

26. We must carry out political work that is concrete, effective, specific to each problem and audience, and demonstrated in action; work that flows from permanent contact with the masses, from an attentive and receptive ear to their opinions, suggestions, and moods; that is based on systematic and rigorous studies, on a periodic analysis of the problems and verification of the results.

27. The political and ideological work of our movement is based above all on the fact that unionized workers are not simply the principal object of the revolution's message, but its principal active subjects, its main actors par excellence, together with working farmers and students.

28. Our conception is one of political work that is not confined to schemes of a "front" or area of work, but rather a collective priority for which every union leadership body has responsibility, first and foremost the main leaders. This work cannot be reduced to political clarification, but must focus on aspects of ideology, develop revolutionary habits and attitudes, foster a strong determination to confront and solve problems, and achieve a solid, general, and rounded culture among workers, forging them as critical subjects who are able to confront the flood of globalized pseudoculture that we are subjected to through different means.

29. This means reinforcing consciousness about our glorious history and rooting in every Cuban man and woman the values that define our national and cultural identity. Our culture, the epic story of our history, are extraordinary and enormously effective weapons in defending the values of our homeland and the revolution.

30. We value highly the role of our Revolutionary Armed Forces, which zealously and effectively guard our country and are contributing to the political education of successive generations of young future workers.

They are instilling discipline and selflessness among the new generations, training them in the use of weapons and engagement in combat, and developing their boldness, courage, tenacity, and willingness to give everything for the defense of our free, independent, and sovereign nation--which the best sons and daughters of our nation forged with their blood through a century and a half of unparalleled heroism and sacrifice.

31. All unions must be prepared to carry out unflinchingly, together with all of our people, any task required for the continual strengthening of our country's defensive capacity.

32. The sustained and generous donations that workers of different sectors with access to hard currency are making to health, anticancer, and mother-infant programs are an expression of our sense of solidarity and rejection of selfish and individualistic attitudes. This movement highlights the human solidarity and revolutionary consciousness that we must continue to develop in breadth and reach.

33. We must steadily instill a deeper culture of work and increased discipline. Such values can be forged only through organization and exacting standards.

In other countries with a long history of industrialization, such habits become ingrained through the cruel school of capitalism and the permanent threat of unemployment.

We have to rely on different levers: first and foremost, efforts to raise consciousness, workers' participation in management, the use of tested means such as the Efficiency Assemblies,1 and increasingly linking together work results, income, and the living standards of workers and their families.

34. As Che [Guevara] taught us, voluntary labor, if it is well-organized and justified by its economic or social results, will remain a pillar of workers' communist education and requires constant attention.

35. We must work systematically to create a deeper understanding of economic and legal questions, a greater sense of rational organization in everything we do, a greater ability to rely on our training and our own forces, and a deep sense of internationalist solidarity and commitment. Without all this, we cannot advance in the building of socialism in our country.

36. We need a consciousness that is not based on high-sounding proclamations, but rather is expressed in the daily fulfillment of our duty, the elimination of vices and inconsistent attitudes, strengthening vigilance, and developing in every workplace an atmosphere that makes it impossible to tolerate crime, corruption, privilege, nepotism, cronyism, and other forms of moral decay.

37. At the same time, socialism cannot forgo the goal of every man and woman having a useful job, or the objective of building a healthy society that is free from marginal social conditions. The workforce and the union must join in the effort of attention, prevention, and social and community work that the revolution is vigorously advancing today.

38. Our people have deepened their understanding of culture as an expression of our national identity, as the enjoyment of spiritual values, and as a basic weapon in the battle for ideas in which we are engaged.

39. Our union movement unhesitatingly embraces Fidel's idea of making our people one of the most cultured in the world, and commits all its cadres, leaders, and members to the sustained effort implied in this endeavor.

40. Cuban workers, in addition to increased levels of education, have acquired a high level of political culture. This must now become part of a higher level of general culture, including education about labor, economy, history, science, art, and literature, based on the understanding of [José] Martí's aphorism that without culture there can be no freedom.2

41. Workers and the unions, especially in art and literature, science, education, information, and communications, must play a leading role in this effort.

42. Cuban culture, which is open to exchange with and enrichment by the best of universal culture, has continued to expand in significant areas in recent years. Above all, culture encompasses values, ideas, reasons, knowledge, sensibility, and moral and material realities in a society based on solidarity. Despite all the slanders and scheming against the revolution, Cuba has gained increased authority and recognition around the world. But our sworn enemy--Yankee imperialism--will try by every possible means to counterattack, and for this we must continue to prepare rapidly.

We face a war of ideas and images, in which it is necessary to act in an intelligent, calm, and timely way.

43. The University for All,3 broadcast through television and radio, is providing a large body of knowledge, information, interpretations, and arguments on questions of vital importance. The union movement must find ways to ensure that all its leaders and members fully take advantage of this valuable tool.

44. The improved management system4 is one of our most important strategic goals, since the task is to lead state enterprises toward increased economic efficiency, while at the same time creating the objective and subjective conditions for the maximum development of socialist consciousness among the workforce.  
 
Battle for economic efficiency
45. Approaching the economic, political, and ideological aspects as part of a single whole, we must show that socialist state enterprises can be as efficient as or more efficient than the best capitalist enterprises, and that the socialist state, which represents working people, reaffirms its leading role in conducting economic affairs.

46. The successful introduction of this new management system demands a new mentality in every workplace and by every worker in particular. Educating workers and their leaders to be able to achieve uninterrupted improvements in efficiency and competitiveness is crucial.

47. We must therefore go through a new phase of training so that workers and union cadres understand not only the technical aspects of the improved management system, but above all the social, political, and ideological importance of this far-reaching change in the management of the socialist economy.

48. The improved management system poses greater responsibilities for the union movement, and a change in mentality, structures, procedures, and methods of work become indispensable for the efforts we must carry out from now on to keep instilling in all workers a sense and attitude of collective ownership of their workplaces--in a country in which the overall wealth is the social property of the entire people.

49. Workers in the state-budgeted sector5 carry out work that has great social importance, and they must abide by similar standards of efficiency; their work will have a growing impact on improvements in the quality of services and administration.

Easing and expediting procedures that the population must follow requires special attention, including those that are required by the management of enterprises. Given their importance, these activities deserve adequate payment and incentives, to the extent the country has the necessary resources.

50. The unions at all levels are obligated to strive to ensure that all scientific specialties and technical innovations become fully part of the life of our workplaces and help raise economic efficiency as well as working and living conditions, in the framework of an ecologically sustainable society.

51. Under the current conditions of our development, we must rapidly improve the links between the productive and the scientific-technical sectors, as well as advance their more effective and deeper integration.

52. From a union point of view, this mission is directly related to what the Commander-in-Chief [Fidel Castro] termed a dual membership and dual responsibility. We have generalized this as "dual affiliation," which is a new method of work that must be the unambiguous responsibility not only of the union of scientists but of the other unions, especially local unions.

53. The National Association of Innovators and Efficiency Experts (ANIR)6 must continue to promote, support, and back the inventiveness of workers in order to increase efficiency, raise productivity, use new technology, strengthen technical discipline, and work to foster a culture of systematically applying scientific and technical methods in every job and in the workplace as a whole, which will contribute, with its enhanced strength, to the further success of the Forum of Science and Technology.

54. Increased food production in the countryside remains a basic goal of the CTC, given the large number of workers in agriculture, the direct impact of this production on the quality and quantity of food available to the population, its importance for the country's defense, what it represents as a major source of jobs, and its extraordinary role in our balance of trade.

55. The main task of the unions of farm workers, sugar workers, tobacco workers, civilian employees in the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), and of the CTC as a leading and organizing body, is to help workers in state enterprises and farms and in the Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPC), through their efforts and cultivation of the land, realize--in a relatively brief period of time--the enormous potential productivity and yields that have not yet been developed.7 A basic factor in this goal is achieving a stable and full workforce.

56. Yields by area, which today are acceptable or satisfactory only for a small number of crops, are clearly the Achilles heel of our agriculture.

57. The progress of the sugar industry could be limited or slowed down if in the coming years a solution is not attained for the problem of low sugarcane yields, which not only affects the availability of raw materials for the industry but significantly raises the costs.

58. The economic problems resulting from low yields that are seen in both the sugarcane and non-sugarcane sectors of agriculture have an appreciable effect on the country's financial resources. They harm, first and foremost, the workers of this sector, whose labor cannot be viewed as effective if the producers' income is not tied to economic results.

59. No wage compensation or subsidy, even when it provides the maximum possible protection, can substitute for the moral satisfaction and sense of social and patriotic usefulness that individuals gain from their continued and effective role as highly productive workers.

60. In recent years, the unemployment rate has continued a downward trend, but it remains a problem of concern whose solution is complex, and particularly affects the eastern provinces and some municipalities in other regions. It is uneven from one area to another and from one job to another, with some situations in which there are job vacancies and no applicants.

61. In the context of this situation, it remains necessary to keep making progress in adjusting the size of the workforce in each enterprise and in the restructuring of labor tied to the improved management system.

Modernization of any productive activity or services often means introducing techniques that expand labor productivity and lead to the elimination of a certain number of jobs. But obviously, eliminating all jobs as a result of being forced to shut down a workplace that is no longer competitive and lacks a market for its products or services would be extremely negative for the workers involved and for the national economy.

62. The union movement supports, as a general course of action, any measure that, if implemented rationally and fairly, helps develop the country and strengthen both its domestic and international financial situation. We are aware that this is the only secure, effective, and lasting way to maintain and increase the number and quality of our jobs.

63. In continuity with the policies established by our government, the 18th Congress must reaffirm the principle that no worker can be left unprotected, and that it is necessary to fight for new alternatives for jobs that are lasting, necessary, and economically viable.

64. The congress must also maintain the approach that any decision implying a reduction of the workforce must be preceded by considering all the options for relocating the available workers to useful jobs that benefit the economy and guarantee them job security and income. Such a decision will require the approval of the union, the CTC, and the Ministry of Labor.

65. The union movement greatly appreciates the distance already traveled, but is aware that the decisive thing is ground we have yet to cover in order to achieve the levels of development to which we can aspire through our efforts and, as a result, better meet both the physical and broader human needs of our people.

66. We are also aware that prices in general do not yet correspond to the income levels of a large number of workers.

67. A primary duty for us is the struggle to continue tying individual incomes to work results, including for managers at different levels, and to create an appropriate relationship between the material interests and the moral motivations of our society.

68. Toward that end, and related to the process of restoring the value of the Cuban peso, it will be necessary to develop and gradually introduce--beginning with the most dynamic branches and entities of the economy--a wage structure that maximizes income in pesos connected to increased efficiency. This will make it possible to begin to substitute, as the necessary conditions are created, the parallel forms of incentives, while raising the incomes of workers in the other branches of production, services, and the state-budgeted sector.

[To be continued]  
 
 
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