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 earlier parts of this document take up the central importance of Cuban workers strengthening their active political role in defense of the revolution. They call 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," reinforcing 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 far 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 translation is by the Militant, as are the footnotes and text in brackets. Subheads are from the original document in Spanish.
 

70. As such, we see our role as a counterpart to management in a mutually constructive and demanding relationship. To fulfill that role, we need a growing number of local union organizations that are capable of functioning effectively. We need a union that works with everyone, every single day, and that in its daily work acts on the basis that it is by and for the workers. This mission is carried out above all at the local union level, which is where the real existence of the union is determined.

71. The role of the collective labor contract is irreplaceable in strengthening labor, technical, and production discipline, and in shaping the correct policies of our socialist state, aimed at improving workers' living and working conditions. It embodies the principle that responsibilities and rights must go hand in hand. The role of the contract takes on decisive importance with the implementation of improved management, which confers greater powers on the administration.¹

We must also, to the same extent, strengthen the union's role as representative of the workers, adhering faithfully to the principles of the revolution, in any conflict of difference of opinion with management.

72. The contract is equally necessary in enterprises that are not part of the improved management process, in entities associated with foreign capital, and in the state-budgeted sector.²

73. In responding to labor grievances and conflicts, we have developed the concept that, while it is important to respond to and reach an adequate solution to demands, it is even more important to take a preventive approach, which contributes to the stability and cohesion of the workforce. The aim of the union's work is for workers to appeal to the local body of labor justice only in cases where the conflict cannot be resolved beforehand.

74. Over the past few years, even with the enormous efforts that have been devoted, the Special Period has limited the ability to meet workers' health and safety needs on the job. Today, when signs of economic recovery are evident, this issue requires more priority in the resources allotted by the enterprises. It is particularly important to demand that industries that today are being revived and are making new investments include in their budgets workers' health and safety, protective equipment, adequate ventilation and lighting on the job, as well as work clothes, uniforms, and footwear. In particular, the congress must call for continuing to promote the movement for protected areas.

75. When we speak of comprehensive attention, we are referring both to improving living and working conditions, as well as achieving a deep sense of belonging to the workforce, motivation to work better, and recognition of workers' contributions and merit.

76. In this framework, we need to promote solutions that can increase housing construction, repair, and maintenance--and, in particular, revive the minibrigade movement, where the availability of resources permits and where it is possible and necessary to do so. It means gradually generalizing the experiences of the Cayo Hueso Plan in the capital and other cities.³

77. In particular, the unions of agricultural and forestry workers, sugar workers, tobacco workers, and civilian employees of the FAR [Revolutionary Armed Forces] will continue to promote housing programs carried out with the involvement of the workers needing housing and the labor power of each place, as a viable solution to stabilize the workforce in the UBPCs,⁴ farms, sugar refineries, and other rural entities.

78. The union movement will continue to combat any discrimination against women in the idling of workers and in the process of labor reorganization.

79. The reduced capacity of child-care centers has forced many women workers to pay substantial amounts of money to private individuals to care for their children.

Besides the financial effect, it means leaving children's education and health care to people who do not always have the necessary training or resources. The union movement will promote the creation of conditions to extend--wherever possible, and in compliance with the regulations of the ministries of education and public health--the opening of child-care facilities in workplaces where there are working mothers who need such services.

80. Similarly, we must continue to fight to improve and increase the presence of women in leadership positions in enterprises and the rest of the state-owned sector.

81. Correct decisions by different institutions to give priority to women in filling leadership positions, when they have adequate ability and training, are not enough. Nor should these be imposed through administrative methods. Such a just allocation of responsibilities should be the result of removing obstacles that still weigh against women's opportunities for promotion.

82. This requires sponsoring the enrollment of women in courses, assigning them increasingly complex responsibilities, creating the best possible conditions for performing their jobs, making available services and items that help free them from household chores, and exercising the influence and authority of the union movement to achieve these goals. These are responsibilities that union leaders, men and women, accept together.

83. There are still formalistic and mechanical approaches being used that turn socialist emulation⁵ into schemas. This makes it necessary to keep combating systematically any tendency that distorts its role, and to design it based on the features of each place.

84. Organizing socialist emulation is a responsibility shared by management and the local union, which, by mutual agreement, help establish collective and individual pledges that are concrete, clear, and measurable, and which set parameters to efficiently meet plans for production, services, teaching, and research. Indicators alien to these goals should not be used.

85. Above all, the protagonists should be workers and workplaces that fulfill their obligations. Any incentive offered should correspond to a concrete achievement, combining moral and material forms of recognition.

86. We reaffirm the principled position of not offering any incentive or recognition to workplaces that divert or steal material resources due to weak internal controls and lack of vigilance, or due to not having an effective accounting system.

87. Organizing thousands of retirees and pensioners means organizing a considerable force of great value to the union and to society. They voluntarily assist the CTC and the unions in carrying out important economic, social, and political tasks, which helps raise their self-esteem and quality of life. The congress must commit itself to continuing to pay careful attention to this valuable contingent.

88. Our congress points to the basic responsibility of higher leadership bodies in the effort to achieve the necessary stability of local union leaders by motivating them, zealously serving their needs, supporting and backing them in the most difficult and complex situations in order to ensure the best performance of their duties. The cadres of the CTC and the unions, from the national level to the bureau, are responsible for attending to their union locals with the same intensity, dedication, and consistency with which local leaders must serve their members.  
 
The world today, the union struggle
89. The decade that is ending has been marked by a triumphalist orgy in the centers of world capitalism, which embarked on a dizzying implementation of globalization, under the ruthless banner of neoliberal doctrines, with a tragic toll for workers and the peoples of the entire world. Neoliberalism has globalized poverty, and has waged a brutal offensive against the gains workers had made in the prolonged battle against exploitation.

90. In recent years the capitalist power centers have planned or promoted the gutting of unions, seeking to divide, fragment, and eliminate them.

As a result, the international union movement has been weakened, a fact seen in the decreasing numbers of unionized workers and their lack of a coherent strategy and ability to struggle.

91. Despite the diverse political, philosophical, and religious positions that mark the international union movement today, and the diverging views among many organizations, including within a single country, we believe it is possible and necessary for the international union movement, and in each region and country, to take steps forward in search of roads toward unity and common action.

92. The CTC backs the implementation of the Declaration of Principles on basic labor rights, adopted by the International Labor Organization (ILO). We also call attention to the fact that these rights cannot be seen outside a fair and comprehensive view of human rights, including the right to life, employment, health, education, social justice, and the irrepressible aspiration of all nations to development, self-determination, and sovereignty.

93. On this basis, the Cuban union movement recognizes the importance of promoting solidarity among workers and peoples, and calls for an end to the repression and assassinations that target thousands of union leaders. We recognize the need for a struggle against racism, xenophobia, and discrimination to which immigrants, women, and ethnic minorities are subjected in many parts of the world.

94. The CTC values the need for collaboration between union organizations around the world, in the framework of a true spirit of solidarity and mutual respect, with the right of each organization to chart its own course in defense of the workers' cause.

95. Cuban workers are proud of our political, economic, and social system, of our democracy, based on real and leading participation by workers and the entire people in the decisions and actions that affect the future of the country.

96. As Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro emphasized at the rally last year for the 47th anniversary of July 26, held in Santa Clara, "The Cuban Revolution cannot be destroyed either by force or through seduction."
 
 
1.Improved management, or perfeccionamiento empresarial, is the term used for various reforms being implemented in an increasing number of Cuban enterprises. A range of important management policies that have previously been determined by national legislation, or have been subject to strict regulation by the responsible government ministry--such as wage scales, the number of workers employed, the hours worked, and enterprise responsibility for training--are now being determined, to a greater degree, enterprise by enterprise.

These policies are subject to discussion and agreement between management and the union at the workplace. Greater initiative by workers and management, increased efficiency, and eliminating government subsidies to less productive enterprises are among the goals.

For a discussion of the improved management system, see article "Cuban workers discuss reforms in factory management" by Jonathan Silberman and Mary-Alice Waters, in the June 5, 2000, issue of the Militant.

2. The state-budgeted sector includes schools, medical facilities, social services, and government agencies. These will not go through the same process of reorganization as the industries adopting the improved management reforms.

3. The minibrigades are volunteer construction brigades, composed primarily of workers and others who have volunteered to be released from their regular jobs for a period of time, receiving the wage they had been getting in their regular occupation, in order to build housing, child-care centers, schools, clinics, and other badly needed social projects. They are often joined by students, housewives, retirees, and others who volunteer to work evenings and weekends after completing their regular jobs. Through most of the 1990s, the severe shortages and other conditions of the Special Period put a sharp brake on the organization of these minibrigades, which had expanded rapidly into a genuine social movement during the latter half of 1980s.

Cayo Hueso is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city of Havana. The government has worked with residents there to provide building materials as they organize brigades to build new housing.

4. The Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPC) are agricultural cooperatives that resulted from the reorganization of the large state farms in 1993-94. UBPC members are organized by the CTC. They own and sell what they produce, but the land they work remains nationalized.

5. Emulation is a form of fraternal contest among cooperating groups of workers to see which factory or enterprise can produce the most, with the greatest productivity and of the highest quality. The opposite of competition among individual workers--the dog-eat-dog condition of life and work under capitalism--emulation is only possible when workers are producing for themselves, not for exploiters.
 
 
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'Cuban youth have been main actors in struggle'
How the April 17-19, 1961, battle unfolded
 
 
 
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