CENTRAL REPORT TO THE 6th CONGRESS OF THE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF
Comrades all,
The opening of the 6th Congress of the
Communist Party of Cuba this afternoon marks a date of extraordinary
significance in our history, the 50th anniversary of the proclamation
of the socialist nature of our Revolution by its Commander in Chief, Fidel
Castro Ruz, on April 16, 1961, as we paid our last respects to those killed the
day before during the bombings of the air bases. This action, which was the
prelude to the Playa Girón (
On that occasion, Fidel said to the people already
armed and inflamed with passion: “This is
what they cannot forgive us…that we have made a Socialist Revolution right under
the nose of the
The response to this appeal would not take long; in
the fight against the aggressor a few hours later, the combatants of the
Ejército Rebelde, police agents and militiamen shed their blood, for the first
time, in defense of socialism and attained victory in less than 72 hours under
the personal leadership of comrade Fidel.
The Military Parade that we watched this morning,
dedicated to the young generations, and particularly the vigorous popular march
that followed, are eloquent proof of the fortitude of the Revolution to follow
the example of the heroic fighters of Playa Girón.
Next May 1st, on the occasion of the
International Workers Day, we will do likewise throughout the country to show
the unity of Cubans in defense of their independence and national sovereignty,
which as proven by history, can only be conquered through Socialism.
This Congress, the supreme body of the Party, as set
forth in article 20 of its Statutes, brings together today one thousand
delegates representing nearly 800 thousand party members affiliated to over 61
thousand party cells. But, this Congress really started on November 9 last
year, with the release of the Draft Guidelines of the Economic and Social
Policy of the Party and the Revolution, a subject that, as previously
indicated, will be at the center of the debates of this meeting that is regarded
with great expectations by our people.
As of that moment, numerous seminars were organized to
clarify and to delve into the content of the Guidelines in order to adequately
train the cadres and officials who would lead the discussions of the material
by the party members, mass organizations and the people in general.
The discussions extended for three months, from
December 1, 2010 to February 28 of this year, with the participation of 8,
913,838 people in more than 163 thousand meetings held by the different organizations
in which over three million people offered their contributions. I want to make
clear that, although it has not been accurately determined yet, the total
figure of participants includes tens of thousands of members of the Party and
the Young Communist League who attended the meetings in their respective cells but
also those convened in their work or study centers in addition to those of their
communities. This is also the case of non-party members who took part in the
meetings organized at their work centers and later at their communities.
Even the National Assembly of People’s Power dedicated
nearly two work sessions in its latest Ordinary Meeting held this past December
to analyze with the deputies the Draft Guidelines.
This process has exposed the capacity of the Party to
conduct a serious and transparent dialogue with the people on any issue,
regardless of how sensitive it might be, especially as we try to create a
national consensus on the features that should characterize the country’s
Social and Economic Model.
At the same time, the data collected from the results
of the discussions become a formidable working tool for the government and
Party leadership at all levels, like a popular referendum given the depth,
scope and pace of the changes we must introduce.
In a truly extensive democratic exercise, the people
freely stated their views, clarified their doubts, proposed amendments,
expressed their dissatisfactions and discrepancies, and suggested that we work
toward the solution of other problems not included in the document.
Once again the unity and confidence of most Cubans in
the Party and the Revolution were put to the test; a unity that far from
denying the difference of opinions is strengthened and consolidated by them. Every
opinion, without exception, was incorporated to the analysis, which helped to
enhance the Draft submitted to the consideration of the delegates to this
Congress.
It would be fair to say that, in substance, the
Congress was already held in that excellent debate with the people. Now, it is
left to us as delegates to engage in the final discussion of the Draft and the
election of the higher organs of party leadership.
The Economic Policy Commission of the 6th
Party Congress first entrusted with the elaboration of the Draft Guidelines and
then with the organization of the discussions has focused on the following five
issues:
1.
Reformulation of the guidelines bearing in
mind the opinions gathered.
2.
Organization, orientation and control of their
implementation.
3.
The thorough training of the cadres and other
participants for the implementation of some of the measures already enforced.
4.
Systematic oversight of the agencies and
institutions in charge of enforcing the decisions stemming from the guidelines
and evaluation of their results.
5.
Leading the process of information to the people.
In compliance with the aforesaid, the Draft Guidelines
were reformulated and then submitted to analysis by both the Political Bureau
and the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, on March 19 and 20,
respectively, with the participation of the Secretariat of the Party’s Central
Committee and the top leaders of the Central Trade Union (CTC), the Young
Communist League (UJC) and the other mass organizations, approved at that level –also as a draft—and
then delivered to you for its examination during three days in every provincial
delegation to the Congress and for its discussion at the five commissions of
this party meeting for its subsequent approval.
Next, I will offer some data to illustrate our people
on the results of the discussions of the Draft Guidelines, even though detailed
information will be published later.
The original document contained 291 guidelines; 16 of
them were moved to others; 94 preserved their phrasing; 181 had their content
modified; and, 36 new guidelines were incorporated for a grand total of 311
guidelines in the current draft.
A simple arithmetic operation with these numbers avows
the quality of the consultation process as a result of which approximately two
thirds of the guidelines –68% to be exact—was reformulated.
The principle that guided this process was that the
validity of a proposal would not depend on the number of opinions expressed
about it. This is shown by the fact that several guidelines were either
modified or removed based on the opinion of only one person or a small number
of them.
It is also worth explaining that some opinions were
not included at this stage either because the issue deserved a more exhaustive
analysis for which the necessary conditions did not exist or because they
openly contradicted the essence of socialism, as for example 45 proposals
advocating the concentration of property.
I mean that, although the prevailing tendency was a
general understanding of and support for the content of the Guidelines, there
was no unanimity; and that is precisely what was needed for we really wanted
this to be a democratic and serious consultation with the people.
For this reason, I can assure you that the Guidelines
are an expression of our people’s will, contained in the policy of the Party,
the Government and the State, to update the Economic and Social Model in order
to secure the continuity and irreversibility of Socialism as well as the
economic development of the country and the improvement of the living standard
of our people combined with the indispensible formation of ethical and
political values.
As expected, most of the proposals made during the
discussion of the Draft Guidelines were focused on Chapter VI, “Social Policy”
and Chapter II “Macroeconomic Policies”; both accounted for 50.9% of the total,
followed, in descending order, by Chapter XI, “Construction, Housing and Water
Resources Policy”; Chapter X, “Transportation Policy”; and, Chapter I,
“Economic Management Model.” In fact,
75% of the opinions expressed focused on these five chapters out of a total of
twelve.
On the other hand, 67% of the proposals referred to 33
guidelines, that is, 11% of the total. In fact, the highest number of proposals
pertained to guidelines number 162, dealing with the removal of the ration book;
61 and 62, on the pricing policy; 262, on passengers’ transportation; 133, on
education; 54, related to the establishment of a single currency; and, 143, on
the quality of healthcare services.
Undoubtedly, the ration book and its removal spurred
most of the contributions of the participants in the debates, and it is only
natural. Two generations of Cubans have spent their lives under this rationing
system that, despite its harmful egalitarian quality, has for four decades
ensured every citizen access to basic food at highly subsidized derisory
prices.
This distribution mechanism introduced in times of
shortages during the 1960s, in the interest of providing equal protection to
our people from those involved in speculation and hoarding with a lucrative
spirit, has become in the course of the years an intolerable burden to the
economy and discouraged work, in addition to eliciting various types of
transgressions.
Since the ration book is designed to provide equal
coverage to 11 million Cubans, there are more than a few examples of
absurdities such as allocating a quota of coffee to the newborn. The same
happened with cigarettes until September 2010 as they were supplied to smokers
and non-smokers alike thus fostering the expansion of that unsafe habit in the
population.
Regarding this sensitive issue, the span of opinions
is very broad, from those who suggest dismissing it right away to others who
categorically oppose its removal and propose to ration everything, the
industrial goods included. Others are of the view that in order to successfully
prevent hoarding and ensure everybody’s access to basic foods, it would be
necessary, in a first stage, to keep the products rationed even if no longer
subsidized. Quite a few have recommended depriving of the ration book those who
neither study nor work or advised that the people with higher incomes
relinquish that system voluntarily.
Certainly, the use of the ration book to distribute
the basic foods, which was justified under concrete historic circumstances, has
remained with us for too long even when it contradicts the substance of the
distribution principle that should characterize Socialism, that is, “From each in accordance with his ability and
to each in accordance with his labor,” and this situation should be
resolved.
In this connection, it seems appropriate to recall
what comrade Fidel indicated in his Central Report to the First Party Congress
on
The problem we are facing has nothing to do with
concepts, but rather with how to do it, when to do it, and at what pace. The
removal of the ration book is not an end in itself, and it should not be
perceived as an isolated decision but rather as one of the first indispensible
measures aimed at the eradication of the deep distortions affecting the operation
of the economy and society as a whole.
No member of the leadership of this country in their
right mind would think of removing that system by decree, all at once, before
creating the proper conditions to do so, which means undertaking other
transformations of the Economic Model with a view to increasing labor
efficiency and productivity in order to guarantee stable levels of production
and supplies of basic goods and services accessible to all citizens but no
longer subsidized.
Of course, this issue is closely related to pricing
and to the establishment of a single currency, as well as to wages and to the
“reversed pyramid” phenomenon which as spelled out at the Parliament last
December 18, is expressed in the mismatch between salaries and the ranking or
importance of the work performed. These problems came up often in the
contributions made by the citizens.
In Cuba, under socialism, there will never be space
for “shock therapies” that go against the neediest, who have traditionally been
the staunchest supporters of the Revolution; as opposed to the packages of
measures frequently applied on orders of the International Monetary Fund and
other international economic organizations to the detriment of the Third World peoples
and, lately enforced in the highly developed nations where students’ and
workers’ demonstrations are violently suppressed.
The Revolution will not leave any Cuban helpless. The
social welfare system is being reorganized to ensure a rational and deferential
support to those who really need it. Instead of massively subsidizing products
as we do now, we shall gradually provide for those people lacking other
support.
This principle is absolutely valid for the
restructuring of the work force, –an ongoing process-- streamlining the bloated
payrolls in the public sector on the basis of a strict assessment of the
workers’ demonstrated capacity. This process will continue slowly but
uninterruptedly, its pace determined by our capacity to create the necessary
conditions for its full implementation.
Other elements will have an impact on this process,
including the expansion and easing of labor in the non-public sector. This
modality of employment that over 200 thousand Cubans have adopted from October
last year until today --twice as many as before-- make up an alternative endorsed
by the current legislation, therefore, it should enlist the support, assistance
and protection of the officials at all levels while demanding strict adherence
to the ensuing obligations, including tax payment.
The growth of the non-public sector of the economy,
far from an alleged privatization of the social property as some theoreticians
would have us believe, is to become an active element facilitating the
construction of socialism in Cuba since it will allow the State to focus on
rising the efficiency of the basic means of production, which are the property
of the entire people, while relieving itself from those management of
activities that are not strategic for the country.
This, on the other hand, will make it easier for the
State to continue ensuring healthcare and education services free of charge and
on equal footing to all of the people and their adequate protection through the
Social Welfare System; the promotion of physical education and sports; the
defense of the national identity; and, the preservation of the cultural
heritage, and the artistic, scientific and historic wealth of the nation.
Then, the
It is the responsibility of the State to defend
national independence and sovereignty, values in which the Cubans take pride,
and to continue securing the public order and safety that make Cuba one of the
safest and most peaceful nations of the world, without drug-trafficking or
organized crime; without beggars or child labor; without the mounted police
charging against workers, students and other segments of the population;
without extrajudicial executions, clandestine jails or tortures, despite the
groundless smear campaigns constantly orchestrated against us overlooking the
fact that such realities are, foremost, basic human rights that most people on
Earth can’t even aspire to.
Now, in order to guarantee all of these conquests of
Socialism, without renouncing their quality and scope, the social programs
should be characterized by greater rationality so that better and sustainable
results can be obtained in the future with lower spending and keeping the
balance with the general economic situation of the country.
As you can see in the Guidelines, these ideas do not
contradict the significance we attach to the separate roles to be played in the
economy by the state institutions, on the one hand, and the enterprises, on the
other, an issue that for decades has been fraught with confusion and
improvisations and that we are forced to resolve on a mid-term basis in the
context of the strengthening and improvement of institutionalization.
A full understanding of these concepts will permit a solid
advance while avoiding backward steps in the gradual decentralization of powers
from the Central to the local governments, and from the ministries and other
national agencies in favor of the increasing autonomy of the socialist State-funded
companies.
The excessively centralized model characterizing our
economy at the moment shall move in an orderly fashion, with discipline and the
participation of all workers, toward a decentralized system where planning will
prevail, as a socialist feature of management, albeit without ignoring the
current market trends. This will contribute to the flexibility and constant
updating of the plan.
The lesson taught by practical experience is that an
excessive centralization inhibits the development of initiatives in the society
and in the entire production line, where the cadres got used to having
everything decided “at the top” and thus ceased feeling responsible for the
outcome of the entities they headed.
Our entrepreneurs, with some exceptions, settled
themselves comfortably safe and quiet “to wait” and developed an allergy to the
risks involved in making decisions, that is, in being right or wrong. This mentality
characterized by inertia should definitely be removed to be able to cut the
knots that grip the development of the productive forces. This is a pursuit of
strategic significance, thus it is no accident that it has been reflected one
way or another in the 24 guidelines contained in Chapter I, “Economic
Management Model.”
As far as this issue is concerned, we cannot indulge
in improvisations or act hastily. In order to decentralize and change that mentality,
it is indispensible to elaborate a framework of regulations clearly defining
the powers of and functions at every level, from the national to the local,
invariably accompanied by the corresponding accounting, financial and
management oversight.
Progress is already being made in that direction. The
studies began almost two years ago for improving the operation as well as the
structure and makeup of the government at the different levels. These resulted
in the enforcement of the Council of Ministers Regulation, the reorganization
of the work system with the State and Government cadres, the introduction of a
planning procedure for the most important activities, the establishment of the
organizational bases to provide the Government with an accurate and timely
information system supported by its own info-communications infrastructure, and
the creation of the provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque, on experimental basis
and under a new structural and functional concept.
To begin decentralizing powers, it will be necessary
for the cadres of the State and the companies to redeem the obvious role of
contracts in the economy, as expressed in guideline number 10. This will also
help bring back order and discipline to making and obtaining payments, a
subject in which a good part of our economy has been getting poor grades.
As a no less important byproduct, the appropriate use
of contracts as regulatory instruments
of relations among the various economic actors will become an effective
antidote against the extended habit of “reunionism,” that is, calling an
excessive number of meetings and other collective functions, often presided by senior
officials and uselessly attended by many others, only to enforce what the
parties involved recognized as rights and obligations in the contract signed, and
whose fulfillment they have failed to demand from those required to do so.
In this respect, it is worth emphasizing that 19
opinions, registered in 9 provinces, claimed for a reduction in the number of
meetings and their duration to the minimum indispensible. This issue I intend
to take up again when dealing with the functioning of the Party.
We are convinced that the mission ahead of us in
connection with this and other issues related to the updating of the Economic
Model is full of complexities and interrelations that, one way or another,
touch on every aspect of the society as a whole. Therefore, we are aware that
it is not something that can be solved overnight, not even in one year, and
that it will take at least five years to implement it comprehensively and
harmoniously. And, when this is achieved, it will be necessary to never stop
and to continue working for its improvement in order to successfully face the
new challenges brought up by development.
Metaphorically speaking, it might be said that every
now and then, as the scenario changes, the country should make its own
well-tailored suit.
We are not under the illusion that the Guidelines and
the measures conducive to the implementation of the Economic Model will by
themselves provide a universal remedy to all our evils. It will be required to simultaneously build a
greater political awareness and common sense, and to be more intransigent with
the lack of discipline and the violations committed by all, but primarily by
the leading cadres.
This became all too evident a few months back in the
flaws observed during the implementation of some specific measures --neither
complex nor of great magnitude-- due to bureaucratic obstacles and the lack of
preparation of the local governments for the expansion of self-employment.
It is worthwhile reiterating that our cadres must get
used to working with the guiding documents issued by the institutions empowered
to do so and abandon the irresponsible habit of putting them on ice. Life teaches
that it is not enough to issue a good regulation, whether a law or simply a
resolution. It is necessary to also train those in charge of its
implementation, to monitor them and to check their practical knowledge of the
issue. Let’s not forget that the worst law is that which is not enforced or respected.
The system of Party schools at the provincial and
national level, along with the unavoidable reorientation of their syllabus,
will play a protagonist role in the preparation and continuous recycling in
these subjects of Party and government cadres as well as the company executives
with the aid of the educational institutions specialized in this area of
knowledge and the valuable input of the members of the National Association of
Economists and Accountants, as it was the case with the discussion of the
Guidelines.
At the same time, and with the purpose of effectively arranging
in order of importance the introduction of the required changes, the Political
Bureau agreed to bring to the Congress the proposal of establishing of a
Standing Government Commission for Implementation and Development, subordinated
to the President of the Council of State and Ministers which, without affecting
in any way the powers invested in the corresponding Central Government Organs, will
be responsible for monitoring, checking and coordinating the actions of
everyone involved in this activity, and for proposing the insertion of new
guidelines, something that will be indispensible in the future.
In this token, we feel it is advisable to remember the
orientation included by comrade Fidel in his Central Report to the First Party
Congress, nearly 36 years ago, about the Economy Management System that we
intended to introduce back then and failed due to our lack of systematization,
control and discipline. He said “…that
the Party leaders but foremost the State leaders turn its implementation into a
personal undertaking and a matter of honor as they grow more aware of its
crucial importance and the need to make every effort to apply it consistently,
always under the leadership of the National Commission created to that end…,”
and he concluded: “…to widely disseminate
information on the system, its principles and mechanisms through a kind of
literature within reach of the masses so that the workers can master the issue.
The success of the system will largely depend on the workers knowledge of the
issue.”
I will not tire of repeating that in this Revolution
everything has been said. The best example of this we have in Fidel’s ideas
that Granma, the Official Party organ, has been running in the past few years.
Whatever we approve in this Congress cannot suffer the
same fate as the previous agreements, most of them forgotten and unfulfilled.
Whatever it is that we agree upon in this or future meetings must guide the
behavior and action of Party members and leaders alike and its materialization
must be ensured through the corresponding legal instruments produced by the
National Assembly of People’s Power, the State Council or the Government, in accordance
with their legislative powers and the Constitution.
It’s only fair to say very clearly, in order to avoid
misinterpretations, that the agreements reached by congresses and other leading
Party organs do not become law in themselves. They are orientations of a
political and moral nature, and it is incumbent on the Government, which is the
body in charge of management, to regulate their implementation.
This is why the Standing Commission for Implementation
and Development will include a Judicial Subgroup made up by highly qualified
specialists who will coordinate with the corresponding organs --with full
respect for institutionalization— the legal amendments required to accompany
the updating of the Economic and Social Model, simplifying and harmonizing the
content of hundreds of ministerial resolutions, legislative decrees and
legislations, and subsequently proposing, in due course, the introduction of
the relevant adjustments to the Constitution of the Republic.
Without waiting to have everything worked out,
progress has been made in the legal regulations associated with the purchase
and sale of housing and cars, the modification of Legislative Decree No. 259
expanding the limits of fallow land to be awarded in usufruct to those
agricultural producers with outstanding results and the granting of credits to
self-employed workers and to the population at large.
Likewise, we consider it advisable to propose to this
Congress that the first point of the agenda of every plenary meeting of the
next Central Committee, to be held no less than twice a year, is a report on
the status of the implementation of the agreements adopted in this Congress on
the updating of the Economic Model, and that the second point is an analysis on
the fulfillment of the economic plan, be it from the first semester or from the
running year.
We also recommend the National Assembly of People’s
Power to proceed in the same way during its ordinary sessions with the purpose
of strengthening its protagonist role as the supreme organ of the State power.
Starting from the deep conviction that nothing that we
do is perfect and that even if it seems so today it will not be tomorrow under
new circumstances, the higher organs of the Party and the State and Government
Powers should keep a systematic and close oversight on this process and be
ready to timely introduce any adjustments called for to correct negative
effects.
Comrades,
It’s a question of being alert, with our feet and ears
to the ground, and when a practical problem arise, whatever the area or the
place, the cadres at the different levels must act swiftly and deliberately
avoiding the old approach of leaving its solution to time, since we have
learned from experience that the problems grow more complicated as time goes by.
In the same token, we should cultivate and preserve a fluid
relationship with the masses, devoid of formality, that would allow for an
efficient feed-back of their concerns and dissatisfactions so that the masses can
indicate the pace of the changes to be introduced.
The attention paid to a recent misunderstanding on the
reorganization of some basic services shows that when the Party and the
Government, each in its own role, with different methods and styles, act
promptly and harmoniously on the concerns of the people providing clear and
simple explanations, the people support the measure and their confidence in their
leaders grows.
The Cuban media in its various formats should play a
decisive role in the pursuit of this goal with clarifications and objective,
continuous and critical reports on the progress of the updating of the Economic
Model so that with profound and shrewd articles and reports written in terms
accessible to all they can help building in our country a culture about these
topics.
In this area of work it is also necessary to
definitely banish the habit of describing the national reality in pretentious
high-flown language or with excessive formality. Instead, written materials and
television and radio programs should be produced that catch the attention of
the audience with their content and style while encouraging public debate. But
this demands from our journalists to increase their knowledge and become better
professionals even if most of the time, despite the agreements adopted by the
Party on the information policy, they cannot access the information timely nor
contact the cadres and experts involved with the issues in question. The
combination of these elements explains the rather common dissemination of
boring, improvised or superficial reports.
Our media has an important contribution to make to the
promotion of the national culture and the revival of the civic values of our
society.
Another crucial issue very closely related to the
updating of the Economic and Social Model of the country and that should help in
its materialization is the celebration of a National Party Conference. This
will reach conclusions on the modification of the Party working methods and style
with a view to ensure, for today and for the future, the consistent application
of article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic setting forth that the Party
is the organized vanguard of the Cuban nation and the top leading force of the
society and the State.
Initially, we had planned to call that Conference for
December 2011; however, given the complications inherent to the last month of
the year and the advisability of having a prudent reserve of time to adjust
details, we are planning to hold that meeting at the end of January 2012.
Last December 18, I explained to the Parliament that
due to the inefficiency of the Government Organs in the discharge of their
functions, the Party had spent years involved in undertakings that were not its
responsibility, and compromised and limited its role.
We are convinced that the only thing that can make the
Revolution and Socialism fail in
The first thing we should do to correct a mistake is to
consciously admit it in its full dimension but the fact is that, although from
the early years of the Revolution Fidel made a clear distinction between the
roles of the Party and the State, we were inconsistent in the follow-up of his
instructions and simply improvised under the pressure of emergencies.
There can be no better example than what the leader of
the Revolution said as early as
There are very well defined concepts that, in
substance, remain completely valid regardless of the time that has passed since
Lenin formulated them, almost 100 years ago, and they should be taken up again,
bearing in mind the characteristics and experiences of our country.
In 1973, during the preparations of the First Party
Congress, it was defined that the Party must lead and supervise with its own ways
and means, which are different from the ways, means and resources available to
the State for exercising its authority. The Party’s guidelines, resolutions and
provisions are not legally binding for all citizens; it is the Party members
who should abide by them as their conscience dictates since there is no
apparatus to force or coerce them into complying. This is a major difference
about the role and methods of the Party and the State.
The fortitude of the Party basically lies in its moral
authority, its influence on the masses and the trust of the people. The action
of the Party is based, above all, on the honesty of its motives and the justice
of its political line.
The fortitude of the State lies in its material
authority, which consists of the strength of the institutions responsible for
demanding from everyone to comply with the legal regulations it enacts.
The damage caused by the confusion of these two
concepts is manifested, firstly, in the deterioration of the Party’s political
work and, secondly, in the decline of the authority of the State and the
Government as the officials cease feeling responsible for their decisions.
Comrades,
The idea is to forever relieve the Party of activities
completely alien to its nature as a political organization; in short, to get
rid of managing activities and to have each one do what they are meant to do.
These misconceptions are closely linked to the flaws
of the Party’s policy with the cadres, which will also be analyzed by the
abovementioned National Conference. More than a few bitter lessons are the
legacy of the mistakes made in this area due to the lack of rigorous criteria
and vision which opened the way to the hasty promotion of inexperienced and
immature cadres, pretending otherwise through simulation and opportunism,
attitudes fostered by the wrong idea that an unspoken premise to occupy a
leading position was to be a member of the Party or the Young Communist
League.
We must decidedly abandon such practice and leave it
only for responsibilities in the political organizations. Membership in a
political organization should not be a precondition for holding a leading
position with the State or the Government. What the cadres need are adequate
training and the willingness to recognize as their own the Party policy and
program.
The true leaders do simply not crop up in schools or
from favoritism; they are forged at the grassroots level, working in the
profession they studied in contact with the workers and rising gradually to
leadership by setting an example in terms of sacrifices and results.
In this regard, I think that the Party leadership, at
all levels, should be self-critical and adopt the necessary measures to prevent
the reemergence of such tendencies. This is also applicable to the lack of
systematic work and political will to secure the promotion of women, black
people and people of mixed race, and youths to decision-making positions on the
basis of their merits and personal qualifications.
It’s really embarrassing that we have not solved this
problem in more than half a century. This shall weight heavily on our
consciences for many years because we have simply been inconsistent with the
countless orientations given by Fidel from the early days of the revolutionary
victory and throughout the years, and also because the solution to this
disproportion was contained in the agreements adopted by the transcendental
First Party Congress and the four congresses that followed. Still, we have failed
to ensure its realization.
The solution of such issues that define the future will
never again be left to spontaneity but rather to foresight and to the unwavering
political intention of preserving and perfecting socialism in
Although we kept on trying to promote young people to
senior positions, life proved that we did not always make the best choice.
Today, we are faced with the consequences of not having a reserve of
well-trained replacements with sufficient experience and maturity to undertake
the new and complex leadership responsibilities in the Party, the State and the
Government, a problem we should solve gradually, in the course of five years,
avoiding hasty actions and improvisations but starting as soon as the Congress
is over.
This will advance further with the strengthening of
the democratic spirit and collective work of the leading Party, State and
Government organs as we guarantee the systematic rejuvenation of all of the
Party and management positions, from the grassroots to the comrades with the
highest responsibilities, including the current President of the Council of
State and Ministers and the First Secretary of the Central Committee elected in
this Congress.
In this regard, we have reached the conclusion that it
is advisable to recommend limiting the time of service in high political and
State positions to a maximum of two five-year terms. This is possible and
necessary under the present circumstances, quite different from those
prevailing in the first decades of the Revolution that was not yet consolidated
when it had already become the target of continuous threats and
aggressions.
The systematic strengthening of our institutions will
be both a premise and an indispensible guarantee to prevent this cadre
renovation policy from ever jeopardizing the continuation of Socialism in
The first step we are taking in this direction is the
substantial reduction of the list of leading positions that required approval
from the municipal, provincial and national levels of the Party while
empowering senior leaders in the ministries and companies to appoint, replace
and apply disciplinary measures to a large part of their subordinated cadres
with the assistance of the corresponding Cadres Commissions, where the Party is
represented and has a voice but which are presided by the manager who makes the
final decision. The view of the Party organization is appreciated but the
single determining element is the manager, and we should preserve and enhance
their authority in harmony with the Party.
As to the internal functioning of the Party, which
will also be examined at the National Conference, we think it is worthwhile
reflecting on the self-defeating effects of old habits completely alien to the Party’s
vanguard role in our society. These include the superficiality and excessive
formality characterizing the political-ideological work; the use of obsolete
methods and terminology that ignore the instruction level of the Party members;
holding excessively long meetings and often during working hours --which should
be sacred, especially for the communists--
sometimes with inflexible agendas dictated by the higher level in
disregard of the context where the Party members develop their activities; the
frequent calls to formal commemorations where still more formal speeches are
made; and, the organization of voluntary works on holydays without a real
content or adequate coordination that cause spending and have an upsetting and
discouraging effect on our comrades.
These criteria also apply to emulation, a movement
that lost through the years its capacity to mobilize the workers’ collectives and
became an alternative mechanism for distribution of moral and material
incentives not always justified with concrete results, and in more than a few
occasions gave rise to fraudulent information.
Additionally, the Conference will analyze the Party’s
relations with the Young Communist League and the mass organizations to break
with routine and schematic approaches and to allow each of them to recover
their raison d’être under the present conditions.
To sum up, comrades, the National Conference will
focus on enhancing the role of the Party as the main advocate of the interests
of the Cuban people.
The realization of this objective definitely requires
a change of mentality, avoiding formality and fanfare both in ideas and in
action; that is, to do away with the resistance to change based on empty dogma
and slogans and reach for the core of things as the children of La Colmenita Theater Company brilliantly
show in the playwright “Abracadabra.”
It’s the only way in which the Communist Party of Cuba
can become, for all times, the worthy heir to the authority and unlimited
confidence of the people in their Revolution and their only Commander in Chief,
comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, whose moral contribution and undisputable leadership
do not depend on any position and that
as a soldier of ideas has not ceased to fight and help with his enlightening Reflections and other actions the
revolutionary cause and the defense of Humanity from menacing dangers.
With respect to the international situation, we shall
use a few minutes to assess the predicament of the world at this point in time.
There is no end in sight to the global economic crisis
affecting every nation because it is a systemic crisis. The powerful have
directed their remedies to protecting the institutions and procedures that
originated it and to depositing the terrible burden of its consequences on the
workers of their own countries, and particularly of the underdeveloped
countries. Meanwhile, the climbing prices of foods and oil are pushing hundreds
of millions of people into destitute poverty.
The effects of climate change are already devastating
and the lack of political will of the industrial nations prevents the adoption
of urgent and indispensible action to avoid the catastrophe.
We live in a convulsive world where natural disasters
follow one another like the earthquakes in
Popular movements in Arab nations are uprising against
corrupted and oppressive governments allied with the
The
Despite its complex economic situation, our country maintains
its cooperation with 101
To the Bolivarian Revolution, and to comrade Hugo
Chávez Frías, we express our resolute solidarity and commitment, conscious of
the significance of the process undertaken by the fraternal Venezuelan people for
Our America, in the Bicentennial of its
We also share the hopes of the transformation
movements in various Latin American countries, headed by prestigious leaders
who represent the interests of the oppressed majorities.
We shall continue helping the integrationist processes
of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the South
Union (UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLACS)
currently involved in arrangements for the celebration of its foundational
summit on July this year, in
We are encouraged by this increasingly united and
independent
We shall continue advocating International Law and
supporting the principle of sovereign equality among the States as well as the
right of the peoples to self-determination. We reject the use of force and
aggression, the wars of conquest, the plundering of the natural resources and the
exploitation of man.
We condemn every form of terrorism, particularly State
terrorism. We shall defend peace and development for all peoples and fight for
the future of humanity.
The US Administration has not changed its traditional
policy aimed at discrediting and ousting the Revolution. On the contrary, it
has continued to fund projects designed to directly promote subversion, foster
destabilization and interfere in our domestic affairs. The current
administration has taken some positive but extremely limited actions.
The
Although apparently, as evidenced in the recent visit
to the Palacio de La Moneda in Santiago de Chile, the
Mark the date of the memorandum:
This memorandum was not an initiative of that official.
It was part of the policy aimed at overthrowing the Revolution, like the “Covert
Action Program against the Castro Regime,” approved by President Eisenhower on
March 17, 1960, using all the available means, from the creation of a unified
opposition, psychological warfare and covert intelligence operations to the
training in third countries of paramilitary forces with the capacity to invade
the Island.
The United States fostered terrorism in the cities,
and that same year, before the Playa Girón attack, promoted the establishment
of counterrevolutionary armed-gangs, supplied by air and sea, that robbed and
murdered peasants, workers and young teachers, until they were finally
annihilated in 1965.
In
Half a century of hardships and suffering have gone by
in which our people have put up a resistance and defended their Revolution,
unwilling to surrender or to besmirch the memory of the fallen in the past 150
years, from the onset of our struggles for independence.
The
Its
The
We reiterate our willingness to engage in a dialogue
and to take on the challenge of having normal relations with the
At the same time, we will permanently give a priority
to defense, following Fidel’s instructions as expressed in his Central Report
to the First Congress, when he said: “While
imperialism exists, the Party, the State and the people will pay utmost
attention to defense. The revolutionary guard will never be careless. History
teaches with too much eloquence that those who forget this principle do not
survive the mistake.”
In the present scenario and predictable future, the
strategic conception of “the Popular War” remains absolutely valid, thus it is
constantly enriched and improved. Its commanding and leadership system has been
reinforced and its capacity to react to various exceptional situations has
increased.
The defensive capacity of the country has reached a
higher dimension, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Using our own available
resources, we have improved the technical condition and maintenance as well as
the preservation of the armament and carried on the production effort and
especially the modernization of the military technology taking into account its
prohibitive world market prices. In this area, it is fair to recognize the
contribution of scores of military and civilian institutions, proof of the
enormous scientific, technological and productive potential created by the
Revolution.
The degree of preparation of the national territory as
the theater of military operations has been significantly boosted; the
fundamental armament is protected, the same as a substantial part of the
troops, the commanding organs and the people.
A communication infrastructure has been established to
ensure the steady functioning of the commanding posts at all levels. All of the
material reserves have been raised with better distribution and protection.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces, or put another way,
the people in uniform shall continue to constantly improve and preserve the
authority and prestige earned with their discipline and order in the defense of
the people and of Socialism.
We shall now deal with another no less significant
issue of our times.
The Party must be convinced that beyond material needs
and cultural interests our people hold a diversity of concepts and ideas about
their own spiritual necessities.
Our National
Hero José Martí, a man who synthesized that convergence of spirituality and
revolutionary sentiments, wrote many pages about this subject.
Fidel addressed this topic quite early, in 1954, when still
in jail he evoked Renato Guitart, one of the martyrs of the Moncada: “Physical life is ephemeral; it inexorably
passes; the same as many and many generations of men have passed, as our own lives
will shortly pass. This truth should teach every human being that the immortal
values of the spirit stand above them. What is the meaning of life without the
spirit? What is life then? How can death take those that understand this and
still generously sacrifice their lives to good and justice!”
These values have always been present in his ideas,
and so he insisted on them in 1971, at a meeting with catholic priests in
Santiago de Chile: “I tell you that there
are ten thousand times more coincidences of Christianity with Communism than
there might be with Capitalism.”
And, he returned to this idea as he addressed the
members of the Christian churches in
The unity of the revolutionary doctrine and ideas with
regards to faith and its followers is rooted in the basis of the nation, which in
asserting its secular nature promoted as an unwavering principle the unity of
the spirituality with the Homeland bequeathed by Father Felix Varela and the
teachings of Luz y Caballero, who categorically said: “I would chose to see the fall of not only the institutions created by
man –kings and emperors—but even the stars from the firmament rather than see falling
from the human breast the sentiment of justice; that sun of the moral world.”
In 1991, the 4th Party Congress agreed to
modify the interpretation of the statutes that limited the admission to our
organization of revolutionaries with religious beliefs.
The justice of this decision has been confirmed by the
role of leaders and representatives of various religious institutions in the
different facets of the national life, including the struggle for the return to
our Homeland of the child Elián, in which the Cuba Council of Churches played a
particularly outstanding role.
However, it is necessary to continue eradicating any
prejudice that prevents bringing all Cubans together, like brothers and sisters,
in virtue and in the defense of our Revolution, be them believers or not,
members of Christian churches; including the Catholic Church, the Russian and
Greek Orthodox Churches, the evangelicals and protestant churches; the same as
the Cuban religions originated in Africa, the Spiritualist, Jewish, Islamic and
Buddhist communities, and fraternal associations, among others. The Revolution
has had gestures of appreciation and concord with each of them.
The unforgettable Cintio Vitier, that great poet and
writer, who was a deputy to our National Assembly, used the force of his pen
and of his Christian and deeply revolutionary ethic, so profoundly rooted in
Martí’s, to leave us warnings for the present and the future that we should
always remember.
Cintio wrote: “What
is in danger, we know it, is the nation itself. The nation is by now
inseparable from the Revolution that has been a part of it since
“If the Revolution
were defeated, we would fall in the historic vacuum that the enemy wants for us
and prepares for us, and that even the most basic people perceive as an abyss.
“It is possible to
arrive at defeat, we know, through the intervention of the blockade, of
internal decay, and the temptations imposed by the new hegemonic situation in
the world.”
After stating that “We
are at the most challenging time of our history,” he admonished: “Forced to fight the irrationality of the
world to which it fatally belongs; always threatened by the sequels of dark
age-old blights; implacably harassed by the most powerful nation on Earth; and
also a victim of imported or indigenous blunders that history shows have never
gone unpunished, our small island constricts and dilates, systole and diastole,
as a glimmering of hope to itself and to others.”
Now, we should address the recently concluded process
of releasing counterrevolutionary prisoners, those that in challenging and
distressing times for our Homeland have conspired against it at the service of
a foreign power.
By sovereign decision of our Government, they were
released before fully serving their sentences. We could have done it directly
and take credit for a decision that we made conscious of the fortitude of the
Revolution. However, we did it in the framework of a dialogue based on mutual
respect, loyalty and transparency with the senior leadership of the Catholic
Church, which contributed with its humanitarian labors to the completion of
this action in harmony; in any case, the laurels correspond to that religious
institution.
The representatives of the Catholic Church expressed
their viewpoints, not always coincidental with ours, but certainly
constructive. This is at least our perception after lengthy talks with Cardinal
Jaime Ortega and the Chairman of the Episcopalian Conference Monsignor Dionisio
García.
With this action, we have favored the consolidation of
the most precious legacy of our history and the revolutionary process: the
unity of our nation.
In the same token, we should mention the contribution
of the former minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain, Miguel
Angel Moratinos, who facilitated the humanitarian efforts of the Church so that
those who wished to travel abroad or accepted the idea could do so with their
families. Others decided to remain in
We have patiently endured the implacable smear
campaigns on human rights, coordinated from the United States and some countries
of the European Union that demand from us no less than unconditional surrender
and the immediate dismantling of our socialist regime while encouraging,
orienting and assisting the domestic mercenaries to break the law.
In this regard, it is necessary to make clear that we
will never deny our people the right to defend their Revolution. The defense of
the independence, of the conquests of Socialism and of our streets and plazas
will still be the first duty of every Cuban patriot.
Days and years of intensive work and great
responsibilities lie before us to preserve and develop, on solid and
sustainable basis, the independent and socialist future of our Homeland.
So far, the Central Report to the 6th Party
Congress
Thank you, very much.