14 October 2004 Edition

Resize: A A A Print

Explaining the Cuban Revolution

BY ROISIN DE ROSA

Cuban MP Leonel Gonzalez is pictured with Sinn Féin's Seán Crowe, Daithí Doolan and Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Cuban MP Leonel Gonzalez is pictured with Sinn Féin's Seán Crowe, Daithí Doolan and Aengus Ó Snodaigh

SIPTU hosted a conference, organised by the Cuba Support Group, on Saturday 9 October in Liberty Hall, Dublin, where two of the visiting delegation from Cuba spoke about the political and economic developments in Cuba since the imposition of the US economic Blockade.

It was a truly enlivening experience to hear just how Cuban society is continuing to develop the revolution, despite the inhuman and illegal US blockade, which caused chronic shortages of foods and medicine and the disappearance, overnight, of 80% of Cuba's trade.

The ever-tightening economic trade and financial embargo on Cuba has the support of just three dissident members of the UN in the General Assembly: the US, Israel and the Marshall Islands. It is in contravention of the aims of the UN Charter, which guarantees the sovereign equality of nations, non-intervention and non-interference in their internal affairs and the freedom of international trade and navigation.

Introduced by Jack O'Connor, President of SIPTU, Leonel González, a member of the Cuban Parliament and Secretary of International Relations of the Cuban Trades Union Council (CTC), spoke of the role of the CTC in Cuban society over the past 40 years. He talked of workers' democracy, the autonomy of the unions and their role in advancing the revolution and in raising the standard of living of the Cuban people.

One workers' union

The blockade meant the loss of 35% of GDP. Over 50,000 workers were affected. The cost was not only economic but social — with thousands of unemployed sent home with nothing to do. The government initiated a programme that allowed all to study and to retrain.

As the blockade has intensified, not a hospital or a school has closed as a result. Not one person has gone hungry, though developments in housing, nutrition, employment and energy are under continuous threat, and rationing, to ensure distribution is widespread, has been common.

Despite all of this, education, including university level, is free. Secondary schooling is compulsory. All health services are free and widely available through a system of family clinics. The 25% illiteracy rates at the time of the revolution are virtually eliminated. Only recently, Cuba became the only country in the world to introduce one-year maternity leave.

About 5% of the labour force works for foreign companies in joint ventures, but all are hired by government. Neoliberal influences have argued, in the International Labour Organisation particularly, that one state union is not consistent with free unions, independent of the government, or with freedom of choice. But it is just this policy which has given Cuba the freedom to achieve extraordinary social standards: the unions, the workers, in conjunction with the government, work to raise the standard of living of the people. Government as the sole employer means that discriminatory conditions between workers do not develop.

The social achievements in Cuba are amazing. In 1959, Cuba had 6,000 doctors, and infant mortality rate was 60 per 1,000 births. Today, there are 60,000 doctors and the infant mortality rate is 6.2 per 1,000 live births, Life expectancy is 77 years. These are rates that are the envy of many 'developed' countries.

Role of the party

Niall Andrews chaired a second panel where Noel Carrillo, a member of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, joined Leonel to talk of the political system, the defence of human rights and the development of the party.

"Human rights are the right of all, of human beings — not just the rights of the poor," he said. "Human rights means no discrimination. Opponents of Cuba talk of representative democracy. What about participative democracy? They talk of Muslim fundamentalism. What about Christian fundamentalism?

"We don't give 'rights' to 'free, independent' unions because it is the way to divide and to exploit. We have a single party system, but a system that elects 800,000 members, who discuss our problems together. There is not always agreement on all issues — but it important to discuss mistakes, or we will commit the same mistakes again. We must be able to respond to our own problems and mistakes.

"In the past we were immersed in administrative problems. We were authority based and neglected the moral point of view, our link with the rest of society. We were able to correct these things in the party."

"Membership of the party is based above all on whether people who want to join have the human capacity, whether they take care of their fellows in their workplace and have the political strength to make sacrifices. It's about a way of living, whether you look for things for yourself or you work to take care of those around you.

"Our opponents claim there are not human rights in Cuba, but you can't talk about human rights without talking about economic rights," Noel said.

Cuba has shown that the countries of Latin American need not be condemned to poverty and backwardness — that progress can be made and the highest standard of health care and social welfare achieved.


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland