[NYTr] Ramy: A Multi-Stage Rocket - Cubans Look Ahead
 
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 16:50:49 -0500 (CDT)


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Progreso Weekly - Sep 6, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=136&Itemid=1

A multistage rocket

By Manuel Alberto Ramy                                              

Beginning in early September, the rank-and-file of the Communist Party
of Cuba (PCC), the Young Communists Union (UJC) and the country's labor
groups will begin to analyze the speech delivered on July 26 by interim
President RaC:l Castro.

The invitation, which encourages participants to freely express their
opinions and suggestions, opens an official space for the debate of
ideas.

In the July 26 speech, Castro announced structural changes and asked
Cubans to abandon old-fashioned concepts. While he did not specify the
structural changes, it is easy to assume that he meant the economic
sector, the operation of enterprises, production, and an increase in
productivity. All these factors are critical.

The extent of the changes -- which won't be spectacular, the acting
president said -- as well as the new developments that might ensue are
not yet in the public domain. However, I believe that the measures have
already been defined in some manner or other.

If my assessment is correct, the assemblies would be a prologue to the
changes; they would respond to indispensable needs and would weigh on
the implementation of the changes. The assemblies would not be limited
to a simple endorsement, even if the measures don't immediately satisfy
many of the expectations.

The first aspect that needs highlighting is that the debate over the
economy extends from the privacy of the homes to the conversations
among friends and coworkers to the academic and specialized world. And
it enters its rightful place: business enterprises and service centers.

It is in these decisive places where the battle of the economy is
either won or lost. If there is no real participation, the commitments
can remain a simple formality, despite the pressure that may be created
by the laws on labor discipline (Decrees 187 and 188) and the laws that
make administrative leaders responsible for the management of
businesses (Decrees 251 and 252).

The first way to participate is by expressing opinions, criticism and
suggestions and making sure that they are taken into account. We should
remember that this mechanism of participation was used -- effectively
-- at important times in the lives of Cubans, such as the crisis of the
1990s. (Read "From Havana: Cuba and 21st-Century socialism," in
Progreso Weekly, July 12, 2007.)

I think that, while the nation's leadership has a project in mind, the
summons to a debate seeks to establish a clearer harmony with the
people, be they party members or not, for the purpose of confirming
certainties, correcting flaws, expanding changes (or not) and allowing
the citizens to take part in the measures that will open a new process.

The summons also attempts to demonstrate popular support for certain
measures that might lack support among the leading cadres at various
levels. It would serve as an element of pressure for a change in
mindset, a jump-starter for the bureaucracy, which (not only in Cuba)
is a factor that operates on the basis of rituals, codified rules, and
generally is allergic to changes that might alter its routine operation
and control.

Otherwise, what did RaC:l Castro refer to on July 26 when he called on
Cubans to abandon old mindsets that may have been proper and adequate
in days gone by? 

From a strictly partisan angle, this decision is of vital importance.
The PCC, defined as the vanguard and guide of society, cannot remain on
the margins of an undeniable reality: the state of the nation is
everybody's business.

To give an official space where free expression is guaranteed is to
grow as a vanguard. A vanguard that goes too far ahead becomes
disconnected from the troops; if it holds back, it's overtaken by the
troops. What works in military terms also works in political terms.
Remember the USSR.

Another viewpoint that might help us understand this summons was
presented by Mariela Castro EspC-n (Read "Transformations with and
without Fidel," in Progreso Weekly, Aug. 30, 2007.) If we analyze how
she defines RaC:l Castro's working style, we'll see that after he finds
a consensus in decisions he does not apply them at once but prepares
the conditions so they may become viable.

The assemblies, like the decrees mentioned above and the pressures from
below on the bureaucracy, are, among other measures, part of the
feasibility.

A friend asked me how I would catalog this moment. My answer: We're
looking at a multistage rocket. This is one of the stages that propel
us toward the final objective -- the well-being of the population, as
it achieves in the economic field the invulnerability achieved on the
military field.

There's an interesting detail. Along with RaC:l Castro's speech, Cubans
will also analyze the articles written by Fidel ("The empire and the
independent island," Granma, Aug. 14, 2007) that dealt with the
historical relationship between the United States and Cuba. Published
in three installments, the articles indisputably demonstrate how, since
1821, U.S. administrations have maintained their ambition to conquer
our island.

To discuss, criticize, and analyze both materials is to place the need
for internal changes (which I think cannot be postponed) in the context
of confrontation with the U.S. and Washington's persistence in
absorbing us as a nation and liquidating us as a project.

While imperial ambition should not halt certain changes -- that, too,
is an imperial objective -- it undoubtedly limits the depth of those
changes. The two materials about to be discussed place the evident
needs of the Cuban society into the context in which we are moving.

[Manuel Alberto Ramy is Havana bureau chief for Radio Progreso
Alternativa and editor of Progreso Semanal, the Spanish-language
version of Progreso Weekly.

Editor's Note: On Sept. 4, the radio program "Ayer en Miami" broadcast
a recording of a wide-ranging conversation on this topic held in Havana
by Francisco Aruca and Manuel Alberto Ramy. You may listen to it by
accessing the AUDIO page of Progreso Semanal.]
 

 
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