[NYTr] Dateline Havana: To Change Within Socialism
 
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 04:25:25 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Progreso Weekly - Sep 13, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=146&Itemid=1

[This is an expanded version of an article published in the Progreso
Semanal Blog on Sept. 7, 2007. ]

Dateline Havana

To change within socialism

By Manuel Alberto Ramy

"Seven years ago, Fidel called on us to change everything that needs to
be changed. With that spirit, we must seize the ideas presented by
comrade RaC:l and the Commander in Chief himself in his reflections,
with the conviction that the only thing that does not admit changes is
our decision to build and defend socialism," said JosC) RamC3n Machado
Ventura during his speech on the 50th anniversary of the uprising of
the city of Cienfuegos.

On Sept. 5, 1957, members of the July 26 Movement, together with crew
members and officers of the War Navy, coordinated the seizure of Cayo
Loco, a naval base a few kilometers from Cienfuegos. The key and the
city were held for several hours.

Machado Ventura, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party
of Cuba and the CPC's secretary, urged "each comrade" to express "with
sincerity his or her opinions, analyze each problem with a critical and
creative spirit, thinking more about the means at our reach than on the
means we lack, if we were in an ideal situation."

The speech coincides with the summons issued by the CPC and the Cuban
Workers Central for workers to analyze the speech delivered on July 26
by the acting president, RaC:l Castro Ruz. In it, RaC:l announced
structural changes, as well as changes in the prevailing mentality and
conceptions.

Machado Ventura called the upcoming "discussion of the Economic Plan
for 2008" as a good stage on which "to show how deeply each [worker's
group] has delved into the ideas expressed by comrade RaC:l."

I am struck by the fact that the discussion of said Plan begins at the
grass roots of the labor movement and before the National Assembly
discusses and passes it next December. This decision can be interpreted
as putting an ear to the ground, and measuring the real possibilities
in the production-and-service units, bringing them into line with the
plans made by the ministries and the respective organizations.

It is taking reality as a determining factor, as protection for plans
that -- drawn up at ministerial heights -- lack feasibility in actual
practice.

"It must be an analysis both critical, creative, realistic and led by a
willingness to contribute effort and sacrifice, and it must rattle
those who hide behind the difficulties and those who are insensitive to
the needs of the population," said Machado Ventura. He did not slow
down.

He stressed the importance of pressing "each worker and managerial
leader" into the effort, so as to achieve the greatest efficiency in
all sectors of the nation's life, as well as in the eradication of
labor indiscipline, "deficient accounting" and superficiality in
administrative controls.

His criticism of what he called "absurd procedures that have nothing to
do with socialism [and] against the bureaucratic activities that
generate routine, indolence and schematism" is very significant,
because it comes from a leader of the political apparatus whom many
have described as a die-hard.

One of my opinions of Machado Ventura's speech is that we should
extract two clear ideas from it. First: the CPC's apparatus agrees on
the need for structural changes, both in mentality and in action. Those
changes will be made within Cuba's socialist vision and (very
important) within the established institutions, which in some instances
also are being reviewed and reorganized.

For example, the travel agency Havanatur, which used to be part of the
powerful corporation CIMEX, has been transferred to the Ministry of
Tourism, a move I reported months ago. Another example: the National
Institute of Water Resources (INRH), a formerly independent
organization, is now part of the Ministry of Construction (MICONS).

Secondly, I would say that the political, administrative and
parliamentary authorities are placing great emphasis on touching bases
with society in all its facets, motivating civic participation and
prioritizing the economy, production and productivity.

The economic factor has not been removed from discussion. To do so
would have been as impossible as pretending that a stone dropped into a
pond will not create ripples. In the world of ideas, of the debate
within the socialist option, there is a very brisk activity shared by
not only intellectuals and academicians but also leaders of important
sectors and ordinary citizens. We shall talk about this next week. 

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

 
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