Oppose the Blockade! Support the Cuban Five!
On 29
May Teresita Trujillo, representing the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Cuba, spoke at a meeting in the University of London Union chaired by
Jonathan Silberman and sponsored by many individuals and organisations
including the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Comrade
Teresita after briefly summarising how socialist Cuba had handled problems
during the very difficult times in the last four decades, powerfully countered
distortions made by the bourgeois media in their reports of recent developments
in Cuba, and inspired all present to do their utmost to campaign against the
blockade of Cuba and in support of the Cuban Five. We reproduce below an
abridged version of her speech.
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The Cuban revolution is in a new historic period in
the 21st century, in a different political environment in Latin America. At
the same time the mainstream media internationally are running a campaign to
distort what is happening in Cuba.
Recent Developments
As we have done throughout the history of the Cuban
revolution we have called for debate. A debate took place last year in
September/October that would raise the level of awareness of people in all
sectors of society on the necessary efforts we needed to make so that the
country was made more productive and to prove to the world that socialism is a
viable system and to get the feelings of the people as to what would be
acceptable or not at this time.
In this process of debate, over 4.5 million Cubans
took part. We gathered over 1 million remarks: some criticisms, some
statements in support, some proposals for solving problems. The remarks were
recorded without names, and through the party structures we began a process of
analysing and passing them on to the relevant authorities. Some major issues
that could not be solved by individual ministries needed to be submitted to a
debate concerning a change of policy by the government. Now the Central
Committee is checking with all the relevant areas on how many of the remarks
have been dealt with. At the beginning we had received back information that
95% percent of the remarks had been dealt with – we said NO, impossible, so we
double checked because the credibility of the party and the government was at
stake.
The elections came just after that process, and
were an indicator of the support we enjoyed and of the level of understanding
of our people of the historical moment we are living in. In October it was the
local elections and in January we had the provincial and parliamentary
elections. In Cuba voting is not compulsory, however the turn-out was 97% and
91% of those who voted supported the revolution.
Fidel declines re-election
On 24 February the new Parliament was inaugurated
and had the task of electing the members of the Council of State, the President
and the First Vice-President and five other Vice-Presidents. This is not a new
structure; this has always been the structure of the Council of State which is
always elected, not directly, but by the Parliament. Raúl Castro was elected.
In early February Fidel announced that he was not accepting being nominated to
the Council of State which we emphasise is different from resigning. A new
President had to be elected. For Fidel, who has fought for many years, it is
hard to hear the media say that he has “resigned”. Something that Fidel
never did was “resigning”, he always stayed at his post.
Raúl, in his acceptance speech after being elected
by the Parliament, referred to the fundamental issues that had been analysed by
the previous parliament and the drive of the people concerning the things that
needed to be addressed. Nobody had a magic wand. The solution to the problems
depended mainly on two things: on the availability of resources and the
contribution that the people would make to the development of the country
towards increasing production and increasing efficiency.
During all the difficult years in the 1990s and up
to now, the Cuban economy has been growing in a chaotic way because we were
lacking resources, lacking fuel, lacking electricity. During these times
people got used to doing what they could and not what they should.
Now is the time to bring back discipline and renew our
efforts. The solution is very clear – it can only come from our own selves
being more productive and efficient so that we have more to share between all
of us.
Last September was the 19th Congress of the Trade
Unions and they have a big role of play. In Cuba the overwhelming majority of
the population is working class. To do anything in Cuba you must have the full
support of the working class and the trade union movement. It is important to
explain to workers the priorities and the tasks set by the leadership and also
bring back to the leadership of the country and the Party the feelings and
proposals of the working class.
Sometimes because of shortages imposed by the
blockade and other times because of the difficult conditions in which we lived
since the 1990s the Cuban population has been under a lot of hardships. In our
society we believe that we have to reintroduce the socialist principle of
distribution and some people will get more than others according to the
contribution that they make to the society.
New measures in agriculture and
industry
One of the major challenges we have at the moment
is in agriculture, not only because of recurring ‘food crises’. When Raúl spoke
on 26 July last year, on the 54th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks,
he was already mentioning some biological experiments we were introducing in
order to increase the level of agricultural production in certain products –
mainly milk and meat.
At the beginning of 2008 we started to introduce
some other measures to encourage people to work the land. In Cuba we have two types of agricultural cooperatives and also state farms. With the
increasing level of education our people do not want to work the land for the
salary that they would receive. So we had to make changes in order to improve
the level of production of agricultural products. We have been working very
closely with the farmers’ organisation which has always played a very important
role in Cuba ever since the time that they did not have any land before the triumph
of the revolution. We remind them that the first law passed by the
revolutionary Cuban Government in 1959 was to give the nationalised land to the
farmers. Sometimes it is necessary to bring back these facts to the minds of
the farmers and workers in order to keep them close to the goals of our
struggle and not let them become a group alienated from the revolution.
There have been major investments in the last few
years in social projects dealing with health and education; and more recently
in infrastructure investments such as transport, construction and development
of new enterprises.
For instance, the oil refinery at Cienfuegos in the
south centre of the island, which had been paralysed at the beginning of the
‘Special Period’ in the 1990s, has been reconstructed in a joint venture with Venezuela. We have modern technology now and there will be a petrochemical complex
associated with the refinery which will provide jobs and improve conditions in
a province which, up to the 90s, had been one of the most industrialised in Cuba.
European Union Sanctions
A major political challenge at the moment is the
difficult process of normalising our relationship with the European Union
(EU). This concerns the removal of the sanctions that the EU introduced in 2003.
At the moment we are closer to achieving this than ever before. An
overwhelming majority of the EU member states are in favour of the removal of
the sanctions and entering into a broad dialogue to normalise relations with Cuba [Applause]. But do not applaud yet, one of the major obstacles is that the decision
in the EU has to be reached by consensus and there are still three countries
that are not in the consensus. One of these countries is the UK. The General Council of the EU meets to decide on 16-17 June, so we have two weeks to
continue the debate/discussions.
Last year the EU Council, in its general conclusion
issued after the situation of Cuba was debated, pointed out that they were
interested in opening up close dialogue with Cuban authorities which would
include all areas of interest such as political, human rights, scientific,
cultural, business, etc. on a non-discriminatory basis. This final bit
of the paragraph is precisely what we emphasise. If Cuba is under sanctions
from the EU we cannot hold a dialogue on a non-discriminatory basis.
That is why we have made it clear to the EU that until the sanctions are completely
removed (they have been temporarily suspended) official dialogue cannot take
place. Now it is like being on probation – every six months or every year they
check whether you have behaved or misbehaved before they decide if they will
continue the suspension of the sanctions. A change in Britain’s position would also help other countries of the EU which are in a way held hostage by Britain, because they would like to change their relations with Cuba, but are unable to do so
because of Britain not joining the consensus. [For update, see end note]
Not necessarily politically, but for reasons of
business, scientific research, etc, the European Commission is interested in
triangular cooperation projects with Cuba. For example through our work in the
third world, we have 38,000 volunteers (mainly medical staff) in 79 countries
in the world. Last Monday [26 May] the European Parliament hosted a conference
on Cuba precisely dealing with this issue because of the experience of the
Cuban Overseas Development Programme in the Third World, organised by various
parliamentary groups and attended by Louis Michel, the European Commissioner
for Development, who has been loudly calling for the lifting of sanctions so
that the portfolio he holds can benefit from triangular cooperation with Cuba.
The Cuban Five: 10 years in US
jails
On 12 September the Cuban Five will have been
unjustly held in prison in the US for 10 years. Two of the wives of the
prisoners have not been allowed to visit them ever. In the case of other
relatives, the time for granting visas has been from 17 months to 24 months, so
sometimes it can be two years without the possibility of visits from their
relatives.
We are calling for international co-ordinated
action to try and make more noise and, in particular, to try to reach US public opinion because this is where we think we can win the battle.
We are pursuing the legal path because we have to
do it. We are on a second appeal already, but we know that may lead nowhere.
The defence lawyers who are very experienced, like Leonard Weinglass, who
defended Angela Davis, say that political and international pressure are needed
to win the case. We are far from the level of pressure that is required, so we
ask all of you to put together all of your efforts on this issue in the coming
months.
In this connection Britain is a very important country because of its relations with the US. We ask you to step up
your campaigning for the Cuban Five. It is a challenge for all of us to make
sure they are freed.
UPDATE
On 19 June in Brussels the 27
foreign ministers of the EU agreed to the formal lifting of sanctions against Cuba. This now needs to be approved officially, most likely during an EU Council
Agricultural Ministers meeting in Luxemburg at the end of June.