Cuban socialism in action
From 21 April to 4 May, 14 Rock around the Blockade activists went to Cuba to learn about Cuban socialism. They visited workplaces, schools, universities and hospitals; took part in an international conference for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 and joined six million Cubans to celebrate International Workers’ Day on May Day. Sam Baker and Annie Richards report.
Cuban workers in the vanguard of the Revolution
We’re at a state farm in Caimito, a rural municipality in Havana Province. A huge mural across one side of a warehouse reads, ‘Citrus growers in the vanguard of the Revolution’. Workers inside are selecting the best-looking produce to be sent for use in the tourist industry. We interrupt to ask ‘How do you feel that all the best produce is sent to be consumed by tourists?’ For a moment it looks like it might all go wrong; that our questions aren’t going to be appreciated. Then, without stopping the production line, the workers take turns to answer: ‘Look, the tourist industry is vital to Cuba’s economy. It needs the best-looking produce, and when we send it we are the ones who reap the benefits, because in Cuba the revenues from tourism are fed back into benefits for everyone, especially those who need it the most.’
This anecdote epitomises the experience of our brigade: over two weeks we talked with Cubans in every walk of life and asked hundreds of questions. The picture that we came away with is of a reality richer than any theory. Cuban society has contradictions, but these are being addressed with the participation of the vast majority of Cubans, who are committed to their socialist revolution. As events since Fidel Castro fell ill last year have shown, the question of ‘What will happen when Fidel dies?’ so obsessed over in the British media is a diversion. Cuba has competent leaders at every level, and will continue building socialism after Fidel Castro.
Our brigade was made possible by the hard work of volunteers in the Union of Young Communists (UJC) which aims to make Cuba a more just society based on socialist principles. The UJC has 609,000 members in 53,000 grassroots chapters, representing the most committed revolutionaries among the Cuban youth.
Our guide and translator for the two weeks was a 20-year-old student and UJC activist. Seven other UJC members, aged from 17 to 24, joined our group for the first week to organise the programme of activities in Caimito. Several of them were teachers and used creative techniques to help us analyse what we were learning, not just about Cuba, but also about ourselves and how we organise as a group.
These young revolutionaries grew up during the height of the Special Period, an economic crisis sparked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Cuba lost 85% of foreign trade overnight, and exacerbated by the tightening of the US blockade. In 2000, in response to the contradictions and alienation that had arisen during this time, the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) initiated the Battle of Ideas. Over 7,000 projects were initiated to address inequality in society, for example, by reducing class sizes in schools, providing access to computers, TVs and videos for all students, and improving local health care facilities. Tens of thousands of Cubans were retrained and re-entered the workforce. The young Cubans we met in Caimito are living proof that the Battle of Ideas is working.
Participatory democracy
Contrary to what is written in the biased British and US press, Cuba has a vibrant participatory democracy, with elections at every level. The electorate can recall their representatives, who continue to draw their normal salary, at any time, and the UJC and PCC do not participate in elections as organisations, although individual members can stand on an equal footing with non-Party members.
Cuban democracy is further strengthened by the existence of the mass organisations – the unions, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and the students’ organisations. All students are organised to take an active role in the running of their schools through the Federation of Middle Grade Students (FEEM) or the Federation of University Students (FEU). Students elect representatives in their place of study, some of whom represent them at the municipal and provincial level. The FEU has seats in the National Assembly of People’s Power and there are formal mechanisms for FEEM representatives to consult with government officials about national education policy.
Trade unions in Cuba are completely independent of other state institutions. The federation of the 19 industrial unions, the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) predates the triumph of the Revolution and derives all its funds from members’ fees. Although membership is completely voluntary, 97% of Cubans choose to join. As well as having seats in the National Assembly of Peoples’ Power, the CTC is consulted on changes to economic policy. For example, in 1996, in response to the Special Period, the introduction of income tax for all Cuban workers was proposed. After consultations with two million CTC members in workplaces throughout the country, income tax was only applied to the self-employed.
Participatory democracy was evident in all of the workplaces we visited. These included a metal-working factory, a citrus farm, a dairy farm and a bus station providing free transport for all schools in the municipality. At the bus station we saw charts in the staff canteen displaying the names of the elected union representatives, the activists in the PCC branch in that workplace and various worker committees that regulate conditions. For example, workers elect three representatives onto the committee that decides on disciplinary measures for misconduct or lateness. Workplace assemblies take place at least once a month, and regulate the day-to-day running of the workplace.
The Federation of Cuban Women
The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) was set up in 1960 to fight for equal rights for women in Cuban society. At that time only 12% of the workforce were women. Now it’s 44%, with equal pay for both sexes. FMC volunteers help women of all ages deal with problems at home, at work, school or university and elected FMC delegates sit in the national, provincial and municipal assemblies. We visited a local FMC centre in Caimito municipality where 87% of women are members. The branch secretary talked about advances made for women, while admitting there was still much room for improvement. However, progress has been made against machismo, which has long been a part of Cuban culture, and it is now increasingly common for men to share childcare and domestic work.
Committees for the Defence of the Revolution
A highlight of our week in Caimito was a visit to a Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR). These are local grassroots organisations and in cities there is one for every few streets. They organise volunteers to patrol the community at night, to ensure housing is in good condition and to assist with health and education programmes. Each CDR has an emergency plan in the case of invasion. They have arms to defend the neighbourhood and once a month they have a defence training day. Only eight out of 145 local residents had chosen not to join this particular CDR, but the CDR president made it clear that people who don’t join are treated the same as anyone else and no distinction is made in terms of access to local services.
‘To be cultured is the only way to be free’ – Jose Marti, Cuban national hero
Education in Cuba is holistic and grounded in real life. From a young age children learn about different jobs and their value for society, not just through books and TV, but by meeting workers in different sectors. 12-16 year olds have a ‘circle of interest’ as part of their curriculum. The aim is to learn about different jobs in a practical way. We met young people studying subjects as diverse as gastronomy, homeopathy, nursing and aeronautical engineering – a far cry from a week’s token work experience at age 15 in Britain. The young people we met were very clear about their future contribution to society.
For the first week we stayed in Escuela Vincente Perez Noa, a pre-university teacher training school in rural Caimito. It was opened in 2001 in response to the need for more teachers. 500 students aged 16 and 17 study here for eight months to prepare for teaching in primary schools in their own community. After graduation students complete four years of teacher training part-time at micro-universities, recently set up throughout Cuba, as part of the Battle of Ideas. Vincente Perez Noa is one of hundreds of pre-university schools throughout Cuba which students attend between the ages of 16 and 18. They board during the week and everything is provided for free, including books, uniforms, transport, meals and healthcare. All pre-university schools combine study and work, usually in agriculture.
We also visited Yuri Gagarin Secondary School where the headmaster was just 24 years old, a clear indication of the responsibility held by young people in Cuba. When we arrived the children were cleaning the school in preparation for May Day. They were organised into teams to see who could complete their chores first. Likewise, in the classroom, the emphasis is on co-operation and emulation. For example, in each subject the students elect a monitor for their class who helps other students with their learning. As a student explained, ‘You always have someone who is particularly good in a certain subject so it makes sense that they help the other students’. This is not a token role: once a month the monitors are given support to plan their own lesson and deliver it to the rest of the class.
Investing in the Revolution
As Cubans told us many times during our visit, Cuba should not be idealised. They acknowledge that there are problems, of food production, of public transport and housing. However,16 years after the start of the Special Period, the Cuban economy is growing. This means that money can be invested in infrastructure to alleviate these problems. However, it also means that Cubans will not see an immediate rise in their personal standard of living in terms of access to commodities. All the Cubans we spoke to understood and were supportive of the need to prioritise state spending on infrastructure. As we saw for ourselves, the recent investments in a decentralised energy grid have already made a huge difference to the quality of life in Cuba. In the mid- 1990s, at the height of the Special Period, extended power cuts were a daily occurrence. We experienced just one local three-hour power cut during the two weeks we were there.
The message our brigade brought back from Cuba is clear: the Cuban people have survived the worst of the Special Period and continue to build on the gains of their socialist revolution, and their model of participatory democracy makes the British political system look like a sick joke. Cuba shows that a better world is possible and this is the message that we will continue to promote through our campaigning on the streets of Britain.
Cuban biotechnology
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the richest industries in the world today, with the biggest firms such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca among the top ten profitable corporations in the world. Yet millions of people die of common preventable diseases each year because they are unable to afford the expensive drugs made by these companies. With profit the driving motivation behind the efforts of ‘Big Pharma’ as they are called, most scientific and pharmaceutical research funds go into developing technology for military and ‘life style’ research such as impotence (Viagra), obesity, veterinary drugs (for agribusiness) and the cosmetics industry. Most of the rest goes into the maladies of the rich advanced capitalist countries with populations that can afford expensive therapies. The needs of the poor are secondary – research funds follow the ‘market’, ie profits, with the US, Canada, the EU and Japan representing over 80% of the world’s drug market, and Africa 1%.
In Cuba, however, scientific research is geared towards addressing the health and social needs of Cuba’s population and those in the underdeveloped world. Cuba has developed one of the most advanced and productive biotechnology industries in the world since the 1980s, when the biotechnology industry was in its infancy. Cuba precociously developed an industry that has produced drugs and vaccines including a hepatitis B vaccine, the world’s only effective meningitis B vaccine in 1989, a Hib vaccine – the first fully synthetic vaccine to succeed in all clinical trials – in 2004 and a cancer vaccine that has been licensed for use in the US despite opposition from anti-Cuban politicians. About two dozen foreign firms, including GSK, are now considering exploiting other Cuban products.
Under the leadership of Cuba’s revolutionary government, over $1bn of state funds have been invested in the ‘Scientific Cluster’ of western Havana – a complex of 50 or more applied research centres and their industrial offshoots – that makes up the bulk of Cuba’s biotechnology industry. Each centre houses research, development and commercial production under one roof, creating a more holistic approach. Chief among these is the Finlay Institute, which we visited.
The Finlay Institute alone has developed 11 patents and seven vaccines for Cuba’s health system, including typhoid, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and meningitis C and B. The meningitis B vaccine, pioneered by Dr. Concepción Campa, was developed in response to an outbreak of the disease in Cuba in 1983, when the only commercial treatment available was rifampicin, an expensive treatment used for TB. Cuba’s meningitis B vaccine went from research to mass production in six years (the capitalist pharmaceutical industry claims it takes 10-15 years to develop a drug), and is now part of Cuba’s mass vaccination programme. The needs of the population, not profit, drove the work.
With over 4,500 biotechnology firms worldwide, 40% in the US and 40% in the EU (mainly British and German), biotechnology is even today still in its infancy. More than half of the US firms that emerged since the 1980s failed to achieve profitability and most have ended up being acquired by large pharmaceutical firms. In April 2007, AstraZeneca spent $15.6bn buying US biotechnology firm MedImmune, just to keep up with its rivals who all have ‘vaccines businesses’. Cuba’s success is not coincidental but a direct result of its socialist principles and priorities. The success is based on its highly literate and numerate population, a highly skilled and politically-conscious scientific workforce and its revolutionary and insightful leadership working towards the betterment of humanity.
Charles Chinweizu
Thanks
Rock around the Blockade would like to thank comrades of the Union of Young Communists in Cuba for the effort that they dedicated to organising our 2007 brigade. The comrades who worked tirelessly with us all contributed to making the brigade an inspiring learning experience that we will never forget. We have returned with a deeper understanding of the Cuban Revolution and more energy for the political tasks we face here.
Miembros de Rock around the Blockade quisieran agradecer a nuestros compañeros de la Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas de Cuba por el esfuerza que han dedicado a organizar nuestra brigada. Los compañeros que trabajaron sin descanso con nosotros contribuyeron para hacer de la brigada una experiencia de enseñanza inspirante que nunca olvidaremos. Hemos regresado con conocimiento mas profundo de la Revolución Cubana y mas esforzados por las tareas políticas que llevamos a cavo aquí.
FRFI 197 June / July 2007
