Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Communist Party Congress To Work on Economy but Not Human Rights

Communist Party Congress To Work on Economy but Not Human Rights
Yoani Sánchez

It is seven in the morning and a crowd is waiting in front of the
neighborhood's only newsstand. They aren't there for Granma, an example
of a newspaper with few pages and less news, but rather for a booklet
with the guidelines of the Sixth Cuban Communist (PCC) Congress to be
held next April.

After thirteen years without a meeting of "the highest leading force of
society and the State," the next conclave has finally been announced.
The last time they met was in 1997, when Fidel Castro — still, today,
the Party's first secretary — could improvise long speeches, turning the
discussions into one endless monologue.

Rice and Russian Meat
For me, born in 1975, the year of the first PCC Congress, these
every-five-year meetings have marked different stages in my life. I
especially remember the 1986 congress that led to the "rectification of
errors and negative tendencies," putting an end to the free farmers'
markets and leaving on our tables a monotonous menu of rice with canned
meat from the USSR. When the Fourth Congress came around in 1991, the
highpoint was the relaxation that allowed religious believers to join
the party, although the percentage of believers who joined was not
nearly as high as the number of existing members who dropped the mask of
atheism and confessed that they had another faith, in addition to
Marxism-Leninism.

The years labeled by the regime "a special period in a time of peace,"
with all the material shortages we suffered after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, forced us to wait until 1997 to see the "organized
vanguard of the Cuban nation" meet for the fifth time. That time the
great event concluded with the creation of a document entitled, "For
Democracy and in the Defense of Human Rights," which attempted to be a
substitute for an actual program. A great irony in a country that one
cannot leave without permission, and where even today free association
is punished and free expression is a painful illusion.

Chavez's Island
Just when we thought the only party allowed might never meet again, the
Sixth Congress was announced. There were even those who speculated that
the nation was returning to the years between 1959 and 1975 when there
was no attempt to hide that the government consisted of the will of one
man; that the economic projects, policy initiatives, and social programs
all issued from a single head, under an olive-green cap and sporting a
wispy beard.

But during the last visit of Hugo Chavez to Cuba, amid the official
commemoration of ten years of economic trade — though subsidy would be a
better word — between Caracas and Havana, Raul Castro took the
microphone and advised the Communists they would be meeting again. He
announced it without any fuss, any details, no comment about who decided
this was the occasion to announce something so long delayed. He did say
that the party convention would address only the economy, and mentioned
that a national PCC conference would also be held, throughout 2011.

Without Freedom
On reading the 291 points of the Political, Economic and Social
Guidelines for the VI Congress, various omissions jump out at one. There
is not a single mention of openings in the area of civil rights, nor of
loosening the rigid political structure that holds us in its grip.

Nor is there any mention of eliminating the absurd restrictions on
travel that prevent Cubans from freely entering and leaving our own
country, much less the ability to form parties other than the one with
the hammer and sickle, nor of a chance to vote in direct elections for
the president.

The brochure only discusses issues of finance and productivity; civic
conquests will have to wait or happen in parallel with the rigid
framework of this document.

Expected Changes
If you set aside the rhetoric and certain triumphalist approaches, the
platform of the coming congress includes some interesting proposals. It
reinforces, for example, self-management of businesses, the
self-employment initiative, and even talks about creating a wholesale
market for independent workers.

There is talk of a willingness "to apply flexible formulas for the
exchange, purchase, sale and rental of housing," which would open the
door to a housing market currently prohibited on the Island. The
authorities have refused, all these years, to take this step, fearing
that in a short time people would redistribute themselves, revealing the
true social inequities that run through our society.

Although many of the economic proposals raised in this document head in
the desired direction — of reform and opening — the fact is that neither
the depth nor the speed at which these adjustments might be made is
likely to calm the frustration of most Cubans.

Fidel Re-elected?
The most heated issue of this party meeting seems to be the possible
re-election of Fidel Castro as the eternal leader of the Cuban Communist
Party, or his replacement by another figure, undoubtedly his younger
brother who has already inherited the leadership of the nation. The
expectations around this decision, however, were cut short by the
announcement of a national conference — in parallel with the congress —
where internal organizational issues will be discussed.

A date for this has not yet been set, but the planned conference removes
all political decisions from the PCC Congress. Such that the real
congress will not be the one that occurs in the spring of this coming
year, but another, we don't yet know when or where. What we do know is
that there is no doubt that it will mark my life — our lives — with the
same stubbornness and blindness of every other Party meeting since the
year of my birth.

This article originally appeared in the Peruvian newspaper, El Comercio.
http://elcomercio.pe/espectaculos/668892/noticia-cronica-desde-cuba-despues-13-anos-se-realizara-congreso-partido-comunista-cubano

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=3955

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