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September 2006
Cuba: the only transition will be toward more revolution, social justice and socialism
GENERAL of the Army Raúl Castro, second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, affirmed that in the face of great external dangers and those stemming from internal deficiencies, it is necessary to work with more organization, consistency and discipline.
Speaking in the International Convention Center in Havana, Cuba’s first vice president gave the closing remarks at the 19th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions (CTC), to whose delegates he brought a message of congratulations in the name of President Fidel Castro.
Raúl noted that it was the first time since the triumph of the Revolution that Fidel was not physically present at a congress of the workers’ movement, although he agreed with delegates’ comments to the effect that his ideas and teachings were present throughout the event.
“We cannot forget for one minute that we are dealing with a very powerful enemy, capable of resorting to any means to attain its goal of wiping the Revolution off the face of the Earth, leaving not even a minimal vestige of its existence,” he emphasized.
“Suffice it to glance through the so-called Bush Plan and recall its announced secret appendix to confirm that the empire is proposing to snatch away from our people every single one of our achievements won through so many years of struggle,” he added.
Raúl noted that Washington’s goal is “to put this country in a situation even more terrible than the one that existed in December 1958, in those times when repression, mourning, humiliation, misery, unemployment, illiteracy and disease dominated thousands of Cuban homes.”
“They have even designated a Yankee administrator, someone called McCarry, as if nothing had changed in this world since 1898, when they thwarted our independence and imposed a number of administrators over us,” he noted, alluding to U.S. intervention in the war at the end of the 19th century when the Cubans were victoriously combating their Spanish colonizers.
“The president of the United States is acting within that same absurd logic, when he says that there must be a transition in Cuba; that is, a shameful return to the garbage of neocolonial capitalism that they imposed in this country for exactly 60 years; or when they threatened us recently with the idea that they would be taking note of anyone who is opposed to that.”
“I repeat the advice that I gave him at that time: better to put on your list the annexationists on your Interests Section payroll, which are few, because you would need a lot of paper to write down the names of the millions of men and women who are ready to receive, gun in hand, their appointed administrator,” Raúl said to prolonged applause from the Congress delegates.
The likewise minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces referred to efforts at the labor congress to find solutions to the main problems of the moment, which are different and more complex that in the 1970s, when the historic 13th Congress met – the last featuring the presence of labor leader Lázaro Peña.
Raúl pointed out that it would be an error to think that everything is resolved, and called on union cadres to define their main task in the midst of the diverse challenges of day-to-day life.
One of the most difficult goals in political work is getting workers to feel like they are the collective owners of society’s wealth, and to act as such, and he called on the working class, the essential force in building socialism, to resolutely face vices and deficiencies.
SALVADOR VALDES MESA, NEW CTC GENERAL SECRETARY
During the final session, the new CTC National Secretariat was presented, headed by Salvador Valdés Mesa. The organization’s 157-member National Council was also announced.
Delegates unanimously approved the Final Declaration of the Congress, its Central Report, and the 16 resolutions discussed in its nine commissions.
The struggle against the U.S. blockade; defense of the nation’s social progress, and demand for the freedom of the antiterrorist fighters imprisoned by Washington were all included in the Final Declaration.
The document also exposes and rejects the White House’s plans for destabilization and urges increased political, ideological and military training of the population.
“We once again ratify that the streets of Cuba belong and will belong to the revolutionaries, and will never be taken by the traitors,” it affirms.
In the document’s paragraph on self-determination, the island’s workers ratified their most profound conviction that in Cuba, the only transition will be toward more revolution, social justice and socialism.
CALL FOR DISCIPLINE AND TO CONTINUE COMBATING CRIME
The central report to Congress called for workers of the country to increase production with better order, organization and discipline.
The document, presented to nearly 500 delegates, highlighted the issue of employment and wages, and the country’s efforts to protect a significant number of workers located in centers that have reduced production due to restructuring processes, such as that undertaken by the Ministry of Sugar. At a cost of approximately $150 million pesos, 230,000 workers have retained their wages via relocation or enrollment in training courses, the text notes.
Likewise it refers to the need to bring production efficiency and productivity in line with the 2005 wage increases that benefited more than 5 million individuals.
The Congress ratified its will to continue the fight against crime and corruption.
After defining the defense of the homeland as one of the most important tasks of the working class, support from the Territorial Militia Troops and the active participation of workers in the Bastion Army were commended.
At this congress, representatives of the 3,390,000-plus CTC affiliates spoke of better leadership by the labor unions in the promotion of fixed socio-economic goals.
During the debates in commissions, members of the Council of Ministers responded to the concerns of delegates and offered information about current programs in effect throughout the nation.
The CTC was founded January 28, 1939 as a result of the historic struggles of Cubans for workers’ unity.
The organization, to which 96% of workers on the island belong, has contributed to the constant revolutionary transformation of the country.Source: Granma International
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