The truth about Cuba

February 16, 2000
Issue 

By Ruth Ratcliffe

Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez was plucked from the sea after his mother drowned in an attempt to get from Cuba to the United States. The vast majority of people in both Cuba and the US believe Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba.

The counter-revolutionary Cuban-American community in Miami and their supporters in the US government want to keep Elian in the US, even if it means passing legislation specifically to make him a US citizen. Elian has been used as a political football, the most recent high-profile victim of the US's brutal campaign against Cuba.

Cuba is a small Third World country 140 kilometres from the US. In 1959, the Cuban people overthrew the dictator Batista and ended US imperialism's control of the country.

The US rulers hate Cuba because it is an example of what a people can achieve when they take collective control over their society and economy. So, they try to convince us that Cuba is a dictatorship.

How would one describe a dictatorship? A country where less than 25% of the population vote for the person who becomes president? Where that president uses his power to protect and entrench the interests of a tiny elite at the expense of the majority of the population? Where the government is largely unaccountable and the people have no say in the running of their workplaces, schools or communities? That's the US!

What's the truth about Cuba?

Social gains

As a result of the 1959 revolution, the Cuban people enjoy a high quality, free health care system. Infant mortality has dropped to 7.2 in 1000, compared to the Latin American average of 33 in 1000 and the US rate of eight in 1000.

There is free education to tertiary level and illiteracy has been virtually abolished. In spite of the harsh economic blockade maintained by the US for 40 years, starvation is unknown in Cuba. Infant mortality, malnutrition and poor education amongst the Hispanic population in the US are far greater than in Cuba.

Democracy

In Cuba, under a consitution adopted in 1976, elections have been held every two years. Cuba is divided into municipalities, which are further divided into small electoral districts of around 3000 people. Community meetings select at least two candidates for every seat.

The municipal assemblies nominate candidates for the provincial and national assemblies, and the people vote to accept or reject these candidates. Any citizen aged 16 or more can stand for election, and vote.

The national assembly elects a council of state and the president of this council. Fidel Castro has been elected unopposed each time to this position. Both the council and the president are recallable at any time by the national assembly.

Delegates have to report back at least every four months to community meetings and can be recalled by a majority vote.

All elections at all levels are conducted by secret ballot and anyone may observe the count. Voting is non-compulsory but in the last election in 1998, more than 98% of eligible voters participated. This was despite a huge campaign by US radio stations calling on Cubans to boycott the election.

Unlike in the US or Australia, delegates either receive wages no higher than a skilled worker or carry out their political duties in their spare time.

Most importantly, democracy in Cuba is not an isolated act at a ballot box once every few years. Cubans have a say in the running of their workplaces and in national economic plans. Workers vote on production plans according to what they believe is achievable.

Unlike in the former Stalinist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc, and in the capitalist countries, the entire Cuban population is armed. The Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR) organise access to weapons and training, as well as a range of community services.

As the name suggests, the CDRs are armed with the purpose of defending the revolution from imperialist aggression. The people could just as easily use these arms to overthrow the government, but they don't want to.

Debate and discussion are encouraged in Cuba. The government does not refrain from publishing studies or funding cultural works that are critical of the government. The film Strawberries and Chocolate, for example, about homophobia in Cuba, was funded by the government.

Against the tide

Cuba is not perfect, and the government does not claim that it is. In 1986 the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) initiated a serious re-assessment of the country's democratic structures. This "rectification period" was a campaign against bureaucratism and inefficiency, and the stifling effect it had on Cuba's economic and social life. The revolutionary leadership did not want to go down the USSR road.

It was during this period, which was promoted as a return to the ideas of Che Guevara, that some of the backward laws regarding both homosexuality and religious belief were overturned.

The revolutionary leaders have waged a heroic struggle against sexism and racism, which have been eradicated from government policy. But there is still more public education work to be done to eradicate the sexist and racist prejudices that are vestiges of capitalist society, and many more resources are needed to socialise domestic labour to liberate women.

Cuba cannot achieve socialism struggling alone against the tide of world capitalism, and under a crippling US blockade. Prostitution, economic inequality and poverty have grown since Cuba was forced to allow in some foreign investment after the loss of trade with the USSR.

Before it was implemented, the opening of the economy was discussed in forums throughout the country. The CCP acknowledged that it was a retreat, a compromise, but the majority of Cubans agreed it was necessary for the survival of the revolution.

Restrictions

While it is illegal to organise opposition parties to the CCP, a decision which prevents the US from succeeding in its persistent attempts to sabotaging the revolution, the CCP understands the importance of allowing the Cuban people to govern. Non-members of the CCP can stand for election and only one-third of the current national assembly members are CCP members.

Marxists advocate the fullest democracy in a post-revolutionary state, but the context of democracy is crucial. Since 1959, Cuba has had to fight a cold war with the US which wants to crush the revolution and has a lot more money to do that with. An "anything goes" approach in Cuba could therefore mean the imposition of well-funded views over the interests of the majority of the people.

In Nicaragua, the revolutionary Sandinista government lifted restrictions on the organisation of opposition parties after 11 years of defending the revolution from attack by the US-backed Contras. The US pumped huge resources into the 1990 Nicaraguan election, which resulted in right-winger Violetta Chamorro being elected and reversing many of the gains of the revolution.

The Cuban government acts to defend itself against terrorism. Terrorist "dissident" groups within Cuba and the US receive large amounts of funding and strategic support from the US government and the CIA. Some of the leaders of these groups have been imprisoned in Cuba.

Under siege

The fact that Cuba has withstood such a sustained and determined effort by the US to destroy it is testimony to Cubans' strong support for the revolution. Even conservative commentators are forced to admit that the government has massive popular support. The support flows from the Cuban government's commitment to securing the health, education and welfare of its people, and the organisation of this through grassroots democracy.

The left internationally must insist on the Cuban people's right to determine their own lives and society. In the case of Elian Gonzalez, this means returning him to his home in Cuba.

An Asia Pacific day of action will be held on February 17 to demand that the US let Elian go home. In Australia, Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party will hold actions, the details of which are listed on page 2.

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