Cubans rally for "sustainable socialism" on May Day

Cubans rally for "sustainable socialism" on May Day

HAVANA -- An estimated 600,000 residents of Cuba's capital marched
through Revolution Square on May Day morning in an "expression of
support for our revolution and our historic leaders," according to top
trade unionist Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento.

Millions more paraded in other cities across the island.

A cheerful-looking President Raul Castro, shielded from the sun by a
wide-brimmed straw hat, waved to marchers and chatted with the other top
Cuban leaders gathered on the stage.

As usual, the only speaker of the day was the head of the Trade Union
Confederation. Guilarte briefly rallied marchers in support of
"sustainable socialism," denounced the U.S. economic embargo against the
island and voiced backing for Latin American integration, particularly
support for the besieged Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro.

The newly appointed labor chief, Guilarte is much younger and has more
experience in the economic reforms being unrolled by the government than
his predecessors.

He was previously Communist Party leader in the province where the new
economic zone and deep-water port of Mariel is located and where the
first non-agricultural cooperatives were established. Mariel is one of
the locations to which Cuba hopes to attract foreign investment as it
seeks the resources needed to boost faltering economic growth.

Once the only employer, the government now plans to slash a million
workers - 20 percent - from the public payrolls by 2016. So far, only
about 10 percent of these jobs have been cut.

The shift of workers into a newly emerging private sector gained speed
last year as the government moved to rid itself of non-essential
economic activity by promoting cooperatives, self-employment, private
businesses and leasing arrangements.

At the same time, the government hopes to increase efficiency and
productivity in state-owned enterprises and to increase wages for public
employees.

In March, salary increases were announced for 440,000 public health care
workers, nearly doubling their income. The export of health care
services is the island's most important hard-currency earner and is
expected to bring in more than 8.2 billion convertible Cuban pesos
(equivalent to the U.S. dollar) this year.

Not surprisingly, health care workers led the May Day parade.

The government does not refer to a private sector but to "non-state"
workers, of whom there were more than a million in 2012. Most of these
people work in agriculture as the government launched a program
encouraging individuals to lease state land and take up farming in an
effort to increase food production and reduce costly food imports.

The rest of the private workers numbering a bit over 450,000 by last
year are mostly self-employed taxi drivers, photographers, carpenters,
electricians, construction workers and hairdressers, or they run small
retail businesses, many in the food industry.

One of the odder features of the government's approach is to encourage
the owners of small businesses to join trade unions along with their
employees. The law governing self-employment allows for the issuing of
the same self-employment license to the bosses as it does to the people
they hire to work for them, not recognizing conflicts of interest.

Cuba's labor force is also aging. The 2013 Census puts 18.3 percent of
the population at over 60 years of age. By 2015, that percentage will
rise to 25 percent, and the birthrate is only 1.73 per 1,000 of the
population, which is well below the figure needed to replenish the work
force.

As in the past, the government ran Thursday's May Day celebration like a
military operation with public transportation shuttling marchers from
all over the capital to their designated location in the parade.

Posters of Fidel and Raul Castro and of the late Venezuelan leader Hugo
Chavez bobbed overhead as in the past, and the rhetoric was as fiery as
ever. A palpable enthusiasm and festive air prevailed as worries over
increasing job insecurity and the rising cost of living were set aside
for a few hours.
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Source: May Day in Havana, Cuba, attracts masses for "sustainable
socialism" - CBS News -
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/may-day-in-havana-cuba-attracts-masses-for-sustainable-socialism/