Cuban Communist Party Guidelines Will Not Be Changed, Only Updated

Cuban Communist Party Guidelines Will Not Be Changed, Only Updated /
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar
Posted on March 28, 2016

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 28 March 2016 – Just 18 days before
the start of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), the
Party's newspaper Granma tries to explain in an editorial dated this
Monday the reasons why it is not envisioned, on this occasion, that
there will be "a process of popular discussion similar to that
undertaken five years ago on the Guidelines for the Economic and Social
Policy of the Party and the Revolution."

The editorial in the official organ of the PCC says that questioning the
absence of a debate, "is in no way not open to criticism… much less so
when it comes from people genuinely concerned about the work of the
Party and the destiny of the country." Then it immediately emphasizes
that over the last six decades almost all "the big decisions have
invariably been taken in consultation with the people."

The note coincides with the publication of an open letter to Raul Castro
written by the official journalist Francisco Rodriguez Cruz, in which he
communicates his concern and dissatisfaction with "the lack of
discussion" of the central documents of party meeting. The Party
militant says he has raised these questions on several occasions without
having received "any direct or convincing answer."

Rodriquez Cruz proposes postponing the event for "just three months" to
"dedicate the months of April and May to discussing the central
documents of the Congress with the entire Party membership, and also
with the rest of the Cuban population." This reporter for the weekly
magazine Workers apologizes if the missive published is "mistaken in
method" and could be considered "an unforgivable lack of discipline."

However, the party authorities brandish, as their principal argument for
not having opened a public discussion on the agenda of the conclave, the
fact that the work of the Congress, this time, is to "finish what was
begun, to continue the implementation of the popular will expressed five
years ago, and to continue the direction charted by the 6th Congress."

Near the end of the editorial the titles of six documents are revealed
that will be considered in the most important Party event. The first
three are the assessment of the performance of the economy in the
2011-2015 five-year period, the fulfillment of the Guidelines and the
updating of them for the 2016-2021 period.

The remaining three documents that Granma believes do not have to be
discussed with the population are the long awaited conceptualization of
the Cuban economic and social model of Socialist development, the
economic and social development program to 2030, and the evaluation of
the completion of the work objectives approved at the First National
Conference of the Party in January of 2012.

The 7th Congress is unequivocally presented as a continuation of what
the Communists agreed on five years ago, with the declared purpose of
"constructing a prosperous and sustainable socialism," as least as
indicated in the article published this Monday under the title "Less
Than a Month From the Party Congress."

Nothing is said about having to renew the Central Committee (chosen in
the 5th Congress almost 19 years ago), nor is there reference to the
consequences of reestablishing relations with the United States, nor is
there any forecast related to the eventual repeal of the embargo.

There is no mention of the Party's position on such important issues as
the announced new Electoral Law, or the need to introduce changes in the
Constitution of the Republic. As a warning, it has been made known from
the pages of Granma that the Guidelines will not be changed, only
updated, and outside of them nothing else is worth being discussed.

Source: Cuban Communist Party Guidelines Will Not Be Changed, Only
Updated / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-communist-party-guidelines-will-not-be-changed-only-updated-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/