The authorities limit power cuts in Havana to the maximum, while imposing “long blackouts in the rest of the country’s provinces, mainly in the regions where the July 11 protests did not take place, or at least were weak,” accuses Communists of Cuba in an entry on his blog as a result of the protests last Thursday in Los Palacios (Pinar del Río) due to an extensive blackout.
The collective, a group related to Trotskyism and opposed to the current ruling leadership, blames the Communist Party of Cuba for the energy situation for having privileged tourism while not worrying about thermoelectric plants.
“Cuban leaders do not suffer these long power cuts and brazenly call on the working class to resist,” the text accuses. Although they initially admit that the rise in oil prices is one of the serious problems that affects the whole world and, with even greater reason, the Island, they maintain that things could have been done differently.
“Cuban leaders do not suffer these long power cuts and brazenly call on the working class to resist”
“The truth is that the lack of maintenance of these institutions is due to the neglect of the bureaucracy, which continues to prioritize the tourism industry,” the document highlights. “The working class will only be able to solve its problems when it controls the country’s economic and political decisions; that is, when the working class takes power and is the real owner of the means of production.”
Communists of Cuba recalls that what happened in Los Palacios is not the result of a breakdown, of a simple night without light, but “the product of continuous and prolonged blackouts that affect the country’s provinces for more than a month.” Pinar del Río, along with Sancti Spíritus, was one of the provinces in which there was hardly any protest movement on 11J, a reason that invites this left-wing group to think that the blackouts are targeting their neighbors.
In addition, they underline that that Thursday morning slogans against the Government were heard that were very similar to those that were already pronounced during the blackout at the University of Camagüey, when the students who reside on the campus, tired of days without water and electricity, went out to shout “turn on the power, pinga” and after a few hours they managed to restore the service.
“The latter is a sign of the continuous deterioration of the acceptance of the Cuban government among youth and society in general,” they add. In this case, there was no repression against the demonstrators or against the other protest that began in a very different part of the island, in Centro Habana, where a woman who was demanding a place to live was joined by dozens of people in support.
“Perhaps the Cuban government will finally understand that expressing discontent in public spaces is a behavior inherent in any society,” the text points out. Communists of Cuba did published a statement in January of this year in which he supported the 11J protests and censored the “exemplary” sentences against the demonstrators.
On this occasion, and referring to the protests in Pinar del Río, they consider that the government “at least had the maturity not to classify them as counterrevolutionary.”
“[Los ciudadanos] they crashed against a political system, which increasingly reserves what is revolutionary and socialist only for discourse. You can’t think like the people if you don’t live like the people,” they said then.
On this occasion, and referring to the protests in Pinar del Río, they consider that the government “at least had the maturity not to classify them as counterrevolutionary.” Likewise, the statement accuses the Government of cutting the internet connection in different parts of the country for more than half an hour.
“Communists condemn the excessive electricity cuts. We stand in solidarity with our working class -of which we are a part-, which is going through a serious economic situation, marked by shortages, long queues with the uncertainty of not knowing if they will be able to buy basic food , inflation and now blackouts again. The Cuban government should remember that the disproportionate blackouts were the spark for the July 11 protests,” warns the text, which ends by claiming: “Let the bureaucrats and bourgeoisie pay for the crisis Towards communism!”
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