As it happened with him 11J and the sentences for its protesters or the marches against the blackouts in 2022, the protest last Saturday in Caimanera has once again provoked the angry reaction of the Communist organization of Cuba against the Government of the Island.
The collective, of a Trotskyist nature, dedicates a extensive analysis on his website, to the causes of the fatigue of the Cuban people, who in his opinion are in the creation of a “national bourgeoisie, directly stimulated by the ruling bureaucracy” that suffocates the working class and will inevitably result in new outbreaks this 2023. In addition , maintains that it is necessary for the left to side with the protests and prevent the right from capitalizing on discontent with the Revolution.
To reach these conclusions, the group describes in detail the preceding events, from July 11, 2021 to the marches against blackouts in 2022, both in summer, like the Maleconazo, in 1994. For the coming months, Comunistas calculates Cuba, a fuel crisis aggravated by rising temperatures is looming and the Government will have to choose between electricity and transportation. However, they reason, “it has been the shortage of food that has caused the outbreak of Caimanera, which can be seen in one of its main slogans: Food.” The group highlights a significant fact that until now had not been indicated: the Guantanamo municipality was one of the three with the highest level of abstention in the last legislative elections.
The group highlights a significant fact that until now had not been indicated: the Guantanamo municipality was one of the three with the highest level of abstention in the last legislative elections
Cuban communists do not mince words when it comes to judging the economic model towards which the regime is heading and which causes the lack of food or the increase in prices of what is available. “The Cuban ruling bureaucracy is resolutely advancing towards capitalist restoration, implementing the Chinese-Vietnamese model,” he underlines.
The group points out that, “while the Government reduces the supply of food, it delivers gastronomy to the bourgeoisie. Most of the supplies are withdrawn from state restaurants, bars and cafeterias. […] Then the typical wealthy man appears who proposes to the local government to turn the place into a private business.”
These businesses are ending up, agree with other critics, in the hands of those close to the Government, since “the bidding for said state premises is not carried out publicly, making the decision as to who to deliver the state property at the convenience of the neocapitalist bureaucracy”. This is added to the pandemic and the crisis generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which have helped “the living conditions of the Cuban working class to deteriorate more and more.”
According to Communists of Cuba, impotent when it comes to creating good living conditions for the population, the Cuban government tries to create disaffection towards politics among young people. “The Cuban bureaucracy is interested in having a youth, if not loyal to it, at least completely removed from politics,” the group maintains in its analysis. As a result, the idea that “socialism is an inept and chaotic economic system, which generates shortages and impoverishment,” has permeated the population, they add. The collective defends that what is being experienced has nothing to do with socialism, but rather that it is a “mediocre prologue to underdeveloped capitalism.”
The collective defends that what is being experienced has nothing to do with socialism, but that it is a “mediocre prologue to underdeveloped capitalism”.
In his opinion, this scenario has worked perfectly as “fertile ground” for the right to be seen as the only alternative and, beyond that, to generate the idea that there is no “real socialist alternative.” “The force of the Cuban State is so great that in its repression the physical disappearance of opponents, torture and extrajudicial executions are not necessary. In the state workplaces, all dissent is isolated by the administration and the PCC (Communist Party of Cuba). This adds to the workers’ fear of being retaliated,” they argue.
The theory put forward by the group is that the protests that could put an end to the regime or, failing that, a military coup, will be followed by “a government of right-wing generals, who would apply the capitalist restoration immediately; or the triumph of a anti-communist dictatorship controlled by the United States and the current internal counterrevolution. However, this does not mean that the Cuban critical left must confront popular protests, nor deny them: quite the contrary.”
Cuban communists are aware of the difficulty of generating a mass that shares their ideas after decades of socialist dictatorship. The relatively comparable cases, which they cite, are many: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Albania, the former Czechoslovakia (today divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia) are examples of a strong reaction that brought about a capitalism that they describe as “cruel”. So they put themselves on a mission. “The main duty of the Cuban critical left is the difficult task of reversing the hegemony that the right has over popular discontent,” they affirm.
Cuban communists are aware of the difficulty of generating a mass that shares their ideas after decades of socialist dictatorship
In his opinion, the socialists opposed to the current revolutionary government are also affected by the legislation that prevents ideas other than the revolutionary ones with everything that entails, from the prohibition to meet to the one to exercise opposition from the media, which pushes them to the secrecy.
Finally, Communists of Cuba anticipate a near “social outbreak of magnitudes similar to those of July 11 – or greater –” that the Government will only know how to stop with repression and although they believe that the scenario is “completely adverse” to those who share their ideological proposal They do not lower their arms. “Cuba needs the construction of a revolutionary Marxist party that leads the working class. Just as the first attempt to build socialism took place in Cuba, perhaps the first socialist revolution that overthrows neo-Stalinism will take place in Cuba,” closes his letter.
A few days later, in a release To show its support for the Artemisa strikers who paralyzed the train service to Havana on Tuesday, the organization has demanded the immediate release of those detained for the events in Caimanera.
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