Giron, the official newspaper of Matanzas, has lamented that “like children who refuse to eat food without even trying it,” the militants of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) do not want to join the Party. On a text posted on Facebookthe media attributes this rejection to stereotypes about the organization and not wanting to “assume responsibilities”.
the article of Giron, a newspaper that currently lacks a website, details a phenomenon that has been going on for several decades: the galloping loss of membership of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). The Constitution consecrates this entity as the “organized vanguard of the nation” but since 2016 its militant data has not been published, which at that time were a little more than 670,000.
According to the Matanzas media, the young people wield “the lack of maturity and preparation, among other pretexts, to evade the growth process” to the PCC and classify this as a “worrying phenomenon” given the need to “guarantee generational continuity”, in crisis in a country where population aging is one of the most pressing issues on the national agenda.
In the text, the widespread idea that the PCC is “an organization marked by meetings and payment of dues” is branded as an “erroneous stereotype” and calls for “achieving a creative design” to include young people, in addition to, “temper the ways in which they communicate and socialize”.
“They are continuity and that is why we must attract them, convince them and make them proudly recognize themselves as members of the Communist Party,” emphasizes the article that has already caused more than a hundred comments, most of them negative and with harsh criticism of the management of the PCC, founded in October 1965.
“Many of us received the card when we were 14-16 years old. When we still believed in the socialist dream of equality, opportunities for all and the welfare state. When our parents shielded us from the harsh reality”
Some, like Jorge Fuentes, point out the immaturity and ignorance with which one enters the UJC. “Many of us received the card when we were 14-16 years old. When we still believed in the socialist dream of equality, opportunities for all and the welfare state. When our parents shielded us from the harsh reality.”
The commentator warns of the process that subsequently takes place among young Cubans: “At 27 years of age, when it comes to the process of the PCC, we already know what all the speeches and slogans are about.”
In April 2021, a nonagenarian Raúl Castro confirmed Delivery to his successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, from the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba, after completing the two statutory periods that he himself imposed for high-level positions. Despite the rise of younger faces, the organization is still seen as orthodox and aged.
Other Internet users who give their opinion on the text of Giron they point to the desire to emigrate as a strong stimulus to reject entry into the ranks of the PCC. “Today young people are thinking of emigrating to another country where they can buy with the money they are paid,” says Cristian Reyes, referring to the Freely Convertible Currency stores, the few moderately stocked on the Island.
Over the years, the militants of the UJC or the PCC who request a visa for the United States or, once in its territory, seek to avail themselves of the migratory advantages offered by the Cuban Adjustment Law, deny their belonging to both. organizations to avoid being rejected.
“Today young people are thinking of emigrating to another country where they can buy with the money they are paid,” says Cristian Reyes, referring to the Freely Convertible Currency stores, the few moderately stocked on the Island
To which is added that among the sanctions applied to the Island during the Donald Trump administration was the restriction on the sending of remittances to Cuba, by prohibiting them for relatives of Cuban officials and members of the Communist Party, and limiting them to 1,000 dollars per quarter per person in all other cases.
Among the commentators on Giron, some go further and propose the creation of other parties so that Cubans can choose which one to belong to. “If the old Family Code of 1975 must be changed because it no longer corresponds to the reality of the current Cuban family, the same happens with the Penal Code of 1987, imagine the PCC,” writes Nayaris Díaz.
The leaders of the PCC are also not exempt from criticism and numerous Internet users point to corruption, the distance that separates officials from daily life and the history of UJC secretaries who have fallen into trouble or have been sacked like other of the causes for the rejection that both organizations generate among young people.
“The essence of the Party is to put in power people who are not elected by the people and who blatantly lie to their people,” says another commentator, who is hardly met by an Internet user.
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