Havana Cuba. – The official Central of Cuban Workers (CTC) and the Instituto Obrero Internacional (IOI) recently held the event “Fidel and the World Working Class” virtually. An appointment that had as its main objective, according to its organizers, “to delve into the relationship of the Commander in Chief with the unions of Cuba and the world.”
The general secretary of the CTC, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, took advantage of the occasion to express that “Fidel systematically promoted the need to improve union work in the construction of socialism in terms of participation, and emphasized the importance of union democracy.”
Mr. Guilarte de Nacimiento is lying. Because he knows perfectly well that in Fidel Castro’s actions in relation to the unions there was never any systematicity. On the contrary, the maximum leader treated the Cuban unionism with the same swing with which he executed the different management systems of the economy. The most eloquent example of such vacillation occurred during the period preceding the XII Congress of the CTC, which took place in August 1966.
That union meeting was held at a time when Guevarist ideas -despite the fact that the Argentine-Cuban guerrilla was no longer on the island- prevailed in the minds of the Cuban leaders. It was intended to burn stages in the construction of communism. Material stimuli were discarded, and moral stimuli were enthroned in their place. In addition, the economy had to be directed by budgetary methods, and not by the Economic Calculation System based on business self-management.
In this context, the XII Congress of the CTC favored the idea that workers could be assisted by special commissions of the ruling Communist Party, and that unions were not necessary for the construction of socialism. The union sections in the work centers, which had been created in the previous XI Congress of the CTC, were eliminated. Even the old union leader, Lázaro Peña, was replaced as head honcho of the CTC.
But seven years were enough for the conceptions of Fidel Castro and the rest of the ruling leadership to change diametrically. This happened during the celebration of the XIII Congress of the CTC, which took place in 1973.
Guevarist idealism had already been discarded, and the country was moving into a more realistic strategy, one that was in tune with the mechanisms applied in the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites. It was then that Castroism decided to resume union work in companies and entities in the country. The maxim that the union was the counterpart of the administrations was reinstated. And the role that corresponded to the material stimulus was given again.
That XIII Congress of the CTC made it possible for the old Lázaro Peña to occupy again the leadership of the unions on the Island, and his main mission would be to “convince” the workers to renounce the benefits of the famous Law 270, which guaranteed retirements with 100% of the salary that was accrued. Old Lázaro dedicated his last breath to this arduous mission, since he would pass away a few months later.
Of course, the current mayoral of the Cuban workers cannot deceive those who are aware of the vicissitudes of Castroism in terms of the leadership of trade unionism in Cuba.
However, now he acts as a liar before the participants of the aforementioned union event to try to attract more followers to the Cuban regime. He invents the thesis of a systematic attention from Fidel Castro to the unions that never existed.
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