Information on Cuba


      The following information comes mostly from a book written by Isaac Saney, who is on the faculty of Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., Canada, who lectures, writes about, and conducts research in Cuba. You may visit his Web Site at:   Isaac Saney's Website

      I have paraphrased and shortenend much of the material and occasionally added my own comments. The relevant book is "Cuba: A Revolution in Progress" published in Canada by Fenwood Publishing and in the rest ofthe world by Zed Books Ltd. Zed Books ISBN:1 84277 362 3 hb , ISBN 1 84277 363 1 pb . I highly recommend this book. If you're interested in Cuba you should have a copy. Following, (at the bottom of this page), is the Table of Contents for Cuba A Revolution in Motion.


      Cuba has been and continues to be maligned in the news and pronouncements coming out of Washington and repeated by the press in the U.S. and to a large extent here in Canada. Many people believe the lies and serve to propagate the imnage of Cuba as a dictatorship. Nothing could be further from the truth.
      Cuba's political system is a grassroots democracy involving the vast majority of Cuba's people in community meetings where issues are discussed and candidates nominated. Government in Cuba is made up of the municipal, provincial, and national assemblies. All three of these assemblies are elected by the Cuban people. The National assembly is the sole body with legislative authority.
      The National Assembly chooses from amongst it's members the Council of State, which carries out duties such as passing and implementing decrees when the Assembly is not in session. Any such decrees musty be ratified at the next sitting of the Assembly. The Council of State also determines who will be in the Council of Ministers and these two councils constitute the executive arm of the government. The President of the Council of State serves as head of both the government and the state.

      Each municipality is divided into several districts made up of a few hundred people. The people in these districts are vitally involved in the business of the community. Among other things, they nominate and elect a delegate who serves in the local Municipal Assembly. The frequent district meetings are marked by popular participation and uncoerced citizen involvement.
      At the provincial and national level, candidacy commissions sift through thousands of people. The comissions are made up of representatives of various mass and grassroots organizationsand are presided over by workers' representatives chosen by the unions. Contrary to popular disinformation, the Communist Party of Cuba, (the PCC), is prohibited in participating in the work of the commissions! That's important. These delegates are nominated without any intervention by the Communist Party! However it doesn't stop there. The Commissions recommendations are then presented to the Municipal Assemblies for final approval.
      Thus it is the common citizens of Cuba who nominate and elect their representatives with a degree of involvement at the grassroots level that should be the envy of most if not all countries of the world who claim the label of democracy and yet deliver soemthing less democratic than Cuba.

      "the electoral commission made up of all civic organizations and sectors of the population spends over a year going from province to province, town to town, sifting through tens of thousands of proposed candidates to come up with the most representative slate of candidates to make sure that every sector of the population is truly represented. That slate is then presented to the population to vote up or down (as occurs in other countries, as well). But even then, citizens can choose to vote yes or no, one by one, for each of the 601 candidates." --Karen Wald "Dissecting he NY Times spin on Cuba's 50th anniversary." Email article. Quoted in Isaac Saney's book; page 55 & 56.

      Hence, everyone in the National Assembley, including Fidel Castro, is *elected* and has received over 50% of the votes in her or his own constituency! So this cannot be a "dictatorship" by any stretch of the imagination. In fact this is probably the most democratically elected government on the face of the planet.

      Note that there is no formal campaigning, which prevents money from playing a role in Cuban elections. (It just gets better and better -Fred). Professional politicing and politicians are seen as symbols of the corrupt past and the marginalization of the citizenry that characterized Cuba before the revolution.

      As far as the Municipal delegates are concerned, there is a closeness between them and their constituents. The Municipal Asemblies meet 4 times a year. Their representatives must live in the community that elected them, AND, only the President, Vice President, and Secretary are paid offices. The rest must continue their jobs in the community. They are not going to loose touch with their roots, their grassroots. Every six months there is a formal Accountability Session at which complaints, suggestions and other community interests are raised with the delegates. These accountability sessions mean that there is grassroots input to the government policy on an issue by issue basis, and the contrrol of "what is an issue" is in the hands of the common citizens at the community level.

      At the Provincial and National levels, the goal of achieving "unity and consensus" is central. The "unaninmous votes" that often occur are not the result of policy imposed from above, as this issue is often, (always?), misrepresented in the mainstream American press, but rather the result of lengthy debates, at several levels, leading to agreement before the vote is taken.
      The people of Cuba can find representation in a number of "mass organizations." These organizations have specific functions and responsibilities.

      "In addition to the Communist Party, the Young Communists League and the Confederation of Cuban Workers, there are the Cuban Federation of Women and the Committees to Defend the Revolution, the National Association of Small Farmers and the Federation of University Students. The mass organizations are supplemented by numerous professional and other associations that represent the specific interests of other sectors, including for example, lawyers, economists, journalists, writers and artists, the physically challenged and stamp collectors." --Isaac Saney.

      The largest of these organizations are the Committees to Defend the Revolution, with 70% of the population belonging to one of these committees. They were initially established to counter things like sabotage and terrorism, but now they work for a wide variety of social and community projects, for example, public security, recycling drives, cultural and children's events, vaccination and blood donation campaigns, among others. These mass organizations are granted the right, under article 88(c) of the Cuban constitution, to propose legislation in their respective areas of interest. So there are almost daily gatherings of one sort or another to discuss issues of interests, and with the participation of government officials. This brings the contact and control of government right to the grassroots level on a daily basis. You can't get more democratic than that.


By way of description, here is the Table of Contents of the book:

CONTENTS

1.   From Columbus to Revolution
         Revolutionary Enthusiasm
         Objective Constraints
         The Economic Crash
         The Economic Measures of the special period
         The Economic Recovery
         The Social Sphere
         The Aftermath of September 11

2.   Governance in Cuba
         The Dominant Model of Democracy
         Critique of the Dominant Model
         The Historical and Philosophical Context of
         Governance in Cuba
         The Workers Parliaments
         Poder Popular
         The National Assembley Elections of 1993, 1998, and 2003
         Workers and the Union Movement
         The Communist Party of Cuba
         Mass Organizations and Civil Society
         The Generational Shift
         Government Opponents
         The Varela Project
         Conclusion

3.   Race, Inequality and Revolution
         Inequality in the Global Context
         Women in the Revolution
         Afro-Cubans before the Revolution
         Afro-Cubans and the Revolution
         Afro-Cubans and the Special Period
         Conclusion

4.  Crime and Criminal Justice
         Historical Background
         The Court and Legal Structure
         Philosophical and Ideological Basis of the Legal System
         Development of the Penal Code
         The State of Dangerousness Provisions
         Cuban Criminal Procedure: Rights of the Accused
         The Right to Counsel
         The Right to Silence and Confessions
         Search and Seizure
         Trial and Sentencing
         The Death Penalty
         Imprisonment
         The 1999 Modifications to the Cuban Penal Code
         Conclusion

5  The United States and Cuba
         The Prelude to the Cuban Revolution
         The Revolution
         The Undeclared War
         Economic Strangulation
         Emigration
         Conclusion

6  Lessons and Footprints
         Foreign Investment
         The Environment
         Internationalisation
         Socialism on One Island
         Conclusion

Bibliography
Index