Unknowns In An Illusory Debate

Unknowns In An Illusory Debate / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 14 June 2016 — Under the signature
of Dario Machado Rodriguez and with the title "An Environment of
Discussion and Creativity is Essential," the official Government-Party
newspaper Granma published an article on its second page this Monday
that, in some way, questions the narrow framework initially proposed for
the discussion of the documents from the 7th Cuban Communist Party Congress.

What is curious is, on the flip side of the printed sheet, that is on
the newspaper's front page, there is a fragment of the Central Report,
read by Raul Castro at that august partisan event, where it is
established that both the Conceptualization, as well as the bases of the
National Plan of Development, will be "democratically debated by the
membership of the Party and the Young Communist Union (UJC),
representatives of the mass organizations and broad sectors of society.

Darío Machado's article introduces a variant: "It behooves the entire
country to create an atmosphere of discussion and to stimulate wide
social participation in the broadest democracy." In support of this he
evokes the debate of the "Call to the 6th Party Congress" and other
similar processes whose results, he argues, "were decisive in the
strengthening of the political consensus of the socialist revolution."

It may not be idle to recall that the author of this article, the son of
Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, was the person designated as the auditor of
the American Studies Center (CEA) where, 20 years ago, Raul Castro, in
the 5th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist
Party, lambasted the intellectuals who worked there, calling them
nothing less than fifth columnists.

Given the credentials of the writer – completely above suspicion – it is
appropriate to highlight some of his assertions. The most striking is
his thesis that the text of the conceptualization of the Cuban economic
and social model "should not be understood as something finished, but as
'the theory' [the commas are the author's] of the construction of
socialism in Cuba." He then clarifies that these ideas are enriched by
the debate and "putting them into practice" will continue "the process
of theorizing about the construction of a socialist-oriented society in
Cuban conditions."

Fifty-five years after the socialist character of the Revolution was
proclaimed, Dario Machado is trying to convince Cubans that it is still
not time to have a theory of socialism based on their own experiences to
clarify how socialism should be defined in Cuba.

Now that this intellectual has explained that Conceptualization is not
trying to be 'the theory,' one can understand why in this document there
is nothing about the first conquest of the socialist system, which is
eliminating the exploitation of man by man, nor does it tell us that
this is one stage of the transition to a communist society and it
doesn't even say, in a transparent and comprehensible way, if the
country is still in or has already emerged from the "Special Period in
times of peace."

Opening the debate to anyone who wants to participate could be risky for
those who want to restrict the discussion to points related to "how to
construct socialism in Cuba." Outside of the Party nucleus or its base
committees or the UJC, someone could appear to question, from Marxist
positions, the proposed models and others, from the opposite poles,
might question whether it makes sense to continue the attempt.

Finally, Dario Marchado establishes a doubtful dilemma, placing on one
side "the pretensions of reinstalling in Cuba dependent capitalism," and
on the other "the salvation of the Revolution, of our independence and
sovereignty." The enunciation of a dilemma doesn't mean it exists.

It is not an abuse of the imagination to elaborate this other. One on
side are the pretensions of a group of people to remain in power
forever, and on the other the desire of an entire people to conquer the
civil, political and economic rights that the current system represses.
The discussion of which is the real dilemma would be a useful debate.

Source: Unknowns In An Illusory Debate / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/unknowns-in-an-illusory-debate-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/