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>From new Cuba blog "Cuba's Socialist Renewal" http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Since early December the Cuban press has been reporting on selected grassroots debates on the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines, a final draft of which will be put to some 1,000 delegates to the Communist Party's 6th Congress in April. The debates have been taking place in workplaces and neighbourhoods and, informally, on the streets. As is the norm in such debates in Cuba, the viewpoints, concerns and proposals put forward by participants are recorded and a summary of the national debate is compiled. This will help the Communist Party commission responsible for drafting the Guidelines in its work of incorporating the most common concerns and suggestions arising from these grassroots debates in the final draft. The first draft of the Guidelines did not drop out of the sky; it draws on two earlier rounds of mass consultations initiated by the PCC leadership since Raul Castro became acting president in July 2006, as well as extensive input from economists and other specialists. Here we see the Cuban Revolution as a process of consensus-building, in which no strategic decisions are taken without consulting the popular sectors that will be affected by the proposed changes, in this case the working people as a whole. Given the scope and complexity of the much-needed socialist renovation that is now underway, striving for consensus on what must be done to "change everything that must be changed" is no easy task. It has proceeded slowly but surely amid hurricanes, global economic turmoil and the implementation of some reforms that cannot be delayed, such as the leasing of idle state farmlands. As can be seen in the debate that took place in this Havana hospital, people are saying what they think, as Raul has repeatedly urged. In other words, it's a real debate. Also evident is that workers are not just discussing the problems of their own workplace or profession, but the problems of the national economy. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-hospital-workers-debate.html ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
