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VVD-ers, USA marionetten,

Let’s talk about Cuban democracy

The President of the National Assembly of Popular Power,
focuses on one of the subjects that the enemy blurs against Cuba

By Liset García

A CubaNews translation by Maria Montelibre.

Bohemia Magazine
March, 2005

In a few days Cubans will be at the polls again. A good
number of citizens that are already used to this practice,
and others who, at 16, will make use of this right for the
first time in their lives, perhaps will be able to
understand why the Island is the constant target of
accusations about its political and electoral systems.

The Island’s reality has been so distorted around the world,
that the rumor has run around that voting is not one of the
rights Cubans have. The authorized opinion of Ricardo
Alarcón de Quezada, President of the National Assembly of
People’s Power, whom we have been talking with several times
about democracy and it’s many aspects, reflects, analyzes
and expands about that popular issue.

- In today’s world, so complex and under unipolar rule,
what can we understand as democracy?

- Currently, in the world, what’s considered to be democracy
is really a fraud. Hegemonic countries, those with the
financial power, the main beneficiaries of globalization,
use increasingly empty rhetoric. Absence of democracy
predominates.

"The essential features of neo-liberalism as a ruler of
society means letting capital advance without obstacles,
which means reducing the role of the State, as well as its
ruling function. It is then very difficult for democratic
institutions to continue, even those who originated as part
of the capitalist bourgeois system, because they have an
increasingly lesser role. And this situation develops at
international level. There is news evidencing this every day.

"Not long ago it was announced in the U.S., as if they were
announcing rain, that more than one thousand employees had
been fired due to one of those mega-mergers happening there
every day. The news did not point out at any time that there
was any type of talk with the workers or the unions. You can
read every day about decisions which are deeply affecting
the people, and there is no reference that they have
participated in the decision making process. They were not
even informed beforehand.

"There is also talk about free trade agreements between
countries. Now they are talking about a Central American
Free Trade Agreement. In those countries, the issue has not
been discussed, not even in parliaments. When those
governments accept the agreements under U.S. pressure, they
will be approved and will become law.

"In the mid-nineties, a treaty called the Multilateral
Investment Agreement was almost approved. It was something
savage, like a world’s ALCA. According to the text, who was
published later, investors have all the power. They did not
have any obstacle. It was even possible to sue those
governments trying to obstruct the flow of capital. That
meant that democracy, as we have understood it for
centuries, was turned around. Those negotiations were done
in complete secrecy, until the French ONG found it and
publish it in the internet. Some members of parliaments
around the world starting complaining about it and they
opposed it.

"Everybody remembers in Cuba the worker’s parliament at the
beginning of the special period, when the crisis was at its
worst. Discussions with the people about problems in the
Cuban society were opened up. That is supposed to be real
democracy. What’s happening around the world is the complete
opposite.

"That’s why people are becoming more and more disenchanted
with democratic institutions and political parties, besides
abstentionist positions. People do not become involved
because they do not believe, they realize that it makes
little sense."

- Is there any solution for this crisis of democracy in the
whole world?

"The solution is to democratize international relations, and
every country has to rescue its basic democratic principles,
expressed in the practice of authority by the peoples.
Nations must have decision making power. They cannot be
subjected to the will of a foreign power."

- Can you define the essential differences between the way
the Cuban people elect their representatives and the way of
- let’s say - the rest of the more classic representative
democracies throughout the world?

- There are tendencies and differences among countries. In
my opinion there are several essential problems, that’s why
representative democracy has been criticized. One of them is
reducing the democratic practice, people’s involvement, to
just voting.

"A famous phrase by Rousseau, talking about the oldest
parliamentary system in the world, the British one, sums it
up: The English - he would ironically say - believe that
they are free men, but they are free only on election day,
when they vote for their representatives.

"All the U.S. electoral propaganda talks only about
elections. That is what democracy is for them. However,
throughout history, the concept of democracy is not only
reduced to voting, but the practice of authority, government
by the people themselves or through their representatives.

"The elections in Iraq, in Afghanistan, what were they all
about? A macabre show. It does not matter that those
countries were occupied, that there was torture, fraud and
lies. Some of them voted, and because of that they consider
that a democracy.

"The second problem was defined by Rousseau as a farce, a
fiction novel. It is delegating authority to someone, which
is its essence, that’s why it is called representative
democracy. The representative assumes power in the name of
the others. But that can be done only with social justice.
Rousseau said that if there is no equality among men, there
is no representation. The exploiter cannot represent the
exploited. That’s why he believed that democracy was utopia.
That was not discovered by Marxism, it is prior to the
French Revolution.

"In the XX Century already, Hans Kelsen from Austria
explained how the so-called modern "representative
democracy" is only a fiction. The representative is not
obligated to act in the name of the people he represents. He
cannot be their spokesperson. That’s why a social revolution
is necessary. In lay terms that means that there cannot be
democracy with massive unemployment, with most of the people
under the poverty level, with illiteracy, with landowners.
Justice comes first. We did that in Cuba. When we started
the system of representative democracy in 1976, we had
already done away with those scourges, because there were
big social changes.

"But more was achieved. Neighbors proposed the candidates
directly, and they elected whoever they wanted, and they
decided with their vote, who will be delegate. Candidates
came from the people’s ranks, the elected person had to give
account to the people, and that person could be recalled at
any time.

Besides, the involvement of the electors is maintained, as
it happened in the Workers’ Parliament, in the discussions
of the Party’s Call to Congress, as it is done during the
electoral process. Everybody is involved in one way or
another, from the manufacture of electors’ registries, or
people at home preparing children to watch the polls or to
be part of the electoral tables, or those who have been
nominated as candidates. Hundreds of thousands of people
participate.

"In the United States, for example, a detailed investigation
not long ago discovered that thousands of people did not
even know where they could go to vote. According to that
country’s rhetoric, the low percentage of voters is
something positive. They say that they have free elections,
therefore, they are free not to vote. This points out to the
falsity of that society, because if it were a true
democracy, people would feel motivated to participate in
government.

"Greece was exactly the opposite. They would meet in a
public square to make a decision. They felt motivated to
that, because they were going to discuss issues they were
interested in.
"In Cuba, people participate in the nomination process, in
the accounting process, because that’s when neighbors
examine neighborhoods problems with the delegate. And, of
course, our system is not perfect, and our delegates do not
have a magic wand."

-Democracy is also measured with presidential or
parliamentary elections.

-That’s right. But the most serious specialists have always
questioned whether the presidential system is more
democratic. England has classic democracy, and they never
elect the king or the First Minister. The representatives
are the ones who elect the President. For a really
democratic presidential system, the electors themselves
should elect and recall. All the people would have to vote
again. In some polls, the President has a 90% rejection, and
they have to wait until his mandate is over, because there
is no recall.

"In the parliamentary system, such as Cuba, that is
possible. Besides, it creates mechanisms obligating the
government to respond to representatives. When there is a
dynamic relation with the electors, it is easier for them to
govern through their representatives.

"That is, those who elect controls those who are elected. In
the Presidential system, electors are eliminated from that
process, reducing their function to just one day, voting for
their president.

"In any Cuban community people nominates and elects
candidates and delegates, who become part of the municipal
government, once they are elected. Those who have been
elected have to give an account about their work. But also,
the people can recall them at any time. Up to 50% of the
Peoples’ Power and the National Assembly must be
neighborhood delegates.

"And the provincial presidents, of the National Assembly and
the Chief of States must be elected by their organizations,
by their own members. The Cabinet of the Government is also
approved by those delegates and representatives in the name
of the people who elected them, and they
give an account fo their functions."

-The participation of the parties in the elections has also
been subject of argument and questioning.

- That is another problem of the current representative
democracy: Partydocracy. The party decides who the
candidates are. Those represented do not make that decision,
but an institution. That never happened in Greece. Not even
George Washington, who, in farewell speech to the U.S.
people, he warned them about the dangers of dividing the
country into parties. He had been President and did not
belong to any.

"In Cuba, the bankruptcy of partydocracy was total with the
coup of March 10, 1952, when they were powerless in front of
Batista. The credibility about those parties then was lost
forever, who had no summons power. With the triumph of the
Revolution, from that institutional loss of prestige another
idea of Republic is born, much more authentically
democratic, with a Party that, as Marti’s, did not intervene
in the elections, because its goals are not electoral/ Cuban
History is very rich in that sense."

-Considering that electoral history, from the Assembly of
Representatives of the patriots of the XIX Century, what
features of our current electoral model have been inherited
from those Cubans?

- On each war stage, the mambises approved the
constitutions, elected their representative bodies and
governments, enacted laws, the Republic of Cuba-in-Arms
existed - including in liberated land - it had democratic
institutions and did not have electoral parties. Later,
during Marti’s times, we also had a non-electoral party. Its
function was to unify the patriotic movement, but it was not
responsible for electing the delegates in the representative
Assemblies and the government in the free territory. They
even had to give account.

"Already at that time Cuba contributed. Nowhere in the
so-called democratic world, civil and political rights to
all were recognized. Of course, we are not even talking
about women who even on the XIX Century were not considered
citizens. Even ex-slaves had those rights, when in the rest
of the world, there were income, education, and age
requirements, restricting participation. So that whites and
wealthy people were the ones with civil rights. At that
point the international struggle tried to open those
possibilities. Even today these demands continue in some
countries.

"In Cuba there were Blacks as leaders of the Freedom Army
and in the Government of the Republic in 1868, something
unusual. In the United States, a century later, in 1965, a
law was passed about the right of Blacks to vote.

"All Cubans are born with the right to vote, as well as the
free, universal, and automatic registration in the electoral
registries, and that comes down from the times of the
Republic of Arms. Those possibilities were lost with the
U.S. intervention, imposing income, age, and education
requirements in order to vote. That explains why only even
percent of the population voted in those first elections of
1900. They built an elitist society.

"At the time of the mambises, everybody could participate.
This is proven by the fact that Ana Betancourt spoke in the
Assembly of Guáimaro defending women rights, when women were
far from being considered equal to men.
"Now delegates are elected by the people, and continue
relating to them. The people continue participating in
several ways in the practice of power, beyond elections day.

-Cuba is accused of selecting a democratic model comparable
to the one in the ex-Soviet Union and the rest of nations in
Eastern Europe. What are the differences?

- Those countries had different electoral models, and none
of them had nothing to do with ours. Some of those nations
had several countries. The Communist Party among them, and
they did nominate candidates."

-Citizen participation and Cuban civil society and the
political systems of the country have been targeted for
years by the enemies of the Island. Can you explain the
fundamental rights in that participation?

-A substantial aspect in our system is to guarantee people’s
involvement more and more.

"Fundamental decisions are discussed here at the social
level. It is a norm that there is no law that is not
discussed with those involved. The Law of Foreign Investment
was discussed by all the workers, as well as the Cooperative
Tax Law, which was discussed by the farm workers several
times. Those legal bodies were changed on the basis of
proposals made.

"In Cuba the great majority of workers are organized into
unions. Unions are always picking up their members’ opinions.

"That is, they participate. And not only during the
electoral process such as this one, where all social
organizations support and sustain neighborhood meetings so
that neighbors nominate candidates, later in the elections
in many electoral colleges where tens of thousands of
citizens will work. Besides, there are other tens of
thousands of candidates who are workers, housewives, farm
workers, intellectuals, just people. The Municipal Assembly
of People’s Power and the civil society are represented in
their organizations, which nominates candidates for
president and vice president, from the elected delegates.

"But there is a process of discussion about laws within all
organizations.

"These organizations discuss, analyze and nominate pre
candidates for provincial delegates and representatives in
the general elections. Those nominated are also tens of
thousands, who will become candidates, if the basic
delegates meeting in municipal assemblies so decide.

"What we have is not perfect, but compared to the fiction of
bourgeois representative democracy, our model is a shining sun."

-In 1992 there were changes introduced to the Constitution
of the Republic and of the electoral system, making it
possible the election of representatives for the National
Assembly and Peoples’ Power directly by the people. Could
you comment the elements which sustained that reform?

-Knowing that all human work can be perfected, and that it
can and must be adjusted to develop it and improve it, the
objective at that time was to strengthen the representative
system. The electoral system was changed. In my opinion, the
system we had before was not less democratic.

"Our municipal assemblies are the most democratic
organizations I have ever seen, because all of their members
came directly from the people, nominated by the voters, and
not by a machine. And those delegates, electing on a second
step the provincial delegates and representatives for that
territory seems to me to be perfectly acceptable.

"The new way means a step forward. From that date on, the
Municipal Assembly elects its candidate and submits that
candidate to the people. If we had stopped there, it was a
democratic system already. In some countries, those are very
indirect elections which are not questioned. Generally,
senates are elected like that. And in some countries,
senators are appointed and even hereditary.

"Since 1992, that decision about the Municipal Assembly has
been approved by the voters. That is, the system and
representations are strengthened. Receiving the approval of
the people directly is, no doubt, strengthening.

-What other aspects should be considered, in order to
perfect the Cuban electoral system and the Peoples’ Power?

-There is always room for improvement. When we talk about
participation, about choosing candidates, about elections.
Each one of those words can be conjugated with more or less
rigor, love, sense of dignity and commitment.

"We must aspire to a nominating process with increasingly
deeper foundations, where people can express their opinions
better about those who have been nominated, so that when the
time comes to elect a candidate or another, they can well be
distinguished. As long as this country becomes more
educated, presumably those decisions will be made at a
higher level, ending in better candidates. It will also be
important that the meetings to give account are less formal
and give room for collective reflection and a more educated
and complete analysis.

"The key to everything is dissatisfaction. We must not rest
on what we have accomplished. We must always propose more.
Social development programs would not make sense if we think
we achieved the goal. Same things with our political system.
The conclusion we must make is like someone asking, what is
the horizon good for, if you can never reach it? It is good
for going forward."


Edited and web-posted by Walter Lippmann.
Thanks to the office of the Cuban National Assembly
for providing this transcript.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs099.html

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