(By Arnold August, Havana) On July 11th, 2008 the First Ordinary Session of Cuba’s current legislature took place. The National Assembly of People’s Power that was elected on January 20th, 2008, met in Havana’s National Congress Center. More than 92% of the 619 deputies were present. Among the elected deputies absent was Fidel Castro. He, however, had his place of honour: the seat next to the new president of the Council of State, Raúl Castro, was left vacant. During the proceedings it was evident that there is a stable transition of leadership to the new Council of State elected by the deputies last February 24th. Fidel Castro has been as active as ever─even more so─ in the last few weeks. He continues to write his reflections (sometimes several times a week) on a number of national and especially international issues. He also meets regularly with heads of state, representatives from various countries and international cultural figures.
Plenary session underway during the First Ordinary Session of Cuba’s current legislature. photo Arnold August.
Cuba’s parliament normally meets twice a year. However, the work carried out by the deputies and the mass organisations (such as the unions) and the citizens preceding and then following the ordinary sessions carry with it a full range of activities. The parliamentary sessions themselves have a very heavy agenda. July 11th was no exception and so I will deal with only a few points.
One of the first items on the agenda was the issue of the Cuban Five, a question which since last week is closely tied to the Canadian Parliament. Who are the Cuban Five and what is the relationship to Canadian deputies? Cuba has been the victim of terrorist activities organized from Florida and backed by the White House. Their goal, among others, is to destabilize the Cuban economy and political system. The US authorities did not listen to reason in order to put a halt to these activities. And so Cuba decided to send five of their nationals to Florida in order to infiltrate these terrorist organizations. They did so and had produced all the irrefutable proof to the Cuban state that in turn handed it all over to the FBI. However, instead of arresting the terrorists, Washington ordered the arrest of the five Cuban nationals close to ten years ago and jailed them in the USA. The entire series of trials and appeal decisions over the last 10 years are arbitrary, violating American as well as international laws. The Cubans are still in jail. The president of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, presented a motion on July 11th condemning this treatment and calling on parliamentarians from all over the world to take further actions and demand the release of the political prisoners.
Only several days before the Cuban parliament met, on July 7th the Canadian Network on Cuba and the Table de Concertation de Solidarité Québec-Cuba issued a joint press release. In this document they publicly announced for the first time that 56 elected deputies in the Canadian parliament from Canada and Quebec had signed a petition in favour of freeing the Cuban Five and of visitation rights for the families of the 5 Cubans.
The petition and accompanying letter was initiated by Francine Lalonde, Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament (MP) from a Montreal, Quebec riding. In October 2007 in Montreal, the MP had met Elizabeth Palmeiro, the wife of one of the Cuban Five. MP Lalonde then signed-up 40 MPs from her party, the Bloc Québécois. Libby Davies, the New Democratic Party (NDP) MP from Vancouver-East, followed the example. She had 16 NDP deputies sign on for a total of 56 elected parliamentarians. The letter and petition explaining the case was sent last June to the Honourable David Emerson, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs with a copy to Mr. Michael Mukasey, US Attorney-General and to Mr. David Wilkins, US Ambassador to Canada.
And so coming from Canada, I was so proud to attend the Cuban Parliamentary session in Havana on July 11th. Fifty-six MPS from Canada had joined others such as the parliamentarians from 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries. On July 7th and 8th, 2008, the latter called on elected deputies from around the globe to follow their example and demand the release of the 5 political prisoners. This issue of the Cuban Five is one that merits a follow-up in Canada and as well as in Cuba.
Raul Castro during recess. photo Arnold August.
Another important point on the agenda in Havana: a new draft bill was presented to the deputies on social security. Cuba is faced with a problem. As a result Cuba’s well-known social and health policies, life expectancy has increased from 62 years in the period immediately preceding the 1959 revolution to 77 years at this time, a rise of 15 years in life expectancy. (In Canada and the USA, life expectancy at this time is 80 and 78 respectively). At the same time, as a result of positive factors such as family planning possibilities and negative ones such as the improving but still unfavourable housing conditions, the birth rate has declined. The Cuban National Statistics Office estimates that by 2020, those who arrive at their working age could amount to approximately 129, 000 people, while some 131,000 workers will have the right to retire in accordance with the current social security law; the number of persons who retire will be larger than the number of those who start working.
According to the current social security legislation, retirement age is 55 and 60 for women and men respectively. The Minister of Labour and Social Security, Alfredo Morales, presented the draft bill to the parliament. It proposes that as of 2009, the retirement age for women be set at 55 years plus 6 months and for men at 60 years plus 6 months, with 25 years and 6 months of service for both sexes. The process will conclude in 2015, when women will retire at 60 years of age and men at 65, with 30 years of services for both sexes, the minister explained.
What is going to happen to this draft bill? As the president of the Cuban parliament Ricardo Alarcón declared to the deputies, it will be presented to the workers in all work places across the island for consultation. Only after taking into account the comments and suggestions by the workers, will the draft bill be converted into a bill. It will then be proposed to the next ordinary parliamentary session to take place in December of this year. At the Congress Center on July 11th, I had spoken to an editor of the trade union newspaper Trabajadores. He told me that the union is already gearing up for these discussions at the grass-roots level.
Another draft bill was presented to the deputies. This one is aimed at strengthening the relationship between deputies and citizens. According to the Clause 84 of the Cuban Constitution, deputies are obliged to keep close ties with the electors in the municipal constituencies from which they are elected. It was explained by Alarcón that last December and January, before the January 20th elections for Parliament, many meet-the-candidates meetings were held in neighbourhoods, places of work and of education. During the course of these meetings, he said, while citizens were very satisfied with these meetings, in some cases they had also expressed the desire to regularize and formalize these meetings after the elections. I attended several of these meetings last January. It is quite true. In several cases people said that they want more of them, but after the elections as well. And so the draft bill is a special enabling legislation for Clause 84 of the Cuban Constitution. In this clause, it is stipulated that those elected must keep close ties with the electors. The draft bill proposes that elected deputies must meet directly with electors twice a year at the level of the Municipalities. This will also offer an opportunity for deputies, Alarcón explained, to see for themselves how new legislation and norms are being applied at that municipal level. What is going to happen to this draft bill? It is being submitted to the population in the neighbourhoods and work places for discussion, debate and suggestions. Only after this occurs will the draft bill be converted into legislation by the appropriate parliamentary permanent working commission in order to be presented to the next session in December, 2008.
Raúl Castro, as President of the Council of State, elected and accountable to the Parliament, then spoke. He summarized the proceeding and further analyzed certain points on the agenda. He elaborated on the social security draft bill. He also provided a detailed analysis of the national and international problem regarding the availability and price of food staples, and Cuba’s plan to deal with this problem.
He made one very brief comment on the draft bill to strengthen ties between electors and the elected. However, it caught my attention because I think that it is an important issue. He pointed out that these meetings between elected and electors cannot be, as he had seen on some occasions, a question of showing up just for the sake of going (or as we say in North America, for appearance’s sake, as a mere formality). He stated that on some occasions deputies were greeted as if they were a foreign delegation or from the Diplomatic Corps, the meeting taking on airs of being based on a prefabricated agenda.
As far as speculation in the North American media and government circles (especially the White House) regarding “changes” in Cuba and a possible abandonment of Cuba’s socialist system and its independence, Raúl Castro had this to say: lately, whenever the Cubans adopt any policy, as soon as it is carried out someone from the US government (or even President himself) decries this as being an “insufficient” and a “cosmetic” course of action. No one asked the US for their opinion, he went on to say. Let it be known he concluded on that point, that Cuba will never adopt a decision, even the smallest one, as a result of pressure or blackmail from any quarter, be it a powerful country or even a whole continent.
Matthew Brett is the Canadian Dimension weblog editor and a Montreal-based journalist at a weekly newspaper. Read other posts by Canadian Dimension.
