[Marxism] "The family will continue for a good while" (from Trabajadores newspaper, Cuba)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Fascinating discussion from the weekly national newspaper of Cuba's
national trade union center, the CTC. The paper includes both major
political matters, work and union issues, physical and mental health
columns, sports and so on, in a large tabloid format. In the recent
past as Cuba has begun to confront a range of social problems in its
"Battle of Ideas", family stability has been an area of considerable
interest and importance. This is an issue which has been discussed
and debated among socialists since the Communist Manifesto, and so
a contemporary Cuban discussion of this is of great interest, so it
has been translated for the readership of CubaNews and beyond.

("Certain schools of thought envisage family as a traditional,
stagnant, immovable institution, which is a big mistake. There is and
will be family for a good while, starting from its role in society
and how significant it is to its members.")
================================================================

Trabajadores
December 6, 2005
The family will continue for a good while
Says Dr. Mayda Álvarez, director of the 
Cuban Women?s Federation's Women's Studies Center
MARÍA DE LAS NIEVES GALÁ
nacional@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs329.html ;

We must take advantage of anything that provides a framework for a
family to gather and relate.

Some people yearn over past days when all family members would sit at
table to eat together. ?Now they all do it on their own, either in
front of the TV set or at ten PM.?, many observe.

A number of preconceptions regarding family milieu have indeed been
shattered. ?Modern times? have taken many traditions away from us, a
fact seen in Cuba as well as worldwide, albeit with slight
differences.

However, is that a indication of what some scholars call family
crisis or demise? To go deeper into this topic we met with Dr. Mayda
Álvarez, director of the Center for Women's Studies.


How do you assess today?s Cuban family?

?All along these years we have witnessed profound transformation
processes brought about primarily by programs and policies the
Revolution has put into practice since it triumphed in 1959.

Central has been the role played therein by women?s social progress,
mainly through greater access to public life, better educational
opportunities, and higher offspring-related decision-making power,
which has changed women's status and position within the family and
made an impact on this social group?s structure and operation.

Not being one-dimensional, this transformation process has several
contradictory features. Various types of families can be found in our
society: in some both parents live together, others are cases of
single mothers or fathers or include only senior citizens, and still
others where not everyone is part of the family.

And such diversity must be respected as long as the family meets its
obligations both to society and to its members?.

Some participants in the Ibero-American Conference on the Family held
in Havana remarked that it is women who are drawing attention to this
issue. Is it an only-women thing?

?That responds to historical and cultural reasons as well as to
stereotyping, as if a family is solely a woman?s responsibility. No
wonder women are hit the hardest by and pay more attention to this
topic.

It?s not a matter of who?s demanding attention or who?s thinking it
over, be it that women or men. What matters is how you approach the
problem. In Cuba we have the Federation of Cuban Women, an
organization that has always struggled for equality on a
shared-responsibility basis.

A family is not an only-women thing. It?s important that someone in
society give it some thought, more so in countries where women are
not sufficiently cared-for and families live in conditions of extreme
poverty.?

Has family stability been influenced by the growing number of
common-law marriages? ?The essential thing is that such union be
responsible and based upon feelings and values. We have many cases of
consensual marriage in Cuba that work just fine. Laws carry weight in
certain arrangements: paperwork, division of marital property,
divorce?

Yet, our Family Code allows for the recognition of such unions, where
woman and man have equal rights under the law as if they were
married.

In other words, being married is important for legislation purposes,
but I believe it?s not crucial when it comes to affection and living
together in a healthy way.

The most important detail is that couples, legally married or
otherwise, be aware of their responsibility over progeny, because if
later on they break up, both parents must care for the child they
decided to have?.


Who is actually head of the family, the man or the woman?

?During our surveys and in line with one of the census categories to
study family composition ?though it?s in fact a biased question?,
when we ask who is in charge it?s usually the man who claims such
rank. It happens in other countries and so it does here. But research
has proved this category not to be necessarily related to
decision-taking.

Female leadership at home has increased in Cuba, but even if mostly
associated with women who live alone, over 30% are married or living
with a man, that is to say, the prior concepts has changed.

Similar research work conducted by other institutions among families
where both spouses are present reveal a predominance of collective
decision-taking, which by no means contradicts the fact that there
are still many households where men call the shots and no decision is
taken without their consent, but in my opinion their number is quite
limited and a collective decision-taking prevails where both spouses
have a say?.


How much more could Cuba do concerning family-oriented public
policies?

?Each and every policy and measure adopted since the triumph of the
Revolution has had a humane character in favor of all Cuban families
alike, without any distinction whatsoever.

Regardless, researchers have pinpointed flaws that need further
tailoring, given our current economic situation. One, for instance,
is the improvement of our material living conditions.

Now that our economy is gradually recovering, the Government has set
its first sights on those living conditions that can be enhanced. To
this end I can mention plans to distribute domestic appliances and
construction materials to build and/or repair houses.

Another aspect to be considered, insofar as it proves feasible, is to
extend home-support services, namely day-care centers for
preschoolers, laundry and dry cleaning facilities, and others
designed to lighten the burden of housework that were stopped cold by
the special period?.


Can modern times destroy the concept of family as foretold by some
scholars?

?Rather than focusing on the concept, some scholars say that families
are facing a crisis and could therefore die out.

We can?t think of just a single type of family, for there are diverse
ways of creating a family and function accordingly, taking into
account a number of things from cultural differences all the way to
changes stemming from either economic considerations or alterations
in social relations.

Certain schools of thought envisage family as a traditional,
stagnant, immovable institution, which is a big mistake. There is and
will be family for a good while, starting from its role in society
and how significant it is to its members.

Take Cuba, for example, where family?s original role is still there,
as part of what we conceive as family, which is not limited to the
people with whom we live under the same roof?.


Is it outdated to turn having meals together into a ritual?

?Much is said about how we have lost the tradition of sitting at
table together, something that we miss and needs being rescued as a
respected custom. I think that nothing can be outdated that provides
a framework to gather and relate, be it sharing a meal, going out, or
discussing a TV program or a book. The thing is that what few moments
we spend together must be quality time to exchange, talk, and try to
feel fine as a family?.


What do you suppose a family should never lack?

?I attach a great deal of importance to communication and respect,
love, fondness, acceptance? Of course, we must be aware that a family
is not just a place for affection and understanding, an ?emotional
haven? to shelter from a life of hardship, but a space for
contradiction between persons who sometimes have dissimilar opinions
or interests, and that?s where constructive problem-solving plays its
part, not by means of violence and aggression, nor through extreme
decisions, but with a will to understand, yield, and come to terms?.
  ---ooOoo---



________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism