[Marxism] Gloria La Riva: Cuban elections a lesson in workers' democracy

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8603

Cuban elections a lesson in workers' democracy
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

By: Gloria La Riva

National Assembly represents all of society

On Feb. 24, Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power conducted elections for 
its top leadership and the 31 members of the Council of State.

The event was recognized as a historic proceeding. After 49 years leading the 
country, first as Prime Minister and then as President, revolutionary leader 
Fidel Castro announced on Feb. 18 that he would no longer accept the posts of 
President of the Council of State and Commander-in-Chief of the military.

As he explained in a Feb. 18 message to the Cuban people, "It would be a 
betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility 
and 
dedication than I am physically able to offer." Castro is still an elected 
delegate to the National Assembly and First Secretary of the Communist Party of 
Cuba.

Of the 614 newly-elected delegates to the National Assembly—Cuba’s 
parliament—609 met in an all-day session to nominate and elect the Assembly’s 
leadership and the Council of State. The delegates were elected Jan. 20 for 
five-year terms.

The body’s composition stands out for its diversity. Two-thirds are serving for 
the first time. Women make up 43.18 percent of the National Assembly with 219 
members, ranking Cuba’s parliament third worldwide in women’s government 
participation. There are workers of all fields and members of all sectors of 
Cuban society—from industrial production to tourism, farmers, teachers, 
intellectuals and cultural artists, scientists, members of the military and 
students.

Raúl Castro, the newly-elected President of the Council of State, will also be 
the President of the Council of Ministers. José Ramón Machado Ventura, a 
longtime leader in the Cuban revolution, was elected by the Assembly to be 
First 
Vice-President of the Council of State.

The all-day parliamentary session—the 7th since the establishment of the 
National Assembly of People’s Power—began in an organized and calm fashion at 
10 
a.m. at Havana’s Convention Center. María Esther Reus, President of the 
National 
Electoral Commission and Cuba’s Minister of Justice, presided.

The nomination and election of all the leading officials of the Assembly and 
Council of State took up the rest of the day. Cuban national television and 
radio stations transmitted much of the proceedings live.

Although the U.S. media universally refers to Cuba as a dictatorship without 
"free" elections, in fact Cuba’s electoral system is a highly organized and 
participatory parliamentary system in which the delegates represent all of 
Cuba’s socialist society.

Building a workers’ democracy

The concepts of democracy and representation in Cuba’s socialism are 
fundamentally different from the U.S. capitalist system.

Following U.S. military intervention in Cuba in 1898, the Cuban political 
system 
was entirely subverted by U.S. imperialism. Members of the Cuban ruling class 
competed for political power in a multi-party electoral system riddled with 
corruption and fraud—both levers used by Washington to guarantee its interests. 
When the multi-party system did not suffice to keep the Cuban masses in check, 
the U.S. government backed dictatorial rule.

The lessons from the period would largely influence Cuba’s revolutionary 
political system. According to Arnold August’s "Democracy in Cuba and the 
1997-98 Elections," when Fidel Castro brought up the need for elections in one 
of the many mass public meetings that followed the 1959 revolution, the 
proposal 
was shouted down. To the workers and peasants, elections had meant political 
disenfranchisement and subjugation to imperialist interests.

In the course of the revolution, however, Cuba’s capitalist class was 
eliminated 
and the construction of a workers’ state began. This opened the way for a new 
type of elections. In 1974, local and provincial levels of state were created 
in 
the province of Matanzas and elections to those bodies were organized.

That experiment served as the foundation for the electoral system known as 
People’s Power, enshrined in the constitution approved by popular referendum in 
1976.

In Cuba, there are no private property owners who hold sway over elected 
officials as in the U.S. Congress. There are no capitalists who control 
factories, the healthcare system, mines and land with the power to shut down 
workplaces and lay off thousands of workers. The productive forces, land and 
natural resources are the common property of the people, with a state and 
government that constitute workers’ power.

Bourgeois democracy: workers need not apply

In the United States, it is the normal order of business for corporate 
lobbyists 
to bribe and influence every Congressional member with untold millions of 
dollars in order to mold a government that manages the affairs of the 
capitalist 
state. Hefty campaign contributions, kickbacks and even corporate positions 
after their congressional stint is over are all "business as usual" for 
virtually every elected official who reaches the pinnacles of Congress.

Representation for the population, primarily the working class, is without 
guarantees and more removed as monopoly strengthens and the capitalist class 
grows more powerful.

Then there are the unelected institutions such as the U.S. Supreme Court—whose 
judges are appointed for life—and the U.S. Federal Reserve System, whose power 
has tremendous influence on the economy and, consequently, on the lives of 
millions of workers.

Pentagon generals, U.S. military contractors and oil companies have the real 
say 
in U.S. government spending. Corporations like ExxonMobil, Boeing, General 
Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton and Blackwater profit immensely off the 
war.

In short, the U.S. government acts wholly on behalf of the capitalist class. 
Only when the workers and great social movements—such as the Civil Rights 
movement, the labor struggle of the 1930s or the anti-war struggle during 
Vietnam—have intervened has the capitalist government been forced to make 
concessions that benefit the vast majority of the population.

That is why during the debates of the Democratic candidates, Barack Obama and 
Hillary Clinton claim in a back-handed way to be against the Bush 
administration’s tactics in handling the war in Iraq. Every time the Bush 
administration asks for another multi-bullion-dollar war "emergency" 
appropriation, however, the House and Senate votes are almost unanimous.

Obama and Clinton have each voted for every single war appropriations bill.

Republicans may be more barefaced about their support for war and unfettered 
profits, but capitalist rule and the political super-structure is a twin-party 
operation.

In Cuba, the revolutionary Rebel army and the masses overthrew the old 
capitalist state, and in the first months and years carried out sweeping 
economic changes that eliminated the capitalists’ rule. The nascent revolution 
then began to institutionalize the government on the basis of socialist 
property, whereby production is decided on the basis of meeting the peoples’ 
needs.

In a socialist economic system, the government, media and all institutions that 
are part of the superstructure reflect common ownership of the country’s 
wealth. 
In a capitalist economic system, those institutions reflect private ownership 
of 
the country’s wealth.

Thus, delegates in all levels of Cuba’s government, from the Municipal, 
Provincial, and National Assemblies, are elected in their neighborhoods, 
without 
the privileges that capitalist politicians come to expect. In Cuba, Assembly 
members continue to work at their regular jobs, and get no salary from their 
parliamentary responsibilities.

Castro’s voice will continue to provide guidance to the revolution. Unlike 
imperialist pundits would have us believe, however, Cuba’s political system 
does 
not rest on one man’s power but on the collective participation of millions of 
Cubans—a worker’s democracy that will continue to develop and thrive.


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