Broad, intense and complex was the debate generated during the VI Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party that took place on Tuesday. Faced with these analyses, "with a shirt off", as a good Cuban would say, and touching on the main issues that currently concern the Cuban people, the First Secretary of the Central Committee and President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, insisted in the need to “move from speech to action”.
It is a challenge that, he considered, demands "participation, integrity and agility, each one doing what corresponds to him, encouraging, motivating, and demonstrating that it is possible."
"Let's effectively implement everything that has been proposed in this plenary session, and we are going to achieve victory," he assured at the end of his speech, which lasted for an hour and in which he addressed issues of cardinal importance for the development of the nation and consequently advance in a greater well-being for our people.
The road —the Head of State recognized— is “full of challenges and adversities that we are obliged to face and overcome, with a spirit of victory, with effort and talent, with determination, with unity, and above all with creativity; the issue is not just resisting, the issue is resisting and creating at the same time”.
Hence his considerations about the importance of the analysis that this VI Plenum carried out on "an issue as important as the state of compliance with the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution", in an extraordinarily complex that has been worsening in recent times, "causing deterioration of infrastructures, shortages, deficiencies, and also social deterioration."
In recent months —he said— a group of situations have become more complex, especially due to the problems of electricity generation and the fuel deficit, and "as political leaders and public servants that we are, we cannot rest until we overcome this wear and tear."
He then spoke of states of opinion of the people in which dissatisfaction is reflected "with what we do and have done, with the measures and the manner of their implementation."
Hence the enormous challenge that we all have, as a Party and as a Government, to urgently orient our work towards getting out of the complex economic and social situation that the country is experiencing, with comprehensive and demanding political assurance from the Party, which stimulates the understanding and participation of the people; strengthen unity; raise hope; causes the improvement of the functioning of the National Assembly of People's Power; and promote an agile and effective management of the Government, from the local level to the nation, he indicated.
Work priorities
Faced with the challenging circumstances that define action in the country today, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party considered that there are five work priorities: economic development; social care; institutional strengthening; work with cadres and ideological strengthening”.
In relation to economic development, he meant, in the battle "that we have to wage at this time, the National Security of the country is going, due to the direct impact it has on strategic fronts such as the social and ideological."
We have not been inactive, nor with our arms crossed; we have approved and implemented many measures, actions, the question is how rigorous we have been in their political and administrative assurance, in their concretion, without ignoring that many of these measures to initiate them, to advance in them, to be able to implement them, regulate and even gradually apply and extend them, most need foreign currency components that we have not had, he said.
As part of these actions that are carried out at all levels, he mentioned the most recent tour of the country, with which he sought to "stimulate from the thought and from the capacities of each territory, that a strategy be presented to achieve that this year would be better, based on its endogenous components, its forces, potentialities, purposes and plans”.
This, he valued, was a "broad, inclusive planning exercise, which consulted the talent of each territory", which now leads us to continue verifying, creating consensus that allows us to appreciate and check what has been done. "This is part of our conception of advancing, of resisting and defeating the blockade, from our own efforts, from all the potential that we have to exploit as a country, but that start from the territorial level, to improve the quality of life of the people”.
"It has been a critical and self-critical process, without complacency and the meetings have been strong meetings, of dissatisfaction, like the debate in this plenary session itself."
However, in "all the provinces we have appreciated progress and favorable results, compared to the month of January as a starting point, in a discreet group of indicators, and in many a better situation compared to the same period in 2022, but this without complacency," he said.
“We are neither satisfied, nor do we consider that it is enough as long as these results are not expressed in a palpable improvement in the quality of life of our people, expressed in greater food production, lower inflation, higher quality of services, just to mention some of the lines that we are evaluating”, he stressed.
So he commented on very good examples that can be seen in multiple parts of the country, with which it is confirmed that it is possible to have better results. In these examples, he asserted, “we have seen the management capacity of producers and managers; will and perseverance not to be crushed by circumstances; people who have been willing to overcome adversity and have succeeded; and we have seen the use of existing potentialities”.
These people, he emphasized, have been “as blocked as the others and have achieved these results in the same conditions that others do not advance. Those are the ones who are challenging the blockade; those who are carrying out the creative resistance; in which one must be inspired, and not in those who remain complacent, immobile, without facing each one of the problems with intelligence”.
Beat the blockade without being lifted
The president also commented on the effort, commitment, incentive and will that can be seen in many places to get out of this difficult situation, who insisted, once again, that we are all called upon to “beat the blockade without it being lifted; and to overcome it from the local level, as we are asking for, it takes perseverance, work, dedication, a sense of belonging, not of some, but of all”.
Hence his emphasis on the need to take advantage of potential in the territories to generate our own food, and continue to promote municipal autonomy, where each municipality produces what it needs in terms of food.
From other analyzes that have been carried out such as the problem of idle land; the deficit in the contracting of productions; the urgent need to strengthen the state company from production; as well as solving the excessive chain of intermediaries in the marketing of food, which is having an impact on the formation of high prices, the President spoke emphatically.
All this work process, he affirmed, we are carrying out jointly between the Party and the Government: the government for the direct responsibility it has in the administrative, economic and productive processes throughout the nation, and the Party from the monitoring and political assurance that it must give this process from the base, having as one of its main missions the battle for economic development.
Specifically on the responsibility of the Party, he emphasized the role that corresponds to the militants in all the structures so that the commitments are fulfilled. "We are mobilizing that vanguard army that makes up our militancy, from all levels."
Transformative vision
Referring to the priorities of the economy, he specified that work is being done on a group of aspects, among which he highlighted the macroeconomic stabilization program, and the promotion of local food production and marketing.
Joint; comprehensiveness; systematicity to follow the implementation of measures; solution of the most immediate problems with a transforming vision, were some of the concepts on which the President insisted in order to solve the current problems that exist in society with a sense of urgency.
"We are in a fight against time, this is not to wait, this is the daily fight and with a political will to reach decisions fully," he reflected.
Regarding the direction of work, associated with social care, he explained that the first thing that must be taken into account is that "serious economic difficulties cannot lead us to accommodate ourselves, nor can they become a justification for not doing everything possible to take care of the main social conquests of the Revolution. The people would not forgive us."
"There are many things that do not go through material issues, but human will," he acknowledged.
To promote social work aimed at families and people in vulnerable situations, with the concept not of welfare, but of social transformation; to implement the youth care policy, a sector that must be treated differently; as well as to fight a strong battle against corruption, crime and social indiscipline, the president also commented.
Regarding the direction corresponding to institutional strengthening, he said that it is something that must be carried out at the level of the Party, People's Power and the Government, because the performance of each of them defines the actions of the Revolution.
Among those essential concepts that each one of them should promote, he stressed that the nucleus of the Party is the space that is distinguished by deep, critical, intelligent, committed and contributing analysis, that projects solutions, that calls for the participation of workers , that pays attention to all matters and that promotes confidence, transformation, improvement, improvement, growth and credibility in what we do; that the improvement in the municipalities of structures, cadres and work systems be a day-to-day priority; that the deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power maintain a permanent link with the base, which will make it possible to bring the issues of the popular agenda to their work agenda, and that the Government improve governance, with a work system that responds to the priorities and strategies of the country in the issues that most affect the people and to eliminate the vision of immobility and mistrust in the population.
Díaz-Canel also referred to the work with the cadres, as part of which special attention must be paid to their selection and completion, defining a clear strategy to achieve it.
In his speech, he also reflected on the ideological strengthening that, summed up in a few words, he explained, is "a program against cultural colonization that is the basis of what they want to impose on us with political-ideological subversion."
President Díaz-Canel emphasized the importance of demonstrating the real impact that the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the Government of the United States has on our society.
Then he recalled the difficult moments of confrontation with COVID-19, in which "the North American administration was viciously merciless with this town," he said, referring to everything they did to prevent oxygen, vaccines, and also the necessary lung ventilators.
"So they were evil, brutal, genocidal... and they are most to blame for the things that happen to us, because they have been merciless with this Revolution and with this people." That is the enemy we have, the President declared.