Socialist Press?

By Esteban Diaz

I like to read the press as often as I can, but when I haven’t had time, I try to get information about the latest events from friends who have daily access to the newspapers.

In order of my preferences there’s Orbe, a weekly bulletin edited by Prensa Latina; Trabajadores (Workers);Juventud Rebelde (published by the Young Communist League; and Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party.

The Cuban press predominantly features the achievements of these 50 years of revolution, plus recurring mentions of the revolutionary leaders’ historic actions.

While it’s true that the historic memory of a people must always be kept fresh in order to avoid falling into amnesia, you also can’t turn a blind eye to those events that concern current Cuban society.

How is it possible that in Cuba, a country run by the working class, there is nothing to reflect the lifestyle of working families, in the factories, farms and in their homes?

How can it be that the press, above all Trabajadores, offers no reflection of the economic situation of the workers’ salaries, referring to the abyss that exists between their buying power and the exorbitant prices of most merchandise, and instead only announces the great success of the national economy?

How is it possible that there is such notable deterioration of workers’ homes, as well as of the streets and highways, but these important details are not discussed in the people’s press?

As a minimum, the press should publicize that in the City of Havana the retired get up early in the morning to buy the newspapers for 20 Cuban cents in order to resell them later at a 1 peso each.  This isn’t due to the individual greed of these old people, but to their economic necessity and society’s abandonment of its senior citizens.

I believe that informing society about its most immediate problems is a way to strengthen the revolution that is permanently present in a society that aims toward socialism and that at the same time calls for the participation of the entire population in resolving its needs.

I end with a quote from an intellectual who was always at the disposition of the masses:

“The emancipation of the workers is their own work.” Karl Marx