Citizen Consultations on Cuba’s Future

The meetings will analyze documents of the 7th Communist Party Congress

HAVANA TIMES – Millions of Cubans are summoned from today until September 20 to discuss the documents adopted last April at the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), texts considered of “vital importance” to the country’s future, dpa reported.

Discussions will focus on finding a consensus among the population on the economic and social model for the country in the coming years. However a discussion on the political model is not contemplated as keeping the PCC as the only permitted party on the island is a given.

The content of the document “is synthesized in the Vision of the Nation, defined as a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable country”, says a Granma newspaper editorial on Wednesday.

The people invited to the discussion of the documents will be the members of the PCC and the Union of Young Communists (UJC), together with representatives of the official mass organizations and “broad sectors of society.”

The PCC Congress is the most important political body on the island and the documents mark the political, social and economic life of the country, says Granma.

Before the Congress took place in April there were many criticisms made because the documents were not discussed beforehand, neither by the Party members and much less the general population, something that did take place before the previous PCC Congress held in 2011.

Initially, the text of the VII Congress documents was prepared with the participation of university professors, researchers and academics, along with communist leaders and officials.

Subsequently, the documents were discussed at meetings of the 17-member Politburo, the decision making body of the Party, and reportedly approved unanimously by the Congress made up by a thousand delegates.

Starting today, citizens will discuss two texts, that of “Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model for Socialist Development” and the “National Economic and Social Development Plan through 2030.”

In order to facilitate access to the documents the Party printed 680,800 copies in a 32-page tabloid to be distributed without cost and another 200,000 to be put on sale.

“Faced with this broad national discussion there will be no shortage of enemies, skeptics and those indecisive to echo the slander campaigns made from abroad against the Party and the Revolution, by those who dream of returning to a society subject to the desire of the Yanks,” noted Granma.”

The opinions expressed in the meetings will be recorded and the final version of the documents will be submitted for final approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and then sent to the National Assembly to grant them legal status.