The debate at the 6th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party held on Tuesday was wide-ranging, intense and complex. In the heat of these analyses, which tackled the main issues of current concern to the Cuban people, the First Secretary of the Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, insisted on the need to "move from speech to action".
As the Head of State himself recognized “the road is full of challenges and adversities that we have 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 to resist and create at the same time.”
Hence his considerations on the importance of the analysis that this Plenary Meeting carried out on "an issue as important as the state of compliance with the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution", in an extraordinarily complex scenario that has been worsening in recent times, "causing deterioration of infrastructure, shortages, hardships and also social deterioration."
In the last few months -he said- a group of situations have become more complex, especially power generation issues and fuel deficit, and "as political leaders and public servants we cannot rest until we overcome this wear and tear".
He then spoke of the people's states of opinion in which they reflect their dissatisfaction "with what we do and have done, with the measures their implementation".
Hence the enormous challenge we all have, as a Party and as a Government, to urgently direct our work towards overcoming the complex economic and social situation the country is going through, with an integral and demanding political assurance from the Party, which triggers the understanding and participation of the people, strengthens unity, raises hope, causes the improvement of the work of the National Assembly of People's Power, and favors a swift and effective management of the Government, from the local level to the nation, he said.
WORK PRIORITIES
In view of the challenging circumstances that define today's actions in the country, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party considered that there are five work priorities: "economic development, social attention, institutional strengthening, work with political activists, and ideological strengthening".
Regarding the economic development, he said that in the battle "that we have to fight at this moment, the national security of the country is at stake, because it has a direct impact on strategic fronts such as the social and ideological ones.
We have not been inactive or stood idly, we have approved and implemented many measures, actions, the question is in how strict we have been in their political and administrative assurance, in their concretion, without ignoring that many of these measures to start them, to advance in them, to be able to implement them, regulate them and even apply them gradually and expand them, most of them need components in foreign currency which we have not had, he stated.
As part of these actions, he mentioned the most recent tour around the country, which sought to "encouraging, from each territory, the presentation of a strategy to make this year better, based on their components, their strengths, potentialities, purposes and plans."
This, he said, was a "broad, inclusive planning exercise, consulting the talent of each territory", which now leads us to further creating consensus that allows us to appreciate and check what has been done.
"This is part of our conception to move forward, to resist and defeat the blockade, with our own efforts, from all the potentialities we have to exploit as a country, but starting from the territorial level, to improve the quality of life of the people.
"It has been a critical and self-critical process, without complacency. However, in "all the provinces we have seen progress and favorable results, compared to January as a starting point, in a discrete group of indicators, and in many a better situation compared to the same period of 2022, but this without complacency," he assured.
"We are neither satisfied nor do we consider that it is enough while those results are not expressed in a noticeable improvement in the quality of life of our people, expressed in higher food production, lower inflation, higher quality of services, just to mention some of the items we are evaluating", he stressed.
He then commented on the very good examples that can be seen in many parts of the country, which ratify that it is possible to have better results.
In these examples, he said, "we have seen the management capacity of producers and managers, the will and perseverance to avoid being crushed by circumstances, people who have been willing to overcome adversity and have succeeded, and we have seen the use of existing potential.
These people, he emphasized, have been "as blocked as others, and have achieved these results under the same conditions of others. Those are the ones who are defying the blockage, those who are carrying forward the creative resistance, those who should inspire us."
TO OVERCOME THE BLOCKADE WITHOUT ITS LIFTING
The President also commented on the effort, determination, incentive and will that can be seen in many places to overcome this difficult situation, and insisted once again that we are all called upon to "overcome the blockade without its lifting; and to overcome it from the local level, as we are asking, requires perseverance, work, dedication and a sense of belonging, not from some, but from all of us".
Hence his emphasis on the need to take advantage of the potential of the territories to produce our own food, and to continue promoting municipal autonomy, where each municipality produces what it needs.
The President insisted on issues like idle land, the deficit in production contracts, the urgent need to strengthen the state enterprise from production, as well as to solve the excessive chain of brokers in the food trade, which is having an impact on the existence of high prices.
TRANSFORMING VISION
Referring to the priorities of the economy, he specified that work is being carried out in a group of aspects, with emphasis on the macroeconomic stabilization program and the promotion of local food production and its commercialization.
Articulation, integrality, 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 racing against time, this cannot wait, this is the daily fight and with a political will to reach decisions integrally", he reflected.
Regarding the direction of labor, associated with social attention, he stated that the first thing to be considered is that "the serious economic difficulties cannot lead us to inactivity, 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 for that.
"Many things that are not limited by material issues, but because of human will," he acknowledged.
He also mentioned the need to strengthen social work aimed at families and people in vulnerable situations, with the concept of social transformation rather than welfare; to implement the policy of youth care, a sector that should be treated differently; as well as to wage a strong battle against corruption, crime and social indiscipline.
Among those essential concepts that each one of them must strengthen, he emphasized that the Party nuclei should be the space that is distinguished by the deep, critical, intelligent, committed and contributing analysis, that projects solutions, that calls for the participation of workers addressing all issues and promoting, by example, trust, transformation, development, improvement, growth and credibility in what we do; That the improvement in the municipalities of structures, political activists and work systems be a daily priority; that the deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power maintain a continuous connection with the grassroot, which will allow them to take to their work agenda the issues of the popular 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 that eliminates the vision of immobility and distrust in the population.
Díaz-Canel also referred to the work with activists, 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 considered the ideological strengthening which, summed up in a few words: "a program against cultural colonization which 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 on our society of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government.
He then recalled the difficult moments of the COVID-19 confrontation, in which "the US administration was perverse with this people," he said, alluding to everything they did to prevent oxygen, vaccines and also the necessary lung ventilators from reaching the island.
"So, they were evil, brutal, genocidal... and they do bear most of the blame for the things that are happening to us, because they have been cruel to this Revolution and to this people". That is the enemy we have, said the President.
