It is the People Who Decide - Granma editorial on 6th Communist Party Congress
News from Cuba | Monday, 6 December 2010
The process of discussions on the Draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution begins today, December 1st, and runs until February 28, at every PCC organization, workplace and union across the country's municipalities and provinces.
What does this discussion process mean?
It means the Cuban people's participation in the 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), scheduled to take place in the last two weeks in April, 2011, and the opportunity for everyone to speak their minds freely, without constraints of any kind.
No one should keep opinions to themselves and, let alone, forbid anyone from expressing their criteria out loud. The PCC demands the absolute transparency of its grassroots organizations; it dictates that analyses are carried out in the clearest way possible in order to attend to every doubt and dissatisfaction that might come up within the core organization of the Revolution.
Playing a role in forging the future of the nation is a right of every Cuban, considered the most fundamental exercise of socialist democracy; and an irrefutable indicator of the honesty that characterizes the Cuban Revolution and of the inextricable link it has with the Cuban people.
And it has to be the people who decide, because it is the future of the nation at stake. We will only achieve this purpose by safeguarding and developing the social system we have built and consolidated ever since the historic Cuban victory over the US-led mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs; ever since we ratified the socialist nature of the revolution and the irrevocability of our political and social systems, as acknowledged in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.
On November 8, during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Cuba-Venezuela Integral Cooperation Agreement, Cuban President RaÃ?l Castro Ruz announced the forthcoming 6th Congress of the PCC, and pointed out the lines of work to be followed: "The Congress is not only the summoning of a PCC delegates meeting, but also the process of discussion prior to it by the PCC membership and the people in general regarding the new economic and social guidelines soon to be implemented by the organization. For this reason, the 6th PCC Congress will be a congress of the PCC members and the Cuban people, whose opinions will be unmistakably taken into account when planning for the future of the country and the revolution.
The debates commencing today are the quintessence of the principle of our Revolution: in this process, it is the people who decide."
