Getting the Party to be made up of the most patriotic and communist people, those who really feel this Revolution and are willing to do for it, as well as working on the quality of the growth processes in the party ranks, were some of the topics debated for the militants on this day of the conclave, the newspaper Granma publishes.
How to make the Party exercise better its vanguard condition that the Revolution needs? How to strengthen the bond with the people, care for young people and the role of mass organizations? How to develop an ideological and political work of greater depth and scope? What do we need to do in this regard?
These were questions that, without lukewarm cloths and in a critical way, led the debate of the militants of Commission 2, dedicated to the functioning and ideological work of the Party, regarding the fulfillment of the Resolution of the 7th. Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), and which was led by José Ramón Machado Ventura, Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC.
From the sustained exchange with the delegates in the provinces, Machado Ventura pointed out, there was a coincidence in the assessments regarding the Report. However, 153 modification proposals were made, he added.
Some of these proposals, he referred, make mention of the prohibitions to solve problems and difficulties, in addition to the need to improve partisan work in the current circumstances, topics that, although they are addressed in the central document, the delegates have proposed that they be approved as part of the Resolution issued by this commission.
Regarding the need to work on the quality of growth processes, Regina María Balaguer, delegate from Camagüey, commented: «The best are not always recruited, and later we realize that these people do not have the moral, ethical, political and revolutionary conditions to be in the Party. It is necessary to do a conscientious work, from the base, from the pioneer organizations and the Young Communists League (UJC) ».
The processes have to be deeper, so that our Party is truly made up of the most patriotic and communist people, those who truly feel this Revolution and are going to carry out our process, reflected the also general director of the Ballet of that province.
In relation to these issues, the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC expressed that we must insist both on the quality and preparation of the militants, as well as on the selection of the quarry that resides, fundamentally, in those who today are in the ranks of the UJC.
We must grow more with the youth, taking into account, in addition, that there are fewer and fewer young people, due to the country’s own demographic trend, he reiterated. “Therein lies the challenge, and efforts have to be directed along that path, which, in turn, demands a more exquisite and differentiated work.”
«If there is no accompaniment, a joint mobilization, if we do not adjust to the times in which Cuban youth communicate and socialize, if there is no political-ideological work where the Party and other factors converge, we cannot sit down and demand or say that youth is lost, because it is not.
Today our young people are in tasks of impact, as volunteers in isolation centers, in the red zones, caring for the vulnerable, and that speaks of their human quality and commitment “, commented Anabel Naranjo Paz, member of the Central Committee and professor of the Oscar Lucero Moya University.
However, the challenge is great, according to several delegates. Young people are not always given the opportunity to be part of administrative functions, to direct, depending on their abilities, projects that are of interest to the country.
The UJC has to be that safe quarry from which the Party is nurtured, said Aylín Álvarez García, second secretary of the National Committee of said organization. “When we talk about the training process, the work with the rank and file, it cannot be analyzed only when the militant reaches the age limit to remain in the ranks of the UJC. From the outset, our young people have to be aware that they are joining the Party’s youth organization. ‘
Based on this, we have to turn towards strengthening our structures, said Álvarez García. Nor is it about mobilizing or participating just by doing it, but that participation is part of the essence of that young communist, who in the future may or may not become a member of the party organization, but he has to be attached to that feeling of patriotism and to do something for the Revolution every day, he stressed.
Another front that young people have to star in the ideological battle and defend the principles in which we believe are social networks. “And to that virtual space – he insisted – we have to take everything our organization does, even if it seems to us everyday or inconsequential, because it is not, like the young man who receives his UJC card in front of an oven at 1 o’clock: 00 am, in a continuous production center. This also speaks to us of commitment.
ALL SPACES ARE PROPER TO EXERCISE THE MILITANCY
The best social networks for Cubans have been created by the Revolution, and they are the organizations and institutions that we have, although there is a need to increasingly renew our work in the digital space, said Víctor Fidel Gaute López, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party and delegate to Congress for the province of Matanzas.
He argued that what has happened in these five years has been a true transformation in terms of that struggle in digital spaces. “Currently, we have the task of paying attention to the content in those scenarios, participating with forceful arguments. If there is something that will come from this Congress, it will be the intensification of work and activism in digital spaces.
He also stressed that it is not a question of having more resources, but of the rational use of those that exist to fight the fight effectively, to fight with initiative.
He recalled, for example, that universities have observatories of what happens in digital life, while all students and teachers have access to the internet and training. So if we know where the enemy is coming from, we have to have a strong answer. It is a battle to which we must dedicate time, thought, to properly manage that content.
Likewise, he recognized the work of young people, who have mastery, skills and place their content in the digital space very naturally.
In the opinion of Yailin Orta Rivera, delegate from Havana and director of the Granma newspaper, the Revolution is a feeling, but to form that system of values in the social subject requires an environment of training and growth that encourages it, from the beginning. family, school, institutions, community, organizations, in short, from the various socialization environments.
“But it happens that in contemporaneity the challenge is added that life is also projected on social networks, spaces in which the predominant culture is capitalist, so that some Cuban, faced with this challenging scenario, could feel inhibited to manifest the principles that oppose this globalized force, “he stressed.
This constitutes, he said, a dimension of the projection of militancy, which should reinforce their preparation so as not to feel at a disadvantage with respect to that reality and the ways of acting and thinking that are shown in those spaces, especially because what they intend enemies is that we feel ashamed of being communists.
For that reason, he clarified, for a militant to consolidate, in the midst of all this dynamics, the system of values that we defend, in which the “I” is not weighted, but rather works for the collective interest, while the Personal purposes also find fulfillment, it is essential to look at the responsibility that the Party and other organizations have, in the conduct of such processes.
“In each place, among all revolutionaries, we must think about how to improve our daily lives, and not defend things in the abstract; We need to change the mental states influenced by the stigmas and stereotypes that they want to impose on us, and thus have more strength to face the cultural war that capitalism poses to socialism, in a pulse that has found more power with the use of technologies that rule the empire”, he warned.
For his part, Yoerky Sánchez Cuellar, delegate from Villa Clara and director of the Juventud Rebelde newspaper, also a member of the Central Committee, pointed out that we have to strengthen, as militants, revolutionary activism on the internet, not only by orientation, but by conviction. .
In that space, he added, we have many challenges. “We cannot allow our Homeland or Death to be stolen from us, but neither our Homeland and Life, which is still ours.”
The delegate for the capital, Miguel Ángel Barnet Lanza, honorary president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), and member of the Central Committee of the Party, also spoke on behalf of the intellectuals, to reaffirm their commitment to the tasks of the Revolution, and deny the campaigns mounted on social networks.
«We have always been at the side of this great cause; let neither friend nor enemy make mistakes. The vast majority of writers and artists have always supported the Revolution. Make no mistake about social networks, no matter how immense and efficient they seem to be. The Revolution is carried in the heart ».
And if it is about important spaces, the delegate Jesús Cabrera Iglesias, general secretary of the zonal nucleus 105, in Havana, brought up the fundamental work in the communities. “We know that the ideological work of the Party to be carried out in the communities is crucial, because that is where we live together, where our family members live, where we have faced all our struggles, including natural disasters, for example.”
In another manner, Bolivia Tamara Cruz Martínez, member of the Central Committee and president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba in Villa Clara, alluded to the role of the Party in information and social communication policy in the country, as well as to the attention to the press media, in tune with the challenges of the ideological struggle.
On this, she commented on the call that, in the morning hours of this Friday, the Army General made in relation to what the press should do and, from there, channel that action that is asked of us, starting with the role that we can play from social networks in the political-ideological battle.
She praised that in these times of COVID-19, young journalists have “taken by storm” our media to, with the verb, defend socialism and the Homeland. “We tell Raúl that our journalists are going to be, were and will always be at the side of the Party, Fidel and our socialist Revolution”, a criterion that she shared with two other colleagues delegated to the meeting.
THE INTERNAL LIFE OF THE PARTY: WHERE THE REVOLUTIONARY SOUL IS FORGED
Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, who participates in the conclave as a delegate from Villa Clara, and is also a member of the Executive Bureau of the Provincial Committee of the PCC, stressed that strengthening the internal life of the Party is to bring that nucleus, that primary committee, to this center committee, the main deficiencies that affect the workplace and articulate, together, the proposals and decisions that lead to a positive transformation.
We have seen this with better intention in this last period, although there are still shortcomings and we are not always able to clarify what are the issues that urgently need to be addressed in the meetings, nor are the daily affairs of the workers addressed in these meetings.
He urged, like other delegates, that it is necessary to bet efforts and achieve that harmonious transition from the militancy of the UJC to the militancy of the Party that, in the end, will allow the idea of this Congress to be expressed, “that there is continuity, that there is unity between all these generations, so that we do not go alone, gradually, rejuvenating the ranks of the Party, but, among all, proposing, discussing the path that corresponds to the Party to play in each of the places.
In this sense, Machado Ventura referred to the importance of linking non-militant workers more in the work that the Party does, which is also a way for them to know what is being discussed in these meetings, what problems are discussed, to learn more of our internal life and feel that, in this way, you can channel your criteria, be heard.
Another of the topics analyzed in the day was the role of the first Party secretary in the territories, not as a passive entity behind the desk, but as someone who knows what is happening in their environment, and channels the pertinent actions to achieve this transformation that the people and the Party seek and need.
Only then will we be able to strip the organization of that formality that hurts us so much, only then will we really be thinking as a country, which is nothing more than ratifying the concept of unity and continuity, said Calixto Alejandro Santiesteban Ávila, first secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Party in Bayamo.
On the other hand, Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, delegate from Havana and member of the Central Committee, referred to the fact that, although the objectives of the First Party Conference are fully valid, the times are not the same, therefore, they must be adapted to the current moments.
The member of the Executive Bureau of the Provincial Committee of the Party in the capital also recalled that, from the 1st. Congress of the PCC, all the militants of that stage agreed that they were facing a great challenge, which was faced not only by those belonging to their ranks, but by the entire people. “That challenge continues, so every day you have to put your will, intelligence, do new things, but keep what has gone well and give it continuity.”
The delegate she elaborated on the role of the militants when a growth process is going to begin, essentially, in the clarification of what military means in a communist party.
He explained that, beyond the amount of growth, we must pay attention to the quality of the processes, and to ensure that all young people with conditions, and those over 21 years of age, aspire to be Party members, because in Havana only there are 7% of the militants aged up to 35 years.
In another order, he pointed out the importance of history, which is increasingly moving away from the new generations, so it is the responsibility, from the nuclei, to bring it to the young, since training is also cultural, ideological and historical, and not only useful for the new generations, but for all Party members.
Deivy Pérez Martín, delegated by Sancti Spíritus and first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, referred to the need for the application of new concepts for the care of grassroots organizations by higher bodies, especially the municipal committees of the PCC, as well as strengthening the autonomy of the former.
In relation to this matter, he considered that, in the time that has elapsed since the establishment of this purpose, the functioning of the Party has achieved superior results, and it has been possible to have a greater scope in the responsibility of the grassroots organizations when facing the challenges of their environment, based on exemplary, combativeness and rigor in the face of political processes.
Moreover, she pointed out that it is evident that in the evaluation of these results we have to continue insisting on the preparation of the cadres and secretaries in that first instance, in order to direct the work and plan on the priorities imposed by the territory.
“If, when defining the priority, our first secretaries of the municipal committees are not well prepared or are not clear about the responsibility that officials have in the instructive and educational task of that militancy or group, we cannot advance on the purpose and the goodness that the system gives us. The current situation imposes challenges on us day by day and, therefore, we have to ensure that the secretaries have that strength.
The debate in Commission 2 was also chaired by the members of the Political Bureau Roberto Morales Ojeda, vice prime minister; Teresa Amarelle Boué, Secretary General of the Cuban Women Federation; Ramón Espinosa Martín, vice minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and Marta Ayala Ávila, general director of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
Also leading the meeting, in addition to Víctor Gaute, were the other members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee Omar Ruiz Martín, head of the Department of Industry and Construction, and Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, head of the Department of Education, Science and Sports.