A report from the 5th Observatorio Critico forum in Havana. This year the event was promoted as a Cuban Social Forum bringing together diverse groups and individuals from across Cuba to meet, discuss and work together on the formation of a supportive activist network of made up of self-managed/non-state aligned autonomous organizations and projects in Cuba.
Translated from Spanish @ Foro Social Cubano 2011 en marcha
March 26, 2011, kicked off the first day of the 5th Cuban Social Forum, in the working class Havana neighborhood of Cocosolo. The forum was convened by the Critical Observatory Activist Network.
Red Protagónica Observatorio Crítico
In the headquarters of the self-managed community project Cocosolo Social Club, 60 social activists, writers, artists, cultural promoters, professors, researchers, journalists, bloggers and community leaders met to dialogue about the Cuban and global reality, from revolutionary and critical perspectives. They also worked to formulate proposals about emanicpatory social change. The forum also hosted The International Anti-Capitalist and Emerging Social Trends Working Group, a part of the Latin American Social Sciences Council (CLACSO) and the Living The Revolution Workshop.
Topics discussed on the first day included the political agenda around gender and LGBT issues, local development, changes in the economic model of Cuba, institutional responsibilities and procedures vs. self-organization and liberty, self-management and cooperatives, social use of the internet in Cuba and the impact of new technology in the culture, blogs, audiovisual and media space, the culture of violence and competition, mental health, education and the use of genetically modified organisms.
For the first time this annual meeting, previously organized by Critical Observatory, was self-managed. The conference transcended the narrow framework of an academic event on critical and socio-cultural research (at that time, under the auspices of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz). Organizers have worked intensely to meet with the objectives layed out in the first Critical Observatory in 2006, which included the creation of a activist network supportive of autonomist projects and the gradual transformation of the annual convention into a real Social Forum.
The first day of the forum culminated with a Hip Hop concert by the Eskuadrón Patriota project.
Comments
I am curious, especially
I am curious, especially taken into consideration the experiences in transforming economies (so-called post-communist), what the economic ideas of these people are, their relation to market economies and how they see the roles of self-management and cooperatives. In some transforming economies the idea of self-management and cooperatives were integrated into the idea of market economies, albeit it usually not the neoliberal reality, but some mythical libertarian fantasy.
I am surprised, rather
I am surprised, rather pleasantly surprised, to read all this. I wonder, how do Cuban state and party authorities react to this initiative? Do they let it proceed unhindered? Put obstactles in its way? Or maybe try to coopt it? Or do they just ignore it?
@ akai: A few of the people
@ akai: A few of the people from the observatorio network have written on their vision of how Cuba could transform their economy and integrate cooperative/self management structures. Obviously the economic reforms being proposed by the state are not in line with this. The major reforms include legalizing small businesses, requiring that any new business employ at least one person (apparently to absorb the 500,000 people the state recently laid off), providing loans to small businesses and heavy taxation/regulation.
Here are some articles on the subject, for additional articles you can search this site (Havana Times) which translates many essays into english. There is debate within the network around this issue of how to restructure the economy, which elements of the system are useful and which should be discarded etc.... There is allot of debate, but I think these articles will give you a sense of the dialogue that is occurring among some in Cuba:
The Future of a Monumental Institution:
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=24170
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=24228
Cuban Society Will Break Free from the Prison of the State: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=35092
Freeing the productive forces (3 parts):
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=29958
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=29810
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=28085
What Cuba's reforms may bring:
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=35917
Self-Employment & Private Capitalism: Not the Same Thing:
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=31395
Debate Must Address Bigger Problems
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=15258
@rooieravotr: Here is a
@rooieravotr: Here is a statement that touches on your question. Open Letter Condemning Recent Obstructions and Prohibitions of Social and Cultural Initiatives.
They mention a few events :
Omni Zona Franca:
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=17167
March Against Violence:
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=16088
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=16204
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“When they came looking for the Jews, I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew; When they came looking for the communists, I did not speak out—because I was not a communist; When they came looking for the trade unionists, I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came looking for me—but there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemöller
Only a little time after the exhaustive "public" analysis of the "gray" period in recent history, the scent of a possible re-pavonization is in the air once again.* Without intending to attribute universal responsibilities to any specific person or institution, we have taken note of a series of actions that have slowly created a new climate of bureaucratic-authoritarian control and the obstruction of social initiatives. Each episode taken separately calls to mind the well-known cultural practices of the 1970s. Here we summarize some of the cases we know best:
* The obstruction of the participation of a group of comrades who carried environmental and independent socialist placards to the May Day parade of 2008; some of these comrades were later fired from their jobs;
* The prohibition of a student space where political and social issues important to our country could be debated (from a Socialist perspective), initially recognized by the Philosophy Department of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (INSTEC), culminating in the expulsion of a student from the University Student Federation (FEU) and the firing of a professor from said Institute;
* The firing of various workers from their jobs and the political organizations where they were active for having received and/or published friendly proposals and criticisms at the digital space "Kaos en la Red" (socialist and counter-hegemonic); with the allegation that workers were engaging in an inappropriate use of the web;
* The continued exclusion of underground Hip-Hop artists from public spaces, performance venues, and the mass media, along with police persecution of some of these artists;
* The obstruction of the free entry of the public to the most recent of the "Último Jueves" (Last Thrusday) open debate sessions, organized by Temas magazine;
* Obstruction, detentions, and impediments of participation in the march/performance against violence anonymously held on November 6, 2009;
* Pressure applied on the Esquife project, the organizer of the "Encuentro Teórico Medios Digitales y Cultura" (Theoretical Meeting of Digital Media and Culture), and a demand to control public access to the event;
* A repudiation attack, in the presence of police and ambulances, against the autonomous project OMNI-Zona Franca and their expulsion from the site they had occupied for the past 10 years in the Fayad Jamís Gallery of Alamar, along with the end of support for the "Festival Poesia Sin Fin" (Pointless Poetry Festival) from state culture officials;
* The firing of two employees at Television Granma on the charge that they had transmitted “pornographic material” (a cutting-edge video clip that had won various awards in events sponsored by ICAIC), an act that provoked an official protest from the provincial UNEAC.
Each of these instances share a common element. They are actions that originate from the world of “official institutions” and are deployed against cultural initiatives characterized by their activist commitment on behalf of an autonomous solidarity. We are very worried about the possibility that these kind of incorrect and sterilizing actions could represent a more general policy. We see in them the resurgence of a way of thinking that we believed had been abandoned in the cultural life of our country.
We are against this kind of silent repression that is impacting projects and people whose only “error” has been to carry out organic initiatives not previously “dictated from on high.”
If capitalism is the power of capital over everyday people, then we are against capitalism, and if “socialism” is the power of a bureaucracy over the rest of society, then we are also against that kind of “socialism”. However, socialism doesn't have to be that. The socialism that excites us is the kind of project that socializes –that is, shares– all its resources, where we all have equal access to exercise power; and no one should conclude from this that we are mere utopians: a number of such homes and collectives already exist that make real these kind of practices.
The growing policy of conceiving of anyone who thinks or acts differently from what has been deemed “acceptable” as “dissidents,” “mercenaries,” or “counter-revolutionaries” has absolutely no impact on the real counter-revolution, whose image is only strengthened by this tendency to cede very little space for authentic socialist criticism under the tired justification “you're either with me or against me.” When we refuse to respect a diversity of opinions we only succeed in weakening the unity of the revolutionary process.
The only way to avoid the terrible consequences that we anticipate is to promote cultural dialogue, respect autonomy, and allow greater opportunities for self-organized and self-managed projects and persons to emerge in our society. It is also necessary to recognize that the current situation demands a new type of connection among Cuban political and cultural actors, especially given the irreversible emergence of new digital technologies and the subsequent impossibility of keeping our country isolated beneath a "bell jar.”
Under current circumstances, it is essential for us to make a great effort and even take risks using all necessary means in order to safeguard the achievements of our project of social liberation. Once again in our time the words of Martin Luther King exhibit their value and relevance, "Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Convenience asks the question: Is it politic? And vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one has to take a stand not because it is safe, politic, or popular; but because it is right."
This declaration rejects any intent to silence people or projects that work toward a social transformation bringing about a "world where other worlds are possible." Revolution and culture only make sense if they are synonymous with criticism and creation.
Written by Observatorio Crítico, December 25, 2009
New information on red
New information on red observatorio critico can be found: http://observatoriocriticodesdecuba.wordpress.com/