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By TOM MORRIS

Cuban Communist Party Con-
- 4-7 was extraordinary in sev-
Ways: First, it’s not over, and will
ude its work nine months from

The 3rd

now,
In the hands of the 1,784 delegates rep-

| Tsenting the Party’s 524,000 members,

'Sthe draft of the new Party Program and

od development plan for the widest
ee Ssion throughout the country. Both
he Ments will be finalized and adopted
n the Congress re-convenes in
Cember.
. ooecond, the development of Cuba’s
«0 €conomic base in the 27 years
Tevolution’s triumph in 1959,
a Fidel Castro in his report to the
Mist bey to State, “The apprentice stage
ne. eft behind once and for all. The
aS Come to fully apply the enorm-

Ous .
Xperience and know-how accumu-

lated over the years*of the revolution.
This implies absolute dedication and sel-
flessness ...”’

Castro began his detailed report on
Cuba’s progress since its last congress in
1981 with an examination of the coun-
try’s social and economic development.
This he called ‘‘one of our most prolific
and successful periods.”’

With the gross national product grow-
ing at 7.3 per cent, industrial production
by 8.8 per cent, wages up by 26.4 per
cent, labor productivity up 5.2 per cent
yearly, Cuba has much to celebrate.
Branch by branch of Cuban industry
were reported on — sugar, agriculture,
basic industry, electronics, _construc-
tion, transport and communications,
food, fisheries, retail trade, tourism ...

Public health, Cuba’s pride, showed a
marked increase in personnel and
facilities. Today among the world’s best,
health care over the next period will
achieve the goal: ‘‘No matter where the
citizen is, a doctor will be there.”

Similarly in education. A complete
system now operates enabling 80 per
cent of five year-olds, 100 per cent six to
12 year-olds and 87 per cent of children
13 to 16 to attend school. Higher educa-
tion, vocational training and special
schools are’ in place. Teacher training
programs are extensive: enrolment in
teachers’ colleges reached 107,000 in the
1985-86 academic year — a 77 per cent
increase over five years ago. The cam-
paign for all adults to achieve at least a

grade nine education was successfully
completed. In this respect, any com-
parison with the rest of Latin America is
unthinkable. .

The Cuban leader reported similar
strides in culture and the development of
Cuba’s science and technology. He told
the delegates and 258 journalists cover-
ing the congress that mass participation

Revolutionary confidence
and high fighting morale

in sports and physical education in-
creased by 43 per cent since 1981 and, as
an offshoot, top level athletics in Cuba
has reached a point ‘‘we could not have
dreamed of in the revolution’s early
days.”

Under. ‘‘deficiencies and shortcom-
ings,’ the report was frank: ‘‘We must
call them by their name,’’ Castro told the
delegates and the country. ‘‘Our work is
far from its best.”

Singled out was the “‘sluggish’’ export
of Cuban goods and services and their
import substitution. ‘Absolute priority
must be all those investments which re-
sult in savings on imports from the hard
currency area or which generate imports
to that area,”’ he said.

He pointed to some objective prob-
lems, including world sugar prices which
have hit a century low, a devastating

hurricane last November which caused-

heavy agricultural losses and a drought in
three of the past five years.

But he also singled out subjective fac-
tors: cases of underuse of materials and
manpower, deficiencies and weaknesses
in-economic management and planning

as serious problems needing immediate ~

attention. ‘‘We have been increasingly
aware of the difficulties, obstacles and
deficiencies that can and must be over-
come, and especially of the need to do

“more efficient, energetic and sustained

work,”’ he told the Congress and the en-
tire country which followed all sessions
live on television.

Castro projected ambitious targets for
1986-1990: a five per cent annual growth
rate, reduction of petroleum consump-
tion by 10 per cent, higher labor produc-
tivity, a 15 per cent increase in sugar
production, doubling citrus fruit produc-
tion. Housing, power generation, oil
extraction, steel and machine industry
will grow, as will electronics, tobacco,

CASTRO: “The time has come to fully

apply the enormous experience and
know-how accumulated over the years of
the Revolution. This implies absolute de-
dication and selflessness ...”

fishing, textiles, and all forms of con-
sumer goods.

Virtually no area was left unmen-
tioned. Details for improvements in
health, education, cultural facilities all
placed high in the report's
“Development Strategy to the Year
2000°’. E

That “‘the apprentice stage”’ is over
and socialism consolidated in Cuba is
crystal clear. The Communist Party’s
prestige and role as the Cuban people’s
vanguard party might be summed up in
this comment by Fidel:

“Each congress should be an en-
couraging review of what has been done,
a vehement criticism of what has been
left undone, and an optimistic and. resol- -
ute projection into the future, confident
of our revolutionary strength, our
fighting morale and the immense popu-
larity of socialism.

‘We harbor no fear of pointing out
shortcomings, nor of proclaiming the
great achievements of our revolution or
our deep-seated, unshakeable con-
fidence in the future.”

!| INTERNATIONAL FO

CUS Tom Morris

Pity those
Poor dictators
What to do with used up, de-

Sed dictat
emba Ors seems to be an

TTassing preoccupation in-
a and Washington these

his Baby Doc” Duvalier and
retinue of hangers-on,

squirrelled away in a French
-Chalet, are causing problems
for both the French External
Relations Ministry and the
U.S. State Department. He’s

- something of a hot potato.
‘‘He came here in a U.S.
plane,’’ said French official,
‘‘and we would like the Ameri-
cans to take charge of the

COMMUNISTS KILLED

1, OF COURSE MRS.

AQVINO GETS
ELECTION SUPPORT

FRoM THE COMMUNIST S.

-» AM I GOING TOO

nv AND THED THE

SENATOR AQUINO.

HER.

FAST FOR YOU?

Baby.’’ Just a day earlier,
France had planned to put
Duvalier & Co. on a U.S.-
bound aircraft, but

Washington countered by
declaring Baby Doc an

‘undesirable alien’’.

Reagan’s snub is puzzling:
why, then, did the U.S. pro-
vide Duvalier with two aircraft
to flee Haiti (one for his family
another for his wealth)?

Why leave the poor soul out
in the cold? Better still, why
not return him to Haiti to face
justice?

Reigning dictators might
well be worried. Recall Iran’s
Shah who wandered aimlessly
about the globe -until con-
veniently dying of cancer in
Cairo. Or remember Nicara-
guan strongman Somoza? He

’ fled retribution carrying mil-

lions in state funds just to be

-blown up in his Mercedez in
Paraguay.

Philippines dictator Marcos
has cause to fret. So do Chile’s
Pinochet, Paraguay’s Storess-
ner and other “‘friends”’ of the
U.S. who, after years of loyal
service, get such shabby
treatment.

‘Brazil,

General Motors
Brazilian-style

On March 4, in Sao Paulo,
33 General Motors
workers will be brought before
a court and charged jointly by
the state and the company with
illegal plant seizure. They face
from two to eight years impri-
sonment.

The ‘‘seizure’’, in fact, wasa
28-day strike last spring in
which the union at the GM
subsidiary at Sao Jose dos
Compos demanded a 40-hour
work week, wage increases
and a cost-of-living clause to
counter Brazil’s dizzying in-
flation rate.

GM’s response was swift
and brutal: 400 workers, in-
cluding many union leaders
were laid off, a military police
crackdown left many workers
beaten and 32 were arrested.
Later, 33 were charged.

Transnationals have several
faces. Use of state machinery
to whip workers into line by
force and terror in Brazil is one
face; concessions drives in the
U.S. and Canada, another.

But whatever face we see at
a given moment, these inter-
national giants have but one
aim: maximum profit. Some-
thing to’remember next time
General Motors comes: on as

~ the Good Corporate Citizen.

Individuals and/or unions
wishing to protest this attack
on Brazilian workers should
write:

Sr. Ministro Fernando Lyra,
D.D. Ministro da Justicia,
Esplanada dos Ministerios,
Brasilia, Brazil.

Go ahead,
wake up

So now ‘“‘not-interested-in-
politics” Anatoli Shcharansky
is in Israel, having come the
hard way, aboard an Israeli
executive jet. Yawn.

From his new vantage point
perhaps he’ll notice his new
homeland’s genocide in Leba-
non, its brutality against Pales-
tinian Arabs, its colossal in-
flation, its militarization, its
role as a regional U.S. hitman.

Last week Anatoli told re-
porters: “‘I’m still afraid I'll
wake up.”” Maybe he might.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 26, 1986 e 9