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CounterPunch
January
20, 2003
Democracy for Cubans and Americans
by TOM CRUMPACKER
Last May our President said in Miami that the
purpose of his policy towards Cuba is to bring democracy to the
Cuban people. He said he would consider ending the embargo and
our other attempts to isolate Cuba if Cubans would hold free
and fair elections with multiparty candidates and comply with
several other political conditions he requires. His interest
in fair elections and democracy for Cubans is commendable, but
if he is also interested in these benefits for Americans, it
might be useful for him to compare how the differing political
systems functioned in the recent elections (November 5, 2002,
US House of Representatives and January 19, 2003, Cuba National
Assembly.)
In both countries, voting is by secret
ballot, voluntary, and open to all adult citizens. In US we have
two so-called political parties, both funded primarily by increasingly
centralized and powerful commercial enterprise. No longer value
based, they function primarily as fundraisers and accounting
firms for the candidates, who are elected on the basis of their
celebrity, incumbency and financial backing - which allows them
access to the mass media (funded by the same business enterprise)
conditioned on their thinking and talking within the ever narrowing
"mainstream." The formation of alternative, value-based
parties is prevented by excluding them from the mass media and
public debates.
For Cubans the last century was a long
struggle for nationhood and national dignity. They had extensive
experience with the multiparty system under US tutelage in the
first part of the century, when they were a virtual US plantation
(by the 1950's over 75% of Cuban economic production property
was owned or controlled by US commercial interests). They have
learned from bitter experience that their continued liberation
depends entirely on their national unity whereas political division
makes them vulnerable to manipulation and economic domination
by US businesses and their former rulers who now live in US as
part of the Cuban-American community. They have therefore forged
a non-partisan political system which preserves their sovereignty
and independence with institutions which seek to achieve democracy
by participatory consensus rather than class warfare. Electoral
parties in our sense are not involved in Cuban politics. The
Cuban Communist Party (PCC) is not involved in elections, rather
it's an organization of activists (about 15% of adults are members)
which has the constitutional mandate to promote social consciousness
and the long-term revolutionary goals for the whole nation. The
Cuban constitution was approved in 1976 by 97% of voters out
of more than 90% eligible, amended significantly in 1992 by more
than 2/3 of an elected National Assembly as required, and made
irrevocable by a vote of eight million eligibles (more than 4/5
of the adult population) in June, 2002.
The US House is supposedly our democratic
legislative body with elections every two years originally
intended to ensure that our 435 "representatives" (career
politicians) would be responsive to the people who elect them.
Their public media-driven campaigns of self-promotion have become
incredibly expensive and lengthy, if not continuous. Because
the primary factors involved in their decision-making are personal
obtaining and retaining their offices (their careers bring
them power and wealth) - the American people have discovered
that they are in reality representing the powerful private interests
which fund them rather than their constituents, and that voting
for major party candidates does not remedy the situation.
In last November's US House elections,
over 90% of the seats were uncontested or not seriously contested
and overall about 39% of those eligible voted, producing another
landslide for incumbents. The so-called parties had in the state
legislatures in previous years gerrymandered the US congressional
districts to make most of the seats virtual lifetime appointments,
thereby promoting responsiveness to private rather than public
interests. Our members of Congress have become experts in obtaining
and retaining their seats by avoiding clear-cut votes on fundamental
or controversial issues and disguising their real positions regarding
these matters. As a result these issues never get finally decided
and we don't move on. For example instead of declarations of
war (for which we could hold them accountable) we get vague resolutions.
What and when questions are brought up for voting or decision,
and how these are framed, are matters determined by a very few
powerful men called party "leaders." We keep getting
the same issues reargued year after year with no final decision,
like income tax change, campaign finance, abortion rights, gun
control, social security, Medicare coverage for medicine, Cuba
embargo, etc., and we often find that members have voted neither
way or both ways on various aspects of these complex matters
so that we can't determine where they really stand. Our Congress
has become essentially unresponsive and dysfunctional, which
serves only the interests of the businesses which fund it.
The Cuban National Assembly deals with
legislative and constitutional matters, has 601 members who serve
for five years, up to 50% are chosen from previously elected
municipal delegates (elected locally for 2 _ year terms) and
the rest are chosen by national candidate commissions (from which
PCC is excluded) in a process which takes many months and involves
consultations with and groups representing millions of people,
such as the trade unions, the women's federation, the small farmers
unions, the student federations, the teachers and professional,
health care and other mass organizations. The idea is to obtain
a slate of national representatives who are a "mirror of
the nation." All seats in the Assembly must be contested
(usually there are several candidates) and to be elected a candidate
must receive at least 50% of the vote.
There is no campaigning in Cuba, the
candidates do not promote themselves and money is not a factor
in elections. Their biographies, including photos, education,
work experience and other matters are posted conspicuously throughout
their permanent, unchanging residential districts for months
before the elections and details are supplied by the election
commissions. They usually serve only one term, most of them have
previously been elected by constituents who know them personally
or by reputation as to truly represent the people and their common
interest. They are not career politicians they have other
jobs, they must have frequent meetings with constituents (called
"accountability sessions") and they are subject to
recall at all times. Where expert information is necessary, it
is supplied by special commission and proposed legislation (such
as the recent imposition of an income tax) is voted on, up or
down, in order of presentation. The peoples' representatives
make all the legislative decisions, and once the decisions are
made, they move on to new matters.
In the elections held January 19, 2003
uover 93% of eligible Cubans voted, electing a National Assembly
which truly and accountably represents their common interest.
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Is the Vatican Part of the Axis
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Ray Hanania
Likud and Hamas: the Ties that Bind
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