Raul Castro: Cuba won't renounce socialism

Havana, Agency
President Raul Castro confirmed that Cuba is not copying any country and will not renounce "even the smallest portion of the construction of socialism" in the process under way to "update" the communist island's economic model.

Gen. Castro made his remarks at the end of the full session of the national advisory council of Cuba's only legal trade union, the CTC, Communist Party daily Granma reported Monday.

The president referred to the economic measures undertaken by his government and emphasized that this is "a native product" tailored to the characteristics of the island "and without renouncing even the smallest portion of the construction of socialism."

Castro said that "the only way to break dogmas, bad habits and taboos" is to give "participation to the masses with the working class in the forefront."

"But to defend the measures and explain them, the working class has to understand and be convinced of their importance for the survival of the Revolution. In any other manner, we will go off the cliff," he said.

He also demanded the "uncovering of the pernicious tendency of some to hide their failures" and asked for lessons to be drawn "from the errors (that have been) committed."

Last week, the Cuban government implemented a regulation to begin removing 500,000 employees from the state's payroll over the next six months and to broaden the scope for self-employment and small business creation as part of a series of reforms to confront the acute economic crisis besetting the island.

Also speaking at the CTC conference was Vice President and Economy and Planning Minister Marino Murillo, who presented a report on the Cuban economic situation.

He said the adjustments undertaken are designed to "overcome unnecessary free (services) and excessive subsidies," as well as to "remove the state from activities that are not its responsibility, reduce inflated payrolls and increase the productivity of labor."

"All that will make possible the realization of the necessary transformations of salaries and pensions," the minister said.

The government expects that some 250,000 Cubans, many of whom will have been laid off from the state sector, will join the ranks of the self-employed, an activity that at the end of 2009 only 144,000 residents of the island had pursued.

One of the main new things in the broadening of the self-employment sector in Cuba, which will mean an increase in the private sector, is that individuals will be able to hire labor, something that will open the way for the creation of small businesses.

In addition, a special tax regime has been devised for private labor whereby the Cuban state expects to increase its tax revenues by $1 billion in 2011, according to government projections.

In a parallel manner to the reforms, the government of Raul Casro in recent weeks has decreed increases in the prices of fuel and in the cost of electricity for large domestic consumers.