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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 4/11, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Cuban Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said Dec. 26 that the overall economic plan for 1996 foresees a 5-percent growth in the gross domestic product. Such a result would be the third straight reversal of the severe decline in the Cuban economy that followed the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Cuba's major trading partners.
Cuba's GDP declined 34.3 percent from 1989 to 1993. But it increased 0.7 percent in 1994 and 2.5 percent in 1995. Rodriguez told the National Assembly that meeting the 1996 goals will depend on an improved sugar-cane harvest, increased revenue from tourism and reaching goals in the construction industry.
Some of the growth the past two years was stimulated by opening a section of the Cuban economy to U.S. dollars and by allowing self-employed entrepreneurs. These measures gave rise to inequalities that had not existed before in socialist Cuba. In a Dec. 26 speech that was broadcast nationally, President Fidel Castro called attention to these inequalities--and to measures the government plans to redress them, especially by enforcing income-tax laws or imposing new ones.
The Cuban president said, "Everything this country does is for the people, not in favor of a social class of rich people, of exploiters." He added that "capitalism has thrown the world into chaos and for Cuba, it is very clear that it is not the model to follow."
In late November and early December, a new wave of union protests hit the government's economic program. President Ernesto Perez Balladares has proposed an increase of only 6.12 percent in the minimum wage. Union leaders say workers deserve a 40-percent raise. Meanwhile government ministers and other senior officials got a $5,000 increase in monthly salaries.
During his first 15 months in office, the president has sold the government-run telecommunications company, slashed tariffs and cut production incentives that favor local industry. In early December, the International Monetary Fund approved a government "letter of intent" in which Panama promised to continue its privatization program, freeze the number of employees on the government payroll, alter the social-security system and eliminate price controls on basic commodities. The IMF is supposed to authorize a $104-million loan in return.
Unions affiliated with the National Workers Council (CONATO), students and public-service employees held the protest demonstrations. Union leader Sebastian Quiros, acting coordinator of CONATO, said these actions "will continue until we reach our aims."
After a 19-year legal battle, on Dec. 25 some 165 workers at the Tokyo Electric Power Company won a settlement of 2 billion yen--roughly equivalent to $60,000 each--in compensation lost because of discrimination. The workers said they had been denied wage increases and promotions because they were members of the Japanese Communist Party.
The company settled out of court, agreeing to give fair treatment on wages and promotion to administrative positions, and to make payments as settlement money to the workers who filed suit. Some district courts had already ruled that the company's actions violated the Japanese Constitution and the Labor Standards Law. The latter forbids discrimination based on workers' thoughts or beliefs.
Workers at Kloof Gold Mining Ltd. walked out on strike Dec. 28, defying courts and bosses. The walkout was in part prompted by recent firings of some workers. A company statement professed management's outrage at the "illegal industrial action." It's unlikely that much impressed the strikers. South Africa's oppressed workers have a long acquaintance with struggle, and repressive laws have never stopped them from fighting for their rights.
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