Commenting on the start of discussions in workplaces nationwide about the Government Program to correct distortions and re-energize the economy, José Antonio Pérez Pérez, member of the Organizing Commission of the 22nd Congress of the CTC, stated: “If we take into account that workers will have the opportunity to make proposals, and if it is clear that this constitutes the guiding thread to overcome the complex situation we face, it can be described as another Workers’ Parliament, similar to those held in 1994.”
Mass organizations and unions will have until December 30 to carry out this process, which will take place in assemblies of members and workers, following study and analysis in each Party grassroots organization. To this end, the necessary coordination has been established with national entities, the bodies of the Central State Administration, higher business management organizations, and municipal and provincial governments to ensure quality in locally subordinated entities.
“We will give greater priority to strategic centers (food production, exporting companies, recovery of the electrical system, among others), as well as to entities without Party nuclei. Coordination has been made for the participation of non-state management forms through the union structures already created or in areas of concentration, as appropriate,” commented José Antonio.
Expanding on the significance of these debates for workers, he explained: “We must achieve a comprehensive understanding of the Government Program and the connections between general objectives, specific objectives, and actions; as well as define in each setting the role of the organization in a concrete way with defined indicators. There must be a relationship between those objectives and the proposals for the 2026 economic plan that we have just made.”
When asked how some of the concerns raised during the organizational process for the 22nd Congress are reflected in the Program, the leader detailed that everything related to macroeconomic stabilization, diversification of the country’s external income, increased national production with emphasis on food, goods, and services, as well as the resizing, development, and management of the socialist state enterprise and other economic actors, responds to what was addressed in many municipal and provincial conferences.
He also specified that the implementation of the official exchange market, rather than the speculative one that prevails today, as outlined in the Program, will have a positive impact on workers:
“It will contribute to gradually reducing inflation levels, fostering price stability and a better relationship with wages. In addition, it will allow the recovery of the value of the national currency and guarantee a more effective mechanism for managing, controlling, and allocating foreign currency that supports productive development and exports.”
To avoid these meetings becoming mere formalities, José Antonio emphasized that more precise analyses must be achieved regarding the responsibility of labor collectives in the adverse conditions that characterize the national and international context:
“It is necessary to evaluate all internal reserves without placing limits on productive growth. If in each place the objectives of the Government Program are linked with planning and efficiency, it will not be a formal assembly.”
“We must encourage questions and add proposals about how much more we can do to materialize the Program. For example: promote innovation to solve problems, encourage requests for land for self-consumption, raise labor productivity, give better use to profits, and continue the fight to reduce crimes and acts of corruption, to name just a few,” concluded the former leader of the sugar workers’ union.
The success of these new Workers’ Parliaments will not lie in the number of participants or the quantity of proposals. What workers expect is a real and promised improvement in their income and quality of life. And this Government Program belongs to everyone, which is why we must all build it together.
