No 37, June-July 2008

PERSPECTIVES

Civil society in Cuba: Existing despite the odds

René Gómez Manzano, head of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society in Cuba

The fundamental challenge facing civil society in Cuba is the totalitarian philosophy of the state, which by definition aspires to control everyone and every single aspect of national life, and to a great extent it succeeds in this. ‘Inside the Revolution, everything; outside of the Revolution, nothing’, is an often publicised expression used by Fidel Castro and seems to indicate perhaps the most central aspiration of the present Cuban leadership. Although the intellectuals originally proposed this motto, in practice it remains valid for all segments of Cuban society. Some point out the noticeable similarity with another famous saying: ‘Everything within the State; nothing outside of the State’, coined by Benito Mussolini.

Officially it is argued that civil society in Cuba is ‘revolutionary’. On the street this means pro-government. This in itself is a contradiction as civil society’s role is to have a voice independent of government authorities. Nevertheless, each segment of civil society whether it is organisations advancing the rights of women, workers, young people or fishermen is obliged to obey the orders dictated by the sole party and follow their policies. 

This is also the on-the-ground reality in countries ruled by similar regimes - the Soviet Union or the old communist countries of central and Eastern Europe or North Korea or Cuba. A telling example of this is the statutes of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) (the Cuban Workers Head Office), to which the workers in Cuba generally belong to. Their text reads: “The CTC and the trades unions openly and consciously recognise the superior leadership of the Cuban Communist Party, as party to the vanguard and optimum organisation of the working class, they receive, they do their work and they follow their politics.” 

Thus, such systems fail to provide a favourable backdrop for civil society organisations to function independently of the dictates of the government. In fact, the opposite is true - the independent groupings that have developed over the years in Cuba have been victims of persecution and repression. At best, those with opposing viewpoints are expelled from their centres of work; at the most virulent, their leaders and activists are imprisoned. Almost all such these prisoners have been recognised as prisoners of conscience by well-respected rights groups such as Amnesty International. Currently, around 30 civil society activists are in prison, giving Cuba the dubious distinction of being the country with the highest per capita number of prisoners of conscience per in the world. 

The situation has reached the point where it is the exception to find any civil society leader (at least amongst those who are well-known) who has not been deprived of his or her liberty at some point. For example, the writer has been detained several times and was incarcerated between 1997 and 2000 along with three other companions for having signed a manifesto titled ‘La Patria es de todos’ (‘Patriotism belongs to everyone’), which critically analysed the Communist Party doctrine. 

On being released from prison a little after my two peers, I started forming the ‘Asamblea para Promover la Sociedad Civil’ (the ‘Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society’) with them, a coalition which now has 365 member organisations, which are all listed on the website www.asambleasociedadcivilcuba.org.  

In May 2005, our Assembly was able to organise the first congress of Cuban democrats, which, due to the prevailing conditions in the country, could only take place in the open air, on the patio of a private house which was later confiscated by the authorities. A few hundred supporters of civil society attended this conference. 

The government wasted no time in responding with repression: hardly one month later, during a peaceful demonstration that the Assembly decided to carry out, dozens of leaders and activists were detained. Some were released in a matter of hours but others were kept in prison. In the case of the writer, this imprisonment was prolonged for more than a year and a half without trial and without formal accusation. My release took place in 2007, without any explanation from the authorities. 

For all intents and purposes this is the situation currently confronting civil society organisations in Cuba. In this context, civil society is in need of solidarity from all people of good will in the world. Similarly, such civil society organisations require all types of material support, especially as the government is virtually the sole employer in the country and dismisses from its employ anyone who dares to engage in independent civil society activities. 

Havana, June 2008, René Gómez Manzano 

Translated by Mark Bennun 

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