Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 60

It was possible to achieve this through the exchange of ideas, opinions, assessments of situations and points of view offered by self-employed
individuals and small agricultural producers who
signed up for the First Economic Forum. Constitutional Consensus respected and shared the ideas
of those who create and produce, and it was because of this that a significant number of agricultural laborers and self-employed people
participated in these debates.
In the Banes and Antilla municipalities, north of
the eastern province of Holguín, at least 70 selfemployed workers and agricultural laborers have
signed up by now, as small producers. We call
them Emprendedores [Entrepreneurs]. First,
through these debates and exchange, they were
able to talk about the deplorable conditions in
which they are working for mere subsistence and
to be able to furnish their homes with food. This
has become a problem due to the poor functioning
of our economic system.
Another issue addressed is high taxes exacted
from the self-employed by the Oficina National
Tributaria (ONAT) [National Tax Office] along
with the dues that cooperatives require of registered agricultural laborers, who revealed and denounced that the government’s abuses are not
limited to high taxes but include other greedy actions such as impounding animals, crops and harvested produce.
A very important point that arose was the fact that
they are not able to sell their produce once it was
harvested. If the government does not authorize
the sale, agricultural laborers cannot sell them to
the populace. If a campesino does not comply
with the established norm, he is fined, and sometimes his crop is impounded.
Another of the concerns discussed was the fact
that there are no wholesale stores for the purchase
of raw materials and tools at prices lower than in
the commercial markets; this is a yet unfulfilled
promise on the part of the government. The situation is even worse in small towns like Banes and
Antilla, especially the latter, where income is extremely low because the area is surrounded by the
sea, and because most of the population lives off
of fishing or thanks to agricultural laborers and
the self-employed. How is possible for anyone to
think that prices there can be the same as in the
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capital, where salaries are higher? These self-employed and agricultural workers agree that they
should pay their quotas and fulfill their obligations, because our economic and tax culture demand it, but they also complain about:
• The terribly high fines and taxes that they have
to pay due to so many capricious acts the government commits against them.
• The fact that the State did not keep either of its
promises: to open wholesale stores for the purchase of primary materials and other effects
needed to be able to work, and also improve the
deplorable working conditions. It would seem
that it there are no guarantees for the social promises made.
• The partiality and subjectivity of the labor unions - to which the State requires membership because they have the interests of the State - and
not those of the workers - in mind.
• Disrespect for economic freedoms and the right
to private property; if the government offers the
possibility of self-employed work and associations of agricultural workers as small producers,
the State would later intervene to limit the sale of
products.
These were some of the primary concerns brought
to light in these exchanges among agricultural
and self-employed workers in Banes and Antilla,
where Constitutional Consensus respected every
comment and valued every debate with complete
loyalty to our concept of deliberative democracy.
It is no secret for anyone that when the Cuban political system denies, blocks, and limits individual
freedoms and represses the enormous capacity
and potential of Cubans to try to overcome their
poverty, it is denying the very possibility of progress. Similarly, it is denying them the possibility
of responding to the current challenges the contemporary world has forced upon them. This is
why Constitutional Consensus is seeking fundamental changes that have been promoted from
within the project, in order to be able to bring
about a State of Law and democratic Constitution
legitimized by Cuba’s citizens.
This is about creating this reality for our new
country:
“See to it that Cuba is a nation in which laws, and
not men, predominate.”