May, 2008
David Dorn, American Federation of Teachers.
Dear Colleagues, Brothers and Sisters,
When I was invited to make a short presentation at this conference, I asked one of the organizers what I should speak about. My colleague told me that a major purpose of the conference is to discuss experiences from Latin America and other regions and their possible relevance to Cuba’s political and economic development. In other words, this is essentially a conference about Cuba, a subject of great interest to me.
Over the past decade and more, Cuba has been on my mind to one degree or another and I have developed a number of ideas about what might happen – and what should happen – when the dictatorship of Fidel Castro and his descendents falls away. Obviously I am not Cuban or a Latin, something easily detectable from my bad Spanish accent and poor grammar, if nothing else. I have, however, lived and worked in Latin America, and I traveled in Cuba twice in the 1990’s, and I had a taste of the methods of Cuban police and intelligence agents during my second trip. Also I have organized projects in Russia, Eastern Europe and other former communist nations, and that experience, I believe, gives me some insight into the Cuban situation.
I think that everyone at this conference generally shares an idea of what a Cuba without Castroism would be - a democracy with leaders who value human and trade union rights and who know that these rights are integral, not subsidiary, to the achievement of social justice. One might call it social democracy or perhaps we should coin a new phrase, “democracy with justice” if the word “social” has become too tainted by its association with Cuban “socialism”. If one looks around Latin America today for models to which a new Cuba might aspire, I believe that Chile after Pinochet and Brazil under President Lula offer sound lessons.
Obviously, Cubans won’t be able to transform their country overnight. It will take new leaders, who are both effective and committed to real democracy which includes pluralism and transparency. The transition to democracy after the fall of communism is not always easy nor always successful, as can be seen from the divergent political fates of nations in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
Although every nation is different by virtue of its history and culture, many of the roadblocks to building a successful democracy are common to all nations going through that transition. In my remarks today, I want to focus on a few issues related to education and equality of opportunity that will be important to building a democratic Cuba.
We are all aware of Castro’s claim that the revolution provided quality public education for all Cubans and his propagandistic use of that claim. Even today apologists for Castro cite education as one of the great achievements of the revolution. Whatever improvements Castro might have originally achieved, today education in Cuba is in a sad state of disrepair. Schools have deteriorated, teachers are underpaid and are leaving the system for a job, any job, in the private sector. Education statistics from Cuba are unreliable, but one becomes aware of this deterioration simply by looking at schools and talking to parents.
When I was picked up by security police during my second visit to Cuba I was carrying one of those computer/typewriters that were precursors to the laptop. I was using it during my trip, and I had intended to leave it with a dissident journalist before I left the country. At one point in my interrogation a young officer said that they were confiscating the machine. I asked what they would do with it. He said “we’ll give it to a school.” Thinking that if it really did go to a school it would be an elite school for children of party officials, I said, “Give it to a poor school.” The officer looked at me and said, “All schools in Cuba are poor schools.”
My point in mentioning the state of public education in Cuba today is not simply to take another shot at the Castro regime. Actually, Castro’s policy, legitimate or not, to support and develop education for all in Cuba after the revolution was inspired. It was a brilliant bit of international propaganda which helped liberals in democracies excuse the anti-democratic nature of the regime. But, as importantly, the idea that the state would provide quality public education for all children was popular among the Cuban people.
In most Latin American countries today there are dual education systems; public and private. Typically, public schools are overcrowded and under funded, - that’s where the sons and daughters of the poor and lower middle class go to school. All the rich kids and a large percentage of middle class kids go to private schools. The poor in Latin America don’t like the fact that their children attend substandard schools, but they have no options and little clout with national governments to effect real educational improvement in the public system. By and large, the rich don’t care about improving public schools, but they do want governments to subsidize private schools.
Any new government in Cuba that is sincere about making democracy work should avoid using as a model the education systems in most other Latin American nations. Rather, they should strive to do what Castro claimed he was doing - creating the best public education system possible. Leaders genuinely committed to building a democratic and progressive Cuba would make sure that all Cubans, regardless of class or income, have access to free first-rate education. This would cost money, a lot of work and some political pain, but the payoff in terms of economic growth would be enormous. A strong education system and political stability combined with the potential resources available from the Cuban Diaspora could allow this poor nation to become relatively quickly an economic powerhouse.
The leaders of a new Cuba will have to deal with the problems and political instability inherent in a society with stark divisions between rich and poor. Economic and social divisions have existed long before Castro. However, since the revolution of ‘59, Castro has sought to exacerbate those divisions by sowing resentment and fear between European and Afro Cubans and between the Cuban community in the U.S. and Cubans on the island.
Also, by its nature, the communist regime undermined the traditional fabric of the Cuban community, pueblo and neighborhood. Where there was once fraternal neighborhood relationships, as one Cuban dissident described to me, between the local beat policemen, neighbors, shop keepers, etc. there is now a wariness of potential secret police and local party snitches reporting any activity in the neighborhood that could be seen as anti-revolutionary. A related problem is the fear of former party leaders and members that there will be retribution for their actions as agents of the regime.
Similar issues of reconciliation have been faced in many other countries which are moving from dictatorship to democracy and some of these countries have dealt with them more successfully than others. It would help any transition in Cuba if democratic leaders and activists both inside and outside of Cuba would take the time to study how transition and reconciliation was handled in other parts of the world. Two good models come to mind, Uruguay and South Africa. There probably are several more examples that could also be useful.
I want to end my presentation by mentioning another potentially deadly threat to democracy that any new Cuban government will face. That is the threat of crime and corruption. Today corruption is seen as one of the most serious challenges to democratic development and stability in the world. Cubans only have to look to the west and south, to Mexico and Colombia, to understand this danger. The Castro regime has been accused of complicity in the international drug trade and other illegal activities. Some international observers predict that any change in government and opening to the United States will accelerate the levels of Cuban involvement in drugs, illegal migration, money laundering, tax evasion and human trafficking. Even a causal observer can envision the potential for Cuba to become a nexus for criminal cartels, mafias and corrupt former communist operatives.
Obviously, the first line of defense against such crime and corruption is the justice system - police, judges and the courts. International cooperation is also key given the global nature of organized crime. But, as we know from other struggles against cartels and mafia style illegal enterprises, even the best police forces and most courageous and honest judges are not enough. Just as the scourge of HIV/AIDS infection can’t be effectively countered by medical treatment alone, the fight against corruption must also include strong leadership from government officials, public awareness and education.
While the need for a multifaceted response to corruption is not that widely recognized, especially in Latin America, there are some good models for this approach. One of the most well known was developed in Palermo, Sicily to counter the mafia’s subversion of civil society. The former mayor of Palermo, who is best known for his successful prosecution of the anti-mafia “maxi-trials” in the late 1980s, organized community groups and the school systems to successfully push the mafia out of the local civic culture.
More recently education systems in Mexico, Colombia and several other countries have been testing a curriculum called “Education for a Culture of Lawfulness” to help middle school students understand the real cost of crime and corruption to the individual and to society. The programs have shown signs of success in changing attitudes and behavior. Again, democratic Cuban leaders and activists should begin to develop strategies against corruption that include both the police and courts and societal and educational approaches in any plan for a post-Castro Cuba. There are several good resources and models that could be studied for this purpose.
I have tried to quickly touch on some challenges to the development of a democratic Cuba, but I have not touched on labor rights. I will save any comments on this crucial issue for one of the following sessions.GIRSCC IV International Conference
May 14 & 15, San Jose, Costa Rica
