The organization of the people in Cuba
The organization of the people in Cuba
CDRs play a central role in Cuban people’s democracy
The formation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) was announced by Fidel on September 28, 1960, in response to acts of terrorism organized from Florida. Counterrevolutionary terrorism—including air attacks, the murder of literacy campaign workers, and sabotage of the nation’s infrastructure—had been a dimension of the longstanding campaign to bring down the Cuban Revolution, carried out by organizations financed by the government of the United States in the 1960s and tolerated by the U.S. government in the 1990s.
The mass organizations of neighborhoods, workers, women, students, and farmers are integral parts of Cuba’s system of people’s democracy. In addition to having their own activities, they have constitutionally defined roles in elections and in the legislative committees of the National Assembly of People’s Power, which is the highest legal and political authority in the nation, and which is elected directly and indirectly by the people. I have written of the Cuban political process in previous posts.
The initial function of the CDRs was vigilance, with emphasis on reporting suspicious activity or persons in the neighborhood. This activity evolved into a neighborhood watch program, with neighbors taking turns serving as nighttime guards. And it evolved to include other activities, such as the collection of recycling materials, blood donations, support of health campaigns, upkeep of local public places, regular meetings to discuss local problems, and annual neighborhood parties. Since the 1990s, the CDRs also have been serving in voting places for municipal, provincial, and national elections.
During the last ten or twenty years, the CDRs have declined in force in many areas. The decline has been described by Cuban leaders as “formalization,” in which the people are registered for the CDR, but it does not carry out functions or activities. As an indication of stagnation, 25% of the leadership positions in the organization are unoccupied. In my view, this occurred as the people discovered that the recovery from the economic shock of the “Special Period” turned out to be much slower than they had anticipated, with some of its effects permanent. The level of stagnation varies from place to place, and it is more evident in the City of Havana than in the provinces.
However, there remains a tendency for local CDRs to awaken from formalism to serve in voting places during elections and in moments of crisis, be it a national crisis such as the pandemic, or a local crisis like an accidental explosion in the neighborhood or a problem with the local water supply. Indeed, some CDRs played a visible and heroic role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A couple of years ago, Gerardo Hernández was designated National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. Hernández is a national hero, one of the “Cuban Five,” who were spies that had infiltrated and clandestinely observed terrorist activities in South Florida for the purpose of informing the Cuban government, and who were unjustly imprisoned in the United States for years when their clandestine observation activities were discovered. The designation of Gerardo as national coordinator of the CDRs was a sign of a commitment to renewal of the mass organization.
The Tenth Congress of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution was held on September 26, 27 and 28, 2023. More than 88% of the members of the CDR participated in the election of more than 500,000 CDR leaders (53% women and 29% less than forty years of age). The 475 elected delegates to the Congress represent 137,803 local CDRs and 17,384 CDR zones.
The Tenth Congress was dedicated to the revitalization and strengthening of the CDRs and to a redefinition of its activities and functions in the context of the current challenges to the Revolution. Areas of emphasis include greater attention to the tasks of the local economy, such as the production of food on small pieces of land. They include the strengthening of revolutionary vigilance, with people’s confrontation of crime, corruption, illegalities, drugs and social indiscipline, through a greater systematization of the activities of vigilance. And they include emphasis on energy savings, through neighborhood meetings on the theme and visits to the homes of high consumers.
Working with youth was also stressed. The Congress addressed the question of how to make the CDRs more attractive to children, adolescents, and youth. A need for greater contact of the CDRs with the schools and the student organizations was a continuous refrain of the delegates, in order to stimulate higher motivation among youth to participate in the CDRs.
In the inaugural address of the Congress, Gerardo Fernández declared that the CDRs confront immense challenges, but that the mass organization will continue working to improve the work of the Revolution, with the dignity, combativeness, and spirit of resistance that characterizes Cuban revolutionaries. Sixty-three years after its founding by Fidel, he declared, the CDRs continue being a stronghold in the defense of the country, from the neighborhood. He stressed the importance of understanding the causes of the current economic difficulties, namely, the intensification of the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade; the effects of the pandemic; and the occurrence of devastating natural phenomenon and accidents. This understanding is a necessary dimension of ideological work and the revitalization of the organization.
Hernández stressed that the mobilization and participation of CDR members is insufficient, with the result that not all the municipalities have necessary social control. He emphasized the need for strengthening work with families, inculcating participation at an early age. He noted that the system of information and denunciation has been maintained, but the statistics with respect to the denunciation of crimes and illegalities do not match the level of neighborhood crimes and illegalities. Therefore, preventive actions with respect to inadequate conduct ought to be strengthened. A system of vigilance ought to be developed in each place, in accordance with the conditions, consistent with the forms of social indiscipline that are found in each locality.
The delegates worked in three commissions. The First Commission discussed themes related to policies with respect to local leaders as well as the tasks related to the functioning of the local economy. It included 175 delegates representing all the provinces, and its sessions at the Congress included the participation of 32 invited participants with relevant specialization. The sessions debated the degree of preparation and stability of the local leaders as well as the production of food, the collection of materials for recycling, and the rational use of energy. There were twenty-two interventions by the delegates on these themes.
In the Second Commission, which included the participation of 158 delegates and 18 invited specialists, the discussion focused on the strengthening of work with families, especially youth, in order that they identify with the organization. The discussion also dealt with the need to attain a greater presence in the social media. It stressed the need to constantly denounce the various ways that the U.S. blockade damages the country and to disseminate internationally the true image of Cuba. It noted the need to generate more content on the Internet to confront the deliberate efforts in social media to subvert the Revolution.
The Third Commission, which included the participation of 143 delegates and 22 invited specialists, analyzed themes related to revolutionary vigilance and the prevention of crime and illegalities. The discussion stressed that the strengthening of the systems of vigilance and denunciation in the zone would permit a greater prevention of illegalities and subversive political ideology. Preventive social work was analyzed, with attention to educating in values. The Commission recommended: the intensification of systems of vigilance in each zone, in accordance with the characteristics of each locality in the current context; greater systematization in the process of denunciation; greater detachment in the coastal areas of CDR guards working in collaboration with the Cuban Coast Guard; strengthening of the battle against the growing, trafficking, and consumption of drugs; encouraging good habits and practices and fomenting formal education; and greater emphasis on attention to the needs of families in a marginal economic situation.
In an address at the closing of the Congress, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared that “you have proposed what is necessary for the Revolution: to revitalize the work of the CDRs, taking as a point of departure its traditional tasks as well as the present problems with which we have to struggle.” He emphasized the value of selecting activists to combat lies and distortions in the social media as well as the need for working with children, adolescents, and youth. He stressed support for increased revolutionary vigilance to struggle against crime, illegalities, corruption, and drugs. He declared that it is important to respond to the deficiencies of the CDRs.
The Cuban President asserted that the CDRs have made history in the vital affairs of the society. During the pandemic, it played an active role in providing supportive labor with respect to centers of isolation and the distribution of food and medicine to persons in a situation of vulnerability. It also has played an important role in the electoral processes.
Díaz-Canel declared that people’s vigilance continues being the essential activity of the CDRs. He recognized that in recent months new forms of organization of the CDR guards have been employed, adjusting the work to the needs of each place, with greater effectiveness in confronting crimes and social indiscipline, including guarding the seacoasts. In addition, the CDRs recently have promoted food production, encouraging cultivation on small pieces of land; and it has promoted the savings of energy. These activities have been strengthened, and they must be continued and intensified even more.
The Cuban President also stressed the importance of increasing the role of the CDRs in the social media in order to counteract the destabilizing campaigns in the media against the Revolution. The CDRs ought to be more active in bringing to light the reality of Cuban communities.
The Cuban head of state declared that the current moment “is the hour of the province, the municipality, the neighborhood, and the CDR. At the local level, we have to find as many solutions as possible to the problems of food, transportation, attention to the most vulnerable, communication in the social media, confrontation of the illegalities, and all the social problems of the communities.”
At the Congress, Gerardo Hernández was ratified by the delegates as the National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, as a consequence of the wide recognition of the positive results of his work, his personal qualities, and the accumulated merits of his life of revolutionary activities. The Congress also elected the National Direction of the CDRs. The National Direction, in its first act, approved the eleven members of the National Executive Secretariat, including Jannys Laffita Hernández, who will attend to Vigilance and Prevention; and Aranelys Barbán Rodríguez, who is responsible for ideology and tasks related to the economy. Julia Ileana Durruty Molina was elected National Vice Coordinator of the CDRs.
The construction of socialism is a long and difficult process, made more difficult by the predictable self-destructive unreasonableness of the world powers. Cuba follows the difficult road of constructing socialism with persistence, commitment, clear understanding, political maturity, and faith in the final definitive triumph.
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