From “Our Man in Havana".
Little has been writton in the Socialist press about arrangements made in Cuba to enmire that workers in tho various enterprises participate fully in the running of these establishmnts, Our judgement of the Cuban Workers' and Peasants! State, must clearly be arrived at on the basis of information on this subject. We are pleased to quote from correspondence reocoived from a British worker in a Cuban Bus depot,
"At the end of Dec, 1962, the Union representatives for the yoar 1963-4 were elected. After a couple of months it was obvious to 9311 that they were incompetent, and bad feeling was resulting. The workers called for a general assembly of the factory to settle the metter. Subsequently the Union committee was sacked, A group of five workers were elected to draw up a list of prospoctive candidates for a further election. This was done, and after the list had boen presented, it was still possible to make objections or nominations, At the next factory assembly (a minimum of 75% attendance is necessary for business) a new union group was olected for the balance of the period,
"The point to note here is that it is not the union area body or the respective ministry ( in this caso, Transport), but the workers them selves, who are able to initiate and take this action, The new union leaders were mainly young and politically active. This ia not an isolated instance. I know from comrades working under other ministries where factery leaderships have beon brought before factory assomblies ans severely criticised and asked to give explanations of their actions and orders,
With this approach to work and administration and freedom of eriticism, I can see only a bright future for Cuba, Wote well that it is not only at the lowor levels that this occures, Remember how Escalanto, Communist Party leader,.and Soorotary of the Government Coalition Party was publicly denounced for sectarianism and power-seeking after the success of the revolution",