Cuban travelogue—Cuba’s system examined—“The New Constitution, The National Assembly, Cuba’s power for the future”—Part 6

 By SJ Otto

On July 4, we met with the president and several other members of The National Assembly of People's Power, which is Cuba’s main legislative body. It was with them that we discussed how the leaders of Cuba met with people across the Island and took ideas from those people and used them to put together a new constitution. Much of this information is found in the article we posted: The new Constitution and the future of Cuba by Julio Pernús. There is no point in repeating a lot of things Pemús wrote. So I will focus on what we learned on our trip. 
As Pernús points out, there was a constitutional referendum held in Cuba on February 24, 2019 voted on by the people for a new constitution and it passed 86.72% in favor and 9% against. Among some of the more important parts of the constitution include the new Cuban Family Law of 2019.
This new law covers all aspects of marriage, children and divorce. It lays out, according to iclg.com/ Cuban Family Law 2019, 1Divorse, 2 Finance on Divorce, 3 Marital agreements, 4 Cohabitation and unmarried family, 5 child maintenance, 6 Children- Parental responsibility and custody, 7 Children international aspects, and for 8 they give an overview.
For an in depth look at the New Constitution see: General Overview of Cuban Family Law Legislation.[1]
Some things that I found out from members of the National Assembly of People's Power is that the members only meet about two times a years, unless something special comes up, such as an emergency. Being a member of the national assembly is a part time position. They are only paid for the time and work they put in. They all have other jobs they must go to. It is obvious that these folks are not running the day to day aspects of government.

Esteban Lazo Hernández, the president of the National Assembly, talked of a trip he took to New York, as a member of the Assembly and he was able to visit Harlem and meet with US blacks (a mainly black district of New York). For a member of Cuba’s government to visit Harlem, I’m sure, Lazo, who is black, found there were many cultural and political differences between American black folks and those who live in Cuba.

To become a member of the National Assembly, a candidate has to win an election. Any new law or issue that comes up has to be from a resolution by the people. We were told that National Assembly members said that it was part of their job to talk to judges and prosecutors for various court cases that come up each year.

Another institution we visited, while in Cuba, was the Thermo-electro Plant Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. This is where we talked to government employees and I was surprised that the government is determined to move power plants away from traditional fossel fuels and towards more modern forms of power, which includes biomass, wind and solar power. We passed some solar power panels on our way to the power plant. At present 1.5 percent of the plants power is from those alternative fuel sources. But they are making changes and by 2030 the plant plans to be getting 24 percent of their power from alternative fuels.

Another group of people we met with was the leadership of the Trade Union Council of Cuba (CTC). We were told about trade unions and their role in Cuban society. As with trade unions in the US, they act as advocates for the rights and needs of working people. The do a lot of the same things a US trade union would do, accept, when asked, by a member of our caravanistas,  if there has ever been a strike in Cuba, our lady was told “no.” The lady asking was a member of a teacher’s union in the US and explained that they needed to go on strike to get any respect from the school board she worked under.

So do the trade unions simply lack the power they need to really support their workers, or is such an action as a strike unnecessary? It is hard to say for sure. But my impression is that Cuba is not as anti-poor as in the US. In Kansas, there is no respect for teachers, who in the last few years, have been fired in droves to make up for budget shortfalls from our last far-far-far-far to the right Governor Sam Brownback. We now have a Democrat Governor, Laura Kelly and she has tried to undo a lot of the anti-poor people’s damage done by our last Republican governor. Republican legislature members, still in office, have worked hard to prevent her efforts to expand Medicaid, which would allow working poor people access to health care (which is unlike Cuba, in that they provide medical access to poor workers). They have also threatened to take legal action against her if she eliminates work requirements and other obstacles for working poor people who need food. These actions are purely contempt against poor working people in Kansas. In Cuba, I did not see as much contempt against poor people there. A lot of people there are poor, but they don’t seem to get punished for it, as happens in the US.

The President of the National Assembly Esteban Lazo Hernández,

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[1]file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/Cuban%20Family%20Law%20Legislation.pdf