IN WEVOLUTIOUARY CUBA. (frea Tha Eilitent. }
Ona of the principal gsins of the Cuban Revolution is the changes it haa achieved in the status of wonen in that country. The impresdive degres of aquality achieved by Cuben wouen since the Heyolution waa most recently testified to by Georgie Anne Geyer, correspondent for the Chicaro Daily News, in a special report from Cuba last Sept-d.
The aystematic efforts to integrate the women into Cuba's productive process, and the benefioinl effect this has had in esancipating then from their previous status was discussed by #idel Caetro in two speechsa- Gna was his May Day 1956 speech- The other waa an address leat December 9 to the Hifth National Plenary session of the lederation of Cuban Women meeting in Santa Clarae The festowene are extracts from these speeches.
ni aoe ee: re From The May Day fpeech:
if there's gori-Jiing thet really catches the attention in these May Day parades, and expecially in this one, *’. is the proages of integration of women into the labour force.
In the past the possibilities of work for wonen were axtremely limited. In thia sense, discrimination certainly exieted. But sside from this, it Waa logical that in a country where there ware hundreda of thouaands of men without work there wsuld be little or no work opportunities for women- Prostitution.
6 alreaiy know what kind of work was reaerved for women in the oapitalist sacciety. We know how preYalent was the custom among the bourgeoisia cl hiring working class women, pressed by neceasity, te work in. amsemente in tare,.aa just one pore kind of sommerciel attraction. We know of the sonsiderable numbers of women in our country who were forced into that most lamentable form of survival that is prostitution: We know that our bourgeoisie had established many trothela in thia eountry; brothels in every Cuben sity, brothela for the Yankee touriste, for the Yankee marines, In Havana, in Guantanesc- We know aleo thet the bourgeoisie of the region of Guantanamo were 50 ingratiating that they not only supplied the Karines with brothals but aleo, ON Many ofeaaiona, with their own daughters. In Guantanamo meanj stories are known about the parties that wont on at tha naval base- Many of thase people sent their daughters to those pertieae In any event, it can ba concluded that this type of work ids one of the typea thet capitalist society =— All capitalist societies - reaeryes for women: It wes not posalble, of course, te eradicate thia evil from our country in one day- But we can say with pride and with satisfaction that just ae the Reyolution has eradicated other vices, auch as gaxbling, for example, Just a3 the Reyolution has rid the country of begears, just as there are no longer poverty-stricken children rossing the streeta (end thers is no capitalist soolety in which there are no begrars, homalesa ohildren, brothels, fambling, vice and corruption ef all kinda), the Rayolution haa aed eradicated practically sll proatitution from our country: Today a tremendous nucber of dignified and decent activities are eas— ible to Cuban women. Many thougsnde of Cuban women hava pone inteF REA bite, work during these yeara of tha Revolution. Meny thousands of young wemen have become nurses'saides, sasistants in the fielé of medicine in genaral. Thousands of women work in the echolarahip students! centres.
Other thousands of women, tens of thousands, are teaching, Today tha number of women who go into technological institutes and technological training centres is incomparably greater. The fact that the number of women studying in the school of medioine almost equals the number of men, will serve to illustrate the ides. Thousands of women ere working in day nurseries and thousands are working not only in thase public service jobs, but also in the production of material goods. Weman are working, for ex-~ ample in the planting of seedlings in tree nurseries, or planting coffee Beadlings.
The whole poultry plan of four million - now we have aomevhet over four million laying hens, and by the end of this year we will have 5,500,000 henge in order to cover our needs-all year rownd - this entire important branch of our nation's food production is manned by women workera. Hundreds of poultry centres are managed by women. Woden hare Joined agricultural production in other activities, such as vegetable production, the raising of calves, and rabbit breeding» In sum, new job opportunities are constantly opening up, in which an extraordinary number of woren have found decent, remunerative and cctisfying euployment. For ‘that waa the agonizing worry of the immense 1 j oritr 2: -ar people. How to get a jobt How to earn a living? It is really incredibles how men suffer in capitalist society over this vital question, thie elemental matter of how to assure oneself of a job im onder. to eam «2 decent living.
Therefore, on 4s day like today, this phenomenon of which I am speaking om be understood directly as wo see tha oomposition of cur labour force. But there is something more. The women of our country ary not only entering production work en masse, but are turning out ts be workers of high efficiency, and we have heard ceny commentaries in praiss of the work of cur women, of their sense of responsibility and their lack of absenteeism. For this reaeon tha Revolution is making efforts to oareate more day nurseries, more schools, to establish more saheol esfetaries, to méke it oonstmtly aasiar for women to work. But when we apeask of making it aasier for women to work in producticn, this doses not mean simply that society wishes to help women, not only that.
Society has a duty te help women, but at the same time society helpa itself considersbly by helping women, because 1¢ means more and more hands joining in the production of goods and services for all the people. as it is known, one of the means to make it possible for women to work is the oreation of day nurseries. The women workera thenselvea pay certain anownrta, in accordance with their income, for their children's cars in tha nurseries. But the women who have entered sgricultural production have the added benefit that they do not have to pay for the day nursery. and it is the intention of the revolutionary government that by tha end of the year, that ia to asy by next jeer, no woman worker will heve to pay for her children's day nursery. We believe that this will contribute in enccoursging Cuban women to work, and we also believe that this is just- Sacdety profits from the work of every woman. From The Santa Clara Speech:
arriving hare this evening, I commented to a comrade that this phenonenon of women's participation in the Revolution was a revolution within a revolution. And if we ware asked what the most revolutionary thing is that the Revolution is doing , we would answer that it ia precisely this - the revolution that. is occourring among the women of our sountry! If we were asked what things in the Revolution have been cost lnatructive for ua, we
eS would anawer that one of the most interesting lessons for revolutionaejes is that being offered by our women- You a1] know perfectly well that. in saying this, we are not uttering given worda with intent to please the Campaneras who are here tonight, but that we say it because it is what we firmly believe and feel.
But why ia this one of the most interesting lessons? You yourselves may ask why. In reality, the most honest anawe that we could give - and I assure you that the person who offers this answer is precisely one who has always believed himself free from prejadice = the answer is, I telieva, that in reality all of us were prejudiced in regard to woman. Gastro Prejudioed?
an if anyone had ever asked me if I considered myself prejudiced in Pagar. to women, I would Save said absolutely not, because I believed myself to be quite the opposite. I believed that an enormous potential forte and extraordinary human resources for the Revolution existed in our wonen+ But what hee hippened? What has ocourred, cr rather, what ia opeurring? We are finding that, in reality, this potential force is superior to anything that the most optimistic of ue ever dreamed cf. We say that perhaps at heart, unconsciously, somethins of bias or underestimation existed. For evanta are detonatrating even now the possibilities of women and the role that woren can play in a revcl.tionary process in which soclety is liberating itself, above all, froc axploitation, and from preJjudioaa and a whole series «f clroumstantes in which women were doubly exploited, doubly humiliated.
What have we found, for example, in regeri ta the work of women? I have becn talking with several comrades, and, following my visit to the Banao Pian, I told Gomrade Milian: “I have the impression that the women working in this Plan are core responsible and more disciplined than the men- I have the ispressicn that they will dedicate themselves to the work with mors enthusiasm, more passion, pore dedisation-"
And Milian - although I certainly don't want te give this comrada a bad name with the women.of Las Villas = argued with me: "Well, but really -+ethe case of the young men *ho are in the Juragua Plan of the Young Communists..." Enthusiasm. I told him that finding a spirit of disciplines snd enthusiasm for work in a progras involving selected Young Communists was not as extraordinary ag finding the same spirit of diacipline and enthusiae= in a program carried out by women who had not been specially chesan for thia program, who had not been chosen by any organisation, but had aimply volunteered to do thia work.
What have wa found? What is being found everywhere in thia revolutdonary program, as far as the Cuban women ere conderned? Well, we are finding a whole series of things, auch as thoas I centioned before: a great acnae of responsibility, great seriousness, great discipline and enthusiasm. What hava we found right here in tha province of Las Villas? Well, let us take the Banac Plan, for exseple; this progras was. growing and needed a cadre. Somrade Mildan sought s cadre fron the Party; Comrade Santiago Acosta, from the Santo Domingo gone, I believe, and sent him to the Banao Flan as adminiatrator.
But one day Comrades Santiago Acosta and Rena Acosta - the specialist on technical matters - had to go abroad. They were the men holding the positions of grestest responsibility in the plan- Gomeone had to be appointed to take their place and we decided to appoint Comrade Oscria,
€ who wit representing the Federation of Cuban wooen on the diracting board of the plans we firmly believe that this even may some day hava historic significance, for it was the first time that « women had been assigned tc such & task, not for political reasons of to impress anyone, but simply because she hed, objeatively speaking, prover herself capable of heading such a program. ind from that moment on,we theught it would be reasonable and an axtellent thing, indeed, to have a woman directing a pian in= volving thousands of wonen workera. Moreover, when it became necessary to Organise the wrk brigades, a number of wen who had distinguished themselves for their great spirit cf work were chosen as brigada leaders. This gave us an idea. We had to train a group of technicians for this type of work and, at first, ten coorades from the Tachnolegical Institute had been sent here to specialise in this branch of agriculture- We decided : that 20 additional students whe were to be sent here to specialise in this field should be chosen from among the girl students at the Tachnological Institute. Thus, the workers, the brigade leaders, and the technioiana that is, the technical and admiri:trative e’-ff - is going to be made up alecst entirely of womene Yes, i*.uent! This is one of the great lesacna we spoke about before: one of the great lessons and perhaps one of the grestest victories over prejudices that have existed, not for decades or centuries, but for thousands of years. We refer to the belie? that all s woman could do was wash dishes, wash and iron clothes, sock, keep house and bem children - age-old prejudices that placed women in an inferior position in sosiety- In effeot, she did net have a productive place in society. Suoh prejudices are thousands of yeara old and have survived threugh various social syatema- Tf we consider capitaliam, women =- that is,lowerclass women - ware doubly exploited or dowbly huciliated. 4 poor woman, part of the working class or of a wrking classe family, was exploited simply because she waa poor, because she was a tecber cf the working-clasa. dithin Working Claaa.
# in additien, although she was a woman of the working claas,-even har own olass looked down on her and under-rated her. not only was she underestinated, axploitead and looked down upon by the exploiting classes, but even within her own olass she was the object of numerous prejudices. So all these eventa have been = great lesson to all of ua, to. every revolutionary. Naturally, oa considerable amount of prajudice still existe- If women were to believe that they haye totally fulfilled their role ae reyvoluticnariss in society, they would be making a miatake- It seecs te us that wouen must atill fight and exert great great efforts to attain the place that they should really hold in sooletye If woman in our oountry . were doubly exploited, dowbly humiliated in the past, then this simply means that women in a social revolution should be doubly revolutionary. 4nd perhaps this is the explanation, or at least tha sooial basis fer the resolute, enthusiastic, firm and loyal sopport given by Cuban wonen to this Revolution. This Revolution has really been two ravolutiona for women; Jt has meant a double liberation as part cf the exploited sector af the country, and setondly, as women, who were discriminated ageinat not only aa workars but aleo as women, in that society of axpinitation: The attitude of the Cuban women toward the Reyalution corresponds to this reality; it corresponds to whet the revolution has meant to them. 4nd the support of the popular oseses for the Revolution 1s directly proportionate to what the Revolution has meant to thes in termes of their literation-
There are two sectors in this country, two sectors of society which, aside from economic reasons, have had other motives for sympathising and feeling enthusiasm for the Revolution. Thess two sectors are the Segre population of “uba and the fem ale population. I suppose that you recall that in Buba's old bourgeois Constitution, there was an article which deelared illegal any discrimination for reasons of rage or sex-Now tha protlem of such discrimination has disappeared from our country, bedanse the basis for these two types of discyimination - which is quite simply the exploitation of man by man - has disappeared.
Much news reaches us from the United States, for axample, about the civil-rights strugele for Negroes. Nevertheless, racial discrimination in the U-5. will not disappear until capitalist society has disappeared: Need Revolution.
Discrimination will never be wiped out within the framework of Capitalist society- Discrimination with respect to race and sex can only be wiped out through a sccialist revolution, which eradicataa the exploitation of man by man. Now, doss the disappearance cf the exploitation of man by Gan mean that sll the conditiozrs are immed’ately created whereby women may elevate their position in society? No- The sanditions for the liberation of women, for the full development cf women in society, for an authentic equality of women with man in sasciety, require a material base; they require the material foundations of economloa and social developrent-
I described before the opinion held by many men concerning the funotione of women, and I said that among the functions considered to belong to women was - almost exclusively - that of having children. Naturelly, reproduction is one of the moat important of women's functions in huwan society, in any kind of human scolety- But it ia precisely this Punetion, relegated by nature to women, which has enslaved ther to a series of chores within the home.
There is a sign hare in front of ua, for example, which saya: Mone million wonen working in production by 1970-" Unfortunately, it will not be possible to have one million working in production by 1970. We feel that this goal may be reached , perhapa, within ten years, but not within four- We sould propose it as a goal to be reached by 1975. Why can't this goal be reached in four yeas? Becanse in order to haya one million women working in production, we must have thousands of children's day nurseries, thousands of primary boarding schoola, thousands of school @ining halls, thousands of workers’ dining halls; thouaanda of centres of accial services of thie type must ba set up- For if not, who ia going to cock for the second or third grade child when he comes heme for lunch?
Who is going to care for unwesaned infants, or babies of two, three and four years of age? Who ia going te prepare dinner for the can when he comea hone from work? Who is going to wash, clean, all those things? In other words, in order to reach the social posal of liberating woman from all theses activities that enslave her and inpede her from full inesrporation into work outside the home and all these activities she can engage in in soclety, it ia necessary to create the necessary material base, to attain the necessary social developcent.
It is impossible to construct the required thousands of children's day nurseries, achool dining halls, laundries, workers" dining halls, boarding achoolea in four years. In fect, merely to meet present needa, great effort is necessary on all fronta- Syerywhere women are working, it has been necessary to make a apecial effort to establish dey nurseries, set up boarding achoola and all the necassary institutions, 50 that these women
could be free to work---a4t. thia stage of scearsity of cement, machinery and construction equipment, the problem oan be solved only through maxinum efforts on all fronts: sometimes at a regional level, other tines at a nat iond or a provincial level, uaing the resources we have at hade Wor can we expect the day nurseries to be perfect, thab the conatructions will be perfect, or the servioe- They must be as good as possible, but they oannot be perfect.
These problema will have to be solved in many areas of the country, little by little. One million women cannot be employed in one day: aA whole series of economic steps must be taken, and agricultural plans sat in motion. Statistical Study.
It would be interesting to know how many women have already started to work in the production of consumers' goods as well as in servioas since the triumph of the Revolution; ‘iow many are working aa nursea!' sides, technicians, industrial and agricultural workera- If a statistical study were made as to how many wooen have begun to work since the triumph of the Rerolution, the mimber would probaly be clonsa to 150,000, and certainly no less than that! This figure, c‘ course, i not based on exact statiatica, and it seems to us that a study should be cnde in order to learn precisely how may wooen have found work in newly created jobs, in jobs created by the Revolution.
Next year the number of woren working will be considerably greater. Why? Because a whole series of plans will get under way,mainly in agriculture. Several thousand woren are to be incorporated into the Banac Plan and when that plan reaches ita maximum development, it will require six or seven thousand womens In Pinares de Mayari some eight thousand women will be working by springtime. In the coffee-plant nurseries set up for tha 1967-8 coffes-growing plan,30,000 women will be needed and mmiy thousends will work in the reforestation plans, in vegetable cultivation, and other thousands are being incorporated into jobs in the cities. Enormous ‘ort.
This means that more than 50,000 wonen will be involved in taska related to production by next year, and this will require an enormous and simultaneous effort to be made, so that all of the problens related to the dining-halls, achools and children's day nurseries may be worked out.
I am going to tell you something. Without the incorporation of women, the Banao Plan could never haye gotten off the ground, nor could the plans for mioro-climate vegetable cultitation in Oriente Provinse have been carried out. Without the incorporstion of women, the plane for ooffee-growing could not even have been considered- Margy of the plans that the Revolution is today drawing up and beginning to carry out could not have been conceived until the grest reservoir of human resources that our society posseasaa in its women was olearly seen for what it wea.
Thess plans, whioh etand for extraordinary centributions to the economic development of our country, to the increased well-being of our people, could not have bean conceived without the maas incorporation of women into work.
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