Cuba: student discontent continues over ETECSA's rate hike

It has been two weeks since ETECSA, the Cuban telecommunications company, suddenly and unexpectedly introduced price hikes on Friday 31 May. Discontent continues to grow.

Students are at the forefront of the protests against the drastic increase in mobile phone tariffs. They have held assemblies, issued statements and, in some cases, called for a teachers' strike. As was to be expected on an island that dared to abolish capitalism just 90 nautical miles from an imperialist ogre, the counter-revolution has tried to use the discontent to its advantage. So far, it has not succeeded.

As we explained in a previous article, ‘Cuba: ETECSA's rate hike, the bureaucracy and the advance of capitalist restoration’, the measure means a very significant increase in the price of data once the initial 6GB allowance has been exceeded. Considering that, according to the company's own statistics, the average data consumption of Cubans is 9GB per month, the price hike affects a large number of users.

Students at the forefront

Why have students been at the forefront of the protests?

Firstly, because students are among those most affected by the measure. Many of the textbooks and tutorials they need for their studies are only available digitally. In addition, students have the advantage of being concentrated in their faculties, where they can talk to each other, share information and make collective decisions. In most cases, they have used the official grassroots organisations of the FEU (Federation of University Students) in each faculty to express their discontent. The university management teams at this level are more directly in contact with – and therefore under more pressure from – the general student body.

This led to the first statement produced by the movement on 1 June, signed by the FEU of five faculties and institutes of the University of Havana. It firmly expressed their rejection of ETECSA's price hike and demanded a rectification by the company. The language was diplomatic, but the content was forceful.

This statement had the effect of breaking the ice and encouraging student groups in other faculties and universities to join the chorus of protest, in some cases through their faculties' FEU or, if the FEUs did not respond, as groups of students from specific courses or degree programmes.

The attempt by ETECSA executives to offer an explanation on 2 June on the Cuban TV programme Mesa Redonda was totally counterproductive and only served to further inflame the students' anger. This was expressed in a joint statement by the FEU Council and the Young Communist League (UJC) Committee of the José Antonio Echeverría Technological University (CUJAE) on 3 June. This statement was also significant because it was signed not only by the FEU but also officially by the UJC committee of the entire university.

Even more radical was the statement circulated by the FEU of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing (MatCom), which called for a boycott of classes and urged university professors to “join the cause”. The FEU MatCom statement is very sharply worded, demanding “the revocation of the measures”, “the holding of an open meeting between students and those primarily responsible for the measures” and also “the joint participation of all sectors of society affected in proposing a solution”.

The statement ends with a clear declaration of its demands, which “are focused on a society including everyone and for the good of everyone,” a slogan used by José Martí which is identified with the Cuban Revolution.

Thus, the protest movement not only questions the measure itself, which it identifies with the increase in inequality since the 2020 monetary reform. It also questions the way in which such decisions are made (in a bureaucratic manner, behind the backs of the people and without taking into account the interests of those affected), and demands the direct participation of all those affected in coming up with a solution. Although not explicitly stated, this statement, and the others that followed, contain a direct attack on the bureaucracy and its methods.

Students reject gusano interference

Of course, this is Cuba, an island that dared to carry out a revolution and abolish capitalism just 90 miles away from the largest and most reactionary imperialist power on the planet, which has been determined for 65 years to try to put an end to such a challenge. Immediately, all the networks of the gusanera (counter-revolutionary Cuban exiles) – which are many, very powerful and well-funded – sprang into action to try to use the discontent to further their counter-revolutionary agenda.

Iramís Rosique, one of the editors of the Cuban revolutionary blog La Tizza, commented: “It is a tremendous tragedy that no political process can take place in Cuba without the opportunism of external interference that poisons everything.”

The gusanera circulated all kinds of false statements from student groups and universities across the country, trying to give the impression that a mass movement was brewing, a prelude to an uprising against the government and the Cuban Revolution.

If anything, this had the effect of cooling the movement down a little, making it more cautious to avoid manipulation. These exaggerated and alarmist statements were also used by the bureaucracy to try to polarise the situation around the axis of the government vs. the counter-revolution, and to divert attention from the central issue, which is in fact the opposition of students and broad sectors of the population to the decision of a government-owned company.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the call by the FEU MatCom for a boycott of classes had a limited impact and did not spread widely to other faculties and universities.

But that does not mean that discontent has ceased or subsided. The limited concessions announced by ETECSA, if they can be called that, have been rejected in numerous statements and have not really satisfied the clamour of the protests.

Thus, on 4 June, the professors of the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Havana (UH) stated that, in addition to expressing their disagreement with the rate hike, they demanded “a transparent and participatory consultation process with the public”, “the activation of institutional mechanisms for participation, so that beyond formal representation, any decision and statement issued is based on the consensus of the majority” and “a public statement from the country's senior leadership.” They also pointed out “our concerns about the political treatment given to the discontent expressed by our population and in particular by our students, who are not strangers to us and have just demands.”

Once again, we see here a clear demand for effective participation by the population in the management of common affairs, which represents a direct criticism of the bureaucratic nature of the political regime. The statement by the UH sociology professors also ended with a clear disclaimer regarding the counterrevolution: “We will not allow our position to be used for interests that are alien to our revolutionary stance.”

A statement issued by the Expanded Council of the FEU of the Faculty of Biology of the UH on the same day, 4 June, expressed its solidarity with the MatCom students and added a number of points including “disagreement with the position adopted by the national president of the FEU, who does not faithfully represent our opinions or reflect the voice of our student community”. Others have gone further and demanded his resignation.

The students also rejected the attempt to scandalously identify their demands with the counterrevolution:

“Our opinion comes from the University Student Federation of the Faculty of Biology and is not influenced or manipulated by agents outside our organisation. We therefore denounce the statements published in the official media that describe our communiqués as false or financed by foreign interests, when they are in fact the authentic expression of the critical thinking and social commitment of the students of each faculty.”

In a statement issued on 5 June, the FEU of the Faculty of Psychology of the UH directly questioned the leadership of the FEU of the UH for “failing to represent the interests of the university students for whom they were elected.” They demanded “the immediate resignation of the national FEU leadership due to its demonstrated inability to represent the students”. They also announced their “firm intention to unify the faculties that make up the University of Havana” and requested “a public space for exchange, not only for the representatives of the FEU Councils corresponding to each faculty but also for the student body as a whole,” so that “the real protagonists are the students.”

They defended the legitimacy of the protest against any type of repression:

“Recognising the legitimacy of the various courses of action taken so far by the faculties, we maintain our rejection of any possible sanctions or reprisals against any student or teacher at our University of Havana.”

Various universities across the country have issued numerous statements, all along the same lines. It is clear, however, that the movement began in Havana and is strongest there.

Protests reflect deep-seated unrest

This protest, in addition to responding directly to the rate hike imposed by ETECSA, reflects a much deeper economic and political unrest that has been building up.

On the one hand, there is widespread rejection of the consequences of the partial restoration of capitalism and market measures in Cuba. These have been implemented more rapidly in the last five years and have opened up a significant social divide in Cuban society that did not exist before, or at least was not expressed so acutely. Certain sections of society, including those with connections to business interests in the United States or to the state apparatus and bureaucracy, have benefited from the measures and flaunt their comfortable lifestyles. This contrasts sharply with the general situation of working people, which has only worsened.

On the other hand, there is widespread political unrest, reflecting the fact that the decisions of the state and party leadership (which are one and the same) do not produce the promised results and are not properly explained. Above all, although the working class nominally owns the means of production, it plays no role in decision-making, which is firmly concentrated in the hands of a bureaucracy that is accountable to no one but itself and which is not subject to election.

Neilán Vera, a Cuban comrade who works as a journalist, described it this way:

“The problem does not lie, as it might seem, in the increase in the cost of the internet. The real problem is that, in all these years, there has been no solution, no concrete measure that has really benefited the vast majority of people in Cuba.

“We must endure, resist and eat with dignity, while a new bourgeoisie enriches itself at the expense of the country, begins to infiltrate politics and, with the complicit enthusiasm of certain officials, dismantles the guarantees and rights won after 1959.”

Some have warned against the student mobilisation because it is sponsored or encouraged by the Miami gusanera. There is no doubt that the counter-revolution wants to fish in troubled waters. But the price hike was implemented by ETECSA. And it did so in an opaque and malicious manner. As another Cuban comrade said recently, “Look, the enemy will always move its pieces. The problem is that those of us here don't know how to play chess.”

So far, there are no visible signs that the protest has been capitalised on by the counter-revolution. But it should be noted that the bureaucracy is also counter-revolutionary. With its policies, it is moving towards capitalist restoration. With its control of political power to the exclusion of the participation of working people, it is creating the conditions for political demoralisation and cynicism, pushing many to the other side of the trench.

The article by Neilán Vera quoted above ended with these reflections, which many share:

“We cannot say whether this is the Cuban version of perestroika, but the resemblance is disturbing. Let us hope that we are wrong, and that the ideologues of ‘undue gratuities’ [ie. the defenders of the rate hike] know what they are doing. Let us hope that we are wrong, because if we are right, this time history will absolve no one: neither the gravediggers of the Cuban socialist project nor those of us who, confused and immobile, watched the future being torn to pieces before our eyes.”

Fight capitalist restoration with communism!

What should be the attitude of revolutionary communists in this situation?

Firstly, we encourage the students to continue their protest, which is entirely legitimate, and to move forward in creating genuinely representative bodies in order that they can achieve their just demands: mass assemblies; the election of representatives who are subject to recall if they do not serve the people; and democratic control from below of their mass organisations.

They should also move forward in extending their movement to the other sections of society that are affected, starting – as is already happening – with teaching, administrative and service staff in the universities. This should then be extended to working people from all municipalities and neighbourhoods.

Secondly, we must develop a general understanding of how to solve the serious problems facing the Cuban Revolution. In this regard, the Revolutionary Communist International has always argued that these can only be resolved in the final analysis by two things that must go hand in hand. On the one hand, it requires breaking the imperialist blockade and the isolation of the Cuban Revolution, which requires a policy of proletarian internationalism and the building of the necessary revolutionary leadership throughout the world. We in the RCI are committed to this task with our growing, but still modest, forces.

On the other hand, in Cuba it is necessary to fight the forces pushing for capitalist restoration. This can only be done by confronting the bureaucracy and raising the need for workers' control.

The type of state needed by a regime that has abolished capitalism is one modelled on the Paris Commune. It would mean the election and recall of all officials, who must be accountable to those who elected them; no official earning a salary higher than that of an average worker; and workers having decision-making power in the management of all public affairs.

In other words, workers' democracy is the only way to defend the Cuban Revolution and effectively combat both imperialist aggression and attempts at capitalist restoration.