Statement from the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop in Havana

from ABRA, English translation by Anarchist News

We do not accept masters over us or servants under us. We work for a society where all public affairs are resolved through the self-organization of those of us who live, work, create and love, in Cuba and on the planet. We give testimony, however, that the move to such a way of managing our lives in common can only be the product of the most profound social revolution. But being radical in our conception of socialism and human liberation does not make us strict or extremist people, nor does it oppose us to those who sincerely seek ways of dignity. The fight for social guarantees is legitimate, even if its germinative root does not reach the ideal immediately — as long as such a root exists—, many of which contain living and growing germs of the common society that for now we only dare to dream. Defending such germs and sowing the seeds of freedom even if we know that it can take millennia to become trees as robust as the Ceiba trees in our fields, is our duty and choice of life.

And because of all this:

1. We repudiate any blockade on the Cuban people, imposed either from abroad or from within by the United States, the United States or not. We radically support the full deployment of the creative capacities of our people, their self-organization, self-support and self-liberation, in a world that must be more supportive and cooperative.

2. We do not support provocations aimed at social explosion. This would be tragic in the current circumstances of organizational deterioration of the working classes and the most precarious segments of society.

3. We support all forms of self-organization of those who work, live and create in Cuba. By social self-organization we mean undertakings, projects, networks, collectives and other endeavors where there is no wage labor, the imposition of authority, the cult of personality, the various direct, structural or symbolic violence, hyper-competitiveness, bureaucratism, decisions in the hands of an elite, the concentration of wealth and the unequal appropriation of knowledge. We demand that the country's institutional framework give priority to self-organized entities, such as promoting the creation of cooperatives and other self-managed collective production and service projects over capitalist micro-enterprises and other ventures based on social asymmetries, specially authoritarianism, bureaucracy and economic inequality.

4. In this sense, the organizations that distribute products to the population must re-organize themselves as consumer cooperatives, integrating the majority in such self-organized way, to fulfill the functions of sales in stores and other retailers, transportation, collection, without that entailing theft or corruption.

5. We are opposed to the wage system, but as long as it exists, there must also be recognition of a real minimum wage, visibly above the basic basket as minimum income for a decent life, which must be public in terms of its composition. and be subject to general debate and approval; the due must be paid according to working hours and overtime hours and days, the compulsory nature of the collective agreement must be imposed on employers in all work centers, of the right to unionize, full access to the resolution of labor disputes by those who work, and their right to strike.

6. If it has been possible to recognize the legitimacy of representatives of liberal tendencies within the Cuban statist political opposition, we consider ourselves bearers of the full legitimacy as libertarian socialists and part of the organization of the working classes in Cuba; If such recognition has not been possible, we will require it for all political opinions.

7. The crime of contempt for authority, as an inheritance of the monarchical order, must be abolished, and all persons imprisoned for such acts released.

8. Prison or any other sanction for “record of pre-criminal dangerousness” must be abolished immediately as an institution of fascist origin (Rocco Code).

9. We work for full spectrum liberation from all dominations and oppressions, especially those of capital, bureaucracy, patriarchy, hypercompetence, epistemocracy, coloniality, racism, ethnocentrism, the meddling of powerful foreign structures, rampant consumerism and ecological depredation.

10. Full spectrum means that no one - person or group under oppression - frees himself / herself, without including others, until it reaches the whole of society. Liberation does not admit exclusions.

11. We do not recognize the false and self-destructive "normality" of this world as an ideal to which a Cuba should tend to be "a normal country."

12. We are on guard against any movement that, from collectives, processes or efforts that aspire to liberation, could lead to the emergence of new and dangerous dominations.

The Taller Libertario Alfredo López is an anarchist collective that for years has supported and promoted experiences related to its anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist principles, and tries to be an opportune libertarian voice in this archipelago that we call Cuba. It has organized four Libertarian Spring Days in Havana, and is currently the main manager of the ABRA Social Center.

There are 2 Comments

"2. We do not support provocations aimed at social explosion. This would be tragic in the current circumstances of organizational deterioration of the working classes and the most precarious segments of society."

Anti-Provokation Aktion. Riot? Insurrection? Simmer down now, comrade. This would be tragic in the current circumstances of organizational deterioration of the working classes and the most precarious segments of society.

"6. If it has been possible to recognize the legitimacy of representatives of liberal tendencies within the Cuban statist political opposition, we consider ourselves bearers of the full legitimacy as libertarian socialists and part of the organization of the working classes in Cuba; If such recognition has not been possible, we will require it for all political opinions."

As Cuban anarchists, we feel entitled to be conceded legitimacy by the state.

"7. The crime of contempt for authority, as an inheritance of the monarchical order, must be abolished, and all persons imprisoned for such acts released."

Legalize contempt for authority!

"8. Prison or any other sanction for “record of pre-criminal dangerousness” must be abolished immediately as an institution of fascist origin (Rocco Code)."

Abolish prisons? Well, for those who aren't proper criminals first, to start. This law in specific is fascist!

"10. Full spectrum means that no one - person or group under oppression - frees himself / herself, without including others, until it reaches the whole of society. Liberation does not admit exclusions."

I said simmer down now, comrade. You can't be free yet, you must wait for all of us.

"12. We are on guard against any movement that, from collectives, processes or efforts that aspire to liberation, could lead to the emergence of new and dangerous dominations."

Ah, they expected they would be mocked for this statement and are already on the defensive. En garde!

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