Inside the UJC

By Harold Cárdenas Lema

From La Joven Cuba blog

April 10, 2012

Recently I read a piece in Granma on the Young Communists’ Union (UJC) that gave me the impression it was intended to shake some people up. It fell short, but I  understand it, for there are things that are not said in the media. Even so, the attempt was courageous and valid. Let us see what this organization to which I belong is lacking and what is superfluous.

Granma acknowledges that “it stopped being avant-garde when it became massive”, but apparently the writer does not remember how that came about. Years before, the process rewarded the centers that recruited the largest number of young people, it pressured municipalities and provinces to fill their quotas, because if they did not their work was at fault. Overnight, quantity substituted quality, and once it gained momentum no one could stop it.

I was one of many members who criticized it, but because it came “from the top”, no one paid attention to us. Now they accept it did not work out, but whose fault was it? Where are the ones that established those policies? Do they still implement feverish ideas somewhere else?

A mea culpa in Granma is not enough to correct these mistakes. Instead we should value if we are not committing new ones. There are meetings that are simply formal, and although at some there are outspoken participants, most seem to lack backbone. I believe we still have not reached the point of no return, but we are approaching it. Correcting the course in time is in our hands.

I would like to call attention to another point of interest; the organization’s leaders should represent the members in form as well as in content. I’ll only ask this: do UJC leaders dress like members of the organization? Do they express themselves in the same manner? If the answer is no, can they really represent them? Camila Vallejo was able to rally Chile’s youth, as others not so present in the media, but equally capable, did. And this because Camila is not only a beautiful girl, but she also represents –both physically and in ideas– a large sector of the country,

I want the UJC to be the avant-garde; it should not have to wait for the party’s opinion and later repeat it. The next UJC Congress should not be as poor as the mopts recent one. It truly ashamed me that at the last Congress of the Young Communists’ Union, the most daring and refreshing speech was the one by Raúl Castro, the oldest person present.

Many members do not even know what is communism or what it means to be a young communist. Our leaders at root level work very hard and are very well intentioned, but many are not well prepared. Others use the organization as a stepping stone to escape their hometown and move to the city, to flee their own educational mediocrity or the way to “live off this” as some say.

These criticisms have been voiced before, publicly and to our leaders. The response has been very negative on occasions, adopting a defensive stand and getting upset, instead of being receptive to problems that are very real. I hope that change is coming. The Granma piece is a good symptom and now the ball is in our leaders’ court. I do not care if the UJC’s image suffers. I am proud of being part of the youth that struggles in favor of the communist utopia and the result of our efforts will be valued by the ability to mend our errors.

I will keep on discussing my opinions as I have done in the past, when the policy of massification took some in the UJC to the top of the political pyramid. I will do it with the same optimism for improving my organization, and I hope that in a couple of years I will not have to say once again: “I told you so.”