FROM CUBA:

THE CUBAN FREE AGRARISM HAS FOUND THE MOUSE

By Manuel David Orrio, Independent Cuban Journalist

Havana, January 27.- The proposal to solve the agriculture and food industry crisis given to the Cuban government by the Cuban Party for Human Rights, presided by Lazaro Gonzalez Valdes, an outstanding member of the opposition, who is now in jail, has caused an impact.

The challenge to the Cuban authorities is to respond, since the proposal has been written in strictly constitutional terms. The authorities have 60 working days to do so, according to Cuban law, and a progressive repercusion of this idea is expected, as the deadline for a response from the government approaches.

The role played by the promoter of the proposal is known through the events surrounding Concilio Cubano, and his unblemished political reputation in relation to that group. Now, his decision to promote a third agrarian reform in Cuba is of note, because it indicates a deeper thinking on the part of the opposition forces around national affairs.

There is no doubt that the Party for Human Rights is politically active. What is interesting is how it is doing it. It focused on a specific demand, of high agreed value, even within the Communist Party; it did not question the official institutions, and it did not make any concessions to established principles. That is what politics is all about: the art of the possible.

The newness is in the method and in the evident reconciliation with history, done without tarnishing other political projects, also in support of this and that viewpoint in agricultural matters. In referring to the first agrarian reform law, enacted on May 17, 1959, the Party for Human rights is demanding a return to the beginnings, a reflection about that law whose historical result was the biggest international distinction lived by Cuba, at the cost of a people without food. This is told by more than one person.

Politically speaking, the proposal of the Party for Human Rights is therefore an indication of the rebirth of the Cuban free agrarism, putting on the carpet an old and beautiful demand- "the land for those who work it"- inscribed in the flags of innumerable movements. It says it with no strings attached: the "property for the peasant and free market for the product of the land".

Nevertheless it should not be to sacrifice lambs on the altar. "Each goal is a start-point", said someone whose name I can't remember. In this case that maxim is more valuable than estimated. The Party for Human Rights reconciled itself with the Cuban agrarian history. But because of previous mistaken ignorance the people became victims, rather than culprits. Where did the first agrarian reform law come from?

The limitations of the proposal given by the followers of Lazaro Gonzalez are within the answer to that question. Until yesterday they were unaware that the famous law is the brainchild of Manuel Dorta Duque and the project of Cuban Code on agrarian reform, presented to the Congress of the Republic of Cuba on May 15, 1947, the very same day of the founding of the Orthodox Party of Eduardo Chibas. This was the Party's main initiative. The followers of Lazaro Gonzalez found out about this hot Cuban agricultural matter because I told them about it.

A person in the know about the Dorta Duque project and the agrarian law of 1959, would say: "The mountain has given birth to a mouse". In that same vein, I proclaim, as a bearer of good news, that the Cuban free agrarism has found the mouse.

It is now time to help the mountain.