Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) holds its VII Congress on the 55th anniversary of the victory at Playa Girón which is when the socialist character of the Revolution was declared.
ICP, 16th April 2016
The 7th Congress of PCC will be held between 16th and 19th of April with about 1,000 delegates and will focus on the continuity of the economic reforms to update Cuba's socialist model approved at the 6th Congress in 2011.
Preparations have been carried out by the party organizations of all levels in all around the country since February 2015, when Central Committee of the Party called for the convocation of the Congress. In the meetings that were held in the district, municipality and provincial levels, 1000 party militants were elected as delegates to the Congress. Those 1000 delegates represent various sectors of the Cuban society. Apart from the workers, farmers, technicians, state and enterprise leaders, researchers, economists, professors and teachers, healthcare workers, combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (FAR) and Ministry of Interior (Minit), intellectuals and artists, jurists, journalists, there are also delegates who work in non-state sector.
Granma reports that, the 43,1 percent of the delegates are women, whereas black or mixed 36 percent are Black or of mixed race. The average age of the delegates is 48; and 369 out of 1000 delegates are under the age 45, while 55 of them are under 35. Besides the delegates, 280 people were invited to the Congress from the Party, the National Assembly and the State administrative bodies, as well as from the scientific, intellectual and artistic fields. The criterion in their selection was their possible contribution to the Congress in accordance with their knowledge and experience in the fields of economy, social policy and ideology.
Many various meetings were held where the delegates had the opportunity to discuss in depth and develop in commissions the preliminary documents proposed by the Central Committee to be submitted to the Congress since September 2015.
On PCC's special website for the Congresses, titled "All together and good for all" there are several objectives listed for the 7th Congress. Firstly,it is stated that the PCC aims at reaching a “conceptualization of the socio-economic model” of the country in this Congress. Secondly, a comprehensive evaluation of the economic decisions and successes as well as the failures in their implementation since 2011 will be made. In this respect, “The Guidelines on the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution”, adopted in the 6th Party Congress in April 2011, as the primary source of the contemporary economic policies in Cuba, will be updated. Fundamental tenets of economic and social development program until 2030 will be drawn during the Congress. The Congress will also deal with the review of the decisions taken in the first Party Conference that took place in January 2012.
In the plenary session of the Congress, which will be held on the 16th of April, the Central Report will be presented for the consideration of the delegates. The delegates will be working in the commissions in the afternoon and on the 17th. The issues to be discussed in the four envisaged commissions are conceptualization of Cuba’s socio-economic model, development program until 2030, evaluation of the implementation of the Guidelines; and the progress taken in terms of realization of the objectives of the First Party Conference.
The plenary will meet again on the third day to assess the reports from the commissions. In the afternoon of the 18th of April, Central Committee members of the new term will be voted. On the last day, the elected Central Committee, Political Bureau, First and Second Secretary of the Party will be announced before the closing session of the Congress on the 19th of April.