Cuba's July 26th anniversary has always been an occasion for the glorification of Fidel Castro and the revolutionary process he initiated in 1953 at Santiago's Moncada garrison. This year at Moncada, as last year in Camagüey, Raúl Castro spoke in his brother's place, hewing to many of the themes that for decades have been standard for the event.
Wearing his four-star general's uniform, Raúl was dwarfed by a giant billboard-sized poster of Fidel that loomed above him on the speaker's platform. The image was of a much younger, khaki-clad Fidel in a militant stance. Raúl paid fawning reverence to his ailing brother, as he also did in a speech two weeks earlier before the national assembly. He broke no new policy ground, however, to the disappointment of many Cubans who expected the unveiling of new liberalizing reforms.
But Raúl's intention may have been instead to cement the ideological underpinnings for changes already underway in the economy. Quoting from a speech Fidel delivered on the same anniversary, and in the same location in 1973, he seemed to enshrine his brother's words. Fidel's speech was so historic and important, according to Raúl, that the Granma newspaper is serializing it in 15 daily installments.
The 1973 speech indeed had been an unusual performance. Fidel spoke for only an hour-and-a-half. It was one of the few times, speaking at home, that he read the text, and did so methodically with no apparent digressions or rhetorical flourishes as were otherwise his practice. It contained three calibrated utterances that were probably the clearest admissions Fidel has ever made about his pre-Moncada MarxistLeninist convictions.
In short, it was intended as one of Castro's most important ideological tracts at a time when relations with the Soviet Union were blossoming.
Fidel was also militant and stridently anti-American in that speech, suffusing it with homages to Marx and Lenin and Soviet generosity. As was standard in July 26 addresses, he called on the people to be militant against perceived American threats, persevere against hardships, and honor the communist party as their vanguard.
Few of the latter themes were reiterated by Raúl this July 26. Instead of praising Marx or Marxism, he spoke just fleetingly of socialism. Like Fidel he mentioned the importance of defense readiness, but only alluded in passing to the United States. He reiterated a pledge to regularly consult the populace, saying ``We do not seek unanimity.''
Raúl's reasons for dredging up Fidel's old speech are not clear. Perhaps he intended only to lionize his brother -- highlighting all of the self-congratulation of the 1973 speech -- and to bolster faith in the revolutionary process and institutions now under such stress. And maybe, too, the focus on Fidel was because his health today does not warrant the expectation that he will survive until the next Moncada anniversary.
But the practical Raúl may also have had more pressing reasons for reviving that old speech. Doctrines that Fidel expounded in it may now be quoted to validate liberalizing economic reforms. And, recalcitrant leaders who object to such reforms, believing the dogmatic Fidel opposes them, may now be trumped by their idol's own words of 35 years ago.
After vacillating during most of the 1960s between the doctrinal poles of moral versus material incentives for Cuban workers, Fidel in 1973 opted for the material. Earlier, Che Guevara had been the leading advocate of moral incentives in the belief that true revolutionaries must labor only with the expectation of perfecting Marxism. Breaking with that view, Fidel in 1973 warned against moral incentives becoming ''a pretext for some to live off the work done by others.'' He explained that reversion to Che's moral incentive stringencies ''would lead us to idealism.'' The most productive workers would be demoralized, seeing the least effective rewarded equally.
These propositions parallel what Raúl has been saying and doing. On July 11 at the national assembly, for example, he commented that: ``Equality does not mean egalitarianism. This, in the end, is another form of exploitation, that of the exploitation of the responsible worker by the one who is not, or even worse, by the slothful.''
Working less
One of Raúl's most important -- and perhaps controversial -- initiatives this year was in liberalizing Cuban wage structures so that more productive, dedicated workers are better paid. In several speeches he has deplored lassitude, corruption, and inefficiency in the workplace. And he believes those vices are rampant. He told the national assembly: ``People are working less. This is a reality you can confirm in any corner of the nation.''
His conclusion: ''Each should be paid according to their performance.'' And in the next breath he cited the need to ``eliminate unwarranted handouts and excessive subsidies.''
Raúl's tone on July 26 was stern and fairly gloomy, as he warned the populace of harder times ahead. ``We must get used to receiving not only good news. . . . We are aware of the great number of problems waiting to be solved.''
But the curious structure of Raúl's speech, linking himself so elaborately with Fidel's 1973 address, may also reflect new concerns about rising tensions within the leadership. The limited reforms undertaken this year may have provoked a backlash among hard-liners fearful of how far Raúl intends to proceed in abandoning fidelista orthodoxies of recent years.
In any event, Raúl was more cautious and tentative on July 26th than he has been in his other public appearances since Fidel's withdrawal two years ago. Perhaps he is reconsidering the implementation of some of the ''structural and conceptual changes'' he promised earlier, or the pace of such change.
High expectations
Perhaps he realizes that his words and deeds have elevated popular expectations to levels far above what can be satisfied. And so, like hard-liners in the security establishment, he may now worry that the liberalizing initiatives already implemented, combined with the profound discontent of the younger generations on the island, have created a dangerous situation.
Brian Latell is senior research associate, Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, University of Miami, and author of After Fidel: Raúl Castro and the Future of Cuba's Revolution.
