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Raúl urges university students to develop debate,
analysis and differences
BY MARÍA JULIA MAYORAL AND KATIA SIBERIA GARCÍA
“THIS is a history-making
congress, if we are capable of giving continuity and
carrying out what we have agreed on,” affirmed
General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, speaking on
December 21 at the 7th Congress of the University
Student Federation (FEU), which ended on Wednesday
at the International Conference Center.
The first vice president of the
Councils of State and Ministers likewise noted that
the student congress could be described as the best
such event to date, given its content, the profound
character of its discussions and the historic moment
in which it has taken place.
“I say historic because we (the
generation that achieved the triumph of the
Revolution) are completing the fulfillment of our
duty, and we must continue gradually opening up the
way for the new generations,” Raúl commented.
It is historic, he emphasized,
because the Congress had as a platform for its
discussions the speech by President Fidel Castro on
November 17, 2005 in the Aula Magna of the
University of Havana. In that speech, Fidel sounded
a warning bell about the future of the Revolution in
the convulsed and complex world of today.
Raúl urged the university
students to be fearless about developing the
practice of debate, analysis and differences, given
that timely discussion, in the appropriate place and
in the correct way, would always produce the best
decisions.
The FAR minister commented that
through his personal experience, he could testify to
the importance of promoting that attitude in life.
The first principle of building the armed forces, he
said, is a unified command; however, that does not
mean that discussions cannot happen. “I always say,
discuss to your heart’s content and then bring me
your differences; that is how we form our decisions,
and I am talking about big decisions,” he affirmed.
With his customary joviality,
Raúl also shared anecdotes with the students about
his childhood, growing up with his brothers Ramón
and Fidel, and promised his listeners that he would
not make a speech or extensive presentation like the
president usually does, “because Fidel cannot be
substituted, unless all of us substitute him
together, each in his or her place, carrying out his
or her concrete task,” he said.
Only the Communist Party of Cuba
can substitute Fidel, he affirmed.
At the request of the delegates,
Comandante Faure Chomón, who was an
outstanding student leader, presented a
commemorative stamp for the 50th Anniversary of
March 13, 1957 and the 85th Anniversary of the FEU:
a recognition instituted by the congress and
presented yesterday to Fidel and Raúl.
On the event’s closing day, the
FEU’s new National Secretariat was announced after
being elected in the morning. Carlos Lage Codorniú,
ratified as president, presented the final
declaration of the congress.
The students also decided to send
a message to their counterparts in the United
States, asking them to support the struggle to free
the Cuban Five, the antiterrorist fighters
imprisoned in that country.
Felipe Pérez Roque, foreign
minister and member of the Central Committee, gave
the closing remarks. He said that the congress was
different and better because, among other things,
never before had the FEU had greater social
responsibilities that it does now, and never before
did it have such a close relationship with the
people and the main tasks of the Revolution.
As the political leader
explained, the leadership of the Party, the State
and the government have very closely followed
proposals by the students throughout the nine months
of discussion leading up to the congress, and based
on proposals made by the FEU and the Young Communist
League (UJC), it was decided to immediately respond
to the most reiterated concerns.
Thus, he said, stipends would be
increased for full-time regular university students
as well as those studying for their degrees in
special and preschool education in the Higher
Pedagogical Institutes. The 50% subsidy for travel
on ASTRO buses would be extended, and two tickets
per year would be assigned for students who are
enrolled in colleges away from home, so that they
could travel to and return from their home
provinces.
The closing ceremony was attended
by members of the Political Bureau, Secretariat of
the Central Committee and other leaders.
(Translation by Granma
International) |
