HAVANA, Cuba.- With the presence of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, and the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, the 21st Congress of the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba (CTC) ended.

Raul, Diaz-Canel and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura received volumetric works by artist Maykel Moret with allegorical phrases by Fidel, the Army General and Camilo Cienfuegos, who recognize their revolutionary trajectory and their contributions to the trade union movement.

Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento was ratified as Secretary General of the CTC and Carmen Rosa Rodriguez, as second secretary.

The trade union leader thanked the trust and called for working every day from the trade union practice to make true the Congress’s motto: Unity, Commitment and Victory.

Cuban Labor Movement, a Great Strength for the Revolution

The Party Second Secretary, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, in concluding the 21st Congress of CTC, said the event was excellent, at the height of the special moment the country lives.

He added that it constituted a forceful response of the workers to the aggressions, threats and lies with which the enemy seeks, with renewed viciously, to fulfil his old dream of defeating the Revolution and re-converting Cuba into an appendix of the Empire.

Machado Ventura said that those pursuing such a purpose ignore the trajectory of struggle and resistance accumulated by many generations of patriots who did not surrender to setbacks and did not relent until they reached victory.

He added that the trade union movement faced many challenges in the last five years, in which the transformations in economy have been constant and profound, and thus those of the working environment.

Real and Effective Saving Is Essential

At the close of the CTC Congress, Machado Ventura said the country is not in the same conditions as before, and although not in the magnitude we would like, there are obvious advances in the updating of the economic and social model, especially in laying the groundwork for not repeating old mistakes.

He added it has been vital to understand and support the vast majority of workers, as well as their willingness to deal with problems and not to turn them into justifications.

The Party Second Secretary called to consolidate the sense of belonging to workplaces, the personal commitment with their results and the collective shame when things do not go well.

Machado Ventura pointed out that inertia, justifications and defeatism have always been and will be very damaging, but more so at a time when it is essential to save really and effectively, not as a simple phrase.

They are Not Going to Keep Us Awake at Night

At the closing of the 21st Congress of CTC, the Party Second Secretary, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, said that Cubans are not going to keep awake at night because of the new measures and lies, most of which they have been confronting and defeating for many years.

The official declarations of the Revolutionary Government define clearly Cuba’s position, strongly supported by our people, Machado Ventura emphasized.

He said the dangers emanating from such a high degree of aggression, accompanied as a rule of an arrogant and irrational thought, surpass the limits of the purely economic and constitute threats to Cuba´s freedom, sovereignty and independence.

Machado Ventura said we will continue to do whatever it takes to preserve our military invulnerability, through the consistent implementation of the strategic conception of the War of the whole people.