CONSTITUTION OF CUBA Although Article 4 of the Constitution proclaims that • ... a/1 power belongs to the working people who exercises it direct/y or through the Assemblies of Peopfe's Power... » the Constitution actually institutional izes and peripetuates the dictatorship in much the same manner as the Constitution of the Soviet Union promulgated by Stalin. A few examples: Article 66: « ... State organs are based ...upon the principles of ...unity of power and the totalitarian Lenin-Stalin principle of democratic centralism ... ». · Article 5: « ... the socialist State ...consolidates the ideology and ru/es of living together and of proper conduct in Cuban society, ...directs the national economy ...assures the educational, scientific technical and cultural progress of the country ... "· Article 38: « ... education is a function of the state ...educational nistitutions belong to the state ...which promotes communist education and training of children, young people and adults ... ». Article 52: « ... citizen have the freedom of speech and press in keeping with socialist society but the exercise of that right is vested in the state ...press; radio, television, movies and other organs of the mass media are exclusive/y state property ... ». Article 19: « The wage system of Cubais based upon the ...socialist principle of « From each according to his ability, to each according to his work ... ». Following the Russian pattern, the Constitution of Cuba « ... basing ourselves on the ...proletarian internationalism ... of the Soviet Union ... ,. (Preamble) is a hierarchi'cally structured pyramid in which the absolute power of the state through its chain-of-command, is imposed from the top down over every level of Cuban society (homes, neighborhoods, municipailities, provinces etc.) « ... decisions of superior state organs are compulsory for inferior ones... » (Article 66). Starting from the local, municipal and provincial Assemblies of Peop·le',s Power, the Council of Ministers and the Council of State, ·supreme power is untimately personified in a single dictator:. The President of the Council of State. Decisions of Local Assemblies of People',s Power can be « ... revoked, suspended or modified ... by the... Municipal and Provincial Assemblies of People's Power» (Article 105). The Council of Ministers can « ... revoke or annul provisions issued by ...heads of central agencies and the administrative bodies of the local organs, Municipal and Provincial Assemblies of People's Power ... » (Article 96). The Councitl of State, can in turn, « .. suspend the provisions of the Council of Ministers and even the Local Assemblies of 117
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