Shoal Philosophy

Shoal Philosophy / Miriam Celaya
Posted on August 31, 2013

HAVANA, Cuba , August, www.cubanet.org – Every Cuban must have heard
countless times a compilation of phrases that try to encompass all the
Island's popular wisdom: "don't bother", "you're not going to solve
anything", "what the heck, you are not going to change anything", "don't
look for trouble" , or this next one, which is the paradigm of evading
commitment: "I don't care about politics", though the ones who utter it
ignore that mere membership in the Committee for the Defense of the
Revolution implies a direct relationship with the politics of government.

All of them, without exception, could be part of a manual on how to
better serve the interests of the dictatorship because they appeal to
passivity, to limitless waiting, to subordination, and to complicit
subterfuge. But, without a doubt, the crown jewel and the one most
frequently used is "don't call attention to yourself". It is the
quintessential advice, and it serves to brake the spontaneous impulses
of any dissatisfied individual in any circumstance, because "to call
attention to yourself" in Cuba is to leave the flock, to rebel against
absolute power, to fault at the most elementary prudence, and it can
manifest itself even in the smallest sign that could set the individual
apart from the rest.

It is interesting that such a no-nonsense phrase should be the currency
in a country where people don't think twice about hurling themselves
into the sea and crossing the Florida Straits on board any artifact
buoyant enough to take them to the other shore, to another realm, where
calling attention to yourself isn't necessarily an imprudence, but just
the opposite, most of the time.

But let someone express his intention to stop paying the syndicate, the
MTT (Territorial Troops Militia), not attending the May Day parade or
the assembly of accountability for the well-known phrase "don't call
attention to yourself" to make its appearance.

Recently, a young man working in a private restaurant told me about a
visit an official of the national union made to his place of employment,
to educate employees about the importance of "creating" a union,
affiliated to what she called" the national union movement", to "defend
the workers' interests."

It's beyond the absurd, only possible in Cuba, that a State official
will interrupt the work of a private business to encourage employees to
organize to make a stand against management – the prime and essential
reason for unionizing — with the complacent consent of that same
management, and with the independence that a true syndicate must have as
its premise the freedom to associate, which doesn't exist in Cuba. The
strangest thing of the matter is that the vast majority of workers in
those private businesses have joined the "syndicates" created from and
by the same power that has unleashed a wave of layoffs at State workplaces.

My young friend insists that, initially, some workers were reluctant or
undecided, and there were those who naively asked if membership was
compulsory, but, here and there, an infiltrated delegate would drop the
little phrase "don't call attention to yourself" and the stirrings of
rebellion were diluted, wrapped in the protective anonymity of the
collective.

"It is the philosophy of the shoal, the school of fish," says my friend,
a definition that is based on the tactics of the sardine or anchovy in
which the individual is diluted in the group so he'll have a better
chance at survival, which, however, does not prevent predators from
feeding on them.

I acknowledge that my friend is somewhat cynical, but this does not
negate the gist of his remark. And the civic abandonment and the lack of
rights in Cuba is such that it has developed a kind of slavery syndrome
of thought, so that when some people have a modicum of freedom, they
refuse to make use of it and continue to be subjected to the snare and
the master.

Nevertheless, the emergence of private initiative could mark a major
turning point in the resurgence of sectors that might strengthen the
weak fabric of civil society, a reality which the independent unions
that exist in Cuba cannot ignore. This requires implementing a program,
or at least for these groups to make specific proposals which are
attractive to this new labor force. It would be an essential step to
achieve union autonomy.

Government's interest in keeping this labor force subjugated indicates
the recognition of the risk implied by the potential autonomy of the
sector; an opportunity that activists could well take advantage of in
order to fight that widespread social evil, the shoal philosophy.

From Cubanet

Translated by Norma Whiting

29 August 2013

Source: "Shoal Philosophy / Miriam Celaya | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/shoal-philosophy-miriam-celaya/