Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 59

Constitucional Consensus
in Communities:

The Economic Forum Takes Off
Marthadela Tamayo González
Nuevo País project
Antilla, Holguín, Cuba

T

he Constitutional Consensus project has
achieved the goal which was established at
the very outset, constantly striving for fundamental changes - driven by the project itself so as to bring about the State of Law, built upon
a democratic Constitution, that we so eagerly desire.
Constitutional Consensus began with a working
plan to address a number of issues having to do
with current laws,. The project developed the
methodology needed for the Constitutional Initiative Roundtables (MIC), which began in May
and June throughout Cuba and fostered broad and
rich debate by and among citizens regarding how
to fully rescue sovereignty.
A significant contribution to the debates at the
Constitutional Initiative Roundtables were citizen
proposals and petition signatures created and collected by citizens participating in the Constitutional Assembly project of Nuevo Pais (New
Nation). Citizens are increasingly getting involved in this process, which offers them the opportunity to debate and offer their points of view
about our future laws.
As a means of sharing and collecting the ideas of
an ever-increasing number of citizens from their
own unique perspective, two initiatives were
formed out of the wide-ranging Constitutional
Consensus project: the first Economic Forum and
the Participatory Surveys. Contributors and par-

ticipants have been expressing their views concerning the state of our laws through short, threeminute taped surveys. They’ve also talked about
what the role of citizens should be in society, and
how they should go about assuming it.
All these F