When I went on a two-week backpacking trip to Cuba this past summer, the friend who accompanied me kept reminding me that this would be one of the last chances to visit the old Cuba. That is, Cuba before an imminent, inevitable, and fundamental shift of control and policies within the government and economy takes place. Cuba is rapidly changing, my friend believes, and had we decided to make our trip the next summer instead of this year, we might have stepped into a country very different from the one that has existed for the past 50 years.
Cuba is at a crossroads. Within the next few months, it will undergo sweeping economic reforms that will undermine all that has defined the Cuban system ever since the Revolution in 1958. A centrally-planned economy with public ownership of the means of production, and highly subsidized (and sometimes free) goods and services available to the entire population, have defined life in the Cuban Republic for the past 50 years. It seems that this economic system may gradually be replaced by a system much more adaptable to capitalism and much more open to the world market and foreign investments.
Less than a month ago, Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, published a statement announcing the new measures that will be taken as a means of dealing with the serious economic crisis facing the country. 500,000 public sector workers are going to lose their jobs in the next six months as part of government’s plan to cut one million public sector jobs. In a country where the public sector makes up more than 85 per cent of the workforce and the total number of public sector employees adds up to 5 million, this could be devastating.
The 500,000 public workers who are going to be fired by April 2011 are expected to find jobs in the private sector. The private sector in Cuba is presently very small, with only 170,000 self-employed people having licenses for their work. The government, moreover, is planning to reduce social spending and subsidies, relax restrictions on foreign investment, and expand self-employment licenses.
So, is Cuba becoming capitalist? Is this the last we will see of the welfare state system that provided all Cubans with subsidized goods, housing, transportation, health care, and education? If so, what will the results be?
Let us be clear: Cuba is not China. Cuba cannot go the ‘China Way.’ It does not have the vast resources, the enormous territory, nor the labour pool found in China. Cuba is a small island with a small population and even fewer resources. If Cuba were to abandon the planned economy, allow foreign investment in all sectors, and let the world market penetrate the roots of its economy, it would inevitably suffer neo-colonial domination and consequent humiliation, much like it did prior to the revolution. Massive social injustices would follow, and all that was accomplished through decades of collective struggle and sacrifice on the part of the Cuban people against the brutal embargo of the United States after will simply be destroyed.
But is quite evident that Cuba cannot continue as before either. The corruption and mismanagement existing at all levels of government, which go back to the existence of heavily bureaucratic elements in the party as well as various state positions, are the main factors causing the degradation of the Cuban Revolution. The current system in Cuba, labelled by some (more jokingly than seriously) as ‘tropical Stalinism,’ lacks a genuine workers democracy and, despite the socialist elements that exist, the most important goal in socialism — workers’ control of production — has not been fully realized. This, coupled with a corrupt bureaucracy, diminishing standards of living, and the shrinking purchasing power of wages, undermines the morale of the Cuban people and their faith in their government.
During my two-week trip in Cuba, I met and talked to many Cubans of the younger generation, and I was intrigued to find that most regarded Castro as a genius and were deeply proud of what their small island has been able to achieve despite the demoralizing and crushing effects of the embargo. Though none of the Cuban students I met claimed their system is perfect — they were painfully aware of its shortcomings and were not afraid to talk about them — none wanted to do away with it altogether.
With such conflicting and contradictory elements present in its economic structure, Cuba will sooner or later have to swing one way or the other. The only viable solution that would ensure the Cuban people’s social and economic prosperity is a complete break with the corrupt bureaucracy and the implementation of a genuine workers’ democracy in which all Cubans can participate in the management of the state and economy, and no one has to sacrifice more than the others. The realization of this will be closely tied to the fate of the rest of the continent. As Cuba itself has shown us, it is impossible to build socialism in one country alone. Only the success of revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, including those in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela (from which Cuba has already drawn great benefit) will be able to guarantee the survival and advancement of the Cuban Revolution.
