What the Cuban revolution means for socialists.What the Cuban revolution means for socialists.What the Cuban revolution means for socialists.What the Cuban revolution means for socialists.1111

Nearly 53 years have passed since the triumph of the Cuban revolution and 50

years since the imposition of a strangulating economic blockade of Cuba by the

USA. So this is a good moment to reflect on the revolution, its achievements

and challenges and to ask what it means for progressive movements in the

world today.

Every year the United Nations General Assembly votes on a Cuban motion for

the necessity to end the blockade. Every year the vast majority of the world’s

countries vote with Cuba, the exceptions being the USA, Israel and one of its

other clients, usually a Pacific micro State. Not even a country like Colombia

votes with the USA.

It is important to remember what this blockade means in real terms for the

Cuban people. The UN General Secretary compiles a report with submissions

from most countries (shamefully not the UK) and the UN’s organisations. To

illustrate the impact of the blockade, it is worth quoting from the submissions

from two of them, the World Food Programme and the World Health

Organisation2.

“The United States embargo continues to severely limit trade and has a

direct impact on the capacity and efficiency of Cuba’s logistics

infrastructure (port, warehousing, commodity tracking), food processing

and agricultural production. The efficiency of the food-based social

safety nets of the Cuban Government’s, which are instrumental to

household food security, is thereby negatively affected. This year, the

effect is even more crippling because of the combined factors of rising

food prices and persistent drought in Cuba. Along with limited access to

agricultural inputs, these factors constrain domestic food production and

force the Government to continue importing a significant portion of its

domestic food requirements. This, in turn, places pressure on the

strained social sector budget and has an impact on people’s well-being,

1 Talk given to Communist Party of Britain Red Dinner in celebration of the anniversary

of the Bolshevik Revolution, 7 November, 2011.

2 United Nations General Assembly (2011) Necessity of ending the economic,

commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against

Cuba: Report of the Secretary-General. http://bit.ly/t7Oz6y

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especially those most dependent on social safety nets. Micronutrient

deficiencies are a concern. Anaemia prevalence continues to be high,

especially among children under 2 years of age, jeopardizing their

development potential.” World Food Programme, P 131

“In economic terms, calculated using data from various Cuban

governmental sources, the cumulative cost of the embargo to the health

sector amounted to $2,334.5 million as at May 2011. …..

“The embargo affects the individual health care of all people, regardless

of age or gender, through its impact on Cuba’s unified health system

institutions, research facilities, epidemiological surveillance institutions

and disease control agencies. …

“The embargo continues to limit scientific exchange, despite the

recognized advances in innovation and science in the country. World

Health Organization / Pan American Health Organization, p132.

“Oncology services have had difficulty obtaining cytostatic

cyclophosphamide, used in cancer treatment, as well as difficulty

acquiring flow cytometers, because the manufacturer, Becton, Dickinson

and Company, has refused to sell them to Cuba…..

“Care for patients with serious renal failure who require transplants has

been affected by the impossibility of purchasing a gamma topography

chamber from General Electric and high-quality anti-HLA (human

leukocyte antigen) reagents from One Lambda, a United States company,

which has resulted in the shutdown of the national transplant programme.

“The Camilo Cienfuegos International Centre for Retinitis Pigmentosa has

found it impossible to obtain the electrodes necessary for the piece of

equipment used in electro-ocular stimulation.

“In addition, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/WHO office in

Cuba received a letter from the Minister of Health of Cuba addressed to

the PAHO Director reporting that the funds allocated to the priority

programme to fight AIDS and tuberculosis (more than $4 million)

provided by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,

which had been transferred to the account of the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP), had been intercepted by the Office of

Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury. Through

numerous efforts by Fund and UNDP, the funds were finally released late

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in April 2011.” World Health Organization / Pan American Health

Organization, p133.

Clearly the Cuban example troubles the USA enough for it to ignore the

international clamour against the blockade. Aurelio Alonso, Cuban sociologist

and Deputy Director of the Casa de las Americas Journal recently described

three surprises that Cuba has given the United States over the last half century.

We should add a fourth – the original surprise of an incorruptible revolution, a

socialist revolution, directly under its nose, on its very threshold.

Alonso’s three surprises - and this is my loose translation – are:

“1) The capacity of this little nation to resist the hegemonic might of

Washington.

2) Having defeated the Cuban project of spreading revolution in Latin

America in the 1960s – what should happen but Cuba pops up in Africa

contributing decisively to the defeat of apartheid.

3) Despite the tremendous damage to Cuba of the blockade, the

Torricelli and Helms Burton Acts, despite the incessant propaganda was

against the country, Cuba – its political system (needing as it does

initiatives to open it up to more effective participation), its economy

(more disordered and inefficient than ever, and its society (full of

hardship, disaffection and uncertainty) – Cuba has not lost the values that

distinguish it and nor has it shown interest in abandoning the socialist

utopia. It does not want to lose what it has gained. It wants more of

course, but it recognises that only within a realisable version of socialism

can it exercise its true sovereignty.”3

Now that passage tells us a lot about Cuba and the Cuba struggle for socialism.

3 Alonso, A Cuba 1959-2011. Logros y reveses sociales. Rebelión 17-10-2011.

http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=137672&titular=logros-y-reveses-sociales-

Original source: Punto Final, edición Nº 744, 14 de octubre, 2011

http://www.puntofinal.cl simultaneous publication in Portuguese: Etudos Avançados ,

Nº 72, del Instituto de Etudos Avançados de la Universidad de Sao Paulo, Brasil.

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FFFFirstlyirstlyirstlyirstly, here is a Cuba social scientist writing a piece that openly names the

shortcomings of the system, political, economic and societal, in overseas

publications (in Chile and Brazil).

SecondlySecondlySecondlySecondly, this person has a responsible position in the leadership of Cuba’s

cultural establishment.

ThirdlyThirdlyThirdlyThirdly, his pride in the revolution, at the same time nationalist, internationalist

and socialist, is palpable.

FourthlyFourthlyFourthlyFourthly, he frames the review (which covers far more ground than I have

quoted) in terms of the bullying, the frustrated bullying, of the USA.

Let’s now turn to look at what’s happening in Cuba today4. Cuba has always

been prepared to review and adjust its approach, from the very early years.

In the 1980s, while Gorbachev was playing with fire, the Cubans were reviewing

their model in what they called the ‘rectification programme’, and the changes

begun then surely helped to survive the worst of the Special Period after the

Soviet Union’s collapse.

In his last major speech, in 2005, before standing down from the presidency,

Fidel made a blistering critique of inefficiency, waste, (petty) corruption and

ideological malaisethat he saw threatening Cuba from within. He made two

particularly memorable comments:- “One of our biggest mistakes was to

assume we knew how to construct socialism” and “The revolution could destroy

itself from within”. This initiated a process of examination and quickening

reform which was mainly to be carried out under Raúl’s leadership.

Briefly, this has involved a process of consultation and participation throughout

the island in all the popular organisations: the Trade Unions, the Federation of

Cubam Women, the Association of Small Farmers, the Federation of University

Students, the Communist Party, the Committees for the Defence of the

Revolution and in workplaces. Processes of this type took place in 2007, 2009,

2010: there were thousands of meetings, thousands of submissions of

proposals dealing with the everyday lived reality and with practical reforms to

4 There is a useful summary of the change process and principal reforms at

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/49620 The article is by Marce Cameron who

maintains the blog, Cuba’s Socialist Renewal:

http://www.cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/

Comment: Check wording

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improve things. Commissions worked on specific areas. The party and the

National Assembly debated. The reforms introduced cover a variety of areas:

1. Energy security / efficiency.

2. Food security – especially increasing food production by changing land

use.

3. Decentralisation of powers and decision making: national to local,

ministries to (public) enterprises.

4. Rationalisation of supply chains.

5. Improved managements and accounting (clarity and an end to

‘improvisation’).

6. Improved workplace discipline and anti-corruption drives.

7. Removal of unnecessary restrictions.

8. Reduction of the state workforce: transfers to co-operatives and self

employment.

200,000 state employees moved from the state to non-state sector between

October 2010 and April 2011. The state will focus on the commanding heights

of the economy and not try to manage every detail.

9. Streamlining of ministries – but “Planning will prevail as a socialist feature

of management”5

10. Ending the ration book – this was amended to include the qualifier

‘gradually’ during the consultation process – to subsidise people rather

than products and to focus on need.

As the Cubans emphasise, nobody will be abandoned and there will be no

shock therapy. The programme is one of socialist reform – not abandonment.

There are some steps back and many steps forward as Cuban socialism is

refocused under different conditions.

This is an ambitious programme in a context of worsening international

economic conditions, climactic disaster (hurricanes in 2008, droughts), but

5 Raúl Castro. Central Report To The 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, Apr

16th, 2011. http://en.cubadebate.cu/opinions/2011/04/16/central-report-6th-

congress-communist-party-cuba/

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interestingly we can now begin to see some successes. In addition to data

available on things like the area of land brought back into cultivation, we have

validation from a surprising source.

Freedom House, an anti-socialist NGO which is funded in part by the USAID-

funded USA National Endowment for Democracy6 conducts surveys in Cuba from

time to time. In June, 2011 they interviewed a representative sample of people

from across the island7. They compared the results with those they obtained in

December, 2010.

79% now see change to be happening. In December, 2010, 15% were optimistic

about the future while by June, 2011, 41% were. In December, 45% thought the

reforms would improve the country’s economic situation – by June it was 63%.

Is the country making progress, stuck or moving forward? 15% thought it was

making progress in December – by June 41% thought so. 31% thought it to be

moving backwards in December while by June only 12% did.

I don’t want to read too much into this survey, but it does seem to indicate that

the reforms are beginning to take effect and that the confidence of the people in

their revolution is being renewed.

Finally, I want to say something about the character and meaning of Cuban

socialism. This is always for me a good test of our comrades of the ultra left

groups’ revolutionary credentials: “What’s your group’s line on Cuba?” – “Well of

course Cuba isn’t socialist”. Well let’s go back to first principles. What happens

to surplus in Cuba? It goes thee ways:-

1. Yes, indeed some of it goes to foreign Capital, to companies like Pernod-

Ricard who market Cuban rum for the hard currency and expertise that

Cuba needs in this globalised world, or to the Melia hotel group who have

built hotels and bring in tourist revenue (gaining for Cuba the highest

return to the local economy in all the Caribbean. And Cuba keeps a

controlling 51% stake in these joint ventures and so returns a very

significant share of profit to the national economy.

2. Some of it goes to individuals and to co-operatives. While the socialist

offensive of 1969 meant the nationalisation of everything down to barber

6 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Freedom_House

7 http://freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/105.pdf

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shops and street vendors, the reforms of the 1990s and the more recent

ones have opened up a strictly controlled part of the economy to small

enterprises of these two types. But this has not created a capitalist class:

their capital does not accumulate endlessly for its own sake and again the

State takes its significant share, returning money to help fund Cuba’s

health, education, cultural and transport sectors.

3. Finally, as you would expect, in those industries run directly by the state,

surplus goes direct to the government to use for the needs of the

population, in investment and in the distribution of goods and benefits.

So yes, Cuba is socialist – with compromises. Surplus is basically shared

wherever possible (although there is some ‘leakage’) – to meet human need and

not the needs of Capital. Contrast that situation with the intervention of the

British State to open up education and health to international capitalist interests,

converting common goods to private profit centres. And where Cuba

meticulously consults its people on every significant policy change, I somehow

don’t recall the present Tory-Liberal-demagogue regime consulting us on the

25% cut to council budgets in Manchester in its Comprehensive Spending Review.

Sitting as it does in a Capitalist world, Cuba is in effect a laboratory of socialism

where the real dilemmas, advances and reverses of socialist construction are

being explored – for example in the integration of a new network of co-

operatives in an increasingly democratically controlled system under strategic

State coordination.

This means that not only must we show solidarity with Cuba and its people in

their struggle, but it is also in the interests of progressives everywhere to

support and promote this incredible experiment in the construction of what Che

called the “New Man” – which we might today rephrase as a people that

consciously creates its own destiny, changing itself for the better in the process.

So after 50 years of the blockade, the struggle continues and I urge you all to

renew your support for international solidarity with Cuba and the Cuba

Solidarity Campaign.

Mark Burton

November, 2011