Cuba after the Castros
Lal Khan
Since the Cuban revolution of 1959, the Castro brothers Fidel and Ral were presidents of the socialist republic. Ral had taken over as the president from his ailing brother Fidel in 2006. Last Wednesday however, the Cuban National Assembly and its 605 members elected Miguel Daz-Canel as the countrys new president. In the swearing-in speech, Daz pledged to uphold the values of the countrys socialist revolution. He added, there would be no capitalist restoration, but there will the modernisation of our social and economic model Socialism or Death! We will triumph. Meanwhile, Ral Castro is expected to remain a powerful influence in the Cuban state even after he steps down.
Daz was born in April 1960, a year after Fidel Castro became the revolutionary governments prime minister. Daz began his political career in his early 20s as a member of the Young Communist League in Santa Clara. He started his professional career as a teacher at the citys engineering university. Daz became the secretary of Cubas Young Communist League at the age of 33, and rose to the post of Cubas vice president in 2013. Ral Castro had praised Daz for his ideological firmness.
Inspite of the pressures and economic crises it faces, Cuba still maintains a planned (socialist) economy. Most industries are owned and operated by the government, and most of the labour force is employed by the state. After the fall of the Soviet Union a severe crisis hit Cuba. Its GDP declined by 33 percent between 1990 and 1993, partially due to the loss of Soviet subsidies and a crash of sugar prices in the early 1990s. The Communist Party encouraged the formation of worker co-operatives and self-employment. After Ral Castro took over the presidency in 2006, attempts were made to open up more sections of the economy to the private sector. The social democratic faction of the Communist party were advising Ral Castro to establish a Cuban version of the Sino-Vietnamese model, which maintains a one-party state while opening the economy to private enterprise and the markets for foreign monopolies. But soon the spectre of rich capitalists and the curse of huge inequality forced the regime to reverse most of these counter-reforms.
In the year 2000, public sector employment amounted to 76 percent and private sector employment mainly composed of the self-employed was 23 percent as compared to the 1981 ratio of 91 percent to 8 percent. However, investment is restricted and requires approval by the government. The government sets most prices and rations goods to citizens. Housing and transportation costs are low. Cubans receive government subsidised education, healthcare and food subsidies. The Cuban revolution proved that a planned economy in a small state can benefit the oppressed masses, and provide health and education
The country achieved a more even distribution of income since the Cuban Revolution, despite an economic embargo imposed by the US imperialists. Despite the shrinkage of Soviet grants and economic crises, Cuba retains high levels of healthcare and education. Today, Cuba has the highest per capita ratio of doctors in the world, second only to Italy.
Before the revolution Cuba had a one-crop economy (sugar cane) whose domestic market was constricted. Its population was characterised by chronic unemployment and deep poverty. United States monopolies plundered Cuba. They dominated the countrys entire financial system, all electric power production and the majority of industry. US monopolies owned 25 percent of the best land in Cuba. Sugar and livestock-raising landowners owned more than 80 percent of the countrys farmland.
In the 1950s, most Cuban children were not in school. A vast majority of households had no electricity. Only 15 percent of rural homes had running water. Nearly half the population was illiterate. More than 40 percent of the Cuban workforce in 1958 was either underemployed or unemployed. The planned economy introduced after the revolution brought enormous improvements in the living conditions of ordinary Cubans. The present economic crisis again threatens the planned economy that made these collective gains possible. Diaz faces daunting challenges. Although he still believes in the continuation of the planned economy, it would be hard for him to sustain it in the present milieu. This situation is explained by Marxist theory, which rejects the possibility of socialism occurring in one country, particularly when that country is economically underdeveloped and exists in a capitalist world currently unthreatened by immediate socialist revolutions. The bureaucratic character of the regime and isolation of the Cuban revolution are also obstructions in building a socialist society. The current low productivity rates are due to a bureaucratic system that systematically creates disorganisation and chaos and does not provide workers with political incentives allowing them to have a say and control over what they do to motivate them.
The writer is the editor of, Asian Marxist Review
