The changes that are now occurring in Cuba are part of an evolving process of adaptation to new historical and social conditions within and outside the country. Since the revolution of 1959, there have been numerous critical moments when the government and people had to re-assess their options and possibilities for socialism and/or survival. From the contemporary perspective of Margaret Randall, the American writer and poet who lived in Cuba from 1969 to 1980: “The Cuban Revolution continues to be one of the great social experiments of the twentieth century, still alive, and still moving and changing in the twenty first. It enjoys the distinction of being the only country in the western hemisphere where socialism as a political system remains operative. Modified, having made concessions necessary to its survival, but operative.”
It is those changes taking place in Cuba at the present time that may challenge the bedrock socialist principles to which the government presumably adheres. As a member of a Witness for Peace delegation visiting Cuba in January 2016, I spent ten days mostly in Havana absorbing as much information and experience as one could in such a brief visit. Although this was my first visit to Cuba, I also attempted to read a wide variety of left analysis of the history and present situation of the country. What follows is a critical assessment of Cuba, rooted in the caveat that Richard Levins proposed in his 2010 article, “How to Visit a Socialist Country:” “Criticism has to be grounded in the social, historical, and intellectual realities of a country, so that observations can be placed in context and the silly and arrogant errors of ignorance can be avoided.”
No discussion of Cuba’s contested socialist past and present can disregard the monumental achievements of the revolution, especially in education and health. Our itinerary over the ten days had numerous engagements with institutions and individuals in the fields of education and health. Starting with a visit to the Literacy Museum through a pre-school and primary school to the Enrique Jose Varona Pedagogical Institute and a tour of the University of the Arts and University of Havana, we encountered ample examples of how free and universal education is a touchstone of Cuba’s socialist progress.
The amazing literacy campaign that mobilized hundreds of thousands in 1961 managed to transform a country with close to 25% illiteracy to over 99% literacy in just one year. The government continued to put a premium on an educated population even in the face of severe crises, such as those in the so-called “Special Period” of the 1990’s. “Faced with the economic shortages during the Special Period, Cuba opted for education expansion. Class size was reduced to twenty students per class (with two teachers) in elementary school, fifteen in secondary school and ten in high school. Art education was expanded, schools for art teachers were established, and special programs were organized for handicapped students. Higher education was expanded by the establishment of university centers in all municipalities.”
We did observe in the variety of educational institutions that we visited a continuance of such commitments. In the pre and primary schools, a very low teacher to student ratio remains in place. Graduates from different art schools were part of the lively cultural events that we attended. Yet, it was also clear from a chance encounter with several first year physic students at the University of Havana that there were constraints on their educational experience. Some of those constraints were a legacy of the US blockade and the difficulty of procuring lab equipment for students in the physical sciences. Others, like the limitations on Internet usage, are related to the government control and prioritizing of unlimited access to the Internet.
A more compelling contradiction of Cuba’s educational achievements is the overproduction of university graduates. There were several instances where Cubans we met who had been trained in a specialized field at a university level had either been economically displaced or opted to work outside of the appointed state sector for which they were educated. One example of such displacement was a former electrical engineer who studied in the Soviet Union in the 1970s for his advanced degree and worked in the state sector through the 1980s. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, his job disappeared in the 1990s and he had to turn to learning a skill that provided a degree of self-employment. Now, his woodworking allows him to sell his products at the Artists Market in Havana.
Certainly, the lack of capital, as a consequence of withdrawal of Soviet and Eastern European money and the US embargo on financial support for Cuba, and the primary commitment to basic needs in education and health created this situation with university graduates not working in their respective fields outside of education and health. Added to this overproduction or underutilization of educated specialists is a growing self-employed and tourist economy that relies more on convertible dollars than the national peso. This has very profound implications for the growing economic inequality in Cuba.
On the other hand, Cuba’s health care system remains a beacon in the Caribbean and, indeed, in all of the Americas. Life expectancy is equal to that in the United States where far more money is spent on health care than in Cuba. Of course, much of that money is spent on expensive equipment, hospital and pharmaceutical costs, and insurance, especially in the last six weeks of many US patients lives. With Cuba, the emphasis is on preventive care. That’s why there are neighborhood clinics with the clinician doctor living above the office for every several hundred families throughout the country. (The number of families served has been creeping up recently, as Cuba continues to send its doctors to countries around the world, garnering both the gratitude and basic remuneration that plays a central role in Cuba’s income.)
In our visits to a number of these clinics and their staff of dedicated doctors, we were reminded of how Cuba had adapted to the US blockade on medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. All Cubans in their medical school training are introduced to alternative practices from Chinese medicine to the use of homeopathic remedies. We met one specialist whose use of floral-based homeopathic clinical approaches provided inexpensive and effective therapies.
Yet, because of the US embargo on a wide variety of medical equipment, Cubans, especially children, have suffered. As Amnesty International reports: “treatments for children and youth suffering from bone cancer and victims of cancer of the retina were not available because they were under US patent. The embargo also compromised the supply of antiretroviral drugs for children suffering from HIV AIDS. Under the terms of the embargo, medicines and medical equipment manufactured under a US patent cannot be sold to the Cuban government.”
While Cuban doctors at both the clinic and polyclinic level keep close tabs on any and all patients whose immunological systems have been compromised, it is the daily practice of the neighborhood doctors who see to it that Cubans are among the healthiest people in the world. Also, unlike in so many states in the US, Cuban physicians offer their services, free of charge, to sexually active kids. Contraception is provided free or at a minimal fee and abortion is readily available to any woman with an unwanted pregnancy.
A key part of maintaining healthy patients is the guarantee of basic nutritional needs. Ever since the US terminated its import of Cuban sugar in 1961, the government has had to wrestle with how to manage agricultural goods and foodstuffs. One continuing practice dealing with food shortages, dating back to 1963, is the ration card. Although many of the items have remained the same on the ration card – bread, beans, milk, eggs, rice, and cooking oil (of which 80% is imported) – there have been constant adjustments to the actual allotment per individual and family.
While there is increasing importing of food and now agricultural equipment from the US, Cuba has turned to experiments in food security and self-sufficiency that are truly remarkable. Urban organic farms, like the one we visited in Havana, now supply 70% or more of all the fresh vegetables consumed in cities.Instead of relying on pesticides, as Cuba did during the Soviet period, they have turned to utilizing sophisticated organic techniques to control pests. Nonetheless, there are still problems with the soil in many areas as a consequence of the overuse of pesticides and monoculture agriculture. In addition, there are some instances of the use of transgenic crops, like Bt corn and soybeans, and the persistence or industrial agriculture.
Another on-going problem is the amount of uncultivated land, estimated to be millions of acres. The Cuban government has offered free land to induce people to begin farming, but there are few takers and certain professionals are prevented from taking advantage of the offer. We did visit a dairy farm outside of the city of Matanzas (50 miles to the east of Havana) that had been reclaimed after the revolution. Yet, the grazing area was limited and run-off of water to lower land created difficulties. Still, the farm was part of a newly organized ecological center where we were served an excellent meal, including milk-based deserts of rice pudding and sweetened dairy curds from the farm.
Because of global climate change and the imbalances in rain between eastern and western Cuba (the latter receiving more), there is an effort to develop major irrigation systems. All of this takes capital investment. Relying on natural resources to generate that capital is problematic for a number of reasons. Cuba’s main mineral resource of nickel faces lowered world prices and a US embargo that punishes, in violation of international law, countries and companies that use Cuban nickel in their finished products. Like all extractive industries, nickel mining in Cuba has profound environmental consequences that remain troubling. Oil and natural gas exploration is sometimes, but not always, constrained by environmental concerns, primarily to protect the coast for tourism, and the lack of investment in new technologies. In some instances, Cuba has been able to rely on a variety of trading partners and new foreign direct investment from countries like Brazil for assistance in dredging new harbors for cruise ships and France for help in global distribution of alcohol and liquor.
Tourism continues to grow, providing Cuba with an influx of dollars and Euros. While Cuba retains majority control over the foreign companies, mainly Spanish and Canadian, they dominate the tourist hotels in places like Varadero where the expense of staying in such hotels is way beyond the means of the average Cuban. On the other hand, much of the infrastructure for expanded tourism is still lacking, e.g., rental cars and Internet services. There are a variety of Wi-Fi (pronounced we-fee) hotspots around the cities, especially in Havana, where one sees tourists and Cuban youth gathering to check in with their smart phones and tablets. However, such services are costly for the average Cuban and limited not just because of government priorities but also because of the US blockade. That blockade certainly influenced where fiber optic cable could originate. Instead of the 90 miles of cable from a blockaded Florida, Cuba had to run its fiber optic cable over 1,000 miles to Venezuela.
How long Venezuela with a new right-wing parliament will provide Cuba with essential and cheap oil is matter of concern to the government. Cuba is trying to invest in renewables, turning to countries like China for investment and product possibilities. However, the transportation systems in Cuba still rely on expensive gas and cities, like Havana, have a pollution problem as a consequence of older gas guzzling cars. With all of the incredible inventiveness of the Cuban people, restoring classic 50’s American cars with Soviet tractor engines, little is available beyond bus and automobile transportation reliant on fossil fuels.
The privatization push under Raul has opened up even more opportunities for self-employment in transportation, lodging, and restaurants. One sees many self-employed cabbies driving those classic 50’s cars throughout Havana, stuffed with working class passengers. A growing number of bed and breakfast places are sprouting up around Havana, marked by specific insignia to clue in clueless tourists. Even AirBnB claims over 2000 locations throughout Cuba. Private restaurants, called paladares, have recently expanded the number of seats they can have from 12 to 50, giving incentive to self-employed restaurant owners. With the convertible dollar currency operating exclusively in lodging, restaurants, and tourism, income gaps are growing between the private and state sectors.
Many of the economic reforms instituted since 2011 have transformed the state sector and not just through the elimination of workers’ jobs. In some instances, workers in former state operated businesses, such as stores, bars, and restaurants, have been given incentives to develop cooperatives. “Such a transition,” argues Gary Leech, “actually constitutes a strengthening of socialism rather than a shift towards capitalism because it is empowering workers who now have a meaningful voice in their workplace – something they didn’t have under state socialism and would not have under corporate capitalism.” It’s not clear, however, how many Cubans are opting for cooperatives as opposed to self-employment. Those Cubans with access to large remittances from relatives in the US resort to opening their own businesses on a more individualist basis.
How the transition to a more mixed economy will effect, in turn, the political liberalization of Cuba is open to question. Certainly, the Cuban Communist Party is planning on retaining control of the government, having already selected a successor to Raul Castro when he steps down in 2018. It is hard to imagine that the party or even the majority of the Cuban people will capitulate to the arrogant imperial provisions of the US Congress, enacted in the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, that prescribe exactly what kind of political and economic system Cuba most adopt. Moreover, while human rights can be waived as a banner to reinforce the blockade, changes in Cuban and US policy seem to be moving in the direction of full normalization. The achievement of such normalization will probably require more changes in US politics than in Cuba.
My experience of Cuba, limited though it was, convinced me that the well being of the average Cuban was significant and a mainstay in the support, albeit not without criticism, of the majority of the population for the Cuban government. Certainly, human rights are undergoing a transformation in ways the move Cuba beyond the harsh repression of the early days of the revolution, especially against gays. Now, gender equality is touted by the regime. Yet, political opposition is still limited and outright dissent often hectored and repressed. On the other hand, as noted by Richard Levins: “Liberal critics of Cuba, on the grounds of human rights, are very selective as to which articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights they refer. They usually acknowledge, but pass quickly over, such things as the rights to have elementary needs met, including food, water, education, health care, gender equity, mass access to culture, sports, and security in old age, but downgrade these as unimportant compared to political rights.”
There is still much about Cuba in all its contrasts and contradictions that befuddle me as a one-time visitor and long time observer of the island since the revolution. In many ways, I would echo the sentiments of C. Wright Mills in his 1960 extended essay, “Listen, Yankee:” “I am for the Cuban revolution. I do not worry about it. I worry for it and with it.” What changes are in store for Cuba in the next few years do concern me, especially under the onslaught of tourism and the two-tiered currency system. However, given the remarkable ability of Cuba and its people to resist the ravages of the US blockade and to find ways to make do under difficult circumstances, I can only express my admiration for what has been accomplished and hope for the best for the future.
I would be remiss if I concluded this article without the recognition of the helpful and inspiring contributions of all of those Cubans with whom we came in contact. Our group was enriched by the hospitality and service of the staff at the Martin Luther King Center in Havana. We were greatly benefitted by the wealth of experience and sharing of insights by our guide, Rita, and translator, Eloisa, into everyday life in Cuba. We were dazzled by the young musicians who performed for us, from the jazz sextet, La Luz de Habana to the alternative folk group, Sonach, and the budding visual artists at the University of the Arts, including a Banksy-inspired graphic artist whose politically provocative prints were worthy of his muse. Both a young blogger and veteran journalist made presentations that were consciously critical of the shortcomings of their government while remaining mindful of the devastating impact of the blockade.
Although there were numerous others, from teachers to physicians to farmers to local shop owners and cooperative artists, who grounded our itinerary in the realities of life in Cuba, there were two people we met whose unstinting service to their communities made them all the more memorable. One was a family physician who lived above her clinic for the last 29 years and kept in close contact with the hundreds of family members who lived in her neighborhood. Another was a retired art teacher whose small apartment was filled with his work. Although he took pride in his own stunning canvasses, he was even more gratified by the children whose paintings he mentored as the Director of the La Lisa Neighborhood Community Project in Havana. Perhaps such altruistic behavior will wither under the assaults of increasing privatization and consumerism. On the other hand, it may be that this kind of spirit fostered by Cuban socialism may survive the capitalist crossroads. That spirit definitely deserves watchful support and encouragement in every way possible.
Nótaí:
1. Margaret Randall, To Change the World: My Years in Cuba (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 244. For a more critical interpretation of the “socialist” trajectory of the Cuban revolution, see Samuel Farber, Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment (Chicago: Haymarket, 2011).
2. Richard Levins, “How to Visit a Socialist Country,” Monthly Review 61:11 (April 2010), 26.
3. Ibid., 11 .
4. For an excellent account of the impact of Soviet and Eastern European economies on Cuba in the 1990’s, see Emily Morris, “Unexpected Cuba,” New Left Review 88 (July-August 2014), 5-45. For a concise historical overview of the US blockade against Cuba, see Salim Lamrani, The Economic War Against Cuba: A Historical and Legal Perspective on the US Blockade (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2013). The CUC, or convertible dollar currency, was instituted in 1993 to bring the dollar informal economy into the mainstream economy. For the impact of the growing inequality on Afro-Cubans and women, see Michelle Chase, “Cuba After the Thaw,” Boston Review, January 12, 2016.
5. Quoted in Lamrani, The Economic War Against Cuba, 48. It is estimated that the US holds 80% of the patents for medical equipment.
6. Miguel A. Altieri and Fernando R. Funes-Monzote, “The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture, Monthly Review 63:8 (Jan 2012), 23-33. For a very positive overview of Cuba’s organic farming techniques, see Bill McKibben, Deep Economy (New York: Holt Paperback, 2007), 71-77.
7. Gary Leech, “Redefining Socialism in Cuba,” Counterpunch, September 18, 2015 http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/18/redefining-socialism-in-cuba/
8. Determining popular support for the Cuban government is no easy task and notoriously inexact. However, in a 2006 survey of residents of the two largest cities in Cuba 47% approved on the government while 40% disapproved. See, Aviva Chomsky, A History of the Cuban Revolution (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 15.
9. Levins, “How to Visit a Socialist Country,” 15-16.
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1 Comment
Cuba is a state capitalist economy .
In place of private owners and boards, it has government officials determining FROM ABOVE how work will be done , the profits distributed etc. ; all decisions of importance.
The Cuban economy cannot be considered to be socialist without a democratic base of operation which it most certainly does not have.
Noam Chomsky explains it quite well at You Tube .
Request “Chomsky on socialism “.