(For the first part of this article, "Cuba Seeks Revolutionary
Renewal," see http://www.socialistvoice.ca/Soc-Voice/Soc-Voice-
67.htm. Other references are listed at the end of this article.)

In a November 17, 2005, speech at the University of Havana, Cuban
President Fidel Castro outlined measures to counter corruption and
theft that are bleeding the Cuban peoples' resources into the hands
of a layer of new rich (see Socialist Voice #67).

Castro also indicated that the economic principles underlying the
recent reorganization of electricity supply will be applied to the
economy as a whole. The government has raised electricity rates
while simultaneously raising salaries to compensate. "Subsidies and
free services will be considered only in essentials," he
said. "Medical services will be free, so will education and the
like. Housing will not be free. Maybe there will be some subsidy,
but the rents … need to come close to the actual cost."

The thinking behind this change was explained by Francisco Soberon
Valdes, head of Cuba's national bank, in a December speech to the
National Assembly. "It is of utmost importance that the distribution
of goods and services is clearly and directly linked … with the
effort of each from the position they occupy in our economic
structure," Soberon said.

The Special Period, he said, "moved us away from this strategic
objective." The Special Period is the Cuban term for the economic
crisis brought on in the early 1990s by the rupture of economic ties
with the Soviet Union.

In capitalist society, talk of "effort" is used to justify paying
corporate chieftains, who produce nothing, many, many times the
salaries of manual or intellectual workers. Within the Cuban state
economy, however, salary levels have always conformed closely to the
goal, reaffirmed by Soberon, of assuring "as equal a distribution as
possible."

'To each according to their work'

In Cuba, the prices of many basic necessities like housing have long
been subsidized. These subsidies unduly benefit those Cubans who
have an ample supply of money. This creates an unwarranted drain of
economic resources into the hands of the privileged, including those
with access to dollars from abroad. The end result is to reinforce
trends towards greater inequality.

Meanwhile, the subsidies system assures working people of only a
minimum subsistence. For a worker today, Soberon explains, "the
money he earns … is not enough to buy products that are also
necessary but that are sold at market prices." The result is a decay
of the work ethic.
"The salary no longer truly motivates him."

The worker is launched into "a struggle to obtain material goods, as
much as possible, for him and his family regardless of his
contribution to society." This trend is "particularly damaging" when
the person "has authority over important material wealth."

Moreover, some are able to choose not to work "without affecting
[their] standard of living," a situation that is "simply
catastrophic" for the economy and "morally unacceptable."

Soberon advocates extending the solution applied in the electricity
industry. "This formula gradually reduces the inequalities created
or increased during the Special Period," he said. The policy also is
in keeping with "what Marx explained more than a century ago: each
should use to the full his capacities and receive according to his
work."

Battle of ideas

The new policy outlined by Castro and Soberon aims to rein in the
diversion of state resources to privileged layers and increase the
overall efficiency of the economy, which will, in turn, promote
greater productivity.

But the Cuban leaders do not project an increase in production as a
solution in itself. Rather, their proposals aim to help Cuban
working people through enhancing the real value of the salaries and
pensions they receive from the state. Cuba's electricity reforms,
discussed in Socialist Voice #67, pursue other social goals as well,
such as reducing inequality, easing the burden of household labour
on women, and encouraging energy conservation.

Such measures are intended to strengthen the hand of Cuban workers
and their state against the surrounding capitalist world and its
presence within Cuba. As such, the measures are part of what Cuba's
Communists term their "battle of ideas"—an extended, concerted
effort to demonstrate the superiority of a struggle for socialism
over proposals for a retreat to a capitalist order.

The nature of the ideological challenge was spelled out in the
address of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque to the National
Assembly on December 23. "To some degree, historical memory has been
lost; a comparative understanding of what is happening in the world
has been lost." Some people in Cuba "have illusions about
capitalism," he said. They think that if the "Yankees" take over
some day, "they'll get the capitalism of an advanced European
country," when in reality "they'll get Haiti or the Dominican
Republic, a poor Third World Country converted into a U.S.
neocolony."

In his November 17 speech, Castro underlined the centrality of the
Cuban revolutionaries' effort to counter such illusions. Referring
to Cuba's imperialist enemies, he declared, "They can never destroy
us." But, "we can destroy ourselves, and it would be our fault."

He then asked, "What ideas and what level of consciousness can make
the overturn of a revolutionary process impossible?"

Rectification

The effort to use economic policy to promote socialist consciousness
and strengthen the working class has a long history in the Cuban
revolution. Perez Roque recalled Cuba's campaign for "Rectification"
in the 1980s, which included in its goals opening up scope for
worker initiatives and volunteer projects in economic construction.

"Rectification was unfortunately cut short … when the Special Period
began, and many of [its goals] could not be realized," the Cuban
foreign minister said. But "we are rescuing many of those plans
today, with more experience and on a more solid and better
foundation."

While not using the term Rectification, Fidel recalled one of its
themes on November 17, saying, "Some thought that socialism could be
constructed with capitalist methods. That is one of the great
historical errors…. That was why I commented that one of our
greatest mistakes at the beginning of, and often during, the
Revolution was believing that someone knew how to build socialism."

Che's economic writings

The Cuban leaders' recent statements echo themes going back to the
revolution's first years, in the 1960s, when Ernesto Che Guevara
stressed the importance of "moral"—that is, political—incentives in
economic construction, alongside the "material" incentives
represented by piecework, bonus programs, and the like. Che also
warned of the consequences of relying on capitalist methods of
encouraging production in words that now seem prophetic of later
Soviet collapse:

"The pipedream that socialism can be achieved with the help of the
dull instruments left to us by capitalism (the commodity as the
economic cell, profitability, individual material interest as a
lever, etc.) can lead into a blind alley…. Meanwhile, the economic
foundation that has been laid has done its work of undermining the
development of consciousness. To build communism it is necessary,
simultaneous with the new material foundations, to build the new
man." (Man and Socialism in Cuba)

It is noteworthy that a manuscript by Guevara that provides a
critical assessment of the Soviet economic model has just been
published for the first time by Ocean Press, in association with the
Che Guevara Studies Center of Havana, Cuba. A collection of
documents from Cuba's debate on economic policy in 1963-64, in which
Che was a central figure, has also just appeared. Both books are in
Spanish and will be widely available in Cuba.

Lessons from the USSR

Guevara's ideas link up with the interest among many Cubans today in
the lessons of the Soviet experience. Fidel's November 17 speech
took up this topic with regard to the foreign policy of the Soviet
state and Communist Party.

"A tremendous vice was created," he told the University of Havana
students, "the abuse of power, the cruelty, and in particular, the
habit of one country imposing its authority, that of one hegemonic
party, over all other countries and parties."

These historical events "influenced the idea that for a communist
the end justifies the means," undercutting the importance of the
ethical factor in the struggle for socialism.

"Today we can speak of this subject because we are entering a new
phase."

Fidel explained his view with reference to international policy of
the Soviet Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s. He condemned the
1939 alliance of the USSR with fascist Germany as "a very hard blow"
that left communist parties "to politically bleed to death." He also
assailed the policy that led the Cuban Communist Party in the 1930s
and 1940s to ally with the dictator Fulgencio Batista: "The order
came from Moscow: organize the anti-fascist front. It was a pact
with the devil."

Subordination of workers' struggles to supposedly progressive
capitalist politicians like Batista was a hallmark of the Soviet
CP's policy of "anti-fascist unity" in the mid-to-late 1930s.

Fidel contrasted to this record the Cuban Communists' relations with
Latin American revolutionary movements: "It has never even occurred
to us to tell anybody what they should be doing."

Cuba and the world struggle

Castro's comments on the international dimension of the Soviet
experience illustrates the central role that the Cuban leaders
assign to Cuba's intimate involvement in the experiences and
liberation struggles of working people around the world. Cuba's
internationalism is rooted in the thought of the leader of its
independence struggle, Jose Marti, who famously said, "Patria es
humanidad"—humanity is our homeland.

The proportion of Cuba's resources devoted to international
humanitarian aid dwarfs that of far richer economies, such as
Canada. To promote this effort, Cuba has built a medical system
whose capacity is far greater than the country's needs. Where mass
movements have scored significant breakthroughs, as in Venezuela and
Bolivia, Cuba has rushed to provide support.

Furthermore, Cuba's medical solidarity is not restricted to Latin
America and the Caribbean. Cuban medical teams, for example, played
a significant role in helping the Pakistani people to cope with
death, disease, and destruction provoked by last year's earthquake.

When Cuban leaders discuss economizing resources, few put this
commitment in question.

Based as it is on respect for the recipient countries' independence,
integrity, and right to autonomous development, Cuba's foreign aid
program is a welcome contrast to those of imperialist powers. It
serves as a material demonstration of the superiorities of Cuba's
social system and wins massive sympathy for the island in its
struggle against the U.S. blockade.

And the greater margin of flexibility enjoyed by the Cuban economy
today is in large measure due to gains in the struggle against
imperialist domination in Latin America and parts of the Middle
East, and due also to China's growing world role.

Cubans seek to exchange ideas with anti-capitalist and anti-
imperialist thinkers of many viewpoints from all over the world.
Hardly a month goes by without a significant international
conference in Havana. Cubans are traveling abroad in ever increasing
numbers, one recent example being the huge Cuban delegation to the
World Social Forum in Caracas.

Cuba's revolutionary leaders have understood from the beginning that
the long-term survival of the revolution depends on the success of
anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggles in other lands. That
is why the advances of the revolution in Venezuela and the victory
of the indigenous majority in Bolivia have had such an exhilarating
impact on Cuba. Cuba's destiny is intimately linked to the outcome
of struggles across Latin America and on other continents. And, it
should be stressed, advances in Cuba will favor struggles in
Venezuela, Bolivia, and beyond.

Cubans act on this understanding, and we must do the same. Cuba's
capacity to survive and freely build its future depends in no small
measure on what we can do internationally to build solidarity with
this heroic, embattled people.

References:

Fidel Castro, Address to University of Havana (English translation):
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2005/ing/f171105i.html

Francisco Soberon Valdes, Address to the Cuban National Assembly
(English translation): http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs367.html

Felipe Perez Roque, Address to the National Assembly
http://www.cubasocialista.cu/texto/csroque051223.htm

Che Guevara, "Man and Socialism in Cuba"
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/03/man-socialism.htm

Ocean Press
http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/

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