"Cuba is a socialist country in the popular understanding of the term. It is not functioning according to the dynamics and tendencies of capitalist production, although it cannot escape the vicissitudes of the global economy. It is a planned economy. Its government was created by a dynamic multi-class revolution that smashed the old state apparatus and broke apart the capitalist state institutions: the army, police, courts and prisons. Although the revolutionary leadership that initiated the armed struggle against the old Batista regime was not a proletarian communist party, but rather a multi-class formation—the July 26 Movement—the new revolutionary state that came into existence after 1959 represented the class interests of the workers and poorest peasants. When the class character of the state became evident between 1959 and 1961, the bourgeois nationalist sectors of the July 26 Movement abandoned the revolution and made common cause with the pro-Batista counterrevolutionaries. Most importantly, they became the agency through which U.S. imperialism employed a campaign of terror, subversion and invasion against the revolution."
- from "A Marxist Analysis of Cuba's Economic Reforms"
[see: http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14493]
***
In addition to correctly following methodologies of analysis developed by Karl Marx; the analysis from the Party of Socialism and Liberation acknowledges the subjectivist aspect in context of defining cuba as a "revolutionary state". it correctly points out that the "class nature" of the cuban revolutionary democracy can only be discerned in implicit ("evident") negative terms, and offers a concrete example in the incidence of rightward defection of "bourgeois nationalist sectors of the July 26 Movement" between 1959 and 1961. this defection of bourgeois nationalist and liberal social-democrat sectors made it possible for the Barbudos ( the popular name for the Guerrillero government led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara) to radicalise the process of transition during the subsequent "Periodo Chino" (Chinese Period) of 1967-68; where inspired by the example of Mao Tse Tung's "Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976) there was an intentional effort to promote the emergence of post-capitalist/post-liberal social relations and forms of collectivist-democratic rule that would eventually evolve into the Asambleas del Poder Popular. the Playa Giron incident (April 1961) took place at the beggining of this phase of the Cuban transition towards Revolutionary Democracy; a process that culminated in 1975 with the ratification of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, a Guevarista-Martiista social revolutionary document, the most progressive juridical text in the Americas until this day. A precursor to the achievement of revolutionary democracy in cuba was integration into the CCCP led COMECON mutual aid and internationalist trade system in 1972.
yet, it is a fact that subjectivity can never negate objectivities. as i wrote elsewhere: socialism is not just about some vaguely defined "workers control". it is about industrial workers control on the basis of collectivised property forms. the cuban revolutionary democracy is not controlled by capitalists since they where long ago expropriated and the means of production where collectivised. it is not controlled by an industrial working class in the sovietic sense of it being governed by "councils of elected and recallable industrial worker representatives", not because of some "bureaucratic degeneration", but because cuba is not an industrialised nation, and consequently it has no industrial working class as a majoritarian sector of the economically active working population. while the intro to the Links article "Workers in the Russian and Cuban revolutions" [http://links.org.au/node/1927] correctly states that "the working class played a key role in the Cuban Revolution, through general strikes, mass demonstrations and by taking over their workplaces"; the percentage of actual industrial workers participating in these actions was minoritarian because, indeed; the industrial section of the economically active urban working population was not dominant. ergo: Cuba cannot be an example of Existing Socialism, although it was a revolutionary state in transition from 1959 to 1975, and a Revolutionary Democracy since then.
it is important to differentiate between economically active working population sui generis, economically active URBAN population and the Industrial Working Class as a subset of the latter. Only the Industrial Working Class can govern an Existing Socialism. Cuba has not achieved existing socialism because the objective conditions for it are not present. Revolutionary democracy itself is but a context for the potential emergence of an existing socialism given sufficient economic and necessary political conditions. Cuba has accomplished the necessary (post-liberal) political conditons as its political system is based on the collective representation of the socially organised forces that made the revolution (whom the PSL analyst above calls "a multi-class formation"), and where the individuation of politics and institutions related to this phenomena (such as the senate) characteristic of capitalist "market democracies" has been transcended (ergo: the cuban revolutionary democracy is post-liberal) .
Cuba has not yet accomplished the sufficient economic conditions necessary for the emergence of existing socialism; its economy is not industrialised and a modest technification was accomplished only recently. the Cuban economy is based on services and agriculture, the light industrial sector constitutes only a small percentage of its GDP, and its industrial workfoce is consequently only a minority of the economically active working population. the bulk of cuba's economically active working population is composed of farmers and non-industrial employees (tourism, microentrepeneural cuentapropistas, services, professionals, government administration). the current process of rationalisation in context of integration with Venezuela and Ecuador via ALBA is part of a process of technical reorganisation of production and social reorganisation of labour necessary to achieve the sufficient conditons (in terms of GDP growth and diversification) that will enable the emergence of an existing socialism in Cuba, in context of ALBA, as they permit the expansion of a light industrial base and consequently the "production" of an industrial working class that could be equiped to govern an Existing Socialism. /n2
i.
the formula of political revolution does not apply to cuba, because cuba is not an example of existing socialism. the formula of "political revolution" was proposed by Leon Trotsky on the premise of there existing a priori an existing socialism that has "degenerated" or has been the subject of "deformation". there has never been a state of existing socialism in cuba that could have "degenerated".
this call for "political revolution" by the Freedom Socialist Party is out of context, absurd and irresponsible; sadly characteristic of the theoretical bankruptcy of the anglo-saxon subset of the western left; incapable of creating its own language and analysis to discern the objective realities of the present, forever quoting Marx and Trotsky in the manner a puritan colonist would have quoted the old testament, forever postrate to liberal prejudices and values, forever pandering to the mythical "lesser evil" and to the "politically correct" as substitute for any credible action to DEFEAT global capitalism and not capitulate to it. the anglo-saxon subset of the western left has degenerated completely; borderline to becoming as openly counterrevolutionary as the social-liberal and social democrat satraps it apes so consistently.
in defense of Mr.Trotsky; the theory of the political revolution will be useful AFTER existing socialism is accomplished in the ALBA context as a product of the successful conclusion of the second independence against United State imposed neocolonialism; when AMERICA LATINA OBRERA (the workers latin america) is in control; THEN it will be necessary for the workers to be on guard against the possibility of bureaucratic degeneration. the liberated OBREROS SIN PATRON (workers without bosses) of the future must be always ready to enact political revolutions against any one person or group that attempts to take power away from them. Mr Trotskys' theory will be there to serve as reference to the Obreros Sin Patron of the future, to arm them politically.
the freedom socialist group is placing the cart before the horse; and dangerously giving a "left" cover to the miami based couterevolutionary mafia. a "revolution" against the government of the revolution in cuba would only be used by the united states as an opportunity to return cuba to pre-1956 neocolonial status. such an outcome would be disastrous to the second independence of latin america as Cuba is the first and only latin american country to have accomplished national liberation form united states imposed neocolonialism.
there will be no ripe fruit falling on washingtong's lap or the freedom socialist sect anytime soon.
ii.
very anglo-saxon puritan to utilise the term "saved". is the freedom socialist sect arguing for a tent revival in havana perhaps ?
a few comments on the anti-cuban declaration issued by the “Freedom Socialists”:
1. The situation for the LGBT community in cuba was radically improved in the 1990's. Sexual relations between same-sex consenting adults 16 and over have been legal in Cuba since 1979; this was one of the progressive transformations accomplished in cuba after the consolidation of Revolutionary Democray in 1975. Havana now has a lively and vibrant gay scene. Anti-homophobic educational campaigns on LGBT issues are currently implemented by the National Center for Sex Education, the Cuban GLBT community is very well organised in context of Cuba's system of collective representation of socially organised actors (the premise of the post-liberal revolutionary democracy).Cuba is a country where citizens can have sex reassignment surgery for free.
2. The "racism" charge is ridiculous. no country in the americas has had more affirmative action for women and afro-descendent populations than cuba. it is typical for anglo-saxon leftists to cite the nostrums of liberal identity politics out of their cultural context, usually when there is no basis in objective argumentation and as a substitute for these.
3. There is no "herding train" towards market reforms and privatisation in Cuba. the efficiency reforms taking place in cuba at present constitute the second phase of a technical and social process of reorganisation of the cuban economy that will permit the cunban revolutionary democracy to integrate itself into ALBA and create the objective conditionds for the emergence of an existing socialism in context othe process of Latin American independence now under way. the governemt of the cuban revolution is not "driving Cuba toward capitalist restoration", quite the contrary it is working to enhance the basis of objective liberation from neocolonial status in context of seeking to create the conditions for the emergence of a viable and sustainable existing socialism.
4. it remains the case that it is dangerously irresponsible, unnecessary and uncalled for to press for an "alternative party" in cuba. (what sort of "party" is the FSP calling for ? yet another social liberal satrap ?) The "right wing" (the miami based CIA linked gusano mafia and the United States government) lies in wait for just such an opening, in order to return Cuba to neocolonial status. the fall of the cuban revolution would significantly undermine the process of second lindependence in Latin America.
5. there is no need or call in cuba to "build an alternative leadership". the governemt of the cuban revolution is acting rationally and within the parameters of dialectical understanding to carry out necessary reforms that will create objective conditions for the emergence of direct working class rule in context of latin american second independence. if the proposal of the freedom socialist sect where enacted the only "alternative leadership" taking power would be that of the gusanos and the CIA behind them.
6. there has been no "incursion of capital"; rather during the first phase of the reform process (2003-2008) substantial investment by Chinese, Brasilian, Italian, Venezuelan and Spanish investors have allowed the upgrade of cuba's telecommunications, transportation and energy grids. cuba is the only nation in the maericas that has solar powered schools and public buildings. the government of the cuban revolution takes very seriously the need for ecologically sustainable growth and development. this first phase of technical reorganisation of production made it possible for cuba's GDP to grow 7% in 2007. there was a contraction in GDP growth after 2008, but that is the result of the impact of the global dinancial crisis and cannot be blamed on the government of the cuban revolution. precisely because this contraction in growth took place after 2008 it is necessary to expedite the rationalisations, retraining and reallocation of cuba's labour force in context of accelerating integration with Venezuela in context of ALBA and the new SUCRE monetary system.
iii.
the reason the political forms of existing socialism do not exist in Cuba is because there is no objective political-economic basis for them. it is not an industrialised country, ergo there is no organised industrial working class that could exercise collective leadership via social corporative legislative assemblies composed of elected and recallable industrial workplace representatives. as far as cuba could advance in the 1970's (with Soviet and DDR support) was to the state of revolutionary democracy, where organised social forces are represented in the government of a republic liberated from neocolonial domination (i.e the Asambleas del Poder Popular, CTC, FMC, JC, etc..). the comprador ruling elite and its political class where purged, their assets and the assets of imperialism where nationalised. revolutionary democracy is not existing socialism but a transitional process of socialist construction (in the theory of the cuban communist party the Martiista-Bolivarian "Socialism of a New Type"). it is precisely to propell this process that the efficiency reformas are necessary.
the government of the cuban revolution is moving to adapt to the very successful Chinese controlled market model (''socialist market economy" or "socialism with chinese characteristics"). as a positive alternative to the bankrupt casino economies of the Atlantist core, the chinese controlled market model has proven itself capable of delivering technification and industrialisation, this is why China today is the second largest economy in the world. it is true that the advances in tecnification and industrialisation where made at the expense of social inequality and ecological pollution. BUT the chinese (and cuban) leadership are aware of the fact that adopting a contolled market model with a neoliberal (as oppossed to eco-social) bias has created these problems, and consequently they have (keynesian) policies in place to alleviate the negative social and ecological effects. in cuba they already have upgraded the energy grid to integrate photovoltaic power generation, in china the state has invested millions of Yuan in the construction of clean enegy geothermal power plants and doubled investment on railroad/public transport infrastructure.
there is simply nothing more they can do under current geo-economic and geo-political circumstances. (a global civic-military anti-western alliance involving social movements and plural progressive sectors) like i wrote:
"the emergence of the possible existing socialism is on hold until geo-political and geo-economic conditions allow for it. (1). workers revolution in the Atlantist core; sufficiently premised upon the effects of the financial crisis and generalised western economic bankruptcy; - or – (2). The military defeat and dismantlement of the Atlantist imperialist bloc by the BRIC powers and their allies in Iran, North Korea and the ALBA states premised upon the dismemberment of the united states and the physical liquidation of its ruling economic and political classes..."
General strike events in south-western europe give me hope for an upheaval in the EU that might begin to loosen the locks and bars of the capitalist iron cage within which European workers and oppressed groups exist socially.
the government of the cuban revolution must make changes to make its economy more efficient, precisely to cut out the losses and structural flaws of what you call "the stalinist model" (i.e totalitarian bureaucratic command). the jobs that will be eliminated where not real jobs anyways, they where "jobs" of the kind where they "pretend to pay you and you pretend to work" (the old joke among soviet workers). and it is not like the people laid off will be left out in the cold... there will be a concerted effort to reassign staff, retrain workers and support the creation of cooperative enterprises in the services and light industrial sectors. a large number of the redundancy eliminations will be among "the nomenklatura", in fact it is the state administrative sector that will be reorganised first. the result will be a lean, professional, tecnified administrative aparatus. the efficiency reforms do not "cuts accross" economic integration with the ALBA states, rather it prepares Cuba for this integration.
to put it in "marxist" terms: [assuming that ''marxist'' analysis of progress of objective realities towards 'existing socialism' are based upon fluid dynamics of technical organisation of production and social organisation of labour]
the upgrade during the last ten years of the cuban telecommunications (internet access, mobile telephony), transportation (railroads) and energy systems (photovoltaic) constituted the technical (re)organisation of production phase. the efficiency reforms designed to reallocate/retrain workers and to encourage the creation of cooperative enterprises in the services and light industrial sectors constitute a social (re)organisation of labour phase.
this is a "marxist" reform based upon objective realities of the need for survival of a revolutionary democracy under siege and integration into ALBA as a means to counter the Atlantist economic embargo. the initiative to create a sector of cooperative workers in the services and light industrial sectors that perform REAL WORK that actually contributes to GDP growth is objectively progressive if one factors that the reform in question is implemented in order to ensure the survival of a REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRACY. the tip of the Bolivarian-Martiista spear aimed at the throat of the Atlantist hegemon, no less.
iv.
revolutionary democracy in a former neocolonial nation is defined by the achievement of the foundations for the POTENTIAL emergence of an existing socialism. the social corporative organisation of the social factors who carried out the revolution (peasant guerrillas, students and workers) has been consolidated. the means of production have been collectivised, the land has been nationalised and an agrarian reform has been implemented on this basis, the neocolonial comprador oligarchy and its client political class has been liquidated, organised social groups (workers, women, youth, armed forces) have direct COLLECTIVE representation in a political system based on Asambleas, a self referential national identity constructed in antagonism to imperialism and appealing to socialist values has crystallised.
there is at present direct representation in the legislative assemblies for the socially organised sectors that made the revolution, but no legislation by elected and recallable representatives of the organised industrial working class. this is why cuba is a revolutionary democracy and not an existing socialism.
there exists now in cuba the POSSIBILITY for the emergence of an existing socialism, but for there to be an objective basis for this development: 1.) geopolitical and geoeconomic conditions need to allow for it. (a military defeat of Atlantism or workers revolution in the Atlantist core) AND 2) cuba must begin to move in the direction of seriously creating an industrial base in order to increase GDP and expand its productive internal market volume; and for there to emerge an industrial working class that can spearhead the organised transition into an existing socialism. this is why the efficiency reforms emphasise the freeing up of labour and its retraining to launch light industrial cooperative enterprises. (this will be done with Chinese, Brasilian/Mercosur and Venezuelan/ALBA state investments.)
right now most of the economically active population (those who actually contribute to GDP growth) are working in the tourism services sector, cooperative agriculture, or the public administrative sector. the industrial sector is almost non-existent outside a few auto assembly plants, cardboard and paper products manufacture and the small oil/gas industry. all those people who justify state support via endless study and people stuck in redundancies in the bloated public sector must be retrained and relocated so that their labour power can be utilised in the new light industrial cooperatives, thus generating GDP growth and creating the basis for the emergence of a diversified industrial working class needed to govern a future existing socialism. this development comes as a progression from the achievements of the previous phase in which the telecommunications, transportation and energy grids where upgraded and made ecologically sustainable; and in which technification of the cuban society was accoplished (in terms of internet and mobile telephony access, digitalisation of administrative tasks, etc.). the efficiency reforms are also an important and necessary precursor to the integration of the cuban economy to that of the ALBA states. cuba has already adopted THE SUCRE (the unified ALBA currency) as medium of exchange in its trade with Venezuela and Ecuador.
it is a misconception that people will be laid off to their fates. in fact only a minority of the laid off will end up persuing their own microentrepeneural ventures. most people will be retrained and reallocated to light industrial cooperatives and professional services (electricians, plumbers, carpenters, health care, education, etc..). No one will starve or end up homeless.
v.
to explain what is meant by revolutionary democracy (which is not 'existing socialism' ; but rather proto-socialism):
the students, workers, women (and lately evangelicals and cooperative workers) are represented in the Asamblas via delegations elected within the ranks of the organisations that represent them collectively in the cuban society. they are not represented as individuals but COLLECTIVELY. this is the fundamental difference between (western) liberal conceptions of individual (''one wo/man one vote'') representation and socialist conceptions of collective participation. what hugo chavez and the SDS before him have called participatory democracy is a movement towards collective forms of pariticipation. a concrete example are the communal councils in Venezuela or the nighborhood ''comites'' in cuba. there is more day to day participatory democracy in cuba in context of the activities of people in mass organisations and neighbourhood 'committees (CDR’s) than there is in any western/atlantist core nation state, where democracy is reduced to one wo/man on vote every four
years. in cuba this fea ture of liberal democratic individuation and minimalisation has been transcended as a result of the consolidation of revolutionary democracy in the 1970's. elections in cuba are plesbicitary; people vote to ratify a nominated COLLECTIVE list. and the electoral act is but the final step in a long process of democratic and participatory internal discussion that precedes the composition of the lists. also representation is not territorial per se, but rather proportional to the level of collective organisation at the local, provincial and national levels.
the CTC delegations correspond in composition proportionally to the number of organised workers per level, for example. party politics have ben transcended by the corporative representation of socially organised sectors. the idea that you need a multiparty system to have democracy is a western invention. definitely within th limited context of liberal dmocratic minimalism a multiparty set up (like Sweden) is more democratic that a two party dictatorship (like the USA): but revolutionary democracy is much more advanced in that notions of individual representation and delegation of power to a parasyte ''professional'' political class are transcended. elections by themselves are not democracy... understanding this premise is what allows a person to move from a liberal understanding of democracy (assuming formal logic) to a socialist one (assuming dialectics).
vi.
at lenght i attempted to explain that cuba is not socialist because the organised industrial working class is not in power in the sovietic sense of "elected and recallable workplace representatives assembled into councils" ; this despite the fact that the means of production in cuba where collectivised. i explained that for a political economy to qualify as an existing socialism it must be premised upon collective industrial working class political-economic management existing in context of collectivised property forms.
i wrote: socialism is not just about workers control. it is about workers control on the basis of collectivised property forms. the Cuban revolutionary democracy is NOT controlled by capitalists since they where long ago expropriated and the means of production where collectivised. it is NOT controlled by an industrial working class in the soviet sense of it being governed by "councils of elected and recallable industrial worker representatives". i do not subscribe to the theory that the current status of cuba is that of a "deformed workers state" because cuba is not a "workers state" in the first place.
i wrote: Revolutionary democracy itself is but a context for the potential emergence of an existing socialism given sufficient economic and necessary political conditions. Cuba has accomplished the necessary (post-liberal) political conditions as its political system is based on the collective representation of socially organised groups and the individuation of politics characteristic of "market democracies" has been transcended. Cuba has not yet accomplished the sufficient economic conditions necessary for the emergence of existing socialism; its economy is not industrialised and a modest technification was accomplished only recently. the Cuban economy is based on services and agriculture, the light industrial sector constitutes only a small percentage of its GDP at present.
i explained that i subscribe to the classical syndicalist definition of "organised industrial working class" to mean exactly that. i.e. not farmers and not service sector non-industrial workers (inclusive professionals, micro-entrepreneurs and public sector administrative); but exclusively workers engaged in mining and the transformation of raw materials into finished products who are organised into industrial trade unions.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE STRUGGLE OF FARMERS FOR LAND AND THE STRUGGLE OF SERVICE SECTOR WORKFORCES FOR LIVING WAGES, ETC IS NOT IMPORTANT. ONLY THAT THE LEADING STRUGGLE MUST BE THAT OF THE INDUSTRISAL WORKERS IF THE OUTCOME OF THE SAID COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE IS TO BE A STATE OF EXISTING SOCIALISM.
ergo: key is the development [in cuba] of an INDUSTRIAL labour force if the goal is to transcend from revolutionary democracy into a state of existing socialism ; i.e. political-economic government by the organised INDUSTRIAL working class.
/n2 ROT
LIBERTAD PARA LOS CINCO HEROES !
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