BY MARTÍN KOPPEL AND MARY-ALICE WATERS
ARTEMISA, Cuba - "Now we have more control over production, we're more active participants in the decision-making," said Raúl Rodríguez, as we walked through a lush banana grove. "And we can see the results of our labor."
Rodríguez is among the 167 members of the Emilio Hernández farm cooperative, located near the town of Artemisa, 35 miles southeast of Havana. It is one of hundreds of Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPC) around Cuba.
"This UBPC was created in October 1993 out of a larger state farm. The goal was to increase production by establishing a more direct link between the labor performed by each worker and the results," explained Angel Cabaña Vargas, production manager of the cooperative, which grows mainly bananas and potatoes. "After being in the red year after year, first as a state farm, then as a cooperative, in 1995 we made a profit for the first time."
Across the country there are more than 3,000 UBPCs producing sugarcane, vegetables, fruit, tobacco, and other crops, or raising cattle; half of these are sugarcane cooperatives. Today UBPC members till 42 percent of Cuba's arable land. The majority of state farms, which previously accounted for 75 percent of the arable land, have been reorganized into the new cooperatives since September 1993.
Unlike the state farms, the UBPCs own their harvest. For food-producing cooperatives, part of the harvest is sold to the state warehouse and distribution agency (called acopio) at government-set prices. The surplus exceeding the contract with the state is generally sold by the UBPC at agricultural markets in the cities. The cooperative owns the machinery and purchases seed, fuel, fertilizer, and other supplies out of its revenues.
The government instituted this far-reaching change in an effort to increase agricultural production, which had dropped precipitously - more than 50 percent by some estimates - over the previous four years. Sugar production alone - Cuba's main source of export earnings - plunged from 8.1 million tons in 1989 to a low of 3.3 million tons in 1995.
The economic crisis Cuba has experienced in the last years - known here as the "special period" - was triggered by the post-1989 disruption of aid and trade at favorable terms with former Soviet bloc countries, which accounted for 85 percent of Cuba's trade. The result was acute shortages of food, fuel, fertilizer, spare parts, and other necessities - everything from soap to cooking oil to boots. This situation, which reached its lowest point in 1993 and the first half of 1994, was made substantially worse by the U.S. government's 36-year-long trade embargo.
In 1993 and 1994, the Cuban government took a number of major steps to halt the economic decline and stimulate production in agriculture and industry. It decriminalized the use of U.S. dollars, legalized self-employment for dozens of occupations, opened agricultural markets, took steps to cut the budget deficit, and aggressively pursued foreign investment in numerous areas.
At the same time, beginning with political discussion and debate in every workplace, the workers and peasants organized to resist the economic difficulties, intensifying their efforts to increase production. The current meetings taking place in thousands of workplaces throughout the island in preparation for the April 25-30 convention of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), the country's trade union federation, are another step in this working-class response (see section of CTC theses devoted to the UBPCs reprinted on this page).
The economic crisis bottomed out in 1994 and a slight recovery has been registered. After half a decade of decline, Cuba's economy achieved a growth rate of 2.5 percent in 1995. One of the most significant gains was an 11 percent growth in food production in the first nine months of that year.
State subsidies to the non-sugarcane agricultural sector declined in the first half of 1995 to 57 million pesos - compared to more than 700 million pesos during the same period in 1993.
Production of root and garden vegetables, citrus fruit, grains, tobacco, timber, and honey all increased. This improvement has above all helped meet the food needs for the 600,000 members of the UBPCs and their families - a substantial section of the rural population. It has also increased food supplies available on the agricultural markets in the cities.
Other visible indications of the economic stabilization in Cuba are the reduced blackouts, increased vehicle traffic and commercial life on city streets, and the revalued peso, whose exchange rate on the street market is now around 25 to the dollar, up from a low of 120-140 in mid-1994.
Despite the progress, however, only 50 percent of the non- sugarcane UBPCs were profitable in 1995, up from 40 percent the previous year. Some 77 percent of sugarcane UBPCs were unprofitable during the 1994-95 harvest. It is still too early to estimate the results of the current sugar harvest.
The Emilio Hernández UBPC has been one of the more successful. In Artemisa the state farm was divided into three cooperatives in 1993, including this one. Most co-op members we spoke to viewed the transformation from state farm to UBPC as a way to exercise greater, more democratic control over the organization of labor and use of land and other resources. This has allowed the workers who know the land best to decide how to use it, cutting down on waste and producing more.
"Previously, the administration of the state enterprise here would decide everything - including what to grow - according to a plan for the entire enterprise. Sometimes this plan clashed with reality," Cabaña noted. An agricultural worker on the farm for 17 years, Cabaña was elected production manager by his co-workers when the UBPC was established.
"The main change with the establishment of the UBPC is its autonomy. Now cooperative members hold monthly meetings and vote on the plan proposed by the executive board. We decide things like what crops to plant and where to plant," Rodríguez explained.
"Some of our land was unsuited for growing bananas. So workers decided to plant sweet potatoes and yucca in those areas, and now these are yielding good results. Those who work the land usually know best which land is good for which crops.
"This year we decided to plant potatoes as the winter crop. According to initial samples, it looks like we'll have a good harvest," he added with a look of satisfaction.
"In other words, we have a contract with the state, but we decide how to fulfill it."
Responsible for all production phases
With the establishment of the UBPCs, one of the biggest
changes has been what is called "linking workers to the
worksite," in this case, the land they cultivate.
Cabaña explained that workers were previously organized as specialized brigades that did a given task, such as plowing, weeding, or planting, and moved from area to area. Now the same group of workers takes responsibility for every phase of production on a given plot of land, from clearing and planting right through to the harvest. This allows workers to take responsibility for what they produce. They learn what needs to be done at each step and know their actions will have an impact on raising productivity and quality and reducing waste.
"Before, few people here were very concerned about the productivity of a banana grove," Cabaña said. "Decisions were up to the management of the state enterprise. Now workers make an effort to reduce the cost of each bunch of bananas and have found ways to do so."
What a worker earns depends on the job performed and on productivity. "The basic monthly wage here is 225 pesos for agricultural workers, but some make as much as 600 pesos," he said, including the bonuses and the differential for those who do the hardest physical labor.
Manual labor gets higher pay
At this UBPC, Cabaña noted, "the closer workers are to
production and the harder they work, the more they earn. For
example, the ox drivers earn more than tractor operators. And
both have a higher monthly income than the administrators."
Although the president of the UBPC gets a wage of 325 pesos a
month, he explained, he's not entitled to any bonuses because
he isn't directly involved in the physical labor.
At the end of the year they all share in any profits, however. Each worker's share is determined by the number of days he or she has worked.
Cabaña and the other workers laughed when a visitor from the United States remarked that this wage structure - possible only in a country where workers hold political power - is the opposite of wage structures in capitalist countries. There, generally speaking, the further removed the job is from production, the more you earn, and those who do the hardest physical labor make the least.
Workers at the Emilio Hernández UBPC reported that the first year they didn't meet their production goal and had losses of 140,000 pesos, a gap that was subsidized by the ministry of agriculture.
Cabaña added, "We were able to reverse that situation. In 1995 we had a profit of 99,000 pesos. Half of that, some 49,000 pesos, was shared among the workers. The rest went to buy agricultural implements, pay our social security contributions, and other expenses."
He noted that this UBPC is the only one of the three in the Artemisa municipality that was profitable last year. Workers from Emilio Hernández are working with the other two to help them turn things around.
Agricultural markets
The cooperative sells bananas to the state distribution
agency for 6 cents a pound. The surplus - currently about 20
percent of their production - is sold at the agricultural
markets for about 30 cents a pound, a price based on supply and
demand.
These markets, established in 1994, are supplied by state farms, cooperatives, and individual private farmers. Besides the UBPCs, there are two other kinds of co-ops in Cuba, those where peasants voluntarily pool and work their land together, called Agricultural Production Cooperatives (CPA), and those called Credit and Service Cooperatives (CCS), where the peasants work their land individually but share some services.
The agricultural markets have made food more readily available in cities and towns, easing the most acute conditions Cubans faced at the bottom of the special period in 1993-94. At the same time, food production has not increased as rapidly as most people hoped and the prices remain so high that most Cubans can afford to buy very little at these markets. One of the biggest benefits has been to undercut the burgeoning black market.
Yet another source of fresh produce in the cities, many people told us, is the Youth Army of Labor (EJT), special units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces that work on state farms alongside agricultural workers. The army-run farms, which in 1994 were supplying almost 50 percent of vegetables and other food crops for the two provinces surrounding Havana, bring their produce into the cities and often sell directly off the trucks at cheaper prices than those offered at the agricultural markets, thus helping keep down the market prices. In Artemisa municipality, for example, EJT units are working on two state farms that have not yet been converted to UBPCs.
Increased productivity
At the Emilio Hernández UBPC, workers have been able to
increase productivity considerably. "We used to have 600
workers on the state farm," Rodríguez added, including a
special volunteer contingent of almost 400. Despite the
initially positive impact of the contingent, however,
production on the state farm was declining before the UBPC was
created.
"Now we have 167 workers - which is the workforce size we need - and we produce more," Rodríguez explained.
Like most of the former state farms, the one at Artemisa had a high proportion of administrators and other unproductive personnel. "When this was a state farm, we had 20 technicians, brigade leaders, and others here who didn't work in production. Now we've eliminated most of those nonproductive jobs. The technicians became workers or working foremen. So the administrative personnel went down from 20 to 5. Workers feel encouraged when they see the supervisors working."
The full-time administrative personnel of the cooperative now consists of the president, an economist, a production manager, the head mechanic, and the head of welfare. The executive board, elected by all cooperative members, is made up of these five plus six workers.
The head of welfare is responsible for assuring attention to food, housing, health services, transportation, child care, education, and other needs of workers at the UBPC. Such an assignment was another feature that struck visitors from the United States as very different from capitalist enterprises.
Land is set aside to grow food crops, which are sold to cooperative members and their families at prices below those on agricultural markets, allowing them to achieve a substantial degree of food self-sufficiency. The garden also supplies the co-op's cafeteria, which serves workers a substantial breakfast and lunch, as well as dinner when necessary. In addition, UBPC families receive food and other supplies through the ration card, like all Cuban citizens.
Emilio Hernández members have also pooled their labor to build 16 housing units that are nearing completion, with another 16 under construction. They are using low-cost materials known as the "Sandino system," named after the Sandino construction materials factory in Pinar del Río. The apartments have two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and terrace.
While housing construction such as this has been projected for all UBPC units, reports indicate that very few have carried through and built even a small portion of what is necessary. In this regard too, the Emilio Hernández cooperative was in the vanguard, and the co-op members were eagerly awaiting the day when they could soon occupy the homes they had built. Most UBPC members live in the town of Artemisa or in the dormitories built for the former volunteer labor contingent.
Impact of volunteer contingent
Many of the members of this cooperative had been members of
the volunteer contingent on the state farm who decided to join
the UBPC when it was founded. Agricultural contingents were
organized throughout Cuba at the beginning of the special
period as one of the first measures to deal with the country's
food crisis. They were formed out of the vanguard construction
contingents launched in the latter part of the 1980s, where
tens of thousands of workers volunteered to be released from
their regular jobs for two-year stints to build roads, dams,
and other vitally necessary projects.
Those contingents initially played a political vanguard role both in industry and agriculture. They set an example of proletarian norms and methods of work, maximizing productivity, taking over jobs previously done by administrative personnel not directly involved in production, cutting waste, and transforming political self-confidence and collective self- discipline.
The legacy of the positive impact of the contingent was apparent in the composition and functioning of the co-op and the self-confidence of its members.
Sixty percent of the UBPC members are under 30 years old - a noticeably younger workforce than many cooperatives. Of the 32 party members and 20 members of the Union of Young Communists, many are former contingent volunteers.
One-quarter are women, most of whom are working in agricultural production. Lourdes Manis and Mayeline Torres both came to farm as part of the contingent. "I used to work in an office in Havana," Torres said. "I pushed a lot of paper. But here I'm satisfied, I feel useful."
Raúl Rodríguez, 32, previously an employee of the Ministry of Interior in Havana, explained that he had joined the contingent to work on the state farm, and later signed up for the UBPC when it was founded.
"I like it here," said Ramón Gómez, as he crouched in a potato field to pull up a sample. "I wanted to come back." Gómez, a native of Artemisa and now the secretary of the Communist Party unit at the UBPC, had been living in Havana, where he was a rail worker.
Like others interviewed, he had welcomed the opportunity to join the contingent and then stayed on.
High norms of discipline
A number of UBPC members pointed out that many of their
norms had been developed through their experiences on the
contingent. For example, the workers maintain their own rules
of discipline. Anyone who violates them is called to order by
the collective and voted out of the cooperative if they don't
change.
Reynaldo Rodríguez Cruz, head of welfare, explained that the cooperative does not have any specialized security personnel. "We organize our own security patrols," he noted, adding that those on patrol just carry machetes, not firearms. Theft has gone way down since the worst days of the special period, he reported.
He remarked with pride on the high standards they kept in the fight against absenteeism. Co-op members with one unexcused absence lose 20 percent of their annual share of profits. On the other hand, workers with a full attendance record are entitled to much-needed items like shampoo that are generally available only for dollars.
Cabañas pointed out that the work day, which had been at a low of 4-5 hours on the state farm, is now 8 hours - a result of the increased political morale and collective discipline.
Some of the workers recognized that many other cooperatives in the country are not as productive as theirs. But, they said, they were convinced that all UBPCs had the capacity to achieve what they were doing. Teams from Emilio Hernández were working with members of the two other co-ops in Artemisa to contribute their experiences and raise production there.
"We're fighting to get out of the special period," Cabañas commented. "We know we won't get out quickly, but we are having some success."
The challenges facing the UBPCs are now being discussed throughout Cuba as part of the preparatory debate for the upcoming national convention of the CTC. UBPC members, unlike members of other kinds of agricultural cooperatives, are members of the agricultural workers union of the CTC.
Asked if he thought it was contradictory to be a member of an agricultural cooperative and a member of a trade union, Rodríguez paused for a moment with a look of amusement. "Of course not," he replied. "We're workers, not landowners." He noted that the land remains nationalized. It cannot be sold, rented, inherited, or mortgaged.
"We have the right to use the land. But the only thing we own is the product of our labor. This is just a different way of organizing production. We're workers."