Vol. 74/No. 44      November 22, 2010

New economic measures focus on increasing the productivity of labor, reducing dependence on imports, especially of food, and cutting waste and inefficiency. Changes include a substantial reduction of government employees, greater emphasis on agricultural production, and relaxed rules on self-employment.

Reports in the capitalist media—through a combination of ignorance, wishful thinking, and deliberate misrepresentation—have portrayed the measures as proof that Cuba is beginning to head toward capitalist restoration. At the same time these articles often lament the strict limits and measured approach to the changes.

In an August 1 speech to Cuba’s National Assembly, Castro noted that these news agencies and “self-styled ‘analysts’ twist our reality.” They are mistaken, he said, if they think that the Cuban government is applying “capitalist recipes.”

“If they were praising us, then we would have reason to be worried,” Castro added.

At the heart of the measures is “reducing the greatly bloated staff in the state sector,” he said. “We have to erase forever the idea that Cuba is the only country in the world where you can live without working.”

In laying out the new measures and their importance, Castro reminded the Union of Young Communists (UJC) congress in April that Cuba suffered a 35 percent drop in its gross domestic product and an 85 percent cut in its foreign trade in the early 1990s as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In addition, Washington’s 50-year draconian embargo against Cuba aimed at undermining the revolution remains harsh as ever. The worldwide capitalist economic crisis has exacerbated the challenges and difficulties facing the revolution.

“Without a sound and dynamic economy and without eliminating superfluous expenses and waste, it will not be possible to raise the living standard of the population nor preserve and improve the high levels of education and health care guaranteed to every citizen free of charge,” Castro told the UJC.  
 
Need for efficient agriculture
“Without an efficient and robust agriculture that we can develop with the resources available to us,” he added, “we can’t hope to maintain and increase the amount of food for the population instead of depending so much on importing products that could be grown in Cuba.”

On September 13 the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) announced that the government by mid-2011 planned to reduce the workforce at government ministries and state-owned enterprises by 500,000.

This restructuring is a key part of an effort to “increase production and the quality of services, reduce exaggerated social expenses, and eliminate improper giveaways” and excessive subsidies, the CTC said.

At the CTC leadership meeting the Cuban president noted that currently there are more workers in service jobs than in the production of goods and this must be reversed.

In an interview published November 3 in the South African Communist Party’s monthly journal, Umsebenzi, Oscar Martínez, deputy head of the International Relations Department of the Communist Party of Cuba, said, “We are giving people land and helping them to make productive use of it.”

“We are not putting people out on the street,” Martínez said. “We are directing them to other areas of work vital for the economy, mainly food production.”

Opportunities for self-employment are also being expanded. The most popular license request under new regulations has been for food preparation and sales. The government expects the number of self-employed and small businesses to expand from the current 144,000 to 250,000, expanding the amount of taxes paid to the state.

“To be able to defend the measures and explain them, the working class has to be knowledgeable and convinced of their importance for the preservation of the revolution, otherwise we’ll go over the cliff,” said Granma, summarizing Castro’s remarks to the CTC.

The only way to break with dogmas, bad habits, and taboos, Castro said, is with the working class leading the process, together with peasants and the rest of the people.

According to Trabajadores, nearly 60,000 workplace assemblies had already taken place by mid-October, out of 85,000 planned to discuss the measures and consider proposals by workers on how they should be carried out.

According to Juventud Rebelde, workers and union representatives at each workplace are involved in deciding which workers remain and which are released for other employment.  
 
‘Skeptics thought it couldn’t be done’
Ulises Rosales del Toro, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, said in early October that some 100,000 Cubans have recently started working in agriculture when “some skeptics thought it couldn’t be done,” reported Juventud Rebelde. Among the new farmers are 30,000 young people. In July 2008 the Cuban National Assembly passed a law making it possible for Cubans to apply to farm idle lands.

“A total of 57 Cuban municipalities have joined the effort to increase food production through the Suburban Agriculture Program,” Juventud Rebelde reported October 5. The program promotes agriculture and livestock production on the outskirts of towns and cities.

In the nine months since it began, some 150,000 acres have been cleared for planting or grazing. The goal is to extend the program to 156 of the island’s 169 municipalities by the beginning of next year.

These efforts build on the already existing urban agriculture program. A September 22 article in Bohemia notes that in Havana, Cuba’s capital, there are 91 agricultural cooperatives, 418 vegetable gardens, 179 urban farms, 5,661 small parcels, 28 nurseries, and 80,000 courtyards with fruits or vegetables.

The Cuban press has published many articles on the need to overcome some of the obstacles to increasing agricultural and industrial production, such as bureaucratic methods and poor planning.

Víctor Gaute, a member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee secretariat, told a September union convention of transportation and port workers, “What we need is for workers to really feel that they are the owners of their resources. Real owners ask themselves every day, with what I have, what more can I do or how can I do it better?”
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist Cuba sends doctors where they are needed
‘Cuba in Revolution’ photo exhibit in N.Y.  
 
 
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