Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 08:42:53 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: capitalist cuba?


Tahir Wood wrote:
>Four questions:
>1. Is there any sort of "rule" in Cuba (for those who say there is no
"ruling class")?

It depends on what you mean by rule. There are cops, soldiers and laws just
as there is in the Dominican Republic. In Marx, you find the notion of the
class character of the state, which is fully developed in Lenin's "State
and Revolution". In the Dominican Republic, you have a local bourgeoisie
that is linked to imperialism. It is called a bourgeoisie because it owns
the means of production. It has the right to shut down a sugar plantation
six months a year if it is not profitable. In Cuba before the revolution,
there was the same kind of bourgeosie.

In 1954, for instance, Cuba's 424,000 agricultural wage earners averaged
only 123 days of work; farm owners, tenants and sharecroppers also fared
poorly, averaging only 135 days of employment. 

Unemployment led to all sorts of hardship. 43% of the rural population was
illiterate. 60% lived in huts with earth floors and thatched roofs. 2/3
lived without running water and only 1 out of 14 families had electricity.
Daily nutrition was terrible. Only 4% of rural families ate meat regularly.
Most subsisted on rice, beans and root crops. Bad diet and housing caused
bad health. 13% of the population had a history of typhoid, 14%
tuberculosis and over 1/3 intestinal parasites. 

The main cause of backwardness in the countryside was the cartel nature of
agriculture, particularly the sugar industry. A production quota was
assigned to each cane grower, based on figures originating from 1937. The
quota was divided into 2 export quotas, one for the US and one for the rest
of the world, and 1 quota for special reserves. The reserve quota was a
major problem since it caused over 1/5 of Cuban land to lay idle. 

The quota system also fostered inefficiency and prevented the rational use
of agricultural resources. Primarily, it inflated costs and discouraged new
investments. Clearly, the goal of modernizing and rationalizing agriculture
was not "socialist". Any capitalist reformer could have taken a look at
Cuba and said that capitalism needed to be unleashed in order for the
economy to develop. The cartel structure should have been smashed and
productive agricultural practices encouraged. 

For those who sneer at the prospect of providing full employment for Cubans
living in the countryside as well as free health care, education, there is
nothing I can say to change your mind, I'm afraid. Besides, who would want
to deny your right to believe in total communism. That is your democratic
right.

>2. Is there wage slavery in Cuba?

Are you asking whether people get paid for work? Why use a loaded term like
"wage slavery"? Unless you are trying to argue that until there is true
communism, you have capitalism? This is obviously not Marxism, but a kind
of binary thinking typical of utopian schemas that prevailed in the
mid-19th century. 

>3. Is there any way to reverse dollarisation (and to prevent the myth of
"socialism" from exploding)?

Yes, extend the revolution. But why do you put socialism in quotes?

>4. If capital is accumulated at the level of the state through extraction
from the labour of the workers, why should this not be called capitalism? 

Because there is no ruling class. Capital is not privately expropriated but
allocated socially.


Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org




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