File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9711, message 186


Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 18:57:30 -0500 (EST)
From: "Liam R.Flynn" <trinity-AT-hot-shot.com>
Subject: M-I: Cuban economics and L.Godena .


      It's a clear fact that with the fall of the Soviet Union the Cuban
      economy is faced with massive reconstructionThis reconstruction
      will determine the fate of Cuba and the very survival of Socialist
      Cuba itself.Cuba now finds itself in a position that parallels
      some what the conditions in Russia shortly after the revolution,and
      the debates that took place then are in many ways relevant to the
      situation Cuba faces today.Keep in mind these debates took place
      before the super industrialization of the Stalinist period.
      
       Is Cuba doomed to a socialism of poverty?Again there are parallels
       in history .The debates which raged among the Bolsheviks,most
       notably:Lenin,Trotsky,Bukharin,Krasin,andPreobrazhensky,on how to
       construct a socialist society in the face of hostile and
       conflicting forces.
       
        At the twelfth party congress in 1923 we see the questions of
        how the foundations of a socialist economy are to be laid.I.Deutscher
        noted the following debate between Trotsky and Krasin.
        
        "In the debate Krasin addressed himself directly to Trotsky and
        asked whether he had thought out to the end the implications of
        primitive socialist accumulation?Krasin approached it from his
        particular angle:as Commissar of Foreign Trade.He had tried to
        persuade the Central Committee of the need for more foreign
        trade-and the need to make more concessions to foreign
        capital.Everyone took this for granted-they must seek to attract
        foreign loans:and that foreign capital might help Russia to
        proceed with primitive accumulation and to avoid the horrors
        that had accompanied such accumulation in the west.The
        Bolsheviks,however,had found out by now that they had little
        chance of attracting foreign credits on acceptable terms."
        
         Again does not Cuba find itself in the same situation
         today?Replace "hostile west",with hostile United States.
         
          Trotsky was even willing to take up proposals put forward by
          Lenin at an earlier date(at Lenin's behest?that is unknown).
          
           "We ourselves have been extremely cautious,one might even say
           say too cautious with respect to concessions agreements.We
           were too poor and to weak.Our industry and our entire economy
           were too ruined and we were afraid that the introduction of
           foreign capital would undermine the still weak foundations of
           socialist industry...We are still very backward in a
           technical sense.We are interested in using every possible
           means to accelerate our technical progress...We are in need
           of credit,and we need concessions as well in order to speed
           up our economic growth and thereby increase the well-being of
           the masses."
           
             Again Cuba is now faced with the very same economic
             reality.
             
              Trotsky stated the facts sharply:
              
                "....to think that the correct political maneuvering...frees
                us from world economic dependencies,means falling into a
                dreadful national limitation.We must renew our basic
                capital,which is presently passing through a crisis.Whoever
                imagines that we will be able to build all of our
                equipment in the coming years,or even the greater part
                of it,is a dreamer.The industrialization of our country
                ...means...not a decrease,but on the contrary,a growth
                of our connections with the outside world,which
                means...our growing dependance...on the world market,on
                capitalism,on its technical equipment and its  economy."
                
                  Cuba today is faced with replacing a decaying and
                  decrepit technical infrastructure provided by the
                  Soviets.Do they have any other choice but to seek
                  economic integration with Western capitalists?
                  
                   I do not understand L.Godena's criticism of the
                   current Cuban leadership.Is this criticism based only
                   on some doctrinaire dogmatic interpretation of
                   Marxism?Divorced from economic reality.
                   
                   In the end it may come down to only-as someone
                   said"Cubans right of economic self determination".

                                                       Liam R.Flynn
                                                  liam-AT-stones.com
                                 ----------------------------------------------------------
                      Free thought,necessarily involving freedom of speech
                      and press,I may tersely define thus:no opinion a law-no
                      opinion a crime.
                                                Alexander Berkman


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