Cuba

Pablo Velasco reviews Workers in Cuba: Unions and labour relations. A 2011 update. (Institute of Employment Rights) Whether it is resolutions at union conferences, House of Commons receptions or summer garden parties, the uncritical lauding of the Cuban government in the British labour movement stretches from Brendan Barber to Bob Crow. Workers in Cuba is a sophisticated piece of orthodox apologetics. It consists of a previously published essay by Debra Evenson, a foreword by Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and an introduction and annex by academic Steve Ludlam. The pamphlet will be...

On the back of last week’s Cuban Communist Party congress, the first since the mid-1990s, the government of Raul Castro is going ahead with plans to lay-off around 500,000 state employees and open-up the economy further to private enterprise. The Cuban government also plans to cut the social safety net, eventually eliminating the ration card and food subsidies all together. Despite raising hopes that a new generation of leaders would step up to top posts, the 79-year-old president said 80-year-old Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura would be his No. 2 in the party. Half of the new...

An article on the front page of the Communication Workers’ Union website proclaims that it is now “more important than ever” to make solidarity with Cuba. A lengthy piece reporting on the visit of the new Cuban ambassador to the CWU’s National Executive Committee quotes CWU leader Billy Hayes in his affirmation that “the achievements of Cuba are an inspiration.” Presumably he means the impressive healthcare system and literacy rates, but one wonders what the union has to say about Cuba’s less “inspiring” “achievements” — its one-party state, its lack of free press, its ban on independent...

For many on the left Cuba continues to represent, if not a socialist paradise, at least progress of a sort. In fashionable circles, the reality that life on the island corresponds in no way to the ideals espoused by its most vociferous apologists, goes politely unmentioned. A common defence of Cuba will most-likely begin with an emotionally-charged denunciation of United States policy towards the island. It would be foolish indeed not to concur that US policy towards Cuba since 1959 is reason alone to afford the Cuban government a degree of control over the electoral process - can a multi...

Cuba's Stalinist rulers have begun the process of sacking 500,000 public-sector workers. The government claims the sackings are necessary because of the pressures the economic crisis has placed on the already cash-strapped state (a refrain familiar to working-class activists the world over). In an interview with a state-run radio station, Salvador Valdes Mesa - the head of the country's main "union", the Cuban Workers' Federation (also effectively state-run) - said that the union would need to "convince (workers) of the need for these measures for the country's economy". The picture is typical...

Cuba’s Stalinist government has said it will put 500,000 workers out of state employment next year. This interview with Sam Farber explains the background. Farber is the author of numerous articles and books about the country. What’s the background to the announcement? SF: I think it’s important to place this in the context of the Cuban regime being in decline, and that decline being accelerated because of the terrible economic situation. It is the result of a combination of factors. One is the irrationalities and crises generated by the bureaucratic system itself. Another is the world...

Fidel Castro: “Thus has been the story of mankind; to struggle to overcome the laws of nature; to struggle to dominate nature and have it serve mankind.” (1966) “Unless we conquer nature, nature will conquer us.” (1970) The AWL characterises Cuba as a Stalinist state, where workers do not hold power and cannot organise independently. Apologies for Castroism today — like this book — cite its environmental policies as proof it is historically progressive, even a model for climate activists. This is a mistake. The regime inherited a disastrous legacy from capitalism in 1959. But in Conquering...

Paul Hampton reviews Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution by Helen Yaffe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) A late night meeting of the Cuban leadership towards the end of 1959. Fidel Castro looks around the room and asks for “a good economist” to become the president of the National Bank of Cuba. Half asleep, Ernesto “Che” Guevara raises his hand. Castro replied with surprise: “Che, I didn’t know you were a good economist”, to which Guevara exclaimed: “Oh, I thought you asked for a good communist!” (Yaffe 2009) This apocryphal story, told by Osvaldo Dorticós, president of Cuba from 1959 until...