Cuba - Comparing revolutionary goals with realities

LATIN AMERICA

Cuba: Comparing revolutionary goals with realities



Exactly 60 years ago, Fidel Castro attempted to take power in Cuba for

the first time. He expressed an ambitious revolutionary platform - but

how does the Cuba of today measure up to his grand plan?

Cuba's revolution officially began on July 26, 1953, the day after the

festival of Saint James. A year earlier, the US-backed dictator

Fulgencio Bastista rose to power following a coup. Fidel Castro - at

that time a little-known, young lawyer - had first unsuccessfully tried

to displace the dictator by running against him in the 1952 elections.

Voting was called off before Cuban's had a chance to cast their ballot.

Castro garnered the support of some 130 people, and together they

attempted to overtake the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba

and seize weapons being stored there. He had hoped the 400 soldiers

stationed there would be exhausted or absent after the previous night's

festivities. But the plan failed, and many of the revolutionaries were

executed, while the remainder were forced to stand trial.

Castro's long and ambitious political agenda was well primed, even when

he stormed the barracks in 1953. After taking over he wanted to

distribute land more evenly, push for industrialization, reduce

unemployment, improve the education sector and create a system that

would allow all Cuban's the opportunity to access healthcare – the

framework of a democracy.

It was not until 1959 that the rebels finally achieved their revolution.

Now, more than 50 years later, what's the situation with the reforms

Castro dreamed of all those decades ago?



Between socialism, capitalism and market reform



"The Moncada program was more socialist than that of the old Communist

Party," wrote Cuban historian Pedro Campos, an activist with a

collective called Participatory and Democratic Socialism (Socialismo

Participativo y Democrático).

Castro's original program "didn't promote state capitalism under party

control, with some agricultural cooperation, like Stalinism," Campos

said. Rather, Castro wanted to see workers directly participating in

companies, self-governed agricultural cooperatives, and recovery of

democratic citizen participation. All of which have still not been

achieved, he added.

Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a former professor of economics and Latin American

studies at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, thinks

this could be due in part to Cuba's political isolation. "Cuba gained

and maintained only conditional sovereignty, because the country is not

economically self-sufficient and has always depended upon an external

actor - be it Spain, the United States, the Soviet Union, or now

Venezuela," Mesa-Lago said.

By the end of the 1980s - just before the fall of the Iron Curtain -

Cuba had attained its highest level of social and economic indicators in

its history. But this all changed following the collapse of the Soviet

Union in the early 1990s, when Cuba lost support from its communist

allies. The country was plunged into a time of hardship, which became

known on the island as the "special period."



Today, Fidel Castro's brother Raul Castro's economic reforms continue to

challenge the country's 11 million inhabitants. According to estimates,

a million Cubans lack proper housing. The country's trade deficit and

state debt have risen to record levels. Income disparity is increasing,

and the numbers of poor and vulnerable has grown. Meanwhile, social

welfare has been cut, with 70-percent less people receiving state benefits.

Agricultural production continues to stagnate due to centralized

planning, with the state owning almost all land. Only 10-percent of the

country's farmers remain independent. Manufacturing continues to be

subject to outflows of capital and a lack of industrialization. Raul

Castro announced public sector layouts - which could lead to a third of

Cuba's employable population losing their jobs, Mesa-Lago said.



Political stagnation and international image



Cuba's social situation is ambivalent. On the one hand, Cuba has the

lowest child mortality and highest life expectancy rate in all of Latin

America. On the other hand, there's been a clear worsening of social

security, education and health, said Cuban historian and political

scientist Armando Chaguaceda, who lectures at the University of Veracruz

in Mexico. Not only has the quality of these services been reduced, "but

also access, because of cuts to funding in these areas," Chaguaceda added.

"Abandoning infrastructure for water and waste management" has also

occurred, Mesa-Lago said, increasing a risk of an epidemic on the

island. Trained doctors are leaving the island, leading to a shortage of

professional medical services across the country, she added.



The Cuban government has had to make do with less foreign assistance -

Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador continue to reduce

their financial support for the country. Internally, there's also a lack

of citizen support. Above all, it's a problem of "political stagnation -

which is continued in an authoritarian regime, a single party with very

serious controls on freedom of expression, including no right to public

protests or strike. Media, and labor unions," Mesa-Lago added, "are an

extension of the government."

But things have changed somewhat. Recently, the opportunity for Cubans

to travel or migrate from the island has increased, along with private

investment. But even these reforms have authoritarian tones, Chaguaceda

insisted. He believes that 60 years after Moncada, fundamental changes

originally championed by Fidel Castro have not taken place.

"The citizenry is tired and civically disempowered, opinion is split,

and there's a lack of reference points for peaceful civic protest,"

Chaguaceda said. Cuban citizens see themselves in opposition to "an

elite rich who control information and the tools of power."



Source: "Cuba: Comparing revolutionary goals with realities | Americas |

DW.DE | 26.07.2013" -

http://www.dw.de/cuba-comparing-revolutionary-goals-with-realities/a-16976870