The State of Cuba’s Urban Cooperatives

The State of Cuba's Urban Cooperatives

October 25, 2013

Daisy Valera



HAVANA TIMES — The bar and cafeteria located at the intersection of

Soledad and Concordia streets in Havana's neighborhood of Centro Habana,

an establishment that used to sell cheap tap beer and bother the

neighbors with blaring reggaeton music in the early hours of the

morning, looks rather different today.



Most of its old wooden tables, blackened by filth, have been replaced

with gleaming, white plastic furniture. Now, you don't run into any

drunkards hunched over the bar in the morning, and the place sells

milkshakes, coffee and sandwiches – a menu that would have been

unthinkable a few short months ago.



The Fausto cafeteria on Prado Street, Old Havana, has undergone a

similar mutation. It boasts newly-painted walls and a clean counter.

Sweets and soft drinks have come to swell the familiar offer of rum,

cigarettes and cigars.



These two examples are a fairly good illustration of what has happened

with the eating establishments once administered by the State,

establishments which, today, fall under the category of "urban

cooperatives." The changes we're seeing attest to the efforts being made

by many workers in the times of cutbacks and layoffs.



In June 2012, the National Assembly of the People's Power (Parliament)

authorized the creation of 222 non-agricultural cooperatives, in

conformity with the Guidelines (25 to 29) established by the Cuban

Communist Party.



A year later, we got wind that the first 124 (99 retailers, 11

construction companies and 2 in the industrial sector). This past month

of September, the establishment of a new group of cooperatives (73 in

total) was approved in the abovementioned sectors. The last group of 13,

founded in September, produce clothing, furniture and footwear.



Today, there are over 200 such cooperatives in operation, but the

benefits do not appear to go beyond the slight improvements we're seeing

at eating establishments. In fact, most of the population disapproves of

how these new cooperatives are operating.



People complain about the rise in the prices of food at agricultural and

livestock markets, today agricultural sales cooperatives, or about the

carwash services being offered at gas stations, to mention only two

examples.



We could venture to call the process we're witnessing a kind of forced

cooperativization. Of the 124 first cooperatives approved by Parliament,

112 were formerly State property and, of the more recent 73, 41. This

means that approximately 78% of today's cooperatives were previously

State-run enterprises.



The State has ditched its ill-managed establishments and has gained in

"cooperativists", who must pay for water, electricity and other

utilities and, in addition, rent the equipment and locales they use.

Coupled with the absence of a wholesale market, this results in the rice

in prices today being endured by Cubans.



Another regrettable fact is the lack of any experience in the running of

cooperatives. The only reference Cubans have are the country's

agricultural cooperatives, experiments which were genuine disasters.



Equal rights, collective decision-making processes and a fair

distribution of incomes are far from being implemented in Cuba's urban

"cooperatives."



The fact of the matter is that former State managers are today behaving

like private business owners and employers (benefitting from the

subsidies that the Ministry of Finance and Prices has approved for

cooperatives).



If new cooperatives continue to be designated from above and those that

emerge as the initiative of certain sectors of the population aren't

prioritized and incentivized with credit facilities, then these new

private businesses (comprised of the self-employed or "cooperatives")

will become the only viable option within Cuba's economic "reform" process.



Source: "The State of Cuba's Urban Cooperatives - Havana Times.org" -

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