To my eye it looks suspiciously like what was being heard about Gorbachovs programme in say 1988 or 1987. ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Devine [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 11:10 PM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Transition to capitalism in Cuba
Recently, I talked briefly to Al Campbell, an economist at the University of Utah who knows a lot about what's happening in Cuba. My impression from our chat is that Cuba is introducing markets in final products and the like, but is not introducing private capitalism of the sort that prevails in the US, Japan, or Europe. That is, land and capital equipment and the like will not be privately owned. The plan does not involve a permanent creation of unemployment, either, as those who are laid off in the government sector are expected to get jobs in the "social sector," which is organized as collectives and individually-owned petty businesses (with few or no employees) . Maybe this is "state capitalism," but we'll see. In any event, I bow to the superior knowledge of anyone on this subject. On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 2:21 PM, Julio Huato <[email protected]> wrote: > ken hanly wrote: > >> Cuba claims that it will be using Vietnam as a model of some of the >> changes in the system. The state employment sector will be reduced although >> the >> document circulated by Julio says there will be no shock therapy. Translated >> this means there will be. Subsidies will be reduced, big cuts will be made to >> employment in the public sector and rationing removed. Rationing involved the >> harmful notion of equality as the circulated document puts it: > > I don't have any particular insight on where Cuba is heading. As > Monedero says, the Cubans are trying to solve very pressing practical > problems with solutions (with or without quotation marks) that will > only create new problems. That is how all societies evolve. > Monedero, very aptly (I think), refers to the NEP reform under Lenin. > Given Cuba's history after, say, 1970, I can tell that the process has > been sweeping in scope and rather deep. There's been a significant > amount of participation from the grassroots. People who had grown > extremely cynical about Cuba's situation -- for reasons I can > understand even if I don't share -- have decided to grant Raúl the > benefit of the doubt. I see the process with solidarity in my heart, > for obvious personal reasons. And I frankly think that Raúl has the > heart in the right place. But we all know that this is not a > sufficient condition (and I often wonder whether it's even a necessary > one) for a leader to usher real progress in a complex historical > situation. The Cubans will have to deal with the outcome, whichever > it may wind up being. I believe we should observe, support the > process (even if we are nervous about particular policies adopted), > learn from the experience, and deal with our own thing here. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401 _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
