[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Debate in a Guantanamo barrio
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Here, taken from today's edition of Granma, is a report on a discussion of the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines in a barrio (neighbourhood) in the eastern city of Guantanamo, not far from the infamous US naval base of the same name. For those of us trying to understand the debates and changes taking place in Cuba from the outside and from a position of solidarity, the value of this report is that it brings us down to earth from the lofty heights of theoretical debates on the meaning of socialism and how to build it, and what Cuba can learn from other experiences — vital as these debates are in Cuba and elsewhere. At the level of the local community, if this and other similar reports are anything to go by, most people's concerns are more prosaic: the price of a jar of marmalade, how much a student must pay to ride to school in a horse and coach, the clinic that has run out of cotton swabs, too few outlets selling non-rationed soap and toothpaste. The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) leadership has proposed a single agenda item for the 6th PCC Congress in April: the economy. Other important discussions and decisions will be deferred to a subsequent party conference, date to be announced, later this year. Cynics might wonder if the preoccupation with such things as marmalade and toothpaste reflects a lack of interest in debating the more strategic and theoretical issues involved in Cuba's socialist renewal, and if so, whether the PCC is somehow to blame. Aside from the fact that public debate on theoretical and strategic issues is indeed taking place in Cuba today, as I've tried to convey in other translations, this would be to forget something as basic as a bar of soap: the whole point of socialism is to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of a liberated humanity. Zooming in to the microcosmic level, to an urban community at the mountainous end of a Caribbean island subject to a US economic war — and a US naval base down the road that tortures prisoners — this means, among other things, ensuring that the Emilio Daudinot clinic in Guantanamo has a good supply of cotton swabs. The call by the PCC leadership to debate the Draft Guidelines, which run to 291 paragraphs, is aimed precisely at involving all Cubans in the process of rethinking and redefining Cuba's socialist economic model. And, as a roadmap to a reinvigorated socialist-oriented economy, the Guidelines must solve the problem of marmalade. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-debate-in-guantanamo-barrio.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Sustainable happiness?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above In my last post I commented on the illusion, widespread in Cuba today, that China is building socialism. In this noteworthy commentary, Ricardo Ronquillo Bello looks not to China for inspiration but to one of China's neighbours, the little-known kingdom of Bhutan, where they strive for Gross National Happiness rather than GDP growth. He warns against those inside Cuba who peddle the snake-oil of neoliberal capitalism in a bottle labelled socialism — hinting that, unsurprisingly, such neoliberal views are held by at least some in the PCC, most likely administrators with a pro-capitalist outlook who calculate that they might become millionaires if capitalism were ever restored in Cuba. Of course, such elements cannot openly advocate capitalist restoration. And they are up against a formidable obstacle: a mass revolutionary socialist party led by the historic leadership of the 1959 revolution with some 800,000 members, firm roots in the working class, a heroic tradition of internationalism and, counting the PCC's predecessors, five decades of hard-won struggle experience. As Carlos Alzugaray Treto pointed out in Cuba: Continuity and political change: Despite the fact that the PCC leadership has committed errors that have been recognised and/or rectified, and that methods and styles of work bearing the imprint of their origins in the Soviet political model still persist — such as the excess of centralism, for example — in reality the Cuban leadership has been concerned with two central aspects: the vanguard character of its militants that must be the first in every political social initiative, and the struggle against manifestations of corruption in its ranks. The honesty, sensitivity and the spirit of sacrifice championed by Che Guevara have been, in general, paradigms of Cuban communist conduct and not the privileges and perks of the nomenclatura, as happened under actually existing socialism [e.g. Soviet bureaucratic socialism]. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-sustainable-happiness.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Re. Bhutan
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In fairness, the Cuban columnist's favourable reference to Bhutan was related to just one thing: the fact that the regime does not view GDP growth as an appropriate measure of development, so they have come up with a different concept that encompasses other important things, such as ecological sustainability and respect for local culture. (Since about 2005 Cuba has adopted a unique way of measuring GDP that takes into account universal subsides for social services that would slip under the radar of traditional measures of GDP growth; this seems to be why the UN excluded Cuba from the Human Development Report rankings this year, complaining of inadequate data). He did not endorse Bhutan's semi-feudal social relations, the monarchy, discrimination against ethnic Nepalese, the banning of progressive political parties, etc. He did not hold up Bhutan as some kind of model for Cuba's social development. He simply used Bhutan's attempt to come up with national goals other than maximising GDP growth as something that is relevant to Cuba and its socialist orientation. Am I aware that Gross National Happiness is a Buddhist concept? I assumed so. But so what? Do Marxists have monopoly on good ideas? Marce Cameron Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation: Spectres and the present
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above This commentary by Luis Sexto needs little introduction. It gives a feel for the mood of the country as it faces up to difficult and disagreeable adjustments to a patchwork of the valid, the harmful and the obsolete. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-spectres-and-present.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Continuity and political change (3)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Here is the third instalment of my translation of Cuba fifty years on: Continuity and political change by Havana University's Carlos Alzugaray Treto. The first and second instalments are archived on the blog's homepage. The Spanish footnotes follow the translation. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-continuity-and-political_23.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Continuity and political change (4)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Here is the fourth and final instalment of my translation of Cuba fifty years on: Continuity and political change by Havana University's Carlos Alzugaray Treto. The other instalments are archived here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. The Spanish footnotes in the original are below each translation. As usual, you can access the Spanish text by clicking on the post title. As I said in the introduction to the first instalment, this is, in my opinion, a superb summary of the Cuban Revolution at this critical juncture and a grounded analysis of the changes, both economic and political, that must be made to Cuba's socialist model if the Revolution is to endure in the post-Fidel era that is taking shape. Published in late 2009, it was written before the announcement of the date for the PCC's 6th Congress in April this year that coincided with the publication of the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines, that are the subject of grassroots debates in the PCC, workplaces and neighbourhoods in preparation for the Congress. One weakness of Alzugaray Treto's analysis, worth drawing attention to, is that more could have been said about the significance of the opening of Venezuela's Bolivarian socialist revolution and the importance of the Cuba-Venezuela alliance for the future of Cuba's socialist project. Another weakness, it seems to me, is his uncritical appraisal of the Chinese leadership's claim that they are building socialism in China, albeit with Chinese characteristics (such as the fact that there is no barrier to multi-millionaire Chinese capitalists joining the so-called Communist Party). Such illusions in the Chinese road to socialism are widespread in Cuba, largely for the same reason that most Cuban revolutionaries once looked to the Soviet Union for inspiration: given the necessity for the PCC leadership to maintain excellent trade and diplomatic relations with the Chinese regime — which has its own geopolitical reasons for supporting revolutionary Cuba against US imperialism unrelated to fomenting the global proletarian revolution — little real information about the social and ecological costs of China's rampant capitalist development or leftist critiques of this process are readily accessible to most Cubans. What the inner circles of the PCC leadership really think about China's trajectory is unknown and can only be speculated, for obvious reasons. It would be to misread Alzugaray Treto's comments on China as saying that Cuba should copy the Chinese model. Indeed, he explicitly warns against this and there are other caveats too, such as the need to take into consideration the criticisms that have been made by the left. What he suggests Cuba can learn from China and apply, specified in five points, would not amount to the restoration of capitalism in Cuba; Cuba's political and social order would remain essentially different from that of China. It should also be noted that Alzugaray Treto's advocacy of a deepening and a decentralisation of Cuba's socialist democracy would help safeguard Cuba against precisely such a drift towards capitalist restoration. In his summary, he reaffirms the noble objective at the heart of the Cuban Revolution: the cultivation of a new human being, less alienated and egotistical, a fuller and freer expression of the human personality in its harmonious interrelation with humanity and the rest of nature on this fragile Earth — an objective that is not remotely shared by Beijing's ruling elite. Finally, the geopolitical realities of Cuba, a small post-capitalist society just 150km from the imperialist monster to the north, leave no room for a Chinese road. Either the Cuban Revolution renews itself with the help of Venezuela's Bolivarian socialist revolution and the other progressive forces on the planet, or the flame of revolution is extinguished and Cuba returns to its former status of a US neo-colony. Now more than ever, the Cuban Revolution needs our understanding and our solidarity. I invite readers of this blog to comment if you wish, by submitting a comment below this post. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-continuity-and-political_24.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Continuity and political change (2)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Here is the second instalment of my translation of Cuba fifty years on: Continuity and political change by Havana University's Carlos Alzugaray Treto. The first instalment is here: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-cuba-continuity-and.html. The Spanish footnotes follow the translation. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-continuity-and-political.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation: Two Granma letters
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Luis Sexto's commentary on bureaucratism, a translation of which I posted on January 18, dealt with the rationalisation of the state-sector workforce that is now underway and warned against the bureaucratic distortion of this process. The first Granma letter below takes issue with the decision to allow the director of an enterprise or entity to override the commission tasked with deciding which workers will remain in their jobs. It is another example of the Cuban press providing space for critical views. The second letter comments on the proposal in the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines to empower the municipal Peoples Power administrations to levy taxes on state enterprises, cooperatives, small private businesses and the self-employed, making local government less dependent on funding from the central state administration and giving them greater autonomy to set their own spending priorities. If this proposal is endorsed by the 6th Communist Party Congress in April and implemented, it would dismantle a pillar of the pervasive administrative verticalism that stunts the full flowering of Cuba's socialist democracy — to the degree that such a flowering is possible in conditions of imperialist blockade and encirclement. Link to translations: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-two-granma-letters.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cub): Enterprise, directors and workers
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Here, a Granma reader proposes that workers be empowered to elect the directors of socialist state enterprises. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-enterprise-management-and.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Re. Cort Greene's comments on Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks Cort, I'm aware of Pedro Campos's ultraleft/libertarian/anarchist rantings on Cuba. I've also read that dreadful analysis by Circles Robinson. You write: Marino Murillo is graduate of the military Colegio de Defensa Nacional. OK. And that he's behind some of the changes or guidelines that have already been instituted without the discussion that was supposed to take place. Actually, there has been a discussion taking place for several years now in Cuba. A debate initiated by Raul Castro. Such as the changes in the tax laws and the shutting down of services like some of the cafeterias and elimination of certain products that can be bought on the ration cards. Yes, these are some of the changes that are being implemented. Necessary and long overdue changes, in my opinion. You seem to identify egalitarian paternalism with the building of socialism. Very few if any of the new licences or business's have been for cooperatives and with no plan to create them. Most have been taken up by the black market groupings. On the one hand, you complain that some things are being implemented before the Guidelines have been approved by the PCC Congress. On the other hand, you complain that there aren't already a sea of flourishing cooperatives. It's clear to me, and to any other literate person that isn't a total cynic, that non-agricultural cooperatives are on the way. As to whether or not there is a plan to create them, if there isn't one being developed, evidently there will be one, or many plans at the level of each municipality. Of course many have been taken up by black market groupings. That's the idea: bring them out into the open, tax them, regulate them and close off the black market supply lines of goods stolen from the socialist state. Naturally, among the first to establish small businesses will be people whose businesses are already operating clandestinely. Most of the half million workers to be layed off by April will be without jobs and income and with plans to lay off 1.8 million by 2015. Those laid off have been offered other jobs in the state sector. If they don't want to take up these job offers, they have the option of leasing idle state farmland and contributing to food production. They also have the option of applying for self-employment in an expanded range of job categories, or become employees in one of the new small private businesses. When a regulations and a tax regime for cooperatives are established, as foreshadowed in the draft Guidelines and Marion Murillo's comments in the National Assembly, they will have the option of joining one of the new cooperatives. Marce Cameron Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Re. Cort Greene's comments on Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == So in your vision, workers should wait until the building of cooperatives is enacted by the Cuban state and then apply for a job in one of these cooperatives. I live in Australia. It's not for me to come up with a vision for how to build socialism in Cuba. I'll leave that to the Cuban revolutionaries, who are far more capable than I in this regard. Or you, I suspect, with all due respect. My question is : will those cooperatives be run by workers themselves...? Answer: I don't know, we'll see. Why don't you write to the Minister of Economy and Planning, Comrade Marino Murillo and ask him? What do you mean by cooperative anyway? I mean what is written in the Draft Guidelines regarding cooperatives. Have you read these Guidelines? Why should the entire resources of Cuba not be put into the hands of the workers THEMSELVES? That would be ideal, but is it practical? Marxists understand that only in a future, fully communist society (and not on a small, blockaded Third World island) can the distinction between manual and intellectual labour and the need for specialised administrators (who need not form a materially privileged, ruling bureaucracy as in the former Soviet Union) wither away, with all such managerial functions being carried out by the freely associated producers themselves. Your one-point plan is childishly simple, and childishly simplistic. Unless of course, you think workers are too dumb, too easily led astray by Imperialismo, to take matters into their own hands. On the contrary, I have confidence in Cuban workers and their political vanguard, organised in the Cuban Communist Party, to carry through the renovation process that has begun. I base my confidence not on facile optimism, but on what this revolutionary process has accomplished in the five decades since Cuba's working people took matters into their own hands. It seems to me you're the one who is being led astray by imperialism if you believe that Cuba is something other than a genuine socialist revolution. Marce Cameron Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Luis Sexto on bureaucratism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above [The complete and corrected translation of Camila Piñero Harnecker's Cuba Needs Changes commentary, first posted January 15, is here: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-cuba-needs-changes.html] As Luis Sexto notes in the following commentary, according to the dictionary, bureaucracy is synonymous with the body of public officials. For Marxists such as Leon Trotsky in his analysis of the bureaucratic degeneration of the USSR from the late 1920s, bureaucracy involves material privilege, with two caveats: that these privileges are substantial and state-sanctioned. In the Soviet Union from Stalin to Gorbachev the high salaries and perks enjoyed by the bureaucracy were legal, just as they are in capitalist Australia's state bureaucracy; and the privileges must be substantial enough that the bureaucracy as a social layer has different material interests to those of ordinary working people. Defined in this way, Cuba does not have a bureaucracy. In Cuba, there is no institutionalised system of special privileges for public officials and administrators as there was in the Soviet Union from Stalin to Gorbachev. The moral authority of Cuba's revolutionary leaders rests on their commitment to the revolutionary cause, spirit of self-sacrifice and close identification with the needs and aspirations of the working people. As disgraced former high officials Felipe Perez and Carlos Lage (among others) can attest, feathering one's own nest and jockeying for power are not tolerated. As is well known, Fidel's presidential salary was around $30 month, about that of a skilled worker. It could even be argued that in Cuba competent administrators, such as factory managers that are highly skilled and experienced and have big responsibilities, should be paid higher (but not exorbitant) salaries in line with the principle of the socialist transition, to each according to their work, that is, according to the value of one's labour contribution to society. Raul Castro hinted at this in his December speech to the National Assembly. Of course, there are corrupt officials in Cuba that have illicit privileges. (There is also a tendency for administrators to adopt the bureaucratic mentality: passively resisting decisions that inconvenience them, zealously guarding their administrative prerogatives from criticism and initiative from below, stifling debate, making the simplest procedures almost impossibly complicated, and so on). But the fact that such privileges are illegal has important political consequences. It reveals the attitude of Cuba's socialist state, and the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) leadership at the head of this state, towards such privileges, making it much harder for such corrupt officials to crystallise as a ruling stratum and a bridge to capitalist restoration. The reforms foreshadowed in the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines will tend to undermine, rather than strengthen, the bureaucratic tendencies in Cuba's socialist state. And, as can be seen from Sexto's commentary below, Cuba's revolutionary press sides with the working people against bureaucratism. (The reference to Sancho in the title is to Sancho Panza, a character from a Miguel de Cervantes novel.) Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-luis-sexto-on-bureaucratism.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation: Economy minister on economic reforms
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above During the December meeting of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power, several days were devoted to detailed discussion of the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines. Marino Murillo, Minister for Economy and Planning, responded to several questions related to the proposals in the Guidelines to establish non-agricultural, including urban, cooperatives. It is proposed that cooperatives be privileged over small private businesses and the self-employed in the new tax system that is being established. Cooperatives will be exempt from the payroll tax to be levied on small private businesses and, as Murillo explains here, cooperatives would pay less tax on earnings. In this way, Cuba's socialist state — while accepting the need for small private business, many of which have been operated untaxed and unregulated for years on the black market — would promote cooperatives. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-economy-minister-on.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Debate contributes wealth of arguments
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above This brief report highlights the importance of Cuba's intellectual and artistic vanguard in the process of debates and changes aimed at renewing Cuba's socialist project. It also gives some idea of the scale of the national debate on the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines. In the final paragraph there is a reference to Fidel's Words to the Intellectuals, a 1961 speech in which he said that the Revolution's cultural policy would be, essentially,within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution, nothing. This has been interpreted in various ways during the past five decades. Today, Cuba's revolutionary artists and intellectuals enjoy more freedom of expression than ever before. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-debate-contributes-wealth.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation: Cuba needs changes (Camila Harnecker Pinero)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above [I'd like to invite readers of this blog to check out a new blog, Venezuela: Translating the Revolution http://www.venezuelatranslatingtherevolution.blogspot.com/ by Owen Richards, a sister blog to Cuba's Socialist Renewal.] Alongside and intersecting with the grassroots debates on the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines and the informal debate, there is a rich discussion and debate taking place among Cuban intellectuals and academic specialists from a variety of disciplines and a spectrum of political perspectives within the broad camp of the Revolution. The Cuban magazine Temas (Themes) is one publication that carries contributions to this debate among Cuba's revolutionary intelligencia. The demise of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s precipitated not only the Special Period economic crisis in Cuba, but also a flourishing of Cuban social sciences in the Marxist tradition.With the Soviet manuals on Marxism-Leninism discredited, a revival of genuine Marxism was spurred by both the ideological challenge presented by the demise of Soviet Stalinism and concrete investigations into the changes taking place in Cuban society as the Special Period unfolded. Camila Piñero Harnecker holds a degree in sustainable development from the University of Berkeley, California. She is a professor at the Centre for Studies on the Cuban Economy at Havana University, and her works have been published both in Cuba and outside the island. She is also, incidently, the daughter of Chilean-Cuban journalist and author Marta Harnecker (who now lives in Venezuela) and he late husband, Manuel Red Beard Piñero, who headed revolutionary Cuba's state security and intelligence service for many years. Here is a slightly abridged and incomplete translation of one of her recent contributions to the discussion on Cuba's economic reforms. I'll let you know when the translation is completed. How to reassert the principle to each according to their work without money-making becoming the main or sole motivation to work? Here, Piñero Harnercker's concerns echo those of Che Guevara in the 1960s. Today, revolutionary Cuba returns to the classic debate over material vs. moral incentives four decades on with the Soviet Union itself long gone but its presence still felt in many of the Revolution's concepts, structures, methods and mentalities, and with the PCC leadership acknowledging certain idealistic errors. Rather than the victory of one side over the other in this decades-old debate, the new Cuban model of socialist development that is emerging will be a synthesis of the valid contributions of both sides. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-cuba-needs-changes.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Hospital workers debate Draft Guidelines
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Since early December the Cuban press has been reporting on selected grassroots debates on the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines, a final draft of which will be put to some 1,000 delegates to the Communist Party's 6th Congress in April. The debates have been taking place in workplaces and neighbourhoods and, informally, on the streets. As is the norm in such debates in Cuba, the viewpoints, concerns and proposals put forward by participants are recorded and a summary of the national debate is compiled. This will help the Communist Party commission responsible for drafting the Guidelines in its work of incorporating the most common concerns and suggestions arising from these grassroots debates in the final draft. The first draft of the Guidelines did not drop out of the sky; it draws on two earlier rounds of mass consultations initiated by the PCC leadership since Raul Castro became acting president in July 2006, as well as extensive input from economists and other specialists. Here we see the Cuban Revolution as a process of consensus-building, in which no strategic decisions are taken without consulting the popular sectors that will be affected by the proposed changes, in this case the working people as a whole. Given the scope and complexity of the much-needed socialist renovation that is now underway, striving for consensus on what must be done to change everything that must be changed is no easy task. It has proceeded slowly but surely amid hurricanes, global economic turmoil and the implementation of some reforms that cannot be delayed, such as the leasing of idle state farmlands. As can be seen in the debate that took place in this Havana hospital, people are saying what they think, as Raul has repeatedly urged. In other words, it's a real debate. Also evident is that workers are not just discussing the problems of their own workplace or profession, but the problems of the national economy. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-hospital-workers-debate.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Comment (Cuba): FSP calls for new socialist party in Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above The changes underway in Cuba have disoriented some supporters of the Cuban Revolution and its leadership outside the island. As I note in my introduction to this blog: This is understandable given that much of what we, and many Cubans, associate with socialism in Cuba — universal state subsidies other than health care and education, egalitarian wages, state ownership and management of almost the entire economy — are now being dismantled in the name of socialism. Both within and outside Cuba there are misconceptions about what socialism is, thanks in part to the legacy of Soviet bureaucratic socialism and its influence on Cuba. More precisely, there is widespread ignorance of the basic economic laws governing the transition from capitalism to socialism, as revealed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. Raul Castro referred to this in his December, 2010 address to Cuba's National Assembly when he spoke about the need to transform erroneous and unsustainable concepts about socialism, that have been deeply rooted in broad sectors of the population over the years, as a result of the excessively paternalistic, idealistic and egalitarian approach instituted by the Revolution in the interests of social justice.' In October 2010, the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), a US-based socialist group from the Trotskyist tradition with affiliates in Canada and Australia, issued a statement titled To save the Cuban Revolution, a new socialist party is needed. While the FSP statement does not explicitly call for the overthrow of the revolutionary government led by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), this is what the FSP comrades evidently believe is necessary if Cuba is to avoid what they see as a creeping process of capitalist restoration. The FSP did not await the decisions of the upcoming 6th PCC Congress to rush out their statement. While the FSP is a tiny organisation with a marginal influence in the US Cuba solidarity movement, their doubts have a wider resonance among some of the Revolution's supporters internationally. What follows is a point-by point response to their arguments. Readers of this blog are encouraged to comment on the FSP statement and my response by submitting a comment below this post. Link to comment: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/comment-freedom-socialists-call-for-new.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Comment: FSP calls for new socialist party in Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above The changes underway in Cuba have disoriented some supporters of the Cuban Revolution and its leadership outside the island. As I note in my introduction to this blog: This is understandable given that much of what we, and many Cubans, associate with socialism in Cuba — universal state subsidies other than health care and education, egalitarian wages, state ownership and management of almost the entire economy — are now being dismantled in the name of socialism. Both within and outside Cuba there are misconceptions about what socialism is, thanks in part to the legacy of Soviet bureaucratic socialism and its influence on Cuba. More precisely, there is widespread ignorance of the basic economic laws governing the transition from capitalism to socialism, as revealed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. Raul Castro referred to this in his December, 2010 address to Cuba's National Assembly when he spoke about the need to transform erroneous and unsustainable concepts about socialism, that have been deeply rooted in broad sectors of the population over the years, as a result of the excessively paternalistic, idealistic and egalitarian approach instituted by the Revolution in the interests of social justice.' In October 2010, the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), a US-based socialist group from the Trotskyist tradition with affiliates in Canada and Australia, issued a statement titled To save the Cuban Revolution, a new socialist party is needed. While the FSP statement does not explicitly call for the overthrow of the revolutionary government led by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), this is what the FSP comrades evidently believe is necessary if Cuba is to avoid what they see as a creeping process of capitalist restoration. The FSP did not await the decisions of the upcoming 6th PCC Congress to rush out their statement. While the FSP is a tiny organisation with a marginal influence in the US Cuba solidarity movement, their doubts have a wider resonance among some of the Revolution's supporters internationally. What follows is a point-by point response to their arguments. Readers of this blog are encouraged to comment on the FSP statement and my response by submitting a comment below this post. Link to comment: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/comment-freedom-socialists-call-for-new.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): The urgent and the necessary
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above On December 1, Granma published the official call to debate the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines, beginning with the Communist Party base committees and extending to open debates in workplaces and neighbourhoods throughout the island. In the call, the party leadership expressed its desire: That everyone express their opinion, without hindrance, disagreeing if they wish. Nobody must keep an opinion to themselves, much less be prevented from expressing it. The Party demands the maximum transparency in all its organisations, the greatest clarity in analysis, the clarification of all the doubts and concerns we may have within the bosom of the Revolution. To participate in shaping the destiny of the country is the right of every Cuban and is, what's more, the most transparent exercise of socialist democracy and the clearest expression of the clarity of the Revolution and of its unity with the people. The debates are taking place over a three month period concluding at the end of February, when a summary of opinions, suggestions and proposals for additions or amendments will be compiled and analysed by the commission responsible for drafting the Guidelines. A final draft will then be presented to the delegates to 6th Communist Party Congress in April. Coinciding with the call to debate, Granma published this commentary by Felix Lopez on how to approach the debate. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-urgent-and-necessary.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): On our feet
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above My translations of Luis Sexto's commentaries are not always appreciated by readers. Some find them too poetic, intangible, even vacuous, according to one reader. So here is my appeal to those who are inclined to skip over these columns and wait for something more familiar to Western leftist audiences: grappling with Sexto's weekly pearls of wisdom is advisable if you want to grasp the human dimension of the Revolution's strivings for self-renewal. We may not agree with what he says, and sometimes we may not understand exactly what he's getting at, but what is conveyed in these reflections is no less important than the speeches of political leaders and the data on agricultural production, productivity and wages. One of the Cuban Revolution's contributions to the treasury of communist thinking and practice is its sensitivity towards the subjective, the human being as the subject and not merely the object of social transformation. If the Revolution has indulged in errors of idealism that have weakened its economic and ethical substrate, and that must be corrected if the Revolution is to endure, it is only fair to acknowledge that the profound humanism of the Cuban revolutionary tradition has always been its pillar of strength. Sexto exemplifies this tradition, so it's worth making an effort to understand him. Cuba's socialist renewal must put bread on the table but, as the old saying goes, man does not live by bread alone. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-on-our-feet.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation: The question of the century
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above [Thanks to Fred Feldman for his kind words of encouragement. I should point out that the translation of Raul's December National Assembly speech that Fred attributes to me is actually an official Cuban translation. I translated some of Raul's additional comments.] The most significant economic reforms to date are taking place in agriculture, the Achilles heel of Cuba's post-capitalist economy. A key initiative of the government led by Raul Castro is the leasing of idle state farmland to individuals, peasant cooperatives and state farms in an effort to boost production, reduce costly food imports (US$1.6 billion in 2011) and lower prices. More than 100,000 people have benefited from these land grants. Damage to crops from the ferocious 2008 hurricanes, the global economic crisis, administrative red tape and delays in the commercialisation of farm supplies and equipment — together with losses in the distribution chain from farm to market — saw an overall decline in agricultural output in 2010, but this year may see a turnaround as new farms become established and teething problems are ironed out. The return to the countryside has spawned a new social movement in which peasants are sharing their knowledge with those who have opted to try their hand at farming. The rural revival is being complemented by the establishment or expansion of green belts around provincial cities and towns, with an emphasis on ecological sustainability and energy efficiency. Cuba's communist youth organisation, the UJC, is encouraging young Cubans to join in this effort. Thousands have responded with enthusiasm. Not everyone agrees that expanding the scope of peasant agriculture and cooperatives — which may hire wage labour to assist with planting, harvests and the like — can make a positive contribution to Cuba's socialist development in the new economic model that is emerging. Here Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, a regular columnist for Juventud Rebelde, takes up the debate in favour of cooperatives. He notes that Vladimir Lenin was an enthusiastic supporter of cooperatives if, as in revolutionary Cuba, state power is in the hands of the working people. Those who are interested may like to read what Lenin had to say here: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/jan/06.htm Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-question-of-century.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Translation (Cuba): By one and all
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks Nat, apologies everyone. The correct link is here: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-by-one-and-all.html ** Hi Marce, Your link to Sexto's essay is in untranslated Spanish. (?) Nat Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Granma letter: Objective vs. subjective debate
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above Previously I posted a translation of a letter to Granma titled The objective and subjective factors (see http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/granma-letter-objective-and-subjective.html). In this letter, A. Orama Munero argued that appeals to conscience alone would not solve Cuba's economic problems nor rescue socialist ethics. What is needed, among other things, is an opening to the cooperative sector and small-scale private initiative. He points out that objective factors — such as average salaries that are insufficient to cover all basic living expenses, thus compelling many Cubans to make ends meet by engaging in petty theft from the socialist state — condition people's ethical conduct. Put simply, if workers and their families can't live decently on their legitimate incomes then generalised petty corruption and the mentality that goes with it are inevitable. Orama Munero was responding to a letter in the previous Friday's edition of Granma, in which F. Fernando Gonzalez put forward more or less the opposite viewpoint. Since the biggest problems continue to be in the conscience of people, in their conduct, he argues that the solution is to be more demanding and exert more control. To privatise even the most insignificant branch of our economy would lead to the renunciation of socialism, he warns. Here we see the two poles in the national debate over the future of Cuba's socialist project. What one side in the debate sees as a cause the other sees as a consequence, thus the solutions proposed run in opposite directions. One side equates the socialist-oriented society with state ownership and management of almost the entire economy; the other starts from the premise that the socialist state's ownership of large-scale productive property that is already objectively socialised is sufficient to keep the forces of capitalist restoration in check. The Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines — which reflect the majority (if not unanimous) opinion of the Communist Party leadership — are consistent with the views expressed by A. Orama Munero in his April 16 letter. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/granma-letter-objective-vs-subjective.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): By one and all
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above If you live, as I do, in a capitalist society, in which the essential function of the mass media is to disorient, distract and divide in the class interests of a tiny corporate elite (and to sell advertising space), imagine if you opened the paper and read, over your morning coffee, a commentary like Luis Sexto's below. You'd no doubt stare in disbelief and wonder if, by some magical device, you'd woken up in a kinder, saner society. Despite material constraints and much room for improvement, the basic function of Cuba's revolutionary press is to orient and inform. Increasingly, it is also to provoke and facilitate the striving for consensus on how to carry through the urgent and necessary renovation of Cuba's embattled socialist project. Such a consensus would be unthinkable in capitalist Australia where the social domination of a parasitic bourgeoisie rests on the political atomisation of the working people; where meaningful participation in politics has been reduced to ticking a ballot paper once every few years for one or another gang of pro-corporate politicians. Participation in the construction of a new and better society, the subject of Sexto's profound reflection, is of no interest whatsoever to the staff writers of the tabloids and broadsheets of the capitalist world. All they care about is sustaining the appearance, the fiction, of participation. That the masses believe in the illusion of democracy is what counts. In revolutionary Cuba it's the opposite: what matters is the substance of participation, since without an ever-greater real participation of the broad masses, not only in the carrying out of the tasks of the Revolution but in deciding what those tasks will be, there can be no progress towards socialism. Sexto's subtle, lyrical prose is difficult to translate. I hope my attempt does justice to the original. Link to translation: http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/columnas/coloquiando/2010-12-30/por-uno-y-por-todos/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Country in miniature
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above [A note to email subscribers to this blog: if you have submitted your email address but have not received a confirmation in your inbox, check the spam folder. The genuine confirmation email has Marce Cameron in the text.] In this sharp commentary, Jose (Pepe) Alejandro Rodriguez, a popular and fearless critic, explains the relationship between the decentralisation of economic decision-making, of social planning, foreshadowed in the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines and the widening of the scope of Cuba's socialist democracy. He argues that granting more powers to state enterprises and municipalities — within the framework of the national economic and social plan — will put an end to the hyper-centralised decision making that stifles local creativity and initiative. His reference to the need for a harmonious co-existence of the vertical (central planning) and the horizontal (empowering state enterprises, local governments and other economic actors that operate at the local level such as cooperatives, small businesses and the self-employed) echoes Luis Sexto's The Geometry of Democracy (see blog archive). Importantly, he says that immature socialist-oriented societies, such as Cuba, have confused necessary planning with excessive centralisation. Here we see the Cuban Revolution, two decades after the collapse of Soviet bureaucratic socialism, coming to terms with the historical dead-end of Stalinism and striving to complete the task — begun with the rectification of errors and negative tendencies in the late 1980s — of purging the Revolution of its pernicious influence. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-country-in-miniature.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Granma letters: youth and revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com (To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates see the home page) In early 2009, Granma, published by the central committee of the Cuban Communist Party and one of two daily newspapers in Cuba, began publishing letters from readers. Since then the Friday edition, which has 16 pages rather than the usual eight, dedicates two pages to letters and responses from institutions. The Granma letters pages are one of the new institutional spaces that have been created for ongoing discussion and debate. The letters can be grouped into two broad categories: specific complains about corruption, incompetence, poor service etc, and specific proposals, such as the need to crack down on the illegal capture and sale of wild birds or the suggestion by several readers to institute an annual day recognising the contribution of Cuba's internationalist volunteers; and more general criticisms and reflections that contribute to the national debate on the renewal of Cuba's socialist project. Granma receives far more letters that it has the space to publish, so what is published is only a selection. It seems that a genuine effort is made to make this selection representative, judging by the inclusion of letters that express concern or disagreement with policy changes that are being discussed or implemented. One example is the debate over the elimination of the ration book system of subsidised distribution of a quota of basic goods. While most letters are supportive, some are opposed. There are, of course, limits to what is considered fit for publication in Granma: criticism must be constructive, not simply whining, and you cannot express hostility towards the Revolution or its leadership and hope to have your letter published. Within these limitations a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion and debate has evolved, with readers bouncing ideas off each other and introducing new and often controversial topics. The creative, non-dogmatic application of the Marxist method is a striking feature of many contributions. As I wrote in Cuba's Socialist Renewal (p.28), In these commentaries the capacity for critical thinking of the average Cuban citizen — the fruit of the Revolution’s efforts over several generations to forge a new human being capable of contributing to the building of a socialist society — shines through and illuminates the difficult path ahead. The Granma letters below relate to the theme of youth and their participation in the renovation process. The first is a letter from a young Havana University student arguing for the creation of small private businesses to resolve long-standing problems of inefficiency, poor service and low worker motivation in many small-scale service entities. This, together with the conversion of some small-scale production and service entities into cooperatively managed enterprises, is foreshadowed in the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines. Two of the translations are slightly abridged. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/granma-letters-youth-and-revolution.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Granma letter: The objective and subjective factors
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com (To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above) Here is another letter from Granma. In my last post I said that a non-dogmatic application of the Marxist method is a striking feature of many such contributions. This is a good example. Here, the author responds to a previous contribution to the debate which I'll also translate and post so that readers can get a feel for the two poles in this debate. The letter below is representative of what could be called the critical renovationist current within the Cuban Revolution, which represents one pole in the national debate on the future of Cuba's socialist project. It is almost certainly written by a Communist Party member judging by its political clarity, but by no means all party members are part of this current of opinion (see Cuba's Socialist Renewalhttp://solidarityclubs.net/files/sydney/Cuba's%20socialist%20renewal.pdf, p.10). It is interesting to note that the authors of such letters who are Communist Party members rarely identify themselves as such and that their official positions, if any, are only made explicit if this is relevant to the content of their contribution. Granma letter: The objective and subjective factors April 16,2010 Translation: Marce Cameron Spanish: http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/cartas-direccion/cart-106.html I write this on the basis of the abundant opinions of compañeros that with the best intentions, and with the logical fear of losing our conquests and our socialism, propose subjective solutions, of proven ineffectiveness during the past 20 years, to objective problems which confront our economy and our socialism. I single out in particular the opinion of F. Hernandez Gonzalez: We are affected more by subjective than objective questions”, published on April 9, in which a direct reference is made to the balance of these factors in the economy. Firstly, I would like to explain that the objective factors are independent of people's consciousness, and the the subjective are inherent in the objective. I remember my political economy university professor stressing that in every moment the objective factors condition the subjective ones, in other words, “man thinks as he lives and does not live as he thinks”. This can be understood better with a practical example of a pharmacy or a workers dining hall that does not work as it should, or with a cadre that doesn't insist that they do what they are supposed to, or with the corrupt inspector who doesn't do his job; if we see these people superficially we see only the subjective factors inherent in each of them, their lack of morality and discipline, and we can form the impression that the solution involves only being demanding and asserting control, but then we would be ignoring the fact that all these people (and above all those that we must call to account) are affected by the same objective factors that condition their behaviour (the salary does not cover all necessities, the high prices, the house in which they live may be crumbling, the kids need shoes for school, etc). In the present conditions we are all prone to fall into these weaknesses, or to not say anything when confronted with them, and those of us who do not feel the same way often swim against the current, and we do so because the objective factors favour precisely the contrary of what we propose and would wish for ourselves. This may not be a problem if this situation had not extended for the past 20 years [of the post-Soviet Special Period]. During all this time things have got worse, the negative phenomena have become more mainstream and people's consciousness has become accustomed to harbouring ideas contrary to the principles of socialism. Egotism has spread like the marabu weed [a thorny tropical shrub that infests vast areas of Cuba's agricultural lands], and every day political work or appeals to conscience lose more force. In other words, the objective factors are imposing themselves for the worse with regard to our social process, and only by confronting them directly will we save our socialism. Only our state can influence these factors, counting on our support. The state must stimulate the productive forces, free itself from excessive responsibilities that it cannot bear [and] eliminate egalitarianism, among other things. None of these things will be able to be achieved solely with slogans and appeals to conscience. We must invigorate our economic model to save our social model. We are not talking about concessions to capitalism. The state must preserve its ownership of the fundamental means of production, the basic premise of socialism, but it must also allow an opening
[Marxism] Translation: Alarcon in Cuba's National Assembly
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Ricardo Alarcon is the speaker of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power. He has an impressive revolutionary biography going back to the Batista era, joining Fidel Castro's July 26 Movement as a student leader. The National Assembly convened December 15-19 to approve the state budget for 2011 and to discuss the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines that are being debated in grassroots meetings throughout the island in the lead-up to the Communist Party's 6th Congress in April. Billed as the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Seventh Legislature, it was anything but ordinary. In the past, most of the Assembly's work was done in its various standing commissions that meet behind closed doors and the plenary sessions adopted the proposals with little, if any, real debate. Fidel would then give a long closing speech. This time the plenary sessions were a real working body, featuring very detailed presentations by Marino Murillo, minister for economy and planning, and Lina Pedraza, minister of finances and prices on the economic and social plan for 2011, the state budget and the draft Guidelines, followed by extensive discussion by deputies. Transcripts of much of the proceedings were printed in special supplements in Granma and Juventud Rebelde that include not only the speeches but interventions by deputies from the floor of the sessions. Raul's closing speech was much longer than usual. Raul's speech, undoubtedly the most significant by any Cuban leader since Fidel's November 2005 warning that the Revolution could destroy itself through its own errors and weaknesses, has not been translated into English in full. I'll post some excepts from his extended comments shortly on www.cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com. In the meantime, here is Alarcon's intervention at the close of the December 17 plenary session of the Assembly. He places Cuba's economic reforms in the international context, explaining why it is wrong to drawn an equals sign between neoliberal capitalist restructuring and Cuba's socialist-oriented renovation, and touches on the creative application of Marxist ideas in the best of the Latin American tradition. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-alarcon-intervention-in.html Marce Cameron Sydney, Australia Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New Cuba blog: Cuba's Socialist Renewal
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dear Marxmail subscribers, I've just launched a new blog, Cuba's Socialist Renewal. The blog has two aims. One is to open a window to the English-speaking world on the debates and changes taking place in Cuba. What makes this blog special is that I'll be regularly posting original translations of selected documents, commentaries and letters to the editor published in Cuba's revolutionary press, and inviting readers to comment on them. The other is to provide a space for discussion and debate among supporters, however critical, of the Cuban Revolution to sharpen our understanding and, hopefully, to inspire our ongoing solidarity. I invite you to check it out, join the discussion and sign up as a follower: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/ Happy New Year and 52nd Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Marce Cameron Sydney, Australia Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
