Salvaging Socialism

Kennon Pearre
Office of the Simon Chair

July 26 marked the 58th anniversary of the unsuccessful military assault on the Moncada army barracks, an attack which initiated the Cuban revolution and is now celebrated yearly. Commemorating this event, Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura spoke in Ciego de Avila, not just to celebrate the past but to discuss a new struggle Cuba faces today; economic reform. The reforms being implemented throughout the island nation have produced visible changes, but where these reforms are headed remains difficult to tell
 
Cuba’s economic reforms have perplexed many pundits since Raúl Castro’s appointment as head of state in 2006. While 2011 has seen some progress with these reforms, the lack of understanding and slow pace of implementation is speculated to be causing widespread frustration among the Cuban population. The current debate is no longer solely focused on the reforms themselves, but if they mark a real change in direction for the Cuban economy.

The Cuban economy flirted with privatization of many government controlled sectors in the 1990s in an effort to gain needed revenue after losing the support of the former Soviet Union. While those reforms were seen as temporary, the current reforms are heralded as a permanent fix to one of the few remaining centrally planned economies in the world. Recently, the most publicized reforms deal with private property laws. The ability to buy and sell property has come out of a necessity to change a system that was heavily bureaucratic and corrupted by the black market, often involving illegal under-the-table payments. Instead of controlling the entire process, Cuban authorities are opting to allow transactions of private property and collect taxes in an effort to increase state revenue.

The consequences of the economic reforms will be closely watched by the Cuban authorities and outside analysts. In the blogosphere, prominent Cuban dissident Yoani Sánchez has written on what would seem to be a contentious issue for the Cuban government, vender e irse, sell and leave, or the notion that some Cubans may sell their houses and choose to emigrate with the newly procured funds. Privatization and other reforms have caused rampant speculation as to how Cubans will use their new rights, and to what degree Cuban authorities will restrict them. While pessimism abounds in Cuba and internationally, Ms. Sánchez optimistically writes that “the government is forced to open up, or the reality will leave them behind.” Change is occurring in Cuba, but only time will tell if current reforms will strengthen Cuba socialism or lead to its demise.   
 

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons