7-28-08, 10:32 am


Since coming to power, and even before, the Cuban revolution has been characterized by its pragmatism within the context of very firm ethical principles. Undoubtedly this ability to correct errors and negative tendencies, without losing sight of the fundamental path, has been a big factor in the survival of the Cuban vision of social revolution, which for a half century has faced very complex tests, in the midst of great dangers.



We know that market economies always resort to centralization to correct their deficiencies. Similarly, centralized economies must adopt elements of the market into their systems when adjustments are needed.



In political economy this dichotomy has served both as a critique of capitalism for its blind dependence on the market and a critique of socialism for ignoring the market’s stubborn persistence.



Recently, under the guidance of its new president Raul Castro, Cuba has begun to implement a reform in food production that could be compared, in terms of its far-reaching economic and social scope, to the agrarian reforms of the early years of the revolutionary process.



One of the most significant changes has been to turn over idle land, under the terms of Decree Law 259, for use by state entities, cooperatives, and any Cuban citizen physically fit for agricultural labor.



The decree’s aim is to reverse the decline in the acreage of land being cultivated on the island, which fell some 33 percent between 1998 and 2007. After the decree went into effect, farmers were brought together through their local organizations to describe their needs in terms of machinery, spare parts, irrigation equipment, ploughs, wind mills, and other inputs needed to make the best possible use of the land.



A short time earlier there had been a reorganization of the agricultural sector, aimed at moving decision-making as close to the fields as possible by eliminating many intermediary layers. The municipal delegations of the Ministry of Agriculture took over many functions that had been carried out centrally or in the provincial headquarters, including servicing the private farmers and those organized in cooperatives.



In addition, the state food-purchasing companies, which buy between 70 and 80 percent of the crops harvested by the private farmers, increased the prices they pay. (Private farmers sell the rest of their produce directly to the public.) The state farms and farmers’ cooperatives will see similar improvements in price.



More than a few people have objected to the prominence that the measure cedes to private property within the context of a socialist project which theoretically is wedded to social property and that therefore would assign a minor role to individual property and market production. Factors based on or relating to the survival of the revolutionary process have made a convincing case in favor of the measure, which, in effect, borrows elements of the market economy to use to serve a pressing socialist objective.



More than 15 years ago, General Raul Castro, who was Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, had warned that, in regard to national security and the continuation of the revolution, the availability of food for the population is as important as the weapons that the country requires for its defense and is sometimes even more important.



From his new post, Raul -- having been named chief of state when the leader of the revolution Fidel Castro had to retire on doctor's orders -- has stressed that securing the country’s food supply is a high-priority for the nation’s security, at a time when the world situation makes the food question more pressing, serious, and urgent.



The reform in food production (with shades of a revolution within the revolution) has barely begun. One immediate objective will be to reduce the bleeding caused by food imports, which cost the country $1.6 billion in 2007. This figure will rise some 20 percent in 2008, with the country spending a total of $1.9 billion to import the same tonnage of food as in 2007. To this end, work is being done to
improve the retail and wholesale sectors, with measures that include its sale's price depending on the quality of the product in order to increase the availability of foodstuffs to replace imports.



In this new test, Cuba can draw on the experiences of the efforts the island had to make in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the European socialist camp, which left the country
virtually without trading partners willing to challenge the criminal blockade imposed by the United States government with the aim of wiping the revolution out, a blockade that dates back almost to the victory of the revolution in January 1959 and that was enacted into law in 1962.



Cuba’s advantage in this stage of its confrontation with the United States is that, although extreme rightwing forces govern the superpower, the world context is now different and it is the empire that is more isolated.

--A CubaNews translation by Will Reissner. Edited by Walter Lippmann.