The large sign on
the wall says it all: "One day of the blockade is equal to 139
urban buses."
There is no doubt that Cuba has suffered at the hands of the USA
since the blockade was imposed. Yet despite being starved of
essential resources the Cuban people have demonstrated a
remarkable resilience and inventiveness. As they say here: "Todo
se resuelve." Everything will be solved.
When you walk around the streets of the capital, you can see
examples everywhere of this creativity in the face of adversity.
Buses are often made from tin boxes put together and then placed
on the back of a lorry. Children make scooters from old bike
parts. Old cars from pre-1958 trundle along on a wing and a
prayer. Yet these old models and lorries belch out choking thick
black smoke that pollutes the streets.
It is, however, in the area of medicine and health that the
blockade takes its greatest toll. Children suffering from kidney
problems are denied basic life saving help in drug treatment.
This is only one example. In the early 1990s after the collapse
of the subsidies from the Soviet Union in exchange for Cuban
sugar, some people suffered from blindness resulting from a
vitamin deficiency. This was cured from scarce resources.
Cuba's ability to get by whilst at the same time help others has
to be admired and it is an indication that the Cuban revolution
is still alive despite all the difficulties it faces. Despite
being isolated at the behest of the USA, Cuba has a patient
doctor ratio that is the envy of even so-called advanced
countries. And while Cuba takes care of its own in terms of
health care, it also exports its skills and personnel to other
countries.
The Granma newspaper of October 28th reported just one example.
The retired Bolivian officer Mario Teran, who fired the fatal
shot that killed Che Guevara, was cured of blindness in Bolivia
under Operacion Milagro staffed by Cuban doctors. Since 1963
Cuba has sent medical teams to help others even more unfortunate
than itself. Some 42,000 Cuban medical staff are active in 102
countries around the world and 53,000 young people are being
trained in medicine both in Cuba and in their own countries. 60
million people world wide are benefiting from this medical
help and since the programmes began some 300 million have been
treated. In Nicaragua alone since Daniel Ortega was elected back
in January some 10,000 have received eye treatment and for many
it is the first time that they have been able to see. The whole
of Misión Barrio Adentro which provides basic primary health
care in the poor communities in Venezuela would not have been
possible without the 20,000 Cuban doctors and nurses who
participate in it.
The vote therefore at the United Nations to call on the USA to
end its blockade of the island was welcomed in Cuba. 184
countries voted against the USA blockade and only four in favour
of it. The USA was able to muster voting allies in favour of its
policy from Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau. Yet the
question that has to be asked is why the blockade has not ended
already, since the UN has voted by majority since 1992 against
it. On the one hand it is clear that the UN's decisions can be
vetoed by powerful members and therefore it is an instrument of
the status quo on a world scale, used as a fig leaf when it
suits the interests of imperialism, discarded when it goes
against them. On the other hand the need is raised for an
international campaign based on workers organisations that can
truly defend the gains of the Cuban revolution.
Despite the heroic attempts by the Cuban people to carry on
under extremely harsh conditions, problems remain. In the
capital Havana many buildings are in a state of collapse yet
provide homes to many Cubans. Roads are full of potholes and
when it rains, they fill up with water that lies stagnant, a
breeding ground for mosquitoes. There are regular
disinfestations of commercial premises using smoke machines.
The blockade of Cuba has also meant that many traditional
industries like sugar have reached the stage of collapse.
However, unlike in capitalist countries, all workers from the
sugar industry have been either re-employed elsewhere or been
given access to full time education.
The sugar workers of Cuba were
like the miners in the UK. Thatcher set out deliberately to
destroy the mining industry in order to destroy the NUM. The
sugar industry here has collapsed due to a combination of the
end of subsidised purchases from the Soviet bloc and the
collapse of prices in the world market, with the result that the
most militant section of the working class has been dispersed.
There are two currencies working
side by side; the official national currency and convertible
pesos which are exchanged on par with the US dollar at a rate of
1:1. The local currency will pay for newspapers, public
transport and is used in some food and clothes shops. Even if
you are working and getting paid in the national currency, most
find it very hard to make ends meet. If you want shoes or many
items of clothing, you need convertible pesos. How do ordinary
Cubans get them?
Firstly, there are remittances sent to families by Cubans
abroad. Secondly, you work in the growing tourist industry and
get tips from foreigners. Thirdly, you hustle. It is called "jineterismo".
You are approached all the time by mainly young men, but often
young women, who start by asking the time. If you respond, the
play continues until you are hooked. And this is a problem. How
do you know if a Cuban wants to speak to you because they are
interested in what you think or wants to find out where you are
from? You don't until gradually the motives become clear. On my
second day here 6 young men tried to hustle me. Initially I
engaged in conversation and it soon became clear what the main
gripe was.
People also get by selling
sandwiches on street stalls or by directly begging, especially
the old.
The worst aspect of all of this is that on almost every street
corner in the tourist centre of Havana there are pimps and
prostitutes, while on opposite corners there are one or two
police, some with dogs and some without, stopping and checking
the IDs of anyone they want to stop. Yet prostitution is illegal
and severely punished.
There is also a growing problem
of street thefts using physical violence, something that
previously did not exist. But people have to survive by any
means possible.
On every street corner and in
every doorway there are groups of young people, especially men,
with nothing to do. Some of them might be receiving money from
relatives abroad so they can live without working. Poverty is
evident in terms of diet and clothing. Sections of society have
become marginalised and therefore many seek a solution to their
problems not in collective action but as individuals against the
system
Almost every building has one or
two guards in case someone tries to steal something. I walked
past a very small organic garden in the old part of the city and
there was a guard with a dog. He explained that it was his job
to ensure that no plants were stolen!
This fear of theft reflects a growing unease and malaise. People
have to survive and will find any and every method in order to
do so.
While these problems exist in
Cuba, they are nothing compared with the situation of poverty,
destitution and crime one finds in any Latin American country
and by comparison living standards (in terms of health care,
access to education, living expectancy, etc) are still much
higher in Cuba.
The other thing that strikes you is the growing level of
disbelief between government pronouncements and the reality at
street level. The papers are full of targets that have been met
in different areas of the economy, but many basic needs remain
unmet at street level. Even the TV voices occasional criticisms
where for example a theatre has been closed for 6 months for
minor repairs that should only have taken a few weeks, yet when
wood was needed to effect the repairs it was not available.
People in the street realise that many of the shortages are due
to the blockade, yet they are also beginning to realise that the
way society is organised also has a lot to do with it.
On the one hand the planned and
state owned economy has enabled Cuba to enjoy free education,
free health care, very cheap housing and public transport that
is so cheap it is practically free. Yet on the other hand there
is almost no opportunity for ordinary Cubans to participate in
the running of society. Socialism needs the oxygen of a workers'
democracy with all citizens having the right to decide on policy
at all levels.
The growing discussion here is therefore, where is Cuba going
and what part can everyone play in that discussion? What you
don't often hear is a desire to emulate the model of capitalist
development that took place in the old Soviet bloc countries,
but China is growing in influence here with 3 TV stations that
all Cubans can access. Is this a sign that certain sections of
the bureaucracy are looking at the Chinese model of capitalist
development controlled by a "Communist Party" as a way out of
the impasse?
In this context the recent visit of Hugo Chavez provoked some
very interesting reactions. In his speech that was televised
live he declared that he was a Trotskyist. When the speech was
retransmitted that part was edited out and the press also said
nothing of it. Yet millions heard it. It was just like the old
photo of Lenin on a wooden podium with Trotsky standing on the
steps that was airbrushed under Stalinism.
The effect here was electric. On the one hand those who are
looking for a revolutionary Marxist way out of the crisis based
on defence of the planned economy but seeing the need to extend
the revolution to other countries as well as fighting for a
genuine workers democracy were emboldened. Those who had perhaps
only heard of Trotsky but knew nothing of him were then asking
how they could get hold of his writings. Chavez is a hero here,
so if he is a Trotskyist then they should be too! Even elements
within the military are reading Leon Trotsky in their search for
a solution.
There is an opening. Fidel released a speech that was published
in Granma, official organ of the Cuban CP, on October 27th. The
occasion was the 48th anniversary of the death of a leading
revolutionary, Camilo Cienfuegos. Fidel quoted the famous words
of Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool some of the people all of the
time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool
all of the people all of the time." The words were directed at
the USA but could equally be directed at sections of the
bureaucracy here, which have been criticised by Fidel in the
past.
What epitomised what is happening was a meeting that I went to
on October 31st. It had been billed as a discussion on October
1917. The actual title was the influence of different socialist
ideas on the Cuban CP up to 1953. Out of the three speakers on
the platform, two of them mentioned the importance of Leon
Trotsky and his writings, with one specifically saying that the
development of the Cuban Communist Party cannot be understood
without people having read the ideas of Leon Trotsky. There were
about 70 people at the meeting.
These are early days here. There has been a small opening that
is pushed wider by events, such as the visit of Chavez. There is
a thirst for ideas at all levels of society. Ideas that will
defend the gains of the Cuban revolution, will not mean a return
to capitalism, but will mean a growing influence of the ideas of
Trotsky. The concept of Socialism in one country has proved to
be a fallacy as has the theory of the two stage revolution. Only
the idea of the permanent revolution of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky
will provide the answer to the Cuban revolution.
Havana
November 1st 2007
|