Reflections on issues in Cuban productivity
A dialogue with Prof. Juan Azaharas
My long time and good friend Juan Azaharas visited me on New Year’s Day. We had a good conversation on the government’s call for increasing the productivity of the nation. Juan is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Havana. At the age of 13, he was incorporated into the guerrilla struggle in the Sierra Maestra as a message carrier and assistant cook. He subsequently received degrees at the University of Havana and in the Soviet Union; and he served in educational missions in Angola and Venezuela. He is a member of the Communist Party of Cuba. We have been friends since my second trip to Cuba in 1995 to attend an academic conference at the University of Havana. We began an informal conversation over issues of substance following a late afternoon panel, and he had no problem with my suggestion that we relocate the conversation to a local bar supplied with Cuban beer.
In our conversation on January 1, we agreed that there is a problem in Cuban culture, and it has to do with production. A producer, service provider, or worker will agree to do something, but then will proceed to follow-up on the agreement in their own form, in accordance with their perceptions, wishes and conveniences. So things do not work according to the previously agreed upon plan. I found frustrating this characteristic of Cuban culture when I was developing educational programs in Cuba.
As Juan and I perceive it, the problem does not exist in China and Asia, at least to the same degree, where there is a different culture. And it does not exist in many of the joint ventures in Cuba with foreign management, which comply with their contracts with the government, because the management is able to instill the required work ethic. But it is a different matter with respect to Cuban national production in industry, agriculture, and services.
Juan expressed the view that the problem in Cuba is that there is no punishment for not complying with work responsibilities. There is a level of punishment for blatant forms of corruption, but not for carrying out work obligations in a half-hearted form or in one’s own way. But what should or could the punishment be? I opined that in the capitalist USA, a certain degree of compliance with work obligations is obtained through two dynamics. First, there is a prevailing definition of individual worth on the basis of occupational attainment and income, and this drives many to comply with the expectations that are defined by bureaucratic and company superiors; or to dedicate oneself to economic success in a private enterprise. And secondly, many are afraid of being fired, and fear of unemployment and its consequence is a powerful motivator.
We both agreed that societal cultivation of individual self-centeredness and the imposition of fear are not acceptable solutions. Both are inconsistent, in different ways, with a society that affirms the fundamental dignity of all persons. In addition, the first pattern prevails where states are not trying to direct production toward goods that are given priority by an economic plan, in accordance with societal values and national goals. So both are incompatible with the foundational principles of a socialist society.
Socialism in Cuba, therefore, confronts the challenge of motivating the people to work in accordance with a collectively agreed upon plan, without stimulating tendencies toward excessive individuality, and without imposing a regime of anxiety and fear. Constant exhortation in the name of the common good appears to be the answer. Fidel accomplished this at certain epoch moments, such as the literacy campaign and the defense of the nation at the Bay of Pigs. It now must be accomplished by Cuban socialism as a continuous norm, creating a prosperous society with a work ethic that is grounded in social responsibility and support for the nation and the people. If it could be attained, it would be an advanced form of social stimulation of a personal work ethic, more advanced in quality than what is possible to attain in capitalist societies, driven as they are by profit and individualism.
As Juan expressed it, the people have to internalize the notion that it is their duty to comply with the specific instructions of those in authority, in the nation and in the various places of work, on the basis of a sense of duty that is rooted in commitment to socialism and Cuban sovereignty. We are speaking here of a cultural reform emerging at the personal level from socialism and national liberation, the principles of which have been taught to the people by Fidel.
But whatever be the deficiencies of Cuba with respect to work habits and production, it should not be forgotten that the principal cause of Cuba’s economic problems is the U.S. blockade, imposed unilaterally by the USA because it refused to accept an autonomous political-economic system in Cuba. Fidel’s initial plan was to make necessary structural changes in the Cuban economy, such as the nationalization and redistribution of large landholdings, and the nationalization of foreign companies that refused to respect Cuban law and policies. On this foundation of Cuban autonomy and national self-respect, Fidel hoped for mutually beneficial commercial relations with the United States, based on mutual respect, in spite of ideological differences. The USA declined to even discuss the possibility, forcing Cuba to enter into the separate orbit of commercial relations with the Eastern European socialist bloc, which it would have done in any event, but not exclusively.
Meanwhile, for the USA, serious economic problems began to emerge in the 1970s, caused fundamentally by the fact that the capitalist world-economy had reached and overextended the geographical and ecological limits of the earth, and the neocolonized peoples were increasingly developing their capacity to resist the terms of exchange imposed by the USA and the West. The logical way out for the United States was to embrace the proposal of the Third World project for a New International Economic Order, approved by the UN General Assembly; and to support its demand for North-South cooperation by seeking mutually beneficial trade with nations from all regions of the world. Such a turn would logically include a shift in policy toward Cuba, belatedly accepting Fidel’s proposal for mutually beneficial economic relations.
But the United States was incapable of breaking with the imperialist logic of its foreign policy. In the face of its economic problems, it turned to increasingly aggressive forms of imperialism: the imposition of neoliberal policies on the world, endless wars in the Middle East, and unconventional wars against states that are playing a leading role in seeking to develop an alternative world-system based on cooperation. U.S. economic policies since the 1980s have had negative consequences for the United States and the world. They have placed restraints on the expansion of the world market and have fueled worldwide resistance, generating a Third World War between the Western imperialist powers and anti-imperialist states in all regions of the world.
The aggressive imperialism of the United States constitutes its answer to Fidel’s proposal in the early 1960s for mutually beneficial economic relations between Cuba and the USA. It provides the context, joined with the worldwide situation of a neocolonial world-system in decadence, for the Cuban struggle to construct socialism. In spite of this difficult context and Cuba’s own deficiencies, Cuban socialism has achieved impressive gains in health, education, biotechnology, sport, culture, and international diplomacy. But it has yet to attain breakthrough with respect to its growing desire to construct a prosperous socialism. The possibilities for a more prosperous socialism in Cuba ultimately will depend on what happens in the world.
For the moment, Cuba will likely find creative ways around the newest obstacles imposed by the recent intensification of the blockade, thereby continuing, with its imperfections, in its self-sacrificing struggle to construct socialism.
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