tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403173611351828571.post7677527672923869947..comments2023-08-23T17:40:07.254+10:00Comments on Cuba's Socialist Renewal: Translation: Cooperatives and Socialism in CubaMarce Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12339699632687498324noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403173611351828571.post-37654566962437643222012-01-17T11:14:39.892+11:002012-01-17T11:14:39.892+11:00Thanks for your work translating this Marce. This ...Thanks for your work translating this Marce. This is great to read. Vive Cuba!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11732136577779248892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4403173611351828571.post-72395672744321357722012-01-04T07:28:34.856+11:002012-01-04T07:28:34.856+11:00J. LOwrie. Harnecker's suggestions of cooperat...J. LOwrie. Harnecker's suggestions of cooperatives as an alternative to petty capitalist enterprises are certainly to be warmly welcomed. It is really reactionary for the private hiring of wage labour to be legalised at this stage in Cuba's development. What might such companies achieve that might not better be achieved by cooperatives? She makes the important point that 'What characterises cooperatives is not the legal ownership of the means of production.'Nothing it seems to me has more bedevilled socialist thinking than this sort of legalistic fetishism. One recalls that under socialism the state was supposed to wither away; yet we get arguments that only the spread of state entities with state employees leads to socialism. Engels ridiculed such thinking when he remarked that some sly dog suggested the state's taking over the brothels would be a step towards socialism;and it would make no difference to the nature of sexual relations if such brothels were operated according to some social plan. So too Mao argued that the fact of expropriating the bourgeoisie does not really render the new society all that different from the old, a point he illustrated by the analogy of passing a law giving women equal rights with men.This does not change the relations pertaining between men and women; so too with all social relations: they have to be revoutionised over a whole historical era. So in retrospect we can see that it was a mistake in previously existing socialist societies to take so much of economic life under state control, where in Marx's own words the state acts as the universal capitalist. First, alternative socialist relations have first to be developed. Democracy( and of course no modern state is a democracy- the U.S. for example is rather an oligarchic despotism) has to be developed both at the social level and at the place of work, and I cannot envisage a better way forward for the latter than cooperatives. Incidentally why cannot cooperatives meet social needs as identified by the social plans? Why cannot central, local governments and various communities not agree contracts with cooperatives to meet their requirements at an agreed cost? To call this producing according to market criteria if fragrantly to beg the question!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com