Translation: Cooperatives and Socialism in Cuba

Cooperatives and Socialism: A Cuban Perspective is a new Cuban book published in Spanish earlier this year. This important and timely compilation is edited by Camila Piñeiro Harnecker. Avid readers of my blog will recall that I translated and posted a commentary by Camila, titled "Cuba Needs Changes", back in January. Camila lives in Cuba and has a degree in sustainable development from the University of Berkeley, California. She is a professor at the Centre for Studies on the Cuban Economy at Havana University, and her works have been published both in Cuba and outside the island. 

Camila hopes her book may be published in English soon. In the meantime, she has kindly agreed to allow me to translate and publish this extract (about a third) from her preface to Cooperatives and Socialism with permission from a prospective publisher. I hope that sharing this extract with readers of my blog will make you want to read the whole book. If it does become available in English I'll post the details here. If you read Spanish you can download the 420 page book as a PDF here or here.

At the end of the text you'll find the footnotes, translated from the Spanish, followed by the table of contents.

Cooperatives and Socialism: A Cuban Perspective 

Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, Editor 

* * *

Preface (extract)

By Camila Piñeiro Harnecker

Translation: Marce Cameron

This book arises from the urgent need for us to make a modest contribution to the healthy “birth” of the new Cuban cooperativism and its subsequent spread. Given that cooperatives are foreshadowed as one of the organisational forms of labour in the non-state sector in the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Sixth Cuban Communist Party Congress, the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Centre approached me to compile this book. The Centre has made an outstanding contribution to popular education aimed at nurturing and strengthening the emancipatory ethical values, critical thinking, political skills and organisational abilities indispensable for the conscious and effective participation of social subjects. The Centre considers it timely and necessary to support efforts to raise awareness about a type of self-managed economic entity whose principles, basic characteristics and potentialities are unknown in Cuba. There is every indication that such self-managed entities could play a significant role in our new economic model.

For this to happen we must grapple with the question at the heart of this compilation: Is the production cooperative an appropriate form of the organisation of labour for a society committed to building socialism? There is no doubt that this question cannot be answered in a simplistic or absolute fashion. Our aim here is to take only a first step towards answering this question from a Cuban perspective in these times of change and rethinking, guided by the anxieties and hopes that many Cubans have about our future.

When it is proposed that the production cooperative be one – though not the only – form of enterprise in Cuba, three concerns above all are frequently encountered: some consider it too “utopian” and therefore inefficient; others, on the basis of the cooperatives that have existed in Cuba, suspect that they will not have sufficient autonomy[1] or that they will be “too much like state enterprises”; while others still, accustomed to the control over enterprise activities exercised by a state that intervenes directly and excessively in enterprise management, reject cooperativism as too autonomous and therefore a “seed of capitalism”. This book tries to take account of all these concerns, though there is no doubt that more space would be required to address them adequately.

The first concern is addressed to some extent with the data provided in the first part of the book regarding the existence and economic activity of cooperatives worldwide today. This shows that the cooperative is not an unachievable fantasy that disregards the objective and subjective requirements of viable economic activity. Thus, the experiences of cooperatives in the Basque Country, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela that are summarised in the third part of the book demonstrate that cooperatives can be more efficient than capitalist enterprises, even on the basis of the hegemonic capitalist conception of efficiency that ignores externalities, i.e. the impact of any enterprise activity on third parties.

The efficiency of cooperatives is greater still if we take into consideration all of the positive outcomes inherent in their management model, which can be summarised as the full human development[2] of its members and, potentially, of local communities. The democratic abilities and attitudes that cooperative members develop through their participation in its management can be utilised in other social spaces and organisations. Moreover, genuine cooperatives free us from some of the worst of the negative externalities (dismissals, environmental contamination, loss of ethical values) generated by enterprises oriented towards profit maximisation rather than the satisfaction of the needs of their workers.

It’s not possible to take up here the arguments of enterprise administration theorists who hold that cooperatives are inefficient. These criticisms are based, in general, on the fact that democratic decision-making takes time, ignoring the fact that this participation is also the principal source of the advantages of cooperatives over other, non-democratic enterprises. In addition, they condemn cooperatives for not resorting to dismissals, as well as for a supposed tendency to undertake little investment due to the maximisation of member incomes and their aversion to risk. However, such behaviour is not revealed in the practices of the cooperatives analysed in this book, practices which also demonstrate the advantages of democratically managed enterprises in terms of the positive motivation of cooperative members. While the negative incentive of the fear of dismissal is undoubtedly effective in eliciting certain behaviours, not even this is sufficient. The tendency of capitalist enterprises to incorporate methods of democratic management suggests that they understand that participation in decision-making is needed in order to achieve the levels of worker motivation necessary for competitive success in the capitalist market.

We hope that those who, on the basis of the Cuban experience, doubt that it is possible for a cooperative to be truly autonomous and democratic will find this concern adequately addressed in the first part of the compilation. Here, when we explain what a cooperative is, we point to the basic differences between a cooperative and a socialist state enterprise. In a genuine cooperative, the participation of the cooperative members in management does not depend on the enterprise management council deciding to involve them more in decision-making; such participation is a founding principle, concretised in the rights of members established in the internal rules of functioning and exercised through bodies and decision-making procedures that are drawn up and approved by the cooperative members themselves. Although the degree of autonomy of the new Cuban cooperatives will depend, of course, on the content of the anticipated legislation on cooperatives and on the implementation of the regulations it establishes, the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines seem to indicate that they will be granted the powers of self-management that characterise cooperatives everywhere, and without which democratic self-management is impossible. We hope the legislation resolves the deficiencies of the current legal framework for Cuban agricultural cooperatives, which are analysed in the fourth part of this book.

The third concern, that which gives rise to the inclination to reject the cooperative as an option for socialist enterprise organisation because it is considered too autonomous and therefore incompatible with broader social interests, takes up the most space in this book. Beginning with the first essay in the compilation we attempt to demonstrate that genuine cooperatives function according to a logic that is diametrically opposed to that of capitalist enterprises. Instead of profit maximisation for the shareholders, the driving force of cooperatives is the satisfaction of the human development needs of their members, needs which are inevitably bound up with those of local communities and of the nation, and even of humanity as a whole. Throughout the book it is suggested that while it’s true that cooperatives cannot be incorporated into the national economic plan or regional or local development strategies though mechanisms of coercion or imposition, it is possible to harmonise and coordinate the orientation of their activities towards the fulfilment of social needs identified through the planning processes, above all if the latter are democratic and respond to the interests of the surrounding communities or those to which cooperative members belong.

However, to argue for the relevance of cooperatives as part of a socialist project we need to begin by clarifying what we mean when we refer to these socioeconomic entities. In the first part of this book, Jesus Cruz[3] and I try to define the cooperative as simply as possible. Here, it is important to stress that in the international context, cooperatives carry out a great diversity of economic activities, and that a not insignificant part of the global population either belongs to one of these organisations or directly benefits from their activities. This should not be surprising if we consider that the form of the organisation of labour that characterises a cooperative, self-management, has existed since the emergence of humanity. The cooperative has persisted as the most common organisational form chosen by groups of people that seek to resolve common problems through their own efforts.

What differentiates a production cooperative (referred to hereafter as “cooperative” since we emphasise this type[4]) from other forms of enterprise organisation is emphasised, based on an analysis of the cooperative principles[5] that have contributed to the success of these organisations since the emergence of the first modern cooperatives. These early modern cooperatives understood the imperative of achieving an effective enterprise management that would allow them to survive within the more savage and monopolistic capitalism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. To the degree to which cooperatives have observed these principles in their daily practice, they have benefited from the intrinsic advantages of this form of enterprise. These advantages ultimately derive from a democratic management model that permits the harmonisation of individual interests with those of the collective (i.e. of the common interests of cooperative members) and even, though in a less axiomatic way, with the social interests of the local communities with which they interact the most.

The observance of these principles is also what allows cooperatives to reduce the inevitable corrupting effects of the capitalist surroundings in which the majority of them have developed. The capitalist environment privileges individual over collective solutions; makes it difficult to achieve equality by generating and reproducing differences in abilities and social status among cooperative members; denies them the time needed for democratic decision-making; punishes genuine acts of solidarity; and promotes the super-exploitation of human beings and nature. While this undoubtedly limits the horizon of human emancipation – the overcoming of the barriers that stand in the way of us fulfilling our human potentialities – an emancipatory dynamic has always been latent in genuine cooperatives. The capitalist environment is not an absolute barrier to cooperatives becoming spaces in which these principles are put into practice, and in which the values that such practices instill may develop. The experiences of successful cooperatives presented in this book demonstrate the economic and ethical-political potential of these organisational principals, above all when cooperatives that embody these principles are able to link up with other self-managed entities, and when they promote the approval of laws and regulations that undermine the prejudices that exist regarding cooperatives in the legal framework and in the practices of capitalist enterprises and state institutions.

As Julio Gambina and Gabriela Roffinelli argue, the cooperative should be seen as one of the many forms of the self-managed social organisation[6] that will allow us to transcend the capitalist logic of maximising narrow individual interests. Because it takes no account of human nature and its social and ecological constraints, such economic “rationality” is in fact irrational and suicidal. For as long as it pervades our daily practice, the logic of capitalism will not only distance us ever more from the socialist or communist ideal of complete social justice; it is also taking us to the brink of an irreversible rupture in the dynamic equilibrium of the biosphere.

The rationality that drives a cooperative, as with all forms of genuine self-management, is the necessity for a group of people to satisfy common needs and interests. It is based on the recognition that they share collective interests that correspond to some degree with their own individual interests, and that it is collective action that allows them to pursue these interests most effectively. This, together with the recognition that all its members are human beings with the equal right to participate in decision-making, results in democratic management in which the cooperative members decide not only who the leaders are and how revenues should be allocated, but also how to organise the process of production: what is produced, how and for whom.

The managerial autonomy of the collective that makes up the cooperative – the ability of this group of people to make decisions independently – is the key reason why the historical experiences of socialist construction have rejected their relevance to the building of socialism and have relegated them to agriculture or marginal economic spaces. Some see in autonomy a disconnection from, or a wanting to have nothing to do with, social interests and the strategic objectives embodied in the socialist economic plan, and ask the following questions: Is it possible to “hitch” an autonomous enterprise to a planned economy? Can a cooperative respond not only to the interests of its members but also to wider social interests? When one thinks in terms of absolute autonomy and authoritarian (i.e. undemocratic) planning, if the interests of collectives (groups) are considered a priori to be indifferent to social interests, then the answer is obviously negative. The authors of this book are motivated by the certainty that the answer is affirmative. We argue the case here, though we are unable to respond to all of the questions about how this can be achieved in practice.

Here, we must point out that we make no claim to have solved this practical problem which dates back to the times in which socialist theories were first elaborated. It is perhaps more of a conceptual problem than a practical one, since there are examples of collective and even private enterprises that satisfy social needs more effectively, and that have established decentralised horizontal relations that are more socially responsible, than some socialist state enterprises. Our focus here is on the form of organisation of labour within a productive unit and not in the economic system as a whole. The analysis of how a socialist-oriented society should guide the management of enterprises, or of the form in which the fruits of cooperative labour should be distributed in society, are thus topics that we do not attempt to grapple with in this initial approach to the problem. However, we do put forward some ideas in relation to these themes throughout the book.

The “fruits” of cooperative labour that interest us most here are the human beings themselves that are “produced” as a consequence of the particular form in which the productive process is organised in the enterprise: the social subjects that work together as members of a cooperative and who are motivated to give the best of themselves to the success of their enterprise and, potentially, to local communities.

What differentiates a cooperative member from an employee of either a capitalist or socialist state enterprise? In light of the experiences of cooperatives analysed in this compilation, the member of a genuine producer cooperative, or other form of self-managed entity, is the true owner of their enterprise and thus feels like it. He or she, together with the collective they belong to, participate in a conscious and active way in strategic and managerial decision-making, as well as in their implementation and in verifying that decisions are carried out. What characterises a cooperative is not legal ownership of the means of production (premises, land, machinery) by the collective or group of people that comprise it, but the fact that decisions regarding the use of means of production are made by the cooperative as a whole, either directly or by representatives that they elect, in such a way and with such powers as decided by the collective. Albeit limited to the cooperative enterprise and its activity, this is a concrete form of self-management, of the exercise of popular sovereignty.

Given this, for Gambina and Roffinelli the relevance of various forms of worker self-management, in particular cooperatives, to the building of socialism depends on the degree to which they serve as an “an apprenticeship in administration outside the control of capital”. Thus the value of the cooperative lies in the nature of its daily practice, in the social relations of production that are established among its members: relations between associated producers rather than between wage-workers and capitalists. Cooperative members are not obliged to renounce, in exchange for wages or salaries, their capacity to think, be creative and make decisions. They exercise these capacities via democratic mechanisms in conditions of equal rights and duties. There are no bosses and subordinates in a cooperative but an organisational structure and a technical division of labour that have been collectively drawn up and approved.

Thus cooperatives can be valuable weapons in the struggle to build socialism. They are not the only such weapons, they are insufficient by themselves and are not devoid of risks and challenges, but they are nevertheless tools – perfectible and adaptable – for socialist construction. They are tools that we should not allow to be abandoned due to either state-centric dogma or the misconception that only what is privately owned and managed, and operates according to capitalist logic, works. As Gambina and Roffinelli argue, “... there is a dialectical relationship between socialism and cooperativism that is either promoted or discouraged in specific socio-historical conditions.” The extent to which cooperatives contribute to the building of socialism depends on the context in which they arise and develop, and on the relationship they establish with this context. 

[Extract of preface]

Footnotes  

[1] By “autonomy” we mean the ability to make decisions independently. As we shall see, no social organisation anywhere in the world is completely autonomous since its options are always conditioned in one way or another by its social context.

[2] The term full or integral “human development” is used to make clear our rejection of the progressivist and economistic mythology that reduces development to achieving an abundance of material goods, without taking into account that development also has intrinsic ethical and spiritual dimensions, in which people can achieve professional fulfilment and the realisation of their potentialities as social beings.

[3] A brief biography of each of the contributors to this compilation is included at the end of the book.

[4] Cooperatives can be classified as either production cooperatives, in which cooperative members unite in order to collectively produce goods or provide services; or consumer cooperatives, in which the members acquire goods or services collectively.

[5] Essentially, as is clarified in the first contribution to this compilation, a cooperative must be: (1) open to members joining and leaving and flexible with regard to its internal organisation; (2) run democratically; (3) based on the labour of its members; (4) managerially autonomous; (5) prioritise the education and training of its members and the general public; (6) establish mechanisms for cooperation with other cooperatives; and (7) committed to the community.

[6] Other forms of enterprise self-management are the various forms of co-management (in which the work collective participates in the management of the enterprise together with the legal owners of the means of production, or owns shares in the company); professional partnerships (professional associations in which members provide services on an individual basis, but pool a part of their incomes to acquire services and goods collectively; they are usually limited liability companies); associations, etc. There are also forms of self-management outside the economic enterprise sphere, such as self-management in regions, communities and local governments.

* * *

Cooperatives and Socialism: A Cuban Perspective

Compiled and edited by Camila Piñeiro Harnecker

Editorial Caminos, La Habana, 2011, 420 pp.

ISBN: 978-959-303-033-5

Table of contents

Preface, Camila Piñeiro Harnecker

Part 1: What is a cooperative?

1. An introduction to cooperatives, Jesús Cruz Reyes and Camila Piñeiro Harnecker

2. The construction of alternatives beyond capital, Julio C. Gambina y Gabriela Roffinelli

Part 2: Cooperatives and the socialist theoreticians

3. Cooperativism and self-management in the perspectives of Marx, Engels and Lenin, Humberto Miranda Lorenzo

4. Socialist cooperativism and human liberation: Lenin’s legacy, Iñaki Gil de San Vicente

5. Che Guevara: cooperatives and the political economy of the socialist transition, Helen Yaffe

6. The basis for self-managed socialism: the contribution of István Mészáros, Henrique T. Novaes 

Part 3: Cooperatives in other countries

7. Mondragón: the dilemmas of a mature cooperativism, Larraitz Altuna Gabilondo, Aitzol Loyola Idiakez and Eneritz Pagalday Tricio 

8. Forty years of self-managed community housing in Uruguay: the “FUCVAM model”, Benjamin Nahoum 

9. Solidarity economy in Brazil: the current state of cooperatives for the historical emancipation of the workers, Luiz Inácio Gaiger and Eliene Dos Anjos

10. Worker self-management in Argentina: problems and potentialities of self-managed labour in the aftermath of the crisis of neoliberalism, Andrés Ruggeri

11. From cooperatives to community-managed social property enterprises in the Venezuelan process, Dario Azzellini

Part 4: Cooperatives and building socialism in Cuba

12. Cuban agricultural cooperatives from 1959 to the present, Armando Nova González

13. The Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC): redesigning state property with cooperative management, Emilio Rodríguez Membrado and Alcides López Labrada

14. Key features of the legal framework for Cuban cooperatives, Avelino Fernández Peiso

15. Challenges for cooperativism as a development alternative in the face of the global crisis and its role in the Cuban economic model, Claudio Alberto Rivera Rodríguez, Odalys Labrador Machín and Juan Luis Alfonso Alemán

Translation: Guidelines debate 18, Agriculture

Here is Part 18 of my translation of the booklet Information on the results of the Debate on the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution, an explanatory document published together with the final version of the Guidelines adopted by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) Congress in April.

I've now translated some two thirds of this document, which is arguably one of the most important in the history of the Cuban Revolution because of the unprecedented popular debate that resulted in substantial modifications to many of the guidelines and the incorporation of new guidelines. What we see in these modifications is the depth, scope and direction of this consultative and consensus-building process.     

The entire project of renewing Cuba's socialist course depends on the transformation of agriculture, and the changes to the Cuban socialist-oriented economic model under Raul Castro's presidency have begun here. The importance of agriculture is reflected in the fact that the English translation of this chapter of the Guidelines explanatory document runs to almost three and a half thousand words.

The outstanding success of Cuban agriculture during the Special Period has been the concerted effort to develop and generalise a new agricultural paradigm, known as low-input sustainable agriculture, that combines traditional farming methods with scientific knowledge, high-tech green innovations and the social cohesion and solidarity embodied in Cuba's socialist revolution. A world leader in sustainable agriculture, Cuba is a laboratory for the large-scale application of sustainable practices, such as the proliferation of urban organic farms with state support, that those of us in developed capitalist societies can only dream about this side of the socialist revolution.

Despite these remarkable achievements, Cuban agriculture in general has fallen into a parlous state of neglect and mismanagement during the post-Soviet Special Period, symbolised by the spread of marabu, a tropical thorn scrub that has taken over vast areas of prime agricultural land. There has been an exodus from rural areas to the cities. Reforms undertaken in the early 1990s to transform huge state farms into cooperatively managed entities did not go far enough, leaving cooperatives under the tutelage of a centralised administrative apparatus that is both inefficient and inept.  

Bold reforms in this sector, such as the leasing of unproductive state farmland to anyone willing to farm it and the devolution of planning from the Ministry of Agriculture in Havana towards the municipalities, are aimed at freeing agriculture from bureaucratic tutelage, making farming an attractive option in the context of the economy-wide rationalisation of state-sector employment and using market mechanisms judiciously to stimulate production and productivity without privatising the farmland that belongs to Cuba's working people as a whole.

The challenge is to turn Cuba from a country that imports billions of dollars worth of food annually into a socialist-oriented society with a vibrant and dynamic agricultural sector, avoiding the concentration of land ownership side by side with rural poverty and ecological ruin that would result from allowing market forces too much of a free reign. Guideline 187 affirms that the goal is "a sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment". 

The reforms so far are starting to take effect but they have yet to bear fruit. 

The format is as follows: number and text of the draft guideline, followed by the text and number of the corresponding guideline approved by the Communist Party Congress, followed by the drafting commission's explanation for the change. You'll find it easiest to read on my blog where the amended guidelines are in bold font.

Ecological mural, Pinar del Rio, Cuba  

Agro-industrial policy

Guidelines

166. Achieve an agricultural sector that makes a positive contribution to the country’s balance of payments, so that the country is no longer a net food importer, and lessen the high dependence on financing that today comes from the incomes of other sectors. (Maintained as guideline 177)

167. Adopt a new management model in line with the greater reliance on non-state productive forms, which must be based on a more effective utilisation of monetary-trade relations, delimiting state and enterprise functions with the aim of promoting greater autonomy for producers, increasing efficiency and making possible a gradual decentralisation towards local government. (Maintained as guideline 178)

168. Modify the current legislation in correspondence with the transformations in the productive base in order to facilitate the efficient and competitive functioning of the sector, and decentralise the system of economic and financial management. Apply measures to ensure auditing and the reliability of information.

Modify the current legislation in correspondence with the transformations in the productive base in order to facilitate the efficient and competitive functioning of the sector, and decentralise the system of economic and financial management. Perfect the organisational structures for the application of measures to ensure auditing and the reliability of information. (179)

Includes the reference to perfecting the structures responsible for auditing and information. In response to 543 opinions nationwide.

169. Make the various forms of cooperatives independent of the mediation of state enterprises and gradually develop integral agricultural services cooperatives at the local level.

Achieve the managerial autonomy of the various forms of cooperatives and gradually develop agricultural services cooperatives at the local level. (180)

Changes the wording to affirm the objective of achieving managerial autonomy for cooperatives.

170. Adjust agricultural production in line with demand and the transformation of commercialisation, boosting quality and ensuring the fulfilment of contracts so that the parties meet their obligations. Limit the centralised distribution of product lines to those that affect the national balance of payments, allowing competitive mechanisms to play a more active role in the commercialisation of other products. (Maintained as guideline 181)

171. Restructure the current system for the sale of agricultural inputs and equipment in accordance with the new scenario in food production activity and the financial mechanisms to be established, making these resources directly available to the productive forms through the network of stores that will be set up in the municipalities. 

Restructure the current system for the sale of agricultural inputs and equipment, considering the new food production scenario and the financial mechanisms to be established, assuring an appropriate correspondence between quality and prices of the products on sale. Facilitate the direct access of productive entities to these resources through the network of stores that will be set up in the municipalities. (182)

Includes the need to ensure correspondence between the quality and prices of products on sale, as well as the possibility of the producers being able to purchase these inputs and equipment directly. Given 2,620 opinions nationwide and the Congress analysis.

172. Modify the system of distribution and commercialisation of agricultural products through more flexible mechanisms that contribute to reducing losses in the productive chain. Increase producer earnings by simplifying the links between primary production and the final consumer to improve the quality of the products on sale.

Transform the system of distribution and commercialisation of agricultural products through more flexible mechanisms that contribute to reducing losses by simplifying the links between primary production and the final consumer, including the possibility that the producer can access the market by their own means. Expand the scope of profitable activity to improve the quality of the products on sale. (183)

Includes the producer having the possibility of bringing products to the market on their own initiative and expanding the scope of profitable activity to improve product quality. Given 1,295 opinions in the 15 provinces and the Congress analysis.

173. Prioritise, in the short term, the substitution of imports of food that can be produced efficiently in Cuba. The necessary resources must be concentrated where they can be used most effectively with the aim of boosting yields and productive efficiency while promoting the application of scientific and technical advances. (Maintained as guideline 184)

174. Organise agricultural production around activities that earn export incomes or that substitute imports, with a systematic approach to the productive chain that considers not only primary production but all the links in the agro-industrial complex. These productive chains should be developed using the sector’s internal resources, on the basis of net incomes via exports or of savings via import substitution. In the organisation of other productive activities a regional and local approach must predominate, directed towards local self-sufficiency with an emphasis on the execution of the program to develop agricultural “green belts” on the urban fringes. This program should be extended to the whole country. (Maintained as guideline 185)

175. Adequately link the agricultural production poles to the food processing industry, with the aim of guaranteeing the supply of food to the larger cities as well as for exports and the internal convertible currency market. (Maintained as guideline 186)

176. Continue reducing the amount of unproductive agricultural land and increase yields through crop diversification, crop rotation and polyculture. Develop a sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment that promotes the efficient use of plant and animal genetic resources including seeds and varieties, gene technologies and the use of organic fertilisers, bioferilisers and biopesticides.

Continue reducing the amount of unproductive agricultural land and increase yields through crop diversification, crop rotation and polyculture. Develop a sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment that promotes the efficient use of plant and animal genetic resources including seeds and varieties, gene technologies and phytosanitary measures, and that promotes the production and use of organic fertilisers, bioferilisers and biopesticides. (187)

Adds phytosanitary measures as one of the appropriate ways to make use of plant genetic resources, and boosting the production of organic fertilisers, bioferilisers and biopesticides. In response to 61 opinions in 13 provinces and the Isle of Youth, and the Congress analysis.

New guideline:

Develop an integral policy that contributes to favouring the production, conservation and commercialisation of seeds and their beneficial use. (188)

Added on the basis of the Congress analysis.

177. Ensure that the granting of land in usufruct [i.e. the leasing of state-owned farmland rent-free to producers on a medium or long term basis — translator’s note] favours productive results that are similar to those of the cooperative and peasant sector today, where the producers are not salaried employees and their incomes depend on their earnings. Prices for most products will be set by supply and demand and as a rule there will be no subsidies.

Ensure that the granting of land in usufruct favours productive results similar to those of the cooperative and peasant sector today, where the producers are not salaried employees and their incomes depend on their earnings. Prices for most products will be set by supply and demand and as a rule there will be no subsidies. Implement the modifications to Decree Law No. 259 [regarding the granting of land in usufruct] to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the use of lands granted in usufruct. (189)

Includes the modification of Decree Law No. 259 to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the use of lands granted in usufruct, and deletes that referring to the setting of prices, which is taken up in the current guideline 190. Given 1,188 opinions in the 15 provinces.

New guideline:

Maintain the regulatory role of the state in the setting of farm gate prices of agricultural products that substitute imports, or that generate export revenues, to create an incentive for primary producers. Price fluctuations on the international market will be taken into account. (190)

Includes in the Guidelines the need to maintain the regulatory role of the state so that prices are an incentive for primary producers, as well as taking into account price fluctuations of these products on the international market. In response to 525 opinions nationwide and the Congress analysis.

178. Give special attention to activities that add value to agricultural products, improve their quality and presentation, reduce the need for transportation and lower costs for distribution and storage. Link up small processing entities with large-scale industry with the aim of increasing the availability of food products in the national market, including via import substitution and the generation of export revenues. (Maintained as guideline 191)

New guideline:

Continue developing the breeding program for cattle, buffalo, pigs, fowl and small livestock [e.g. sheep, goats, rabbits]. Promote the genetic improvement of herds in order to boost production of animal protein and diversify the production of animal feed. Ensure the availability of veterinary services, boost national production of veterinary medicines and increase the use of artificial insemination. (192)

Includes the breeding program in the Guidelines, considering the genetic improvement of herds, veterinary services and the production of medicines, as well as increasing the use of artificial insemination in order to boost the production of animal protein and substitute imports. Given 928 opinions nationwide and the Congress analysis.

New guideline:

 
Ensure fulfilment of the programs for the production of rice, beans, corn, soy and other grains and pulses to guarantee increased production, in order to contribute to a gradual reduction in imports of these products. (193)

Considers the proposal to add that referring to the rice program and to include the production of beans, corn, soy and other grains and pulses that underpin the policy of import substitution. In response to 104 opinions in 7 provinces.

New guideline:

Boost the development of coffee growing, cacao, apicultural and other activities that contribute to the gradual recovery of traditional sources of agricultural export revenues. In tobacco production, take maximum advantage of the international market. (194)

Incorporates various product lines that are traditional agricultural exports and others that also contribute to import substitution, such as coffee and cacao. Given 731 opinions in 13 provinces.

179. Recover the national production of citrus fruit and ensure the efficient commercialisation of citrus products in international markets.

Revitalise the citrus sector, boosting the production of other fruits and ensuring the efficient commercialisation of citrus products in the national and international markets. (195)

Adds the national market as one of the destinations for the commercialisation of citrus products and those of other fruits. In response to 599 opinions throughout the country.

180. Develop an integral program for the development of forestry plantations that prioritises the protection of watersheds, in particular the catchments of reservoirs, tree cover along watercourses, mountains and coasts.

Develop an integral program for the maintenance, conservation and development of forestry plantations that prioritises the protection of watersheds, in particular the catchments of reservoirs, tree cover along watercourses, mountains and coasts. (196)

Includes maintenance and conservation activities, based on a proposal made during the Congress.

181. Give special attention to the redeployment of the agricultural workforce, adopting measures to encourage permanency and the incorporation of new workers.

Develop an integral policy that contributes to the gradual re-population of the countryside, adopting measures to encourage the permanency and stability of the agricultural workforce and to assist families moving to rural areas. (197) 

Considers the development of an integral policy for the re-population of rural Cuba, with measures to encourage participation in the agricultural workforce and the stability of this sector. Given 2,364 opinions across the country.

Prioritise the adoption of measures to encourage the incorporation of youth into the agricultural sector and their permanency, in particular through the granting of state farmland in usufruct as a means of employment. (198)

Adds the priority of measures aimed at encouraging the incorporation of youth into the sector and land grants in usufruct. In response to 135 opinions in 14 provinces and the Isle of Youth.

182. Organise the agricultural workforce into collectives, establishing a correct relationship of people to the land they work and to the final results of their efforts. This will ensure an increase in the productivity of agricultural workers, higher incomes and a better quality of life.

Organise the agricultural workforce into collectives to establish a correct relationship of people to the land they work and to the final results of their efforts, which will ensure an increase in the productivity of agricultural workers. (199)

Reformulated for better comprehension.

183. Develop an integral qualifications system in line with the structural changes, aimed at training and re-qualification in the areas of agronomy, veterinary science, industrial technology, economics, administration and management, incorporating aspects related to the management of cooperatives and the environment.

Develop an integral qualifications system in line with the structural changes, aimed at the training and re-qualification of managers and workers in the areas of agronomy, veterinary science, industrial technology, economics, administration and management, incorporating aspects related to the management of cooperatives and the environment. (200)

Specifies that the qualifications system will take into account both managers and workers. Given 53 opinions in 13 provinces. 

184. Concentrate investments among the most efficient producers, taking into account the characteristics of localities and links with industry. Prioritise irrigation, the repair of agricultural machinery and industrial equipment indispensable for the assimilation of increased production and the achievement of greater efficiency.

Concentrate investments among the most efficient producers, taking into account the characteristics of localities and links with industry. Prioritise irrigation; the repair of agricultural machinery; mechanised transportation; and new technologies and industrial equipment indispensable for the assimilation of increased production and the achievement of greater efficiency. (201) 

Includes mechanised transportation [animal transport has been common during Cuba’s post-Soviet “Special Period” – translator’s note] and new technologies among the priority investments. In response to the Congress debate.

185. Reorganise irrigation activities and agricultural machinery services to achieve a rational use of water, hydraulic infrastructure and the available agricultural equipment, combining the use of animal traction with advanced technologies. 

Reorganise irrigation and drainage activities and agricultural machinery services to achieve a rational use of water, hydraulic infrastructure and the available agricultural equipment, combining the use of animal traction with advanced technologies. (202)

Adds drainage to the activities to be reorganised to achieve a rational use of water, based on the Congress debate.

186. Guarantee specialised banking services for the agro-industrial sector to support producers, facilitating the granting of loans and the auditing of their execution.

Guarantee specialised banking services for the agro-industrial sector to support producers, facilitating the granting of loans and the auditing of their execution. Strengthen and broaden the scope of agricultural insurance, making it easier to acquire and process. (203)

Adds the need to strengthen and broaden the scope of agricultural insurance. Given 332 opinions across the country.

187. Better integrate scientific and technological development, ensuring its efficient integration with the productive base and improving scientific and technical services for producers. (Incorporated into guideline 136)

Incorporated because it deals with the same content.

188. Update and carry out programs aimed at the preservation and rehabilitation of natural resources that are utilised: soils, water, forests, animals and plants, training producers in environmental management and applying, with maximum rigour, the established regulations and penalties for their violation. (Maintained as guideline 204)

189. Develop the program of municipal food self-sufficiency based on urban agriculture and urban fringe “green belts”. (Maintained as guideline 205)

190. Carry out the urban fringe “green belts” program by making efficient use of the farmlands that surround cities and towns, based on minimal use of fossil fuels and imported inputs, local resources and the widespread use of animal traction. (Maintained as guideline 206)

191. Carry out the gradual transformation of the food agro-industry, including its local development, with the aim of achieving a greater utilisation of raw materials and the diversification of production. (Maintained as guideline 207)

192. Apply systems of food quality management in correspondence with the established norms and the demands of buyers.

Apply systems of food quality management in correspondence with the established norms and the demands of buyers to ensure, among other objectives, food that is safe for consumption. (208)

193. The sugar agro-industry will have as its primary objective a sustained increase in cane production, in which the relationship between sugar mills and cane producers must be perfected as the industry develops. At the same time production must be diversified taking into account international market conditions, achieving a correct utilisation of the mills and sugar derivatives plants. 

The sugar agro-industry will have as its primary objective a sustained increase in cane production, prioritising the reorganisation of the cane-growing areas so that they are closer to the sugar mills. As the industry develops, the relationship between sugar mills and cane producers must be perfected in order to make use of the cane growing tradition and its experience. (209) 

Adds the priority given to reorganising the cane growing areas, given its importance to cane production. That referring to diversification is incorporated into the current guideline 212. In response to 895 opinions in 14 provinces.

New guideline:

The fluctuations of prices on international markets must be taken into account in setting the purchase price of sugar from cane growers, which must also create an incentive for cane production in relation to other crops in order to ensure increased cane production and higher incomes for workers in this sector. (210)

Isolates the content of the original guideline 194 referring to the setting of purchase prices for sugar cane, and adds the need for such prices to incentivise cane growing in relation to other crops. In response to 69 opinions in 13 provinces.

194. Gradually increase the production of sugar cane and its derivatives to the point where convertible currency incomes allow for the financing of all the sector’s operational costs, plus the value of the investments carried out, so that it earns a net income for the country. In the setting of purchase prices for cane and sugar the fluctuations of international market prices must be taken into account.

Gradually increase the production of sugar cane and its derivatives, ensuring the proper organisation and planning of the sugar harvest, the repair of industrial equipment and the efficient use of technology to achieve convertible currency incomes that would allow for the financing of all the sector’s operational costs, plus the value of the investments carried out and the cost of repairs, so that it earns a net income for the country. (211) 

Adds the proper organisation and planning of the harvest and industrial repairs to for increased sugar production. That related to the price of cane is deleted from this guideline and transferred to the new guideline 210. In response to 71 opinions in 14 provinces and the Congress analysis. 

195. Progress in the construction and recuperation of sugar industry derivatives and by-products plants, prioritising those that produce alcohol, animal feed, bioproducts and others.

Diversify sugar industry production, taking into account demand on the international and internal markets. Progress in the construction, recuperation and correct exploitation of derivatives and by-products plants, prioritising those that produce alcohol, animal feed, bioproducts and others. (212)

Adds part of the original guideline 193 to integrate that related to the diversification of sugar industry production into a single guideline. In response to 57 opinions in 11 provinces.

196. Achieve a rational use of off-shore fishing resources and increase levels of production and efficiency in this sector, principally in aquaculture, increasing the use of technologies, the appropriate use of genetics and of fish-raising practices. Achieve net foreign trade incomes to finance the importation of inputs and equipment that cannot be produced in Cuba.

Increase levels of production and efficiency in the off-shore fishing industry, complying with fishing regulations, to achieve a rational exploitation of these resources and the protection of the coastal and marine environment. Aquaculture will be developed with a greater use of technology and continual genetic improvement; this sector must achieve foreign trade incomes to finance the importation of inputs and equipment that cannot be produced in Cuba. (213)

Modified to separate aquaculture activity from off-shore fishing and to add compliance with fishing regulations to achieve a rational exploitation of these resources. In response to 309 opinions in 15 provinces and that of one National Assembly of Peoples Power deputy. 

New guideline:

The fishing industry must increase the supply of quality fishing products to the tourism industry and to the rest of the internal convertible currency market on the basis of national production. (214)

Includes the need to increase the supply of quality Cuban fishing products to tourism and the internal convertible currency market. In response to 309 opinions in 15 provinces.

Translation: The thorn and the countryside

The thorn and the countryside

By Luis Sexto

Juventud Rebelde, March 31, 2011

Translation: Marce Cameron

The post brought this correspondent the following thorn: "Why don't you and the other journalists, together with the other office workers, go and work in the countryside?" I could respond rudely. But we might understand the reader perhaps thinking that the agricultural insufficiency of the country could be resolved by turning everybody into agriculturalists.

My irate correspondent does not realise that for some years we left behind, for weeks and months at a time, our offices and our writing, even factories, and the problem continued unresolved. With regard to journalism, society also needs the press and culture, and the offices, in order to function and develop harmoniously. Of course, if the unproductive abounds rather than the productive then a harmful imbalance is established. Admitting this, this commentator would reformulate the injunction he received in the following way: Why do certain inhabitants of the countryside not work in agriculture? A survey at the beginning of the 1990s revealed that in agricultural municipalities only one percent worked in agriculture.

From these questions and this data we may begin to think more probingly about the causes of the low level of utilisation of our farmlands. It seems to me that the phobia towards the countryside has been a constant in Cuban history. We can't attribute this evil to the Revolution, which must pay for the sins of so many other people's mistaken ideas and above all for the propaganda of the enemies of socialism. Certainly, we revolutionaries are partly responsible for having emphasised the concentration and centralisation of the land. But for centuries a curse was cast over the countryside. The landowners — both in the colony and the neocolony — never worked the latifundia that they allegedly owned legitimately: they exploited and abused the slaves and the peasants.

Usually, the land was not even seen as an attractive landscape. For a long time we preferred days at the beach to days in the countryside for our holidays. We looked more to the horizon of the sea than to the blue mist of the plains or the mountains. Add in as well the fact that work was the most pressing demand of the rural population according to a survey of the Catholic University Association in 1957. And so the lack of employment opportunities obliged a migration to the cities. The motives were various. Many headed for the capital to avoid the destiny of agricultural labour, or to seek a better life. Then there were also other reasons: what doctors were there, what schools were there in a remote little village or in a poor hamlet ... so for all these reasons, it seems to me, the countryside has dragged a hereditary solavaya [Cuban slang: "Good riddance!"].

Traditionally, we've aspired to become university graduates. One of the writers who best studied our national character, Jorge Manach, wrote in 1930 that among Cubans, regardless of a family's economic circumstances, the "desire to be a professional" predominates; parents, even the poorest, want their children to be "doctors". In my own family, my mother entertained us as children with this dream. In the end, rural life offered very little.

Part of the solution to this conflict is rooted, then, in us accepting that Cuba is essentially an agricultural country, and that the farmer has to be treated as the most important worker in the country, because the food security of the population depends on the farmers, as does the elimination of imports which drain the treasury and add to our shame. "Caramba, look how we import fruits, vegetables, grains", one of these peasants could say; but there are not so many, evidently, that make the land produce, loving it as the root of creation.

So we'll have to begin to consider the agricultural worker — be they a peasant farmer, a cooperative member, a wage earner or the beneficiary of Decree Law 259 [promoting the leasing of idle agricultural lands belonging to the state rent-free on a long-term basis] — as the basic worker in the Cuban economy. And for this, we'll have to link his life to what he cultivates, promoting his well-being and his growing autonomy, that is, the capacity to decide what to do and how to do it, though guided by the national interests. What's more, he'll have to be paid on time, and justly, for what he produces, which must be distributed effectively. Respect generates respect.

Do we perhaps disregard the fact that agriculture cannot be a terrain of bureaucracy but a climate of confidence, safe from paperwork that holds back the necessity and the desire to work? If we ignore this, the countryside may continue to suffer from the "Oh, for the streetscapes of Havana" syndrome.

Translation: Assault on the highway

In this provocatively titled commentary, Ricardo Ronquillo Bello notes that within a few years, if all goes according to plan, "almost half of Cuba's GDP will come from non-state forms of management". It should be noted that this refers to management, and not necessarily ownership, of productive property.

For example, a hairdressing salon may be cooperatively or privately managed, but the premises will still belong to the state, i.e. to the municipal People's Power administration. Another example: Cuba's socialist state is leasing, rent free on a long-term basis, idle farmland, an arrangement known as usufruct. The Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines explicitly state: "3. In the new forms of non-state management, the concentration of ownership [of productive property] in legal or natural entities shall not be permitted."

While ruling out privatisation, the Cuban Communist Party leadership is proposing to expand the cooperative and small-scale private sectors. Cooperatives, small private businesses and the self-employed will be able to lease state property (land or premises) and will pay taxes. Their expanded contribution to production and services will have to be incorporated into social planning, which will continue to be "the principal means to direct the national economy", according to paragraph 1 of the Guidelines.

Assault on the highway

By Ricardo Ronquillo Bello

Juventud Rebelde, February 5, 2011

Translation: Marce Cameron

There are "assaults" that are welcome. To say this would seem folly according to the traditional conception, but as one traverses the National Freeway and the Central Highway these days, the laudable idiomatic derivations of these words "assault" in an untimely manner: incursion, attack, penetration...

She who undertakes a journey by these roads feels that the updated economic "architecture" that Cuba bets on is sketched in that sequence of small and very Creole farms, and in those people of all genders and colours that rush to the commercial conquest of the travellers [a reference to the petty traders that line Cuban highways].             

There's no doubt that along the edges of the highways and roads and the railways lines one discovers the most intimate depths of any nation. The opacity or splendour of the countryside and of the people that parade past the eyes of the traveller are like a perfect snapshot of its state of health.

Not by chance, the updating impetus of the Revolution had among its first wake-up calls the critical description of the abundance of the marabu bush [a thorny scrub that infests vast areas of Cuba's agricultural lands] along the edges of our highways by General Raul Castro [in a speech in July 2007].

We can then appreciate how national energies previously hidden or surreptitious [a reference to the black market] begin to reveal themselves without shame or atavism [i.e. reversion to defeated capitalism]. Also, how the diverse material forces which the economic reactivation must be based on begin to harmoniously reunite with their moral forces, as called for by Jose Ingenieros, one of the first and greatest Latin American Marxists.

The platform proposed in the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution, that will enrich the public debates now taking place, opens the ideological space needed to reconcile the interests of the nation with the most diverse forms of channelling these interests, whether via the initiative of [socialist] state, cooperative, family or individual property.

One of Cuba's big challenges is to update an economy with a liberating, social and solidaristic vocation without betting on the hegemonic preponderance of state property. To this end, the Guidelines would have us leave behind the schemas, dogmas or distortions that would obstruct the path of the period of transition towards socialism.

The projection that within a few years almost half of Cuba's GDP will come from non-state forms of management [of state, cooperative or private property] is one of the most audacious structural propositions of the current updating process, and one which will demand profound changes in our economic and ideological conceptions.

One of the unavoidable theoretical and practical implications will be a radical change in the conception of planning, a principle that rescues and assumes an essential role in the socialist updating, so that all economic [i.e. property] forms can converge in the plan without traumas or ruptures.

Including those [petty traders] that are beginning to improve the verges of the National Freeway and the Central Highway, and who indicate to us the challenging though promising roads that the country will have to travel.       

Translation: The question of the century

The most significant economic reforms to date are taking place in agriculture, the Achilles heel of Cuba's post-capitalist economy. A key initiative of the government led by Raul Castro is the leasing of idle state farmland to individuals, peasant cooperatives and state farms in an effort to boost production, reduce costly food imports (US$1.6 billion in 2011) and lower prices. More than 100,000 people have benefited from these land grants. 

Damage to crops from the ferocious 2008 hurricanes, the global economic crisis, administrative red tape and delays in the commercialisation of farm supplies and equipment — together with losses in the distribution chain from farm to market — saw an overall decline in agricultural output in 2010, but this year may see a turnaround as new farms become established and teething problems are ironed out. 

The "return to the countryside" has spawned a new social movement in which peasants are sharing their knowledge with those who have opted to try their hand at farming. The rural revival is being complemented by the establishment or expansion of "green belts" around provincial cities and towns, with an emphasis on ecological sustainability and energy efficiency. Cuba's communist youth organisation, the UJC, is encouraging young Cubans to join in this effort. Thousands have responded with enthusiasm. 

Not everyone agrees that expanding the scope of peasant agriculture and cooperatives — which may hire wage labour to assist with planting, harvests and the like — can make a positive contribution to Cuba's socialist development in the new economic "model" that is emerging. Here Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, a regular columnist for Juventud Rebelde, takes up the debate in favour of cooperatives. He notes that Vladimir Lenin was an enthusiastic supporter of cooperatives if, as in revolutionary Cuba, state power is in the hands of the working people. Those who are interested may like to read what Lenin had to say here.

The question of the century

By Ricardo Ronquillo Bello

Juventud Rebelde, November 20, 2010


Translation: Marce Cameron

The question leaps out like the rabbits of the magic hats. It is asked by both the international conservative media and our friends on the left alike. It is also established in more than a few internal cliques [an apparent reference to isolated leftist critics of the Communist Party leadership]. It inflames any detail, however insignificant it may appear. Every movement of the island's socioeconomic sleeves causes the nervous creatures to jump: where is Cuba headed? Does it update towards a more complete, rational and full socialism, or does it intend to move towards capitalism?

            

In recent weeks I had a sensitive and enriching exchange with a scholarly jurist of our economy, with the intention of writing a column in this space under the heading "To return to the countryside". His concerns express the clarifying weight that the confrontation of ideas must have — no matter how profound the sensitivities or differences may be, as Raul [Castro] has stressed — in the democratic and socialist conception of the future of our country, for which he invites us to debate the Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the 6th [Communist] Party Congress.

The professor was concerned about the content of my suggested theme "to return to the countryside", and the importance I gave to Decree Law 259 [granting idle state farmland rent-free on a long term basis to individuals, peasant cooperatives and state farms]. It is no small thing, in his opinion, that it tends to promote smallholdings, individual work.

The way he sees it, agriculture, like the rest of human activity, does not prosper nor consolidate the economy of a country, let alone socialism, through individual work. "This is only a circumstantial and transitory palliative and may generate values, vices and other ills of a society in transition towards capitalism, never towards socialism, however much one persists in apologetics ... it should be stressed that the new national rural "businessmen", and who knows if soon we'll add urban citizens with the opening to self-employment, are now permitted to hire labour, in a limited way, which amounts to the exploitation of man by man.

To this analyst — and surely no few of us share this view  —  socialism is built with free and responsible socialised labour and cooperatives can make a decisive contribution, though this is not the kind of cooperative we have in Cuba today. If this idea were not met with prejudice, or the suspicion that a traditional peasant sector shouldn't exist in the country, including opposition to its promotion in the decisions aimed at revitalising the economy, there would be no need to challenge his views.

His assessment ignores the fact that the Revolution is now correcting some of its idealistic and voluntaristic errors, which were recognised transparently by Fidel in his dialogue with [Spanish-French journalist] Ignacio Ramonet [in Ramonet's book Cien horas con Fidel, published as My Life - Fidel Castro in English].

Apprehension should not be stoked against this [peasant] sector in a country where the individual campesinos use 68% of their lands efficiently, while state farms use 29%, the Basic Units of Cooperative Production [i.e. peasant cooperatives] 48% and the agricultural production cooperatives [another form of peasant collaboration] 58%. Especially in the circumstances of an economy that must exist in conditions of few resources.

With the barbudos [bearded ones, a term of endearment for the historic leadership of the Revolution] — a significant number of which were campesinos —, their struggle and their victory, the yearning for the land in the Cuban archipelago achieved its just revolutionary dimension, which is in no way in contraposition to broader and more comprehensive forms of social property such as cooperatives in the countryside and other [i.e. urban] sectors, including the proposals in the [draft] economic Guidelines for the 6th Party Congress.

In these guidelines is the proposal to adapt the current legislation in correspondence to the transformations in the productive base, as well as weaning the various forms of cooperatives off the tutelage of state enterprises, and introducing in a gradual way integral service cooperatives in agro-industrial activity at a local level.

The guidelines reaffirm the Leninist, socialist trajectory of the updating [of Cuba's economic model], which includes the encouragement of cooperatives beyond the agricultural sector, and demonstrates a willingness to free them up from the absurd tutelage and the ropes that bind them. Lenin, it has been underlined often in recent times, pointed out that the regime of cultured cooperativists is socialism.

The same thinker leads us to recall that Fidel, in his hundred hours of dialogue with Ramonet, argued that in socialism [i.e. the socialist-oriented society] multiple economic [i.e. property] forms can and must coexist, along with different ways of redistributing personal incomes to guarantee the ethical, moral, ideological and socioeconomic development of the socialist society.

So to return to the countryside, to establish cooperatives, to socialise — none of these should make the rabbit jump out of the hat.