Cuba's socialist revolution

For the Cuban revolutionaries who seized power in Cuba 1959, Spanish colonialism and US imperialism were the principal explanations for the island’s structural weaknesses, locking Cuba into underdeveloped, mono-crop dependency. The Revolution of 1959 faced two real alternatives: operating within the limits imposed by Cuba’s subordination to the United States, at most expelling Batista and bolstering Cuban national capital, or pursuing the deep structural changes necessary to address the island’s socioeconomic ills, break the dependant relationship, build real sovereignty, and confront US imperialist interests and the allied Cuban bourgeoisie. The Cubans opted for the latter, initially under the banner of Fidel Castro’s Moncada Programme and subsequently adopting socialism as the only viable alternative. The revolutionary state expropriated the private sector and adopted a centrally planned economy and state ownership because doing so offered the best answer to Cuba’s historical development challenges. The commitment to operate within a socialist paradigm implied additional restraints and complications, particularly in the context of the Cold War and Cuba’s dependence on, and geographical proximity to, the world’s leading capitalist power.

The structural changes pursued between 1959 and 1961 transformed Cuba from semi-colonial underdevelopment to independence and integration into the socialist bloc. The challenge was then to increase productive capacity and labour productivity, in conditions of underdevelopment and transition to socialism, without relying on capitalist mechanisms that would undermine the formation of a new consciousness and of social relations integral to socialism. The ‘Great Debate’ between 1963 and 1965 addressed which economic management system was most appropriate to meet this challenge under Cuban conditions: the Soviet system or Che Guevara’s unique Budgetary Finance System.

Commitments to social justice and independence have been integral, not supplementary, components of the revolutionary project. The social objective of the economy is not growth for the sake of growth, but for the social implication of that growth. Indeed, the government avoids certain measures of improving efficiency or GDP that would harm the wellbeing of the majority of the population.

Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the island has defied expectations and flouted the rules. Cuba is a country of contradictions; a poor country with world-leading human development indicators; a small island that mobilises the world’s largest international humanitarian assistance; a weak and dependent economy which has survived economic crises and the extraterritorial imposition of the US blockade; anachronistic but innovative; formally ostracised, but with millions of defenders around the world. Despite meeting most of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015, Cuba’s socialist development strategy is not upheld as an example.

In addition to improving the health and quality of life of its own population, the Cuban government has consistently advocated for, and promoted, the right to development, including healthcare and education, for the global population. Between 1990 and 2015 alone, the monetary value of Cuban overseas development aid has been calculated at over (USD) $71.5 billion dollars, equivalent to $4.87 billion annually, or 6.6% of its GDP, by far the highest ratio in the world. In comparison, the European average was 0.39% of GDP and the United States just 0.17%.

Despite dramatic transformations in international political economy, Cuba has retained its socialist system for over six decades. This status quo has been characterised by innovation and rejuvenation, rather than dogmatism or stagnation. Discussions about contemporary Cuba must situate Cuban political economy in relation to the broader ‘challenge of development’, focusing not just on policy, but on the restraints and conditions that shaped each course of action and the motivations, agendas and goals behind them. An essential component of Cuba’s survival as a socialist state has been the level of engagement by the population in evaluating, critiquing and amending policy changes and proposed reforms, through representative channels, public forums, national consultations and referenda. The relationship between the ‘government’ and the ‘people’, through their organisations, is extremely permeable. Cuban socialism has survived with the backing of the population.

Revolutionary Cuba has demonstrated great resilience. However, its best form of resistance has been not just the assertion of national sovereignty, but the creation of an alternative model of development that places human welfare and environmental concerns at its core. We can only wonder what socialist Cuba could achieve if they were finally given the chance to prosper and not just survive.