By Nojan Emad
HAVANA, Cuba—Is socialism in Cuba about to collapse after 35 years? You may get that impression from the small bits of information that appear in the media from time to time. If you have read the cover story in the February 20th issue of Time magazine, you may think Cubans have given up on socialism and are trying to revert to capitalism. On a trip to Cuba last January, I found a reality that is much more complex.
I didn’t go to a tourist resort, I participated in an International Youth Brigade for two weeks in January with 70 young people from Canada, the U.S., Britain, Sweden, Mexico, Spain, Iceland and Germany. I was one of the nine participants from Canada.
The brigade was hosted by the Union of Young Communists, which organizes young workers and students throughout Cuba. All the “brigadistas,” as we were called, had media accreditation from our home countries and cities so we could report about Cuba as we saw it.
With the collapse of trade with the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the tightening of the 35-year U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, the Cuban people are grappling with a severe economic crisis. They call it the “special period.” Cubans are fighting just to produce the food they need to survive. We got a good look at how Cubans are dealing with the crisis by working for a week with a contingent of Cuban youth on a banana plantation in Ciego de Avila, one of the country’s 14 provinces. The 200 Cuban youth members of the Eduardo Delagado Garcia agricultural contingent at the farm were volunteers. They had left their studies and jobs for a year—or more—to help raise agricultural land production in Cuba.
The work we did was not easy, and conditions on the farm were difficult. Our diet was the same as the Cubans’, consisting mostly of rice and beans, with a bit of meat. At breakfast there was strong Cuban coffee. There was no hot water for showers and we experienced one electrical blackout while we were there. Cuba doesn’t have enough oil to run its generating stations to produce the electricity needed to keep its factories running full-time and to supply the daily domestic needs of its workers and farmers.
The best thing about being on the plantation was that we were able to spend hours talking to Cuban youth about their views on the revolution, socialism and the challenges of the “special period.” The discussion was open and frank and the Cuban youth were interested in learning about the conditions of life in countries with capitalist market economies.
Some impressions:
Do most people continue to support the revolution—and their government—despite the economic crisis? Two weeks is not a long time, but I walked to a lot of people and I think the answer to this question is yes. There is a real debate over the effects of the emergency measures being taken by the government: The focus on building the tourist industry and the legalization of American currency. People feel that these measures have generated economic inequalities among Cubans and have fostered the reappearance of social evils such as prostitution.
I spoke with members of the Committees to Defend the Revolution, neighbourhood organizations that help to mobilize people in political action in defense of the revolution. Membership is voluntary and includes some of Cuba’s most committed defenders of socialism.
On the other hand, I talked with Cubans who live off the black market that functions in U.S. dollars. One Cuban told me he thinks they need capitalism, but he said “We (the capitalists) are a minority in Cuba.”
The reappearance of prostitution (along with the tourist industry) has raised a lot of discussion on the role of women in Cuban society. The country’s women are integrated well into the work force, and in professional and administrative jobs. Sexist attitudes, however, remain.
Some people deny that prostitution exists in Cuba, others say it isn’t really prostitution, just dates with the tourists. We talked with members of the Federation of Cuban Women, who recognize the challenge in dealing with the prostitution as a result of the economic crisis and the impact of tourism on the country.
At a biotechnology research centre in Havana that is doing AIDS research, I asked if we could visit an AIDS hospice. The doctor explained that hospices were abolished in 1994. Before then, HIV positive persons were required to live in these hospices. Very sick AIDS patients are still quarantined on a voluntary basis now. The doctor wanted Canadians to learn about Cuba’s treatment of AIDS patients because “we care about our people and are also strongly fighting against homophobic attitudes.”
At a discussion on Cuba’s “special period,” a Union of Young Communists leader explained how the Clinton administration was increasing the economic pressure on Cuba by tightening its embargo because “in today’s world, Cuba is the only socialist country fighting against Yankee imperialism.” He was reiterating a theme expressed by Cuban President Fidel Castro, who told a solidarity conference of 3,000 people from 109 countries in Havana last November that Cuba would continue to fight for socialism. He said his was a government “of the workers, for the workers, by the workers,” not a government “of the capitalists, for the capitalists, by the capitalists.”
The UJC leader explained: “Our revolution is still functioning because Cubans are doing things for themselves.”
I got a real sense of this when I talked to a middle-aged cigar factory worker (on the last day of our visit) in Havana. Over the past year, millions of Cuban workers have participated in “worker’s parliaments” in the factories to discuss government economic measures, ways of raising production and problems such as theft of materials for sale on the black market.
When we asked the cigar worker what was being done about such theft, he assured us “we are doing things to deal with this.”
During the two weeks in Cuba, we had a chance to learn about other aspects of the Cuban revolution we usually don’t hear about here: such as Cuba’s electoral system, its advanced environmental policies and its role in helping to free Nelson Mandela and bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. In 1988, using volunteer soldiers, Cuba helped the Angolan people defeat an invasion by the racist South African army.
On the return of the brigade, U.S. customs agents in Chicago confiscated the passports of three brigade members interrogated them. All three had press credentials, making he trip legal within the American government ban on travel to Cuba.
Because the confiscation of the passports and the U.S. government’s threat to take further action against the brigade members is a serious threat to democratic rights under the American constitution, brigade organizers waged a protest campaign demanding that the seized passports be returned.
The protest received wide support from trade unionists, students, religious figures and politicians around the world. In March, the American government gave in and returned the passports.
Nojan Emad is a member of the Young Socialists.
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