RE: [OPE] Cuba After Fidel Castro

wpc@dcs.gla.ac.uk

I would dispute this. I dont think that the shift towards
capitalism in either Russia or China arose from demands by
the working people. It came from a sections of the elite.
In China Deng rapidly removed the political liberties
that existed in the late Mao period ( right to criticise
officials, to put up 'Big Character Posters' etc).

There is a real difference between Cuba and China 
in that in the latter there was a significant fraction of
the national capitalist class embeded within the communist
party, this does not appear to be the case in Cuba.

However, I remain to be convinced that there are not
elements within officialdom in Cuba that are influenced
by for example Modrow's arguments.

Paul Cockshott
Dept of Computing Science
University of Glasgow
+44 141 330 1629
www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/reports/

-----Original Message-----
From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu on behalf of GERALD LEVY
Sent: Mon 6/30/2008 5:43 PM
To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
Subject: RE: [OPE] Cuba After Fidel Castro

> It has nothing to do with the response of the masses, 

Hi Paul C;

Even in a society with one-party rule, different sections of
the leadership can be empowered - or not - by the masses.
The types of market socialist reforms under Deng were only
possible because of the grievances by the people concerning
the previous period (the same could be said about the market
socialist reforms introduced by Gorbachev in the USSR).

> but
> of sections within the leadership of a socialist country who
> end up favoring the widening use of market mechanisms.
> In a hierarchical state with a president or head of state
> the person in that position holds great influence. Even
> individuals of personal revolutionary heroism can end up
> favoring, and enforcing, the restoration of market relations
> as the experience of Deng, an old Long Marcher shows.
> So long as Cuba has in effect a centralized decision making
> body whose social composition is unrepresentative by 
> background and current situation  with that of the population 
> as a whole, a similar situation can occur.

One can't look at this question so abstractly. You have to look
at the different tendencies within the Cuban Communist Party
and their relative strength.  Put in that context, the factions which 
might favor market socialism (or capitalist restoration) are 
relatively weak and don't have mass support.  The Cuban Communist
Party is also organized internally in different ways than the Chinese 
Communist Party was and has different traditions for conflict
resolution. The kind of 'show trial' that we saw, for instance, against
the so-called "Gang of 4" could not happen in Cuba, imo. Furthermore,
there is more of a tradition in Cuba of allowing for and encouraging
public debate and the government does not have the same record as
the Chinese government did in terms of suppression of dissent.

In solidarity, Jerry

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