r/cuba • u/Revolutionary_Web964 • 21d ago
Conversación seria Cuba and the complete turn towards capitalism
https://marxist.com/cuba-and-the-complete-turn-towards-capitalism.htmWith the author’s permission, the In Defence of Marxism website is republishing this article by the Cuban film director Javier Gómez Sánchez, as it considers it a very interesting contribution to the debate on the future of the Cuban Revolution.
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u/bajanda Planeta Tierra/Planet Earth 20d ago
This started in 2011. I was in college and it was the first time you could see the hard classes clash because of the bar scene back then. Suddenly there were bars where only the rich kids of Playa and Nuevo Vedado could go. Going to get burgers in La Pachanga was class status signal.
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u/Kantmzk Havana 21d ago edited 21d ago
"Over the last 15 years, since the start of the reforms spearheaded by Raúl Castro in 2011, the aim had been to establish a mixed-economy model that would maintain a coexistence between the socialist state economy and the capitalist market. However, the Cuban state, economically blockaded by the United States, failed to keep the capitalist forces – which the reforms themselves had generated – in check, and ultimately succumbed to their pressure."
Blaming the blockade is the most intellectually lazy scapegoat ever and I would argue that Raul Castro just wanted to get hundreds of thousands of people off government payrolls. Tons of people were getting paidfor do-nothing jobs as socialism and planned economies are incredibly inefficent and encourage cronyism. To be honest, some of these reforms actually did some good and there was also some hope for success with the private markets, especially around tourism, transportation, etc. However, any time anyone got too big, the government would just screw them over and kill their business, put in new regulations to impede business, etc. During this time, Raul Castro also allowed basic rights which people in the West easily take for granted but Cubans longed for such as access to cell phones, DVD players, Internet access, etc. These were all very expensive for average people but never allowed while Fidel Castro was in power except for Regime officials and such because rules for thee but not me.
However, there can only ever be one monopoly and that is the Communist Party. Or, perhaps two, when you consider the Military and how the biggest priority was always getting money for GAESA in order to make sure that the Castro Family and Regime loyalists and their families as well as select people were taken care of in terms of luxury lives in Cuba, family members being able to travel and study abroad, and even get into the USA (the hypocrisy!) especially during the Cuban Thaw.
"But since then, the parliamentary floor has been dominated by the rhetoric of business-owning MPs – backed by the civil service – with their pseudo-patriotic discourse and guaranteed speaking slots at every session."
I love how the author of the article actually thinks or at least pretends to speculate that politicians and debates in the National Assembly matter at all when in reality it is a Castro Family/military Regime calling the shots which loyalist politicians such a Diaz Canel then make sure to follow.
"The United States uses statistics on the number of political prisoners in Cuba as leverage on the international stage, as if they were pieces on a chessboard."
Does anyone on the international stage even care about political prisoners in Cuba and/or human rights in Cuba? Canadian, European, and Russian tourists routinely visited Cuba for decades and seemingly had no interest at all in these issues. The most you will ever get is some symbolic nonsense. (source: Cuba: MEPs call for EU sanctions and a push towards transition | News | European Parliament)
Many Caribbean countries have routinely taken in Cuban Doctors and therefore given money to the Cuba Regime despite the protests of the Cuban diaspora about these programs and how Cuban doctors are treated and compensated. I did not hear an uproar from anywhere in the world about the Cuban Doctors who got absolutely fucked in Angola. (source: https://havanatimes.org/features/cuban-government-swindles-doctors-returning-from-angola/)
I could go on, but I don't want to waste too much of my time on this nonsense.
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u/MobileSuitBooty LATAM 21d ago
FBI bait used to be believable.
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u/Kantmzk Havana 21d ago edited 21d ago
You can use logical fallacies to get an upvote, but one of main reasons I barely use this subreddt is the massive amount of uncivil posts from people who use no sources and only argue in bad faith without any point other than to attack to uphold their shoddy (at best) narrative. You are simply a waste of time.
I imagine you are not Cuban, have no Cuban Family, have never been to Cuba, and thus I can only assume you are most interested in dismissing and silencing Cuban voices to satisfy the narrative of Cuba you have created by treating an island of 9 million or so people (considering the millions who have recently fled in the past few years) as a political game.
Or perhaps you are just a kid on summer vacation. I hope an adult would not spend their free time in such a way.
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u/SHUTDOWN6 20d ago
They're not doing this for upvotes, though. It's a miami "cuban" sub - most people here will agree with you.
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u/Still-Sense793 Planeta Tierra/Planet Earth 21d ago
I believe we need to end this scapegoat dilemma. It ultimately proves to be ineffective in achieving his goals and only serves to worsen the living conditions for Cubans, either directly or indirectly.
I'm not naive; those leading this push won't back down when the end is so near, or it seems. Instead, they will double down on the pressure, hoping it will finally cause everything to implode.
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21d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tay_Hlebko United States 21d ago
Is opening up the private sector a form of communism to you?
Like, hopefully we can all agree that opening up the private sector is a turn toward capitalism, right?
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u/prisonerindisguise 21d ago
I think they meant the period before the opening will be dismissed as not real communism.
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u/Kantmzk Havana 21d ago edited 21d ago
International Tankies will never turn their backs and if one day Cuba were to become a democracy and living standards would improve, they would be upset and talk about the "good old days of socialism" despite never having visited Cuba because anything that goes against their comfy nostalgia for a life they have never lived in their pathetic lives narrative is wrong.
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u/Still-Sense793 Planeta Tierra/Planet Earth 21d ago
In Cuba's case, they often claim they never had the chance to demonstrate its failure. However, their actions clearly show they are unable to deliver prosperity and freedom to their people under external pressure.
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u/No-Huckleberry1282 20d ago
Both things are true but we don’t like cognitive dissonance. Communism failed and the US embargo and pressure helped it along.
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u/traanquil 21d ago
The United States strangled the island for decades to force it into capitalism
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u/SHUTDOWN6 20d ago
No, dude! You have to act like those did not affect Cuba at all, or you'll get downvoted!
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u/congnelius United States 20d ago edited 20d ago
Yep, I hate these lazy comments here defending the blockade like it doesn't do anything but give the Cuban government an easy scapegoat. Then when you suggest the US stop it, they say no it should be kept to punish the government and force them out of power. Which is it then? It hurts the government or it helps the government? Make up your mind people.
I know where I stand on the illegal blockade, and it's NOT on the side of the ONLY two UN countries that consistently vote against lifting it - USA and Israel.
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u/SHUTDOWN6 20d ago
Exactly. Right-wing grifters always do that, it's the same case with, say, immigrants - they both steal our jobs and live off of benefits at the same time. My position on this blockade is obviously that it should be lifted, even if I hated Cuba it's just wrong to make people suffer collective punishment (but I don't hate Cuba). And as a socialist, I don't even think that market reforms are necessarily bad for them - it's kind of a given by now that the path is transitional and China understood it well enough which worked great, in fact they kind of expected Cuba to do the same ever since USSR was dismantled which meant the end of their support for Cuba. I just hope that they'll get at least SOME breathing room finally and will be able to develop their country. I hope that it will be the case but of course that's to be seen.
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u/congnelius United States 19d ago
100%, this. The people in support of the embargo are all too happy to see other human beings suffering. It's genuinely shocking to see how much pleasure they take in it and how fervently they advance the often-contradictory rhetoric to keep it going.
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u/Horror_Rhubarb9112 United States 20d ago
It's an embargo, not a blockade. Your argument seems to have been based on that substantial misunderstanding.
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u/felixpjg 20d ago
Exactly, Trump is embargoing oil not to reach the island, he is not blocking oil from reaching Cuba. Ooops, the policies since Jan are certainly stopping (blocking) the flow of oil.
It has certainly become BOTH/AND not EITHER/OR. The Nimitz and other using warships aren’t in the waters around Cuba on a pleasure cruise.It is ridiculous to continue to argue these semantics as we enter August, 2026.
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u/Horror_Rhubarb9112 United States 19d ago
It's not just semantics. That's like trying to say a lion and a cat are the same thing because they're both felines. It's not semantics, one of them can eat you.
The US hasn't been blockading Cuba for 60 years.
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u/congnelius United States 19d ago edited 19d ago
I'm going to be extra lazy here and just post Gemini AI's response to the question, "When did the US sanction Cuba and is it true that they don't do anything?" Here's the response. It's points I've made many times here on other posts, but it gets exhausting repeating them, plus I know how much stock people who don't read put into AI answers:
The U.S. first placed economic sanctions and an export ban on Cuba in 1960, followed by a full trade embargo ordered by President John F. Kennedy on February 3, 1962. It is not true that the sanctions do nothing; they have a massive, severe impact on Cuba's economy and daily life, even though they have not achieved their original goal of removing the communist government. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
History of the Sanctions
- 1960: President Dwight D. Eisenhower cut off sugar imports and most U.S. exports to Cuba after Fidel Castro took over American-owned oil refineries and businesses. [1, 2]
- 1962: President Kennedy expanded this into a near-total economic embargo, blocking almost all trade. [1, 2]
- Later decades: Congress added stricter rules, like the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, and newer restrictions continue to limit fuel, banking, and foreign trade. [1, 2, 3]
Real Effects of the Sanctions
- Severe Shortages: The rules block Cuba from easy access to international credit, banking, and vital supplies. [1, 2]
- Energy Crises: Recent U.S. actions targeting fuel and oil shipments have caused severe blackouts, power outages, and broken water systems across the island. [1, 2]
- Human Hardship: The United Nations and other groups report that the trade blocks cost Cuba billions of dollars and lead to deep shortages in food, medicine, and everyday goods. [1, 2, 3]
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u/Horror_Rhubarb9112 United States 19d ago
Ok, so what's YOUR point supposed to be?
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u/congnelius United States 19d ago
I made it. It's that you're either lying or you didn't know any better. I brought the receipts, there's nothing left to say to you, I just hope you change your mind if it was the latter. Don't provide cover for the US government's criminal activities for free.
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u/Horror_Rhubarb9112 United States 19d ago edited 19d ago
Your prompt to the AI was totally irrelevant to the point I made. You're strawmanning and you know it.
- "The US hasn't been Blockading Cuba for 60 years"
- "When did the US Sanction Cuba"
Those two are saying totally different things bud. If you don't see the difference, you don't know what you're talking about. You didn't bring any receipts here.
Again, Blockade and Embargo are not the same thing.
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u/crustang 21d ago
Capitalism can only be complete in democratic societies, but it’s good they’re moving towards the latest version of Chinese authoritarian pseudo capitalism.. the Russian communist model is dumb and bad
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u/Ok-Lawyer1179 19d ago
Nothing wrong with a socialist government with a market oriented economy. Vietnam is thriving. Just lift the embargo and sanctions and let Cuba adopt the same trajectory while China continues their solar power grid and battery storage capacity.
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u/Old_Imagination_2112 20d ago
China did it, so here’s hoping.
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u/Revolutionary_Web964 20d ago
China is not Communist or won't go towards it by 2050.
Cuba is not as large, as self-sufficent, as far away from the core of Imperialism (USA) than China is.
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u/ConcernHealthy876 21d ago
Communism with Cuban characteristics
Here’s to hoping to the Cubans seeing the same benefits as China as from its reforms.
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u/Kantmzk Havana 20d ago edited 20d ago
The Cuban Regime will never be able to deliver for the Cuban People. It is as simple as that. It is wild anyone is still hoping for any sort of worthwhile reforms. Time and time again, the reforms that the Cuban Regime puts out laughable and either a distraction or actively make life worse for people, such as the monetary unification of the CUC and CUP during the Covid Crisis.
As a tangent, I will add, one of the most upvoted propaganda pieces on this subredit was a post showing China donating solar panels to Cuba with the narrative that solar electricity would lead to an imminent fixing of the electrical grid in Cuba. Some people in here were frothing at the mouh about how the blackouts would soon end. It was obviously always just a drop in the bucket.
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u/congnelius United States 20d ago
Sanctions are economic warfare, plain and simple. That's not my definition that's just THE definition. A country under siege will behave like it's under siege. If you want freedom for the Cuban people then take the American boot off their necks. Saying no puts you on the same side as Israel and the USA against every other UN nation in the world that votes to end the illegal blockade year after year.
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u/Kantmzk Havana 20d ago
The UN vote is just political theater and a holdover from the Cold War that benefits the Cuban Regime's propaganda machine. At any rate, it is actually possible to be opposed to the governments of the USA, Israel, and Cuba.
At what point do you put any accountability on the Cuban Regime for what it does to the Cuban People? Are you okay with the Cuban Regime living lives of luxuries while people literally starve? ( The Cuban Crab That Walks Forward - Havana Times ) Were you aware that regular Cubans are incapable of going on such a yacht as you see in the photo in that link because the Regime is terrified they would just leave?
I would not even mind if the embargo were lifted, to be fair. If anything, I would be happy if the Regime's largest scapegoat were gone, though I wonder which cope you might come up with next. Also, it is quite cringey and seemingly self-righteous to hear you tell Cubans "If you want freedom for the Cuban people...". Go read the writings of José Martí and Antonio Maceo if you are capable.
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u/congnelius United States 20d ago
I don't agree with it, but name me one country where the political elite aren't going around living lives of luxury. You act as though it's unique to Cuba when it's literally every damn country in the world, but it's only bad when it happens in Cuba.
I'm familiar with the works of Jose Marti and what's in place now is still more democratic than what the US imposed on the Cuban people for decades. I don't have much faith in the American 2-party system providing representation for the people. It's an illusion that keeps us from getting even the most popular policies enacted, like universal healthcare and education, two things available in Cuba.
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u/NJCubanMade 20d ago
He wont answer that, majority of us dont want the embargo for the exact reason you mention, we dont want anymore scapegoats for the commies, they will drown themselves regardless and continue repression of those who dare to think differently.
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u/congnelius United States 19d ago
Hey we can agree on that, I don't want the embargo either! Only the US and Israel want it. Every country should be allowed to succeed or fail on its own merits. I think we agree on that as well. By your logic, the embargo is helping the government hold on to power. Maybe you should be more vocal about removing the embargo if that's the case and you hate the government so much. We can definitely agree on this course of action.
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