Cuban official nixes Russian and Chinese reforms

[RedFlag32]

Cuban official nixes Russian and Chinese reforms

By Marc Frank

HAVANA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage squashed
speculation that Communist Cuba is heading toward Chinese-style
reforms of its economy, in a speech to state managers published on
Thursday.

Cuba will not follow the paths of other Communist-run nations, such
as China and Vietnam where capitalist markets have flourished, and
said Perestroika reforms failed in the former Soviet Union.

"The countries that are working to build socialism today in different
parts of the world, are doing so in political and economic situations
very different from ours," said Lage, who heads Cuba's cabinet of
ministers.

"Their successes and failures should enrich our efforts, but the
building of socialism in Cuba is only possible as a result of our own
experience," Lage said in the speech printed by the Communist Party
newspaper Granma.

Since Cuban leader Fidel Castro took ill over a year ago many foreign
observers have speculated that his younger brother and stand-in as
acting president, Defense Minister Raul Castro, favored the Chinese
model of market socialism.

Raul Castro has fostered a unprecedented debate within the Communist
Party over how to improve economic performance, but has yet to launch
any major changes in one of the world's most centralized economies,
which is 90 percent state-owned.

Many Cuba experts attribute this to Fidel Castro's survival and his
continued presence in the country through essays and newspaper
columns, even though he has not appeared in public for 13 months.

"Raul Castro's style is different -- no long speeches, no
middle-of-the night meetings, open criticism of economic performance,
and demands for results. But he is respecting his interim role. As a
result his policy preferences won't be known until Fidel leaves the
scene," said Phil Peters, of the Lexington Institute in Virginia.

MILITARY DESIGNED SYSTEM FAVORED

Some Cuban economists believe that the state should hold on to large
enterprises and utilities, but some light industries, agriculture and
the retail sector should be in the hands of private cooperatives or
small-scale individual businesses.

Lage, who is 55 and viewed as a possible future president, said Cuba
would follow a business management system introduced by the armed
forces two decades ago to cope with the economic crisis that followed
the collapse of the Soviet Union without resorting to private
property and markets.

Lage said profits, wages and productivity had increased in the 800
companies that are applying management methods known as
"perfeccionamiento empresarial" or perfecting the state system of
3,000 enterprises.

"The companies applying perfeccionamiento, being 28 percent of all
companies with 20 percent of sales, account for 51 percent of all
profits, 72 percent of foreign exchange earnings and are 50 percent
more productive," Lage said, failing to mention many were joint
ventures with foreign companies.

Cuba's economy is now on a better footing than it was when the armed
forces -- under Raul Castro -- first introduced the modern management
methods to boost their revenues.

Revenues are relatively strong due to the export of medical and other
services, mainly to Venezuela, high nickel prices, soft Chinese
credits and preferentially financed Venezuelan oil.

Nevertheless, Cuba has run into problems investing the revenues
through its state-run companies and the economy suffers from chronic
disorganization, poor accounting, low quality, lax discipline and
graft.

[dangeresque]

great article

long live the revolution!

[RedFlag32]

REFLECTIONS BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF

THE SUPER-REVOLUTIONARIES

Every day I carefully read the opinions about Cuba in the
traditional press agency releases, including those from the peoples
which were part of the USSR, those from the People’s Republic of China
and others. News reaches me from the Latin America press, from Spain and
the rest of Europe.
The picture is increasingly uncertain as we face the fear of a
prolonged recession like that of the 1930s. On July 22, 1944, the United
States government received the privileges granted in Bretton Woods to
the most powerful military power, that of minting the dollar as the
international exchange currency. After the war, in 1945, with its
economy intact, that country had at its disposal almost 70 percent of
the world gold reserves. On August 15, 1971, Nixon unilaterally decided
to suspend the gold backing for each dollar minted. With this he
financed the slaughter in Vietnam in a war that cost more than 20 times
the real value of its remaining gold reserves. Since then, the United
States economy is sustained by natural resources and the savings of the
rest of the world.
The theory of continuous growth from investment and consumption,
applied by the most developed to the countries where the vast majority
is poor, surrounded by luxuries and the wastefulness of a tiny minority
of wealthy individuals, is not only humiliating but destructive, too.
That pillage, and its disastrous consequences, is the cause of peoples’
growing rebelliousness, even though very few are aware of the history
behind the events.
The most gifted and cultivated intellects are included on the list
of natural resources and they have their price tags on the world market
of goods and services.
What is happening with the super-revolutionaries of the so-called
far left? Some simply lack realism while others enjoy the pleasure of
dreaming sweet dreams. Others still are far from being dreamers and are
experts in the subject; they know what they are saying and why they are
saying it. It is a well conceived trap that should be avoided. They
recognize our breakthroughs as if it were a favor to us. Are they really
short of information? That is not how it is. I can assure you that they
are absolutely well informed. In certain cases, the alleged friendship
with Cuba allows them to attend numerous international meetings and chat
with as many people from abroad or from the country as they want,
without any objection from our imperial neighbor just 90 miles away from
the Cuban shores.
What is their advice to the Revolution? It’s pure poison; the
most typical of the neoliberal formulae.
The blockade does not exist; it would appear to be a Cuban invention.
They underestimate the Revolution’s most colossal achievement, its
work in education, the massive cultivation of peoples’ talents. They
sustain that some must live doing simple and rough work. They
underestimate the results and exaggerate the costs of scientific
investments. Even worse: they overlook the value of the healthcare
services that Cuba provides to the world; actually, with modest
resources the Revolution is stripping bare the system imposed by
imperialism which is lacking the human personnel to carry it out. They
advise investments which are ruinous, and the services they provide,
such as rent, are practically free. If foreign investments in housing
had not been stopped in time, they would have constructed tens of
thousands without any more resources than the prior sales of that same
housing to foreign residents in Cuba or abroad. Furthermore, they were
joint enterprises governed by a legislation intended for productive
companies. There were no limits for the authority of the buyers as
owners. The country would supply services to those residents or clients,
without the need of being knowledgeable in science or computers. Many
of the dwellings could be acquired by the enemy intelligence agencies or
their allies.
We need some of the joint enterprises since they control very
necessary markets. But you can hardly flood the country with money and
not sell our sovereignty.
The super-revolutionaries who prescribe such medication
deliberately ignore other resources which are truly decisive for the
economy, such as the growing production of gas which, when purified,
becomes an invaluable source of electricity without affecting the
environment and brings with it hundreds of millions of dollars each
year. About the Energy Revolution promoted by Cuba, of vital and
decisive importance for the world, not one word is spoken. They go even
further: they see an energy advantage for the island in the production
of sugarcane --a crop that was grown in Cuba with semi-slave labor-- to
counter the high cost of diesel being guzzled by the automobiles of the
United States, Western Europe and other developed countries. The
egotistical instinct is being fostered in human beings while the price
of food is doubling and tripling.
Nobody has been more critical of our own revolutionary work than I
have, but they shall never see me hoping for favors or apologies from
the worst of the empires.


Fidel Castro Ruz
September 3, 2007.
8:36 p.m.