Saturday 03 January
2009, San José, Costa
Rica
CUBA: Golden Anniversary
in Tough Times
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) - The Cuban
Revolution's 50th
anniversary on Jan. 1
finds the country facing
the challenge of sorting
out the economy and
improving living
conditions, in the
context of a complex
international situation
that may make reaching
those goals particularly
difficult.
The 1960s stand out in
this Caribbean island
nation’s history as the
decade when major
economic and social
changes came thick and
fast, including the
agrarian reform that put
land in the hands of
peasant farmers, the
laws slashing housing
rents by 50 percent, the
mass literacy campaigns
and free education and
health services for all.
These and other radical
changes effected by the
Revolution showed that
"it is actually possible
to build a country based
on social criteria,"
Pável Vidal, a young
economist with the
University of Havana's
Centre for the Study of
the Cuban Economy (CEEC),
told IPS.
The Revolution "was
able, in a relatively
short time, to reduce
extreme poverty, raise
the level of and access
to education, create
greater opportunities
for women and
significantly improve
the health conditions of
the population," he
said.
However, the younger
generations do not
always appreciate these
achievements. "What's
the good of studying
engineering for free,
when what I can earn
from my work won't be
enough to live on?" said
Manuel, a 22-year-old
university student who
also complained about
the poor public
transport and the lack
of freedom to travel
abroad.
Sonia Benavides, a
29-year-old drama
consultant, also has
unfulfilled dreams. She
said she would like to
have "a home of my own,
a salary that covers the
cost of living, and
respect for my right to
enter and leave the
country," but she
acknowledged that,
without the Revolution,
"the gap between urban
and rural areas and
between rich and poor"
would be much wider.
"The economy would be in
the hands of the same
bourgeoisie as ever,
sold out to vested
interests and providing
very expensive basic
services to compensate
for the cyclical
destruction caused by
hurricanes," said
Benavides, trying to
imagine what Cuba would
be like if the armed
insurrection led by
Fidel Castro had not
overthrown dictator
Fulgencio Batista.
Half a century later,
President Raúl Castro,
who took over from his
ailing brother Fidel in
February 2008, said that
"the victory of the
(Revolution) did not
mark the end of the
struggle, but the start
of a new stage, in which
there has not been a
minute of respite."
At the end of the second
period of parliamentary
sessions on Dec. 27, the
77-year-old president
described a picture of
austerity with little
relief for 2009, after a
year of crisis in which
three hurricanes cost
the country almost 10
billion dollars in
losses.
GDP grew by only 4.3
percent in 2008, almost
half the previously
forecast figure, owing
to the combination of
climate factors, the
nearly five-decade U.S.
embargo (called the "bloqueo"
or blockade in Cuba),
and substantial price
rises for food and fuels
in the international
market.
"The coming year will be
one of much uncertainty
in the world economy,"
shaken by the financial
crisis that originated
in the United States and
has evolved into severe
economic problems
worldwide, "and we
should be prepared to
face this serious
challenge, which is
already affecting us
considerably," Castro
warned.
He announced new
adjustments in hard
currency spending, by
cutting 50 percent off
planned spending on
trips abroad by
government agencies and
the business sector, and
doing away with
"unjustified gratuities
and excessive subsidies"
paid for out of state
coffers.
Among the first cutbacks
planned is an end to the
practice of providing
vacations and other
benefits at highly
subsidised prices for
leaders, outstanding
workers and other
sectors of the
population, which costs
the state some 60
million dollars a year.
"Let’s be clear on this;
it is not a question of
whether or not those who
have enjoyed this
possibility merited it,
nor of limiting the
right to go to those
centres (vacation
colonies). Rather, the
question is whether it
is rational to maintain
it as a form of stimulus
when it represents such
a high cost, under the
current difficult
circumstances or any
others," Castro said.
In addition, a new
social security law
approved by parliament
raised the retirement
age from 55 to 60 for
women, and from 60 to 65
for men, a measure
intended to counteract
the economic impact of
the rapid ageing of the
Cuban population.
To this must be added
the forthcoming
introduction of a wage
system that links
earnings with
productivity, and future
measures, as yet
unspecified, to increase
the number of people
engaged in work, and
their productivity and
efficiency.
Castro also emphasised
that a General
Comptroller's Office is
soon to be created,
answerable directly to
the Council of State, to
take control of public
funds and to oversee
"strict compliance on
the part of all
leadership structures."
This plan and other
issues linked to the
"structural and
conceptual
transformations"
promised by Raúl Castro
in a key Jul. 26, 2007
speech, given when he
was still acting
president, will be
submitted to the
consideration and
approval of the Sixth
Congress of the Cuban
Communist Party (PCC).
The governing party’s
Sixth Congress,
postponed since 2002,
will be held in the
second half of 2009 to
draw up the country's
political, economic and
social guidelines for
the next five years. Its
resolutions are binding.
Some researchers hope
that the Sixth Congress
will pave the way for a
development strategy
that includes a broad
set of simultaneous
economic measures, from
monetary policy to those
directly related to
industrial and
agricultural production.
After Raúl Castro wished
all Cubans health and
much energy for 2009,
because "there is plenty
of work!" attention is
now focused on the
speech that the
president is due to
deliver in the eastern
city of Santiago de Cuba
in the evening of Jan.
1.
The plan is for Castro
to speak on the same
spot where Fidel made
his first speech to the
nation in 1959, after
coming down from the
revolutionaries'
stronghold in the Sierra
Maestra mountains in
eastern Cuba.
"The Revolution begins
now. Our Revolution will
be no easy task, but a
harsh and dangerous
undertaking," said the
historic Cuban leader at
that time.
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