Karima Oliva Bello, September 4, 2020
Image: Martirena
We cannot consider Cuba as being on the sidelines of the conflicts that are happening in the world and our region, nor on the sidelines of its history and geopolitical enclave. Latin America is a disputed territory. Any effort committed to overcoming poverty and social inequality today, if they are being carried out in countries such as ours, with histories of colonial and neocolonial domination, and above all, in a region that continues to be explicitly considered and treated as exploitable territories by the centers of world economic power – in these situations, it is mandatory to deal with the class struggle and the problem of exploitation in the world economy, as well as to adopt a political position of confrontation with neoliberalism. In the Cuban situation, this is translated into resisting the pressure for capitalist restoration, in the context in which this would only aggravate problems related to the poverty of vulnerable groups, increase the patterns of inequality and the flaws in fairness and equity of all kinds. However, defending socialism, radicalizing its democratic and equity horizons, is not simple; there are very concrete challenges to resolve not only in the economic realm but in the political and cultural spheres as well.
The strategy of the course of changes in the Cuban economy, as conceived in the
Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, a document approved in April 2011 by the VI Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, created for many of us the hope of the possibility of overcoming the economic crisis without following a path of structural changes of the neoliberal style and without renouncing the projected plan of a fairer and more just society. With all that is in play now, we should adopt as a text, and ultimately as a context, in any analysis or study of the economic, political or social order concerning the present or the future, the choice to continue constructing a path counter to the hegemony. This is all the more essential now that we are faced with a scenario in which the failure of the “third way” is already a proven fact, and when, simultaneously, we have confirmation of the economic and social crisis generated by neoliberalism in our region. Analyzing the socio-economic challenges that Cuba is confronting outside these references would be a suicidal effort.
On the other hand, within Cuba, the effort for a fairer and more equitable society should use as a starting point the recognition that the socialist transition has not been, nor is, an epoch free of social inequalities, in spite of the fact that socialism has demonstrated objectively that it offers better conditions for the possibility of fighting to eradicate them; it is for this reason we support its continuity. The radical transformation produced by the Revolution on the structure of classes and society with the elimination of work-based exploitation and the creation of important mechanisms of social integration facilitated levels of rising social mobility never before seen in the history of the nation and reduced the distances between groups.
Nonetheless, although the social inequalities that have been reconstituting themselves with ever greater visibility since the crisis of the 1990s may be debts left from a past history during which the foundations were laid of deep and unjust inequalities related to class, gender, skin color and region, it is still valid to point out that they have found conditions that permit their re-emergence and their reproduction in current circumstances. In the same way, we still co-exist with stereotypes that are racist and/or misogynist in nature among certain sectors of the population, and these exemplify the necessity of radicalizing our cultural transformations required by the construction of socialism.
We must place the question of social inequalities in the center of our analysis of the present and future of Cuban socialism and the scenarios proposed for its continuity. In this sense, an in-depth understanding of the complex socio-economic dynamics that today are contributing to the re-creation of inequality is important. This means we must study what are the mechanisms, economic as well as symbolic, for its propagation, as well as chart the forms it assumes and the characteristics of the most vulnerable groups.
It is worth pointing out that the role of social sciences turns out to be fundamental and there is a very important pathway developed by academia, by institutions, research groups and centers, regarding poverty, the social class structure of contemporary Cuban society and social policy, inequalities, youth, gender, and race, although each of these subject areas has had its own individual development. They are fields of study that require political will for their systematization and consolidation. It is an urgent necessity to build content concerning these subjects based on what has been researched in this country and the knowledge already discovered, in order to organize media content consistent with approaches committed to strengthening the work of our institutions and perfecting/improving the mechanisms of the Cuban government relating to attention to our social problems, keeping in mind as well that we are faced with a situation in which these problems are capitalized on as instruments for media manipulation and the creation of public opinion.
One of the fundamental challenges is the systematic production of data that can help us understand the true dimensions and the subtleties of the presentation of this problem in Cuba. We always have in our favor that the phenomena of poverty and social vulnerability in our country are expressed in a unique way whose essence is rooted in the absence of class exploitation relationships and the existence of a platform of guarantees and opportunities for social integration; these are not circumstances available to more vulnerable groups in other contexts. From this starting point, we should be open to discuss these themes since recognizing them for what they are is an important step for dealing with them. Another significant aspect is related to the need for a social policy organically linked to the platform of economic changes underway. The social policy of Cuba has been fundamental in creating greater dignity in the lives of Cuban of all genders and the achievement of important levels of social equality, but we are involved in the process of up-dating that model. The program platform is envisioning transformations in social policy directed at greater differentiation and focus for attention to vulnerable groups. No economic change in Cuba should be evaluated without considering the short-term, medium-term, and long-term impacts on the complex web of social inequalities already in existence. The predicted establishment of new forms of property will be one step more in the construction of a labor market in which there will be new work situations, new participants and new conditions, dynamics and relationships among them. It is absolutely essential to study the impact that this will have on the social web and the conditions of life for different groups in the social-occupational structure, as well as to analyze and to design mechanisms to prevent the possible expansion of flaws in fairness and to improve the conditions of those groups in the most vulnerable situations.
The call of the President of Cuba regarding the necessity to develop a government management process based on science is an important summons. Thus, we are speaking of a meaningful debate that we have ahead of us, in which political and ideological clarity will be fundamental, especially when these subjects begin to be approached by media from positions similar to a capitalist restoration agenda on the Cuban scene.
There are many policies addressing poverty and inequality in the world. Some of the models that have greatest government influence in the “war against poverty” in our region are inspired by the perspectives about poverty of the World Bank, which, at the same time, are responsible for the unfolding of the neoliberal policies that have aggravated conditions of inequality and poverty in the whole world. Capitalism, just as it produces poverty and inequality, also produces the “apparatus of knowledge” that allows it to be managed in a way that is convenient. It finances the salaries of researchers, invests in projects and programs with liberal approaches and creates opinion leaders on these subjects with the goal of ensuring a preponderance of perspectives that do not resolve the problem since they avoid criticism of capitalism. Instead, they individualize the causes and the solutions and are therefore useful for the reproduction of capital. So the question cannot be resolved talking about poverty and inequality, but rather by accurately adhering to the political and ideological directions from which we approach these problems.
To conclude, it is necessary to undermine/ the symbolic supports of social inequalities – that is, we must radicalize our cultural revolution. We must combat machismo, misogyny and racism, and also class bias attitudes. The Revolution has modified our collective imaginations, making new values, new ways of being, doing, making and living together as part of our institutional culture. But it is necessary to broaden the horizon of our efforts concerning this area of problems. Educational institutions, means of communication, political and mass organizations, now more than ever, are being called upon to renew their methods of work and improve their means of debate and participation of the people included in their membership regarding these critically central topics, so that they may act as instruments of the Cuban people to understand the realities in which we live and to be watchful for the collective meaning of the changes. Otherwise, the doubts and dissatisfactions that emerge from the tangles of daily life will be utilized by those who have no interest whatsoever in resolving the problems but only in using them as political propaganda against Cuba and its institutions.
Source: La Pupila Insomne, translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau