"Fidel Castro says Cuban model no longer works"

[Tomhet]

"HAVANA (Reuters) - Fidel Castro said Cuba's economic model no longer works, a U.S.-based journalist reported on Wednesday following interviews with the former president last week.
http://www.revleft.com/archives/2010/9/9/worldupdates/2010-09-09T001547Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNP_1_India-513723-1-pic0.jpgFormer Cuban leader Fidel Castro speaks during a meeting with students at Havana's University September 3, 2010. (REUTERS/Desmond Boylan)

Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for the Atlantic Monthly magazine, wrote in a blog that he asked Castro, 84, if Cuba's model -- Soviet-style communism -- was still worth exporting to other countries and he replied, "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."
The comment appeared to reflect Castro's agreement, which he also expressed in a column for Cuban media in April, with his younger brother President Raul Castro, who has initiated modest reforms to stimulate Cuba's troubled economy.
Goldberg said Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington who accompanied him to Havana, believed Castro's words reflected an acknowledgment that "the state has too big a role in the economic life of the country."
Such sentiment would help President Castro, who took over from his brother in 2008, against those members of the ruling Communist Party who oppose his attempts to loosen the state's hand, Sweig told Goldberg.
Goldberg wrote in a blog on Tuesday that Castro summoned him to Havana to discuss his recent article about the likelihood of conflict between Israel and Iran, with possible U.S. involvement, over Iran's growing nuclear capabilities.
He said Castro criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for anti-Semitism and denying the Holocaust.
Castro, since emerging in July from four years of seclusion following intestinal surgery, has become an anti-nuclear weapon crusader expressing concern about the future of the world.
He fears that if the United States and Israel try to enforce international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear activities, nuclear war will break out.
Castro also criticized his own actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when he urged the Soviet Union to launch nuclear weapons against the United States, telling Goldberg "it wasn't worth it at all."
During their visit, Goldberg and Sweig went with Castro, at his invitation, to see a dolphin show at Cuba's National Aquarium in Havana.
They were accompanied by local Jewish leader Adela Dworin, who Castro kissed in front of the cameras in a possible message to Iranian leaders, Goldberg said in his Wednesday blog.
Goldberg described Castro as physically frail, but energetic and mentally acute."

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/9/9/worldupdates/2010-09-09T001547Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-513723-1&sec=Worldupdates (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/9/9/worldupdates/2010-09-09T001547Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-513723-1&sec=Worldupdates)
Thoughts? I don't know whether this is trustworthy or not, so I figure I'll ask revleft their thoughts..

[Axle]

This doesn't say anything specific, really. The only quote they've got from Castro is that their Soviet-inspired economic model doesn't work. All that free market nonsense was speculation by a Washington think tank and isn't actually supported by anything in the article.

I'm chalking this article up as another "Make-Cuba-look-bad" piece.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

I find it hard to believe that the man who has resisted international capitalism for such a long time, whilst being completely surrounded by enemies, would just outright say that it isn't working any more.

[Blackscare]

I'm chalking this article up as another "Make-Cuba-look-bad" piece.

Don't be so quick to write off anything that may reflect badly on Cuba as negative propaganda. Sure, the vast majority of it is, but if this is from a recent statement from Fidel I'd at least like to get some context on exactly what was being said before I made a judgement.


Fidel could be offering some interesting insights into what he thinks would be an effective modernization of state socialism. Or he could be seeking to justify weak market reforms from his brother. I doubt Fidel is totally above doing political favors for his brother, especially if he views it as important for the unity of Cuba politically to stand behind his latest attempts at reform.





I'll be watching this in hopes of some clarification.

[Burn A Flag]

It may just mean he wants a decrease in subsidies. I read somewhere else that one of his goals for Cuba was to reduce subsidies in Cuba so that it was more independent.

[the last donut of the night]

this article reeks of miami bullshit, to be honest

[Tomhet]

this article reeks of miami bullshit, to be honest
Honesty is all I want here, thanks all!! :)

[Nolan]

Of course it doesn't. That product was recalled in 1991.

It's entertaining to see the media salivating over something that was probably misunderstood. I mean, come on. Castro is an evil dictator after all.

[Tablo]

I feel like it sounds real to me. The Cuban economy has been in stagnation for a while now and they don't have Soviet aid to fall back on. They obviously need some kind of change. Obviously, as an anarchist, I would prefer a different approach than privatizing parts of the economy. :P

[Luisrah]

It sounds like a load of crap to me.
The fact that he said that the Cuban model doesn't work for them can have more than one interpretation. Fidel almost surely meant that their isolation due to the blockade is making things tough, but of course, the reader gets the impression he clearly said ''I'm sorry for all my murders, and even though I have been for what, 50 years (?) defending socialism, I suddenly realise it doesn't work'', or more simply ''after all socialism doesn't work''.

Besides, the talk of the state being too big, or the 'hand of the state', crap.

[Wanted Man]

"Cuba's model" hasn't been the same as "Soviet-style communism" for some time now, so people may be confusing things a bit here. Cuba has been self-critical about the straight adoption of the "Soviet model" for years now.

Also, have these people figured out what to do with Fidel yet? One moment he's dead, then he's a hard liner holding power behind the scenes... What's next?

[Lolshevik]

The Revolution is falling!, declares RevLeft's anti-Cuba parade for the umpteenth time, the same people who said the Revolution would fall in 1891, or '91, or '94, or when Raul was elected President, or last Tuesday. People, sometimes your analyses are more pessimistic and anti-Cuban than those of the actual bourgeoisie.

Though the M-L comrades on here who are for the Cuban Revolution would no doubt disagree, I'd say this points to a rejection of the remnants of Stalinism in Cuba and sends a message to the people to continue to move on this course after he's gone. But whether you call it stalinism or revisionism, I'd gladly stand with anyone who defends the continuing process of perfecting workers' power & building socialism that has been going on in Cuba since 1959.

[Raúl Duke]

this article reeks of miami bullshit, to be honest

Perhaps, and in Miami the news is being interpreted in a negative manner, but it doesn't come from anyone in the Cuban community in Miami to my knowledge.


The Revolution is falling!, declares RevLeft's anti-Cuba parade for the umpteenth time, the same people who said the Revolution would fall in 1891, or '91, or '94, or when Raul was elected President, or last Tuesday. People, sometimes your analyses are more pessimistic and anti-Cuban than those of the actual bourgeoisie.

Leftist are probably a very pessimistic crowd. But, to be honest, if the Cuban leader is saying "what we are doing doesn't work" and is fine with more free-market reforms instead of thinking "we need to give more power to the workers; how do we do it" or "what do we need to do to prepare for the dissolution of the state and transition for communism" it is a sign of some serious issues that should be considered and analyzed.

Also, I don't understand why even mention 1891...if you are referring to the initial Cuban war of independence that was mostly a local bourgeois revolution.

Also, to be honest, I doubt "anti-Castro" leftists even care if the "Cuban Revolution" is failing since they don't even see it as genuine socialism. They're only concerned that whatever (particularly whatever free-market reform) occurs could end up with really shitty real-life implications for the Cuban populace.

[Die Rote Fahne]

It hasn't worked for a while. It isn't/has never been socialism. And the embargo is not helping the situation at all.

[west bank mcdaniel]

i think he's being honest with nothing to lose there. it's not actually working in cuba, which i say with no actual knowledge of what is happening in cuba, because i'm not fucking allowed there

[Lolshevik]

@Raul: Typo. I meant to say 1981, not 1891... my bad there.

[x359594]

The place to go for news of Cuba is Granma: http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art0022.html .