Cuba and Capitalism

[Goatpie]

Hey guys I'm fairly new to this but a friend of mine said Cuba is becoming capitalist :( ,After hours of debating how communism is actually helping i was wondering if there is any truth to this? :confused:

Is Cuba really becoming Capitalist?

If it does will it openly state it?

Thanks in advance guys.

[Comrade1]

Cuba is following the foot-steps of the Soviet Union, I would say it shouldent be too long after Castro dies that cuba turns to capitalism.

[Sixiang]

Cuba is following the foot-steps of the Soviet Union, I would say it shouldent be too long after Castro dies that cuba turns to capitalism.

I would say that this is, unfortunately, a very likely possibility for Cuba. Time can only tell, though.

[revolution inaction]

cuba is capitalist, what would make you think its not?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I have to disagree.

Cuba's situation is inherently different to that of the USSR and China, as the latter two were major superpowers in their own right by the time they went on the road to reformism or indeed outright Capitalism. In essence, they didn't 'need' to make such decisions to survive, but were infiltrated by Capitalist ideologues such as Gorbachev and Deng, who wanted to force the USSR and PRC respectively towards market-Socialism or indeed unfettered Capitalism.

The situation with Cuba is rather more difficult. It is a small, third-world nation essentially, which punches far above its weight in spheres such as healthcare, education and bio-technology/medicine due to its Socialistic system. It is also the target of a vicious, vicious economic embargo which means that, to all extents and purposes, it is shut off from the majority of the developed world in terms of trade. Obviously, this severely impacts - negatively - its ability to provide things as simple as milk to feed its young and concrete to repair its dishevelled buildings and pothole-laden roads. Whilst I don't quite agree with the scope of what the government is doing now, nor how it is being handled (former state employees don't tend to become good barbers overnight, for example). However, for now, i'm going to give Raul Castro and the CPC the benefit of the doubt, in that these may be temporary stabilising measures, forced on them by the Capitalist-induced world economic crisis. Cuba also has previous in this area - after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Fidel Castro himself, probably the most stubborn of Socialist revolutionaries and anti-imperialists, turned to similar measures, in the area of tourism.

For me, the latest measures by the Cubans are mere tinkering with the existing system. It doesn't represent a shift in socio-economic relations in the way that Perestroika or Deng Xiaoping's reforms did. A bigger problem will be when the Cubans are forced to act on the dual currency system, a disaster waiting to happen. Fidel Castro banned hard dollar currency a few years ago, a move which delayed the collapse of the dual currency system, whilst also proving populist at home with its anti-imperialist connotations (Fidel is very popular in this sort of way in Cuba, so I found out!). Probably soon, they'll have to find a more permanent solution to this problem. That will probably test Cuba's continuing Socialist credentials more than the movement of a relatively small amount of labour during a time of world economic hardship.