Cuba embraces Capitalist property relations

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Well, i'm going to fall just sort of 'I told you so', and I would appreciate if anybody had a better source on this, but:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13998167

It sounds pretty black and white to me. Given the dual currency already creating haves and have nots, I cannot see how allowing money to exchange hands officially during property transactions will do anything other than exacerbate inequality in Cuban society. Given that some people will never be able to afford to move properties in their life, this is a perilous step towards Capitalism. In fact, it is Capitalism.

[manic expression]

From the article:

Cubans will still only be allowed to own one home, and the sale of homes will be taxed, but the move is aimed at easing Cuba's severe housing shortage.

Granma reported that a ban on the sale of cars registered after the 1959 revolution would also be lifted, a measure which will allow Cubans to buy and own any car they want.

So in other words, on the one hand we have a taxed, limited "market" for housing (which, since no one can own more than one, will not be pushing people into the street), and on the other people are allowed to pay for cars made after 1959 instead of only cars made before then. It's a real far cry from "embracing capitalist property relations". This is simply making the pre-existing rules a bit more flexible, which should lead to a controlled rearrangement of the housing situation (while maintaining Cuba's unimpeachable record on universal housing) and an opportunity to update Cuba's lovable (but aging) rolling antique show.

[AmericanCommie421]

I will miss the 50s cars in Cuba more than anyone. That being said, this isn't Capitalism returning to Cuba. This will help some of the problems facing the Cuban economy as well as helping modernize Cuba a bit in the vehicle department. Besides it wont hurt the Cuban people to be able to do such things, if anything it will help.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I will miss the 50s cars in Cuba more than anyone. That being said, this isn't Capitalism returning to Cuba. This will help some of the problems facing the Cuban economy as well as helping modernize Cuba a bit in the vehicle department. Besides it wont hurt the Cuban people to be able to do such things, if anything it will help.

It's modernisation? Here I was, thinking modernisation was not the same thing as capitalist reforms!

[flobdob]

From the article:

Cubans will still only be allowed to own one home, and the sale of homes will be taxed, but the move is aimed at easing Cuba's severe housing shortage.

Granma reported that a ban on the sale of cars registered after the 1959 revolution would also be lifted, a measure which will allow Cubans to buy and own any car they want.

So in other words, on the one hand we have a taxed, limited "market" for housing (which, since no one can own more than one, will not be pushing people into the street), and on the other people are allowed to pay for cars made after 1959 instead of only cars made before then. It's a real far cry from "embracing capitalist property relations". This is simply making the pre-existing rules a bit more flexible, which should lead to a controlled rearrangement of the housing situation (while maintaining Cuba's unimpeachable record on universal housing) and an opportunity to update Cuba's lovable (but aging) rolling antique show.

Absolutely. But there's some extra stuff that's worth noting.

Currently in Cuba the system for house moving basically requires two people to come to an agreement to "switch" their houses, provided they both consent to the move. It has a lot of very obvious problems, therefore, and some people have used the opportunity to get money from the exchange. This recent announcement seeks to simplify the system, and to eradicate the existence of such people getting illicit income through the exchange of housing.

As manic_expression correctly said, people will be limited to owning one house, and exchanges will be taxed appropriately. On top of this, we must place this in the context of the rest of the Lineamientos (from which this was drawn) - the first three of which declared that that socialist planning will continue to be the principal means to direct the national economy, that the socialist state enterprise remains predominant, and that the concentration of ownership shall not be permitted in non-state operations. As far as I am aware, ownership of houses is also limited to Cuban residents, severely limiting the ability of external capitalists to be involved in the affair. It is these which are key here.

As Helen Yaffe expressed it;

"New measures and legislation will be announced in Cuba in the coming months as the guidelines are implemented. Although there will be no surprises, we can expect these to be met by sensationalist exclamations about the advent of capitalism from the enemies of Cuban socialism. Cuba’s revolutionary people, lead by the CCP, will progress with patience and resolution to improve the efficiency of their system; maintaining the principles of socialism, while adapting, with creativity and innovation, to the challenging context of the global capitalist crisis."

[RedSonRising]

Last time I checked, cars and houses weren't productive capital capable of developing exploitative economic hierarchies. Informal and illegal exchanges by individuals seeking more pragmatic ways to manage their own things were done before this law was passed, and is simply now legalized as opposed to being informally tolerated by the State.

The situation in Cuba must be carefully watched, but all to often, both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives alike (not pointing any fingers comrades) may miss the material reality of what is happening. As of now, the economic reforms look dangerous and troubling, but haven't yet provided any serious threat to the gains made by the working class through the current Cuban system. Once private property relations between an exploitative owner and dis-empowered laborers begin to form beyond small businesses and restaurants, then there will be crisis and cause for panic. Let us not forget that the Cuban people, while not always uniform in their support for the bureaucracy of the regime, are well aware of their fundamental gains which so few in Latin America have access to.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Cuba's housing programs were never as well-developed as the Soviet ones.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Last time I checked, cars and houses weren't productive capital capable of developing exploitative economic hierarchies.

Real estate is often a basis for segments of speculative capital.

[Kadir Ateş]

I will miss the 50s cars in Cuba more than anyone. That being said, this isn't Capitalism returning to Cuba. This will help some of the problems facing the Cuban economy as well as helping modernize Cuba a bit in the vehicle department. Besides it wont hurt the Cuban people to be able to do such things, if anything it will help

Didn't realise capitalism had ever left.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Going from people not being allowed to convert property into liquid capital, to people being allowed to convert property into liquid capital, strikes me as somewhat Capitalistic.

As I said earlier, due to there being some quite striking inequality in Cuba already, this will affect those who cannot afford to buy a new house the most. This poorest group often lives 2-3 generations to one home.

These reforms also leave property prices at the whim of the market. There is nothing to say that there will become ghettos of unwanted properties (Centro Habana), and more desirable properties (say in the holiday areas of Habana del Este).

That people can 'only' own one property means nothing when you have such an unequal situation in property already. People with access to hard currency will now be able to sell their own property, buy another bigger house with hard currency and rent it out to gringos as a Casa particular. That strikes me as somewhat exploitative, Capitalist property relations, no?

Meanwhile, some of the poorest in Cuban society will be stuck 3 generations to a couple of small rooms in some ghettoised old block of flats in some dump like Centro Habana.

These reforms will only worsen inequality in Cuban society. They are a bad thing and a step towards fully fledged Capitalism.