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The Example of Cuba

How a new socialist government will work will depend on the conditions in which it comes to power, so we can’t say exactly how it will be organised. But examples provided by the Cuban revolution illustrate our general ideas about how such a government could operate. This island country of 12 million people defied the rule of capitalism when its people made a revolution in 1959. They set out to reorganise their economic and political system and, in doing so, inspired others across the globe. They got rid of the US companies that exploited Cuba’s natural resources. In their place they established factory committees and farming cooperatives. They got rid of the US-supported dictator, Batista, and established people’s committees, trade unions and women’s and student organisations. In each Cuban workplace, workers meet to put proposals toward the national economic plans. They vote to accept or reject any proposals affecting them. If rejected, new proposals are negotiated with the national planning authorities. Managers gain from neither capitalist profits nor official privilege. Often managers have lower incomes than many workers, since workers are eligible for bonuses that managers don’t receive. The government of Cuba is the "People’s Power" system. This is a network of local, regional and national assemblies. They combine decision making with administrative functions. The carrying out of decisions is not entrusted to some "independent" bureaucracy. On a local level, the assembly elects an executive committee. It oversees the week-to-week administration of work and services. The assembly also elects commissions to work in particular areas, such as the administration of schools. Voting for all assemblies is by direct, secret ballot. All citizens 16 years of age and over are eligible to vote and run for office. Campaign resources are made available, so you don’t have to own a TV station. Elected delegates at all levels are recallable. Delegates do not receive a parliamentary salary. They’re expected to carry out their functions in their free time. Where they do have to work full time on political duties, they take leave from their job and receive the same pay while they are away. Elected representatives are encouraged to keep the closest links with the people, not to become professional politicians. The Cuban Revolution doesn’t rely simply on formal democratic mechanisms. More importantly, the revolution is kept alive by the active involvement of the people. No big decision can be made in Cuba without the support of the labour unions, the women’s federation, the farmers’ union and the student federation. The United States wants to destroy Cuba because it wants to destroy the hope that a system based on human solidarity and cooperation is possible. Since 1962 the US has maintained a complete economic blockade of Cuba. Besieged by the most powerful empire in history, it’s an achievement of the Cuban Revolution simply to survive. But education and health care are free and available to everyone, something not practised even here in Australia, where our GDP per capita is around 16 times that of Cuba. There is less illiteracy and a lower infant mortality rate in Cuba than in the United States. Cuba sends thousands of doctors and teachers to help communities in Third World countries. This assistance has been vital to countries trying to liberate themselves from poverty and foreign domination, such as Nicaragua in the 1980s and Venezuela and East Timor more recently. In the years following East Timor’s independence, Cuba’s medical contribution, the provision of doctors working for free in poor communities, was larger than that of the entire Australian-led UN mission. In Venezuela more than 10,000 Cuban doctors work free of charge in poor neighbourhoods. Cuban educational specialists helped with the national literacy program that abolished illiteracy in Venezuela in the first few years of the 21st century. In 1986 two Cuban teachers working in Nicaragua were killed by the US-sponsored terrorist contra army that was trying to overthrow Nicaragua’s 1979 revolution. Ten thousand volunteered to take their place. Unlike our system, the system in Cuba inspires human solidarity. Cuban President Fidel Castro doesn’t forget this point: "Without the masses, socialism would lose the battle and become bureaucratic. It would have to adopt capitalist methods and retreat in the field of ideology. No society can be more democratic than socialist society because, without the masses, socialism could not triumph."