{"id":224128,"date":"2020-07-09T12:24:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T16:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=224128"},"modified":"2020-07-09T12:26:02","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T16:26:02","slug":"social-and-solidarity-economys-contribution-to-building-socialism-in-cuba-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/social-and-solidarity-economys-contribution-to-building-socialism-in-cuba-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Social and Solidarity Economy\u2019s contribution to building socialism in Cuba (I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Help us keep OnCuba alive<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

As reported by the Cuban government on June 11, the post-COVID-19 strategy will consist of two stages: recovery\u2015return to normality, avoid new outbreaks, develop coping capacities and reduce risks and vulnerabilities\u2015and the strengthening of the country\u2019s economic activity. The latter will include adjusting the 2020 and 2021 Economic Plan, strengthening savings, generating more foreign exchange earnings, using more of the country\u2019s resources in a more efficient way, and boosting national production, particularly food.<\/p>\n

President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel Berm\u00fadez has insisted that Cuba will resume the course of updating the economic and social model, outlined since 2010 in the documents of the Party and the government.1<\/sup><\/strong> D\u00edaz-Canel stated<\/a> that, to face the crisis caused by COVID-19, \u201cwe have to come up with different things…we can\u2019t continue doing things the same way.\u201d He stressed the need to direct the work of the Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development, in order to evaluate \u201chow, in a faster, more determined, more organized way, we implement a group of issues that are pending implementation in the Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model.\u201d Among the elements that have not yet been implemented, he mentioned some forms of management and ownership. Also, the resizing of the business and private sectors and the adequate relationship that must exist between the two, of which, he pointed out, \u201cwe have good experiences in these times of pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although details have not been disclosed, there are indications that this will include, among other measures, giving a boost to the private sector\u2015perhaps by expanding the list of activities authorized for self-employment or establishing one of banned activities, allowing the others\u2015and some possibility of creating private small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Thank god. However, it doesn\u2019t seem they\u2019re going to approve new industry and service cooperatives, misnamed \u201cnon-agricultural,\u201d improve existing ones or modify the Ministry of Agriculture\u2019s centralized management regime for agricultural cooperatives. Regrettable, if it is so.<\/p>\n

Based on these ideas, the objective of this two-part series is to unveil the impacts of the new and necessary measures on existing economic and social inequalities and to demonstrate that, by consciously and articulately adopting the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the country would have more tools to face inequalities and boost inclusive local economic development, within the framework of the construction of socialism.<\/p>\n

Increasing inequality <\/strong><\/p>\n

The 1990s crisis forced the country\u2019s leadership to adopt a series of policies that shook the basically egalitarian society built in the first three decades of the Revolution. Along with opening up to tourism and remittances, temporary and return emigration, communications, internet access and the emergence of a private sector in which one part struggles to survive while the other enjoys comfortable and even luxurious living standards, levels of inequality have been generated that did not exist in the past decades. These measures revitalized the economy, diversified employment, increased the insertion of Cubans in the world, expanded transnational family networks and made it possible to overcome the crisis, while many improved their material standard of living.<\/p>\n

The tools and policies to face inequalities in a more diversified and complex society, however, have been basically the same: universal and free public services\u2014health, education and social security\u2014, subsidized goods and services such as public transportation and the basic food basket, and access to employment in the state sector, but with insufficient wages to cover basic needs, after the 1990s. With few exceptions, these are centralized, generic and egalitarian policies, mainly financed by fiscal mechanisms for income redistribution, in which the taxes paid by the private and cooperative sector of the economy play a growing role.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s to and fro with the private and cooperative sectors since 2010, despite their validation as part of the socialist system, has become a source of controversy, delays in the implementation of approved policies, disenchantment for those who have opted for cooperatives and insecurity for those who want to start businesses. As a consequence, we have had to pay a high economic, social, and individual price\u2015by not reaching the potential for income and well-paying jobs\u2015of disenchantment and frustration \u201cwaiting for Godot,\u201d who never seems to arrive.<\/p>\n

Unquestionably, it is required that the state sector take the lead of the economy in strategic sectors and that it be governed by planning at different territorial and sectoral levels. But that does not exempt us from carrying out the necessary expansion of the non-state sector (cooperative, associative and private) and recognizing the legal existence of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).<\/p>\n

As Julio Carranza maintains<\/a>, \u201cfirst because they generate a large amount of employment that the state sector cannot retain if it intends to be efficient; second, because they guarantee certain productions and services that can contribute significantly to the growth of the economy and that, as historical evidence has shown, the state sector cannot carry them out efficiently; and third, because it allows mobilizing internal capital (savings) and external capital (remittances), which would otherwise be inactive or would not reach the country.\u201d It would be necessary to add a better use of endogenous (family and community) resources, the potential of public-private partnerships and the ability to insert and contribute to local development strategies.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 and its sectoral impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

And then arrived the double pandemic of COVID-19 and the intensification of the U.S. blockade. The associated economic crisis evidenced and further deepened social inequalities. Given the difficulties with food distribution, those with greater economic reserves can buy more and even hoard, while those who stand on lines and resell what they buy at higher prices have multiplied due to the shortage.<\/p>\n

Cuban economy in the face of COVID-19<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n