Planning the transition to capitalism: the commission for assistance to a free cuba (Egan 2007)
Capitalism presented as an inevitable, irreversible process that goes beyond the control of states, good for everyone both economic prosperity and spread of democracy
All non- market forces challenging the hegemony of the market run the risk of being marginalised/absorbed through commodofication
Labour and other subordinate social forces are disciplined, China- example of the juggernaut of global capitalism
Sates are on one side passive victim of forces outside their control, designed to demobilise opposition to capitalism as well as construct resistance to global capitalism
The continued existence of Cuba’s socialist system indicates that alternatives to global capitalism are possible.
US- d in a 45-year campaign of economic and political isolation and destabilisation to bring capitalism back to Cuba.
The Reports
2003- creation of a commission for assistance to a free Cuba. Five working groups produced detailed recommendations
Sponsoring Cuban opposition groups, supporting NGO's that disseminate information on a free Cuba
Deny revenues to the Cuban dictatorship, Cuba has increased its reliance on Tourism
Require US citizens to travel to Cuba only with a licence, called for building support among international NGOs to discourage travel to Cuba
US to encourage international diplomatic efforts to support Cuban civil society and to challenge the Castro regime
Undermine the regime's succession strategy- transition not succession, prevent the smooth transition between brothers
In addition, five new interagency working groups have been created to more closely monitor Cuba and assist in implementing transition policies
A free market economy will, according to the Commission, lead to aflowering of Cuban entrepreneurial energy which will allow for economic growth and adequate social welfare provision. The Commission recommends the privatization of all state-owned industries and infrastructure (including ports, air transport, public transportation, energy, and telecommunications), as well as the replacement of socially-owned housing with private housing markets. Privatization of education is to be encouraged by permitting the operation of private and church-related schools and by support for business
partnerships with schools, and Cuba’s socialized health care system is to be subjected to “restructuring and/or modernization”
Evaluation of the reports
The commissions reports are nothing short of a blueprint for neoliberalism in a post-Castro Cuba.
The Commission’s homage to the “good old days” before Castro reveals that the genuine goal of US policy is the wholesale reintegration of Cuba as a dependent outpost of global capitalism.
Idea than in a post-Castro transition in Cuba would restore freedom that previously existed but that had been lost
It erases the Revolution from history by suggesting that Castro “succeeded” Batista and that “the entire system has been constructed for the sustenance of the regime, not to serve the Cuban people”
Absence of any acknowledgement of the history of US aggression
The second discursive device employed by the Commission is its use of the term “democracy.” Cuba is portrayed as a dictatorship in contrast to the democracy and freedom “that prevail in all of the
other countries of the Western Hemisphere”
Robinson (1996) refers to as “polyarchy,” which he defines as “a system in which a small group actually rules and mass participation in decision-making is confined to leadership choice in elections carefully managed by competing elites” (49). As Robinson argues, polyarchy serves to legitimate neoliberalism by defining acceptable
boundaries of political participation that do not threaten the fundamental interests of capital and by establishing a procedural equality among citizens that obscures the structural inequalities of class.
Polyarchy simultaneously delegitimizes alternative forms of democracy, such as socialist democracy, that see social equality as a necessary foundation for genuine democracy
Thus, offering the United States as a model for electoral politics and labor relations for a “free Cuba” is consistent
with the US goal of imposing neoliberalism on Cuba.
The free market and democracy will, the Commission argues, replace the scarcity imposed on Cubans by state socialism with economic growth and prosperity.
The problem here is that the evidence points in the opposite direction. Cuba is considered by the United Nations to be a “high human development” country which,
despite low gross domestic product per capita, performs so well on health (life expectancy, infant mortality, nutrition) and education (public expenditure on education, literacy, enrollment) measures as to make Cuba one of the top-ranked developing countries, substantially outperforming measures for all developing countries and for Latin American and Caribbean countries
to portray Cuba as an economic disaster in need of
capitalist shock therapy is simply incorrect. The success of Cuba 'socialist system' is evident, dismantling it threatens the human needs of the Cuban population
Democracy promotion- polyarchy, US aims to provide direct financial assistance to political parties and social movement organisations, training of officials and development of media strategies
The US invasion of Iraq is the National Security Strategy put into practice; representing the imposition of neoliberalism by force. Previously they followed a model of a state socialist system followed by the Soviet union
The report reflects considerable confidence that the Cuban population will upon Castro's death, turn en masse towards neoliberalism
They do not full appreciate the likelihood of large scale resistance from Cubans to a transition to capitalism
Conclusion
Cuba poses the threat of a good example, closing off alternatives to capitalism means Cuba must be transformed
Transition to Cuba through accumulation by disposession
In order for a “free Cuba” to be reintegrated into its appropriate location within global capitalism, state and socialized property must be converted into private property and a working class with certain economic and social rights must be reconfigured to be “free” of those
protections
This exclusion of alternatives, however, is not an inevitable process. Cuba has held off heroically almost 50 years of political, military, and economic destabilization by the United States. It has also provided inspiration to anti-imperialist movements and movements opposed to capitalist globalization.