Cuba: Love and Self-Reliance

Abstract

I took William Smaldone's "Observations on the Cuban Revolution" (Monthly Review, April 1996) with me on my visit to Cuba last spring with the U.S./Cuba Labor Delegation. I believe that we would all benefit by discussions of the questions raised by Smaldone, who obviously supports the revolution. Did the thirty years of dependence on Soviet aid following the expulsion of U.S. power lead to over-centralization and over-dependency, e.g. on sugar production for foreign exchange and on grain-fed cows and chickens? Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, would a continuation rather than an early end to the U.S. economic blockade give the Cubans time to develop more reliance on their own resources and thereby contribute to the long-term independence? If the Cuban people felt that they themselves, rather than the state, owned their homes and workplaces, would they feel more responsible for their upkeep?

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