Ever since his arrest in December 2009, the US State Department, and even president Obama, have been telling Cuba that it should release Gross. At first they tried to say he was innocent but when that became obviously false they went the humanitarian route.
Read MoreIt would not be the same to confront and expropriate a bureaucratic state, ready and willing to share economic power with foreign capital, as it would be to take on people who own the means of production and control their destiny.
Read MoreIn Cuba, the trend toward vegetarian diets is becoming more popular. Though it has been fueled by the mass media and health food advocates, it still hasn’t been easy to motivate most people in this regard. Cuban dining culture has historically been sustained by the consumption of meat, fish and carbohydrates (with this latter having been the basis of the diet since the advent of the Special Period crisis starting the early 1990s).
Read MoreA few days ago I read an article in Cubadebate that caught my attention. The article deals with the production of toothbrushes in what is apparently the only factory that produces them in Cuba – and which is, of course, state-run.
Read MoreIt’s good that the president recognizes that not all Cubans are represented by the Communist Party of Cuba or identify with its concept of what is and should be the revolution. Part of the Cuban people, perhaps just a minority as was stated (or several minorities), disagrees with the system.
Read MoreThe Raul Castro government ends the year with kept promises and outstanding debts. The “opening” of the housing and automotive markets was well received by Cubans, but many continue to await immigration reform and modifications to the Family Code.
Read MoreFew modern concepts have been more purposely ignored than that of direct cooperative ownership of the instruments of production by working associates. The subject has special relevance for Cuba, and also for the world’s urgently needed advance to post-capitalism.
Read MoreJust 24 hours after the announcement by Raul Castro — in the middle of the Christmas season — the government began releasing over 2,900 prisoners, many of whom are now in their homes. We managed to talk with several of them during these hectic last 48 hours.Finding a few of them wasn’t difficult. In almost every neighborhood there are freed prisoners.
Read MoreThis is the moment in which one wonders, if this is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning. But above all, how much will have to paid by us — ourselves, our families, our friends — for this belated capitalist restoration, like Cuesta Morua said, for casinos and gangs.
Read MoreThe widespread sexism that has existed in revolutionary Cuba, particularly against gays, has long been an uncomfortable issue for supporters of the Cuban regime, particularly in countries such as the United States where vital and influential women’s and gay liberation movements developed in the wake of the 1960s.
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