A 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.
Read MoreUnder the reforms being instituted in Cuba we are witnessing a broad flowering of private capitalism. This is taking place with the systematic increase in the exploitation of wage labor by business operations that are being protected by a law that allows for “self-employed contracted labor.”
Read More“I’m not very interested in numbers,” is an acceptable phrase from the mouth of a poet or a painter, but when spoken by an official linked to foreign trade in the middle of a press conference, the matter becomes worrisome. That conference was a real shame because there was a great deal of interesting information that could have been released on the sale of Cuban services on the five continents, which has now become the main source of income for the island.
Read MoreOne of the political facts that has surprised me most in the recent period is the number of people, networks and organizations on the left that have adopted critical positions towards Raul Castro’s “updating” of the Cuban economic model.
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