Planning as Practiced in Cuba

Miguel Arias Sanchez

HAVANA TIMES — Just the other day, I was listening to a radio show where two journalists were discussing different current events topics.

I was interested in what they had to say and listened to the end: “Economic plans which become disasters,” and they were shedding light on an undeniable reality.

There are people here who, sitting behind a desk with the air conditioning on and a car parked outside the door, make plans which, by the time they reach the people, have already been approved. So, the question we have to ask ourselves is: Are all objective and subjective factors taken into account in the decision-making process when creating an economic project?

Socialism dictates that a country’s means of production lie in the hands of its workers; therefore, they play a determining role in society. Another of Socialism’s precepts is direct participation and mass debates when approving decisions which will have an impact on society.

Is this really done in Cuba?

Does the person who draws up a plan consult workers and all of the other factors for it to be realized successfully? Are changes made depending on today’s reality?

No they aren’t, the plans are approved by those above and are put into practice, the final outcome: the plan which the radio journalist referred to, became an economic disaster.

At the end of the day, and like always, its everyday citizens who suffer and lose out because the person who drew up a given plan and approved it didn’t take Socialism’s most essential elements and precepts into account.

At a mass rally in 1961, this system, which today many people ignore, was proclaimed, resulting in greater hardships for society because of the unilateral and self-reliant decision of a poorly “planned” plan.