Cuba Imposes New Restrictions on Cooperatives
HAVANA TIMES – The Ministry of Construction has issued an order prohibiting cooperatives in its field from carrying out work outside the province in which they were established. Works that are underway in other provinces must now conclude within a period of no more than three months.
In addition, they are forbidden in the future to hire labor, self-employed workers, and only members of the cooperatives can work on projects. However at the same time they are prevented from increasing the number of members they currently have.
A board member of one of these cooperatives, confirmed the veracity of Ministerial Resolution OM-3890-17, issued on August 14, and said that their co-op’s permit was not renewed. Thus, although they are still allowed to continue exercising with the expired license, they could lose their legal status.
Also read: The Ups and Downs of Cuba’s Private Sector
It is not possible alsotps to know whether English is your language. But if it is – or indeed if it is Spanish, you should know that ’embargo’ -which is that being applied by the US upon Cuba, is very different from ‘blockade’. The US blockade imposed upon Cuba at the time when Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khruschev to make an initial nuclear strike upon the US, was removed later that year. So do please get your facts right.
Perhaps you could also explain how it is that the embargo increases “costs”. I should add that the 200% plus mark ups made by GAESA upon goods imported under their monopoly certainly increase costs for Cubans.
In part, the blockade that affects currency use and increases costs.
“… And Eden, who is it that ensures that Cubans do not have the opportunity to receive traing and experience of the type necessary?…”
That’s immaterial to my reply. I simply corrected your misconception as to why the foreign workers were hired.
The “Ministry of Construction” does NOT prefer to employ Indian contracted workers, they’d LOVE to have their own workers in place, making them more money.
There speaks the voice of the Communist Party of the US. Morals obviously have no place in communist ideology. It is as Raphael Stephen-Pons explains, all about keeping the proleteriat as a mass, and endeavoring to eradicate individuality and voluntary cooperation. Communists like Raphael Stephen-Pons believe that the State (for which read Dictator) ought to direct everything. The gobble-gobble about everything having to “belong to the entire Cuban people” is a cover phrase for explaining that no individual should have possessions.
Stephen-Pons himself, expects to dine at Penn University but would deny Cubans hopes to achieve improvements in theitr living standards. Lets just say it as it is!
To quote Jose Marti again:
“Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.”
It is that individual liberty that Stephen-Pons and his fellow communists seek to remove!
And Eden, who is it that ensures that Cubans do not have the opportunity to receive traing and experience of the type necessary?
Stop it with this moral stuff. It’s ideological, cooeperatives being independent from state management would create completely free markets, it would divided the Cuban proletariat and pit them against each other competing for profits. State enterprises are better as they belong to the entire Cuban people (if socialism was implemented in Cuba properly without all the market forces) as the proletariat manages and recalls government officials.
“… No doubt the Ministry of Construction prefers to employ East Indian
contracted workers rather than allowing Cuban companies to be formed,
blind adherence to Marxism/Leninism…”
You make lots of great points Carlyle but too often in your posts you veer off into topics that you know nothing about and you’re doing it here yet again. There were no Cuban construction teams who had any experience whatsoever as lead tradespeople familiar with the modern construction techniques that were specifically employed in the building of the Manzana de Gomez.
If Bouygues hadn’t brought in the Indians the hotel/mall would never have been finished anywhere close to on schedule/budget and their investment would have floundered.
Bouygues are all about making money, same as any highly successful foreign corporation. They’ve built almost 20 hotels in Cuba so they know exactly what they’re doing and they know exactly what it takes to get the job done. If cheap Cuban labour would have been capable they would loved to use them, but the Cubans are in the dark ages regarding modern construction methods.
When is the last time you saw a Cuban tradesperson downloading the days construction targets into their laptop that is communicating to dozens and dozens of other foremen AND the architects/engineers all at the very same time? Never, of course. Unfortunately and with great sadness it’s utterly unfathomable for a Cuban to have that training/experience/equipment.
Having stamped on individual initiative, the Castro regime is now stamping on cooperative initiative. The message is clear, people must not be allowed to think and act for themselves. Only the regime can be responsible for new ideas or any form of initiative – both of which have eluded them for fifty years.
“Youth must learn to think and act as a mass. It is criminal to think as an individual.”
Dr. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara de Serna Lynch.
The Castro regime avidly pursues prevention, indeed persecution of initiative, for it is the very antithesis of communism.
No doubt the Ministry of Construction prefers to employ East Indian contracted workers rather than allowing Cuban companies to be formed, blind adherence to Marxism/Leninism. How proud the Castro communist regime supporters must be of this latest action. Time to speak up in support!