VP Murillo on New Cooperatives in Cuba
HAVANA TIMES — The vice president of the Cuba’s Council of Ministers, Marino Murillo, advocated before parliament on Monday the creation of new non-agricultural cooperatives as part of the process of “updating” the country’s economic system.
The official announced the creation of 222 cooperatives – from restaurants, to farmers markets, technical and personal services, sports fishing, shrimp farming, water services and other enterprises.
Cooperatives will have lower tax burdens than “self-employed” operations because of the degree of collectivization of labor and ownership involved, which are being prioritized in relation to private initiatives.
Although the Ley General de Cooperativas (the General Law on Cooperatives) has not yet been finalized, Murillo said that the new forms of workforce organization will enjoy non-discriminatory conditions, will see their legal autonomy respected and will be able to sell their products and services to state-run enterprises and individuals.
And imports???, as long as the private sector and these new forms of co-operatives have no way to import their raw materials and/or materials, none of this will prosper or there will continue to be the “subtracting” [theft] from the government. It’s necessary to decentralize imports; or even better, the raw materials and materials for the private and cooperative sectors should have wholesale prices and should be privileged.
This is excellent news.
The emergence of “real” cooperatives would mean that the historically evolved institution of private property rights will have been restored. Real cooperatives are not possible without this institution (which was abolished prematurely by state monopoly ownership of all things productive).
With non-agricultural, working associate-owned cooperatives, and individual and family-owned small businesses, all under socialist state power, Cuba would be able to fashion a corrected, workable form of socialism. This would change everything, both in Cuba and in the world.