The ideal system will begin when the two economic sectors begin to “link themselves” properly
14ymedio, Madrid, 26 November 2024 — Determined to address public-private collaboration, a thorny issue for the economic model that has reigned in Cuba for 65 years, the television program directed by Marxlenin Pérez, Cuadrando la Caja [Squaring the Box], had a surprise. Nothing that Cubans have experienced so far was communism and, if they hurry, not even socialism. Something like this will begin when the two economic sectors begin to properly “link themselves” – as the ruling party calls cooperation – and give way to a “developed” society.
The program turned out to be a recommendation to correct the last 65 years in total, which was not very clear judging by the fancy footwork of Ayuban Gutiérrez Quintanilla, professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Havana. The doctor was invited, clearly, to justify the demand from the institutions for public-private collaboration, so present in countries with market economies, including China and Vietnam in their turn to state capitalism.
Marxlenin Pérez repeatedly asked his guest to address the alleged “contradictions” of this type of cooperation with an economic model that for decades denied any private initiative. Then the diatribe began.
“In my studies of Marxism, we think that socialism is the transition to that higher society, which is communism”
“In my studies of Marxism, we believe that socialism is the transition to that higher society, which is communism. I believe there is no contradiction in understanding that, either as the transition to socialism or as socialism [itself], which is that path to a higher society, there is undoubtedly a space in which different forms of property have to coexist,” explained Gutiérrez Quintanilla.
The professor argued extensively for the beginnings of private property and Lenin’s arguments exactly one hundred years ago, to which Cuba – he pointed out – must adapt the conditions that occur at this historical moment. “Marx and Engels assumed that the transition from developed countries to communism was because there was already a guaranteed material base,” he describes at one point. “It’s interesting, because later they [the Marxists] realized that it didn’t have to be exactly like that in their relationship with the Russian revolutionaries. They realized that it was possible from an underdeveloped country, but then the process is longer, because the material basis for the transition has to be guaranteed.”
At this point, Gutiérrez Quintanilla affirms that Cuba is at that moment “when the State cannot do it on its own,” and that it needs to associate with other forms of private management, both in the country and abroad. It is not clear if the argument says the Marxist theorists of the nineteenth century were right or makes the six decades of Castroism wrong, but it clearly leaves doubt about what has been done since 1959 in Cuba. The system must start from scratch with the help of the now necessary private sector as a preliminary step to restart Cuban socialism.
Without doubt, the professor was admitting that, no matter how much on paper the state sector continues to appear as the engine of the economy, the State imperatively needs the private sector to prosper. Therefore, Gutiérrez Quintanilla called for public policies that regulate relations between both parties “so that these forms of property participate in the achievement of a final objective that is the development of the country, the improvement of well-being and the improvement of living conditions.”
The businessman has been cooperating with the state sector for almost two years thanks to an unusual access to foreign currency, and he did not hide the fact that the Central Bank of Cuba “supports” his company
The speech is not entirely new – already in 1987 the official State newspaper Granma had a headline on the front page: “Now we are going to build socialism”; but Gutiérrez managed to overshadow the presence of Jorge Félix Peraza Noriega, president of Jolyni, an MSME dedicated to making pasta, who came to put some meat on the beautification of private collaboration with the State.
The businessman has been cooperating with the state sector for almost two years thanks to an unusual access to foreign currency, and he did not hide the fact that the Central Bank of Cuba “supports” his company. Jolyni “has not had to go to the informal market to get currency and let’s hope it never happens,” he said.
“Operating with microcredit we achieved a very favorable credit history. We have also benefited from all the possibilities that have been generated for us and from the confidence and seriousness with which we manage our business. We have worked with foreign suppliers who have given us credits, which are still pending and must be honored, but we also count on the seriousness of the financial institutions that support us,” he claimed, a recital of what few can achieve without leaving behind some doubts.
Peraza Noriega, in any case, spelled out the positive nature of his experience, since his company makes the products on the Island, generating value at the national level. “In the end, when we buy a package of spaghetti that was made in Italy we are paying the salary of a worker in Italy. When a Cuban buys a package from Jolyni he is not only paying Jolyni but is also helping to generate a whole process of a salary and a guarantee of consuming a fresh product, a healthy product. That’s one of the things we need to do.”
Retaking the floor, Gutiérrez Quintanilla insisted that it is very positive that the private businesses “align themselves with the country’s development objectives,” but that it is necessary to create the conditions for an alliance favorable to all to be achieved, at which time the capital issue of foreign exchange appeared as directly responsible for public-private collaboration not being able to prosper.
“Today, the private company has to go to a foreign exchange market that we all know has a series of important difficulties, because it is part of the informal market. However, the state-owned company, by its nature, cannot enter an informal market; it would be contradictory. So how do we find a solution? That’s a challenge,” the teacher said. He thus admitted, without saying it expressly, that the Cuban economy has entered a loop impossible to solve, since it is – he said – essential that there is a macroeconomic stabilization that generates confidence and productivity, inviting the private sector to join the State. “It is very difficult for the actors to relate correctly if the rules are not the same,” he concluded.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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