Totalitarian control of the economy, with a bit of window dressing

Totalitarian control of the economy, with a bit of window dressing
OSMAR LAFFITA ROJAS | La Habana | 2 Jun 2016 - 10:56 am.

The "Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of
Socialist Development" adopted at the VII Congress of the Communist
Party of Cuba (PCC) and published on May 24, seeks to paint a picture of
the path that Cuba will take in the coming years.

The document aspires to regulate, based on a statist aprroach, the forms
of private and cooperative property that have been incompletely
implemented, with many limitations and missteps, since the enactment of
Resolution 32 of 7 December, 2010 by the Ministry of Labor and Social
Security.

Since that time, through the end of April this year, 510,558 people
obtained licenses to engage in private business operations. In addition,
350 non-agricultural cooperatives are currently operating.

And yet, there has been no real flowering of private and cooperative
ownership. The above figures are a reflection of how sluggish this
process has been in the last five years.

In the second chapter of the "Conceptualization ...", referring to the
ownership of the means of production, subsection 2.1 ( "Main forms of
ownership of the means of production: state, mixed, cooperative and
private") there is an element that characterizes the entire document:
the priority assigned state ownership, and the complementary role of
other types.

In the document, the more than 4,000 SMEs and microbusinesses already
operating in Cuba are recognized as legal persons for the first time.
However, to prevent any misunderstandings about the PCC's policy on this
issue, the document explains that "the exercise of private property
rights is demarcated by rules governing the limits of the concentration
of property and wealth." That is, the consolidation of a wealthy and
influential middle class will not be permitted.

The members of the PCC and the so-called "mass organizations" have
received guidelines from the authorities to support and promote state
over private and cooperative ownership. That is, they want to put up
barriers thwarting anyone from getting rich.

The "Conceptualization ..." reaffirms that the philosophy that will
continue to dominate the Cuban economy will be one upholding state
ownership over the means of production.

The conceptualization of the economic model under discussion is nothing
like the socialist market economy that has proven so successful in
China, with its "socialism with Chinese characteristics," or in Vietnam,
with the implementation of Doi Moi ("Renewal").

In China and Vietnam, land, basic industry, telecommunications, and the
banking and transportation sectors are state-owned, but state-owned
enterprises are governed by market laws, and compete with each other in
a price system governed by supply and demand, and the State does not
interfere in their operations, nor does it favor them over private
companies. In Cuba, in contrast, state enterprises are governed by
central planning, imposed directly "from above."

It would be rash to interpret this document's measures as constituting
reform, as some have ventured to assert. Nowhere does it even employ the
word "reform," and its prologue states that the conceptualization of the
economic model is rooted in the concepts of the Revolution, as expressed
by former leader Fidel Castro, and the economic guidelines approved at
the Sixth Congress of the PCC, and reaffirmed at the Seventh Congress.
It is explained that the conceptualization stresses the principles of
socialism, along with "the basic concepts and characteristics of the
ideal of a socialist society, forged by the Revolution."

With all of this, where is there any place for reform?

The document does not refer to any opening up without exclusions
(currently impeding individuals and cooperatives from exporting), the
free flow of foreign capital, urgent investments in infrastructure, or
the legal recognition of capital markets or private property to achieve
greater efficiency in the economic sphere, which would allow for the
creation of an efficient private industrial sphere.

We must remind those who have been quick to applaud the document
conceptualizing the economic model that the Cuban military dictatorship
cracked down on all kinds of freedoms long ago, that the PCC still has
the last word, and that in Cuba there is no political, economic, legal
or media independence.

The current Constitution of the Republic, enacted in 1976, and reformed
in 1992 and 2002, isn't worth the paper it´s printed on. The current
leaders, who seized power in 1959, have announced that the Constitution
will be subject to amendments, but when is not known. They have,
however, announced that Articles 3 and 5, affirming the irreversibility
of socialism and the hegemony of the PCC, will remain unaltered.

Source: Totalitarian control of the economy, with a bit of window
dressing | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1464857779_22795.html