Cuba

The Process of Socialist Development

Bibliographic Data

ID4501002
AuthorsKen Cole (School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, England), corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume29
Issue3
Pages40-56
Publication date2002-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x0202900303
OpenAlexW2040470843
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited11

Since the revolutionary victory of January 1, 1959, two themes have characterized the process of development: the need to industrialize and the imperative of social participation in the process. With the exception of a few food, lumber and textile industries, Cuba continues to be a producer of raw materials. We export sugar and import candy, we export hides and import shoes, we export iron and import ploughs. Everybody agrees that the need to industrialize the country is urgent (Castro, 1967: 4). For living standards to rise and livelihoods to be more secure, the economy had to be reorganized to be less dependent on primary production (essentially sugar) and more oriented to secondary production (manufacturing). This was a transition that crucially relied on an economic surplus for investment in manufacturing processes, a surplus to be generated by international trade, and a recurring constraint has been Cuba's dependence on sugar as the major export. Cuban strategy since the Revolution has always been in the context of a dependent external sector that has been a major obstacle (Rodriguez, 1990: 209, my translation). Industrialization was part and parcel of the development that was to be achieved as part of a process of self-determination-a revolutionary process that had a long history in Cuba (see August, 1999: Chaps. 1-3). Our task is to enlarge democracy within the revolutionary process as much as possible . . . to assure channels for the expression of the popular will (Che Guevara, quoted by Zeitlin, 1970: 78). At times these objectives have conflicted; economic and political imperatives have been in contradiction

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