Cuba is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1959 revolution, as a result of the US blockade and the collapse of economic relations with eastern Europe. MIKE TREVASKIS, who visited in December and January, reports on the measures Cubans hope will overcome the crisis.
"It is difficult to imagine any other people in the world making an intellectual, creative effort like this", Fidel Castro said in a speech on December 16. "It would be difficult for any other country to have accumulated, in such a brief period of time, such a large and competent contingent of men and women capable of undertaking a task like this. Under capitalism one couldn't even imagine it, as, in the first place it would be inconceivable to achieve the level of cooperation which has been reached in our country ...
"Since the triumph of the revolution we have been an absolutely independent country for the first time in our nation's history, and that is something we will never abandon. I repeat, we will never go back to being a US colony.
"The peoples of Latin America and the third world know what it would mean for them if the United States could get its way and wipe out the Cuban revolution. They are horrified to think about this and they tell us: 'Resist, our hope lies in your resistance.' That is what it's about, resisting; and if we resist, we win."
Fidel's speech provides a good indication of the mood of the vast majority of the Cuban people, and also a wealth of statistical and anecdotal information. Throughout the nation there is a strong determination to resist and to overcome the "special period" — the period dating from about September 1990, when Cuba was forced to begin making severe cutbacks.
The will to struggle is partly based on a fierce sense of national pride, which, after more than 30 years of avowedly socialist revolution, is intertwined with internationalism and a strong sense of solidarity with the nations of the Third World. It is also based on a sense of optimism, which is realistic, because Cubans are well informed about their current difficulties, and many programs to overcome them are now well advanced.
Most importantly, the Cuban people's support for their revolution is based on the enormous advances in living standards that have been made since 1959. Everywhere the people I saw were well fed, well clothed, healthy and educated. Although there is a housing shortage, particularly in the cities, nobody sleeps on the streets. The austerity the Cuban people must endure will probably be worse in 1992, but nobody will be left with nothing.
Despite all the difficulties 15,000 housing units, 400 family doctor surgeries, the enlargement and remodelling of seven hospitals, 14 child-care centres and one vocational training school were completed in 1991. Cuba has been able to remain free of cholera, to provide schools for all its children, work for all its workers and a pension after retirement to all its workers. Cuba has achieved indices in scientific and technological development, health, education and omparable only to the most industrially developed countries.
Notwithstanding the great shortages, there is no real poverty in Cuba, no beggars or street pedlars, no completely destitute people. This is one of the most important factors behind Cuba's very low crime rate. The feeling of national solidarity, friendship and trust in each other are also very important.
Tourism
The Cuban people's attitude to tourists and tourism provides a good example of this consciousness.
The government decided some years ago to make tourism a high national priority, and many scarce resources have been invested in the infrastructure, facilities and staff necessary for an international tourist industry.
The government has also established a dual dollar and peso economy. Anything that one is able to buy can be bought for dollars in the hotels, restaurants, bars and shops which operate completely separately from the normal peso economy. The dollar shops are generally well stocked, while there is scarcity and very little which is not rationed in the rest of the economy. Not once in the three and a half weeks I spent in Cuba did I have any need to exchange dollars for pesos.
It is illegal for Cuban citizens to be in possession of dollars. The government argues that all hard currency which comes into Cuba — tourism is Cuba's third largest source of hard currency — should be controlled by the state and used according to national priorities. This argument is generally accepted, and the importance of the tourist industry and the consequent dual economy, with all its problems and inequities, is understood by most Cubans.
So, while it would be only human for Cubans to feel somewhat envious and resentful about the comparatively rich and privileged foreigners in their midst, I encountered only friendliness and respect everywhere I went. Nowhere did I feel at all threatened or unsafe. Even when I came across people who wanted to illegally exchange pesos for dollars (the black market rate is 20 times the official rate), they were usually people who said they supported the revolution, but just wanted to get some nice clothes for their children or an electrical product unavailable in the peso economy.
'Two blockades'
In his December 16 speech, Fidel pointed out that for 30 years Cuba had based development on economic relations with the socialist bloc. These relations collapsed in a period of only 24 months, reducing Cuban imports of merchandise from $8 billion to less than $4 billion a year.
"Today we cannot speak of one blockade; today we must speak of two blockades. When the [US] blockade began we had capitalist and western technology ... and now the immense majority of the equipment is from the Soviet Union and the former socialist camp ... and not a single spare part is arriving. "... it's not that the Soviets want to blockade us, but there's no way to get the parts ... Of the total number of products agreed upon [in 1991], less than half have arrived ... The amount of fuel received until December 1 is 54 percent of what was received in 1989 and what we have received of all other products is 20 percent of that of 1989."
Agreements with the Soviet Union had partially protected Cuba against worsening terms of trade. In the early 1960s, Fidel explained, the one ton of sugar bought seven tons of petroleum. Today on the world market, one ton of sugar buys only 1.3 or 1.4 tons of petroleum.
"For many years we were protected by the fact that we had trade agreements with the USSR ... signed before petroleum prices rose wildly ... and thanks to those agreements we continued to obtain several tons of petroleum for one ton of sugar in our trade with the Soviet Union ...
"Today, all of the sugar that we produce, at those prices, would not be sufficient to satisfy our country's fuel needs ...
"The special period still has not got to its worst point, and essentially it is the fuel situation which forces us to move into the worst stage of the special period.
"Of course, we are not standing around idly. We are studying all the possibilities of acquiring fuel through different channels, starting with considering which of our exports we can dedicate to the purchase of fuel; but what is most probable is that the country will not have more than a third of the fuel which it has traditionally consumed.
"That is why I think that we will go through the worst part of the special period in 1992."
Examples of the austerity measures the Cuban people face during the "special period" include:
- The food ration for each citizen has been approximately halved.
- The amount of clothing has been cut from four or five shirts, trousers and/or skirts and dresses to only one of each per person per year.
- Services on some bus routes in Havana have been cut from five or six buses per hour to only one.
- There are deliberate regular blackouts, in different provinces at different times, of all non-essential electrical services, in order to conserve fuel.
- Agriculture is reintroducing oxen and horses to replace machinery and vehicles for which the fuel can no longer be afforded. It has been calculated that eight oxen are equivalent to one tractor.
- The state sector has reduced its consumption of electricity by 19%. Work shifts have been moved off peak hours, productive processes have become more efficient, and some factories operate shorter hours for lack of raw materials and fuel.
- Domestic consumption of electricity has reversed its traditional 6% annual growth, dropping instead by 3.5%, despite an increase in the total number of consumers during 1991.
In December 1991 a further series of energy and cost saving measures were announced, including:
- Jobs will be eliminated in some workplaces, so it will be necessary to relocate those displaced personnel in useful tasks, primarily in priority activities in agriculture.
- The number of personnel working in the central agencies and their branches will be reduced in accordance with the reductions made in production and services.
- Television broadcasts will be reduced to five hours daily, and the use of air-conditioners will be eliminated whenever possible.
- The allotment of fuel to state vehicles and the ration of petrol and diesel for private vehicles will both be reduced by 30%.
- Each province will have to plan its own energy consumption within a maximum amount of energy allotted to it on a daily basis.
New directions
Fortunately, Fidel said, Cuba had stepped up its efforts in scientific research "long before the disaster in the socialist camp".
"Today the survival of the revolution and of socialism, the preservation of this country's independence, depend fundamentally on science and technology ...
"Now, as the petroleum is running out, science will have to look for different sources of fuel and will perhaps have to use hydrogen or other raw materials in order to develop a non-polluting fuel ... and if in 1992 we will have only one ton of petroleum where we used to have three, we must be able to make do with that one ton of petroleum.
"In agriculture we will have to employ a lot more oxen ... We will have to rely more and more on bicycles, keep acquiring bicycles, assembling bicycles and manufacturing bicycles as a means of transportation, and tricycles to substitute trucks and other vehicles we are now using. We have acquired 60,000 tricycles that can be used to transport groceries and provide many services presently carried out by motor vehicles ... There are towns that no longer use taxis, they use coaches, horse-drawn carriages."
Export industries such as nickel and tourism will be expected to pay for fuel they consume through their own hard currency income.
"We have to guarantee priority activities in these circumstances and, it goes without saying, food production is priority number one.
"... in the first place it is a political problem ... That is, the efforts in science and technology need a political premise, which is the will to struggle and win."
Biotechnology
One of the best examples of Cuba's scientific and technological development is in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Cuba has developed an anti-cholesterol drug, PPG, unavailable in the west, and has produced a number of vaccines and other medicines and medical test kits.
Cuba is also adopting some traditional forms of alternative medicine. There has been a great deal of research into medicines that can be produced from herbs available in Cuba. Acupuncture, naturopathy and other alternative therapies are also beginning to appear.
Agriculture is also undergoing enormous changes, many of them dependent on the application of new technology. The major aims of agricultural policy are to diversify the range of foodstuffs, to increase output and to increase productivity and efficiency. Many of these aims are being pursued through the food program.
In addition to the involvement of state farms and cooperatives and 70,000 small farmers in the food program, a great number of agricultural camps have been established. Most of the labour force at the camps are workers from the cities and towns who volunteer to live and work there for between two and four weeks. In Havana province alone there are 12 such camps, each comprising about 3000 hectares and requiring about 300 workers. The major foods produced are rice, green vegetables, root vegetables, fruit and dairy products.
New techniques of irrigation, often involving sprinkler systems, and of food processing and refrigeration have been adopted. Cuban agriculture has also taken to many techniques of organic farming, such as the use of organic fertilisers to replace the chemical fertilisers previously imported. Biological methods developed in Cuba to control and destroy insect pests are replacing the use of chemical poisons, also previously imported.
The investment in science and technology is also evident in the educational system, where emphasis is given in senior high school (years 10 to 12) and in tertiary education to the development of knowledge and skills in mathematics, physical sciences and biological sciences. Computer literacy and familiarity are considered very important, and desktop PCs can be found in many high schools and at special computer training centres run by the Young Communist League.
Closing his address, Fidel referred again to the talent and dedication of the Cuban people. "We can do many things and we can go very far because we have something the others do not have: the amount of accumulated talent in our society, the amount of intelligence developed. With what we have, we can achieve whatever we want.
"... It impresses me to know that we have doctors, specialists, e millionaires abroad, many of whom here do not have a car ... but they do not think of betraying their country.
"And there are thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of our compatriots who will not exchange their ideas at any price, who would not exchange their country for any amount of riches ... and if we have a people like that ... it is because we have had the revolution, because we have had socialism, and because we have had a dignified and independent country in which to develop ourselves, in which to come together, in which to invest our imaginations, our intelligence, our talent."
[Quotations from Fidel's speech are from the transcript published in English in Granma International.]