Contemporary Cuba Since 1989

Introduction

I've been going to Cuba since 1984. I am heavily invested in a movement since the second decade of the 2000s, a vast democratization of grassroots social activism on issues of racial, social, and LGBTQ justice.

I am the international representative of the Red Barriada for Sinente, the Afro-descended neighborhood network that federates social movements and cultural societies in Western Cuba.
These organizations are mostly run by women and focus on popular education.
They address current-day race discrimination.

The Special Period

The Wikipedia information on Cuba often references the 1940 constitution, which influenced the 2019 post-communist constitution.

Questions about the legal and political structure and how a socialist system works regarding the participation it allows, has no choice but to allow, and limits are relevant.

In 1984, Cuba had many East European tourists and infrastructure built for tourism.

There was Soviet-Cuban cooperation in universities, scientific research, and criminal justice (East Germans negatively influenced carceral culture).
There were discussions about building a subway or tramway through Havana, an international airport in eastern Cuba, and modernizing highways.
Socialist forms of mobilization (micro brigades) built working-class housing.
There was an aim to achieve acceptable housing levels and a surplus in housing.

Cuba in the 1980s was on an upward path of development by Third World/Global South standards, despite the American blockade.

There were organic connections with both Western and Eastern Europe.
Mexico was the only Latin American country that refused to isolate Cuba.
There was satire and openness, but also a rigid state with rules for everything.
Pollution was illegal, and neighborhood associations were expected to resolve issues like trash accumulation.
Government grants were available for fixing potholes and improving electricity.
Cubans gained homeownership, even if they had been squatters.

The 1990s Crisis

Everything collapsed catastrophically. The worst part of the Cuban revolution was the early 1970s.

After the initial phase of Third World internationalism, the optimism of the Vietnamese, Algerian, and Congolese revolutions, and guerrilla movements in Latin America collapsed around 1968.
The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia showed that authoritarian bureaucratic states held political organizations and sovereignty hostage. If people wanted to remain free, it had to fall in line with the politics of the East.
In the early 1970s, there was neo-Stalinism, with the arresting of poets and censoring of art.
The Communist Party was established in 1975, institutionalizing the revolution.
Despite rigidity, there was internationalist engagement, including the revolution in Portugal and decolonization in Angola and Mozambique.
Cuba saw itself as trapped in the Eastern Bloc.
They adopted organs of popular power (a form of governance invented by the Portuguese Revolution in 1975).
They became the main actors in the decolonization of Portuguese Africa, which led to the fall of apartheid.

In 1990, daily life was difficult.

There were no buses to work, no light at workplaces, suspended lunches, and electrical blackouts.
Stores were empty, and staples like rice and eggs were scarce.
It was a period of existential bewilderment, as people believed in progress and didn't expect the Soviet Union to collapse.
Fidel Castro wanted to return to basics, aiming for self-sufficiency and sovereignty.
Gorbachev suspended aid at Ronald Reagan's demand.
The East European economies were privatized, cutting off collaboration.
US immigration policy favored Cubans, granting green cards to those who reached the beach, while Haitians were deported.
This led to remittances, where families relied on money from relatives in the US to survive.
The government promoted volunteer work on Sundays to increase production, aiming for a utopian socialist ideal where money would disappear, and services would be provided for collective well-being.

Participation and Change

The government encouraged participation to solve problems.

In the Callehon Nehomet in Havana, artists painted walls, and religious groups held Afro-Cuban ceremonies. The government allowed this, seeing it as cultural pride.
Fidel Castro lifted the ban on public expressions of religion.
Gospels and Protestant liberation theologians developed strategies of mutual aid.
There was religious and cultural mobilization, along with dissenters expressing radical views on the revolution's failures.
The revolution did not collapse because there was revolutionary and nationalist legitimacy.
They decentralized power to municipalities, prioritizing healthcare professional training and selling those services internationally.

International Relations and Cooperation

The Cubans organized the Congolese resistance against the dictatorship, which led to the Angolan liberation movement's plan to free Angola and support the anti-apartheid cause in South Africa.

In 1979, revolutions occurred in Nicaragua and Grenada.
Cuba aimed for Caribbean cooperation to overcome isolation caused by the US blockade.
They joined the Commonwealth and CARICOM.
Caribbean prime ministers are involved in discussions of reparations, refugee rights, and Pan-Africanism.
The Caribbean is a radical theater for exploring alternatives to colonization, focusing on South-South cooperation.
The Cubans helped Grenada and Nicaragua, prioritizing black and indigenous rights in Nicaragua.
They sent literacy brigades to rural areas.
Human feminism spread.
By the late 1990s, people from other Caribbean countries returned the favor of medical and educational cooperation.

Cuba became more Caribbean-focused and realized they needed to be less reliant on copies of other models.

They no longer trusted the US to lift the embargo.
In the early 2000s, Caribbean festivals in Santiago fostered cooperation for regional development and reduced Cuba's geo-strategic isolation.
During the Chavez revolution, Venezuela shared refined oil with Caribbean and Central American countries.
The Cuban population pushed for freedom of religion and the removal of Marxism-Leninism from the constitution.
Religious figures promoted social justice campaigns.
The Catholic Church and communist youth founded a youth center in Havana, promoting culture and tourism.
Digitalization changed the press landscape.
There is a high degree of religious freedom.
Churches influenced debates on reproductive rights and abortion in the 2019 constitution.
Popular power and municipal government allowed for more diverse opinions, though without full independence.
The Mujeres Blanco (women in white) protested every weekend against the regime, and the government decided not to stop it.

Civil Society and Reform

The creation of non-state-run civil society organizations was allowed, promoting cultural rights as long as they didn't undermine the socialist state.

Social and medical workers called attention to crime and police profiling.
There was a rise in anti-discrimination and anti-racism movements.
In 1986, Fidel Castro acknowledged ongoing prejudice and worsening inequalities.

There are no political parties in Cuba due to the history of corrupt and clientelistic parties before the revolution.

Charismatic leadership and improvisation governed Cuba for a time.
When the Eastern Bloc fell, the government had to decide how to allow reform without a social explosion.
The Caribbean and Cuba became more integrated, with countries circumventing US rules to trade with Cuba.
A cooperative system developed in the countryside to address agricultural issues.
The government sold its fishing fleet to pay salaries during the crisis.
Fishermen re-established fishing rights and created cooperatives.

Economic Changes and Challenges

Small businesses were institutionalized and legalized, as was homeownership and freedom of religion and publication.

Capitalism's development was stemmed by not privatizing large-scale wholesale.
There are no Walmarts, Targets, or Home Depots.
The country functions on a low level of consumption.
There are bank accounts, checking accounts, savings accounts, and credit.
Social welfare is prioritized.
Professional social workers were trained to help with the reinsertion of young people into society.
Mental illness is revisited in more contemporary ways.
Non-state actors are allowed to solve problems.

Cuba is geographically diverse.

The east is more radically pro-revolution, while the west is more anti-revolution.
There is dissent and countercultural pressure on the government in Havana.
Further east, things are well-organized, factories are functioning, and local development is happening.
Government manipulates countryside/city differences.

There is a combination of centralized control and grassroots empowerment, made possible by the philosophy of direct democracy.

Cubans believe in deliberation and voting in assemblies.
Openness to deliberation ends at the intermediate level of economic planning.
There is a heavy state bureaucracy.
Economic inequalities have surfaced, with an increasing awareness of economic unfairness.
Political participation is mostly brought by civil society to the government.

Racism

Discrimination, prejudice, and racism persist, which Fidel had warned about.

Opposition groups in Miami highlight racism in Cuba.
Civil society mobilized for the recognition of this problem.
In 2012, there was a bicentennial of the Al Conte conspiracy, an antislavery revolt inspired by the Haitian revolution.
The hero, Jose Maria Ponte, a black man, was underrepresented in history books.
The Afro Descendant Association was born in 2012.
The government organized a commission named after Aponte to study racism and discrimination.
Diaz Canel, the new president, created a national commission for the study of racism and racial discrimination.
Experts from all over the world get involved in that conversation. They want to defend a revolutionary alternative to it.

Economic Activity

The new constitution has been adopted.

There's more political pluralism limited by the one-party state.
People are becoming small producers.
There is a law enabling "rely on yourselfness".
A person can open a food stand and get a license, hire a helper, and pay taxes.
This has extended to almost all areas of the country.
A young person can join a cooperative, raise chickens, and have a farm business.
Small owners are becoming more common.

There is an argument about whether Cuba can progress if everyone has a small business or whether consolidation into large land holdings or large businesses is needed to generate real economic wealth.

Cuba imports most of its food.
Cuba has advanced technologies of organic food production and gardens supported by the government.
Cuba has pristine coastlines and reefs.
Cuba has hurricane prevention technologies and strategies.
Cuba is a hurricane-affected place
Cuba is gradually becoming an actor in The Caribbean through regional cooperation.

Economic Constraints

Cuba has no right to borrow money from any bank in the world.

There is no money from the World Bank or the IMF.
If any company invests in Cuba, it is banned from docking its ships anywhere in the United States.
The government is strapped for cash.
It has no source of cash flow.
It has no class of people with private fortunes for philanthropy.
It has no large businesses. Instead, the government is signing mega-contracts with the Chinese for mineral extractions and energy infrastructure development.
They're importing peach juice from Iran.