By Deepa Fernandes
HAVANA — "Revolutionary ideas will live on as long as there are revolutionaries, patriots and noble hearts, as long as there are people who carry within them the finest human virtues", Cuban President Fidel Castro told the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party, which took place here October 8-10.
Castro was speaking to a people who have put their devotion and energies into the revolution since 1959. Now more than ever, this commitment is needed if Cuba is to survive.
In the last eight years, the Cuban people have been dealt some very serious blows. First came the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the Cuban economy's main way around the United States' economic blockade. The US then stepped up its embargo. Added to all this, bad weather and a natural disaster significantly affected Cuba's number one industry, agriculture.
This difficult situation is known in Cuba as the "special period".
The party congress was a very honest, open and critical look at where Cuba has been and where it is headed. Amidst all the changes, the basics have not been forgotten: despite all the hardship of the current economic crisis, for example, not one hospital or school has been closed.
Overcoming inefficiency
Cuba is rich in natural resources. Its agricultural potential is strong, mineral wealth significant and tourism market great.
Unfortunately, Cuba has never maximised any of these industries to their fullest, relying more on subsidies from the Soviet bloc. Fidel spoke of the too many "instances of inefficiency and our own errors" which in part were due to too heavy a reliance on the Soviets.
Much of this previous inefficiency came from copying too closely the Soviet model. The Cuban leadership began to deal with this in the late '80s through a rectification campaign. Time was the enemy, however, as in 1989 the upheavals in the Soviet Union began and overnight the Cuban economy lost 85% of its export markets.
The collapse of the Soviet Union meant a 2 million tonne shortfall in petroleum imports, exacerbated by increases in oil prices due to the Gulf War. Emergency measures included cuts to electricity consumption and petrol cuts through rationing. The number of cars on the road dropped significantly.
In 1992 Cuba produced 69% less pork, 89% less powdered milk and 82% fewer chickens than in 1989.
Then natural disasters hit. In 1993 the century's worst storm occurred in Cuba, causing over one billion dollars in damage. This was followed by Hurricane Lili in 1996, which destroyed over 120,000 tonnes of vegetables, 16,000 tonnes of rice, 150,000 tonnes of fruit and significant quantities of poultry, cattle and other animals.
Shortages
In October 1994 foodstuffs were returned solely to ration book consumption. High inflation struck for the first time, making access to a basic diet much tougher. Whereas before the crisis rations satisfied essential needs and more, rationing really became part of daily life in the special period.
While goods such as rice and beans were reduced a little per head, others, such as cooking oil, have virtually disappeared, being available only in the dollar shops. Before the crisis there was no limit on eggs, but now the ration book allows seven eggs per person every 15 days.
A black market has arisen in eggs: some people don't eat the eggs they get from the state but rather resell them at much higher prices. In 1990 the price of eggs rose from 8 centavos to 15 centavos. Today they are as much as 3 pesos in Havana. The average wage of 150 pesos per month has not risen accordingly.
Poor sugar harvests occurred in the worst years of the economic crisis, 1993-1994. The harvest of only 4 million tonnes was drastically less than the usual 7 million tonnes, due in part to unfavourable weather but also to shortages of petrol and spare parts for the machinery.
Stabilisation
The main task of the government thus became stabilising the economy. Many of the reforms have been market oriented. In August 1993, the US dollar was legally returned to circulation. This was followed in September by the authorising of limited individual trade.
In 1994 legal markets were introduced for the sale of fresh produce and some manufactured goods at deregulated prices. Vendors of light refreshments also began to appear on the streets.
The economy and planning minister, Jose Rodriguez, in his presentation to the party congress, made a brief analysis of the opening of the economy to foreign investment, specifying that it was a positive step which would remain even after the special period.
Rodriguez stated that self-employment is going through a phase of consolidation, with legislation being enacted to regulate it, but he confirmed that this sector is also here to stay.
These sentiments were repeated by Vice President Carlos Lage in his presentation of the draft economic resolution, which states in regard to self-employment that it plays "a positive role in the economy by increasing the available range of goods and services, as well as providing a source of employment".
The majority of previously state owned farms are passing into cooperative regimes. The gradual transformation of agriculture is resulting in the reduction of state subsidies to the former sugarcane plantations and other crops.
The government has also been working to reduce the amount of excess money in circulation, to restore the real value of the currency. This excess of money steadily fell from 1993 until October 1996; since then the exchange rate has been steady.
Standard methods of fiscal tightening cannot be pursued much further because additional cuts to subsidies would have serious consequences for employment.
Stabilisation therefore depends on the development of an effective tax system. Taxation, which was introduced in 1994, has established precedents for development of income taxes, profit taxes and social security contributions, but the capacity of the state to assess and collect tax is still weak. Tax in its current form is levied only on those with small private enterprises and is payable on an honour system.
Contradictions
Growing out of the economic changes are new social contradictions.
The remaining state-owned farms, which sell their produce to the state at a fixed price, are increasingly proving unproductive. When the state allocates this food for distribution, first to hospitals, schools and work canteens and then to the state grocers for distribution under the ration system, estimates are that as much as 40% is stolen and resold on the black market.
Tourism has both distorted and boosted the economy. The government has channelled large amounts of money into the construction of tourist hotels and restaurants. It is now more lucrative for a lawyer or university professor to wait tables or drive a taxi than work in their profession for the fixed state wage paid in pesos.
While a waiter may earn a few dollars a night in tips, prostitution is even more lucrative. The rate at the moment outside some of Havana's top hotels ranges from $50 to $150. Considering that the top wage in Cuba is $22 per month, and is paid in pesos, one night's work amounts to a small fortune.
In this way, Cuba seems to be experiencing another "brain drain", with many highly educated people abandoning their posts. This is the reason one female neurosurgeon gives for her new occupation.
The larger picture reveals, as all the leaders strongly emphasised at the congress, that efficiency in industry is vital.
Fidel commented that Cuba needed to make "inefficiency the exception rather than the rule". Carlos Lage said, "Socialism, in addition to signifying justice, means efficiency and quality. What is not efficient is not socialist and what does not have quality should not be produced."
Lage said that inefficiency in the past prevented a fulfilling of industrial capacity, and now "efficiency must become our way of behaving, monitoring and demanding".
Pride
While an end to the US economic blockade would bring instant relief, the people are willing to keep struggling to bring about this efficiency for themselves.
In all this political, economic and social uncertainty, in which the average Cuban is consumed with daily tasks of finding milk for their children and shoes for their feet, there is a deeply felt pride. No matter how tough life is now, most Cubans are willing to see it through, to take what comes and to make do.
"This is a battle", Fidel stated, "and in battle the essential factor is the people, their awareness, their willingness to fight, their spirit of sacrifice, their sense of honour".
Cubans know they are an oasis. Life is tough, but as Carlos Lage said, "Only through economic recovery and increases in production can we stabilise the distribution of rationed products, lower the prices of food and other products in the non-rationed markets and attenuate the inequalities which have emerged which so justly irritate our people".
Despite everything, the people are willing to endure their hardships because they know that they will triumph. And they have Fidel's assurance that what happened to other revolutions will never happen to the Cuban Revolution.