Cuba: The Socialist Project in a Capitalist World

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 made great strides in its first 30 years, enjoying the international socialist solidarity of the USSR and its allies, despite the crippling hostility of the US and its virtual blockade of the fledgling socialist state. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR and cut off of trade from the former COMECON countries, Cuba entered the “Special Period.” Cuba successfully adverted economic collapse but at the price of distorting some of the socialist standards. The new millennium brought new challenges and the deepening consensus for economic and social adjustments. Our panel will discuss the pressures and rationales for structural socio-economic change and the impact on the relations of production and the forces of production. We explore the economic reforms started and proposed, along with the practice of socialist democracy, which has deeply engaged the entire population in collectively contributing to the understanding of the problems and their solutions.

Panelists: Sharat G. Lin, Richard Hobbs, David Oberweiser, and Roger Harris with Kathleen Densmore moderating will report back from their visits to Cuba. Sharat is with the San Jose Peace and Justice Center and is an international journalist. Richard is founder of Human Agenda and former director of the Santa Clara County Office of Human Relations. David is a trade union activist who has had a long-term project visiting Cuba to research agricultural workers. Roger is active in the Task Force on the Americas. Kathleen worked in the Ministry of Education in Havana for a semester during the Special Period. In June, David, Kathleen, and Roger attended an international conference in Havana on The Socialist Renewal and Capitalist Crisis, while Richard and Sharat and were also in Cuba at the same time independently researching the ongoing economic changes.

All welcome Suggested donation: $5-10 (no one turned away)

Sponsored by the Task Force on the Americas, the Institute for Critical Study of Society (ICSS), Human Agenda, and the San José Peace and Justice Center