Cuba Will Always Be Socialist

I’ve recently read a number of articles that make the baseless claim that Cuba is attempting to rebuild a capitalist system, or that socialism is disappearing in our country.

Without a doubt, these assertions aim at spreading discontent and uncertainty among revolutionaries and those who sympathize with the Cuban revolution and defend the socialist system, aware that it is the most humane and successful from the social point of view and that it has achieved important things that no one wishes to lose.

To support these claims, they point to the growth of the non-State sector and the promulgation of Cuba’s new foreign investment law. No socialist theoretician, however, has ever questioned the legitimacy of small private properties. One of the first laws passed by Cuba’s revolutionary government granted farmers who worked for land-owners ownership of the lands they worked.

What the theory of socialism establishes is that the State, representing the entire people, maintains ownership over the chief means of production, to which we could add such service industries as the energy, transportation, telecommunications, health, education and other sectors that service the people directly, with the aim of preventing exploitation by the private sector, which is only interested in profits.

Another false argument wielded by the enemies of the socialist revolution is that the State takes in profits. What they deny is the fact that, in a socialist society, the State administers the people’s property and re-invests all income to the benefit of the people.

Those who write or make such claims refuse to accept that Cuba’s socialist system is irrevocable under the constitution, approved by more than 97 percent of voters through a referendum. Article 3 of Section I of our charter of rights and freedoms establishes: “(…) socialism and the revolutionary political and social system established by this constitution, characterized by years of heroic resistance before aggression of every kind and the economic warfare declared by the government of the most powerful imperialist power that has ever existed, having demonstrated its ability to transform the country and create an entirely new and just society, is irrevocable, and Cuba will never return to capitalism.”

Cuba’s constitution also includes a Special Declaration which states:

“Between the 15th and 18th of June, 2002, the Cuban people almost unanimously expressed its decided support for the constitutional reform bill advanced by grassroots organizations during an extraordinary session held by national representatives on the 10th of June, where the Constitution of the Republic was ratified in whole and the socialist system and political and social system established within it are declared irrevocable.”

Some say they expect an avalanche of US companies to drown the country and slice up the Cuban economy for themselves, but those who say such things know nothing of the new Foreign Investment Law which regulates investments on the basis of the nation’s development interests. Section I, Article I of the law establishes that the legislation is aimed at established the legal framework for foreign investment in Cuba, on the basis of respect towards the law, the country’s sovereignty and independence and to secure mutual benefits that will contribute to economic development, to contribute to a prosperous and sustainable socialist society.”

I recommend that those who are genuinely worried about the dangers facing socialism in Cuba read the new foreign investment law, to see that Cuba is not applying neo-liberal policies that sell the country out to transnational corporations. Cuba will always be socialist.