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In his thoughtful Counterpunch comment on the 'updating' of the Cuban
model, Nelson Valdes writes:
'Karl Marx in /_The Critique of the Gotha Program
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0717800431/counterpunchmaga>_
/said that “Right can never be higher than the economic structure of
society and its cultural development conditioned thereby.” In other
words, if Cuba is to move into the logic that capacity to purchase
should be a significant mechanism to obtain things, how “fair” is that
when some people have a head start because they have foreign exchange
from abroad in their pockets while others do not? Is it that efficiency
is to be measured by profitability, cost of production or something
else? Is it that the social wage [services provided without citizens
direct payment] will be reduced and the stress will be on personal
income? Is the piece rate how work and income will be established? These
are some of the questions concerning Cubans today. The newer policies
and the expected outcomes could very well demolish the /highly
integrated/ /and unique/ nation state that was created after 1959.'
Nelson doubtless knows that this quotation is consistently repeated
in Cuba as a theoretical guideline for its 'updated' model.
Unfortunately, Cuban direction interprets that quote from Marx in the
same way as the Soviets, the Chinese and the Vietnamese leadership et al
have--- that the further development of productive forces [by all means
necessary?] is the necessary condition for the advancement of socialism.
So, wait. The problem with this interpretation, though,is that it
asserts that 'the economic structure of society' is identical with
productive forces--- rather than referring to the relations of
production of a sociey! In fact, it is the latter which corresponds to
Marx's argument in the Gotha Critique [see my discussion in The
Socialist Imperative: from Gotha to Now, published in 2015 by Monthly
Review], and it is the failure to understand this that historically has
led to that deadend that Che warned about. And. of course, to a working
class with neither the strength nor the will to resist the restoration
of capitalism.
michael
--
---------------------
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Home: Phone 604-689-9510
Cell: 604-789-4803
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