Social and Solidarity Economy and the Transformation of the Cuban Economic Model

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.10.2.0209
• Pages: 209-229
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Author: Rafael Betancourt
• Subject Matter: social and solidarity economy,reforms,socialism,sustainability,public and private enterprise

IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/

ACADEMIC ARTICLE

SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY AND

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CUBAN

ECONOMIC MODEL1

Rafael Betancourt2

San Gerónimo University College, Havana

Abstract

As a consequence of the recent economic reforms, many believe that Cuban society is

in reality evolving towards the deconstruction of its social and solidarity economy and

that the economic players are less and less responsible towards the society and the

environment. Is it true that we run the risk that greed and narrow-minded personal

pursuit will supplant social values such as righteousness, generosity, compassion,

cooperation, empathy and community? This article examines the concept of the social and

solidarity economy (SSE) applied to the Cuban reality, beginning with a characterisation

of its economic system based on the mixed or plural economy model. It concludes that a

Cuban SSE is the potential union of those three spheres – public, enterprise and private –

comprised of a variety of economic actors – State, associative and autonomous – that

adopts the principles of responsibility towards society and the environment.

Keywords: social and solidarity economy, reforms, socialism, sustainability, public

and private enterprise

Introduction

On May Day 2018, International Labour Day, hundreds of thousands of Cubans –

including groups of self-employed workers or ‘cuentapropistas’ – paraded in dozens

of cities and towns across the Island, embracing the novel slogan launched by the

government, ‘Towards a prosperous and sustainable Socialism.’ They were

summoned by the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC), which aims to organise

and represent them as it does State-sector workers.

210 ACADEMIC ARTICLE – RAFAEL BETANCOURT

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 10.2 WInter 2018

The implicit message is that Cuba’s private-sector workers are allies of their

public and cooperative colleagues in the construction of the new model of a

socialist economy. Implicit also is that the citizens who are building that model

share the values of solidarity and social and environmental responsibility, intrin-

sic to Socialism.

But, what Socialism are we supposed to be building? According to Marino

Murillo (2013), former minister of the Economy and Planning,

Socialism is social ownership of the fundamental means of production. Prosperity

refers to the satisfaction of people’s needs. Sustainability is the capacity of the

society to sustain itself economically, socially and environmentally, which is

equivalent to development, because you cannot sustain what you do not develop.

In economic terms, it means developing a (macro) social and solidarity econ-

omy (SSE) made up of a mix of economic actors – State-owned enterprises,

cooperatives, private workers – that adopt as part of their (micro) economic

activities of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services, the

principles of responsibility towards society (family, employees, clients and other

stakeholders, the community) and the environment, natural and constructed,

and democratic governance.

Nevertheless, many believe that Cuban society is in reality evolving towards

the deconstruction of its SSE and that the economic players are less and less

responsible towards the society and the environment. Is it true that we run the

risk that greed and narrow-minded personal pursuit will supplant social values

such as righteousness, generosity, compassion, cooperation, empathy and

community?

This article examines the concept of the SSE applied to the Cuban reality,

beginning with a characterisation of its economic system based on the mixed or

plural economy model. It concludes that a Cuban SSE is the potential union of

those three spheres – public, enterprise and private – comprised of a variety of

economic actors – State, associative and autonomous – that adopts the principles

of responsibility towards society and the environment.

Cuba’s Socialist Economy: Implicit and Changing Concepts

In Cuba, social responsibility and solidarity constitute – theoretically – the raison

d’être of economic activity, promoted top-down by the central government in an

economy with a strong predominance of the State sector. The term used in Cuba

to characterise our system is ‘socialist economy’, not ‘social and solidarity

economy’, despite their coincidences. This model was created by the State