Le Figaro - International : Fidel Castro ne croit plus au castrisme

Automatically translated by Google:

In an interview, the lider maximo said that the Cuban economic model " does not even work" on the communist island . An historic declaration .

" The Cuban model does not work even for us. " The sentence has been dropped by Fidel Castro at a turn maintenance conducted last week with a journalist from U.S. magazine The Atlantic. As if nothing had happened . The confession , however , is history . This is the first time that the father of the Cuban revolution manifests such a waiver . Evidence that the former Cuban president , aged 84 , is at the balance sheet. Evidence , especially, it supports the reforms initiated by his younger brother, President Raul Castro, the Cuban economy to stimulate .

Julia Sweiger, a specialist U.S. Cuba introduced during the interview , Castro said that " the state plays too large a role in economic life " . A view of nature to help meet Raul orthodox Communist Party of Cuba , hostile to his conservative attempts to liberalize the economy. In power since 4 years, the Cuban president has proposed , for example to allow foreign investment in real estate to revitalize the tourism sector in crisis . Another measure is largely symbolic : the removal of a million public sector jobs over five years , announced this summer .


Castro plays the pacifist card

In his review , Castro admits having made mistakes . It provides for example that having suggested to the Soviet nuclear attack against the United States in 1962 , when the missile crisis , was perhaps not the best thing to do ... "After seeing this I've seen and with what I know now, it was not worth the trouble completely , "says lider maximo . Nuclear war is the new obsession of Fidel Castro . Since reappearance in public in JulyAfter withdrawal of four years following a bowel operation , he speaks frequently . The Pinochet even think to create a motion control against a possible nuclear conflict between the U.S. and Iran .

Fidel Castro has also used his interview The Atlantic criticizing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , which multiplies the provocation vis-à - vis Israel , another nuclear power . "He has criticized his denial of the Holocaust and explained why the Iranians would serve the cause of peace by renouncing anti-Semitism , " writes Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who wrote the interview. For Castro, the president of Iran should understand that the Jews " were driven from their land, persecuted and abused around the world and it is normal that they now feel threatened.

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Haha... Life immitating art, or at least an episode of the Simpsons.

"Comrades, we are going to have to give up communism."
"Awwwww."
"Oh come on. We all knew from the beginning that this mumbo jumbo would never fly."

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Lets not get too excited.


Cuba: from communist to co-operative?

Fidel Castro's admission that Cuba isn't working doesn't mean a change to capitalism – far from it


o Stephen Wilkinson
o guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 September 2010 15.00 BST


Fidel Castro's wry comment to US journalist Geoffrey Goldberg that Cuba's economic system isn't working has become an aside that has echoed round the world as columnists and commentators have seized upon it as the confession of a man preparing to meet his maker.

However, as it is wont to do with Cuba, the world's media (especially that which is vehemently opposed to socialism) is perhaps reading a little too much into the comment. Fidel is a keen media watcher himself and seeing the attention his remark has received will surely be clarifying his views in the days to come, but you can be sure it will not be to say that capitalism is the answer. (Indeed, elsewhere in the Goldberg interview he told his interlocutor that he was still very much a dialectical materialist.)

So what exactly did the old man say? To be specific: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," was his answer to being asked if he believed it was something still worth exporting. That is hardly an admission of total failure. He clearly thinks it worked once, and since he does not elaborate on the reasons why he thinks it doesn't work now, it is premature to assume that he is chucking in the towel.

Nor can the statement be interpreted as him saying that socialism per se has failed – merely that Cuba's current model of it no longer fits the times. He has consistently held the view that there are as many models of socialism as there are countries that try it out. As a Marxist he believes that the particular circumstances of each society and the peculiarities of their histories affect the character of whatever politics they might have – be they communist or capitalist.

What the statement really means is that he agrees with his brother that the way the Cuban system is currently configured has to change, but watch the space carefully – this does not automatically imply that free-market capitalism is the answer – far from it.

Since being handed power by his brother in 2006, Raúl Castro has taken measures to reform the economy, including using some market mechanisms and allowing more citizens to work for themselves. In order to shrink the state (and the deficit – Cuba is in the same boat as the rest of us), something like a million government workers are set to lose their jobs in the coming months.

The government has recently handed out more than 2.5m acres of land to individuals and co-operatives, in order that they produce more food, and has accordingly loosened controls that prohibit Cubans from selling fruit and vegetables. In an effort to build a modern tourism infrastructure it has eased property laws to give lease periods of up to 99 years for foreign investors.

However, at the same time the government has announced that workers will be encouraged to take over the ownership of the companies in which they work. In a move that the government has actually called a deepening of socialism, the Cubans are about to launch what could potentially become the biggest co-operative project the world has ever seen.

The government is saying that the old centrally planned Soviet-style of socialism has finally hit the buffers – a new form of socialism is required, in which the state ceases to be the administrator of economic activity but the regulator. That's a different model of socialism – it may not work either – but it is not capitalism.

Cuba: from communist to co-operative? | Stephen Wilkinson | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Cool. I personally like co-operative models. As long as they recognise private property and market price mechanism for supply/demand, I think they're great - Just capitalist companies with a better shareholding/ownership base...

In general, you need an involved owner and, if possible, various points of view. What better way to achieve that than having a broad shareholding, with suppliers, clients, workers and capital owners, all owning the company?

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