Lights and shadows

By Francisco Aruca and Manuel Alberto Ramy

Second part of the conversation between Francisco Aruca and Manuel A. Ramy, Nov. 6 in Havana. We should clarify that that conversation, as is obvious from the date, precedes the release of the Guidelines for the next Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Francisco Aruca (FA): During this trip to Cuba, I have noticed the population’s interest in change. I’ve also noticed the uncertainty, especially regarding the half-a-million workers displaced or dismissed. How valid is this assessment? What’s happening?

Manuel Alberto Ramy (MAR): The uncertainty has several reasons. First, a million workers who are redundant and half a million who will be put on the streets by March with some initial financial support for a limited time, but a support that will inevitably end. We are at the dawn of private initiative, of saying goodbye to the “Daddy state.” This has a strong emotional impact on people.

FA: Is this something unprecedented in Cuba after 1959?

MAR: Yes, out of the half million, the state estimates that it can only relocate about 35 thousand.

FA: What about the remaining 465,000?

MAR: For them, the state has expanded self-employment, private enterprise, which has a broad scope in the service sector, but (I think) little scope in the area of production of goods, which is fundamental.

I pause to reiterate, because I already wrote about this, that the first two benefits of the plans announced so far are: one, the private sector is no longer a temporary solution, as it was in the 1990s, but a strategic solution.

Two, by allowing private parties to hire workers, the state makes this sector an important part of the labor market. This is a tremendous and very significant change, especially if measured in its historical perspective.

FA: The problems lie in the uncertainty?

MAR: Not at all. Let me mention a few bumps. The new private sector needs financial assistance, a policy of bank loans and wholesale stores that will supply it at reasonable, encouraging prices. Besides, the tax policy is not sufficiently clear. Entrepreneurs must pay, in addition to the license (around 200 Cuban pesos), about four taxes. And let me mention (though this is not the subject of your question, it’s somehow related) that the general population is paying between 220 and 240 percent in taxes on each product it buys in hard-currency stores. This should give you a better idea.

FA: As I’ve read and we’ve discussed, there are offers of microcredit from the European Union (EU). And in the United States, the USAID and others have expressed their willingness to provide credit and assistance.

MAR: That doesn’t surprise me. But let’s put the offers aside. The EU offers will depend, among other things, on what happens in the relationship between itself and the Cuban government. As to the USAID, I rule it out entirely. There are plenty of reasons and history to do that.

I told you before that, faced with a new scenario, only the fools and rogues who make policy in Florida maintain their traditional positions in relation to Cuba. For the U.S. and certain agencies, such as the USAID, the opening of a private sector becomes as enticing as candy, it becomes a possible site to influence the direction of change. Both want to create a real domestic political base – which they have lacked – and, from it, influence Cuba’s national dynamics.

FA: What are the chances of achieving this?

MAR: Look at China and Vietnam, for various reasons that are different from ours. So far, experience indicates that, regardless of who opens the spaces, the government is the first to benefit. It is also the regulator of these processes. I would add that, traditionally and in almost all countries, the small entrepreneurs are the first defenders of the status quo.

FA: I interrupt you to touch on an important point for the Cuban community in general and particularly for those living in the U.S. Will they help their entrepreneurial families?

MAR: The government has not yet ruled on that. I give you my opinion without reservations. I’ll start by telling you that our society is eager for an immigration policy that recognizes the Cuban émigrés as Cuban. They should be able to come and go without losing their homes, etc. Regarding your specific question, since the 1990s the émigrés have been sending money to their relatives who have a small farm or a restaurant, etc.

Where do some of the vegetable gardens you see in Havana province come from? Or the sandwich toasters you see in small cafes? Or the other tools? The émigrés help their families, and in turn the families save some portion of the proceeds for when their relatives come to visit. Some émigrés would like to save their money so they can retire in Cuba, a wish that greatly depends on U.S. policy. A climate of clear relations would help a lot.

FA: For years you have questioned the role of bureaucracy in any process of change, yet now you don’t. Has the bureaucracy become less important?

MAR: In the words of the late artist’s graphic Frémez, “the bureaucracy is infinite in its cunning.” And I would add that it has a tremendous ability to reproduce. Already there is a whole collection of anecdotes of people who go looking for information on these matters and get answers that contradict the provisions of the Decree Laws 11 and 12.

For example, the law provides that when someone registers as a private worker he can ply his trade anywhere in the country. I know of cases where, in the offices concerned, the workers have been told that they can work as entrepreneurs only in their municipality of residence. Do these bureaucrats have their own laws or are they sabotaging what was published in the Official Gazette? Is it bureaucracy or an obstacle course?

In the case of the distribution of idle land, essential for increasing food production, an issue that has been defined as a matter of national security, there have been significant delays due to unnecessary red tape created by local bureaucrats. It isn’t always a question of incompetence. In some cases, the bureaucrats have proved highly efficient in favoring some applicants over others.

FA: Two questions. Why is this happening? Are there no higher authorities to guide them?

MAR: I guess they do guide them. But I go back to Frémez: “The bureaucracy is infinite in its cunning.” The bureaucrats are the enforcers of policy and, while enforcing it, they can alter it and steer it away from the right course. They become lords of their fiefdoms. Remember the movie “Death of a Bureaucrat,” by the brilliant Titón (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea).

FA: But the laws were published in the Official Gazette. Is that not enough?

MAR: The laws and decree-laws come into effect when published in the Gazette, which speaks in legalese. But the process of explaining the rights and duties to the citizens is done in ordinary speech, a task that falls upon the national media.

FA: What has been the role of the mass media?

MAR: As of today, Nov. 6, it has been poor. Where are the TV and radio programs, the print-media spaces where relevant officials answer specific questions, doubts and complaints from the people about the new measures? They would be not only a necessary service to the citizenry but also to the nation, and a means to limit the power of the Obstacle Course.

It’s not a question of an isolated program or an article, but of an entire system based on the changes being made. But the issue of the press in general, of its role under socialism, would be extensive and we would depart from our subject matter. But you have to inform, not mix information with opinion, which should have its own space. And we also need real debate in the media.

FA: What prevails, the lights or the shadows?

MAR: I start by saying that there is no shadow without light. Shadows depend on illumination. During the blackouts we suffered years ago, everything was dark, there were no shadows because of the absence of light. So, at the crossroads Cuban society finds itself now, there are no “blackouts.”

“Shadows,” yes, plenty, but only because the “lightbulbs” – the policy changes – are on.

We have to pay taxes because an opening is being made to private initiative. The taxes, I think, will either drop or rise depending on the encouragement given (or not) to a particular work activity. Give greater autonomy to enterprises and those that are unprofitable will close. There may be layoffs because the labor market is opening at the expense of the private sector, and there will be a labor market because – to any objective observer – the spaces already approved are insufficient to absorb the entire workforce. For that reason, other forms of production and management will come into being. Industrial cooperatives, for example.

Changing mindsets and attitudes is one of the greatest challenges facing the country’s political leadership and entire society.