The Cuban Revolution As Socialist Human Development

The book argues that the Cuban Revolution should be understood as a model of socialist human development. Several particular features of this model were critical to the survival of the Cuban Revolution under conditions of neoliberal globalization.

Henry Veltmeyer examines the Cuban Revolution from the perspective of socialist human development, critiquing of the notion of human development used by the United Nations Development Programme to rescue capitalism from its fundamental contradictions and give a human face to an exploitative and destructive development process.

This book examines change within continuity and analyzes stability within revolution. It focuses on uneven rate of development among the political, economic, and social realms of revolutionary life in socialist Cuba; on the implications of the changes unleashed by the Third Party Congress in 1986.

The book makes accessible a selection of speeches and television appearances by Fidel Castro during the first two years of the Cuban Revolution, allowing for a fresh analysis of his ideological evolution towards socialism.

Economic and social progress is not only possible without the dog-eat-dog competition of capitalism, but socialism remains the only way forward for humanity. He describes the decisive place of Cuban volunteer combatants in the final stage of the struggle in Angola against the invasion forces of the South African apartheid regime. Introduction by Mary-Alice Waters, photos, map, notes, index.

The Cuban Revolution presents a mixed record of achievements and failures. In this comprehensive study of Cuban politics, Rhoda Rabkin examines the institutions, policies, and performance of revolutionary Cuba. The study, part of the Politics in Latin America Hoover Institution Series, concisely and thoroughly addresses the major issues debated by scholars concerning the Cuban revolutionary experience. These include: the development impasse of pre-revolutionary Cuba, rates of revolutionary socio-economic progress, elite factionalism, the role of the military, succession politics, respect for human rights, and the relevance of the Cuban model to other developing countries. Rabkin analyzes with particular care Cuban efforts to reconcile revolutionary leadership (including the special role of Fidel Castro) with popular participation in institutions of government and mass organizations. The study also analyzes in depth the likely implications of the Gorbachev era for Cuban socialism. The meticulous inclusion of source references to the scholarly literature allows readers to pursue controversial issues in greater depth. In a field too often dominated by polemics, Rabkin provides her readers with an honest, objective synthesis of contemporary scholarship on the Cuban Revolution. Chapters cover: background to the revolution; communism Fidel-style (1959-1970); institutions and policy (1970-1986); the socialist economic system; Cuban foreign policy; the rectification period (1986 to the present); and a concluding assessment of the Cuban revolutionary socialist development model.

The book interprets the Cuban revolutionary movement from 1868 to 1959 as a continuous process that sought political independence and social and economic transformation of colonial and neocolonial structures. Cuba is a symbol of hope for the Third World. The Cuban Revolution took power from a national elite subordinate to foreign capital, and placed it in the hands of the people; and it subsequently developed alternative structures of popular democracy that have functioned to keep delegates of the people in power. While Cuba has persisted, the peoples of the Third World, knocked down by the neoliberal project, have found social movement and political life, a renewal that is especially evident in Latin America and the Non-Aligned Movement. At the same time, the capitalist world-economy increasingly reveals its unsustainability, and the global elite demonstrate its incapacity to respond to a multifaceted and sustained global crisis. These dynamics establish conditions for popular democratic socialist revolutions in the North.

Study of the origins of the socialist economy in Cuba - gives political and economic background, and covers the nationalization of industry, human resources planning, rural development and regional planning, agrarian reform, industrial development, economic policy, etc. References and statistical tables.