{"id":85110,"date":"2017-01-09T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=85110"},"modified":"2017-01-05T13:03:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T13:03:09","slug":"the-world-must-learn-from-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/the-world-must-learn-from-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"The World Must Learn from Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, why has the small Caribbean nation outperformed many capitalist democracies in key ways despite fifty years of blockade, attacks, sanctions, injustices?<\/em><\/p>\n

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“Cuba\u2019s achievements expose the very limited, and often deplorable, nature of capitalist democracy.”<\/p><\/div>\n

1 Jan 2017 – <\/em>According to UNICEF\u2019s most recent statistics (updated to 2015<\/a>), Cuba, for almost two decades, has had a lower child mortality rate than the United States. That\u2019s an astounding human rights achievement \u2013 especially when you consider that Cuba has been under merciless assault by the United States for over fifty years – an assault that has included major acts of terrorism<\/a> (like blowing up a factory and killing hundreds of workers in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis) not simply economic strangulation.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>Cuba-Trained Doctors Head to Standing Rock<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What Cuba has accomplished while under sustained attack by a superpower shames every capitalist democracy in Latin America. There is no excuse for any having a higher child mortality rate than Cuba today, not even the countries that were the farthest behind Cuba when Castro seized power in 1959. Being stuck with depraved dictators like the Duvaliers or Somozas absolves the people of those countries (their victims) but not the political systems, and certainly not their sponsors in Washington. If every country in Latin America and the Caribbean had Cuba\u2019s child mortality rate, there would have been about 136,000 fewer child deaths<\/a> in the region in 2015 alone. People who scoff at Cuba\u2019s achievements in health care are being contemptuous of human life, not only human rights.<\/p>\n

In fairness, there are times when U.S. imperialists<\/a> identify health care as a basic human right. Human Rights Watch recently did an extensive report on Venezuela\u2019s struggling health care system<\/a> but, shockingly, did not cite UNICEF statistics on child or infant mortality because they contradicted many of HRW\u2019s claims.<\/a><\/p>\n

The table below shows child mortality in Cuba and other selected countries according to UNICEF\u2019s most recent data.<\/p>\n

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Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are two fabulously oil-rich dictatorships that are staunchly backed by the U.S. government. In fact, the United States went to war to re-install Kuwait\u2019s dictatorship after it was overthrown by Iraq\u2019s invasion in 1990. Chile spent decades under Pinochet\u2019s dictatorial rule which was often praised by the international corporate media for its far right economic policies. Costa Rica is sometimes offered as example of what Cuba might have achieved \u201cwithout repression\u201d. Cuba, without exceptional natural wealth and despite decades of ferocious U.S. sabotage, has outperformed them all in reducing child mortality. Why? There are two general reasons.<\/p>\n

Go ahead and blow off steam. We\u2019ll ignore you.<\/p>\n

I agree with people who say that \u201cfreedom of expression\u201d is an end in itself \u2013 not just a way to get good public policy. However, extreme concentrations of wealth \u201ctake the risk out of democracy\u201d as Alex Carey<\/a> put it. If elites can dominate the means of communication then being able to publicly express harsh criticism of the government will have minimal impact on policy. Health care policy in the United States is a striking example. Public opinion<\/a> has simply been dismissed. A closely related problem is the stunning ignorance<\/a> that elites impose<\/a> through control of the media while still allowing some dissent.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s government does not tolerate dissent through the mass media, but, as Avi Chomsky observed<\/a> in a detailed study \u201cCuban citizens nominate candidates and vote in secret ballot elections; they participate in mass organizations; they participate in neighborhood, workplace, and municipal where real problems are discussed and debated, and decisions made.\u201d<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N_zV5v7zbxQ<\/p>\n

The exceptional health outcomes Cuba has achieved under severe constraints point to a government that actually responds to the public\u2019s concerns \u2013 and that does provide avenues for dissent<\/a> to be expressed. I will anger some friends by saying that this does not make Cuba a democracy, but it does expose the absurdity of governments that congratulate themselves for allowing dissent while also ignoring widespread public dissatisfaction and disillusionment with impunity.<\/p>\n

Spend forty hours a week under dictatorial rule \u2013 if you\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n

Dictatorial workplaces (a key way to ensure elite control over wealth and investment decisions) are much more crucial feature of capitalism than competitive markets. Capitalists are often opposed to competitive markets<\/a> as U.S. economist Dean Baker has often explained \u2013 most recently in his new book \u201cRigged.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

If you are lucky enough to have a steady job, even if you are lucky enough have a strong union that protects your income and dignity in the workplace, you are still spending a great deal of your life under dictatorial rule. Unions mitigate the dictatorial powers of CEOs and elite shareholders. Unions do not change the basic fact that ultimate control over investment and productions rests with an elite whose enrichment is deemed the highest priority. The arguments for allowing workplace dictatorship are no more compelling than arguments for dictatorship as a form of government. If workers in capitalist democracies spend so much of their lives under dictatorial rule at work, it should not be surprising that so many capitalist democracies compare poorly with Cuba in important ways. I am not arguing that workplaces are more democratic in Cuba than in most countries. I am saying that capitalism imposes such serious and barely discussed constraints on democracy that the distinction between \u201cdemocracy\u201d in many countries and \u201cdictatorship\u201d in Cuba is not as great as is typically assumed.<\/p>\n

RELATED: When Africa Called, Fidel and Cuba Answered<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s achievements expose the very limited, and often deplorable, nature of capitalist democracy. That said, leftists in the United States and other rich western countries make a grave error<\/a> when they exaggerate the shortcomings of U.S. democracy to such an extent that they embrace defeatism. The saying that \u201cif voting could change anything it would be illegal\u201d is quite dysfunctional. However, it is true that one cannot vote corporate power away in a single election.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve focussed on Cuba\u2019s child mortality rate, but, given the threat to human existence posed by the impact of human activity on the climate, it should be noted that Cuba has achieved rich country health outcomes with only a tiny fraction of the CO2 emissions per capita<\/a> and without using nuclear power. With all its faults, if Cuba\u2019s system spread to the entire world, humans could at least survive to work on eliminating those faults. The same cannot be said for capitalism. Learning from Cuba should be a high priority if we value survival.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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