Cuba: Individual initiative not welcomed

Havana plans crackdown on army of self-employed
By Marc Frank in central Cuba
Published: June 2 2004 5:00

In the words of Maria, who works in a sugar-producing town in central Cuba, the region's cash-starved workers have to "invent" ways to buy essentials such as food, clothing and soap.

"The state's wages are very low and state prices very high," says Maria, who earns 231 pesos ($8.56, £4.72, ?7.08) a month at her state job - just below Cuba's average wage of 245 pesos.

"I sell ice for a peso a tray, three or four trays a night," she says. "I need at least twice my income to just get by."

Tourists in Havana are accustomed to meeting locals who have found a variety of ways to supplement their state wages. But from October, the government will begin to close 40 broad categories of self-employing businesses.

The directive from the Labour and Social Security Ministry means that no new home-based restaurants or pizza stands, bed-and-breakfast inns or garages can open - nor "self-employed" clowns, magicians, flower sellers, metalworkers, booksellers or mouse-trap makers.

This is the latest move by Cuba's communist authorities to draw back from cautious market-oriented reforms. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's main benefactor, some private initiatives were allowed by the government to help draw Cuba out of depression. But Fidel Castro, Cuba's president, has always insisted the state would reclaim that economic space.

Popular sentiment is opposed to the move. "The state should put all its efforts into important economic matters like energy, utilities, tourism and nickel," says one economist. "It has no place running coffee shops, fixing watches and repairing televisions."

The government's decision will hit Havana and areas close to tourism resorts the hardest. The economic recovery has been strongest in the capital and small businesses have flourished - at least by Cuban standards.

I wonder what Castro-worshippers like Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Steven Spielberg, and other assorted Democrats and rich Hollywood devotees at Castro's altar have to say about this?