With stark income inequalities rooted in its dual currency economy, Cuba is taxing down high and unearned incomes, while trying to raise national productivity and official salaries through performance-related pay and labor restructuring. Such measures are portrayed as an abandonment of socialism, but in Cuba are discussed in terms of historic socialist debates about distribution and the balance of moral and material incentives at work, in a society still characterized by common ownership, social protection, and collective debate.
Reforms proposed at the Sixth Communist Party Congress represent a new, third phase of social policy in post-revolutionary Cuba. This new stage has the potential to strengthen social equity in Cuba, improve the socio-economic situation of disparate social groups, and overcome the old limitations of social policy. Yet it could also increase inequality, and at least in the short term, its predicted impacts will be contradictory and ambivalent.
Argues that China has gained influence in multilateral institutions, prompting them toward greater acceptance of public spending in developing countries and that recent developments in Cuba show that China is actively encouraging the Western hemisphere's only communist country to liberalize its economy. China sits at the crossroads of these local and global developments, prompting Cuba toward rapprochement with international norms even as it works to reform them.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
306 p., Weather-induced environmental crises and slow responses from imperial authorities, Johnson argues, played an inextricable and, until now, largely unacknowledged role in the rise of revolutionary sentiments in the 18th century Caribbean.
Special Issue: CUBA., Describes Cuba's past and future as the only Marxist-Leninist socialist nation in the Western Hemisphere; cultural, political, and social perspectives. Topics include effects on Cuba of the demise of the Soviet empire
53 p., Since 1996, Congress has appropriated 205 million dollars to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State (State) to support democracy assistance for Cuba. Because of Cuban government restrictions, conditions in Cuba pose security risks to the implementing partners -- primarily nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) -- and subpartners that provide US assistance. GAO (1) identified current assistance, implementing partners, subpartners, and beneficiaries; (2) reviewed USAID's and State's efforts to implement the program in accordance with US laws and regulations and to address program risks; and (3) examined USAID's and State's monitoring of the use of program funds. Tables, Figures, Appendixes.
5 p., During most of the last half century, discussions aimed at normalizing relations with Cuba have been rare and mainly unproductive. Due to Obama's optimism for political change toward Cuba during his presidential campaign, there was considerable hope that policy would be altered in a more constructive direction, but after a year, it is argued that "change" in Latin America policy has been more in reverse than in fast-forward. Tables.
Discusses the importance of education for any nation and for Cuba in particular, examining its political, pedagogical and sociological foundations, and portraying its accomplishments over the last 50 years. The principles underlying the educational policy of the Cuban government are explained, as they underpin the mission of the National Education System (NES) to carry forward educational work in the country.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
221 p, In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Hispanic Caribbean was fundamentally a plantation economy dominated mainly by the world sugar market. The politics were shaped by revolutions, political coups, wars, and elections, resulting in an end of Spanish power, independent states, and the domination of the region by the United States. These developments led to changes in social values. The author follows these developments throughout the main Hispanic islands and provides a fascinating picture of a region in turmoil.
Reviews several books on Cuban history before 1959. American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Spanish Caribbean 1898-1934, by César Ayala; Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898, by Ada Ferrer; Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba, by Rosalie Schwartz.;
This article discusses different views about sustainable development, emphasizing -- on the basis of a survey conducted in Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba -- the role of rural women in food production and natural resource management, the strength of the rural women's movement in the conquest of rights, and the decisive participation of women in defining proposals for public policies that guarantee gender equality in rural areas. A brief comparative analysis leads us to conclude that the development model in the three countries still prioritizes the male figure in relation to land tenure, access to credit and purchase of equipment or other material resources, it is suggested that both in Cuba, a socialist country, and in Mexico and Brazil, capitalist counties, the assumptions of social policies directed to rural female workers should take into account the basic needs of rural women to guarantee a more humane and sustainable development. Adapted from the source document.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
320 p., While most writing on Cuba seeks to analyse the island's socialist experiment from the perspective of either its internal dynamics or international relations, this book attempts to understand the revolutionary process as part of a counter-current against neoliberal globalisation. Now that neoliberalism is in crisis, Cuba's promotion of socialist values is finding a renewed relevance.
