The State of Cuba’s Urban Cooperatives

The State of Cuba's Urban Cooperatives
October 25, 2013
Daisy Valera

HAVANA TIMES — The bar and cafeteria located at the intersection of
Soledad and Concordia streets in Havana's neighborhood of Centro Habana,
an establishment that used to sell cheap tap beer and bother the
neighbors with blaring reggaeton music in the early hours of the
morning, looks rather different today.

Most of its old wooden tables, blackened by filth, have been replaced
with gleaming, white plastic furniture. Now, you don't run into any
drunkards hunched over the bar in the morning, and the place sells
milkshakes, coffee and sandwiches – a menu that would have been
unthinkable a few short months ago.

The Fausto cafeteria on Prado Street, Old Havana, has undergone a
similar mutation. It boasts newly-painted walls and a clean counter.
Sweets and soft drinks have come to swell the familiar offer of rum,
cigarettes and cigars.

These two examples are a fairly good illustration of what has happened
with the eating establishments once administered by the State,
establishments which, today, fall under the category of "urban
cooperatives." The changes we're seeing attest to the efforts being made
by many workers in the times of cutbacks and layoffs.

In June 2012, the National Assembly of the People's Power (Parliament)
authorized the creation of 222 non-agricultural cooperatives, in
conformity with the Guidelines (25 to 29) established by the Cuban
Communist Party.

A year later, we got wind that the first 124 (99 retailers, 11
construction companies and 2 in the industrial sector). This past month
of September, the establishment of a new group of cooperatives (73 in
total) was approved in the abovementioned sectors. The last group of 13,
founded in September, produce clothing, furniture and footwear.

Today, there are over 200 such cooperatives in operation, but the
benefits do not appear to go beyond the slight improvements we're seeing
at eating establishments. In fact, most of the population disapproves of
how these new cooperatives are operating.

People complain about the rise in the prices of food at agricultural and
livestock markets, today agricultural sales cooperatives, or about the
carwash services being offered at gas stations, to mention only two
examples.

We could venture to call the process we're witnessing a kind of forced
cooperativization. Of the 124 first cooperatives approved by Parliament,
112 were formerly State property and, of the more recent 73, 41. This
means that approximately 78% of today's cooperatives were previously
State-run enterprises.

The State has ditched its ill-managed establishments and has gained in
"cooperativists", who must pay for water, electricity and other
utilities and, in addition, rent the equipment and locales they use.
Coupled with the absence of a wholesale market, this results in the rice
in prices today being endured by Cubans.

Another regrettable fact is the lack of any experience in the running of
cooperatives. The only reference Cubans have are the country's
agricultural cooperatives, experiments which were genuine disasters.

Equal rights, collective decision-making processes and a fair
distribution of incomes are far from being implemented in Cuba's urban
"cooperatives."

The fact of the matter is that former State managers are today behaving
like private business owners and employers (benefitting from the
subsidies that the Ministry of Finance and Prices has approved for
cooperatives).

If new cooperatives continue to be designated from above and those that
emerge as the initiative of certain sectors of the population aren't
prioritized and incentivized with credit facilities, then these new
private businesses (comprised of the self-employed or "cooperatives")
will become the only viable option within Cuba's economic "reform" process.

Source: "The State of Cuba's Urban Cooperatives - Havana Times.org" -
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