Inside El Barrio: A Bottom Up View of Neighborhood Life in Castro’s Cuba, by Henry Louis Taylor

Surprising view of Cuban neighborhoods

http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/2009_03_25/cuba_book

Henry Louis Taylor’s book offers new insights into the neighborhood-based participatory democracy that helped support the Castro regime while other socialist countries were collapsing in the late 1980s.

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Published: March 25, 2009

A new book based on 15 years of research in Cuba describes two Cubas—one for Cubans, one for outsiders—that co-exist but do not mix, and explains how the Cuban culture we do not see was critical in sustaining the Castro regime while other socialist countries collapsed.

“Inside El Barrio: A Bottom Up View of Neighborhood Life in Castro’s Cuba” (Kumarian Press, 2009) by Henry Louis Taylor, professor of urban and regional planning in the School of Architecture and Planning, charts the legacy of the last 15 years of Fidel Castro’s Cuba through the lens of Cuban household life and offers new insights into the bottom-up, neighborhood-based participatory democracy that helped support Castro’s regime.

Because he knew many Cubans well and could pass for Cuban himself, Taylor was able to conduct extensive research in Havana neighborhoods during the final and most complex era in Castro’s dictatorship: Periodo Especial (the special period), during which Castro called upon the masses to prepare for a sustained period of hard times.

In his research, Taylor found two Cubas: one, the simplified, one-dimensional Cuba that many people “discover” through tourism or from the writings of anti-Castro political propagandists.

“The other,” Taylor says, “is a more complex and multi-dimensional Cuba, where people live in a highly stable and deeply organized society and exercise considerable control over the development of neighborhoods (el barrios) and communities that are imbued with participatory democracy, reciprocity, collaboration and cosmopolitanism.”

It is this Cuba that continues to sustain the government, despite severe economic hardship, Taylor says. “No iron wall exists between these two Cubas,” he explains, “but people rarely get insight into the world inside el barrio.” It is that aspect of Cuban life that the book explores.

Taylor spent a great deal of time visiting Havana’s neighborhoods between 1989 and 2006, a period marked by the abrupt collapse of the Soviet Bloc that plunged Cuba into economic catastrophe marked by unprecedented financial hardship, a marked increase in social tension and the emigration of thousands.

“One of the most important things I learned is that it takes time before most Cubans will befriend you, speak to you in frank terms and carry you into their world. Without this frankness, it is easy for a foreigner to be misled, misinterpret conversations and/or form false impressions,” Taylor says.

“I learned the importance of neighborhoods in shaping everyday life and culture, and found that the social networks and neighborhoods—so important to the way the socialist system operates on the ground in Cuba—were critical in sustaining the Castro regime while other socialist countries were collapsing in the late ’80s.”

In 1989, when the Soviet Union and the East European Community Bloc collapsed, Cuba was plunged into a catastrophic economic crisis that spawned unprecedented hardship and generated great social tensions.

Taylor points out that, despite this, Cuban society did not collapse and there were no demands for regime change and a resurrection of capitalism. “Not only did the Castro regime survive,” he says, “but the bearded one remained as defiant as ever. I wanted to understand why and sought the answer by examining everyday life and culture in the poorest neighborhoods.”

“What I discovered is that the Cubans developed a strong system of community development, which was informed by a strategy of building communities that were highly developed social units that must function in an efficient and effective manner in order to produce desirable social outcomes,” Taylor says.

To make this happen, he says the government encouraged the development of participatory democracy inside the neighborhoods to unleash the creative powers of residents and to make them partners in the quest to recover from the economic crisis.

“The result,” he says, “is that Cuban neighborhoods are hyper-stable and hyper-organized communities where ordinary residents exercise considerable control over neighborhood life and culture, albeit in an environment of scarcity.”

Taylor’s entrée into Cuba was a summer study abroad program operated by UB for many years and a master’s degree program run by UB and the University of Havana.

“Because of our academic status, the government gave us the freedom to visit any institution or organization we desired,” Taylor says. “These things, in addition to traditional research, gave me a unique view into the society and how it operates. Moreover, to gain deeper insight into the ways that ordinary Cubans see their society, my research team conducted 398 household interviews.”

Some Thoughts on Geithner's Latest Bank Rescue Plan: Why Wall Street Cheers and the People Should Worry

By Jim Genova

http://paeditorsblog.blogspot.com/

On Monday 23 March 2009, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner unveiled the latest and most expansive bank rescue plan to date since the global financial crisis began to deepen in August 2007. Billed as a "public-private partnership" to take toxic assets off the balance sheets of major banks (such as JP Morgan, CitiGroup, and Bank of America), the plan involves three programs that could rise to a staggering $2 trillion in public money put at risk to bailout private financial institutions that have run the world economy into the ground. It also involves lending from the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), which is charged with safeguarding depositors in U.S. banks. The knee-jerk reaction on Wall Street was overwhelmingly positive with the major indices surging six to seven percent on Monday. Outside the halls of the major financial firms, however, there may be cause for concern.

As the New York Times noted Tuesday 24 March 2009 in its front page story on Geithner's plan, the program "offers private investors vast amounts of cheap, tax-payer supported financing for every dollar they put up of their own money." Put another way, the New York Times described the plan as the "Treasury and the Federal Reserve ... offering at least a tablespoon of financial sugar for every teaspoon of risk that investors agree to swallow."

The first component of the plan involves the FDIC taking on a pool of bad home loans (mortgages in default or at risk of default) and auctioning them to the highest bidders. If the bank values them at $100 and the highest bid is $84, then the FDIC steps in to provide $72 in financing, the private investor puts up $6 and the Treasury (you and me) puts up $6. This amounts to a 6-1 leverage for the private investor - they get six dollars for every dollar they put up. The private investor then manages the assets, seeking to sell them off. Thus, with only $6 of capital risked, the private investor gets all the control, while the $78 of public money secures virtually no say in the asset management. If the assets decline in value or re-gain toxic status a result of a deepening of the economic crisis, the investor is only out the original $6 they put up. The public eats the losses.

The second part of the plan involves taking mortgage-backed securities and other risky assets off banks' balance sheets, hiring asset managers that raise $100 in private financing to purchase the assets, then gets matching funds from the treasury ($100) and a further $200 loan from the Treasury Department (2-1 leverage for the private investor). The asset manager controls the purchased instruments and shares the returns with the government (assuming there are any). If the assets revert to "toxic" status, then the investor loses their original investment, but is not on the hook for the treasury loan or the Treasury's outright investment. In other words, all the risk is - once again - taken on by the public (you and me).

Geithner was careful to insist that there will not be any restrictions on compensation for those participating in the plans, attempting to avoid the "stigma" now attached to the Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) or the recent firestorm over exorbitant bonuses paid to executives at American International Group (AIG), recipients of huge bailouts from the TARP and outright government grants. Bill Gross, Chairman of Pimco (the world's largest bond dealer) and a participant in the new program, described it as a "win-win-win policy" and told the New York Times that he was "'intrigued by the potential double-digit returns' that it offered."

As it stands, the plan amounts to a huge (probably the largest on record) transfer of public money to private hands, the very hands that have driven the global economy into crisis. This is a scenario that Naomi Klein describes in her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. In that well-researched and powerfully-argued study, Klein writes that a cornerstone of neo-liberal ideology as propagated by Milton Friedman and implemented by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was to either take advantage of or bring about major catastrophes to radically restructure the economic system by way of transferring huge amounts of public money into private hands. This usually involves seizing the opportunity of a major political upheaval, economic crisis, or natural disaster in order to push through programs that otherwise would meet massive public opposition. By the time the initial shock has worn off, the economic rules of the game have been fundamentally altered and the laws on the books designed to protect the people from catastrophe and the avarice of greedy capitalists have been changed or eliminated. This is what came to be known as the "Shock Therapy" program imposed on the former Soviet Union and the former People's Democracies of Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s (among many other countries pummelled by the scorched-earth campaign of neo-liberalism across the globe in the 1980s and 1990s). It is no wonder that Wall Street reacted so euphorically to the details of Geithner's plan.

As Sam Webb, National Chair of the Communist Party of the USA, eloquently noted in his address to the Party's National Committee on 21 March 2009, this is not a "socialist moment," however, it is a time when the idea of socialism (and the term itself) is being widely discussed. Wall Street celebrated Monday because many major financial firms believed that the Geithner Plan took "bank nationalization" off the table as a government response to the economic crisis. However, all it has done is massively expand the scope and amount of government give-aways to the very institutions responsible for the current mess. It has not taken bank nationalization off the table. It has made the discussion of socialism as an alternative to the current failed system more urgent than ever.

LET GEORGE GALLOWAY SPEAK IN CANADA! March 25, 2009

LET GEORGE GALLOWAY SPEAK IN CANADA!
March 25, 2009 - YCL-LJC CEC

The Harper Conservative government has again brought down its heel on
freedom of speech.

Democratic Canadians have to reverse this decision. By banning British
MP George Galloway, minister Jason Kenney and the Harper Conservatives
are attacking the very liberties they hypocritically claim to defend
in Afghanistan. Even the corporate media has condemned this (although
they are really saying to Harper ‘don’t silence him, trust us to do
that job’).

Since when has terrorism meant donating a fire engine, twelve
ambulances, a fishing boat, trucks full of medicine, blankets, shoes
and children’s toys? Who is next – the Red Cross (or Red Crescent)?

The Palestinians live under a state of siege and occupation. (Last
week, Israel simply drove into the West Bank and arrested several
elected Hamas parliamentarians!) This announcement comes in a period
of intensifying clamp-downs against broad public discussion of
Canada’s bloody imperialist foreign policy, especially the dirty,
racist war in Afghanistan and the Canada’s support of the Israeli
apartheid government’s occupation in Palestine.

Take the deportation of the US Iraq war resisters – this week Kimberly
Rivera; or the cut backs to public funding for the Canadian Arab
Federation’s immigrant community services not because of any policy
violation, but a political statement by an unfunded part of the
organization. High school and university communities have been under
attack for Palestinian solidarity work. Immigrant workers without full
documentation have been targeted through Immigration Enforcement
raids, harassment outside women’s shelters, and rising deportations
(and today the Minister equates the UN’s announcement of a 30%
increase in refugee claims with abuse of the system! The nerve!).

In all of these heavy-handed measures Jason Kenney, Minister of
Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, comes forward as the
government’s un-muzzled pit bull terrier.

The Young Communist League expresses our condemnation of the Harper
Conservative government and minister Kenney: reverse the decision,
apologize, and drop the “Terrorist lists” which criminalize legitimate
peoples movements. We stand with all democratic Canadians who are
outraged by this development, and call upon the youth to join the
rapidly growing vocal opposition to this attack on freedom of speech.

Mr. Harper – your attempt to silence the Canadian people will fail.

Young Communist League of Canada - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada.
290A Danforth Ave,
Toronto ON M4K 1N6
CANADA
Office: 416-469-2446

Action Alerts Working people didn't cause this crisis... and we won't pay for it! Unite and fight to defend our jobs, services and rights! - CPC

http://www.communist-party.ca/news/Statements/2009/Crisis%202009.pdf
Maybe you work in the Alberta oil patch, or an auto plant
in southern Ontario, or a call centre in New Brunswick.
You could be a forestry worker, a bank teller, or a university
teaching assistant. Wherever you live, your future is on the line as
the global economic crisis sweeps across Canada, and layoffs and
shutdowns spread like a wildfire. You could already be one of the
1.3 million Canadians ‘officially’ unemployed, or one of the millions
who survive on part-time, temporary, low wage jobs. Perhaps you are
among the two-thirds of jobless workers who aren’t eligible to collect
benefits from the EI fund built up from your pay deductions.
And the crisis is just beginning. At least 50 million workers will lose
their jobs across the world this year. Production has dropped by up to
fifty percent in some countries, and food shortages are spreading. A
real global economic recovery could be years away. Who created this
mess? Who should pay for the crisis? What policies can help working people
instead of the rich?

So who’s responsible?

It would be easy to pin the blame for the economic meltdown on a
few greedy individuals. It’s true that a handful of global billionaires
and gigantic transnational corporations have artificially inflated and
manipulated the values of real estate, high tech, stocks, commodities,
even national currencies. “Bubble capitalism” has reaped enormous
fortunes for the ultra-rich, while billions of working people and the
poor ended up deeper in debt.

The neoliberal policies of right-wing governments made matters
worse, through privatization, deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, and
social program cuts. They claimed these neoliberal policies would
increase everyone’s wealth. Instead, the gap between the rich and
working people has widened to staggering proportions, and labour &
democratic rights are under increasing attack. Capitalism always heads towards crises. Individual capitalists and corporations, competing for higher profits,
seek to maximize their return on investment by cutting labour costs;
this process always cuts spending power, leaving working people
without the necessary income to purchase the goods and service we
produce. Throughout history, this cycle results in frequent economic
crashes, followed by recoveries. Every time, workers pay the price,
while the bosses end up getting richer.

Are we really in the same boat?

We are told that “everyone’s in the same boat” during this economic
depression. Maybe if it’s the Titanic – the wealthy have plenty of
lifeboats while most of us are locked below decks. In Canada, as in
most countries, the first response by pro-capitalist governments was
to “bail out” corporations facing financial ruin – the same corporations
which reaped record profits for years, at the expense of taxpayers
and workers. While millions of working people lose their jobs, homes,
and pensions, fat cat CEOs still get huge bonuses and bloated salaries.
The Tory budget introduced in late January hands billions of dollars
to corporate shareholders, while most working people laid off by these
companies can’t even collect EI. Same boat, all right!

What should be done?

Instead of making workers pay for the crisis through wage cuts and
unemployment, those who have enjoyed billions in profits must pay.
We need to unite and fight for an emergency program to protect jobs
and incomes for working people, and put Canada back to work. Such
an anti-crisis plan should include measures to:
! expand EI to cover all workers for the full duration of
unemployment, with benefits at 90% of former earnings;
! protect and expand manufacturing industries on the basis of a
comprehensive industrial policy, and introduce plant closure
legislation;
! place a moratorium on evictions and mortgage foreclosures
and utility cut-offs due to unemployment;
! increase the minimum wage to $15/hr., increase pensions and take
other steps to raise incomes and stimulate domestic consumption;
! take emergency action to improve the social and economic
conditions of Aboriginal peoples;
! invest in a massive public construction program to build
affordable social housing, rebuild Canada’s infrastructure, and protect
the environment;
! shift the tax burden from working people onto the corporations
and the wealthy;
! The richest 10% of Canadian families with children
earn over 80 times more than the poorest 10% of families,
who earn less than $10,000 per year on average.
! Canadian households used to save about 20% of
their after-tax income. Today, the savings rate averages
zero, and personal debt is at an all-time high.
! About 2.2 million Canadian workers (16% of the total,
including 19% of women workers and 12% of men) had
jobs in 2005 that paid less than $10 an hour. Thirteen per
cent of all jobs in Canada pay less than $8 an hour.
! Corporate profits as a percent of GDP rose from less
than 5% in 1992 to historic highs of over 14% by 2005, and
remain at this record level.
! Total annual operating profits of corporations in
Canada rose from $40 billion in 1992, hitting the $100 billion
mark by 1997, $150 billion by 2003, and up to $216 billion in
2008.
! Corporate taxes as a percentage of total profits have
fallen from the 35-40% range during the late 1980s, down to
less than 25% in recent years.
! After adjustments for inflation, wages for full-time
Canadian workers were virtually stagnant from 1992 to 2005,
at about $730 per week.
! Workers’ share in the overall “economic pie” has
declined sharply, from 68% in 1992 to 61% by 2005.
Meanwhile, the share going to profits rose from 22% up to
33%.
Data from Statistics Canada and the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
120,000 Irish workers fill the streets
of Dublin – Feb. 21, 2009
These figures don’t lie!

! expand Medicare and universal social programs, invest in
education and cut tuition, introduce a universally accessible
affordable system of quality public child care; and
! immediately withdraw from the disastrous war of occupation
in Afghanistan and cut military spending by 50%.
These immediate anti-crisis measures should be strengthened by
more transformative steps, including:
! nationalize the big banks, insurance and other financial
institutions and place them under public, democratic control;
! nationalize the energy industry to guarantee domestic supply
and to provide the material basis to rebuild Canadian industry
and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, especially in renewable
energy and mass transit;
! place the “Big Three” automakers under public ownership
and democratic control, and build a small, fuel-efficient, affordable
and environmentally sustainable Canadian car;
! immediately withdraw from NAFTA, and adopt a
diversified, multilateral trade policy based on mutual benefit; and
! introduce a liveable, guaranteed annual income (GAI), and
a shorter work week with no loss in take-home pay.
Such a plan would move our country in a fundamentally new
direction, by placing the needs of working people and our environment
before corporate greed, establishing a foreign policy based on peace
and disarmament, and reversing the erosion of our sovereignty.
How can we achieve these goals?
We can’t move in this direction by meekly accepting pay cuts and
job losses – that’s the lesson from the last “great depression”. We
need a massive campaign to block the Tory-corporate attack and to
demand pro-people alternatives. Instead of summit meetings with
corporate leaders, we need people’s summits, bringing together the
organized labour movement, Aboriginal peoples, youth and students,
women, farmers, seniors and all democratic forces engaged in the
struggle for peace, the environment and equality rights, to unite and
fight back at this crucial moment.
We need to build a real People’s Coalition, in the streets and
communities and at the electoral level, to curb the power of the
corporations and resolve the crisis in the interests of working people.
The Communist Party of Canada, the party that led the crucial
working class struggles during the ‘dirty 30s’, pledges to do
everything in our power to help build and win such struggles. We
urge you to take up these issues in your unions, your workplaces
and schools, your communities. If you agree with our proposals,
contact us today. Join and build the party that combines today’s
urgent fightback with the vision of a socialist future, one in which
unemployment, hunger, exploitation, oppression, war and
environmental degradation will be ended forever!
-----------------------------------------
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Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.
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Every issue gives you the latest on the fightback
from coast to coast – the struggle for jobs or
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Workers of all lands, unite!
1 • PEOPLE’S VOICE • FEBRUARY 15-28, 2009