Abstract
As a consequence of the recent economic reforms, many believe that Cuban society is in reality evolving towards the deconstruction of its social and solidarity economy and that the economic players are less and less responsible towards the society and the environment. Is it true that we run the risk that greed and narrow-minded personal pursuit will supplant social values such as righteousness, generosity, compassion, cooperation, empathy and community? This article examines the concept of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) applied to the Cuban reality, beginning with a characterisation of its economic system based on the mixed or plural economy model. It concludes that a Cuban SSE is the potential union of those three spheres – public, enterprise and private – comprised of a variety of economic actors – State, associative and autonomous – that adopts the principles of responsibility towards society and the environment.
Highlights
On May Day 2018, International Labour Day, hundreds of thousands of Cubans – including groups of self-employed workers or ‘cuentapropistas’ – paraded in dozens of cities and towns across the Island, embracing the novel slogan launched by the government, ‘Towards a prosperous and sustainable Socialism.’ They were summoned by the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC), which aims to organise and represent them as it does State-sector workers.IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/210 Academic Article – RAFAEL BETANCOURTThe implicit message is that Cuba’s private-sector workers are allies of their public and cooperative colleagues in the construction of the new model of a socialist economy
Implicit is that the citizens who are building that model share the values of solidarity and social and environmental responsibility, intrinsic to Socialism
Sustainability is the capacity of the society to sustain itself economically, socially and environmentally, which is equivalent to development, because you cannot sustain what you do not develop
Summary
On May Day 2018, International Labour Day, hundreds of thousands of Cubans – including groups of self-employed workers or ‘cuentapropistas’ – paraded in dozens of cities and towns across the Island, embracing the novel slogan launched by the government, ‘Towards a prosperous and sustainable Socialism.’ They were summoned by the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC), which aims to organise and represent them as it does State-sector workers.IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/210 Academic Article – RAFAEL BETANCOURTThe implicit message is that Cuba’s private-sector workers are allies of their public and cooperative colleagues in the construction of the new model of a socialist economy. It means developing a (macro) social and solidarity economy (SSE) made up of a mix of economic actors – State-owned enterprises, cooperatives, private workers – that adopt as part of their (micro) economic activities of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services, the principles of responsibility towards society (family, employees, clients and other stakeholders, the community) and the environment, natural and constructed, and democratic governance.
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