Domestic Policies: Economic Policies
- Sugar dependency: Over 70% of export earnings came from sugar, leaving Cuba vulnerable to price fluctuations and lacking diversification.
- U.S. dominance: Much of industry and trade controlled by the U.S.; the embargo after 1959 deepened economic challenges.
- Inequality: Rural poverty, concentrated landownership, and underdevelopment fueled unrest.
- Castro’s goals: Diversify production, industrialize, gain economic independence, and reduce inequality.
- Che Guevara’s vision: Advocated a centrally planned economy with moral incentives (revolutionary ideals over money), equalized wages, and voluntary overtime for the revolution.
- Cuban voluntaryism and the “New Man”
- “New Man” (El Hombre Nuevo): Che Guevara’s revolutionary ideal (early 1960s).
- Citizens motivated by moral incentives, not material gain.
- Traits: altruism, discipline, honesty, social responsibility, political commitment.
- Rejected individualism and capitalism; promoted voluntary labor, communal living, and loyalty to socialism.
Radical Economic Reforms (1961–1968)
- Currency reform (1962): New peso (CUP) wiped out private savings in non-state banks, eliminating capitalist influence but causing financial losses and distrust.
- Rent abolition: Landlords lost income; ~80% of urban tenants benefited, reducing homelessness and boosting regime’s social justice image.
- Agrarian Reform Law (1963): Further limited land ownership; by 1968, state controlled 70% of arable land.
- Revolutionary Offensive (1968): Nationalized all remaining private businesses, banned self-employment, expanded full state control of economy.
- Some questions in Paper 2 may revolve around the success or failure of policies.
- Remember that success and failure is “measured” according to aims.
- Go back to the aims that Castro had for his economic policies.
- What aspects seem successful up to now? What is failing?
Challenges to the economic policies
- Nationalization: State took control of almost all sectors → rapid bureaucratic expansion.
- Inefficiency: Slow decision-making, poor coordination, and resource misallocation.
- Absenteeism: Lack of material incentives led to low productivity despite strict discipline.
- Brain drain: 300,000+ professionals and skilled workers emigrated in the 1960s, leaving shortages in expertise and management.
- Moral incentives: Guevara’s system failed, low fixed prices discouraged effort and efficiency.
- If you’re studying another socialist/communist authoritarian state as your second case study, try to build a pattern surrounding economic policies for Compare and Contrast questions.
- Regardless of the particular policies, are their shortcomings similar?
- How far were people engaged with revolutionary change?
- How did different regimes deal with potential lack of commitment?
The Ten Million Ton Harvest (La Zafra de los Diez Millones)
- Goal: Produce 10 million tons of sugar in one season to earn foreign currency, repay debts, and reduce reliance on the USSR.
- Mobilization: Nearly 20% of Cubans (students, soldiers, professionals) sent to rural areas for voluntary labor; ministries and industries redirected to support the harvest.
- Symbolism: Portrayed as national pride, economic salvation, and embodiment of the “New Man.”
- Outcome: Only 8.5 million tons produced → short of goal.
- Impact: Disrupted other sectors, drained economy, exposed inefficiencies, and marked a failure of centralized planning.
- In the 1950s, sugar production typically ranged from 5 to 6 million tons annually, making Cuba the world’s largest sugar exporter at the time (Pérez-Stable, 1999).
- From 1961 to 1968, production fluctuated between 4.5 and 6 million tons, with 1963 and 1964 falling closer to the lower end due to organizational inefficiencies and poor weather.
- Was the Zafra de los Diez Millones such a failure if the average was around 6 million tons per harvest?
- How would you evaluate the campaign?
The Ecological Impact of the Zafra
- The ecological impact of the 1970 Ten Million Ton Harvest was significant and largely negative, though not always widely discussed at the time.
- To meet the target, vast areas of land were converted to sugarcane monoculture, including marginal lands poorly suited to such intensive cultivation. This practice led to:
- Soil exhaustion and loss of nutrients due to the repeated planting of a single crop.
- Deforestation in some areas to expand sugarcane acreage.
- Increased erosion and depletion of topsoil quality over time.
- The widespread burning of sugarcane fields, a traditional but polluting practice, was intensified:
- Released large volumes of smoke and carbon particulates into the atmosphere.
- Contributed to air pollution in nearby communities and added to Cuba's overall carbon footprint during that period.
