Now, Raul Castro is creating an important reform:

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Thousands of Cubans will be able to get title to state-owned homes under regulations published Friday, a step that might lay the groundwork for broader reforms.

The measure was the first legal decree formally published since Raul Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as president in February.

The decree spells out rules to let Cubans renting from their state employers keep their apartment or house after leaving their posts. They could gain title and even pass it on to their children or relatives.

Thousands of Cubans could take advantage of this move, including military families, sugar workers, construction workers, teachers and doctors.

Holding on to state housing originally designated for specific workers has been a widespread but usually informal fact of Cuban life. A 1987 law had foreseen transferring such housing to occupants, but this new measure should clarify their legal status.

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But I don't think the right to housing and the right to own real property are one and the same.

I'm not opposed to people owning their own dwellings, but a case can be made for nationalisation of the ground in order to thwart speculation. And I don't see ownership of homes (houses or flats) can be a solution to house everyone, either in Cuba or in industrialised countries.

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Originally posted by N.Beltov:
The "Great Stalin Constitution" has what, exactly, to do with Cuban housing rights and policy, Jeff?

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Another infection of the rhetorical disease in which someone attacks the use of an analogy, while completely ignoring the valid point illustrated therein.

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The "Great Stalin Constitution" has what, exactly, to do with Cuban housing rights and policy, Jeff?

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They are both Constititions for Communist states. In each case, they promise heaven-on-earth, but have little to do with reality.

I wanted this thread to be about actually-existing Cuba and its programmes, and the old tactic of quoting the Constitution to obscure reality meritted a response.

I don't know why you've gone on this redbaiting tangent, jeff. It is very strange.

Indeed one must analyse the concrete situation, and in the case of Cuba, it is a very complex one indeed.

And yes, that includes "defending Cuba" against US imperialism, while criticising the repression of peaceful dissidents and the continuing controls on citizens and the freedom of speech.

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lagatta: I don't know why you've gone on this redbaiting tangent, jeff. It is very strange.

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It's even more strange when you consider red-baiting as a kind of mimicry of Stalinism. Cueball made a rather elegant argument in this regard, which I don't recall Jeff disagreeing with at the time, and, therefore, it's a sort of homage to Stalinism to indulge in redbaiting tangents.

That's quite radically different from the "Great Stalin Constitution" or any other constitution from the former Soviet Union, but don't let the facts get in the way of some good anti-communist bullshit.

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Originally posted by N.Beltov:
Actually, despite your claims of a "one party state" in Cuba, no party is entitled to run candidates for public office, including the Communist Party of Cuba, and no party has any practical legal authority to pass laws or anything like that.

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Our system doesn't provide the same Cuban basic human right to shelter. Not by a long shot. We not only have thousands of homeless Canadians, we have the same Cuban situation Lagatta describes above with people forced into abusive relationships, or loveless relationships, because decent housing is out of reach for so many women and their children trapped in bad situations.

Free markets in homelessness and housing bubbles are not the answer for Cubans. And they can't be building these same monstrosities being thrown together by developers here. In ten or 20 years, no one will be able to afford to electrify or heat these mini-mansions. Watch housing prices plummet here as a result if we continue allowing Exxon-Imperial and friends to dictate Canadian energy policy.

Change is occurring in Cuba but what I find most important is that the priority is remaining on maintaining the social well being of the people. Hopefully this priority will continue because there is absolutely nothing that can be learned from the neo-liberal capitalist model.

A while back you said there was no such thing as a democratic communist (ignoring even Canadian history).

In the past month we have seen the election of the Communist Party in Cyprus and the amazing results in Nepal:
Nepal voters give Maoists a chance

We need a new political discourse as our current political and economic systems are broken. Hopefully this will be the start to many more voices in our current state of global politics of neo-con, neo-lib and social democrats who act like neo-libs when elected. Cuba is a key part in a very small minority that still refuses these morally bankrupt models. That is why it is so viciously attacked by our elites.

Unfortunately I have a bad feeling it will only be a matter of time before our media will be railing about the "evil" Maoists in Nepal and how we need to "restore democracy" to this "terrorist state" (the US still have the Maoists listed as a "terrorist" organisation).

We will soon be facing a choice between socialism or barbarism, for the sake of us all let's hope we make the right choice and stop this long march to corporate fascism.

[ 13 April 2008: Message edited by: a lonely worker ]

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Originally posted by a lonely worker:
I've been away for a while and am sad to see the same red baiting from the likes of Jeff and others.

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Erik Redburn:
If that was in reference to me I'm not "red baiting"

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It wasn't a reference to you Erik, it was a reference to those who are trying to link Cuba and Castro to Stalin (the big daddy of all red baiting arguments).

To your point, I don't think they are going down the Chinese road as there are clear problems and class divisions within their state capitalist model.

This is expected to help improve housing stock in both countries ...

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The development of these joint enterprises will make it possible to guarantee production of the abovementioned mortar for construction, used for building walls, repairs, and finishing work, which will contribute to improving the housing stock in both countries. This production will have housing construction as its main purpose, guaranteeing a supply for social programs in Cuba, Venezuela and member countries of the ALBA.

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Cuban - Venezuelan agreements

Construction (not only housing) projects in Cuba

The following link outlines some of the challenges facing homebuilding in the Province of Granma in Cuba. Some of those challenges: the consequences of Hurricane Dennis, shortages of skilled workers and building materials, organizational problems, and so on.

Homebuilding in Granma

It might be useful to compare Housing Policy in Cuba with similar policy in, say, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, to get an idea of how Cuba is faring relative to other states in the Caribbean. Judging by the following, you might be forgiven if you thought that prayer and charity were the main policy planks in Haiti ...

Haiti - Food for the poor

branch of the ALBA bank opens in Havana.

The Cubans are also holding a Hemisphere-wide anti-free trade conference in their capital.

web page

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The external debt and current financial domination mechanisms are also on the agenda, plus actions by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Special attention will be given to the repercussions of the Bank of the South as an institution that has emerged in the heat of new integrationist efforts in Latin America, and the Network in Defense of Humanity is to speak on identity and the struggles of the peoples against the free trade systems.

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There are many models for providing housing, in Canada we use the good capitalist model of the devil take the hindmost and everyone has the right to sleep under a bridge. Far superior I guess to public housing which is communist?

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Originally posted by a lonely worker:
To your point, I don't think they are going down the Chinese road as there are clear problems and class divisions within their state capitalist model.

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I think most people are unaware as to how China's state-capitalism is able to expand at rates of anywhere between 6 and 11 percent for an unprecedented in world history 21 years in a row.

And it's because China has not been following the NeoLiberal Washington consensus model for the last 21 years in a row.

It's not something we want to duplicate here, perhaps, given the amount of pollution that it's causing. But if anything can be admired by China's Keynesianism, it's that they are not at the mercy of an international banking cabal, namely the IMF. Because if they were, the Chinese wouldn't be building an entire new city the size of San Francisco every two weeks!

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The Wizard of Socialism:

I know this is off topic, but whenever I see your handle, I feel sad. Loneliness sucks.

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Actually what happened was in my haste to sign in to babble I was going to write a "lowly" worker but typed "lonely" instead. (I was out leafleting that night which can be pretty lonely - so must have been my subconscious at work).

Its probably the crappiest handle anyone can ever have but in a way I could care less (although if we could ever switch handles I'd seriously consider something else).

BTW, your handle's pretty good (makes me think of Gandlaf standing on the rock bridge in LOTR screaming "they shall not pass").

Fidel, yes China is doing well economically but socially there are serious problems. I'm meeting a friend tomorrow who has just returned from visiting family in Beijing. They're doing really well but the rural areas are being devastated. This is quite the opposite in Cuba where the government has never forgotten its rural roots and continues to put massive investments in rural areas (I'm still amazed to see full sized hospitals in the midst of small farms to service their needs).

Canadians used to take out 25 year mortgages on homes. Now we have 40 year mortgages and quarter century repayment schedules for student loans. It's cradle to grave capitalism in some respects.

There are Chinese paying for homes with cash on the barrelhead. And many Chinese complain that it's taking two and three years to pay back oppressive levels of student loan debt in China. But that's not Washington consensus for neoLiberal capitalism. None of the neoLiberal experiments in the decade of the 1990's: South Africa, El Salvador, Zimbabwe, or Haiti bear any resemblance to what's been happening in China for the last 21 years in a row.