1 December 2014

By Steve Ludlam, Steve Ludlam is Senior Lecturer in Politics at The University of Sheffield

Commentary on Cuba’s economic reforms highlights the growing private sector, implying a transition to capitalism. This ignores Cuba’s dominant state sector, its planning system, and the role of private enterprise in socialist transition. For socialists, the defining innovation of capitalism is not private property, but systematic exploitation of ‘free’ wage labour. The reforms give management more autonomy, and diversify the world of work. So what about the workers and their unions? What is in the 2014 Labour Code, and other recent legislation, and what about salaries and job security?