Happy Communist May Day… Cubans Face Uncertain Changes to Economy, Employment
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 1, 2011
Happy May Day, aka International Workers Day, a day that was originally a joyous pagan celebration of springtime, but now is claimed by socialists, communists, and union leaders to honor their freedom-robbing, destructive ideology. Oh, and union labor workers.
In tribute to May Day and the “you’d better give me more” government union workers/thugs in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the country, I’m sharing this poster which I stealthily snagged from HillBuzz, via iMaksim.
May Day is a big deal in communist Cuba, where there is zero freedom under aging dictator Fidel Castro and the quality of life there is so dismal and hopeless that in 2007, it ranked just barely above Swasiland and Zambia —
Since the revolution in 1959, Cuba has elevated International Workers Day to a national holiday honoring workers who produce all the goods and provide all the services in society.
Although the country has frequently boasted of its “zero unemployment,” since nearly all Cubans work for the government, the pay there is so dreadful that many Cubans share an inside joke: “The state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work.”
Woo-hoo for failed communism!
And as of 2010 figures, the Cuban unemployment rate is not zero as the government would have us believe, but about 2%. Which goes to prove that even redundant, poorly paid communist government jobs cannot be guaranteed forever. Castro will be launching changes very soon, but they’ve not yet been announced.
From Babalú Blog, Castro regime launches May Day wave of repression against opposition:
The Castro dictatorship, which more than ever is fearing its eventual demise, has launched a wave of repression against members of the opposition on the island in an effort to quash any public displays of dissent during its fabricated May Day activities.
Housing in Old Havana - the glory days of Cuba have been gone for decades, thanks to dictator Fidel Castro and communism
From Seattle Post Intelligencer, Cubans mark May Day, await details of change:
HAVANA (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched through Havana and other cities on Sunday to mark May Day in a demonstration touted as a vast show of support for economic changes recently approved by the Communist Party — even though the people holding placards and shouting slogans haven’t seen the details yet.
Nearly two weeks after the party endorsed President Raul Castro’s bet to fix the island’s broken economy through limited free-market reforms, the government has not released specifics of the 311-point guidelines, or said when it will do so.
The parade, always a big event on the communist-run island, has nevertheless been touted by the official party newspaper, Granma, as “the best chance for Cuban workers to ratify … their backing for the accords.”
Castro led a march in eastern Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second largest city, while the Havana parade was led by Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, the 80-year-old recently named second secretary of the party, the country’s second most powerful position.
Salvador Valdes Mesa, the head of Cuba’s only government-approved labor union, was the only dignitary to address the crowd.
In October, I wrote about the heartbreaking conditions in Cuba and how the Castros have ruined any hope of the country having a market economy — through over-regulation, government takeovers, bloated government employment ranks, tyranny, and the destruction of free market principles. A sobering cautionary tale for America as we skid fast toward the hellhole of bigger-bigger government and Marxism/communism/socialism during the tarnished “Age of Obama.”
The latest statistics reveal that more people work for the government in the United States than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining, and utilities combined.
Here’s a portion of an article by José Azel I quoted back last fall:
It’s too late for the Castros to create a market economy.
BY JOSÉ AZEL
Last month, the Cuban government said it planned to fire 500,000 state employees, and perhaps over 1 million, saying “our state cannot and should not continue supporting… state entities with inflated payrolls, losses that damage the economy, are counterproductive, generate bad habits, and deform the workers’ conduct.”
Some heralded the announcement as a long-awaited sign that Havana under Gen. Raúl Castro is finally moving toward a market economy, others voiced substantial skepticism, and Marxists denounced it as a betrayal of communist orthodoxy. So, where is Cuba headed?
Most likely, nowhere fast. Far from being a hopeful indication that Raúl is serious about economic reform, the abrupt layoffs reveal a government that is simply desperate to make ends meet. And they offer yet more evidence that Cuba, one of the last countries in the world to cling to Joseph Stalin’s bankrupt ideology, is not interested in joining — or, to be charitable, does not know how to join — the globalized, 21st-century world.
Ironically, the official announcement of the firings was made by the Cuban Workers Union — the labor union controlled by the Communist Party. Anywhere but in repressive totalitarian regimes, the dismissal of 10 percent of all government workers would have been met with massive protests. But this is Cuba, where even though about 85 percent of the workforce of 5 million is employed by the state, there was nary a peep on the streets.
The announcement, couched in typical Orwellian doublespeak, raises more questions than it answers. “It is necessary to revitalize the socialist principle of distribution and pay to each according to the quantity and quality of their work,” it read, a blundering contradictory attempt to tie the layoffs to Karl Marx’s socialist maxim, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” The government also said it would grant permits for those fired to seek to make a living “outside the state sector” as if it is unspeakable to talk of a private sector.
In Cuba, a state permit is required even to shine shoes — along with 178 other private economic activities that include mostly individual service activities from baby-sitting to washing clothes. It is also unclear exactly how those selected for dismissal will be chosen; seniority, patronage, friendship, ideological purity, or some form of capitalist or socialist merit? Will race or gender play a role in these massive firings? Will the dismissals disproportionately target those who receive remittances from abroad? Perhaps more important, how are those fired supposed to find jobs? In an economy with developed private competitive markets, employees dismissed from one firm have a fighting chance of securing employment in another. But in Cuba’s economic system, the government controls most economic activity. There is no private sector to absorb the unemployed. Where will they find employment?
Typical Cuban housing... yay for communism
From Legal Insurrection:
May Day (May 1st) is a celebration of worker “rights” (and springtime, but, really..). Of course, as we’ve seen in Wisconsin, worker rights are usually translated into jargon that reads as “my comforts are more important than yours, taxpayer!”
[...]
May Day, a reminder of the thuggery of modern public unions, is appropriately only a keystroke from writing “mayday.”
Today's May Day celebrations in communist Cuba
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