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In January 1962 Guevara told colleagues in Cuba's Ministry of Industries (MININD): 'In no way am I saying that financial autonomy of the enterprise with moral incentives, as it is established in the socialist countries, is a formula which will impede progress to socialism'.[1] He was referring to the economic management system applied in the Soviet bloc, known in Cuba as the Auto-Financing System (AFS). By 1966, in his critique of the Soviet Manual of Political Economy, he concluded that the USSR: 'is returning to capitalism.'[2] This paper will demonstrate that Guevara's analysis developed in the period between these two statements as a result of three lines of enquiry: the study of Marx's analysis of the capitalist system, engagement in socialist political economy debates and recourse to the technological advances of capitalist corporations.[3] At the same time Guevara was engaged in the practical experience of developing the Budgetary Finance System (BFS); an alternative apparatus for economic management in MININD.
2009 •
Fifty years since the Cuban Revolution and over four decades after his death, Che Guevara is still both admired and derided, testimony to the fascination his persona continues to hold. Yet his most significant contribution remains largely unknown. Based on fascinating new archival research and interviews with his contemporaries and colleagues, this book records Guevara's contribution to industrial organisation, economic management and socialist political economy debates as a member of the Cuban government. It rescues the history of his work as President of the National Bank, head of the Department of Industrialisation and Minister of Industries from 1959-1965. Guevara created the Budgetary Finance System, an economic management system unique to socialism and based on the productive and managerial techniques of US corporations. It was also consistent with his Marxist analysis and included policies to promote education and training, establish administrative controls, forge workers' participation in management, found science and technology institutes and raise consciousness whilst institutionalising psychology as a management tool. In addition, the book shows how Guevara was able to predict that capitalism would return to the Soviet Union.
Latin American Perspectives
Che Guevara's Enduring Legacy: Not the Foco But the Theory of Socialist Construction2009 •
New reforms and debates are underway in contemporary Cuba. The core issues, however, were raised but not resolved by the Great Debate of 1963–1965 instigated by Che Guevara. The challenge was then and remains today to increase productive capacity and labor productivity in conditions of underdevelopment and in transition to socialism, without over-reliance on capitalist mechanisms which undermine the formation of a new consciousness and social relations integral to socialism. The Great Debate focused on the operation of the law of value, money, finance and banking, and consciousness and incentives in the transition to socialism, issues which remain central today. The concern for efficiency within socialism frames the connection between Guevara’s critique of the USSR’s Manual of Political Economy, his Budgetary Finance System of economic management, and contemporary developments within Cuba.
In this paper we show the connection between the repression of the Cuban Trotskyists from mid-1960 until their eventual banning in 1965, and the growing marginalization of the supporters of "Che" Guevara in the new revolutionary state apparatus as a result of the mounting pressure of the Stalinist bureaucracy, which was in turn a product of the growing alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. We review Guevara’s changing attitudes towards the Cuban Trotskyists, contextualizing them in the framework of the economic debates that took place in the Cuban leadership and of his own warnings over the danger of a restoration of capitalism, debates which resulted in his defeat, his resignation from his government posts, his departure from the island and his tragic death in Bolivia at the age of 39. But while the fate of a small internationalist working-class political tendency in Cuba coincided with that of the radical wing of the Cuban revolutionary leadership under the pressure of Stalinism, the Cuban regime never lost its character as an. “adoptive member” of the Stalinist family, and followed a peculiar path which characterizes it until today, a quarter of a century after the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union.
In 2006, Che Guevara’s long-anticipated critical notes on the political economy of the USSR were published in Havana. Written outside Cuba between 1965 and 1966 and arguably his most important contribution to socialist theory, these notes were kept under lock and key for 40 years. It is easy to understand why Che’s analysis was considered too polemical or controversial for publication until recent years. Applying a Marxist analysis to the USSR Manual of Political Economy, Che concluded that the “hybrid” economic management system – socialism with capitalist elements – was creating the conditions for the return of capitalism. Central to this conclusion was his evaluation of the role of agricultural cooperatives in the USSR, known as kolkhoz, which he regarded as introducing a capitalist superstructure into socialist society. This may surprise those who, because they were part of the scaffolding of Soviet society, regard cooperatives as integral to socialism itself. Since 1960, the kolkhoz farms were the only form of agricultural cooperatives in the USSR and Che’s notes on them are his only known comments on the cooperative form of production. It is important, however, not to impose newer concepts of what a cooperative is on Che’s concrete analysis of the kolkhoz. Nonetheless, we can assert that Che viewed state ownership as necessary to secure the socialist transition process against contradictions which could emerge. In order for “state” ownership to be “social” ownership, increasingly decentralised and democratic control by workers over production was necessary. Between 1961 and 1965 he devised an apparatus within the Ministry of Industries (Ministerio de Industrias, MININD) to promote this process.
The Hispanic American Historical Review
The Marxism of Che Guevara: Philosophy, Economics, and Revolutionary Warfare1974 •
2006 •
Mike Gonzalez’s latest book, Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution (Bookmarks, 2004), is published at an opportune moment, constituting a formidable challenge to all those who see in Che’s symbolism a guiding star for their political actions. When saying that the timing of this publication is the right one, I am thinking of the development of the anti-capitalist movement, which, in spite of its deepseated tensions and uncertainties, provides a real framework for revolutionary endeavours. Given the obvious fact that Che Guevara still appears as an icon and source of inspiration for many in that movement, this book deserves to be read and debated with passion and honesty. Gonzalez is well aware of this context: he seeks to trigger a fresh debate on Che Guevara and it is quite clear that he avoids the easy and laudatory tone so often found in writings on Che’s life. Certainly, Gonzalez does not intend to adjust his arguments to mainstream feelings on Guevara. On the contrary, his book s...
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