Cuba to abolish equal pay
Cuba continues the shift from quasi-Marxist dictatorship to state capitalist dictatorship:
The egalitarian wage system Fidel Castro spent decades building in Cuba is no longer viable, plagued by low pay, corruption and waste that can be eased by paying workers more for better work, a top labor official said in an interview published Wednesday.
Carlos Mateu, a vice minister of labor and social security, said many government companies have already eliminated caps on salaries for productive workers and the rest must do so by August.
It baffled me that so many leftists could support the Cuban government (in its modern form, at least) when it was so blatantly undemocratic. Yes, it has a nice healthcare system and equal pay for all - but it doesn’t have elections either. Shouldn’t both aspects be an absolute right?
Perhaps that support will begin to evaporate as Raul Castro’s shift to state capitalism continues as predicted. As Cuba’s socialist aspects wither away (hah…), Western lefties will have no reason whasoever to support the regime’s more brutal aspects as an implicit part of the bargain.
Stroppybird offers a sensible course, certainly:
But this latest development must surely underline that the left and the labour movement should take a more critical attitude to the Cuban regime, and should direct its solidarity to Cuban workers rather than to their rulers.
We oppose policies such as performance-related pay in Britain, so why support or remain silent about it in Cuba?
Seems about right to me.
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