Consider the types of people who were likely to be dissatisfied with Castro's government. How many opponents left the country to seek asylum in places like the United States, and how did this affect Cuba's labor force?
Friday, January 3, 2014
Castro's Economic Policy and Opposition to Castro
After Castro's revolution, Cuba was no longer able to trade with the United States. This led to Cuba's over-reliance on trade with the USSR, and a Cuban economy that was even less able to diversify away from the sugar industry. Consider how this leads to Cuba's '10 million ton harvest,' which was devastating to the environment.
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I think it is interesting how the article states that many of the people who grew to oppose Castro were the ones that had actually rallied support for him at the start. The article touches on the idea of "unfulfilled hopes" and how opposition grew because of the way Castro failed to live up to expectations. Then there are those who are naturally opposed to Castro and his regime such as the landowners who did not benefit from his socialist policies. Nearly 5% of Cubans were so opposed to Castro that they left the country, only leaving Castro scrambling to think of ways for people to stay in the country (which only heightened the authoritative feeling of the regime).
ReplyDeleteWhen most of the people that were dissatisfied with Castro's regime were the wealthy land owners and farm owners and left for the America, there were subsequently less jobs available because there were less people around with the money to hire and pay workers which consequently hurt the work force and cause those who once supported Castro to turn agains him.
ReplyDeleteWith Cuba being heavily dependent on the USSR for aid, they had to rely on themselves. The harvest that ruined the cuban environment was necessary for the Cubans to survive. If they did not farm for themselves then they were doomed to starve. The huge harvest made Cuban life very unpleasant and that why we see many people migrate to Miami and the US in order to get the proper rights they were deprived of in Cuba.
ReplyDeleteI too found it funny how many of the people that neglected him in the end were the ones who advocated him most in the beginning. Many of those people were farmers and the wealthier half of cuba and they all ended up leaving to america. This affected cubas labor force in a very negative aspect. He lost many workers and the ones who stayed lost the will to work hard. It's funny, many believe Castros beard won him great respect which worked for a bit in the beginning however history tells a different story. Nevertheless, that is one hell of a beard.
ReplyDeleteThe people who disliked Castro's policies the most were the wealthy, mainly because he was a communist who favoured the poor, but mostly because of that killer beard. Dave already mentioned this, and I thought it was a good point when he said that perhaps the beard didn't work too well for his cause. People felt threatened by it. Adult men could not live with such a fantastic beard to compete with. We're talking grown men not wanting a guy in power because his beard made them feel like 12 year olds. It makes me feel like a 12 year old. My god, what a beard. What was the question? oh yeah, Cuba.. Well communism tends to favour the poor so the wealthy did not like his policies........or his beard.
ReplyDeletebeard
When most people compare facial hair they tend to find that a said "peach fuzz" is in closest comparison. However, many scholars, Cambridge in particular, have gone so far as to compare castros beard to the world famous k-9 the Tibetan Mastiff
DeleteEven though people didn#t like Batista, we learned that he managed to bing Cuba up to the very top of economically succsessful latinamerican counrties. Therefore, It was challenging for Castro to combine all his ideologic changes with an economy that maintained that standasd. People saw him as great leader, the liberator of the people. Naturally, the expectations of the following years were great, but if a regime changes so profoundly, it can't be easy to work it all out perfectly. Because of his ideology, Casto had to split with the US. There was no other way. Now cuba was dependent on the Ussr until it could become more independant economically. The problem with that was that cuba didn't have the means tto do that – anymore – because all those administrators fled the country, fearing that the new communist regime would have a negative effect on their lifestyle. This way Castro's reforms failed, among others the 10 million ton harvest. As he tried harder to adjust the system, and experimented (like changing the staple), he made more and more enemies among his people and even those who had stood behind him began to loose their trust.
ReplyDeleteMany people and political orientations could conflict with Castro and ultimately see him as many different adjectives used to describe an unfit leader. Capitalists are obviously at the top of the list of people likely to disagree with Castro, as he was a Socialist, Communist, and Leninist.
ReplyDeleteAs Nicki said, it is interesting to find out that ultimately many of the people seeking US asylum were the ones that supported his revolution at its budding stage. Rich people, manufacturers, factory owners, private foreign businesses with stations in Cuba, etc. - these are all factions that would not like Castro. People fled because they did not want to be forced to harvest, and the labor force was strained.
The people that became the opponents were the original supporters. The text says that these (mostly wealthy) people knew their days of privilege were over. Castro focused too much on becoming diversified and as a result, he tried to force labor. What surprised me the most is that Castro did not try to do anything to convince the people who opposed him to stay. Instead, he decided that if they wanted to go, he wanted them gone. He did not even attempt to satisfy their needs.
ReplyDeleteObviously conservative thinkers were quick to oppose Castro and his socialist ways. Socialism was seen as threatening in this time period, but not as threating as the waves and waves of pure unadulterated beard that sat upon the face of Castro. He was more inclined to sway the lower class into supporting him, because he promised land reform and jobs. As time went on, Castro couldn't come through with what he promised, leaving many past supporters in opposition. Lastly, many claim that during interviews and meetings, Castro wouldn't even say a word. Instead, allowing his beautiful beard to do the talking for him. Scholars claim that Castro was internally conservative and capitalist, but his obviously overpowering beard believed in Socialism, which is why Cuba is the way it is today.
ReplyDeletebeard
I think the dissatisfaction from the diversification program, which was meant to diversify the Cuban economy but ended up go back to its original staple-auger.
ReplyDeleteAlso Castro wanted to launch the 10 million harvest scheme to control the form of state farms and and utilize his 26 July movement. Over 10,000 people were reacting against food retioning, these much people who left country with "Shame", I think this led to massive lose of professional skilled labor.