Notes1 It’s good the competence this has brought. It’s good that these markets and self-employment have taught people a little bit of capitalism…But we have to think of how to do things correctly…Some [of these selfemployed] earn more in a day than our honored teachers earn in a month. —Fidel Castro (Peters 1997: 5) [I]nformality […]

Notes1 Cuba’s livestock industry has undergone dramatic change from the time when Fidel Castro took control of the country’s government in 1959. At the time of the revolution, cattle was the most important component of the livestock and poultry industry. Today, the cattle population in Cuba is less than at the time of the revolution. […]

Labor laws supposedly designed to safeguard the interests of Cuban workers has been one of the bulwarks of the political mythology of the Castro Revolution since the early 1960s. Such a mythification has served several purposes: (1) denigrate or deny any accomplishments of the Cuban Republics that predated the 1959 Revolution; (2) re-write Cuban history […]

Notes1 At a time when consumer awareness is rising and responsible corporate policies are gaining international attention, the National Policy Association (NPA) is focusing on best business practices for foreign investors in the Republic of Cuba. The concept of promoting human rights through the private sector is, of course, not new. Private sector adherence to […]

Despite the enormous economic crisis experienced by Cuba in the aftermath of the 1989 disappearance of the Soviet Union, the systems of social control in the island have been very effective in minimizing the number of people who participate in political protests, the number and variety of places in the society in which these overt […]