Havana Cuba. — Many consider that the self-employed should have the support and solidarity of the opponents. They need it because they are victims of extortion by corrupt inspectors who do not stop threatening them with large fines and of the abusive limitations and suffocating measures of the regime’s bureaucrats, who reluctantly had to accept private ventures and always giving priority to the socialist state enterprise.
Those who think so could be right if we accept that the solidarity of the opposition with the self-employed would contribute to the strengthening of civil society and would influence an eventual transition to democracy.
But the decimated opposition is too busy weathering the repression and demanding the release of their imprisoned comrades to, with so much abuse of all kinds committed by the regime, dedicate itself to taking care that the owners of vendutas and timbiriches are not ripped off and extorted.
In most cases, these dealers do not arouse much sympathy because many of them, to increase their profits, take advantage of the scarcity and raise prices disproportionately, without worrying too much about the battered pockets of the population.
The regime has succeeded in demonizing the self-employed by blaming them for scarcity and inflation to evade responsibility for economic failures and to stir up discord among the population and keep it divided.
It is good to support the self-employed as abused citizens, but the solidarity of the opponents is needed more by the thousands of “available” workers (the euphemism for not saying unemployed), the elderly and the sick who are withdrawn from social security. , the families evicted from their homes, the residents of the llega y pon, etc.
The self-employed must also learn, in addition to the techniques and tricks of marketing, to defend their rights. They could create trade associations for mutual aid and unions independent of the control of the CTC.
If they just go looking for the best way to accumulate capital, they will end up as opportunistic allies of the regime. As they will have to lose more than the rest of their compatriots, instead of agents of change, they will be maintainers of the status quo.
And I am not referring to the future oligarchs of Putin-esque mafia capitalism that incubate under the mantle of MSMEs and get ready for the piñata, because those have always belonged to the regime. I am referring to the opportunistic and pretending owners who put up posters with government slogans and photos of Fidel and Raúl Castro in their establishments.
If they are not retired officers of the FAR or MININT or other stooges of the regime, it is difficult to conceive of such enthusiastic sympathy for Castroism in the owners of these private establishments, with the mentality of entrepreneurs, wealthy, and if they are not more so it is because of the high taxes, the frequent fines and the many and absurd obstacles to the development of their businesses that they impose.
The reason for such displays of devotion are explained by Vaclav Havel in his book The power of the powerlesswhen referring to the pro-government posters that the shopkeepers and greengrocers of Prague placed in their establishments in communist times: a sign of loyalty to the regime so that they would not mess with them and let them prosper in their businesses.
That is what many private business owners in Cuba do: wink at the authorities to let them know that they are loyal, that they can be counted on to comply. It doesn’t matter if many speak ill of the regime at home or if they have plans to leave the country. There is no reason to be surprised: simulation, pretense, speaking and acting in a totally different way from how one thinks, double standards, have become a daily survival exercise for the majority of Cubans in these 64 years of Castroism, especially for those who have something to lose and do not want to risk it.
What opposition activist or independent journalist does not know the self-employed and squatters who hate them because they say that because State Security agents invade the neighborhood to watch and repress them “they make the neighborhood bad” for their businesses and dealings?
If it is about defending the self-employed, more than private businessmen, many of whom still boast of “being with the revolution”, the opposition must worry about their employees, who are squeezed in paladares, hostels, punch bowls and construction brigades. Because the new aspiring entrepreneurs, who bring as a baggage the experiences learned with the communist State as boss and sole employer, now, for their convenience, try to copy the worst of capitalism.
OPINION ARTICLE
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