30 Chapter 2
objectives, known as the “Battle of Ideas.” So far this new trend has
proved incapable of revitalizing production, dealing with unemploy-
ment (despite the partial successes of the social workers’ programs),^10
eliminating corruption, and offering the excluded labor force an alter-
native in either the state or the private economy. Lifting the sanctions
against the use of foreign currency has meant exclusion from con-
sumption (the normal offer available in Cuban pesos is rationed)^11 of
people who do not receive money from relatives abroad or large
amounts of hard currency or pesos from dealings in the private econ-
omy (renting rooms in houses, managing restaurants, etc.), in the black
market, or through corrupt practices in government posts. The infor-
mal market grew rapidly during the Special Period because of a gen-
eral scarcity of goods and the fact that this black market is cheaper
than the state one selling in hard currency, the goods offered in it hav-
ing been, as a rule, stolen from the state stores.
Although there have been important political reforms and the lead-
ership has legitimacy, credibility, and the support of broad sectors of
the population, participatory democratic practices have not fulfilled
their potential, partly because the institutionalization of the 1970s was
contaminated by the Soviet model. Today, the appeal to personal sacri-
fice to achieve future prosperity and equality does not, as a general
rule, mobilize people as it did in the past, among other things because
- In contrast to the situation in China and Vietnam, where nationals can have big
enterprises and associate with foreign capital, in Cuba only small businesses such as ren-
ting rooms in one’s own house and tiny restaurants are allowed. - The social workers’ program was the concrete expression of the Battle of Ideas.
Through it young people who were neither working nor studying were employed at
various social tasks with salaries and encourage to enroll in various courses. At the same
time, they replaced workers in areas where corruption was very high such as gas stations.
Fidel personally took charge of this program to show how work and adequate political
treatment could make young people at risk of delinquency into model revolutionary citi-
zens. - A system of rationing to ensure equal access to food resources in a situation of scar-
city was established in 1962. The ration card (libreta) guaranteed access to state stores
that provided the basic basket of beans, rice, cooking oil, sugar, meat, fish, and eggs. In
addition to this workers were provided with meals and snacks in their workplaces. In the
1980s a parallel market was established in special state stores at higher prices than the
subsidized ones of the ration card, but these stores were closed during the Special Period
because of the scarcity of goods. The free lunches and snacks in workplaces have recen-
tly been recently eliminated, and there is a discussion of canceling the ration card.