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Cuba

2021-01-06T20:53:35Z

CCPSHILL15:

The '''Republic of Cuba''' (sometimes abbreviated '''ROC''') is a [[people’s republic]] in the Caribbean that was led by [[Fidel Castro]]. They have withstood the longest blockade in all history.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Vandepitte|first=Marc|title=60 Years of Tropical Socialism. Assessment of the Cuban Revolution|url=https://wp.me/p2vCQD-nM3h|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125011323/https://www.globalresearch.ca/60-years-tropical-socialism-assessment-cuban-revolution/5666259|archivedate=2019-01-25}}</ref>

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan stated in April 11, 2000 that the Republic of ‘Cuba’s achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. [The Republic of Cuba] demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities — health, education, and literacy.’

== History ==
Cuba was colonized by the Spaniards during the nineteenth century, and its prime exports were coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The Spanish aristocracy imported a great deal of African slaves for this colony. Political tendencies such as national independence and other (mild) reformisms became popular, but none was indigenous. Around 1850 the colony received an influx of lower-class Spanish immigrants, but even they were treated poorly by the aristocracy: sixteen or eighteen hour workdays, seven days weekly, were common, and work conditions in for example the tobacco industry were rife with poor pay, monotony, and health hazards. [[Mutualism]] grew in popularity, and Cuban workers held their first [[strike]] in 1865. By the 1880s, the profusion of [[libertarian socialist]] propaganda in the form of pamphlets and newspapers that arrived regularly and clandestinely from Barcelona reinforced the transmission of socialist ideas. As a result a new wave of Cuban workers proceeded to involve themselves in the [[Alianza Revolucionaria Socialista]] (ARS). Anarchists organized all of the strikes that shook the Cuban tobacco industry at the end of the decade. Socialists were widely divided on the importance of either obtaining independence from Iberia or concentrating on assisting other workers. Finally in the late 1890s the American ruling class successfully intimidated the Spanish aristocracy into transferring their colonies over to them, including Cuba.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Fernández|first=Frank|chapter=1|chapterurl=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/frank-fernandez-cuban-anarchism-the-history-of-a-movement#toc7|title=Cuban Anarchism: The History of A Movement|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/frank-fernandez-cuban-anarchism-the-history-of-a-movement|year=2001}}</ref>

===Cold War era===
In spite of the good GDP, the [[neocolony]] was rife not only with poor working conditions but also gambling, drugs, unwilling sex work, and political corruption, all before the [[Cuban Revolution]]:

{{quote|Opinions aside, although Cuba ranked as one of the most prosperous developing countries in the 1950s based on gross domestic product (GDP), social indicators for this period portray dismal social conditions, particularly among the rural peasants.|Andrea Carter|<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Carter|first=Andrea|coauthors=Søren E. Frandsen, Arie Kuyvenhoven, Joachim von Braun|editor=Per Pinstrup‐Andersen|title=Cuba’s Food‐Rationing System and Alternatives|url=https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf|location=New York|publisher=Cornell University|year=2013|page=3}}</ref>}}

It was a popular tourist resort for the white bourgeoisie,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Farber|first=Samuel|title=Cuba Before the Revolution|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/cuban-revolution-fidel-castro-casinos-batista|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420173959/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/cuban-revolution-fidel-castro-casinos-batista/|archivedate=2016-04-20}}</ref> and possibly as many as 91% of the rural workforce was malnourished.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Carter|first=Andrea|coauthors=Søren E. Frandsen, Arie Kuyvenhoven, Joachim von Braun|editor=Per Pinstrup‐Andersen|title=Cuba’s Food‐Rationing System and Alternatives|url=https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf|location=New York|publisher=Cornell University|year=2013|page=2}}</ref> In July 1953 a crew of revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, assaulted Fort Moncada, but the move failed. Nonetheless, the Cuban lower classes were growing increasingly restless, and consequently the neocolonial government (headed by Fulgencio Batista) suppressed trades unions, strikes, and censored much of the press.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=The Truth About Cuban Socialism|url=https://wp.me/p8zBok-tk|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422181117/http://writetorebel.com/2017/03/15/the-truth-about-cuban-socialism|archivedate=2017-04-22}}</ref> Castro pretended to be noncommunist in hopes of discouraging foreign aid to the neocolony. Nevertheless, by January 1959 the Cuban masses had successfully overthrown the neocolonial government and Batista fled to Europe. Statistics indicate that the antisocialist dictatorship caused somewhere between 1,000–20,000 deaths,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Swanger|first=Joanna|chapter=seven|title=Rebel Lands of Cuba: The Campesino Struggles of Oriente and Escambray, 1934–1974|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNNbCQAAQBAJ|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2015|page=243|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNNbCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA243|ISBN=9781498506601}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=|first=Lillian|chapter=1|title=Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nw9_A3Wk7PMC|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|year=2012|page=43|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nw9_A3Wk7PMC&pg=PA43|ISBN=9780807835630}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Wickham-Crowley|first=Timothy|chapter=3|title=Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insurgency and Revolutionary Theory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFIyrzz43iIC|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=1990|page=63|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFIyrzz43iIC&pg=PA63|ISBN=9780873327053}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Clodfelter|first=Micheal|edition=4th|title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNzCDgAAQBAJ|location=North Carolina|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|year=2017|page=637|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNzCDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA637|ISBN=9781476625850}}</ref><ref>Conflict, Order, and Peace in the Americas; Samuel Shapiro, Invisible Latin America, The World Guide 1997/98: A View from the South; H. A. Reitsma & J. M. G. Kleinpenning, The Third World in Perspective</ref> but the CIA has suggested that 20,000 is actually only one portion of the total deaths.<ref name=compared>{{cite web|title=Political Murders in Cuba--Batista Era Compared with Castro Regime|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T00429A000300030015-8.pdf|date=1963-01-21}}</ref>

While the upper classes left in anger and relinquished much of their property, which the Cubans subsequently reappropriated,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Huberman|first1=Leo|last2=Marlor Sweezy|first2=Paul|chapter=|title=Socialism in Cuba|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaPaAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1969|pages=110–1}}</ref> a minority of anarchists were also dissatisfied with the revolution’s course and either quit the Republic of Cuba in disappointment or committed acts of terrorism against the state.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Fernández|first=Frank|chapter=4|chapterurl=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/frank-fernandez-cuban-anarchism-the-history-of-a-movement#toc7|title=Cuban Anarchism: The History of A Movement|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/frank-fernandez-cuban-anarchism-the-history-of-a-movement|year=2001}}</ref> Nevertheless, the lower classes overall favored the new administration, and they have shown no inclination to use explosives in order to commit terrorist attacks against the government despite many exile claims to the contrary;<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Minutes of Meeting of the Special Group (Augmented) on Operation MONGOOSE, 6 September 1962|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32105754.pdf|date=1962-09-06}}</ref> a State Department memo in 1960 admitted that anticommunists should not intervene militarily but rather by economic means, as the ‘majority of Cubans support Castro.’<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499|volume=VI}}</ref> In January 1963, the CIA conceded that despite several hundred executions, ‘the large-scale campaigns of murders and terrorism characteristic of the last years of the Batista regime have not occurred during the Castro regime.’<ref name=compared/> Education and healthcare in the Republic of Cuba improved massively,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Huberman|first1=Leo|last2=Marlor Sweezy|first2=Paul|chapter=|title=Socialism in Cuba|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaPaAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1969|page=23}}</ref> as did agricultural output,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Huberman|first1=Leo|last2=Marlor Sweezy|first2=Paul|chapter=|title=Socialism in Cuba|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaPaAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1969|page=113}}</ref> but in some respects progress was slow due to the excess of unfinished projects.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Huberman|first1=Leo|last2=Marlor Sweezy|first2=Paul|chapter=|title=Socialism in Cuba|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaPaAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1969|pages=168–9}}</ref> Some Western antisocialists established a programme in the 1960s to provide economic growth, employment, agrarian reform, education, housing, healthcare, more equitable distributions of national income, and other benefits to the people of Central and South America in order to discourage their interest in communism. But in 1970, researchers Jerome Levinson and Juan de Onis discovered that the Republic of Cuba actually came closer to these goals than most of the programme’s members.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Levinson|first1=Jerome|last2=de Onís|first2=Juan|edition=second|title=The Alliance that Lost Its Way: A Critical Report on the Alliance for Progress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFuwAAAAIAAJ|location=Chicago|publisher=Quadrangle Books|year=1970|page=56|ISBN=9780812901511}}</ref>

{{quote|The Revolution has been wildly audacious, experimental, and diverse. It has evolved under often adverse circumstances. It created unprecedented socioeconomic equality, and showed the world that it is indeed possible for a poor, Third World country to feed, educate, and provide health care for its population. It fostered astonishing artistic and intellectual creativity, while also creating stifling bureaucracies and limits on freedoms that many in the United States take for granted. It also showed just how extraordinarily difficult it is to overcome economic underdevelopment. […] If we want to imagine a better world for all of us, I can think of no better place to start than by studying the Cuban Revolution.|Aviva Chomsky|<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Chomsky|first=Aviva|editor=Jürgen Buchenau|edition=second|chapter=9|title=A History of the Cuban Revolution|url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4447044/mod_resource/content/1/A-History-of-the-Cuban-Revolution.pdf|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|year=2015|pages=172–3|ISBN=978-1-118-94228-4}}</ref>}}

===Modern era===
After the [[short twentieth century]], the republic was left with almost no other [[planned economies]] to turn to in case of emergency, and nobody was interested in purchasing their machinery. Hence a food crisis commenced<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Rutledge|first=Kristen|title=Thousands of Cubans Losing Their Sight Because Of Malnutrition|url=https://www.projectcensored.org/?p=13310|year=1993|accessdate=2020-02-10}}</ref> and many people wanted to leave, an option which the Cuban administration deregulated only to be further obstructed by the American ruling class.<ref>{{safesubst:cite news|last=Franklin|first=Jane|title=The politics behind Clinton's Cuba policy|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-08-30-1994242173-story.html|date=1994-08-30|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513065405/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-08-30-1994242173-story.html|archivedate=2019-05-13}}</ref><ref>Parenti, Michael, The Face of Imperialism, p. 111.</ref> During this time the same ruling class also arrested and permanently imprisoned five Cubans for counterterrorism (albeit under the arbitrary accusations that they were violating travel laws and intended to commit conspiracies against the U.S.).<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = Cuban Political Prisoners ... in the United States – William Blum| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = https://williamblum.org/essays/read/cuban-political-prisoners-...-in-the-united-states}}</ref> Medical data indicate that at least 47,000<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=L.|first=Eisenberg|title=The sleep of reason produces monsters -- human costs of economic sanctions.|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9110916|journal=The New England Journal of Medicine|date=1997-04-24|volume=336|number=17|pages=1248–50|doi=10.1056/NEJM199704243361711}}</ref> youths died as a result of the sanctions that antisocialists imposed on the Republic of Cuba.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Gordon|first=Joy|title=A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics of Economic Sanctions|journal=Ethics & International Affairs|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1999.tb00330.x|volume=13|issue=1|year=1999|pages=123–142|doi=10.1111/j.1747-7093.1999.tb00330.x}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=Hidalgo|first1=Vilma|last2=Martinez|first2=Milagros|title=Is the U.S. Economic Embargo on Cuba Morally Defensible?|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/20345/pdf|journal=A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture|volume=3|number=4|year=2000|pages=100–120|doi=10.1353/log.2000.0005}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Nichols|first=Dick|chapter=|title=The Cuban Revolution: Defying Imperialism, Building the Alternative|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0GHscf95qQC|location=|publisher=Resistance Books|year=2005 |page=|pages= |pageurl= |isbn=1876646462 |oclc= |text=}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=The Impact of the U.S. Embargo on Health & Nutrition in Cuba|url=https://www.medicc.org/resources/documents/embargo/The%20impact%20of%20the%20U.S.%20Embargo%20on%20Health%20&%20Nutrition%20in%20Cuba.pdf|location=Washington|publisher=American Association for World Health|year=1997|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007184223/http://www.medicc.org/resources/documents/embargo/The%20impact%20of%20the%20U.S.%20Embargo%20on%20Health%20&%20Nutrition%20in%20Cuba.pdf|archivedate=2008-10-07}}</ref> The upper classes were betting that the Republic of Cuba would soon collapse.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Quinn|first=Shane|title=Collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuban Revolution Survives Despite Widely Held Predictions|url=https://wp.me/p2vCQD-nMS1|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101004758/https://www.globalresearch.ca/collapse-of-the-soviet-union-cuban-revolution-survives-despite-widely-held-predictions/5669405|archivedate=2020-01-01}}</ref> International pressure from the white bourgeoisie continues to place the republic under strain.

{{quote|The difficult challenges facing Cuba as it moves forward are not unlike those facing social benefits systems everywhere: budget-buster pension and health costs, increasing demands due to economic crisis, demands to improve both efficiency and effectiveness. All face the challenge of engaging the participation of consumers and require the development of effective mechanisms for monitoring access, reach, and quality of services at the community level, particularly for vulnerable groups. But, unlike the people of many other countries, Cubans face these challenges as a people who have constructed a society that is equitable and humane. Those values and that experience inspire and inform new systems as Cuba moves into the future.|Oxfam America|<ref name=Oxfam>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Uriarte|first=Miren|title=Social Policy at the Crossroads: Maintaining Priorities, Transforming Practice|url=https://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf|publisher=Oxfam America|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf|archivedate=2009-03-03}}</ref>}}

== Politics ==
U.S. officials have privately stated that there ‘is no question that the bureaucracy operates relatively freely and probably makes decisions without consulting Castro.’<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=CASTRO|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32112987.pdf|year=1975|page=7}}</ref> The Communist Party does not select candidates, nor does it decide elections, nor does it track voters, nor does it participate in the elections at all; individuals directly nominate any adults whom they think should be candidates.<ref>https://invidio.us/embed/2aMsi-A56ds</ref> The Republic of Cuba has abolished corruption through the semidirect democracy of electing people to the National Assembly of Peoples Power.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Roman|first=Peter|title=People’s Power: Cuba’s Experience with Representative Government|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.|year=2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFQ7bVuGkBsC|page=103|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFQ7bVuGkBsC&pg=PA103|ISBN=0-7425-2564-3}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Arnold|first=August|title=Cuba’s Municipal Elections|url=https://wp.me/p2vCQD-50a|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204012021/http://www.globalresearch.ca/cuba-s-municipal-elections/19230|archivedate=2013-02-04}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Saney|first=Isaac|title=Cuba, Human Rights and Self-Determination|url=https://www.counterpunch.org/?p=96454|date=2017-10-06|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106213347/https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/06/cuba-human-rights-and-self-determination|archivedate=2018-01-06}}</ref>

{{quote|Most Cubans I speak to support the reshaping of the economy and the greater ties with the US. Just like us, they want to better their lives, they want a better mobile phone, a bigger house, they want to travel. But none of them would want to live in a Cuba, no matter how rich, without universal free education, free healthcare, cheap public transport and the lowest rates of violent crime in the Americas. None of them. This is Fidel’s legacy.|The Independent|<ref name=Shaikh>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Shaikh|first=Thair|title=My family live in Cuba – the people may be poor, but Fidel Castro's legacy will live on|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html|date=2016-11-26|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127141225/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html|archivedate=2016-11-27}}</ref>}}

Cubans are significantly more satisfied with their political system than U.S. citizens are with theirs. The same holds true for the healthcare and education systems:

{{quote|More than two-thirds of Cubans—68 percent—are satisfied with their health care system. About 66 percent of Americans said the same in a November 2014 Gallup poll. Seventy-two percent of Cubans are satisfied with their education system, while an August 2014 Gallup poll found that less than half of Americans—48 percent—are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the quality of K-12 education.|New Republic|<ref name=Gillin>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Gillin|first=Joel|title=Cubans Are More Satisfied With Their Political System Than Americans Are|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/121502|date=2015-04-09|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410075324/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121502/cuban-poll-shows-more-political-satisfaction-americans|archivedate=2015-04-10|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>}}

The Cuban populace also recently ratified a new constitution, which reasserts the role of the Communist Party, and affirms that the Republic of Cuba is a socialist state advancing towards communism. The constitution also includes some political and economic reforms, such as the recognition of small businesses, and the presumption of innocence in the court system. Independent evidence supports the official vote tally (approximately 90% support):

{{quote|The independent online newspaper ''El Toque'' asked readers to send in local tallies, a dozen of which showed overwhelming support for ratification.|Reuters|<ref name=idUSKCN1QE22Y>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Frank|first=Marc|title=Cubans overwhelmingly ratify new socialist constitution|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-constitution-referendum-idUSKCN1QE22Y|date=2019-02-25|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>}}

Yoani Sanchez, sometimes known as ‘Cuba’s best-known dissident,’ witnessed the count at her local polling station, reporting the results as ‘400 yes votes, 25 no votes and 4 blank ballots.’ This suggests that the official results were correct, and the Cuban people did overwhelmingly support the new constitution.<ref name=idUSKCN1QE22Y/>

While the Cuban people largely support economic reform and normalization of relations with the United States, their overall support for the achievements of their planned economy remains high:

{{quote|Objective indicators, like the country’s low infant mortality and illiteracy rates, have long shown that Cuba has relatively strong social services. This new polling data suggests that Cubans are well aware of it.|New Republic|<ref name=Gillin/>}}

=== Opposition ===
A common argument against communism is that the Cuban exile population (and their antisocialism) ‘proves’ that communism is only harmful. This omits a key fact: the exiles come primarily from the wealthy class of the neocolonial era. A study conducted by researchers from Stanford University (published in the Oxford University Press), entitled ''Cubans in Exile: A Demographic Analysis'', discusses this topic:

{{quote|Comparison of the occupational, age, and educational composition of the community with the Cuban population indicates that the refugees are better educated and come from higher status occupations than the population from which they have exiled themselves. [M]ore recent exiles are more representative of the Cuban population, but the rural worker is still vastly underrepresented.|Oxford University Press|<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=Fagen|first1=Richard|last2=Brody|first2=Richard|title=Cubans in Exile: A Demographic Analysis|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/799194|journal=Social Problems|publisher=Oxford University Press|volume=11|number=4|year=1964|pages=389–401|doi=10.2307/799194}}</ref>}}

Another factor to consider is that the exodus occurred during a time of conflict and difficulty for Cuba; the revolution was still very new, and the government had not entirely established itself yet. This likely explains why there were some outliers (i.e. exiles from the working-class population), although the majority were still from the wealthy sectors of Cuban society.

==Foreign policy==
Massive Soviet military assistance enabled Cuba to project power abroad. It was involved in a broad range of military and humanitarian activities in [[Guinea-Bissau]], [[Syria]], [[Angola]], [[Algeria]], [[South Yemen]], [[North Vietnam]], [[Laos]], [[Zaire]], [[Iraq]], [[Libya]], [[Zanzibar]], [[Ghana]], [[Equatorial Guinea]], [[Eritrea]], [[Somalia]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Congo-Brazzaville]], [[Sierra Leone]], [[Cape Verde]], [[Nigeria]], [[Benin]], [[Cameroon]], [[Zimbabwe]] and [[Mozambique]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Parameters: Journal of the US Army War College |date=1977 |publisher=U.S. Army War College |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMdLAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA13&lpg=#v=onepage}}</ref> Cuba sent more than 300,000 of its citizens to fight in Angola (1975–91) and defeated South Africa's armed forces using tanks, planes, and artillery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Farber |first1=Samuel |title=Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment |date=2011 |publisher=Haymarket Books |page=105}}</ref> Cuban intervention in Angola contributed to the downfall of the apartheid regime in [[South Africa]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Cuban Identity and the Angolan Experience |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=179}}</ref> The presence of a substantial number of blacks and mulattos in the Cuban armed forces (40–50 percent in Angola)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Valenta|first1=Jiri|title=The Soviet-Cuban Alliance in Africa and the Caribbean|date=1981|page=45}}</ref> helped give teeth to Castro's campaign against racism and related prejudice like xenophobia.

==Economy==
Since the very beginning, the Cuban revolution has been committed to the improvement of life for the people in both the economic and social spheres:

{{quote|When Cuba’s revolution came to power in 1959, its model of development aimed to link economic growth with advances in social justice. From the start, transforming economic changes were accompanied by equally transforming social initiatives. For example, in 1959, Cuba carried out a profound agrarian reform which ended ''latifundia'' [land estate system] in the island and distributed land to thousands of formerly landless small farmers.|Oxfam America|<ref name=Oxfam/>}}

The Republic of Cuba is a [[planned economy]], but it did reintroduce some liberal reforms in the 1990s. Nevertheless, today they have a body of elected delegates who direct the economy away from the established framework and into one that successfully allows for workers’ self-management.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Reid|first=Stuart|title=Cooperatives in Cuba|url=https://www.grocer.coop/node/7763|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101005559/https://www.grocer.coop/node/7763|archivedate=2020-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Wolfe|first=Jonathan|title=Cooperatives in Cuba|url=https://www.pri.org/node/72415|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227161445/http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-25/cuban-cooperatives-present-new-economic-model|archivedate=2015-02-27}}</ref> With over five thousand in existence, the cooperatives have already achieved a prominent rôle in the planned economy over the last decade and are likely to develop further in the previsible future.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Pineiro|first=Camila|title=All Things Co-op: Cuba Cooperatives
|url=https://www.democracyatwork.info/atc_cuba_cooperatives|date=2019-12-17|accessdate=2020-01-15}}</ref> Despite economic pressure, the Republic of Cuba has largely succeeded in providing a decent quality of life for its people. The unemployment rate remains below 3%, as it has for decades.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=UNData|url=https://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html|accessdate=2020-02-11}}</ref>

The republic currently has one of the lowest malnutrition rates of any nation;<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=2019 Global Hunger Index|url=https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224025555/https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html|archivedate=2019-12-24|accessdate=2020-02-24}}</ref> all citizens are legally entitled to food.<ref>https://invidio.us/embed/JSEIKHcYtQU</ref> It is currently a world leader in organic farming,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba Leads the World in Organic Farming|url=https://www.projectcensored.org/?p=354|year=2001|accessdate=2020-01-15}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Ruxton|first=Caitlin|editor=Chip McAuley|title=Cuba Years Ahead in Eat Local Movement|url=https://www.projectcensored.org/?p=5636|date=2009-10-22|accessdate=2020-01-15}}</ref> and Havana in particular has a good deal of food providers.<ref>https://invidio.us/embed/YoCYIRUXE3A</ref> Nevertheless, the World Food Program has claimed that 70–80% of its domestic food requirements derive from imports, with most slated for social protection programmes,<ref name=WFP>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba Has "Largely Eliminated Hunger and Poverty"|url=https://www.wfp.org/node/111|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> but the republic has been reducing its reliance on foreign imports for a couple decades now.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=A. Altieri|first1=Miguel|last2=R. Funes-Monzote|first2=Fernando|title=The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture|journal=The Monthly Review|url=https://monthlyreview.org/?p=7672|volume=63|number=8|date=2012-01-01|accessdate=2020-02-09}}</ref> Data from the World Health Organization indicate that as of 2017 they have a malnutrition rate of less than 2.00.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = MALNUTRITION DEATH RATE BY COUNTRY| work = World Life Expectancy| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/malnutrition/by-country}}</ref><ref>https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#malnutrition</ref> The FAO concluded that the Republic of Cuba’s ‘remarkably low percentages of child malnutrition put [them] at the forefront of developing countries’<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = Nutrition country profiles: Cuba summary| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/cub_en.stm}}</ref> and World Food Program USA has likewise concluded that over the last five decades, their ‘comprehensive social protection programs’ have ‘largely eliminated hunger and poverty.’<ref name=WFP/> <ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba - World Food Program USA|url=https://www.wfpusa.org/?p=71531|date=2016-08-03|accessdate=2020-02-24}}</ref> As of 2018 the Global Hunger Index has rated the Republic of Cuba as ‘low’ on their index.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = 2018 Global Hunger Index Results - Global, Regional, and National Trends - Global Hunger Index - peer-reviewed annual publication designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels| work = Global Hunger Index - A Peer-Reviewed Publication| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = https://www.globalhungerindex.org/results}}</ref> According to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture, the average Cuban consumes approximately 3300 calories per day, far above the Latin American and Caribbean average, and only slightly lower than in the United States. Approximately two thirds of nutritional needs are met by monthly food rations, while the rest is bought independently. The report also states:

{{quote|The Cuban economy has made remarkable progress toward recovery from the economic disaster generated by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.|USDA|<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba’s Food & Agriculture Situation Report|url=http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf|year=2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105150934/http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf|archivedate=2013-11-05}}</ref>}}

Oil accounted for about 85% of their electricity generated in 2013, but they have set a goal of producing 24% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030 in an effort to diversify their energy portfolio. The state-owned power company Unión Eléctrica has been planning thirteen wind projects with a total capacity of 633 MW, and the republic plans to add 755 MW of biomass-fired capacity, 700 MW of solar capacity, and 56 MW of hydroelectric power as well.
The republic’s demand for electricity has been growing as a result of new economic reform, but production has remained stagnant, causing occasional blackouts and other deficiencies. Consequently they have taken measures to reduce the amount of electricity that the government consumes so that the private sector can remain safe from blackouts or other deficiencies.<ref>https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.php?iso=CUB</ref>

The Republic of Cuba’s successful models of sustainable development — in areas of food, housing and health — have been widely replicated throughout Latin America.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Yaffe|first=Helen|title=Cuba's green revolution — achieving sustainability|url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/cubas-green-revolution-â-achieving-sustainability|issue=830|date=2010-03-13|accessdate=2020-01-15}}</ref> The Global Footprint Network has evaluated them as being ecologically sustainable (in contrast to the U.S.A.),<ref>https://i.redd.it/trygb2yptn721.jpg</ref> in fact it is only country in the world that meets WWF conditions of sustainable development,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Diep|first=Amanda|title=Only eight countries meet two key conditions for sustainable development as United Nations adopts Sustainable Development Goals|url=https://www.footprintnetwork.org/?p=8064|date=2015-09-23|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=As World Burns, Cuba Number One for Sustainable Development|url=https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html|date=2016-10-27|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502054253/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html|archivedate=2019-05-02}}</ref> for both the Human Development Index and Ecological Footprint.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=José Cabello|first1=Juan|last2=Garcia|first2=Dunia|last3=Sagastume|first3=Alexis|last4=Priego|first4=Rosario|last5=Hens|first5=Luc|last6=Vandecasteele|first6=Carlo
|title=An approach to sustainable development: the case of Cuba|journal=Environment, Development and Sustainability|volume=14|publisher=Springer Netherlands|issue=4|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10668-012-9338-8|date=2012-02-19|pages=573–591|doi=10.1007/s10668-012-9338-8|ISSN=1573-2975}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Hickel|first=Jason|title=The sustainable development index: Measuring the ecological efficiency of human development in the anthropocene|journal=Ecological Economics|volume=167|date=2020-01-01|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919303386|doi=10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.05.011}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Christine|first=Ro|title=Every Country Is Developing, According To The New Sustainable Development Index|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202013719/https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index|archivedate=2019-12-02}}</ref> They have 30.6% forest coverage due to their reforestation programme<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba has 30.6% Forest Coverage Due to Reforestation Program|url=https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-has-30.6-Forest-Coverage-Due-to-ReforestationProgram-20160825-0003.html|date=2016-08-25|accessdate=2020-01-15}}</ref> for example, and the ''Guardian'' has stated:

{{quote|[T]he evidence suggests that Cuba has made excellent progress towards the MDGs in the last decade, building on what are already universally acknowledged to be outstanding achievements in equitable health and education standards. According to a new MDG Report Card by the Overseas Development Institute, Cuba is among the 20 best performing countries in the world.|Jonathan Glennie|<ref name=Glennie>{{safesubst:cite news|last=Glennie|first=Jonathan|title=Why we should applaud Cuba’s progress towards the millennium development goals|url=https://amp.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba|date=2010-09-30|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130916223135/http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba|archivedate=2013-09-16|accessdate=2020-02-11}}</ref>}}

This also includes a statement from a Cuban economist on how this progress is made:

{{quote|The Cuban economy is planned and we redistribute income from the most dynamic sectors, which generate most foreign exchange, towards those that are less dynamic but necessary for the country. That’s how we maintain a budget to keep health and education high quality and free of charge to the user.|Anonymous Cuban|<ref name=Glennie/>}}

== Infrastructure ==
The revolution greatly improved the housing situation in the Republic of Cuba, and also brought significant urban development:

{{quote|Initiatives in the cities were no less ambitious. Urban reform brought a halving of rents for Cuban tenants, opportunities for tenants to own their housing, and an ambitious program of housing construction for those living in marginal shantytowns. New housing, along with the implementation of measures to create jobs and reduce unemployment, especially among women, rapidly transformed the former shantytowns.|Oxfam America|<ref name=Oxfam/>}}

Likewise, the social security and pensions system in the republic has drastically improved since the revolution:

{{quote|Both coverage and distribution have improved significantly since the revolution. With a pension system since the 1930s, Cuba was one of the first Latin American countries to establish one. It consisted of independent pension funds and by 1959 covered about 63% of workers, but the system varied greatly in terms of benefits and relied almost exclusively on workers’ contributions. Since 1959, the program has been funded completely by the government. In 1958, about 63% of the labor force was covered for old age, disability, and survivors insurance; today, the coverage is universal.|Oxfam America|<ref name=Oxfam/>}}

In 1959, approximately 50% of Cuban households had access to electricity. By 1989, more than 95% of households had access to electricity, including in rural areas, which had previously been almost entirely deprived.<ref name=EDF>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Panfil|first1=Michael|last2=Whittle|first2=Daniel|last3=Silverman-Roati|first3=Korey|title=The Cuban Electric Grid: Lessons and Recommendations for Cuba’s Electric Sector|url=https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109080354/https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf|archivedate=2017-11-09|page=8}}</ref> They achieved full electrification by the 2010s,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|editor=Liu|title=Cuba achieves full electrification in 2018|url=http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/15/c_137676260.htm|date=2018-12-15|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215092154/http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/15/c_137676260.htm|archivedate=2018-12-15}}</ref> and have surpassed many of their neighbors in terms of electricity generation:

{{quote|By 1990 Cuba had roughly 1.8 times more generating capacity per person than the Dominican Republic and 1.3 times more than Jamaica.|Environmental Defense Fund|<ref name=EDF/>}}

In Cuba, access to clean water and sanitation has drastically improved since the revolution. As of 2018, 96.4% of the urban population and 89.8% of the rural population had access to clean drinking water, while 94.4% of the urban population and 89.1% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation services.<ref>https://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html</ref>

{{quote|This is Fidel’s legacy. Clean water and electricity for all. And universal free education and healthcare. Cubans often joke that they’re healthier and better educated than Americans despite the 50-year-plus US blockade.

So for me, rural Cuba is Fidel’s Cuba. His ideals live on here — and the rural poor of Cuba have benefited the most from his cradle-to-grave policies. Here, the grandchildren of peasants really do go on to become consultant surgeons and commercial airline pilots.|The Independent|<ref name=Shaikh/>}}

=== Health ===
{{quote|Whether it is a consultation, dentures or open heart surgery, citizens are entitled to free treatment. As a result the impoverished island boasts better health indicators than its exponentially richer neighbour 90 miles across the Florida straits.|Guardian|<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Healthcare in Cuba|url=https://amp.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews|date=2007-07-17|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141005113933/http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews|archivedate=2014-10-05}}</ref>}}

Another source on this is the study ''Health in Cuba'', published by the Oxford University Press’s ''International Journal of Epidemiology'':

{{quote|Cuba represents an important alternative example where modest infrastructure investments combined with a well-developed public health strategy have generated health status measures comparable with those of industrialized countries. […] If the Cuban experience were generalized to other poor and middle-income countries human health would be transformed.|International Journal of Epidemiology|<ref name=IJE>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=Cooper|first1=Richard|last2=Kennelly|first2=Joan|last3=Orduñez-Garcia|first3=Pedro|title=Health in Cuba|url=https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/4/817/686547|journal=International Journal of Epidemiology|volume=35|issue=4|date=2006-08-04|archiveurl=https://academic.oup.com/ije/article-pdf/35/4/817/2003802/dyl175.pdf|archivedate=2006-05-04|pages=817–24|doi=10.1093/ije/dyl175}}</ref>}}

This is demonstrated by the particular health statistics of the republic after the revolution. For example, prerevolutionary life expectancy was approximately 6.3 decades, compared to approximately 7 decades in the U.S.A. By 1973 (thirteen years after the revolution), the republic had caught up to the U.S.A.; it has since surpassed them in terms of life expectancy with an average of 7.5 decades;<ref name=B&R>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Parenti|first=Michael|chapter=2|title=Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism & the Overthrow of Communism|url=https://cartiparenti.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/blackshirts-and-reds-by-michael-parenti.pdf|location=San Francisco|publisher=City Light Books|year=1997|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828235152/https://cartiparenti.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/blackshirts-and-reds-by-michael-parenti.pdf|archivedate=2019-08-28|page=39|ISBN=0-87288-330-1}}</ref> UNICEF<ref name=UNICEF>https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/cuba_statistics.html</ref> and World Bank statistics indicate that the republic has achieved a higher life expectancy<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Life Expectancy in the USA and Cuba|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=CU-US|publisher=World Bank|accessdate=2020-02-24}}</ref> and better mortality rate<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Infant Mortality in the USA and Cuba|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=CU-US|publisher=World Bank|accessdate=2020-02-24}}</ref> than the United States. The prerevolutionary adult male mortality rate was also already slightly lower than that of the United States, but the gap has widened significantly in the Republic of Cuba’s favor since the revolution.<ref>https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.AMRT.MA?locations=CU-US</ref> The prerevolutionary percentage of women surviving the age 65 was significantly lower in the republic than in the United States; today, it is slightly higher.<ref>https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TO65.FE.ZS?locations=CU-US</ref> Maternal mortality rates, while not as good as those in Canada or the U.S.A., have improved massively since the 1950s and today are better than the rates of other countries of comparable backgrounds in the Americas:

{{quote|Under the Revolution, Cuba has enjoyed some meaningful progress in lowering maternal mortality rates (the number of pregnancy or delivery related deaths per 100,000 live births per year). In 1955, the maternal mortality rate in Cuba was 145, and in 1958, it was 125. According to the PAHO, however, by 2012, Cuba showed a maternal mortality rate of 41, better than the rates of 56–68 in Brazil or 120–158 in Guatemala, although not as good as 9–12 in Canada or 21 in the USA. According to data provided by the British medical journal, ''The Lancet'', in 2013, the maternal mortality rate in Cuba had fallen to 39.8 per 100,000 live births, compared to 54.0 in Mexico, and 58.7 in Brazil.|Ronn Pineo|<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Pineo|first=Ronn|title=Cuban Public Healthcare: A Model of Success for Developing Nations|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731|journal=Journal of Developing Societies|date=2019-03-04|volume=25|issue=1|doi=10.1177/0169796X19826731}}</ref>}}

Presently, the Republic of Cuba possesses best healthcare system in the developing world.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=Keck|first1=C. William|last2=Reed|first2=Gail A.|title=The Curious Case of Cuba|journal=American Journal of Public Health|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464859|volume=102|number=8|year=2012|pages=e13-22|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2012.300822}}</ref> The republic is also famous for its number of medical professionals, causing some people to return there<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Moreno|first=Sarah|title=Thousands of Cuban exiles are exploring an unusual option: Returning to Cuba to live|url=https://hrld.us/2Dkxukr|date=2018-03-12|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> or seek their medical training there.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Why Are Americans Getting Their Medical Degrees In Cuba?|url=https://wp.me/p7fSmo-BA|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101003503/https://ponderwall.com/index.php/2019/03/26/cuba-medical-degrees|archivedate=2020-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=MacLeod|first=Alan|title=Meet the Americans Studying Medicine on the Cuban Government’s Dime|url=http://thealtworld.com/?p=15031|date=2019-03-31}}</ref> Since the 1990s the Republic of Cuba has had the most doctors per capita, one for every 214 inhabitants, of all the countries in the world,<ref name=B&R/> and presently has the most doctors per capita in the world.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Herman|first1=Chris|last2=Zlotnik|first2=Joan|last3=Collins|first3=Stacy|title=Social Services in Cuba|url=http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/NASW%20CUBA%20REPORT.pdf|publisher=National Association of Social Workers|accessdate=2020-02-24}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Density of physicians (total number per 1000 population, latest available year)|url=https://www.who.int/gho/health_workforce/physicians_density/en|date=2018-12-28}}</ref>

Cuban scientists were the first to introduce a vaccine for lung cancer,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Carroll|first=Rory|title=Cuba approves first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer|url=https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2008/jun/26/cancer.cuba|date=2008-06-26|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902102105/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jun/26/cancer.cuba|archivedate=2013-09-02}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=McGinley|first=Laurie|title=In a first, U.S. trial to test Cuban lung-cancer vaccine|url=https://wapo.st/2fhqTQ7|date=2016-10-27|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161028154241/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/in-a-first-u-s-trial-to-test-cuban-lung-cancer-vaccine|archivedate=2016-10-28|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> an anti-AIDS contagion pill,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Robinson|first=Circles|title=Drug Trial in Cuba to Prevent HIV Infections|url=https://havanatimes.org/?p=154220|date=2019-05-29|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> and they designed new hepatitis B vaccines;<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Henriques|first=Carolina|title=New Chronic Hepatitis B Treatment Available in Cuba|url=https://wp.me/p5rQ17-Wt|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224114238/http://hepatitisnewstoday.com/2015/12/15/new-chronic-hepatitis-b-treatment-available-cuba|archivedate=2015-12-24}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last1=LLA|first1=Rodríguez Lay|last2=M|first2=Bello Corredor|last3=MC|first3=Montalvo Villalba|last4=AG|first4=Chibás Ojeda|last5=S|first5=Sariego Frómeta|last6=M|first6=Diaz González|last7=Y|first7=Abad Lamoth|last8=M|first8=Sánchez Wong|last9=A|first9=Sausy|last10=CP|first10=Muller|last11=JM|first11=Hübschen|title=Hepatitis B virus infection assessed 3 to 18 years after vaccination in Cuban children and adolescents born to HBsAg-positive mothers.|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28439708|journal=Archives of Virology|volume=162|number=8|date=2017-04-24|pages=2393–2396|doi=10.1007/s00705-017-3365-6}}</ref> ''Time'' reported that the Republic of Cuba has eliminated the transmission of HIV and syphilis through pregnancies,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Worland|first=Justin|title=Mother to Child HIV Transmission: Cuba Eliminates HIV in Newborns|url=https://ti.me/1KsPx9i|date=2015-07-01|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701152114/http://time.com/3943045/cuba-hiv-mother-daughter|archivedate=2015-07-01|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> making them the world’s first country to do so,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=WHO validates elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis in Cuba|url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en|date=2015-06-30|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180111035415/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en|archivedate=2018-01-11}}</ref> and since 2019 they have been distributing PrEP gratis to those who need it,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Smith|first=Gwendolyn|title=Cuba just started giving PrEP away for free to those who need it|url=https://www.lgbtqnation.com/?p=274922|date=2019-04-12|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413151703/https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/04/cuba-just-started-giving-prep-away-free-need|archivedate=2019-04-13}}</ref> reducing the chance of HIV infection by as much as 90%.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba starts giving out free preventive HIV pill|url=https://oncubanews.com/en/?p=196144|date=2019-04-04|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410233347/https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba/cuba-starts-giving-out-free-preventive-hiv-pill|archivedate=2019-04-10}}</ref> In 2000, the performance of the Republic of Cuba’s provision placed the country at #39 on the World Health Organization’s league table,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=The world health report 2000 - Health systems: improving performance|url=https://www.who.int/whr/2000/en}}</ref> and in 2014 the republic was spending 11.1% of its GDP on healthcare.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Total expenditure on health as a percentage of the gross domestic product (%)|url=https://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/health_financing/atlas.html|year=2014}}</ref> The Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System indicated in 2015 that youths over the age of two have a 31.6% chance of developing anaemia, however.<ref name=WFP/> Today the republic offers genital reconstructions gratis,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Darlington|first=Shasta|title=Cuban enjoys new benefit of free sex-change operation|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/06/01/cuba.sex.change|date=2011-06-01|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812014458/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/06/01/cuba.sex.change|archivedate=2011-08-12}}</ref> and vulnerable demographics such as the ill, the disabled, and those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged receive special protections and other benefits.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|title=Caribbean Countries Health Care System Profiles Handbook - Strategic Information, Development and Opportunities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ko6CgAAQBAJ|year=2013|page=125|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ko6CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|ISBN=9781577511991}}</ref> ''Bloomberg'' placed the Republic of Cuba’s healthcare above the U.S.’s,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Lee|first2=Wei|last2=Lu|title=These Are the World's Healthiest Nations|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-24/spain-tops-italy-as-world-s-healthiest-nation-while-u-s-slips|date=2019-02-24|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224171502/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-24/spain-tops-italy-as-world-s-healthiest-nation-while-u-s-slips|archivedate=2019-02-24}}</ref> and the ''New York Times'' has confirmed that U.S. students do travel there to seek medical training.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Americans graduate from Cuban medical school|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/world/americas/25iht-cuba.1.6817768.html|date=2007-07-25|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131015610/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/world/americas/25iht-cuba.1.6817768.html|archivedate=2018-01-31}}</ref>

The Republic of Cuba has sent teachers, doctors, and workers to dozens of superexploited countries gratis. For example, in the 2010s they became the most important supporter to the Haitians after the 2010 earthquake.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Maddox|first=Sarah|editors=José Manuel Pestano Rodríguez, José Manuel de Pablos Coello, William Du Bois|title=Cuba Provided the Greatest Medical Aid to Haiti after the Earthquake|url=https://www.projectcensored.org/?p=1468|date=2010-10-02|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725112344/http://projectcensored.org/12-cuba-provided-the-greatest-medical-aid-to-haiti-after-the-earthquake|archivedate=2018-07-25|accessdate=2020-01-25}}</ref> During the same decade they assisted Mozambicans that survived a hurricane,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=New Cuban Doctors' Mission in Mozambique Ensures Quality|url=http://www.ahora.cu/en/health/4733|date=2019-03-29}}</ref> and they provided the most important medical support to western Africa during the Ebola outbreak.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Ullathorne|first1=Graham|last2=Dalley|first2=Gillian|last3=Rainbird|first3=David|title=Cuba’s Ebola response puts US embargo to shame|url=https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/05/cuba-ebola-response-united-states-embargo-shame|date=2014-12-05|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160719142254/https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/05/cuba-ebola-response-united-states-embargo-shame|archivedate=2016-07-19}}</ref> Their republic has also treated more children (13,000) who were victims of the [[Chernobyl]] incident<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Chernobyl victims heal in Cuba|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/146507|date=2005-07-06|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225071511/https://www.dawn.com/news/146507/chernobyl-victims-heal-in-cuba|archivedate=2020-02-25}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba and Chernobyl|url=https://invidio.us/embed/H10xE1CcKxQ|accessdate=2020-04-16}}</ref> than all other countries put together.<ref name=B&R/> Both the Republic of Cuba and the [[People’s Republic of China]] have distributed 933 tons of medicine to the [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela]].<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Venezuela recibe 933 toneladas de medicinas y materiales médicos|url=http://amp.uniradioinforma.com/noticias/internacional/556699/venezuela-recibe-933-toneladas-de-medicinas-y-materiales-medicos.html|date=2019-02-14|language=Spanish}}</ref>

In 2020, they transported their doctors to fourteen other countries due to COVID-19,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Fernandez|first=Belen|title=Cuba Under Media Attack for Sending Doctors, Not Bombs, to Help Covid-19 Victims|url=https://fair.org/?p=9013735|date=2020-04-14}}</ref> including [[Grenada]], [[Jamaica]], the [[Republic of Nicaragua]], [[Suriname]] and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, increasing the more than 28,000 medical volunteers it has serving in sixty-one other countries. Each student is expected to visit eighty houses daily, and they have visited more than a million people by March 20. On March 23, the Republic of Cuba announced new measures such as suspending school for four weeks; closing dance clubs, pools and gyms; giving special attention to seniors who live at home or who live alone; increasing food production; and cancelling most travel between cities. All Cubans returning to the republic are quarantined for two weeks, and for now tourists cannot reenter the country.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Evans|first=Terry|title=Working people in Cuba set the example for int’l solidarity|journal=The Militant|url=https://themilitant.com/?p=47833|date=2020-03-28|volume=84|number=13}}</ref>

They are highly prone to tropical storms, hurricanes, heavy rainfalls, drought and occasional earthquakes,<ref name=WFP/> consequently they have developed the best response system in the Caribbean,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Marcetic|first=Branko|title=Before the Hurricane|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/hurricane-harvey-cuba-disaster-plan|date=2017-08-30|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901180028/https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/hurricane-harvey-cuba-disaster-plan|archivedate=2017-09-01}}</ref> with less than a hundred deaths in the past decade or so.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Gorry|first=Conner|editors=Gail A. Reed, MS; Michele Frank, MD; Conner Gorry; Diane Appelbaum, RN, FNP, MS; Debra Evenson, JDS|title=Hurricane Wilma: Living to Tell the Tale|url=https://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/0905/top-story.html|journal=MEDICC Review|volume=VII|number=9|year=2005|archiveurl=https://www.medicc.org/resources/documents/medicc-review-disaster-management.pdf|archivedate=2005-11-00|ISSN=1527-3172}}</ref> They have successfully evacuated up to 1.5 million people<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Hurricane Ivan brushes Cuba's tip|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3650682.stm|date=2004-09-14|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921115434/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3650682.stm|archivedate=2007-09-21}}</ref> and weathered the most catastrophic hurricanes to date.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Caribbean Hurricane Network - Updates from the Islands - 2004 Season|url=https://stormcarib.com/hurr04.htm|date=2004-09-23|section=nine|sectionurl=https://stormcarib.com/hurr04.htm#nine}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Hurricanes & Tropical Storms|url=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/storm/2005/atlantic/dennis/news.html#recap|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100815064207/http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/storm/2005/atlantic/dennis/news.html#recap|archivedate=2010-08-15}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Hurricane Ivan drenches western Cuba|url=https://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2004-09-13-hurricane-ivan_x.htm|date=2004-09-13|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050911034655/http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2004-09-13-hurricane-ivan_x.htm|archivedate=2005-09-11}}</ref> Each residential block has somebody assigned to take a census on who is being evacuated to which shelter, with special attention paid to elders and pregnant people, and as efforts are organized locally, compliance is increased.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Thompson|first=Martha|coauthors=Izaskun Gaviria|title=Weathering the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction from Cuba|url=https://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7111.html/OA-Cuba_Weathering_the_Storm-2004.pdf|publisher=Oxfam America|year=2004|pages=31–2|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927023654/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7111.html/OA-Cuba_Weathering_the_Storm-2004.pdf|archivedate=2007-09-27}}</ref> A big part of the Cuban resilience to hurricanes and similar extreme weather (compared to other Caribbean nations) is also that they have not cut down all their forests; it is a conscious decision to keep forests up as that keeps the force of winds down. (Comparatively: other islands get devastated as they have done more deforestation.)

=== Education ===
Since the revolution, the Republic of Cuba has made enormous strides in education. One of the most significant developments was the National Literacy Campaign (which Che Guevara spearheaded):

{{quote|The National Literacy Campaign of 1961, recognized as one of the most successful initiatives of its kind, mobilized teachers, workers, and secondary school students to teach more than 700,000 persons how to read. This campaign reduced the illiteracy rate from 23% to 4% in the space of one year.|Oxfam America|<ref name=Oxfam/>}}

The revolutionary literacy in the repubic was between 60% and 76%, depending on the estimates used. Today, the CIA World Factbook gives the Cuban literacy rate as 99.8%.<ref>https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html</ref> International entities such as UNESCO corroborate this.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Jon|title=Fact-checking Bernie Sanders' claim on Cuba literacy under Castro|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/24/bernie-sanders/sanders-correct-cuba-literacy-campaign-skimps-prop|date=2020-02-24|accessdate=2020-02-25}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba Literacy Rate 1981-2020|url=https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CUB/cuba/literacy-rate|accessdate=2020-02-25}}</ref> In addition, the republic spends a greater percentage of GDP on education than any other country in the world.<ref>https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU</ref>

At one point the Republic of Cuba had 25,000 Third World students studying on scholarships, and it still has many scholarship students from Africa and other continents. Since the 1990s they have been the republic with the most teachers per capita of all countries in the world, including developed countries.<ref name=B&R/> UNICEF data indicate that they have a higher literacy rate than the United States.<ref name=UNICEF/>

== Demographics ==
Cuban citizenry is 64% white and 36% black and mulatto combined. Although the republic has made great strides towards equity, socio-economic inequalities may still persist. For example, using the survey results conducted by an unknown ‘small Cuban research team’ that one author worked with during her time at the [[Cuban Research Institute]], GIGA (a German Foreign Office project) researchers Katrin Hansing (associate director for the Cuban Research Institute at FIU) and Bert Hoffmann argued that Afro-Cubans have less access to bank accounts, the Internet, remittances, and other amenities,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Hansing|first1=Katrin|last2=Hoffmann|first2=Bert|editor=GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies|title=Cuba’s New Social Structure: Assessing the Re-Stratification of Cuban Society 60 Years after Revolution|url=https://www.giga-hamburg.de/en/system/files/publications/wp315_hansing-hoffmann.pdf|work=GIGA Working Papers|location=Hamburg|publisher=GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies|month=February|year=2019|number=315}}</ref> although the procedure for validating these surveys remains unclear.

In the late 1990s there were 2,000–3,000 Americans living in the Republic of Cuba, most of whom were born in the Anglosphere to Cuban parents. Motives for immigrating included love, escaping neoimperialist authorities, and seeking a better life.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Abel|first=David|title=Americans take refuge in Cuba Expatriates: About 2,000 to 3,000 Americans live in Cuba. Most of them were born in the United States to Cuban parents. A handful are on the run from U.S. authorities.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-10-01-1998274110-story.html|date=1998-10-01|accessdate=2020-03-27}}</ref>

===Migration===
A legal immigration agreement between the Republic of Cuba and the United States facilitates visas for Cuban citizens each year who want to join their many family members in the U.S., and since the Republic of Cuba is a developing country suffering under six decades of aggression and blockade from antisocialists, many people emigrate for economic reasons. Cubans are nonetheless completely free to leave the Republic of Cuba at any time so long as they have visas from other countries in order to travel and the money to pay for the travel. As part of their campaign against the republic, antisocialists have maintained a policy of encouraging dangerous illegal migration. The U.S. had a so called ‘wet foot, dry foot’ policy that gave special incentives to Cuban nationals to migrate illegally to there where they were guaranteed citizenship.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Cuba reaffirms its commitment to regular, safe, and orderly migration|url=https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/3306/cuba-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-regular-safe-and-orderly-migration|date=2017-01-16|accessdate=2020-03-27}}</ref>

Cuba has one of the lowest immigration rates in [[South America|South and Central America]] as well as the Caribbean. The majority of immigrants from the Caribbean islands and South America have been from Haiti and other capitalist countries<ref>https://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2013/02/a-visit-to-havana-.html</ref>. One of Cuba’s Caribbean neighbors is the [[Dominican Republic]]. 41,000 Dominicans immigrated to the US in 2012 (not including the tens of thousands more that came undocumented). Under 10,000 total came from Cuba that year, a fraction of the Dominicans that immigrated. The Dominican Republic produces far more immigrants than Cuba, and yet has a smaller population by 2 million, and requires a longer and more dangerous journey to the US for immigrants. Indeed, millions of people from all over the world immigrate to the US, including 11.7 million [[Mexico|Mexicans]]. Millions more have come from all other Latin American countries. What’s clear is that there is not a mass exodus of refugees from Cuba. Cuban emigres are given the spotlight by the US government and media because it can be conveniently used to as ammunition to demonize a country that is not compliant with imperialism. The simple fact is that any time there is a developed country nearby a less developed country, there is a tendency for the latter to produce immigration towards the former. Cuba experiencing emigration is nothing abnormal or unexpected.

The claim that “Cubans are fleeing communism/socialism” is also tremendously hypocritical. When immigrants come from any other Latin American country, almost all which are capitalist. Regardless of their actual reasons, any immigrant that comes from Cuba is automatically a victim of communism who is fleeing their government. Nearly all immigrants from Central America and the Caribbean migrate for economic reasons: they have little food, no way to make a living, may lose their home, or are employed on a poverty wage. Thus, they emigrate in hopes of alleviating economic problems. What’s more ironic is that these are problems that capitalist Latin American countries face at higher rates than Cuba. Homelessness, unemployment, and poverty in Cuba are among the lowest in the Americas and even the world. In fact, Cuba is the 2nd-most developed country in Latin America, per the 2014 Human Development Index. While capitalist countries produce immigrants out of their systemic inability to provide such basic human rights, Cuba produces immigrants merely because some Cubans wish to live in a more developed country, and reap whatever individual benefits may come with development. If it is true that Cubans leave because “socialism/communism made their lives hard,” one must also acknowledge that statistically speaking, socialism provided the best lives they could’ve had in Latin America.

Ironically many families of Cuban exiles and immigrants live even more poorly than they did in Cuba<ref>https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/this-country-is-worse-than-cuba-the-trump-eras-cruel-reality-for-cuban-asylum-seekers/</ref>. A distinct example includes the family of Cuban Dictator Batista, deposed by Castro and the communist movement decades ago<ref>https://www.local10.com/news/local-10-investigates/ex-cuban-leader-fulgencio-batistas-daughter-now-homeless</ref>. A myth spread by popular culture and media, is that Cuban immigrants - read bourgeoisie - 'fleeing Castro' helped improve the economy of Southern cities like Atlanta and Miami<ref>https://vdare.com/articles/national-data-cuban-immigration-and-the-myth-of-miami</ref> <ref>https://vdare.com/articles/national-data-chart-cuban-immigration-and-the-myth-of-miami</ref>.

== Culture ==
{{quote|Social policy has also favored the development of equity across society, including the equitable distribution of benefits across all sectors of the population, sometimes favoring the most vulnerable. In the last 40 years Cubans have greatly reduced differences in income between the lowest and the highest paid persons. Women have benefited significantly from the revolution as they have educated themselves and entered the labor force in large numbers. The differences among Cubans of different races have also been reduced.|Oxfam America|<ref name=Oxfam/>}}

==Further reading==
[[Reading material on Cuba]]

==External links==
* https://www.invent-the-future.org/?p=40
* https://web.archive.org/web/20100316013355/http://www.cubatruth.info/

==References==

German Democratic Republic

2021-01-06T20:52:20Z

CCPSHILL15:

The German Democratic Republic (abbreviated '''GDR''' or '''DDR''', and unofficially known as '''East Germany''') was a [[people's republic]] in central Europe that existed from 1949 to 1990.

{{Infobox country
| englishname = German Democratic Republic
| nativename = Deutsche Demokratische Republik
| shortname = GDR
| mapfile = [[File:East_Germany_1956-1990.svg.png|300px|frameless|Map of the GDR]]
| flagfile = [[File:Flag_of_the_German_Democratic_Republic.svg.png|125x63px|frameless|Flag of the GDR]]
| emblemfile = [[File:State_arms_of_German_Democratic_Republic.svg.png|85x88px|frameless|Emblem of the GDR]]
}}

== History ==
[[World War II]] left Germany a shadow of its former self. Cities had been leveled, and the economy had been utterly devastated. Eastern Germany in particular was at a serious disadvantage; it had always been far less industrialized than Western Germany, and as such, it had depended largely upon the West for its economic needs.

{{quote|Before World War II, the area that later became East Germany was not well developed industrially. Because this area lacked raw materials, heavy industry was generally located in other parts of the German state. Compounding the problems for the newly created East German state in 1949 was the massive destruction during World War II of the industrial plant that had existed there and the subsequent Soviet dismantling and removal of factories and equipment that had survived the war. [...] During the interwar years, the territory that is now East Germany was profoundly dependent on external economic ties. In the mid-1930s, it shipped almost half of its total production to the other parts of Germany. […] This domestic trade featured sales of agricultural products; textiles; products of light industry, such as cameras, typewriters, and optical equipment; and purchases of industrial goods and equipment.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

Thus, Eastern Germany depended totally on the West for its heavy industrial needs, and paid for these needs by selling its agricultural and light industrial products. However, this balance between East and West was thrown off after the war:

{{quote|Major dislocations occurred after World War II, when Germany was divided into two sections, one part dominated by the Soviet Union, and the other by the Western Allies. Because it could no longer rely on its former system of internal and external trading, the Soviet Zone of Occupation had to be restructured and made more self-sufficient through the construction of basic industry.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

This was challenging for the young GDR, especially seeing as it received virtually no large-scale economic aid from the USSR (which was too busy reconstructing itself after WWII to worry about funding the GDR). In addition, the GDR had to pay heavy reparations to the USSR for the damage caused during WWII. This acted as a major obstacle to development. According to ''The East German Economy, 1945–2010'', published by the German Historical Institute, direct and indirect reparations paid by East Germany between 1946 and 1953 amounted to $14 billion in 1938 prices.

{{quote|The reorientation and restructuring of the East German economy would have been difficult in any case. The substantial reparations costs that the Soviet Union imposed on its occupied zone, and later on East Germany, made the process even more difficult. Payments continued into the early 1950s, ending only with the death of Stalin. According to Western estimates, these payments amounted to about 25 percent of total East German production through 1953.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

This is in direct contrast to the West, which received large aid investments from the United States as part of the Marshall Plan, as well as lucrative trade relationships with the developed nations. After the war on the second of August, 1945 the allies presented the Postdam agreement which described the demilitarization of Germany, repayments that Germany needed to pay and the control of allied powers.<ref>https://www.nato.int/ebookshop/video/declassified/doc_files/Potsdam%20Agreement.pdf</ref> While the agreement was supposed to cause allies to control Germany jointly their differing economic and political goals made it impossible. By the start of 1950s, two German states existed: the market capitalist Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and the socialist planned German Democratic Republic (GDR). The war losses USSR had during the war amounted to 1,700 cities and urban areas, 70,000 villages, 32,000 enterprises and 65 kilometers of railway, thousands of schools and hospitals and about 20 million people lost their home. The 30% of national wealth was lost. The numbers were released by Izvestia, a government run newspaper and were thought of by Western powers as made up for propaganda purposes. The numbers released after the fall of USSR show that was not the case.<ref> Figures from Dimitri Wolkogonow, Stalin. Triumpf und Tragödie. Ein politisches Porträt (Düsseldorf, 1993), 681–2; Rainer Karlsch and Jochen Laufer, eds., Sowjetische Demontagen in Deutschland 1944– 1949 (Berlin, 2002), 31–2; Uhl, Teilung, 7–9. On the validity of the figures, see the more recent publications Jochen Laufer, Pax Sovietica. Stalin, die Westmächte und die deutsche Frage 1941–1945 (Cologne, 2009), 263; Bogdan Musial, Stalins Beutezug. Die Plünderung Deutschlands und der Aufstieg der Sowjetunion zur Weltmacht (Berlin, 2010), 249, 452.</ref> The Soviet zone was divided economically into two parts, the north which was predominantly agricultural, and the south which was heavily industrialized, being the Third Reich industrial core. The south focused on metal working, electrical, chemical and machine tools. Despite that the Soviet zone had problems with lack of raw materials like copper. Iron and hard coal. At the other hand the quantity of brown coal, potash, gravel and uranium which was to become important in Soviet nuclear industry were plentiful, with the GDR becoming the third largest uranium producer in the world. <ref>Rainer Karlsch, Uran für Moskau. Die Wismut – Eine populäre Geschichte (Berlin, 2007), 231–7; Matthias Judt, ed., DDR-Geschichte in Dokumenten (Berlin, 1997), 89–91; Karlsch, Allein bezahlt, 35; Steiner, Plan zu Plan, 19–24.</ref> Overall the German industry did not suffer great losses in the war with 15% lost in industrial capacity.<ref>Wolfgang Zank, Wirtschaft und Arbeit in Ostdeutschland</ref>

In 1989, the [[PRC]] offered to save the GDR from collapse:

{{quote|Comrade Egon Krenz 
Today I held extensive talks with comrade Lin Hanxiong, minister of urban planning (who first visited the GDR in 1982 to revitalise relations). Comrade Lin Hanxiong stated that the fate of socialism in the GDR is of utmost strategic importance for world socialism and for the victory of socialism in the PRC. The CPC leadership is ready to do whatever is necessary to support the survival of socialism in the GDR. In light of complicated labour shortages in the GDR, the PRC is willing to offer any required amount of skilled labour in any necessary qualification. 
The PRC does not expect any payment in foreign exchange, because they consider it political assistance. Balance settlement could be done by goods. 
Comrade Lin Hanxiong announced his willingness to travel to Berlin on short notice to engage in direct talks with the responsible state organs. The PRC is ready for very short term decisions. Comrade Lin Hanxiong stressed that ideally a reply by the GDR should arrive before the 5th congress of the CC CPC at the beginning of November. 
Request answer. 
berthold 
27.10. 14.00|Peking|https://img.welt.de/img/geschichte/mobile202839650/5722502937-ci102l-w1024/Printfoto1.jpg}}

=== Aftermath ===

Most people in the West imagine the fall of the GDR as a time of widespread euphoria and freedom; however, for millions of people in the GDR this was far from the case. One account of this time was written for the ''Guardian'' by Bruni de la Motte, an East German woman who has since become a British trade union negotiator. She reports that widespread unemployment and misery occurred after the [[short twentieth century]]:

{{quote|Little is known here [the West] about what happened to the GDR economy when the wall fell. Once the border was open the government decided to set up a trusteeship to ensure that “publicly owned enterprises” (the majority of businesses) would be transferred to the citizens who’d created the wealth. However, a few months before unification, the then newly elected conservative government handed over the trusteeship to west German appointees, many representing big business interests. The idea of “publicly owned” assets being transferred to citizens was quietly dropped. Instead all assets were privatized at breakneck speed. More then 85% were bought by West Germans and many were closed soon after. In the countryside 1.7 million hectares of agricultural and forest land were sold off and 80% of agricultural workers lost their job.|Bruni de la Motte|[https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/1989-berlin-wall]}}

Another article from the ''Guardian'' reports on the long-term impact this has had on the economy in Eastern Germany, noting that there has been virtually no advancement in the East-to-West productivity ratio since 1991:

{{quote|Productivity in the former east was 70% of that in the west in 1991 and rose to just 73% in 2012, in part a legacy of the number of factories that were bought by West German industrialists and deliberately run into the ground to scotch competition. […] Experts say the fact that most of the large industry and production bases are in the west and that those in the east are far smaller — with most employers in agriculture or service industries like meat-processing and call centres — will have a long-term effect of increasingly holding back the economy in the east and ensuring that the wage discrepancy remains and likely worsens.|Kate Connolly|[https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/german-reunification-25-years-on-how-different-are-east-and-west-really]}}

A mass-purging of academia and professional life likewise took place after the short twentieth century:

{{quote|Large numbers of ordinary workers lost their jobs, but so too did thousands of research workers and academics. As a result of the purging of academia, research and scientific establishments in a process of political vetting, more than a million individuals with degrees lost their jobs. This constituted about 50% of that group, creating in East Germany the highest percentage of professional unemployment in the world; all university chancellors and directors of state enterprises as well as 75,000 teachers lost their jobs and many were blacklisted. This process was in stark contrast to what happened in West Germany after the war, when few ex-Nazis were treated in this manner.|Bruni de la Motte|[https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/1989-berlin-wall]}}

This coincided with a housing crisis as well as the mass seizure of workers’ homes:

{{quote|In the GDR everyone had a legally guaranteed security of tenure and ownership to the properties where they lived. After unification, 2.2m claims by non-GDR citizens were made on their homes. Many lost houses they’d lived in for decades; a number committed suicide rather than give them up. Ironically, claims for restitution the other way around, by East Germans on properties in the West, were rejected as “out of time”.|Bruni de la Motte|[https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/1989-berlin-wall]}}

She remarks that since the short twentieth century, many people have come to appreciate the benefits that the socialists offered:

{{quote|Since the demise of the GDR, many have come to recognize and regret that the genuine “social achievements” they enjoyed were dismantled: social and gender equality, full employment and lack of existential fears, as well as subsidized rents, public transport, culture and sports facilities. Unfortunately, the collapse of the GDR and “state socialism” came shortly before the collapse of the “free market” system in the west.|Bruni de la Motte|[https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/1989-berlin-wall]}}

This is supported by the fact that (as mentioned above) 57% of former East Germans say that life was better in the planned economy.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite book| publisher = Artery Publications| isbn = 9978-0-9558228-3-4| last1 = de la Motte| first1 = Bruni| last2 = Green |first2 = John| title = Stasi Hell or Workers' Paradise? Socialism in the GDR: What Can We Learn From It?| year = 2009| url = https://archive.org/stream/StasiHellOrWorkersParadise}}</ref> <ref>https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html</ref> Bruni de la Motte explains this thus:

{{quote|The GDR experience of socialism stands in marked contrast to the dismantling of the welfare state and the concomitant rampant privatization of every aspect of life now taking place in Western Europe, from culture to healthcare and other essential services, as well as to the denial of social values and the extreme individualization of life. We live in an atomized society, rapidly falling apart, with little social ethos and no long-term goals. Many today, especially young people, are living without hope or sense of a secure future. Socialism can still offer an antidote and an alternative. And the experience of socialist countries like the GDR can provide pointers for a way forward and help renew one’s hope.|Bruni de la Motte|[https://archive.org/stream/StasiHellOrWorkersParadise]}}

== Economy ==
Despite all of the aforementioned significant disadvantages, the GDR’s economy managed to overcome its difficulties and develop at an unusually rapid rate. This is especially true in terms of heavy industry:

{{quote|During the 1950s, East Germany made significant economic progress, at least as indicated by the gross figures. By 1960 investment had grown by a factor of about 4.5, while gross industrial production had increased by a factor of about 2.9. Within that broad category of industrial production, the basic sectors, such as machinery and transport equipment, grew especially rapidly, while the consumer sectors such as textiles lagged behind.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

Despite the priority given to heavy industry, consumption also increased steadily during this period:

{{quote|Consumption grew significantly in the first years, although from a very low base, and showed respectable growth rates over the entire decade.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

From 1949 to the late 1960s the consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, fish, sugar, tea, and alcohol all increased.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite book| publisher = Monthly Review Press| last = Turgeon| first = Lynn| title = Transitional Economic Systems, The Polish-Czech Example| year = 1972| url = https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7iUwYR74MlbcFBxbWxsdHNLMHM| page = xv}}</ref>

At the end of the 1950s, some analysts feared an economic crisis in the East, spurred by the ‘brain drain’ from East to West; however, this did not occur, and the GDR’s economy continued to grow impressively in the 1960s.

{{quote|As the 1950s ended, pessimism about the future seemed rather appropriate. Surprisingly, however, after the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] and several years of consolidation and realignment, East Germany entered a period of impressive economic growth that produced clear benefits for the people. For the years 1966–1970, GDP and national income grew at average annual rates of 6.3 and 5.2 percent, respectively. Simultaneously, investment grew at an average annual rate of 10.7 percent, retail trade at 4.6 percent, and real per capita income at 4.2 percent.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

This growth continued on through the next decade:

{{quote|As of 1970, growth rates in the various sectors of the economy did not differ greatly from those of a decade earlier. […] Production reached about 140 to 150 percent of the levels of a decade earlier. […] The growth rates in production resulted in substantial increases in personal consumption. [T]hroughout the 1970s the East German economy as a whole enjoyed relatively strong and stable growth. In 1971, First Secretary Honecker declared the “raising of the material and cultural living standard” of the population to be a “principal task” of the economy; private consumption grew at an average annual rate of 4.8 percent from 1971 to 1975 and 4.0 percent from 1976 to 1980. […] The 1976–1980 Five Year Plan achieved an average annual growth rate of 4.1 percent.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

The 1980s saw some economic difficulties for the GDR as Western banks clamped down on credit for the East and the USSR reduced oil deliveries by ten percent. This led to a period of slow growth as the GDR rushed to step up exports; despite this, the economy did manage to pull through and deliver impressive growth results during this period (though it did fall short of the plan).

{{quote|The 1981–1985 plan period proved to be a difficult time for the East German economy. […] However, by the end of the period the economy had chalked up a respectable overall performance, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5 percent (the plan target had been 5.1 percent).|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

The overall impacts of the industrialization strategy of the GDR were extremely positive.

{{quote|Industry is the dominant sector of the East German economy, and is the principal basis for the relatively high standard of living. East Germany ranks among the world's top industrial nations, and in the Comecon it ranks second only to the Soviet Union.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

== Infrastructure ==
{{quote|The East German standard of living has improved greatly since 1949 [when the GDR was established]. Most observers, both East and West, agree that in the 1980s East Germans enjoyed the highest standard of living in Eastern Europe. Major improvements occurred, especially after 1971, when the Honecker regime announced its commitment to fulfilling the “principal task” of the economy, which was defined as the enhancement of the material and cultural well-being of all citizens.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

This focus on increasing quality of life for all citizens, rather than providing profit for the capitalist class, is a unique feature of the planned economy, which provided steadily improving living standards:

{{quote|Since the inception of the regime, the monthly earned income of the average East German has increased steadily in terms of effective purchasing power. According to the 1986 East German statistical yearbook, the average monthly income for workers in the socialized sector of the economy increased from 311 GDR marks in 1950 to 555 GDR marks in 1960, 755 GDR marks in 1970, and 1,130 GDR marks in 1985. Because most consumer prices had been stable during this time, the 1985 figure represented a better-than-threefold increase over the past thirty-five years.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

State subsidies meant that basic necessities (food, housing, and so forth), public services (healthcare, education, etc.), and even small luxuries (restaurant meals, concerts, etc.) were all remarkably cheap, especially when compared to the capitalist West:

{{quote|In East Germany, the GDR mark can purchase a great number of basic necessities because the state subsidies their production and distribution to the people. Thus housing, which consumes a considerable portion of the earnings of an average family in the West, constituted less than 3 percent of the expenditures of a typical worker family in 1984. Milk, potatoes, bread, and public transportation were also relatively cheap. Many services, such as medical care and education, continued to be available without cost to all but a very few. Even restaurant meals, concerts, and postage stamps were inexpensive by Western standards. […] In the mid-1980s, East Germans had no difficulty obtaining meat, butter, potatoes, bread, clothing, and most other essentials.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

The GDR also greatly improved the housing situation:

{{quote|Beginning in the 1960s, the government initiated a major campaign to provide modern housing facilities; it sought to eliminate the longstanding housing shortage, and modernize fully the existing stock by 1990. By the early 1980s, the program had provided nearly 2 million new or renovated units, and 2 million more were to be added by 1990. As of 1985, progress in this area appeared to be satisfactory, and plan targets were being met or exceeded.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

The situation in terms of consumer goods was also improving; the US Federal Research Division reports that as of 1985 in the GDR, 99 percent of households had a refrigerator, 92 percent had a washing machine, and 93 percent had a television. These numbers are compatible to the United States in 2016 (though washing machine ownership was higher, and TV ownership slightly lower, in the GDR). Economists had often thought that the GDR mark was weaker in terms of purchasing power than the West German D-mark; however, a study from the Institute for Economic Research in West Berlin (as reported by the US Federal Research Division) disproved this idea:

{{quote|In 1983, the Institute for Economic Research in West Berlin undertook one of its periodic studies in which the purchasing power of the GDR mark was measured against that of the West German D-mark. […] The Institute concluded that, as a whole, the GDR mark should be considered to have 106 percent of the value of the D-mark in purchasing power, an impressive gain over the 76 percent estimated for 1960, 86 percent for 1969, and 100 percent for 1977. [T]he analysis clearly invalidated the view commonly held in the West that the GDR mark had very little purchasing power.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

=== Health ===
The GDR provided medical treatment free of charge to its people. This system allowed them to keep up with West Germany in terms of healthcare conditions, despite the latter being wealthier (by virtue of its extensive trade relations with developed nations). The ''Health Care Financing Review'' (a US government-affiliated publication) reports:

{{quote|In terms of real resources devoted to health services and in terms of health service activities, the two countries seem to have been fairly similar. The GDR was reported as having 2.3 physicians per thousand in 1985 (World Health Organization, 1987), compared with 2.6 in the FRG. In 1977, the GDR was reported as having 10.6 hospital beds per thousand, compared with 11.8 in the FRG, and both countries had similar levels of dentists and pharmacists per thousand. Hospital length of stay was reported as similar in the two countries, Given that hospital beds per thousand were similar, this suggests that admission rates were not very different. Finally, consultation rates with doctors seem to have been similar in the two countries at 9.0 per person in the GDR in 1976 and 10.9 per person in the FRG in 1975 (Health OECD: Facts and Trends, forthcoming). If the GDR enjoyed a similar volume of health services to the FRG but had much lower health expenditures per capita, then the prices of health services must have been much lower in the GDR.|Health Care Financing Review|[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4193657]}}

The GDR maintained high healthcare standards, which improved steadily, and in some cases faster than those in the West (though starting at a lower level; Eastern Germany had always been worse-off in terms of health than the West):

{{quote|Turning to health status, in 1987, the reported expectation of life at birth in eastern Germany, 69.9 years for males and 76.0 for females, was not far behind that of western Germany at 72.2 for males and 78.9 for females. The infant mortality rate, which had been 7.2 per 100 in 1950, had fallen to 0.92 in 1986. Although the infant mortality rate was above that of western Germany in 1986 (0.85), the fall since 1950 had been larger. If the official figures can be believed, the former GDR had respectable health statistics for a country with its standard of living. […] Improvements to health status in eastern Germany seem to have kept up, more or less, with those in western Germany.|Health Care Financing Review|[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4193657]}}

Life expectancy in the German Democratic Republic was higher than that in Austria, Australia, Belgium, the British Empire, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and West Germany.<ref>https://www.nybooks.com/?p=24687</ref>

=== Education ===
{{quote|Attendance at kindergarten was not mandatory, but the majority of children from ages three to six attended. The state considered kindergartens an important element of the overall educational program. The schools focused on health and physical fitness, development of socialist values, and the teaching of rudimentary skills. The regime has experimented with combined schools of childcare centers and kindergartens, which introduce the child gradually into a more regimented program of activities and ease the pains of adjustment. In 1985 there were 13,148 preschools providing care for 788,095 children (about 91 percent of children eligible to attend).|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

After this, children entered the compulsory stage of education:

{{quote|Compulsory education began at the age of six, when every child entered the ten-grade, coeducational general poly-technical school. The program was divided into three sections. The primary stage included grades one through three, where children were taught the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics. The primary stage also introduced children to the fundamentals of good citizenship and, in accordance with the 1965 education law, provided them with their “first knowledge and understanding of nature, work, and socialist society.” Instruction emphasized German language, literature, and art as a means of developing the child's expressive and linguistic skills; about 60 percent of classroom time was devoted to this component. Mathematics instruction accounted for about 24 percent of the curriculum and included an introduction to fundamental mathematical laws and relations. Another 8 percent was devoted to physical education, which comprised exercises, games, and activities designed to develop coordination and physical skill. Poly-technical instruction was also begun at the primary level and consisted of gardening and crafts that gave the child a basic appreciation of technology, the economy, and the worker; about 8 percent of classroom time was allotted to such instruction.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

After completing mandatory education, students had several choices:

{{quote|Upon completion of the compulsory ten-year education, the student had essentially three options. The most frequently chosen option was to begin a two-year period of vocational training. In 1985 about 86 percent of those who had completed their ten-year course of study began some kind of vocational training. During vocational training, the student became an apprentice, usually at a local or state enterprise. Students received eighteen months of training in selected vocations and specialized in the final six months. In 1985 approximately 6 percent of those who had completed their poly-technical education entered a three-year program of vocational training. This program led to the ''Abitur'', or end-of-school examination. Passing the ''Abitur'' enabled the student to apply to a technical institute or university, although this route to higher education was considered very difficult. In 1985 East Germany had a total of 963 vocational schools; 719 were connected with industries, and another 244 were municipal vocational schools. Vocational schools served 377,567 students.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

Students were guaranteed a job upon completing the ten-year compulsory education:

{{quote|The educational system’s major goal was producing technically qualified personnel to fill the manpower needs of the economy. The government guaranteed employment to those who completed the mandatory ten-year program.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

The university system was also of remarkably high-quality, and attendance was extremely inexpensive (though entrance requirements were very competitive):

{{quote|In 1985 East Germany had 54 universities and colleges, with a total enrollment of 129,628 students. Women made up about 50 percent of the student population. Courses in engineering and technology headed the list of popular subjects. Medicine, economics, and education were also popular choices. There were 239 technical institutions, with a total student population of 162,221. About 61 percent of the students studied full time, while the remainder enrolled in correspondence study or took evening classes. The three most popular fields of study at the institutes were medicine and health, engineering and technology, and economics. Courses at the university and technical institutes consisted primarily of lectures and examinations. Completion of the program led to a diploma or license, depending on the field of study.

As of the mid-1980s, higher education was very inexpensive, and many of the textbooks were provided free of charge. Full or partial financial assistance in the form of scholarships was available for most students, and living expenses were generally minimal because most students continued to live at home during their courses of study. Germans have a high regard for education, and the regime has generally supported young people who have wanted to upgrade their level of skills through further training or education.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

== Culture ==
Inexpensive cultural activities such as theaters and concerts were widely available.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite book| publisher = Artery Publications| isbn = 9978-0-9558228-3-4| last1 = de la Motte| first1 = Bruni| last2 = Green |first2 = John| title = Stasi Hell or Workers' Paradise? Socialism in the GDR: What Can We Learn From It?| year = 2009| url = https://archive.org/stream/StasiHellOrWorkersParadise| pages = 29–30}}</ref>

=== Gender relations ===
{{quote|The East German record in the area of women’s rights has been good. Women have been well-represented in the work force, comprising about half of the economically active population. As of 1984, approx. 80 percent of women of working age (between eighteen and sixty) were employed. The state has encouraged women to seek work and pursue careers and has provided aid to working mothers in the form of day-care centers generous maternity benefits.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

Women’s access to education was very strong in the GDR, again much stronger than in the capitalist West:

{{quote|The state also has made a concerted effort to provide educational opportunities for women. The number of women with a university or technical school education has increased over the years. Of the students enrolled in universities and colleges in 1985, about 50 percent were women.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

Birth control was widely-available and free of cost, and abortion was available upon the bearer’s request:

{{quote|A liberal abortion law, promulgated in 1972 amid protests from religious circles, permits abortion upon request of the mother. […] As of the mid 1980s, information on contraceptive methods was available to the public, and women could obtain birth control pills at no cost.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

In addition, the GDR sought to provide assistance to working mothers through a highly-developed child-care system:

{{quote|An elaborate network of daycare centers provides care for the child while the mother is at work. In 1984 there were 6,605 year-round nurseries with room for 296,653 children. These nurseries provided care for 63 percent of eligible children.|US Federal Research Division|[https://archive.org/stream/eastgermanycount00bura_0]}}

=== Cuisine ===
The German Democratic Republic had their own foods, such as Spreewald pickles, Mocha Fix, Schnittchen, and Schnitzel, among others.

== References ==

[[Category:GDR]][[Category:History]]