08 November 2006

Forced "Voluntary" Labor a la Che


Cuba has started to mobilize thousands of workers to perform “volunteer work” and help in massive agricultural, construction and cleaning projects throughout the island, according to Granma, official organ of the Cuban Communist party. Not "volunteering" when called upon often results in reprisals form your employer, Big Brother.

The nacional effort to mobilize the volunteer workers will last until November 26, and will commemorate the first volunteer work campaign, which was the brainchild of capitalist t-shirt icon, Ernesto Guevera back in 1959.

María Ramírez, speaking for the CTC, Cuba’s only legal syndicate or union, said that the volunteers will also be used to destroy the breeding grounds of the Aedes Agyptis mosquito, the transmitter of Dengue, a hemorrhagic fever. The communist regime of Cuba has admitted that Cuba is in the midst of a Dengue epidemic, but has not revealed any specifics about the size, scope or number of victims.

The mobilization of “volunteer” laborers is a throwback to old school Soviet-Style-Socialism and along with other recent campaigns in Cuba, it points to a shift in policy towards Marxist Orthodoxy, rather than towards free-market reforms as many were hoping the Raul Castro led regime to do.

If you’re fluent in Spanish, check out El Guinero's, who blogs from inside Cuba, take on this. It’s brilliant writing. He calls it Un Apreton.

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