Worker's Paradise

Marxism ushered in the promise of the worker’s paradise where the means of production would all be collectivized and held in common by all workers.

Ironically, rather than a worker’s paradise, everywhere that Marxism has been tried, it only brought about the exploitation and subjugation of the worker.

Never has an industrialized country turned to collectivism as Marx foresaw the evolution of modern economic societies. On the contrary, Marxism, with a few exemptions in Latin America where Marxists were elected , took roots in poor countries where Marxist governments were violently ushered in through wars and revolutions.

Cuba was perhaps the most developed country to have Marxism thrust upon it. The results of the Marxist economic models have been devastating to the once prosperous island nation.

Cuban workers are paid an average of $10 a month and must subsist on rations sold to them by their employer and jailer, the communist government of Fidel Castro.

There is only one employer in Cuba. Cubans are treated like indentured servants and any political move considered counter-revolutionary will result in loss of employment. Cuban workers are farmed out to foreign companies. In a recent case, three Cubans are suing a Curacao ship repair company, claiming that they were shipped to Curacao by the Cuban government, held as slaves and forced to work for THREE AND A HALF CENTS an hour.

Cuba workers are also forced to perform “voluntary labor” and attend political rallies. Those that refuse risk losing their jobs.

Cuban medical professionals are shipped all over the world in exchange for goods and hard currency while their families are held hostage back home. The Bush administration has eased restrictions to let these Doctors and other medical professionals escape their indentured servitude and emmigrate to the US, but its still not an easy process as they are hunted down and captured by Cuban Agents

There is only one labor union in Cuba, the government controlled CTC. Before the 1959 revolution Cuba had a higher percentage of unionized workers than their American counterparts. Some brave Cubans have tried to start independent labor unions but their efforts have only met with violence and repression.

In a Nuevo Herald piece on Monday, Carl Gresham, president of the National Foundation for Democracy, laments that the international labor union movement has done so little to support the Cuban workers.

Mr. Gresham points out that out of the many millions of foreign investments in Cuba, only pennies out of every dollar wind up in the hands of the Cuban workers. To illustrate the exploitation of the Cuban workers by the totalitarian regime, Gresham brought up that only 4% of the foreign investment goes towards wages while the Cuban government keeps the other 96%.

Gresham is also quoted as saying that dissent in the island is growing at many levels and that it appears that the Cuban people are starting to work towards social changes with growing international support.

He added though that there is little attention being paid to the plight of the Cuban worker by international worker’s movement.

Now that the veil of lies is being lifted from Cuba, the rest of the world is starting to realize that the Cuban Worker’s Paradise was an illusion created by the regime’s propagandist smoke and mirrors. In truth, the Cuban worker is brutally exploited by the very institution that is supposed to protect it from exploitation.