{"id":4259,"date":"2015-01-08T11:32:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T16:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=4259"},"modified":"2015-01-08T11:32:20","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T16:32:20","slug":"cuba-is-using-cooperatives-to-decentralize-its-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=4259","title":{"rendered":"Cuba is Using Cooperatives to Decentralize its Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuba is Using Cooperatives to Decentralize its Economy<\/a><\/h3>\n

With the recent announcement that the US will\u00a0normalize relations with Cuba, change is in the air for the island country. Just a few years before this, Cuba began\u00a0shifting its economy from state-controlled enterprises to citizen-controlled\u00a0cooperatives.<\/p>\n

Worker cooperatives are nothing new in Cuba. Agricultural coops, which are responsible for 70 percent of the country\u2019s farmed land, are a key part of the state\u2019s subsidized food system. Until recently, however, worker coops were not found in other sectors of the economy. But in 2011, the Cuban Sixth Communist Party Congress approved a set of economic reform goals called the \u201cGuidelines on Economic and Social Policy for the Party and the Revolution.\u201d It contained 313 measures including the following actions:<\/p>\n