COOPERATIVAS NO AGROPECUARIAS: tHe eMerGenCe of a neW forM of SoCIal ProPertY In Cuba

IntroductionThis journal has recently published a series of important articles on the process of economic reform in Cuba, especially since the public consultation and Communist Party Congress that resulted in the adoption in 2011 of the Lineamientos de la Politica Economica y Social del Partido y la Revolucion (Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution; Kassman 2012; Lamrani 2012; Ludlam 2012; O'Sullivan 2012; PCC 2011; Peters 2012; Rodriguez 2013; Triana Cordovi 2013; Wilkinson 2012; Wylie and Glidden 2013). Very little of that analysis, though, made much comment on the announcement of a new form of social property in the proposals to form non- agri- cultural cooperatives of manual and professional workers in both the service and the production sectors. In his article, nevertheless, one leading Cuban economist at the heart of the change process identified the operation of non-agricultural cooperatives as one of the four policies 'decisive for the transformation process' during 2013/14 (Triana Cordovi 2013: 126). And in the major new academic collection on cooperativism and socialism in Cuba, the claim is made that the island's changed socio-economic reality has opened a new era of cooperativism in the history of the Revolution (Fernandez Peiso 2012b: 392-3).The Cuban Constitution refers only, in article 20, to agricultural cooperatives of small producers and makes no reference to them constituting a socialist form of property (Republica de Cuba 1992: 13). The Lineamientos, though, opened this new departure in the following sections (PCC 2011, official English translation):COOPERATIVES25. Grade 1 cooperatives shall be established as a socialist form of joint ownership in various sectors. A cooperative is a business organization that owns its estate and represents a distinct legal person. Its members are individuals who contribute assets or labor and its purpose is to supply useful goods and services to society and its costs are covered with its own income.26. The legal instrument that regulates the cooperatives must make sure that this organization, as form of social property, is not sold or otherwise assigned in ownership to any other cooperative or any non-State organization or any natural person.27. A cooperative maintains contractual relations with other cooperatives, companies, State-funded entities and other non-State organizations. After satisfying its commitment with the State, the cooperative may pursue sales operations free from intermediaries and in accordance with the business activity it is authorized to perform.28. Subject to compliance with the appropriate laws and after observance of its tax and contribution obligations, each cooperative determines the income payable to its employees and the distribution of its profits.29. Grade 2 cooperatives shall be formed and the partners of which shall be Grade 1 cooperatives. A Grade 2 Cooperative shall represent a separate legal person that owns assets. The purpose of this cooperative is to pursue supplementary related activities or conduct operations that add value to the goods and services of its partners (such as production, service and marketing operations) or carry out joint sales and purchases for greater efficiency.It is worth noting, in passing, that the two significant amendments to the original, made in the public consultation on the draft Lineamientos, were to insert 'as a socialist form of joint ownership' in paragraph 25, and 'may pursue sales operations free of intermediaries' in paragraph 27 (PCC 2011: 6-7). The effect of these amendments was both to legitimize such cooperatives as an essentially socialist form of economic ownership, and by implication not merely a more acceptable form of social enterprise, and to grant them the maximum independence from state agencies in their activities (the lack of which had been identified as stifling the new agricultural cooperatives of the 1990s, noted below). …