Success of the Communist Movement of the 1960's in Cuba and Not Bolivia - Research Paper Example

Success of the Communist Movement of the 1960's In Cuba and Not Bolivia Introduction The Cuban revolution staged in 1959 by Fidel Castro was meant to liberate peasants and low class citizens from low standards of living and improve the economy of the country. The communist structures together with the overwhelming support of peasants from rural and urban regions ensured that the revolution was a success. Seven years later, Guevara Che, who actively participated in the Cuban revolution, set out to Bolivia to stage a revolt in the country that had similar economic problems to Cuba’s and enjoyed massive support of communism. However, 11 months later, he was captured, and killed and the revolution did not succeed as planned. There is a general misconception that poverty leads to communist uprisings and that accumulation of wealth do not contribute toward communism. This notion is misleading as demonstrated by the revolutions in Cuba and Bolivia in 1960s. This paper demonstrates why the communist movement of the 1960s was successful in Cuba, unlike in Bolivia regardless of popular support for communism in both countries. The paper will disapprove the theory that economic reasons cause communist uprisings. Poverty does not lead to communism neither does wealth accumulation result in non-communism. Empirical data from various research materials will be reviewed to present the economic statistics and arguments indicating that before the Cuban revolution took place, Bolivia was more underdeveloped economically, yet communism did not thrive in the country as it did in Cuba, which was more developed. Subsequently, after the revolutions of which Cuba increasingly practiced communism but struggled with economic problems whereas Bolivia, which deviated toward non-communism progressively developed economically than Cuba. Disapproving the Economic Theory Both Bolivia and Cuba were underdeveloped countries struggling with economic problems and poverty. The Bolivian revolution was established and founded on social reasons of which economic empowerment and improvement of the life of the citizens was a major factor. Bolivia had significantly rich natural resources but its economy was underdeveloped. Poverty plagued Bolivia and her citizens (Lamberg 1970, 29). Research demonstrates that Cuba was the third most developed country in the continent of America. Some aspects of development recorded in Cuba in 1950s surpassed European countries, such as Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. Cuba was not among the nations, which suffered from severe economic problems and reported lowest living standards of the citizens (Dolgoff). In contrast, Cuba was among the American countries that had the highest living standards before the revolution took off. Although Cuba was not a well developed nation economically and there was poverty in the country, Cuba did not face hunger as well as economic crises in the years prior to the revolution. Prior to the 1959, Cuba was reported to be relatively developed country. It was compared on economic standards of development to capitalist countries, such as Costa Rica besides Taiwan (Dolgoff). According to Eckistein (1982), at the time of revolution, Bolivia reported one of the poorest and least developed economies on the continent. The GNP per capita of the country was the second lowest in South American region. The country was ruled by a small kin and land-based oligarchy. The majority of the citizens in Bolivia operated as tenant farmers as well as sharecroppers. In contrast, the Cuban economy was much developed and superior to the Bolivian economy. Cuba was one of the countries with a developed agricultural economy. Nonetheless, the heavily capitalized economy of the country was significantly dominated by foreign companies. Prior to the Cuban revolution, the agricultural economy of Cuba is reported to have been the most integrated economy in the global economy. The agricultural economy in Cuba increasingly used wage labor in the country. According to the Latin American economic standards, the Cuban economy had well developed industrial base during the time Castro staged the revolution (Eckistein 1982, 43). The Economic Positions of Cuba and Bolivia after the Revolution After the revolution in Cuba, it was reported that the annual growth rate of the country, over a period of initial 30 years, stood at 4%. However, alternative reports did indicate that Cuba fell from its third place in economic development standards in America to position 15 as demonstrated by its GDP per capita as from 1952 to 1981. The growth figures, which were recorded in Cuba, did not result from enhanced productivity. The Cuban economy declined from 1980s and fell by 35% between the period of 1983 and 1993. The economic development standards were comparable to the standards recorded by the country in 1970s (Dolgoff). Prior to the revolution in Cuba, the data on illiterate persons in the country was reported to be 34%, which declined to 3.9% in 1961 after the revolution. Prior to the Cuban revolt, 40% of the population consisted of the poorest people who received 6.5% of the total income. However, in 1986, the same population was reported to receive 26% of the income. The rich segment of the society in Cuba made up 10% of the total population in 1953, and it received 20% of the income. This changed after the revolution in which it received 38% income (Tahsin n.d, 9). Nevertheless, Cuba has experienced continual economic crisis after the demise of the Soviet Union. The country has demonstrated mixed performance on economic performance since the revolution took place. According to Brundenius (2009), the past two decades have witnessed improving trends on economic development (31). The standards of living and the GDP per capita of Cuba increased until before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bolivia experienced massive economic growth in 1990s during the time when Cuba was undergoing the economic crisis. This was necessitated by privatization of the state-run economy. The market reforms established in the country significantly developed the economy of the nation. However, the economic problems in the country are not yet fully resolved (Kohl 2004, 894). Like in Bolivia, Cuba also experienced destruction of the rural economic bases after the revolution. In both countries, Bolivia and Cuba, there was a transformation of the rural class associations after the end of the old regime. In Cuba, the class associations expanded to the cities and mines whereas in Bolivia, the expansion of the social class relations was not experienced. As a result, the whole of the capitalist class was eliminated through nationalization of most sections of the economy. Besides, the majority of the independent insignificant bourgeoisie was also wiped out. State ownership in both countries expanded after the revolt although Cuba witnessed massive expansion as compared to Bolivia (Eckistein 1982, 44). Financial wealth is an essential element in determining the economic position of a country because it can affect the capacity of the population to invest and consume. In order for economic development and living standards to be equally experienced across a country, wealth distribution must be equitable. Further, because wealth in countries are determined based on class and the revolutions entails the transformation of economic classes in the society, the distribution of economic resources in a country after revolution is expected to change. The income distributions, and by extension the economic development, in countries that have experienced successful revolutions are thus expected to be different from nations with no successful revolution experience (Eckistein 1982, 67). Contrary, this was not the case in Bolivia, which had a failed revolution. It had increasingly developed economically than Cuba that experienced successful revolution. After the revolution, Bolivia experienced economic development and improved opportunities for social mobility. These achievements significantly contributed toward the growth of the economy in subsequent years (Bergsten 1970). Proposed Theory Since the economic theory does not support emergence of communism, the case of Cuba and Bolivia postulates that the level of institutionalization of communism in political parties, which includes strong party structures and organization, together with the influence of labor movements as well as the political sphere of a country are the major causes of communist revolutions. In addition, the influence of the United States, anti-communist, hindered communist revolutions in Bolivia. The success of the Cuban revolution was supported by the group of revolutionary fighters established. The revolutionary fighters in Cuba challenged the military authoritarian regime of Batista. The group had massive foundation in the labor movements that existed within the country. The peasantry farmers and workers in the rural areas of Cuba were promised agrarian reforms by Castro and his group. As a result, the revolutionary movement in the country, established on the labor movements, succeeded in rapidly growing across the country; both in urban and rural areas. Consequently, the growth had significant influence on the strike, which was called against Batista in 1959. The strike was instrumental in seizing power from Batista and elevating Castro to power (Johnson 2006, 28). The formation of the revolutionary groups successfully accelerated by the labor movements contributed toward the effectiveness of the revolutionary movement in Cuba in various ways. The revolutionary group significantly aided in the rapid spread of social disintegration of the existing structure in Cuba. Castro successful integrated dissent and challenge the Batista regime. In return, Batista, through his existing regime, monstrously responded to the situation, effectively offering Castro and his group a tactical support for their course (Johnson 2006, 29). The peasantry labor movement in Cuba was already united under Castro and the ugly response from Batista. The peasants were attacked and brutally killed in rural villages in the country because of their support to Castro’s movement. Consequently, the peasants were more radicalized and motivated to support revolution led by Castro because of the poor response strategy from the existing regime. The revolution, which had started in the country, was fuelled to its successful conclusion (Johnson 2006, 29). Although there existed peasant farmers and miners in Bolivia, the lack of labor movement to unify them and spread the message of revolution across the country was lacking. The population of workers was opposed to the regime of Barrientos as demonstrated by the frequent strikes by teachers, students as well as miners. The revolutionary movement in Bolivia did not succeed in their quest because the movement lacked the power to recruit and attract more workers into the movement (Moscoso 1968). Furthermore, the challenge faced by the Bolivian revolutionary movement was big because the peasants in the country were not neglected like their counterparts in Cuba were. The government had tried to increase and improve the social standing of the peasants in the country through establishing Ministry of Peasant Affairs to address the issue, which were raised by peasants in the country. Some Bolivian peasants benefited from the government and owned lands among other things. The agrarian revolution message preached to improve the lives of the peasants was hardly received (Johnson 2006, 30). In addition, the response of the Bolivian government to the insurgent revolutionary movement contributed towards stalling the course of action. Whereas the Cuban regime responded through monstrous actions against revolutionary movements, the Bolivian government responded through minimized cases of violence (Johnson 2006, 30). Besides, the leader of the Bolivian regime had influenced the peasants in rural areas positively through initiating social and economic development projects for them. His unpopularity significantly demonstrated in urban areas failed to affect his regime negatively (Moscoso 1968). The revolt in Bolivia failed because of the inappropriate ideological commitment to socialist trademark of anti-imperialism from the leader, Guevara. The focus and emphasis of Guevara was the international attribute of the revolt because of the strategic position of the country in South America. He failed to focus most of his time to shrug off the nationalist comments directed toward him (Johnson 2006, 30). The revolutionary movement launched in Bolivia faced challenges and obstacles from the United States government. The United States was against communism and had developed counterinsurgency forces in the region before the establishment of Bolivian revolution. Americans used their great skills to advice Bolivian government against the revolt movements (Wright 2001, 83). The massive influence of the United States in Bolivia also contributed towards the failure of the revolution. In responding to the increasing insurgency of the revolutionary movement in Bolivia, the government sought the help of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the United States government. The regime did not grant its militia the free power to terrorize peasants in villages; instead, the CIA helped trained a special unit, the Second Bolivian Ranger Battalion, to destroy the revolutionary movement led by Guevara (Johnson 2006, 30). The poor party structure in Bolivia robbed the masses of the victory they had fought for. The Revolutionary Workers Party had weak organizational structures contributing toward the loss of power to Revolutionary Nationalist Movement. The communist party in Cuba established itself on the masses and the workers states, unlike the communist party in Bolivia, which supported the imperialist regime of the country, against the principles of communism and social revolution. The Cuban revolution therefore, resulted in victory in contrast to the Bolivian revolution (Moscoso 1968). The communist party in Bolivia was disintegrated with constant internal wrangles between legal and armed struggles. The communist party in the country could not appropriately organize itself to recruit more forces. The groups withdrew their support and in the end the revolution negatively suffered (Wright 2001, 83). Both countries, Cuba and Bolivia, were generally semi-colonial states before their revolutions. Even though the two countries were independent, imperialism dominated the states. Economically, both countries primarily produced one product, that is, Tin for Bolivia, and sugar for Cuba. The sources of wealth in all these countries were regulated by imperialists (Moscoso 1968). In commerce, the fundamental economic activities in Cuba and Bolivia were under the control of imperialists. Neither in Cuba nor in Bolivia did economic diversification take place. National bourgeoisie in Bolivia and Cuba were, therefore, depleted and dependent on the leftovers of imperialists. The political and economic interests in both countries were oriented towards the service of the imperialists. The citizens in both countries experienced poverty and poor living standards. The citizens of both countries were economically oppressed in their own countries. The similar situations, involving subservience, poverty, and economic hardships in both countries, Cuba and Bolivia, were the foundation of developing the revolutions (Moscoso 1968). Following the research analysis it is evident that revolutionary movements, if given support by masses, have the power to change any regime. Revolutionary unity enhanced by collective experience has increased rate of success (Johnson 2006, 27). Peasants in poorly developed nations have significant influence on the success of revolutions and without their support, social revolutions are bound to fail (Moscoso 1968). Conclusion The revolutions witnessed in 1960s in Latin America did not result out of economic reasons even though both the Cuban and the Bolivian revolutions took place in countries with poor economic backgrounds. The political spheres, structure and organization of the communist parties in various countries, and the support of anticommunist nations contributed to the success or failure of the revolutions. The reasons behind the failure or success of the revolutions are not limited to the presented evidence. Empirical data to support the economic development in Cuba and Bolivia after revolution are scanty and elicits varied opinions from various literature materials. More research needs to be done to support or disapprove the economic theory behind the success and failure of revolutions in Cuba and Bolivia respectively. Works Cited Bergsten, Fred C. "Social Mobility and Economic Developmet: The Vital Parameters of the Bolivian Revolution." Journal Of Inter-American Studies 6.3 (1964): 367-375. Brundenius, Claes. "Revolutionary Cuba at 50: Growth with Equity Revisited." Latin American Perspectives 36.2 (2009): 31-48. Dolgoff, Sam. The Cuban Revolution. n.d. Web. 30 May 2012. Eckistein, Susan. "The Impact Of Revolution On Social Welfare In Latin America." Theory & Society 11.1 (1982): 43-94. Johnson, Joshua. "From Cuba to Bolivia: Guevara's Foco Theory In Practice." Innovations: A Journal of Politics 6 (2006): 26-32. Kohl, Benjamin. "Privatization Bolivian Style: A Cautionary Tale." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28.4 (2004): 893-908. Lamberg, Robert F. "Che in Bolivia: The "Revolution" That Failed." Problems of Communism 19.4 (1970): 25-36. Moscoso, Hugo Gonzalez. "The Cuban Revolution and Its Lessons." International Socialist Review 29.2 (1968): 1-20. Tahsin, Emine. "Looking to the Future: Examining the dynamics of ALBA." n.d. Web. 30 May 2012. Wright, Thomas C. Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger , 2001. Print. Read More