Voices of Change in Cuba from the Expanding Non-state Sector

Over a million people, almost a third of the Cuban workforce, are folded within the "non-state sector" of the economy: self-employed workers, usufruct farmers, members of new cooperatives, buyers and sellers of private housing and other groups. Although this is Raúl Castro’s most important economic structural reform, which implies the gradual reduction of the state sector, few specific details are known on the emerging non-state sector characteristics (age, gender, race and level of education), socio-economic conditions and aspirations. Based on 80 intensive interviews carried out in Cuba between 2014 and 2015, the volume compiles the voices of this sector: on the level of satisfaction in what they do and earn, on contracted employees and means of pay, profits and their distribution between investment and consumption, plans for expansion of micro-businesses, receipt of foreign remittances and state microloans, competition and publicity, and payment of taxes. A crucial section details the opinions of non-state sector people on the main problems they face and their desires for improvements or change. One self-employed worker states: "Allow free reign to the fertile imagination that we Cubans are exhibiting, which should be done unhindered and unrestricted: the government should facilitate that flow, not obstruct it, and control only what must be controlled.”  

Coordinated by Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics and Latin-American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, author of 93 books and 300 articles/chapters in books on the economy and social security in Latin America, Cuban economy and comparative economic systems, translated to seven languages and published in 34 countries. He has received the following awards: Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (1991, 2002), International Labour Office on “decent work” shared with Nelson Mandela (2007), and has being selected among the 50 most influential intellectuals in Ibero-America (2015).