The Campaign to “Rectify Errors and Negative Tendencies” Ch. 3 Summary The Campaign to “Rectify Errors and Negative Tendencies”

Rectify Errors & Negative Tendencies In 1986 the Cuban Government launched a campaign to “rectify errors and negative tendencies.” the campaign stressed values & organizing principles that are similar to the late 1960’s campaign “push for communism” which was when Che Guevara’s philosophical ideas were put into practice & the national leadership argued that the revolution had lost its path & the Rectification Process (RP) would fix this

Problem 1: Market Opening In the early 1980s “market opening” might seem economically/ politically irrational b/c the opening had stimulated economic growth and was politically popular reforms were out of sync with world trends b/c when this occurred when other Soviet-bloc Communist countries opened up to market forces and at this time abandoned socialist economies For the U. S. this RP was confusing b/c Castro’s Cuba had been portrayed as a Soviet Pawn which basically meant that the Soviets were liberating their markets but Castro still was dependent of them for trade

State Efforts to address emergent problems Growing fiscal problems “Open market” does not create revenue Can not set up hard currency Debt to western countries Restricting private trade Market reform causes problems in state sector Laborers lesson/ collective forms of labor organizations

State Efforts to Address Emergent Problems Having an “Market Opening” had an increase in certain crimes Private Profiteering Included small vendors, farmer's, managers, doctors Enterprises Overprice items Crimes had increased Penal Codes Which were adopted at the end of 1987 New codes improved rationality and efficiency in the legal system

Impact and The Rectification Process End of 1980 RP resolved neither the state's economic or political problems Major reason of launching rectification process was to improve balance between domestic revenue and expenditure RP failed to keep hard currency debt from mounting RP had an inability to negotiate hard currency Improvements between 1985 - 1986 Revenue and expenditure 1988 “Parallel Market” had a fluctuation in sales Economic conditions in general not good during the first two years of RP Economy took a turn for the better in 1988