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Ecology Under Socialism: Meeting the People’s Needs

by Dick Levins

‘Science for the People’ Vol. 13, No. 2, March 1981, p. 29-33

Dick Levins is a member of SftP, the New World Agriculture Group, and he is active in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. He teaches ecology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

During the last fifteen years, I have been to Cuba a half a dozen times, working with various institutes of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the University of Havana around the development of ecology and related fields. I formed long-term friendships with Cubans, mostly within my workplaces; through discussions with them I have been able to check out my casual impressions about developments in Cuban science and Cuban society in general. The notes that follow are based on these experiences. They do not come out of a systematic study of Cuban science, but from participating in it, especially in fields related to ecology, biogeography, and pest control. I hope to present first an overview of the problems confronting Cuban science and then in an anecdotal fashion to describe how Cubans have dealt with them.

The Dilemma of Science and Development

Cuban science is confronting a dilemma common to all aspects of socialist development: how to build the future with the tools and customs of the past. How can Cuba build a modern, socialist, fundamental and practical, international yet intellectually autonomous science in a world still dominated by capitalist science.

On the one hand, there is the urgent need to produce for people’s immediate consumption and for development. This means making use of existing knowledge. Yet, for example, the existing knowledge of pest control is the result of research choices made by the chemical industry to create commodities. Ecologically sound methods are still in their infancy, mostly a potential. On the other hand, there is the need to create a new knowledge, with an agenda based on the awareness of problems faced by the whole society. To create a new science requires trained people, equipment, and self-confidence free from colonial deference to “advanced science.”

The new society needs people working collectively toward socially useful ends, but the models of science and scientific organization are mostly individualistic and hierarchical. The ideology of world science separates thinking from feeling, science from politics, and has made a cult of specialization. Cuban science needs politically active people whose scientific activity is part of their social practice, and who are able to see their work in its broadest context.

The issue becomes: does “development” or “modernization” mean catching up to world science (still mostly capitalist) or does it mean taking a different path? This dilemma is being confronted in the course of day-to-day practice, whenever decisions about university curricula, research choices, programs for reforestation, conservation legislation, health care priorities need to be made. Is it more important to organize an institute of electrophysiology of the heart or to study the sociology of stress? Should reforestation emphasize fast-growing, easily retrievable lumber species, or instead stress mixed forests that are more costly to harvest but less vulnerable to pest outbreaks? Should the basic zoology course be reduced from a two-year to a one-year survey of the animal kingdom to allow for more electives? What kind of philosophy of science training do scientists need?

Confronting the Dilemma

A Cuban research institute or university is a community of faculty, students, and non-academic staff. The janitors, drivers, cooks and office workers are an active part of the life of the workplace, and share in the trade union and party leadership. At one time, the trade union committee, representing all the workers at the Institute of Botany, was made up of a secretary, a driver, and a researcher.

Felix is a driver in the Academy carpool. He would prefer to be an auto mechanic, but had to transfer when he developed an allergy to car grease. He served as a volunteer in Angola and is now on the Academy’s housing committee. Housing is still in short supply, especially in Havana. So “microbrigades” are recruited from various enterprises to learn construction work while still being paid at their old wage rates. Completed apartments are allocated to participating enterprises in proportion to their contribution of labor. Then the housing committee assigns apartments on the basis of need (e.g., a couple living with in-laws would have a high priority). Roberto, a botanist who put in two years with a microbrigade, received an apartment last year. But the fact that he helped build the housing didn’t guarantee that he would receive one.

The whole university goes off to voluntary agricultural labor. (Not quite. I overheard two students gossiping about a third: ” … and since his first year in the university, he hasn’t gone to agriculture once!” A sense of mild outrage, as if he never bathed.) The faculty are not generally the best cane cutters or tree planters. Leadership roles are reshuffled in voluntary labor, so that leadership is part of a division of labor rather than a hierarchy of worth.

An institute director once sent me a note, “I will have to miss your lecture tonight because of militia duty.” (This reminds me of 1968; the university militia were drilling on campus. I spotted the rector in the ranks.)

Solving Internal Disagreements

What can you do if you don’t like what is happening in the institute? You can bring a problem up in a local of the union or the party, and if necessary, appeal to the provincial or national organization. Would this include disagreements on scientific policy? Our institute is part of Cerro municipality and Havana province. In practice, the municipal or provincial committees can deal with grievances but are not really capable of dealing with disputes about science policies or priorities. These would probably be handled by the Central Committee of the party.

In contrast to the generally egalitarian atmosphere of the workplace, academic titles are used on formal occasions. One co-worker has addressed me as “doctor” since I first worked with him five years ago. I have explained that I feel the title creates a barrier; he sees it as a simple courtesy and feels more comfortable using it. I have heard some people justify the use of titles and ranks saying, “We want people to study, professional skills are the product of hard work and study, a sign of fulfilling a social duty, not a way to get rich, as under capitalism.” It’s O.K. to honor that kind of achievement as we honor the best cane cutters or athletes or miners. But do you address them as “Miner” Perez or “Artificial lnseminator” Cruz? It is a statement. Over the years our friendships have become quite easy in most ways, but titles still make me uncomfortable.

Collectivity and Political Activity

Within the laboratory, there is a strong sense of collectivity and mutual concern. Once Rene proposed that we postpone an expedition because Leda’s baby was sick: day care is approaching an adequate level for well babies, but not yet for sick ones. What cannot yet be handled by regular institutional arrangements are worked out informally. Cost benefit analysts would see this as gross inefficiency, but the new human relations puts people first.

My comrades in biology are mostly politically active, committed revolutionaries. Onaney commanded the 26th of July movement during the uprising in Matanzas. In the underground, he and his friends were already dreaming of building up botany. He continued in full-time political activity for several months after victory. Then, satisfied with the direction of the revolution, he declined political office to work on the development of science, especially in conservation. (Some 4% of the land area of Cuba will be set aside for conservation. But which 4%? Should there be a few very large national forests or many small ones? Botanists can help choose the areas, but who will manage the parks?)

Gilberto and Maros were in the old Communist Party underground. They then took up assignments in the University and the Academy, disrupting their formal studies to meet urgent needs. Only last year, Gilberto finished his monograph on the bats of Cuba while running the Academy of Sciences publishing activity.

The next younger generation became active at the time of the Bay of Pigs and the counterrevolutionary uprisings. They taught in the literacy campaigns, worked in agriculture, and now are active in the union and serve in municipal assemblies.

However, political activity is not a requirement for scientific employment. Two senior botanical systematists are known to be unsympathetic to the revolution. They carry on research, direct students, and participate in institute affairs but will not become directors of institutes. A younger man is also described as a non-revolutionary, as if to explain his self-centered behavior.

How Research Decisions Are Made

The Sugar Research Institute runs a full-size sugar mill for experiments on the industrial uses of cane. One major goal is to produce newsprint from cane residues. Later, they plan to work on the chemical derivatives of sugar. Part of their goal is to produce closed-system industries; sugar mills pollute the waterways, and Cuba does not have enough water to dilute the pollution out.

Our research problems come from four sources. First the national science council (members of the National Academy) establishes a list of high priority goals. Newsprint production is one. Then research institutes chose from the list those problems they think they can handle. Second, the ministry of sugar may call attention to a particular problem, perhaps impurities in the cane, and we work on it. Third, our own staff come up with a lot of ideas. It is cheaper to do things in the lab than to rearrange a whole mill, so we try out anything that looks possible and screen severely before full-scale testing. Finally, we are committed to giving serious attention to ideas which come through the network of amateur inventors, who are usually production workers. In zoology, if a project requires a relatively small commitment of time and resources, an investigator can simply do it. If a larger commitment is required, the project is submitted as a research proposal to a meeting of the institute.

People often ask me, “Isn’t Cuban science aimed at practical questions?” Yes and no – while a lot of effort does go into solving problems of immediate practice, there is also a sense of a need to develop a broad, cohesive scientific community with a solid theoretical foundation. Much of the botanical effort is still in the systematic botany and plant geography of Cuba. Plant physiologists focus on problems of drought, water balance, and the nature of the savannas – are these grasslands a natural formation in Cuba or are they the result of deforestation in historical times? The UNESCO-sponsored “Man and the Biosphere” project has a study area in the Sierra del Rosario where a typical eco-system description is underway: the seasonality of growth, flowering, fruiting, and leaf fall; rates of mineral cycling and litter decomposition; and the role of leaf-cutting ants, and soil microbiology.

The struggle in botany is not between basic research and practical projects. Rather the struggle is between the classical view that description comes before experimentation and the present view that description, experimentation, and theory need to be integrated into a program aimed at understanding two basic questions: why is this forest the way it is instead of a little bit different, and why is it the way it is instead of very different? Those who emphasize description fear that botany isn’t yet ready for experiments or theory because there is a lack of trained personnel, library facilities, and equipment. The unreliability of transportation to study areas makes it difficult to design studies that require observations every fourteen days. So, one task is to struggle against the fetish of apparatus, and instead design programs which do not require the unavailable equipment.

Ecology Meetings

Last February, Cuba held its first national ecology meetings. The president, vice-president, and about one-third of the participants were women. Each session began with a ten minute presentation of a topic followed by discussion. The topics included the training of ecologists, the need for whole-ecosystem analysis, problems of pest control (including debate on the provisional legitimacy of pesticides), the impact of urbanization, medical ecology, and sessions on fresh water, marine and terrestrial systems.

Representatives of the food industry talked about the pollution caused by rice milling and fruit juice production – what can we do with the mango pits? (Can you imagine Exxon sending speakers to an ecology meeting to warn about their off-shore drilling?)

One speaker argued that the major ecological problems of Cuba were erosion, deforestation, open-pit mining, and pollution, in that order. A resolution was adopted calling for the Commission on Natural Resources and Environment to have enforcement powers in addition to its monitoring activity.

The tourist industry was also represented. They were concerned with ecology since tourism (both foreign and internal) will focus more and more on the enjoyment of nature, camping, hiking, etc. in Cuba. A rising standard of living for Cubans, which is a basic socialist goal, cannot be met by increasing possession of appliances, of gadgets, of more expensive things. (Cuba already uses more than half its fresh water potential for personal, agricultural and industrial use; the production of plastics and energy are water-expensive.) The idea of an ecological equilibrium is made compatible with the goal of rising living standards by emphasizing the quality of life. Once people do not have to seek personal validation by owning more and more things, they can enrich their lives through activities such as sports, culture, and tourism.

Ecology is becoming increasingly important in Cuban Science. (The meeting decided that ecologists should form a permanent organization.) The social value of environmental productions and gentle pest control are widely recognized, as is the need to plan in a system-wide way rather than using narrow cost-benefit calculations. Ecology is readily popularized since it is inexpensive and complements work done elsewhere. The objects of study, plants and animals, are familiar objects that are directly observable. This makes it suitable for the activities of the many school “interest circles” and amateur groups.

The Role of Amateur Science Groups

One of the amateur science groups is the Speleological Society. It began as a group of young boys in pre-revolutionary Havana who were attracted to the outdoors and to nature. They joined the Boy Scouts briefly, but saw it as an imperialist agency and moved over to the Natural History Society. There they participated in field trips, got to know the countryside and fell in love with caves. After the victory, they volunteered for the literacy brigades in the countryside and continued studying caves. They decided not to become professionals in cave research and not to set up a new journal. They work at many different occupations and make their knowledge of caves generally available.

When I visited an evening meeting of the Speleological Society, the discussion centered on “does socialism guarantee environmental protection or only make it possible?” The debate was loud and informal. My view, which was supported by others, was that environmental concerns were mostly a fad, appropriate for capitalist countries where the environment is in fact being plundered. Others emphasized that concern for the environment is not enough, that limited resources and urgent economic needs made some destruction inevitable. But the general consensus was that socialism makes a sound environmental policy possible and that people like themselves played an educational role in assuring ecological rationality.

In the future, when voluntary labor in agriculture is no longer necessary and the housing crunch is alleviated, the intellectual-physical labor of environmental observation and protection may make ecology one of the forms of voluntary labor that helps break down the barriers between mental and manual labor and between work and recreation, both long term communist goals.

For myself, working with the Cubans has been an exhilarating experience. It has allowed me to get a feel for the process of socialism. It has taught me how to cope with the socialist experience, neither with a utopian checklist of what “true socialism is” (graded on a pass/fail basis) nor with the pragmatic resignation which says that due to “circumstances” or heritages of backwardness, things have to be the way they are. Rather, I have worked with people pretty much like ourselves, people struggling to solve problems that are enormous and who are coping with the opposing demands of present and future, now by bold leaps forward, now by compromises with the past. I have joined in some of these struggles, aware that I do not understand Cuba as well as they do, but that the experience of our own movements is also valid, and that solidarity means joining in struggle. And I return convinced that yes, there is another way of living.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CUBAN TECHNOLOGY

Excerpts from Fidel Castro’s report to the Second Congress of the Communist Party (on the 5 Year Plan), December 17, 1980.

Agriculture

…Two (new sugar mills) are nearly finished, and ground has been broken for two others in 1980. These sugar mills – the first to be built in Cuba in the last half century – were designed by Cuban technicians, and approximately 60 per cent of their equipment was made in Cuba.

…Crop care has improved; 2.5 times as much land was nitrogen-fertilized in 1980 as in 1975. Herbicide treatment increased by over 40 percent. This year, sugarcane fields were given the best hand weeding since the triumph of the revolution.

There are over 75 schools and polytechnic institutes related to the sugar industry with a capacity for 45,000 students. Twenty-six of these schools and the National Training Center for the Sugar Industry were built during the five year period. Moreover, four of our universities offer courses to train specialists for the sugar industry; the National Center for Sugar Training was built.

The sugar industry and sugarcane agriculture were integrated this year and four agro-industrial complexes are being set up.

...The use of fertilizers has risen from 959,000 tons in 1975 to 1.574 million tons in 1980, pesticides from 7400 to more than I, I 00 tons and herbicides from II ,500 to more than 16,000 tons.

Three hundred million seedlings were planted (in 5 yrs.), forestry classification was completed on 440,000 hectares of land.

More than 5600 university agricultural specialists and 16,000 intermediate agricultural technicians were graduated in this 5 year period.

Science and Technology

Some 80 million pesos have been invested in scientific and technological work carried out by almost 23,000 workers, including 5300 university graduates. The most important results have been the selection of new sugar cane varieties, the development of equipment for the sugar cane industry, advanced technologies for the recovery of nickel and cobalt, electronic equipment and computers. The work done to eradicate African swine fever was extremely successful. The Center for Animal Health was inaugurated in this period.

…The research program for the joint Soviet-Cuban spaceflight was of major importance.

…The national system of standardization, weights and measures, and quality control was partially implemented and more than 6,000 norms were established.

…A nuclear research center will soon be built and work must be done to develop solar and other energy sources, protect the environment and use natural resources more rationally. The plan for scientific and technological development with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance countries should also be developed…

Economic Management Systems

…The Institute for Computer Technology was established and has begun to establish new networks, develop old ones, and organize collective computer centers to provide certain services in the provinces.

Computer equipment is gradually being introduced in enterprises; automated management systems – and to a lesser extent, computer systems for technological processes and projects- are being designed.

Energy

…work will continue on the Juragua nuclear-powered electric power plant and the water pumping storage plant for the central part of the country.

Perspectives for the Year 2000

…Scientific-technical progress should be closely linked to the main lines of productive development. Since this is the case, standarization of weights and measures, quality controls and improvements in designing more sophisticated technological equipment are going to play an important role. At the same time, improvements must be made in planning and managing scientfic and technical efforts, especially in terms of introducing scientific-technical advances in production.

Source: Translation of Report by the Center for Cuban Studies, New York, N.Y.