Fifty years since the Cuban Revolution and over four decades after his death, Che Guevara is still both admired and derided, testimony to the fascination his persona continues to hold. Yet his most significant contribution remains largely unknown. Based on fascinating new archival research and interviews with his contemporaries and colleagues, this book records Guevara's contribution to industrial organisation, economic management and socialist political economy debates as a member of the Cuban government. It rescues the history of his work as President of the National Bank, head of the Department of Industrialisation and Minister of Industries from 1959-1965.
Guevara created the Budgetary Finance System, an economic management system unique to socialism and based on the productive and managerial techniques of US corporations. It was also consistent with his Marxist analysis and included policies to promote education and training, establish administrative controls, forge workers' participation in management, found science and technology institutes and raise consciousness whilst institutionalising psychology as a management tool. In addition, the book shows how Guevara was able to predict that capitalism would return to the Soviet Union.
'Helen Yaffe's book demonstrates how good history can make a timely and valuable contribution to contemporary debates. The socialist thought of 'Che' Ernesto Guevara (on top of his heroic guerrilla and internationalist role) has special relevance for the current global economic crisis and the strong resurgence of socialist-inspired 'alternatives' in Latin America.' - Tim Anderson, University of Sydney
'This book is a rarity in studies of Che Guevara, by offering something genuinely new that goes well beyond the familiar tendency to romanticise or to present one-dimensional images. Using fascinating new sources, Yaffe gives us a detailed and knowledgeable picture of a different Che - the minister and economic manager, grappling with the real (as opposed to theoretical) challenges and practicalities of creating a revolutionary economy in an underdeveloped society, but doing so without losing sight of his genuinely innovative challenge to socialist orthodoxy. The result is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Guevara but also to debates on the Left.' - Tony Kapcia, Professor of Latin American History, University of Nottingham, UK
'Yaffe has no full peers. This book presents an insightful and fascinating exposition of the path of development of Guevara's economic ideas. Yaffe's book makes an unparalleled stride to fill a gaping hole in the literature: Guevara as an economic theorist and practitioner.' - Frank Thompson, Lecturer in Economics, University of Michigan, US
'With the passion of an activist and the erudition of an academic, Helen Yaffe's new book examines Che's contribution to Cuba's economic development and socialist political economy.' - Enrico Tortolano, Tribune
'Helen Yaffe has produced a very important book which can only be described as essential reading for all socialists. On the basis of 60 interviews with Che's former colleagues and extensive archival research, including consultation of Guevara's crucial notes for a critique of the Soviet Manual of Political Economy, Yaffe gives us unprecedented insight into his vital contribution to the Cuban Revolution and to Marxist theory. One thing is certain: for anyone engaged in the struggle for a better world, the thought of Che Guevara is a fundamental point of departure, and this book is an essential work of reference.' - Diana Raby, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, UK
'Thanks to Helen Yaffe, readers in the English-speaking world now have a chance to discover a Che who was a profound economic thinker and doer, not in addition to his life as a revolutionary, but as an inseparable part of it. Even a much longer review could not give an adequate idea of the scope of this work, based upon hundreds of books, documents, reports and interviews. It provides a mass of detail in areas from science to workers' participation, from investment to psychology, without ever losing track of the main threads or becoming bogged down. I can't think of enough superlatives to describe it.' - Allen Myers, Direct Action
Introduction
Revolutionary Consolidation and the Emergence of the BFS
The Great Debate
Education, Training and Salaries
Administrative Control, Supervision and Investment
Collectivising Production and Workers' Participation
Science and Technology
Consciousness and Psychology
Critique of the Soviet Manual of Political Economy
Che Guevara's Legacy in Cuba
HELEN YAFFE completed her doctoral thesis in the Economic History Department at the London School of Economics, with an ESRC studentship. She then went on to an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London and is now a Latin American history Teaching Fellow at University College London. She has worked on a variety of newspapers and publications and has presented papers at conferences and seminars. She has an article in the March 2009 issue of the journal Latin American Perspectives - a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.
Description
Fifty years since the Cuban Revolution and over four decades after his death, Che Guevara is still both admired and derided, testimony to the fascination his persona continues to hold. Yet his most significant contribution remains largely unknown. Based on fascinating new archival research and interviews with his contemporaries and colleagues, this book records Guevara's contribution to industrial organisation, economic management and socialist political economy debates as a member of the Cuban government. It rescues the history of his work as President of the National Bank, head of the Department of Industrialisation and Minister of Industries from 1959-1965.
Guevara created the Budgetary Finance System, an economic management system unique to socialism and based on the productive and managerial techniques of US corporations. It was also consistent with his Marxist analysis and included policies to promote education and training, establish administrative controls, forge workers' participation in management, found science and technology institutes and raise consciousness whilst institutionalising psychology as a management tool. In addition, the book shows how Guevara was able to predict that capitalism would return to the Soviet Union.
Reviews
'Helen Yaffe's book demonstrates how good history can make a timely and valuable contribution to contemporary debates. The socialist thought of 'Che' Ernesto Guevara (on top of his heroic guerrilla and internationalist role) has special relevance for the current global economic crisis and the strong resurgence of socialist-inspired 'alternatives' in Latin America.' - Tim Anderson, University of Sydney
'This book is a rarity in studies of Che Guevara, by offering something genuinely new that goes well beyond the familiar tendency to romanticise or to present one-dimensional images. Using fascinating new sources, Yaffe gives us a detailed and knowledgeable picture of a different Che - the minister and economic manager, grappling with the real (as opposed to theoretical) challenges and practicalities of creating a revolutionary economy in an underdeveloped society, but doing so without losing sight of his genuinely innovative challenge to socialist orthodoxy. The result is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Guevara but also to debates on the Left.' - Tony Kapcia, Professor of Latin American History, University of Nottingham, UK
'Yaffe has no full peers. This book presents an insightful and fascinating exposition of the path of development of Guevara's economic ideas. Yaffe's book makes an unparalleled stride to fill a gaping hole in the literature: Guevara as an economic theorist and practitioner.' - Frank Thompson, Lecturer in Economics, University of Michigan, US
'With the passion of an activist and the erudition of an academic, Helen Yaffe's new book examines Che's contribution to Cuba's economic development and socialist political economy.' - Enrico Tortolano, Tribune
'Helen Yaffe has produced a very important book which can only be described as essential reading for all socialists. On the basis of 60 interviews with Che's former colleagues and extensive archival research, including consultation of Guevara's crucial notes for a critique of the Soviet Manual of Political Economy, Yaffe gives us unprecedented insight into his vital contribution to the Cuban Revolution and to Marxist theory. One thing is certain: for anyone engaged in the struggle for a better world, the thought of Che Guevara is a fundamental point of departure, and this book is an essential work of reference.' - Diana Raby, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, UK
'Thanks to Helen Yaffe, readers in the English-speaking world now have a chance to discover a Che who was a profound economic thinker and doer, not in addition to his life as a revolutionary, but as an inseparable part of it. Even a much longer review could not give an adequate idea of the scope of this work, based upon hundreds of books, documents, reports and interviews. It provides a mass of detail in areas from science to workers' participation, from investment to psychology, without ever losing track of the main threads or becoming bogged down. I can't think of enough superlatives to describe it.' - Allen Myers, Direct Action
Contents
Introduction
Revolutionary Consolidation and the Emergence of the BFS
The Great Debate
Education, Training and Salaries
Administrative Control, Supervision and Investment
Collectivising Production and Workers' Participation
Science and Technology
Consciousness and Psychology
Critique of the Soviet Manual of Political Economy
Che Guevara's Legacy in Cuba
Authors
HELEN YAFFE completed her doctoral thesis in the Economic History Department at the London School of Economics, with an ESRC studentship. She then went on to an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London and is now a Latin American history Teaching Fellow at University College London. She has worked on a variety of newspapers and publications and has presented papers at conferences and seminars. She has an article in the March 2009 issue of the journal Latin American Perspectives - a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.
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