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Che Guevara on Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism
The transition to socialism marks the first time in history that growing political consciousness and control by working people hold the key to economic progress. This book looks at the theoretical contributions to building socialism by Ernesto Che Guevara from 1959 to 1966, when he shouldered wide-ranging duties in the Cuban revolutionary government.Is profit a useful yardstick? What is the role of the market? Of economic planning? Of material incentives and voluntary work? In an October 1987 speech on Guevara's legacy, Cuban President Fidel Castro said of Carlos Tablada's book "The author compiled, studied, and presented... the essence of Che's economic ideas, retrieved from many of his... articles and speeches dealing with a subject so decisve in the building of socialism."
- GenresNonfictionEconomics
400 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1989
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June 9, 2025
“Che believed in man. And if we don’t believe in man, if we think man is an incorrigible little animal, capable only of being tempted with a carrot or whipped with a stick—anyone who believes that will never be a revolutionary, never be a socialist, never be a communist.”—Fidel Castro, October 1987 [Speech included in the book].
The Cuban Revolution in 1959 was the first genuine socialist revolution since the Russian Revolution of 1917. Everything else was so marred by Stalinism as to be in a different category. While the July 26th movement wasn’t a socialist party, and was built around a radical anti-colonial, democratic program (see ‘Fidel’s ‘History Will Absolve Me’), the bourgeois opposition to Batista had no interest in even radical reforms of relations on the land (land reform had originally been a demand associated with the bourgeois democratic revolution).
Of course, many of the leaders of M-26 had read Marx, especially Fidel and Raúl Castro and Che Guevara. They didn’t begin with a socialist program, but there was no possibility of the kind of radical changes they wanted to see without it. There was the Stalinist grouping, which called itself the Popular Socialist Party. It was against using violence, even though there was no non-violent way of removing Batista from his dictatorial rule. In time, as the Fidelistas gained support, they began to change their minds. There was also the Revolutionary Directorate, which participated in armed struggle, but separately from M-26. Eventually these three groups fused together to form what in time would become the Communist Party. The sectarian group (outside of the Fourth International) that called itself "Trotskyist" was also invited, but they were more interested in maintaining their schemas than in changing the world.
Fidel had bought books from the PSP bookstore, but he had never been a member. Raúl had briefly been in their youth group but left it to join his brother.
While there were many disagreements (which is healthy) Fidel, Raúl, and Che and their followers played the dominant role. Their politics came from Marx, Engels, and Lenin, not from Stalinist handbooks. One of the major ways they were different from the Stalinist parties was in taking internationalism seriously. (For the Cuban role in Southern Africa, which was separate from the Soviet role, see the two books by Piero Gleijeses: ‘Conflicting Missions’ and ‘Visions of Freedom’).
Che Guevara was appointed as president of the National Bank and Minister of Industry. As you will see from this book, Che totally rejected the Soviet manual on how to run nationalized industry and wrote a huge amount promoting his Budgetary Finance System, which was very controversial in Cuba and elsewhere, and still is. He was convinced that the methods advocated by the Soviet leaders could never build socialism, much less usher in communism. He would not have been surprised by the collapse of the Soviet Union (nor was Fidel who called it the “fall of the meringue).”
This is a very difficult book explaining (mostly in Che Guevara’s own words) his views on economics and politics, and the role that must be played by transforming human consciousness. The Marxist view is that "politics is concentrated economics." I don’t suggest it to anyone who has not made some progress in reading Marx’s ‘Capital.’
Useful to reading it is Che Guevara, Cuba and the Road to Socialism. I also recommend Dynamics of the Cuban Revolution: A Marxist Appreciation by Joseph Hansen, former secretary to Leon Trotsky.
(Note: This book is a new, expanded edition of the Carlos Tablada book originally titled slightly differently, ‘Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism.’
Be sure to read Che's account of the Cuban Revolution and his role in it in Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58 and his The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara by Ernesto Guevara.
The Cuban Revolution in 1959 was the first genuine socialist revolution since the Russian Revolution of 1917. Everything else was so marred by Stalinism as to be in a different category. While the July 26th movement wasn’t a socialist party, and was built around a radical anti-colonial, democratic program (see ‘Fidel’s ‘History Will Absolve Me’), the bourgeois opposition to Batista had no interest in even radical reforms of relations on the land (land reform had originally been a demand associated with the bourgeois democratic revolution).
Of course, many of the leaders of M-26 had read Marx, especially Fidel and Raúl Castro and Che Guevara. They didn’t begin with a socialist program, but there was no possibility of the kind of radical changes they wanted to see without it. There was the Stalinist grouping, which called itself the Popular Socialist Party. It was against using violence, even though there was no non-violent way of removing Batista from his dictatorial rule. In time, as the Fidelistas gained support, they began to change their minds. There was also the Revolutionary Directorate, which participated in armed struggle, but separately from M-26. Eventually these three groups fused together to form what in time would become the Communist Party. The sectarian group (outside of the Fourth International) that called itself "Trotskyist" was also invited, but they were more interested in maintaining their schemas than in changing the world.
Fidel had bought books from the PSP bookstore, but he had never been a member. Raúl had briefly been in their youth group but left it to join his brother.
While there were many disagreements (which is healthy) Fidel, Raúl, and Che and their followers played the dominant role. Their politics came from Marx, Engels, and Lenin, not from Stalinist handbooks. One of the major ways they were different from the Stalinist parties was in taking internationalism seriously. (For the Cuban role in Southern Africa, which was separate from the Soviet role, see the two books by Piero Gleijeses: ‘Conflicting Missions’ and ‘Visions of Freedom’).
Che Guevara was appointed as president of the National Bank and Minister of Industry. As you will see from this book, Che totally rejected the Soviet manual on how to run nationalized industry and wrote a huge amount promoting his Budgetary Finance System, which was very controversial in Cuba and elsewhere, and still is. He was convinced that the methods advocated by the Soviet leaders could never build socialism, much less usher in communism. He would not have been surprised by the collapse of the Soviet Union (nor was Fidel who called it the “fall of the meringue).”
This is a very difficult book explaining (mostly in Che Guevara’s own words) his views on economics and politics, and the role that must be played by transforming human consciousness. The Marxist view is that "politics is concentrated economics." I don’t suggest it to anyone who has not made some progress in reading Marx’s ‘Capital.’
Useful to reading it is Che Guevara, Cuba and the Road to Socialism. I also recommend Dynamics of the Cuban Revolution: A Marxist Appreciation by Joseph Hansen, former secretary to Leon Trotsky.
(Note: This book is a new, expanded edition of the Carlos Tablada book originally titled slightly differently, ‘Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism.’
Be sure to read Che's account of the Cuban Revolution and his role in it in Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58 and his The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara by Ernesto Guevara.
May 12, 2017
Incredible book that investigates the development of Che's political economic theories and describes the concrete policies he put in place as a result. Che and Fidel are heavily quoted throughout the book, so they are describing their positions in their own words more often than not.
The author compiles the information and analysis in such a way as to build logically from base Marxist Leninist theory, to Che's investigation of the conditions of Cuba and the differences between the socialist bloc states, to his development of the Budgetary Finance System resulting from that analysis, to his installation of that system in Cuba, to that system's wavering and then collapse due to Che's leaving Cuba and there being a dearth of managers, analysts, and accountants of Che's caliber.
Central to Che's theory AND his concrete policies was the insistence on moving as quickly as possible away from direct material incentive as the prime incentive, away from markets, away from commodity production and toward organizations of production, moral incentives, and relations or production that would necessarily promote the growth and development of the "new communist man" and communist consciousness. His proposals are so elegantly simple, it becomes clear what the world lost when he was killed.
Can't recommend highly enough.
The author compiles the information and analysis in such a way as to build logically from base Marxist Leninist theory, to Che's investigation of the conditions of Cuba and the differences between the socialist bloc states, to his development of the Budgetary Finance System resulting from that analysis, to his installation of that system in Cuba, to that system's wavering and then collapse due to Che's leaving Cuba and there being a dearth of managers, analysts, and accountants of Che's caliber.
Central to Che's theory AND his concrete policies was the insistence on moving as quickly as possible away from direct material incentive as the prime incentive, away from markets, away from commodity production and toward organizations of production, moral incentives, and relations or production that would necessarily promote the growth and development of the "new communist man" and communist consciousness. His proposals are so elegantly simple, it becomes clear what the world lost when he was killed.
Can't recommend highly enough.
February 23, 2024
veeeery dense at times (ch. 6 and 9) but overall wonderful. great insights into how to construct a new consciousness through a reimagining of the economy. turns my head in knots thinking ab how to apply it to the US where material conditions are so different
Read
October 5, 2025Instructif, présente pas mal de concepts et donne des pistes de recherche
Par contre ça manque de recul critique et le côté "Le Che c'est le goat" est pesant à force
Par contre ça manque de recul critique et le côté "Le Che c'est le goat" est pesant à force
September 4, 2015
Powerful book.
Explains the difference between economic methods and systems designed to move working people forward, "to create a new man," as Che put it, and the systems implemented by Joseph Stalin after the counter-revolution in Russia, designed to protect the special interest of bureaucratic layers, and explained as necessary because working people are supposed not "smart enough" to run factories, banks, mills, mines and governments in their interest, as they did and do under the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party.
Meritocracies like the one in the United States and the ones associated with European Social Democracy
put the brake on advances by working people when they emerge in workers states after counter-revolutions such as in Russia. They assert they can do it better than the working class.
Bourgeois socialism (social-democratic, Stalinist, Maoist, and so on) versus the revolutionary road forward by working people to power and to transform society, eliminating the technocratic specialists who front for the special interests of political bureaucracies.
Very helpful in understanding why the "market socialism" of the Chinese bureaucracy is a total sham disguised as communist and revolutionary but leading to restoring capitalism and not opening a path to create a new human being, free of exploitation and the dog-eat-dog mentality instilled in working people by the capitalist system
Explains the difference between economic methods and systems designed to move working people forward, "to create a new man," as Che put it, and the systems implemented by Joseph Stalin after the counter-revolution in Russia, designed to protect the special interest of bureaucratic layers, and explained as necessary because working people are supposed not "smart enough" to run factories, banks, mills, mines and governments in their interest, as they did and do under the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party.
Meritocracies like the one in the United States and the ones associated with European Social Democracy
put the brake on advances by working people when they emerge in workers states after counter-revolutions such as in Russia. They assert they can do it better than the working class.
Bourgeois socialism (social-democratic, Stalinist, Maoist, and so on) versus the revolutionary road forward by working people to power and to transform society, eliminating the technocratic specialists who front for the special interests of political bureaucracies.
Very helpful in understanding why the "market socialism" of the Chinese bureaucracy is a total sham disguised as communist and revolutionary but leading to restoring capitalism and not opening a path to create a new human being, free of exploitation and the dog-eat-dog mentality instilled in working people by the capitalist system
October 16, 2024
Το καλύτερο βιβλίο για να αναγεννηθεί ή να ενδυναμωθεί η πίστη στον Σοσιαλισμό ! Ο Ταμπλάδα αναλύει την Οικονομική Πολιτική, που πρότεινε ο Γκεβάρα, παντρεύοντας κομμουνιστική ηθική, με την αναγκαία στρατηγική, εντός κι εκτός πεδίου μαχών(επιβεβαιώθηκε πολλάκις στα τέλη του περασμένου αιώνα η νίκη των πολλαπλών πυρήνων αντάρτικων και ειδικά να αρχίζει εκτός πόλεων ή επαρχιών και να καταλήγει σε αυτές) και οικονομική πολιτική, που ενδυναμώνει το κοινωνικό ηθικό τόσο, ώστε να μην αλλοτριωθεί η κοινωνία και να μη φτάσουμε σε καρικατούρες τύπου Χρουστσόφ! Η επιτυχία της πρότασης του συστήματος του Γκεβάρα επιβεβαιώθηκε από τον Κάστρο, όταν παραιτήθηκε της τοιουτοτρόπως ΝΕΠ, που είχε αναγκαστεί να ακολουθήσει, λόγω λογικής εξάρτησης από την ΕΣΣΔ και αποφάσισε πρόωρα για κάποιους, αλλά αναγκαία, να υιοθετήσει το 1986 ένα άλλο, περισσότερο κομμουνιστικό οικονομικό σύστημα και να ηγηθεί του Σοσιαλισμού, αποδεικνύοντας ξεκάθαρα πως το προϋπολογιστικό σύστημα του Γκεβάρα είναι πολύ πιο επιτυχημένο από το οικονομικό-λογιστικό, που πρότεινε την εποχή του Χρουστσόφ η ΕΣΣΔ και είχε ακόμα αντίκτυπο επί Μπρέζνιεφ. Ένα βιβλίο που σε κάνει να καταλάβεις πως ρήσεις όπως του Σαρτρ, πως "ο Γκεβάρα ήταν ο πιο ολοκληρωμένος άνθρωπος του αιώνα" ισχύουν και ακριβώς γιατί ο Άνθρωπος αυτός είχε περισσότερα ταλέντα από όσα μπορούσε ο Λένιν να φανταστεί στο Κράτος και Επανάσταση και στο Πώς να Οργανώσουμε την Άμιλλα! Ο Γκεβάρα κατάφερε να συγκεράσει την ευρεία κατανόηση του μαρξισμού και του λενινισμού με εκπληκτική στρατηγική στη μάχη, ικανή οικοδόμηση κομμουνιστικής ηθικής, οικονομική ανάλυση χωρίς προηγούμενο(όχι πως ήταν ανώτερος άλλων, αλλά γιατί κατάφερε να προχωρήσει τον μαρξισμό ένα βήμα παραπέρα από τον Λένιν και τον Στάλιν) και με τον ίδιο να τερματίζει τον διαχωρισμό της νομενκλατούρας, της κομμουνιστικής διανόησης από τον λαό, αλλά να προτείνει κάτι τόσο απλό, αλλά καθόλου απλοϊκό και εύκολο: την ένωση των υψηλότερων διανοητών με τους εργάτες και τους αγρότες, στον χώρο ακριβώς των εργατών και των αγροτών, όντας μαζί με τους Κάστρο ο ηγέτης Μέσα από τους ίδιους τους ανθρώπους που εκπροσωπούσε, γεννώντας μεγαλύτερη εμπιστοσύνη στην κοινωνία με την ευρεία εθελοντική εργασία και κατανοώντας, νιώθοντας αυτός και ο κάθε ηγέτης καλύτερα τις ανάγκες της!
December 9, 2010
Interesting insight into Cuban experiments in economic planning, centering around Che Guevara's proposed Budgetary Finance system. Tablada discusses Marx's analysis of the law of value and international trade at length, providing a very good, if a bit dense, explanation. However, he glosses over the details of the failure of this system through policy changes made after Guevara left his position as Minister of Industry. He notes a series of directives made by departments of the Ministry of Industry without examining the rationale for these measures and what Guevara's successors had hoped to fix by issuing them. Additionally, he mentions in passing competing socialist economic planning models pursued in the Eastern Bloc and Yugoslavia, leaving the reader wanting a more thorough comparison of these models. These models were hotly debated in Cuba in the mid 60s, as it was developing its own models for economic planning and administration.
The most interesting aspect of this exposition, however, was the integration of considerations of modeling social organization and culture in tandem with economic planning, something missing from both the state sector of the mixed economies of Scandinavia and the former state economies of Eastern Europe. Tablada points to Marx's analysis that cultural and economic structures are inextricably intertwined, something that Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and other theorists of the Cuban Revolution were keenly aware of. For example, Guevara's proposed wage structure was intended to encourage workers to constantly upgrade their skills by increasing pay rates based on competency. Other incentives were built into the system to encourage state enterprise employees to acquire greater access to culture and education. While this was recognized in other Marxist countries, the typical understanding was that by modeling the economy, one can model culture as well. Guevara pointed out that both must be done together, and are mutually interdependent.
Also noteworthy is the timing of the publication of this book. The original edition, "El pensamiento económico del Che Guevara", was released in 1986, at the start of the Rectification Campaign launched by the Cuban Communist Party. This period was marked by an attempt to revive the ideals of the early days of the revolution, leading to a re-examination of then-current policies and an attempt to expand the grassroots leadership of the party and mass organizations. The latter were given expanded roles in economic activity and activism, most notably by putting forward the re-establishment of voluntary labor to fuel construction needs and other production needs that had fallen behind in the previous decade of economic planning. The English-language edition, with a tour of the US by Dr. Tablada, appeared at the height of this campaign, in 1990, just before the collapse of the USSR-led COMECON. This trading bloc, which included most of Eastern Europe, Vietnam and Mongolia, provided the international commerce that fueled the material needs of this campaign. Following this event, the Rectification Campaign collapsed, and Cuba entered a period of severe economic crisis known as the Special Period. One notable feature of this period was the continuation of an idea of Che's, that redundant or laid-off employees in the state sector be paid their previous wages to pursue continuing education in preparation for other work or needed career changes.
The most interesting aspect of this exposition, however, was the integration of considerations of modeling social organization and culture in tandem with economic planning, something missing from both the state sector of the mixed economies of Scandinavia and the former state economies of Eastern Europe. Tablada points to Marx's analysis that cultural and economic structures are inextricably intertwined, something that Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and other theorists of the Cuban Revolution were keenly aware of. For example, Guevara's proposed wage structure was intended to encourage workers to constantly upgrade their skills by increasing pay rates based on competency. Other incentives were built into the system to encourage state enterprise employees to acquire greater access to culture and education. While this was recognized in other Marxist countries, the typical understanding was that by modeling the economy, one can model culture as well. Guevara pointed out that both must be done together, and are mutually interdependent.
Also noteworthy is the timing of the publication of this book. The original edition, "El pensamiento económico del Che Guevara", was released in 1986, at the start of the Rectification Campaign launched by the Cuban Communist Party. This period was marked by an attempt to revive the ideals of the early days of the revolution, leading to a re-examination of then-current policies and an attempt to expand the grassroots leadership of the party and mass organizations. The latter were given expanded roles in economic activity and activism, most notably by putting forward the re-establishment of voluntary labor to fuel construction needs and other production needs that had fallen behind in the previous decade of economic planning. The English-language edition, with a tour of the US by Dr. Tablada, appeared at the height of this campaign, in 1990, just before the collapse of the USSR-led COMECON. This trading bloc, which included most of Eastern Europe, Vietnam and Mongolia, provided the international commerce that fueled the material needs of this campaign. Following this event, the Rectification Campaign collapsed, and Cuba entered a period of severe economic crisis known as the Special Period. One notable feature of this period was the continuation of an idea of Che's, that redundant or laid-off employees in the state sector be paid their previous wages to pursue continuing education in preparation for other work or needed career changes.
November 12, 2008
many of the political philosophy books i have read fail to point out that economics alone will not change our society. a change in our consciousness is also needed. che strongly addresses that in this book.
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