Cuba, Venezuela advance with social planning

More than 130 countries of the United Nations met Sept. 20-22 to review progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. In 2000 the U.N. established eight modest MDGs with measurable targets to be achieved by 2015: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.

In the U.S., the richest imperialist country in the world, working-class living standards are diving. If global statistics show any improvement, it would likely be due to advances in China, the globe’s most populous country, which still retains strong elements of socialist planning.

The U.N. funding plan for achieving the MDGs is based on the unrealized — and unlikely, especially in the case of the U.S. — projection that industrialized countries will contribute 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product. Cuba Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez pointed out, “Those same countries are also mostly responsible for a worldwide military spending that amounts to U.S. $1.4 trillion, equivalent to 2.4 percent of the world’s GDP.”

Socialist Cuba has shown these goals are achievable when the capitalist drive to maximize profits is thrown overboard. Juventud Rebelde, in a Sept. 24 article called “Millennium goals only attainable with new economic order,” reported: “Rodríguez said that Cuba has achieved many of the MDGs, while reaffirming the country’s commitment to support third world nations in moving forward to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

“He said the nation’s progress towards reaching the millennium goals has been possible thanks to a socialist revolution that prioritizes the well-being of citizens, in a climate of equity, social justice and solidarity. ‘Cuba has made great achievements, despite the half-century U.S. blockade.’”

At the MDG summit, Venezuela’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America, Jorge Valero — who also serves as Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N. — highlighted the social achievements of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

A press statement from the Venezuelan Mission to the U.N. stated, “From 1999 to 2009, 60 percent of all revenues of Venezuela have gone towards investment in social programs.”

According to VenGlobal News, Valero affirmed: “Our levels of poverty exceeded 49 percent in 1998 and dropped to 24.2 percent in 2009. And our levels of extreme poverty decreased dramatically from 29.8 percent in 2003 to 7.2 percent in 2009. ... The U.N.’s Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean has recognized that Venezuela is the country that has most diminished inequality in our region.”

Valero said unemployment in Venezuela fell more than 50 percent from 1998 to December 2009, when it reached 6.6 percent.

“He explained that Venezuela has advanced in the promotion of gender equality and the rights of women. ‘Four of the five branches of government in Venezuela are run by women. ... ‘

“Venezuela succeeded in eradicating illiteracy in 2005, an achievement recognized by UNESCO. Venezuela will reach universal primary education, a significant reduction in the maternal mortality rate and a decrease in the spread of HIV/AIDS, amongst other objectives yet to be achieved, prior to 2015, he stated.

“Valero highlighted the support Venezuela has given other countries in the region so that they can reach their objectives under the [MDG], through initiatives like the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our Americas — People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), Petrocaribe and the Bank of the South.”

These initiatives are all cooperative economic tools for exchanging skills and human and natural resources based on the ability and need of each country. Both Cuba and Venezuela provided assistance to Haiti before and since the devastating January earthquake.