Upstream Cuba Pt. 3: Che Guevara and the Building of Socialism w/ Helen Yaffe
Mar 24, 2026
Helen Yaffe, a professor of Latin American political economy and author on Cuba and Che Guevara, discusses Che’s role in building socialism in post-revolution Cuba. The conversation covers Cuba’s semi-colonial economy, nationalisations amid US sabotage, Che’s industrial and financial roles, his focus on both production and socialist consciousness, mass education campaigns, and the foundations of Cuba’s biotech and state-led planning.
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Che's Government Work Was Policy Not Myth
- Che Guevara played a central, hands-on role in Cuba's early economic management, serving as National Bank president and head of industrialisation rather than just a guerrilla icon.
- Helen Yaffe began researching what Che actually did at four in the morning and found his practical policymaking during 1959–65 shaped Cuba's transition to socialism.
Cuba Was Deeply Dependent And Rurally Impoverished
- Cuba entered 1959 as a semi-colonial, highly dependent economy dominated by US capital and sugar monoculture, producing extreme rural deprivation.
- Yaffe lists sharp statistics: tiny land ownership, near-absent utilities, low nutrition, and massive inequality concentrated outside Havana.
Sabotage Pushed Rapid Nationalizations
- Private firms sabotaged production (e.g., withholding basic parts) and the government responded by nationalizing industries to secure supplies and sovereignty.
- An architect told Yaffe how overnight the steel industry was nationalized after companies refused to make belaying pins, forcing state takeover.
