Reviewed by Al Campbell
Four months before his death in January 2016 the Marxist intellectual, ecologist, biomathematician, philosopher of science, and activist Richard Levins wrote a short article about this book and its author Augustín Lage, “A New Economy of Knowledge” (Monthly Review 67(11): 38–46). This important article was, as per its title, above all about the relation between socialism and the recently much-discussed “knowledge economy” that is emerging worldwide. On the one hand, the whole discussion of this relation is anchored in Lage’s and Cuba’s experience over more than three decades using non-capitalist procedures to develop its world-class biotech industry ex nihilo, other than the highly educated Cuban population, one of the Revolutions best-known achievements. On the other hand, and as is indicated by the subtitle, the whole discussion of the relation between the knowledge economy and socialism is anchored even more broadly in Cuba’s understanding of the necessary role of science in building the socialism dedicated to human liberation and human development that has been Cuba’s project for over six decades.
Given its length, Levins’ article can discuss the book, its author, the development of the biotech industry in Cuba, the relation between the knowledge economy and socialism, and the broader issues of the role of science in the development of socialism in Cuba, and beyond that, socialism in general, more than is possible in a short book review. Hence I recommend that readers of this review also read Levins’ article. But in addition, Levins was clear and to the point, as he always was in everything that I have ever read by him. Therefore, in an unusual structure for a book review, the heart of this review of Lage’s book will consist of four short passages drawn from Levins’ article, which together convey about as much information about the nature and content of the book as could anything this short.
[Marxist] theory would lead us to expect that capitalism would be replaced by socialism as a result of the development of the means of production coming into contradiction with the relations of production. This issue is at the core of Agustin Lage’s work: that just as the factory and the farm marked the end of feudal systems of production, the economy of knowledge is the emergence of the new means of production. This takes place even though capitalist enterprise creates and attempts to utilise the economy of knowledge to increase profits. We live in the era of the replacement of capitalism by socialism on a world-historic scale.
Agustin Lage is both a participant and an observer in the development of Cuban science. He is an outstanding molecular biologist, the director of the Center for Molecular Immunology in Havana, a deputy to the National Assembly, and a militant in the Cuban Communist Party. He is a creative Marxist, applying the tools of that approach to the problems of advanced science in a small, poor, and besieged country. His book, La economía del conocimiento y el socialism [the original title in Spanish of this book – A.C.] is a collection of articles, mostly published in Cuba Socialista, the theoretical organ of the Cuban Communist Party. Because of his own career in molecular biology, his writings take the high-tech fields (biotechnology, nanotechnology, computer software, new construction materials, information technology) as his starting point, but the lessons from molecular biology can be extended to other areas of science and production where knowledge is a crucial element.
La economía del conocimiento y el socialismo describes the advantages of socialism in high-tech science. Lage describes both the macro-level advantages and also the finer-scale ways of running an advanced enterprise. The starting point is the vast pool of talent available through universal literacy, education, and culture. Although Cuba has a small population on a world scale, the proportion of the population available for the discovery and development of talent is larger than most countries where class, gender, and racial/ethnic barriers limit who is allowed to develop their abilities and do science. Further, science is not private property but belongs to the whole people and pursues social ends. There are no patent barriers among Cuban institutions, no secrecy between institutes and cooperative research prevails over competition.
One question arises: Can the development of the high-tech industries (biotechnology, informatics, programming, advanced construction materials, and others) serve as a model of the whole economy? A test of this was the experience of the municipality of Yaguajay, where Lage is a delegate to the National Assembly. At the height of the special period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city government decided to base its development around positive health in the broad sense of the Alma-Alta declaration, the all-around well-being in the physical, mental, and social dimensions. In order to do this, they had to know well the problems the region faced. A thorough survey looked not only at health statistics in the traditional sense but such indicators as dysfunctional families, substandard housing, alcoholism, breastfeeding, and age distribution. Meanwhile, there were workshops, seminars, and other forms of popular education for some 11,000 people in a population of 56,000.
The final sentence of Levins’ article was “Lage’s writings are a vital contribution to Marxist theory and should be translated as quickly as they are written.” Monthly Review has now done exactly that.
With many books that I review, I have found that listing the chapter titles, which are usually laboriously reflected on by the author to indicate their content, to be one of the most efficient ways to tersely indicate the content of the book. In this book they certainly are.
- Chapter 1.
Introduction
- Chapter 2.
Property and Expropriation in the Knowledge Economy
- Chapter 3.
Science and Culture: The Cultural Roots of Productivity
- Chapter 4.
The Knowledge Economy and Socialism: Reflections from the Cuban Biotechnology Experience
- Chapter 5.
The Knowledge Society and Socialism: Reflections from Yaguajay
- Chapter 6.
Connecting Science and the Economy: The Levers of Socialism
- Chapter 7.
Knowledge, Society, and National Sovereignty in the Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 8.
The Functions of Science in the Cuban Economic Model
- Chapter 9.
The High-Technology Company and the Management of Discontinuities
- Chapter 10.
Management in the High-Technology Company
- Chapter 11.
The Knowledge Society and Socialism: An Opportunity for Development
- Chapter 12.
The Knowledge Society and Socialism: Cuban Questions