The first period of the revolution was characterised by idealism. With the audacity of youthful inexperience, Cuba’s revolutionaries tried to “storm heaven”, i.e., to pass rapidly through the stage of socialist construction so as to arrive, within a generation or two it was hoped, at a communist society. In the heady 1960s this seemed to be the way the world was heading, with the rise of the anti-colonial struggles in the Third World, the Cultural Revolution in China and the world-wide youth radicalization at the close of the decade.

In this first period two qualitative turning-points stand out: the emergence of a revolutionary working people’s government out of the mass mobilisations that followed Fidel’s resignation as prime minister in July 1959 – in protest at the refusal of the revolutionary government, in which the revolutionary leaders were a minority, to fully implement the radical agrarian reform law signed by Fidel on May 17 of that year – and the opening of the socialist stage of the revolution in late 1960, with the wholesale expropriation of the big capitalist enterprises and the building up of a post-capitalist, centrally planned economy.

Two other key events are the introduction of the libreta, or ration book, system in 1962, after the US government had imposed its full economic blockade; and the wholesale expropriation of the properties of the urban petit-bourgeoisie in the 1968 “Revolutionary Offensive”. Faced with an acute scarcity of consumer goods due to the US blockade and an exodus of skilled personnel from the island, Cuba’s socialist state moved to guarantee each household a monthly quota of basic goods at highly subsidised prices. This undercut hoarding and ensured an equitable distribution, while subsidies ensured universal affordability. The ration book came to symbolise the revolution’s commitment to social equality.

In March 1968, the government decreed the wholesale expropriation of the properties of the urban petit-bourgeoisie, right down to the man on the street with his ice-cream cart. Bringing retail trade and other small businesses under state control further undermined hoarding and profiteering. It also undermined subversion: US imperialism had found points of support for its campaign of terrorist bombings and other subversive activities among the urban petit-bourgeoisie.

Today, apart from a small number of family restaurants, there are very few sizeable small businesses operating legally in Cuba – although there are considerable numbers of licensed self-employed people who offer services from juggling clowns to home-stays, and micro-businesses such as people selling food out of their homes. Walk down any street in Old Havana and there will be someone offering passersby tiny cups of sweet black coffee from their doorway.