Raúl Torres calls for a "market socialism" in Cuba: "We cannot wait for the people to take to the streets."

The singer-songwriter Raúl Torres, aligned with the Cuban government, proposed establishing a "market socialism" —"market economy with socialist principles"— and warned that "we cannot wait for the people to take to the streets."

This Tuesday, in a text where he calls for controlled economic changes to ease social discontent without altering political power, he said: “The Revolution is not for us to immolate ourselves, but to perpetuate ourselves in popular power.”

Torres proposes a gradual economic opening: to allow private initiatives in non-strategic sectors, promote cooperatives with credit support, and combine central planning with regulated market mechanisms for consumer goods.

At the same time, it emphasizes that the State must maintain control over natural resources, energy, communications, and other “high sensitivity” areas.

However, in line with the principles of the regime, it demands "revolutionary vigilance" against "deviations": it proposes to denounce and ideologically neutralize business owners who aspire to political power.

Insta a strengthen control through the CDR and mass organizations to detect "capitalist accumulation"; and maintain a progressive taxation system to finance public health and education.

He reiterates that the socialist state enterprise must continue to be the guiding principle and that social ownership of the fundamental means of production is "irreduceable and non-negotiable."

Torres attributes the shortcomings to the combination of the U.S. blockade and internal failures; he cites the outbreak in Chile in 2019 as a warning of what happens when social demands are not anticipated.

Hence the urgency: “we cannot wait for the people to take to the streets”; we must "take the initiative" to "allow the people to breathe easy without renouncing the achievements" of the system.

"Fidel, in his eternal legacy, taught us that the Revolution is a dynamic process that requires tactical boldness without losing strategic focus," he wrote.

A complacent proposal

Although it calls for using the market to "provide relief," its framework insists on protecting power and disciplining the private sector: it opens with one hand (allowing entrepreneurship) and closes with the other (demanding the neutralization of entrepreneurs with political ambitions and maintaining control bodies over the new economy).

The text itself summarizes that limit: to perpetuate oneself in power while enabling economic "valves."

The proposal, signed by a supporter of the regime, takes on the risk of an explosion and turns “market socialism” into a administered shock therapy: more leeway to produce and sell, without political pluralism or redistribution of power.

In practical terms, the opening would come conditioned by ideological filters and by state preeminence in key sectors.

Torres calls to "update" the economy with market tools to prevent protests, but he does so from a script of continuity that prioritizes political control, state-owned enterprise, and surveillance over the private sector; a gamble that exposes the hypocrisy of invoking the market while safeguarding the power structure.

Frequently Asked Questions about the "market socialism" proposal in Cuba