Revolutionary Offensive

Revolutionary Offensive
Part of the Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution
Poster of Fidel Castro chopping sugar cane promoting the push for a mass sugar harvest.
Date1968-1970
LocationCuba
Outcome
  • Economic focus on sugar production
  • Flight of entrepreneurs in the Freedom Flights
  • Militarization of the economy
  • Nationalization of all small businesses

The Revolutionary Offensive (Spanish: Ofensiva revolucionaria) was a political campaign in Cuba starting in 1968 to nationalize all remaining private small businesses, which at the time totaled to be about 58,000 small enterprises.[1] The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, specifically to a deadline for an annual sugar harvest of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and the mobilization of workers from all sectors of the Cuban economy.[2] Economic mobilization also coincided with greater militarization of Cuban political structures and society in general.[3]

By 1970 production in other sectors of the Cuban economy had fallen, and the predicted 10 million ton annual harvest fell short to only 8.5 million. The failure of the 1970 harvest caused officials to reassess the Cuban economy, sacrificing egalitarian measures and embracing Soviet influence.[2]

  1. ^ Henken, Ted; Vignoli, Gabriel (2015). "ENTERPRISING CUBA: CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT, STATE ABANDONMENT, OR U.S. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY?" (PDF). american.edu. Center for Latin American and Latino Studies. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Prevost, Grey (2007). "Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution". Headwaters. 24 (1): 25–26. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  3. ^ Cuba's Forgotten Decade How the 1970s Shaped the Revolution. Lexington Books. 2018. pp. 72–73. ISBN 9781498568746.