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To: bentway who wrote (276626)	9/17/2010 11:37:42 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Castro way right of Obama now? ----------- Cuba's Coming Layoffs: Even the Party Faithful Shudder news.yahoo.com The word from on high in Havana shook the entire island. President Raul Castro had decided that Cuba's economy needs to be fundamentally restructured and, as a first step, 500,000 state workers are going to be laid-off by next spring. The government employs 90% of the country's more than 5 million workers and so Castro's stripping of what Cuba's official labor union described as "inflated payrolls" is sending shock waves through all of Cuban society. Victor, 61, who helps manage a factory, is just one who is deeply concerned. "All my life I have worked for the state, I know nothing else," he told TIME in a phone interview. "It has cost me a lot to be where I am today; I am a party member, have done everything by the book. We have had many downfalls and critical moments, but at least we knew we had a secure job and a daily meal in the factory. I do not know what will be the criteria to fire people, I am worried because of my age." Victor asked not to have his full name published, nervous - like all the people TIME reached - of repercussions from Cuba's watchful bureaucracy. Despite the creakiness of the economy, the Castro brothers, Raul and his ailing but still talkative brother Fidel, have managed to retain a firm hold on the way Cubans live their lives. But the antiquated communism that they have used to organize their support may more than ever be rusting away. Says Isis, 20, a shopkeeper, "I am a member of the Communist Youth movement, but I am scared. What if even we are not safe? My family has no family outside to help us; we all work and we are loyal revolutionaries."