I appreciate this post but I think it needs to be mentioned that this phrase is not as literal as you make it out to be. Likely its in reference to extremely low wage workers that privileged households would employ (i.e "the help").
I think it's fair to say many do not take it literally, though I have had plenty of interactions with people who *do* take it quite literally and have pointed to the survival of slavery into the 20th century in remote parts of the rural US South as evidence of slavery surviving. The use of the terms 'plantation' and 'slaves' is also clearly not a reference to domestic servants, so I see how people unironically buy into that stuff.
On a deeper level, I also think that referring to low wage workers as *literal* slaves rather than just 'wage slaves' not only leads to lots of people, especially young people who know diddly about Cuba, missing that it is non-literal, it is also just plain not helpful.
How did Fidel 'free' the low wage workers? Independent unions were coopted, organized political parties were abolished outside of the control of the state, and there was no longer really any way for workers to improve their lot other than wait and hope the state would do so. This is part of why you see a huge spike in absenteeism in the late 60s and early 70s as wages failed to cover necessities, resulting in the state reintroducing Vagrancy Laws which, coupled with other forms of compulsory penal labor, were essentially a re-enslaving of the country's working class. This is part of why in 1980 the massive Mariel Exodus was one done by working people, not the white professional elites of yesteryear.
I appreciate this post but I think it needs to be mentioned that this phrase is not as literal as you make it out to be. Likely its in reference to extremely low wage workers that privileged households would employ (i.e "the help").
I think it's fair to say many do not take it literally, though I have had plenty of interactions with people who *do* take it quite literally and have pointed to the survival of slavery into the 20th century in remote parts of the rural US South as evidence of slavery surviving. The use of the terms 'plantation' and 'slaves' is also clearly not a reference to domestic servants, so I see how people unironically buy into that stuff.
On a deeper level, I also think that referring to low wage workers as *literal* slaves rather than just 'wage slaves' not only leads to lots of people, especially young people who know diddly about Cuba, missing that it is non-literal, it is also just plain not helpful.
How did Fidel 'free' the low wage workers? Independent unions were coopted, organized political parties were abolished outside of the control of the state, and there was no longer really any way for workers to improve their lot other than wait and hope the state would do so. This is part of why you see a huge spike in absenteeism in the late 60s and early 70s as wages failed to cover necessities, resulting in the state reintroducing Vagrancy Laws which, coupled with other forms of compulsory penal labor, were essentially a re-enslaving of the country's working class. This is part of why in 1980 the massive Mariel Exodus was one done by working people, not the white professional elites of yesteryear.