This essay analyzes the relationships between culture, power,
and politics in contemporary Cuba through the lens of hip-hop. In
particular, I look at the interactions between Cuban rappers, the
Cuban socialist state, and diverse transnational networks in a moment
of economic crisis, increasing racial disparities, and Cuba's changing
global position. The essay explores how the Cuban state has harnessed
the energy of the growing hip-hop movement as a way of bolstering its
popularity; I highlight forms of appropriation and collaboration between
transnational cultural forms and the nation-state that have generally
been absent from accounts of cultural globalization. But I also suggest
that Cuban rappers' participation in transnational networks allows
these rappers some autonomy to continue promoting messages of racial
egalitarianism and to develop alternative strategies in a moment of
declining options for black youth.
The nonprofit worker center model has been heralded as a promising development, given union decline and the rise of low-wage service jobs in the United States. Yet rather than challenging exploitative work conditions, some of the national organizations developed by worker centers have embraced neoliberal rationalities through projects such as workforce development, employer alliances, and entrepreneurial ventures. In the same period, strategic funding, which applies the logic and techniques of financial investment to grantmaking, has become standard practice for American foundations. As national worker center grantees adopt neoliberal rationalities through their interactions with funders, we argue that these grantees become less inclined to engage in contentious politics. We analyze the projects of two national worker center organizations, contrasting these groups with three local centers that still organize confrontational campaigns. We suggest that by emphasizing worker leadership, involving members in decision-making, and finding alternative funding sources, they have been able to maintain their confrontational politics.
The emergence of the feminist network Magín in Cuba in the mid-1990s challenged the monopoly of the official women's organization over issues related to women. Magín came into being as a result of encounters with feminists in international meetings, and it grew and developed through transnational support. Yet the organization did not extend beyond a small group of professional women and eventually the state closed it down. This article probes the question of why autonomous feminist organizing did not succeed in Cuba, particularly given a window of opportunity presented by the collapse of the Soviet Union. I suggest that the nature of transnational networks, combined with the political hegemony of the Cuban government, limited the scope of Magín as an independent women's organization. Although transnational advocacy networks helped Cuban feminists to create new spaces for dialogue, they also encouraged tendencies of specialization and professionalization that led the women to forgo the possibility of building a broadbased autonomous movement. An analysis of feminist networks in Cuba can contribute to our knowledge of the pitfalls and promises of transnationalism, particularly in nonliberal democratic contexts.
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