How has the government and the people of Cuba actively resisted neo-liberal globalisation? How is it that the Cuban Communist Party continues to exist? To what extent is Cuba affected by global trends and pressures?

Antonio Carmona Báez challenges those on the Left who romantically support the Cuban Revolution as well as those who claim that the free market is the ideal economic model for all states. Instead, he presents an intelligent account of the serious and contradictory consequences of Cuba's social, political and economic restructuring.

The author revisits the history of the Cuban Revolution, and the crisis after the fall of Cuba's superpower ally, the Soviet Union, to provide answers to these questions.