Anarchist tip: if you need some piece of equipment, or anything really, look up if there are any alternatives designed in or otherwise for exploited countries. People have invented many of the necessities for renewable power, medicine, machining, internet - all the comforts of modern life really - in ways that are low-tech, small-scale, often made of recycled or abundant materials, using little to no electricity, and best of all, absurdly cheap
Like a microscope and centrifuge made of paper that cost less than a dollar together, and a non-electric sun tracker for solar panels that costs about 1/30 what a commercial sun tracker does
Great for squats, occupations, communes, mutual aid, personal independence, etc.
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com
In summary: the Soviet Union falls and Cuba’s primary economic partner and source of parts, expertise, and material ceases to exist, and so to make do the government starts to print and distribute technical manuals and textbooks on, say, electronics, or mechanical engineering, which enabled the people both to maintain and prolong the use of existing appliances, but also to make and jury-rig other solutions to their problems, like home-made battery charges for hearing aid batteries and the like.
