18 April 2018
Dear Comrades and friends,
Thank you very much for the invitation to make a presentation on Cuba to this meeting.
Before referring to my country, I think it is important to make some comments on the current international situation. Let me just mention a few statistics.
815 million persons in the world suffer today from chronic hunger, tens of millions more than in 2015. Every day 18 000 children die of poverty and 760 million adults are illiterate.There are 22.5 million refugees.
Inequalities are abysmal. 80% of the world’s population owns only 6% of all the richness, while the richest 1% enjoys half of the planet’s patrimony. The turnover of the world’s 10 largest corporations is higher than the public revenues earned by 180 countries combined.
The consumption patterns typical of neoliberal capitalism are unsustainable and irrational and will inexorably lead to the destruction of the environment and the end of the human species.
Unilateral military interventions against sovereign countries are more and more frequents without any consequences for the perpetrators. The “Law of the Jungle” is been imposed to the world, where the interests of the most powerful States would always prevail to the detriment of the most vulnerable.
We are living in an international context that requires the mobilization and action of the progressive forces, including the trade union movement. The imperialists will always try to neutralize and isolate those who challenge them and defend sovereignty and the interests of the working class.
We should act together in solidarity. In isolation, we will be swallowed by the strength of the powerful. That´s why are so important meetings like this, that promote international solidarity.
Dear Comrades:
I am very glad to be here tonight with my dear colleagues from Venezuela, Palestine and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Like Cuba, their peoples need the support of the international community. That’s why I am going to use part of my 15 minutes to strongly support their respective presentations tonight.
A top priority for Washington and its allies now is to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela. They are expending millions of dollars trying to destroy a progressive government, which has driven forward social policies benefiting the poorest sectors of the population.
Venezuela is today a decisive battlefield in the Latin America and Caribbean region and that sister nation needs our support and solidarity.
It is time to pay off the historical debt to the State of Palestine and to restore the inalienable rights of its people, violated by Israel for more than half a century of illegal occupation, collective punishment, confiscation of land and property, forced displacement and colonial settlements. The complicity and support of the US Government is what allows Israel to act with total impunity. That is unacceptable.
Cuba will continue to defend the right of Palestinians to self-determination, to have a free, independent and sovereign state, with its capital in East Jerusalem. We will also continue to support Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations.
For more than four decades, there has been virtually no progress in finding a solution to the situation in the Western Sahara.
Since 1976 Cuban Medical Brigades have worked in the refugee camps to alleviate the needs of our Saharawi brothers and sisters. Many students from the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic have been and continue to be educated in Cuba.
The Saharawi people can always count with the solidarity of Cuba in their heroic struggle to exercise their legitimate right to self-determination and independence.
Dear Comrades,
The unity of the Cuban people has been of critical importance in the successful defense of our Revolution for 60 years. In fact, we consider that the construction of social cohesion and unity is the most important task facing all true revolutions.
We do not intend the Cuban Socialist Revolution to be considered a model to anyone. But neither do we accept the existence of a unique or universal political and social model, much less the imposition as a model of the capitalist system of the western industrialized countries.
Cuba is not perfect. Like anywhere we face problems and struggles. But there are also many achievements.
We are proud to be a country without people who are helpless or deprived from their dignity. While inequality, the opulence of a few and the marginalization of many are growing in today’s world, in Cuba we will keep up our struggle to achieve the fairest possible society.
It's worth to explain how Cuba spends its very limited resources, because actions and facts speak louder than words.
Let me mention just 5 examples:
- Our country provides high quality health care for all its population, completely free of charge.
- Life expectancy rate for Cubans, that used to be 59 years of age before the Revolution is now 80 years of age, higher than in many rich countries.
- Cuba has the highest number of doctors per capita in the world (1:137).
- With an infant mortality rate of only 4.2 per thousand births, Cuba is the best performer on the Western Hemisphere.
- According to the World Bank, Cuba is the country that spent the highest GDP percentage in education. The whole Cuban population receive totally free high quality education at all levels, including university and this is guaranteed as a right in the Cuban Constitution. School uniforms and meals are also free.
Cuba is currently involved in a process of updating its national economic and social model. The strategic goal of the updating is to ensure a prosperous and sustainable socialism.
State Planning will be consolidated as a cornerstone in Cuba. The main production means will continue to be under control of the working class. This is an essential point, because property relations are determinant for any socio-economic system.
The Cuban Revolution will continue to be a working class Revolution.
Today, a new Parliament will be installed in Cuba and tomorrow 19 April a new President of the country will be elected. The continuity of the Revolution built under Commander Fidel Castro’s leadership is guaranteed.
Dear Comrades,
Our decision to defend our national independence and to support the struggle of other countries has come with a cost. United States hostility against the Cuban Revolution is in part a punishment for our solidarity with the liberation struggles of Africa and Latin America.
Since 1960 Cuba has suffered from a criminal, unilateral and illegal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government. It is the longest blockade ever recorded in history.
The blockade not only causes a lot of harm and scarcities to the Cuban people. It is also the main obstacle for our economic development.
The United Nations has approved 27 resolutions in the last 27 years establishing that the blockade against Cuba is a violation of the International Law. A new resolution will be adopted later this year.
Ignoring the United Nations, President Trump has decided to strengthen even more the blockade and the hostility against Cuba with the aim of imposing a “regime change” on our country. He will fail, as it was the case with the previous 11 US Administrations that tried to defeat the Cuban Revolution.
We have reiterated our willingness to hold a respectful dialogue with the United States, but it has to be done on the basis of equality and full and absolute respect for our self-determination.
We will not make concessions in terms of our sovereignty and independence. Cuba will not negotiate its principles. Never. The changes that may be necessary in Cuba will be independently decided only by the Cuban people.
History will force the United States government to lift the blockade. And we have all the patience and endurance to wait for that moment to arrive. But we also need the support of the international community, including the trade union movement, to work actively together to make it happen.
Dear Comrades,
As we build a new society based on human solidarity in our own country, the Cuban people, despite all the scarcities and difficulties derived from the criminal blockade, will continue selflessly sharing what it has with other nations.
Cuban international cooperation workers are present in all continents. 46 000 of them are currently working in 61 nations, the highest part of them as medical doctors, with a great presence in Africa, including South Africa. Thousands of young people of many developing countries are been trained as medical doctors in Cuba, free of charge.
Relations between Africa and Cuba are deep-rooted and historic. As a result of the cruel slavery trade, nearly one million and a half of Africans arrived in our island centuries ago. They were a key component in the formation of the Cuban nationality.
In other words, Africa is part of the very essence of the Cuban nation and our country feels extremely proud of its African roots.
There is an African saying according to which: “The foot prints of the people that walked together can never be erased”. The deep and special relationship between Cuba and Africa was cemented by the blood of heroic Cuban soldiers who paid the supreme sacrifice for our belief in anti-imperialism, anti-apartheid, freedom and justice.
Cuba deployed for over 30 years close to half a million soldiers and officers in Africa, to support the struggles for national independence or against foreign aggression.
Just a few days ago we commemorated the 30th Anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, which Nelson Mandela defined as the turning point in the struggle to rid South Africa of the scourge of apartheid.
Thousands of Cubans lost their lives in Africa’s battlefields. But we will never regret having written beautiful pages in the history of solidarity among peoples and revolutionaries.
South Africa will always have a special place in our hearts. And it is important that you don’t underestimate the relevance of your own process in South Africa for the whole world, particularly for the countries of the South and the working class.
A successful South Africa after many terrible years of colonization and apartheid, will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, will strengthen our hopes of a better future for all.
Let me conclude, dear Comrades, by expressing, once again, on behalf of the people and government of Cuba, our deep appreciation to each and every member of NEHAWU for your firm and permanent support and solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.
The people of Cuba will forever be thankful to you for your sustained demand to end the blockade that our country is enduring, for your support in the struggle for the release of our Five Antiterrorist Cuban Heroes, for your support for the return of the territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base to Cuba, which continue to be illegally occupied by the United States.
And those are only a few examples. We know we can count on you and you can always count on Cuba. We could never thank you enough for been always part of our fight for a better world.
Thank you.