29 November 2022, Lymbia, Nicosia
Six years have gone by since Fidelpassed away- his ideas continue to live and grow through the creativity and struggles of the Cuban people, of the peoples struggling for justice, progress, peace, for our planet, for socialism
Dear friends,
A big thank you to you all for your participation today in this event, which is first of all a demonstration of our solidarity with the Cuban people. A big thank you to the local inhabitants of Lymbia for their hospitality.
On 16 October 1953, Fidel was presenting his defense before the Court of Justice in Santiago, Cuba. He defended the assault on the Moncada barracks on 26 July 1953 as a right to regain the human rights that had been abolished by the dictator Batista. In his historic address to the courts, the then 27-year-old Fidel outlined ideas and thoughts, as well as solutions to the multiple problems facing the country, in the areas of education, political life, the economy and society. His showed his maturity, depth of thought, ability to analyse and predict, but also courage and leadership.
Towards the end, Fidel would say: “The philosophers of ancient India upheld the principle of active resistance to arbitrary authority. They justified revolution and very often put their theories into practice. One of their spiritual leaders used to say that 'an opinion held by the majority is stronger than the king himself. A rope woven of many strands is strong enough to hold a lion.” Fidel ends by stating: “Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me”.
The national hero of Cuba, José Martí, known as "the Apostle of the Revolution", was the inspiration and belief in the just cause of the struggle waged by the youthful group led by Fidel and later the Revolution. As the Cuban poet Nicolas Guillain wrote, “Martí promised it to you, Fidel gave it to you”.
On 26 July 1989 - 36 years after the attack on Moncada and 30 years after the victory of the Revolution (in Camaguey) - when socialism was collapsing in the countries of Eastern Europe - Fidel stressed the following: “What phenomena are we facing? Is this a peaceful transition from socialism to capitalism? It is possible. However, not even us, we do not question it. We defend the sacred right to the independence of each country and each party. This is what we ask for the people of the world. That is what we ask for all the people of Latin America and of the Third World. We ask for the right of each country to build, if it so desires, socialism, which the United States tries, by force of arms, so much to prevent. The right of our people to build socialism, of course no one gave us that right, we earned it, we conquered it, and we defend it...”
During that critical period of – as some had suggested - "the end of history", when the day after for the peoples seemed bleak, when the United States began to impose its "new world order", when its greatest desire was to finish off socialist Cuba just 90 miles off its doorstep, Cuba led the efforts to create "Nuestra America", "Our America" as José Martí used to say. Fidel, together with Lula of Brazil, laid the foundations for the foundation of the São Paulo Forum.
A Forum open to the left in its broadest sense, aimed at building unity against American imperialism and the subjugation of the continent.
A process that succeeded in bringing together and in joint action forces at both a regional, but also national level, strengthening the struggles for workers', economic, social, political and cultural rights.
A process that has brought about, with ups and downs, significant changes in the political map of Central and Latin America where various fronts on the left have been created that have won elections and formed governments.
Lula's recent victory in Brazil, which was achieved precisely thanks to the joint efforts of different forces, first among them the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), is particularly important. It was a victory against far-right forces, some of which are characterised as fascist. Because the ultra-right is not only rising on the European continent but is unfortunately spreading to all continents. Today the phrase "unity in diversity" is our guide to block the way to fascism and the barbarity it brings with it.
In July 1991 - the year Nelson Mandela was released from prison - the 'terrorist', as Thatcher had called him, visited Cuba. On 26 July on the anniversary of the Moncada assault Nelson Mandela said: "The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom, and justice, unparalleled for its principled and selfless character. From its earliest days the Cuban revolution has itself been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people.”
Yes - this is Fidel's Cuba which in the most remote corners of the world does not send “smart” weapons that kill people with precision to wage “pre-emptive” wars, but instead Cuba sends tens/hundreds of doctors to the most remote areas. Doctors, not bombs - as Fidel said in Buenos Aires in May 2003. Remember the epidemic of Ebola that reaped West Africa or Covid19, with Cuban doctors offering their expertise and assistance to the people in the most difficult conditions.
Solidarity is an inherent concept that is synonymous with the Cuban people, who offer it without asking for anything in return. A fact that Cyprus also has felt during throughout the years - especially the most difficult ones - since its independence. And it is something that no government of the Republic of Cyprus should ever forget. Neither should it forget that Makarios and Fidel, together with other leaders, established the Non-Aligned Movement that stood up for so many peoples, including our own people.
62 years of the imposition of the criminal American blockade have aimed to bring the Cuban people to their knees at the whim of their imperialist neighbours. The Cuban people are subject to extremely serious shortcomings. Has the USA succeeded in isolating Cuba? For 30 years now, the UN General Assembly has supported the resolutions Cuba submitted denouncing the blockade. This year 185 states supported Cuba’s resolution with only the US and Israel voting against and Brazil and Ukraine abstaining.
The war of ideas is merciless - the goal of the Miami financiers is to influence Cuban youth. Without any shred of morality, even during the pandemic, they are trying to strangle a people using the difficult economic situation they themselves are exacerbating as a tool. They do so because they do not accept that every people has the right to live as it chooses.
Fidel did not accept any personality cult. Fidel stressed there should be no roads and no schools built in his name. His ideas which we must constantly develop and are the revolution itself were gathered in the Fidel Castro Research Centre which opened its doors a year ago.
And through the ideas and struggles of his people and all the peoples of the world, this "greatest revolutionary of the second half of the 20th century", as our late comrade Demetris Christofias had described him, will continue to show the way forward and inspire.
Before I close, permit me to read in the way Cypriots speak a post from a friend, an excerpt from a historic interview of Fidel in 1991 in Gualdalajara, Mexico:
“Tell me a solution that capitalism has given!
It has not solved a problem!
It has plundered the planet.
It left us with this kind of poverty.
It gave the world ways of life and models of consumerism incompatible with reality.
Capitalism poisoned the waters, the seas. I mean the rivers, the lakes, the oceans, the atmosphere, the earth.
It made an incredible waste of resources.
I always give an example: imagine every person in China wanting to have a car. And the one billion creatures that live in this country.
Or even if every one of the 800 million Indians wanted his/her own car as a way of life, right?
And the Africans would do the same.
And the 450 million Latin Americans would want to be like you.
How much more oil would it cost, how much more gas, how much more natural resources?
Imagine what it would do to the ozone layer,
What it would do to the oxygen of the earth,
What it would do with the carbon dioxide?
These are all the phenomena that change our planet’s ecology, that change the earth, that make life more and more difficult on the earth.
Does capitalism have an example of life to offer the world? An example of society? Would it prevent us from thinking of more sensible things? As would be the education of the world? Food, health, to provide every human being with a dignified home, a culture that elevates people?
Can anyone say that capitalism, with its blind laws, its selfishness and egoism as a supreme principle, gives us an example to follow? Can it show us the way forward? Should humanity itself follow the path that capitalism has forged to this day?
You can talk to us about a crisis in socialism, but there is a crisis in capitalism that is incomparably greater and has no end.”
YES, HISTORY WILL VINDICATE HIM!