We
will not rush into judging the new U.S. administration; we will not throw the first stone
Speech made by President Fidel
Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, at
the rally held in San José de las Lajas on January 27, 2001, "Year of the Victorious
Revolution in the New Millennium."
(Translation of the transcript of the
Council of State)
Residents of Havana;
Fellow compatriots all over Cuba;
Humanity has entered one of the most
complicated periods in its history.
For us, the new millennium began under the
clamor of an intense and prolonged struggle.
The coming years will be decisive not only
for Cuba, but for all the peoples that inhabit the planet.
During the century that recently ended, many
years were lost to wars, the dividing up of the world, plundering and both collective and
individual exploitation of the immense majority of human beings, in a period when we still
had plenty of time to foresee and confront many of the grave problems that burden the
world today. The enormous advances made by science and technology were already within
reach. At the beginning of the 20th century there were still abundant virgin lands,
forests, waters and mineral deposits, which could be used in a rational and sustainable
way. The air and the oceans were not saturated with polluting molecules and chemical
wastes to the incredible extent that they are today.
World policies and economies carried on in
such a blind and chaotic way that concepts such as the environment, biological diversity,
preservation of nature, desertification, holes in the ozone layer and changes of climate
were hardly known or mentioned until a few decades ago. Under an anarchic and chaotic
production system, which has today turned into a hegemonic and unipolar imperial dominion,
enormous amounts of resources have been squandered, causing considerable damage to nature
and creating absurd and unsustainable models of consumption, veritable impossible dreams
for the vast majority of those who inhabit our planet today and those who must inhabit it
in the future.
In barely a century, a great part of the
reserves of hydrocarbons, which nature took hundreds of millions of years to create, have
been consumed and launched into the air or the oceans as waste gases and by-products. The
only standard was to seek profits at all costs, without any ethics or moral principles,
and that has already left a devastating imprint for present and future generations.
On pondering about what is going on in the
world, it is impossible not to think that the advances made in political development,
social justice and peaceful coexistence have been slight in comparison with the
extraordinary technical and scientific achievements realized.
During this time, the world population has
increased to more than six billion inhabitants, two thirds of whom live in intolerable
backwardness and poverty. In a further 50 years, no fewer than three billion additional
people will be sharing this already polluted planet. Today, 1.8 billion members of the
population are children and adolescents under the age of 16, like so many of those we see
here today, like fresh flowers, full of hope and joy. Around five billion people will be
born over the next five decades. The great majority of those who are under 20 today will
still be alive at that time.
Is there any task more urgent and immediate
than preserving the minimum conditions for life necessary for all those human beings,
whether they be children, adolescents, young people, adults or senior citizens?
It will not be an exhausted and decrepit
world order that will save humanity and that will create indispensable conditions for a
decent and dignified life around the world. True equality in opportunities and true social
justice for human beings of all nations, ethnic backgrounds, cultures and religions cannot
continue to be postponed in any corner of the world. It is not an ideological question; it
is a question of life or death for the human species.
It is obvious that nothing can be expected
from those who wield the power and privilege of hegemony. The neoliberal globalization
that they have imposed is unsustainable. Already the first symptoms of crisis are being
observed and they will become ever more profound, since the real economy has been
transformed into a speculative economy that includes almost all daily financial operations
taking place around the world.
The contradictions among the principal
centers of economic power will increase and the struggle for markets will become ever
harsher. The historical objectives of any system of production have been turned upside
down. The economy does not function and grow in order to create goods and services;
instead, goods and services are consumed so that the economy will function and grow.
However, there is not the slightest
indication that those who possess great power and world resources will have the capacity
to understand that reality and, even if they understand it, they will not have the will or
the real power to transform it. Today the multinationals consist of institutions that have
greater capacity, greater riches and more power than all the governments put together. The
more they continue to merge with one another and the more control they exert over
finances, production and the world economy, motivated by the blind and uncontrollable laws
of the system that generated them, the more the crisis will accelerate.
The most probable course of events is that
in a relatively short time, there will finally be such a profound crisis that it will lead
to the ruin of most of the world’s nations; poverty and starvation will multiply; and
development possibilities will be diminished for the poor countries that make up the
immense majority of the world.
Humanity’s experiences thus far show
that solutions do not emerge from cold analysis, rational thinking, foresight or the most
basic common sense. It is distressing, but history has shown that only great crises lead
to great solutions.
A different world order that is fairer and
more inclusive, that is capable of sustaining the natural environment and safeguarding the
planet’s life is the only possible alternative. For that, more than ever, the
species’ survival instincts must make themselves felt with all their force.
As part of that world’s problem, our
small country is making efforts to contribute our little bit towards the future we dream
about. Destiny dictated that the liberating revolution started in our country in 1868, for
reasons of geographical location and very special historical circumstances, today occupies
an honorable place in the political battle that the peoples of the world are obliged to
fight for their existence and their national identity, the right to sustainable economic
and social development and a world order that is fair, rational and inclusive.
On reaching the 42nd anniversary of its
triumph, and as it victoriously enters the new millennium, the Cuban Revolution is
politically stronger today than ever before and our people have reached the highest level
of unity and revolutionary consciousness in all their history.
A new administration has just come to power
in the United States, in a rather irregular manner. From what is known of the past records
and modes of thinking of its principal members, along with the public declarations made by
many of them both before and after the unusual electoral process in which the
Cuban-American terrorist mafia played a decisive role in the current president’s
questionable victory, an atmosphere of mistrust and fear in world public opinion, almost
without exception, has been created.
Cuba could be a target for the frustration,
resentment and hatred of the most extreme and reactionary sectors, who are currently
euphoric over the rise to power of a new government team with which they maintain wide
links. However, our country and our brave people, who have faced extreme risks with honor
and have heroically resisted hostility, attacks, a blockade and an economic war for 42
years, look forward to the future with more calmness, serenity and confidence than ever.
Nothing can disturb our dream.
Although we don’t expect any
rectification to be made by this administration, we will not rush into judging it; we will
not throw the first stone and in this way we will preserve the same high morals in our
politics and methods that we have always had. We will carefully observe every step it
takes and every word it utters. Absolutely nothing will take us by surprise, catch us off
guard, or find us unprepared in the economic and political terrain, or in any other.
The Cuba that is entering the new millennium
is not the same inexperienced, unarmed and almost illiterate Cuba that existed in 1959.
Today there is not one single illiterate person and now there are two university graduates
for every person who completed sixth grade back in those times. There are millions of men
and women who have learned how to use arms, hundreds of thousands who have completed
internationalist missions, tens of thousands of experienced cadres have been formed during
the struggle. Our people have high levels of education and of general and political
culture, the whole nation has become one big school. We have learned how to resist and
overcome when faced with the most inconceivable circumstances. There is no other people as
well prepared, who are less dependent on trade and economic relations with the country
that has established itself as the world’s richest and most indispensable to other
countries, that is freer to expose truths and fight for exploited peoples’ rights in
international forums and tribunals.
Cuba will not waver in continuing to unleash
the battle of ideas in which we have been deeply involved for the last 14 months,
demanding respect for our rights, the end of the murderous and genocidal laws that have
been applied against the country, and fulfilling the sacred oath the people have sworn to
their nation.
The impressive march of more than one
million Havanans on March 19; the four roundtable discussions which between Tuesday and
Friday denounced and completely unmasked the subversive actions against our country; the
200,000 schoolchildren, students, young people, men and women gathered here today, and the
200,000 who will meet tomorrow in Holguín’s Calixto García Square on the
anniversary of the birth of our glorious Martí, provide more than sufficient faith in the
state of mind, the spirit of combat and the self confidence with which today, more than in
any other moment in their dignified history, our people are ready to face the future and
complete their duty to their country and to humanity.
Venceremos! (PROLONGED APPLAUSE)
(Comments made after the speech)
I spoke here about 200,000 people. That was
the approximate figure that had been calculated and published, but the crowd I see here is
lost over the horizon.
In reality I would say that there are
sufficient people to fill a place like the Latin American Stadium, three or four times
over. Calculating very conservatively, there must be more than 300,000 here. (APPLAUSE)
We’re used to making calculations, we
know how many people there are per square meter in a crowd and I can assure you that what
I see from here—and perhaps you will see for yourselves this afternoon on
television—is something that is truly impressive. (SHOUTS OF "FIDEL! FIDEL!
FIDEL!"). I was given that figure by Sáez, but what I have seen is much more
impressive than what he communicated to me. It is irrefutable proof of the state of mind
and of the spirit of combat I spoke about a few minutes ago.
Congratulations to the people of Havana
firstly, the people of the two Havana provinces who are present here today.
Congratulations to the organizers, to the
leaders of the Young Communist League and the Party and, in a very special way, to Comrade
Sáez for this extraordinary show of organization and revolutionary spirit, that millions
of Cubans are seeing this morning throughout the length and breadth of the island, and
perhaps some foreign television broadcasters will be able to show it to some of the other
peoples of the world.
Many thanks, comrades.
Congratulations to everybody!
Patria o muerte!
Socialismo o muerte!
Venceremos!
(OVATION)
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