We are not interested in the votes against the blockade of those who hypocritically support the arguments with which the empire attempts to justify its crimes

Speech given by Fidel Castro Ruz at the Plenary Session of the 105th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, held in the International Conference Center, Havana, April 5, 2001, Year of the Victorious Revolution in the New Millennium

Due to time constraints, we are publishing the following text as it was written, without including the reflections, additions and comments made during its presentation.

(Translation of the transcript of the Council of State)

Madame President and other members of the Presidency;

Distinguished Parliamentarians:

When I spoke at the 68th Inter-Parliamentary Conference in 1981, after mentioning a number of figures and statistics that illustrated the growing gap separating the developed, wealthy world from the countries that were formerly its colonies and domains, victims of relentless plunder for centuries, I made a statement that might have seemed excessive: "If the present is tragic, the future looks dismal."

Let nobody try to fool or confuse us with the new terminology spawned by the hypocritical propaganda of specialists in deception and lies, working in the service of those who have subjected humanity to an increasingly unequal and unfair economic and political order, one that is completely devoid of solidarity or democracy or even an iota of respect for the minimum rights owed to human beings.

I was not exaggerating when I made that statement. The Third World’s foreign debt, which totaled some 500 billion dollars in 1981, had reached 2.1 trillion dollars in the year 2000. The share corresponding to Latin America was 255.188 billion dollars in 1981; by 2000, it was 750.855 billion.

The servicing of the Third World debt, which amounted to 44.2 billion USD in 1981, had reached 347.4 billion USD in 2000.

The per capita gross national product (GDP) in the developed countries was 8,070 USD in 1978. Twenty years later, in 1998, per capita GDP in those countries had grown to 25,870 USD. In the meantime, the per capita GDP in the countries with the lowest incomes, which was 200 USD in 1978, had risen to only 530 USD by the year 1998. The abysmal gap had grown even wider.

The number of undernourished people, almost all of whom live in Third World countries, rose from 570 million in 1981 to 800 million in 2000.

The number of unemployed grew from 1.103 billion in 1981 to 1.6 billion in 2000.

Today, the wealthiest 20% of the world’s population accounts for 86% of all spending on private consumption, while the poorest 20% accounts for only 1.3%.

In the wealthy countries, per capita electricity consumption is 10 times higher than in all the poor countries combined.

According to United Nations figures, in 1960 the income of 20% of the world population living in the wealthiest nations was 30 times that of the poorest nations; by 1997 it was 74 times greater.

Studies carried out by the FAO between 1987 and 1998 reveal that two out of every five children in the underdeveloped world suffer from growth retardation, while one out of every three is underweight for his or her age.

There are 1.3 billion poor people in the Third World, that is, one out of every three lives in poverty. The World Bank, in its latest report on poverty, predicts that the number of people living in absolute poverty could reach 1.5 billion as the new millennium begins.

The wealthiest 25% of the world’s population consumes 45% of all meat and fish; the poorest 25% consumes only 5%.

In sub-Saharan Africa, infant mortality rate is 107 per 1000 live births during the first year of life, and 173 per thousand live births before the age of five. In South Asia, the rates are 76 and 114, respectively. In the case of Latin America, according to UNICEF, infant mortality before the age of five is 39 per 1000 live births.

More than 800 million adults remain illiterate.

More than 130 million school-age children are growing up without access to basic education.

The truth, which cannot be hidden, is that there are currently over 800 million people suffering chronic hunger while lacking access to health care services, which is why it is estimated that 507 million people living in the Third World today will not live past 40 years of age. South of the Sahara, almost 30% of the population will die before they are 40.

In 1981, climate change was seldom mentioned, and very few people had ever even heard the word AIDS. Today these are two harrowing threats that have been added to the calamities already mentioned.

In 1981, the world population had surpassed four billion; 75% of them living in Third World countries. Today, in 2001, there are already more than 6.1 billion of us on the planet. In just 20 years, the world population grew by 1.7 billion, more than it had grown since the emergence of the human species until the beginning of the 20th century.

In short, the world income share of the countries that now constitute the Third World has shrunk so much that a century and a half ago it was 56%, while today it is only 15%. This is truly a peculiar way of expressing the real meaning for the Third World and the immense majority of humanity of capitalism and imperialism, with their crises, chaos, economic anarchy and selfish and inhuman value system.

 THIS SMALL AND BLOCKADED COUNTRY HAS SUCCEEDED IN HONORABLY WITHSTANDING ALL OF THE BLOWS DEALT TO IT BY THE GREATEST SUPERPOWER IN HISTORY

Then, after four centuries of Spanish colonial domination and 57 years as a United States colony, our country, a poor nation, has been subjected to a brutal economic blockade from the very moment that, for the first time in history, we achieved our double freedom, for we freed ourselves from both the tyranny and the empire.

This small and blockaded Third World country, against which the United States has used all of its resources in terms of subversion, destabilization, sabotage, pirate attacks, hundreds of plots to assassinate the Revolution’s leaders, a dirty war, economic warfare, biological warfare, a military invasion using personnel recruited, paid, supplied, escorted by U.S. naval units and directed by the U.S. government, and ultimately the very real threat of nuclear extermination, has succeeded in honorably withstanding all of the blows dealt to it by the greatest superpower in history, a Rome multiplied by a thousand, given its political, economic, military and technological power.

This merciless economic war and the blockade have now lasted 42 years. In addition to this, we have endured 10 years of a special period, after the collapse of the socialist camp and disintegration of the Soviet Union left us devoid of markets and sources of supplies. And it was under these circumstances that the United States even further tightened the blockade with the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts. No country has ever withstood such a trial.

II PART