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Cuba does not need the European Union to survive and
develop
SPEECH GIVEN BY FIDEL CASTRO, PRESIDENT OF THE
REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE CEREMONY COMMEMORATING THE
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON THE MONCADA AND
CARLOS MANUEL DE CESPEDES GARRISONS, IN SANTIAGO DE
CUBA, JULY 26, 2003
It seems almost unreal to be here
in this same place 50 years after the events we are
commemorating today, which took place that morning
of July 26, 1953. I was 26 years old back then;
today, 50 more years of struggle have been added to
my life.
Way back then, I could not have
imagined for even a second that this evening, the
few participants in that action who are still alive
would be gathered here, together with those,
gathered here or listening to us all around the
country, who were influenced by or participated
directly in the Revolution; together with those who
were children or teenagers then; those who were not
even born yet and today are parents or even
grandparents; whole contingents of fully fledged men
and women, full of revolutionary and
internationalist glory and history; soldiers and
officers on active duty or in the reserves;
civilians who have accomplished veritable feats and
a seemingly infinite number of young combatants;
dedicated workers or enthusiastic students, as well
as some who are both at the same time; and with
millions of young pioneers who fill our imagination
of eternal dreamers. And once again, life has given
me the unique privilege of addressing all of you.
I am not speaking here on my own
behalf. I am doing so in the name of the heroic
efforts of our people and the thousands of
combatants who have given their lives throughout
half a century. I am also doing so with pride in the
great work they have succeeded in carrying out, the
obstacles they have overcome, and the impossible
things they have made possible.
In the terribly sad days that
followed the action, I explained before the court
where I was tried the reasons that led us to
undertake this struggle.
At that time, Cuba had a
population of less than six million people. Based on
the information available back then, I gave a raw
description, with approximate statistics, of the
situation facing our people 55 years after the U.S.
intervention. That intervention came when Spain had
already been militarily defeated by the tenacity and
heroism of the Cuban patriots, and it frustrated the
goals of our long war of independence on
establishing complete political and economic control
over Cuba in 1902.
The forceful imposition on our
first Constitution of the right of the U.S.
government to intervene in Cuba and the occupation
of national territory by U.S. military bases,
together with the total domination of our economy
and natural resources, reduced our national
sovereignty to practically nil.
I will quote just a few brief
paragraphs from my statements at that trial on
October 16, 1953:
"Six hundred thousand Cubans
without work."
"Five hundred thousand farm
laborers who work four months of the year and starve
the rest."
"Four hundred thousand industrial
workers and laborers whose retirement funds have
been embezzled, whose homes are wretched quarters,
whose wages pass from the hands of the boss to those
of the moneylender, whose life is endless work and
whose only rest is the tomb."
"Ten thousand young
professionals: medical doctors, engineers, lawyers,
veterinarians, school teachers, dentists,
pharmacists, journalists, painters, sculptors, etc.,
who finish school with their degrees anxious to work
and full of hopes, only to find themselves at a dead
end, with all doors closed to them."
"Eighty-five percent of the small
farmers in Cuba pay a rent and live under constant
threat of being evicted from the land they till."
"There are two hundred thousand
peasant families who do not have a single acre of
land to till to provide food for their starving
children."
"More than half of our most
productive land is in foreign hands."
"Nearly three hundred thousand
caballerías (over three million hectares) of
arable land owned by powerful interests remain
idle."
"Two million two hundred thousand
of our urban population pay rents that take between
one fifth and one third of their incomes."
"Two million eight hundred
thousand of our rural and suburban population lack
electricity."
"The little rural schoolhouses
are attended by a mere half of the school age
children who go barefoot, half-naked and
undernourished."
"Ninety per cent of the children
in the countryside are sick with parasites."
"Society is indifferent to the
mass murder of so many thousands of children who die
every year from lack of resources."
"From May to December over a
million people are jobless in Cuba, with a
population of five and a half million."
"When the head of a family works
only four months a year, how can he purchase
clothing and medicine for his children? They will
grow up with rickets, with not a single good tooth
in their mouths by the time they reach thirty; they
will have heard ten million speeches and will
finally die of poverty and disillusion. Public
hospitals, which are always full, accept only
patients recommended by some powerful politician
who, in return, demands the votes of the unfortunate
patient and his family so that Cuba may continue
forever in the same or worse condition."
Perhaps the most important
statement I made about the economic and social
situation was the following:
"The nation's future, the
solutions to its problems, cannot continue to depend
on the selfish interests of a dozen big businessmen
nor on the cold calculations of profits that ten or
twelve magnates draw up in their air-conditioned
offices. The country cannot continue begging on its
knees for miracles from a golden fleece, like the
one mentioned in The Old Testament destroyed by the
prophet's fury. A golden fleece cannot perform
miracles of any kind. […] Statesmen whose
statesmanship consists of preserving the status quo
and mouthing phrases like 'absolute freedom of
enterprise,' 'guarantees to investment capital' and
'law of supply and demand,' will not solve these
problems.
"In this present-day world,
social problems are not solved by spontaneous
generation."
These statements and ideas
described a whole underlying thinking regarding the
capitalist economic and social system that simply
had to be eliminated. They expressed, in essence,
the idea of a new political and social system for
Cuba, although it may have been dangerous to propose
such a thing in the midst of the sea of prejudices
and ideological venom spread by the ruling classes,
allied to the empire and imposed on a population
where 90% of the people were illiterate or
semi-literate, without even a sixth-grade education;
discontented, combative and rebellious, yet unable
to discern such an acute and profound problem. Since
then, I have held the most solid and firm conviction
that ignorance has been the most powerful and
fearsome weapon of the exploiters throughout all of
history.
Educating the people about the
truth, with words and irrefutable facts, has perhaps
been the fundamental factor in the grandiose feat
that our people have achieved.
THE STATISTICS LEAVE NO ROOM FOR
DOUBT
Those humiliating realities have
been crushed, despite blockades, threats,
aggressions, massive terrorism and the unrestrained
use of the most powerful media in history against
our Revolution.
The statistics leave no room for
doubt.
It has since been possible to
more precisely determine that the real population of
Cuba in 1953, according to the census taken that
year, was 5,820,000. The current population,
according to the census of September 2002, now in
the final phase of data processing, is 11,177,743.
The statistics tell us that in
1953, a total of 807,700 people were illiterate,
meaning an illiteracy rate of 22.3%, a figure that
undoubtedly increased during the seven years of
Batista’s tyranny. In the year 2002, the number was
a mere 38,183, or 0.5% of the population. The
Ministry of Education estimates that the real figure
is even lower, because in its thorough search for
people who have received literacy training in their
sectors or neighborhoods, by visiting homes, it has
been very difficult to locate them. Its estimates,
based on investigative methods even more precise
than a census, reveal a total of 18,000, for a rate
of 0.2%. Of course, neither figure includes those
who cannot learn to read or write because of mental
or physical disabilities.
In 1953, the number of people
with a junior or senior high school education was
139,984, or 3.2% of the population aged 10 and over.
In 2002, the number had risen to 5,733,243, which is
41 times greater, equivalent to 58.9% of the
population in the same age group.
The number of university
graduates grew from 53,490 in 1953 to 712,672 in
2002.
Unemployment, despite the fact
that the 1953 census was taken in the middle of the
sugar harvest – that is, the time of the highest
demand for labor – was 8.4% of the economically
active population. The 2002 census, taken in
September, revealed that the unemployment rate in
Cuba today is a mere 3.1%. And this was the case in
spite of the fact that the active labor force in
1953 amounted to only 2,059,659 persons, whereas in
2002 it had reached 4,427,028. What is most striking
is that next year, when unemployment is reduced to
less than 3%, Cuba will enter the category of
countries with full employment, something
inconceivable in any other country of Latin America
or even the so-called economically developed nations
in the midst of the current international economic
situation.
Without going into other areas of
noteworthy social advances, I will simply add that
between 1953 and 2002, the population almost
doubled, the number of homes tripled, and the number
of persons per home was reduced from 4.46 in 1953 to
3.16 in 2002; 75.4% of these homes were built after
the triumph of the Revolution.
Eighty-five percent of the people
own the houses they live in and do not pay taxes;
the remaining 15% pays a rather symbolic rent.
Of the total number of homes in
the country, the percentage of huts fell from 33.3%
in 1953 to 5.7% in 2002, while the percentage of
homes with electricity rose from 55.6% in 1953 to
95.5% in 2002.
These statistics, however, do not
tell the full story. Cold figures cannot express
quality, and it is in terms of quality that the most
truly spectacular advances have been achieved by
Cuba.
Today, by a wide margin, our
country occupies first place worldwide in the number
of teachers, professors and educators per capita.
The country’s active teaching staff reaches the
incredible figure of 290,574.
According to studies analyzing a
group of the main educational indicators, Cuba
likewise occupies first place, above the developed
countries. The maximum of 20 students per teacher in
elementary schools already attained, and the ratio
of one teacher per 15 students in junior high school
– grades seven, eight and nine – that will be
achieved this coming school year, are things that
could not even be dreamed of in the world’s
wealthiest, most developed countries.
The number of doctors stands at
67,079, of which 45,599 are specialists and 8,858
are in training. The number of nurses is 81,459,
while that of healthcare technicians is 66,339, for
a total of 214,877 doctors, nurses and technicians
in the healthcare sector.
Life expectancy is 76.15 years;
infant mortality is 6.5 for 1000 live births during
the first year of life, lower than any other Third
World country and even some of the developed
nations.
There are 35,902 physical
education, sports and recreation instructors, a
great many more than the total number of teachers
and professors in all areas of education before the
Revolution.
Cuba is now fully engaged in the
transformation of its own systems of education,
culture and healthcare, through which it has
attained so many achievements, in order to reach new
levels of excellence never even imagined, based on
the accumulated experience and new technological
possibilities.
These programs are now fully
underway, and it is estimated that the knowledge
currently acquired by children, teenagers and young
people will be tripled with each school year. At the
same time, within five years at most, average life
expectancy should rise to 80 years. The most
developed and wealthy countries will never attain a
ratio of 20 students in one elementary school
classroom, or one teacher to 15 students in high
school, or succeed in taking university education to
every municipality throughout the country to place
it within reach of the whole population, or in
offering the highest quality educational and
healthcare services to all of their citizens free of
charge. Their economic and political systems are not
designed for this.
In Cuba, the social and human
nightmare denounced in 1953, which gave rise to our
struggle, had been left behind just a few years
after the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Soon,
there were no longer campesinos, sharecroppers or
tenant farmers without land; all of them became the
owners of the land they worked. There were no longer
undernourished, barefoot, parasite-ridden children,
without schools or teachers, even if their schooling
took place beneath the shade of a tree. They no
longer died in massive numbers from hunger, disease,
from lack of resources or medical care. No longer
were the rural areas filled with unemployed men and
women. A new stage began in the creation and
construction of educational, healthcare,
residential, sports and other public facilities, as
well as thousands of kilometers of highways, dams,
irrigation channels, agricultural facilities,
electrical power plants and power lines,
agricultural, mechanical and construction material
industries, and everything essential for the
sustained development of the country.
The labor demand was so great
that for many years, large contingents of men and
women from the cities were mobilized to work in
agriculture, construction and industrial production,
which laid the foundations for the extraordinary
social development achieved by our country, which I
mentioned earlier.
I am talking as if the country
were an idyllic haven of peace, as if there had not
been over four decades of a rigorous blockade and
economic war, aggressions of all kinds, countless
acts of sabotage and terrorism, assassination plots
and an endless list of hostile actions against our
country, which I do not wish to emphasize in this
speech, so as to focus on essential ideas of the
present.
Suffice it to say that
defense-related tasks alone required the permanent
mobilization of hundreds of thousands of men and
women and large material resources.
This hard-fought battle served to
toughen our people, and taught them to fight
simultaneously on many different fronts, to do a lot
with very little, and never to be discouraged by
obstacles.
Decisive proof of this was their
heroic conduct, their tenacity and unshakably firm
stance when the socialist bloc disappeared and the
USSR splintered. The feat they accomplished then,
when no one in the world would have bet a cent on
the survival of the Revolution, will go down in
history as one of the greatest ever achieved. They
did it without violating a single one of the ethical
and humanitarian principles of the Revolution,
despite the howling and slander of our enemies.
The Moncada Program was
fulfilled, and over-fulfilled. For some time now, we
have been pursuing even greater and previously
unimaginable dreams.
Today, great battles are being
waged in the area of ideas, while confronting
problems associated with the world situation,
perhaps the most critical to ever face humanity. I
am obliged to devote a part of my speech to this.
IT IS TRULY OUTRAGEOUS TO ATTEMPT
TO PRESSURE AND INTIMIDATE CUBA
Several weeks ago, in early June,
the European Union adopted an infamous resolution,
drafted by a small group of bureaucrats, without
prior analysis by the ministers of foreign affairs
themselves, and promoted by an individual of
markedly fascist lineage and ideology: José María
Aznar. The adoption of this resolution constituted a
cowardly and repugnant action that added to the
hostility, threats and dangers posed for Cuba by the
aggressive policy of the hegemonic superpower.
They decided to eliminate or
reduce to a minimum what they define as
"humanitarian aid" to Cuba.
How much of this aid has been
provided in the past few years, which have been so
very difficult for the economy of our country? In
2000 the so-called humanitarian aid received from
the European Union was 3.6 million dollars; in 2001
it was 8.5 million; in 2002, 0.6 million. And this
was before the application of the just measures that
Cuba adopted, on fully legal grounds, to defend the
security of our people against serious threats of
imperialist aggression, something that no one is
unaware of.
As can be seen, the average was
4.2 million dollars annually, which was reduced to
less than a million in 2002.
What does this amount really mean
for a country that suffered the impact of three
hurricanes between November of 2001 and October of
2002, resulting in 2.5 billion USD in damages for
our country, combined with the devastating effect on
our revenues of the drop in tourism after the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the
United States, the drop in sugar and nickel prices
due to the international economic crisis, and the
considerable rise in oil prices owing to various
factors? What does it mean in comparison with the 72
billion USD in losses and damages resulting from the
economic blockade imposed by the U.S. government for
more than four decades, and with regards to which,
as a result of the extraterritorial and brutal
Helms-Burton Act that threatened the economic
interests of the European Union itself, the latter
reached a shameful "understanding" where it pledged
not to support its businesspersons in their dealings
with Cuba, in exchange for vague promises that the
Act would not be applied to its investments in the
United States?
Through their sugar subsidies,
the countries of the European Union have caused
billions of dollars in losses for the Cuban economy
throughout the entire duration of the U.S. blockade.
Cuba’s payments to the countries
of the European Union for goods imported over the
last five years total some 7.5 billion USD, or an
approximate average of 1.5 billion USD annually. On
the other hand, over the last five years, these
countries only purchased an average of 571 million
USD worth of imports from Cuba annually. Who is
actually helping whom?
Moreover, this much-touted
humanitarian aid usually comes with bureaucratic
delays and unacceptable conditions, such as creating
funds of equal value in national currency, at the
exchange rate of our currency exchange bureaus so as
to provide funding in national currency for other
projects where decisions were to be adopted with the
participation of third parties.
This means that if the European
Commission hands over one million dollars, it wants
the Cuban side to put up 27 million Cuban pesos in
exchange to fund other projects in national currency
for the same amount, and the execution of the
projects would involve the participation of European
non-governmental organizations in all
decision-making processes. This absurd condition,
which was never accepted, practically paralyzed the
flow of aid for a number of projects for three
years, and subsequently limited it considerably.
Between October 2000 and December
2002, the European Commission officially approved
four projects for an approximate total amount of
10.6 million USD (almost all of it for technical
assistance in administrative, legal and economic
matters) and only 1.9 million USD for food security.
None of this has been executed, due to delays caused
by the bureaucratic mechanisms of this institution.
Nevertheless, in all European Union reports, these
amounts appear as "approved for Cuba", although the
truth remains that until now not one cent of this
funding has reached our country.
It should be remembered that
additionally, in all of their reports on aid to
Cuba, the European Commission and member countries
include so-called indirect costs, such as airfares
on their own airlines, accommodation, travel
expenses, salaries and First World-standard
luxuries. The portion of the supposed aid monies
that actually directly benefit the projects is
whittled away by these expenditures, which do not
help the country in any way, but are nonetheless
calculated as part of their "generosity" for public
relations purposes.
It is truly outrageous to attempt
to pressure and intimidate Cuba with these measures.
Cuba, a small country, besieged
and blockaded, has not only been able to survive,
but also to help many countries of the Third World,
exploited throughout centuries by the European
colonial powers.
In the course of 40 years, over
40,000 young people from more than 100 Third World
countries, including 30,000 from Africa, have
graduated in Cuba as university-educated
professionals and qualified technical workers, at no
cost to them whatsoever, and our country has not
attempted to steal a single one of them, as the
countries of the European Union do with many of the
brightest minds. Throughout this time, on the other
hand, over 52,000 Cuban doctors and health care
workers, who have saved millions of lives, have
provided their services voluntarily and free of
charge in 93 countries.
Even though the country has still
not completely left behind the special period, last
year, 2002, there were already more than 16,000
young people from throughout the Third World
undertaking higher studies in our country, free of
charge, including over 8,000 being trained as
doctors. If we were to calculate what they would
have to pay for this education in the United States
and Europe, the result would be the equivalent of a
donation of more than 450 million USD every year. If
you include the 3,700 doctors providing their
services abroad in the most far-flung and
inhospitable locations, you would have to add almost
200 million USD more, based on the annual salary
paid to doctors by the WHO. All in all approximately
700 million dollars.
These things that our country can
do, not on the basis of its financial resources, but
rather the extraordinary human capital created by
the Revolution, should serve as an example to the
European Union, and make it feel ashamed of the
measly and ineffective aid it offers these
countries.
While Cuban soldiers were
shedding their blood fighting the forces of
apartheid, the countries of the European Union were
exchanging billions of dollars worth of trade every
year with the South African racists, and through
their investments, reaping the benefits of the
cheap, semi-slave labor of the South African people.
This past July 21, less than a
week ago, the European Union, in a much-trumpeted
meeting to review its shameful common position on
Cuba, ratified the infamous measures adopted against
Cuba on June 5 and declared that political dialogue
should continue ‘in order to more efficiently pursue
the goals of the common position’.
The government of Cuba, out of a
basic sense of dignity, relinquishes any aid or
remnant of humanitarian aid that may be offered by
the European Commission and the governments of the
European Union. Our country would only accept this
kind of aid, no matter how modest, from regional or
local autonomous governments, non-governmental
organizations, and solidarity movements, which do
not impose political conditions on Cuba.
THE EUROPEAN
UNION SHOULD MODERATE ITS ARROGANCE AND PREPOTENCY
The European Union is fooling
itself when it states that political dialogue should
continue. The sovereignty and dignity of this people
are not open to discussion with anyone, much less
with a group of former colonial powers historically
responsible for the slave trade, the plunder and
even extermination of entire peoples, and the
underdevelopment and poverty suffered today by
billions of human beings whom they continue to
plunder through unequal trade, the exploitation and
exhaustion of their natural resources, an unpayable
foreign debt, the brain drain, and other means.
The European Union lacks the
necessary freedom to take part in a fully
independent dialogue. Its commitments to NATO and
the United States, and its conduct in Geneva, where
it acts in league with those who want to destroy
Cuba, render it incapable of engaging in a
constructive exchange. Countries from the former
socialist community will soon join the European
Union, albeit the opportunistic leaders who govern
them, more loyal to the interests of the United
States than to those of Europe, will serve as Trojan
horses of the superpower within the EU. They are
full of hatred towards Cuba, which they left on its
own and cannot forgive for having endured and proven
that socialism is capable of achieving a society a
thousand times more just and humane that the rotten
system they have adopted.
When the European Union was
created, we applauded it, because it was the only
intelligent and useful thing they could do to
counterbalance the hegemony of their powerful
military ally and economic competitor. We also
applauded the euro as something beneficial for the
worldwide economy in the face of the suffocating and
almost absolute power of the U.S. dollar.
But, on the other hand, when in
an arrogant and calculated move in hope of
reconciliation with the masters of the world, it
insults Cuba, it does not deserve the slightest
consideration and respect from our people.
Any dialogue should take place in
public, in international forums, and should address
the grave problems threatening the world.
We shall not attempt to discuss
the principles of the European Union or Disunion. In
Cuba it will find a country that neither obeys
masters, nor accepts threats, nor begs for charity,
nor lacks the courage to speak the truth.
They need someone to tell them a
few truths, because there are many who flatter them
out of self-interest, or are simply spellbound by
the splendor of Europe’s past glories. Why do they
not criticize Spain or help it to improve the
disastrous state of its educational system, which
brings shame to Europe with its banana republic
levels? Why do they not come to the aid of the
United Kingdom, to prevent drugs from wiping out
this proud nation? Why do they not analyze and help
themselves, when they so obviously need it?
The European Union would do well
to speak less and do more for the genuine human
rights of the immense majority of the peoples of the
world; to act with intelligence and dignity in the
face of those who do not even want to leave it the
crumbs of the resources of the planet they aspire to
conquer; to defend its cultural identity against the
invasion and penetration of the powerful
transnationals of the U.S. entertainment industry;
to take care of its unemployed, who number tens of
millions; to educate its functionally illiterate; to
give humane treatment to immigrants; to guarantee
true social security and medical care for all of its
citizens, as Cuba does; to moderate its consumerist
and wasteful habits; to guarantee that all of its
members contribute 1% of their GDP, as some already
do, to support development in the Third World or at
least alleviate, without bureaucracy or demagoguery,
the terrible situation of poverty, poor health and
illiteracy; to compensate Africa and other regions
for the damage wreaked throughout centuries by
slavery and colonialism; to grant independence to
the colonial enclaves still maintained in this
hemisphere, from the Caribbean to the Falkland
Islands, without denying them the economic aid they
deserve for the historical damage and colonial
exploitation they have suffered.
To a list that would be endless,
I could add:
To undertake a genuine policy
supporting human rights with actual deeds and not
just hollow words; to investigate what really
happened with the Basques murdered by GAL and demand
that responsibility be taken; to tell the world how
scientist Dr. David Kelly was brutally murdered, or
how he was led to commit suicide; to respond at some
point to the questions I posed to them in Rio de
Janeiro regarding the new strategic conception of
NATO as it relates to the countries of Latin
America; to firmly and resolutely oppose the
doctrine of preemptive strikes against any country
in the world, proclaimed by the most formidable
military power in all of history, for you all know
the consequences of that for humanity.
To slander and impose sanctions
on Cuba is not only unfair and cowardly but also
ridiculous. Thanks to the great and selfless human
capital it has created, which it lacks, Cuba does
not need the aid of the European Union to survive,
develop and achieve what it will never achieve.
The European Union should temper
its arrogance and prepotency.
For decades, our people have
confronted powers much greater than those possessed
by the European Union; new forces are emerging
everywhere, with tremendous vigor. The peoples are
tired of guardians, interference and plunder,
imposed through mechanisms that benefit the most
developed and wealthy at the cost of the growing
poverty and ruin of others. Some of these peoples
are already advancing with unrestrained force, and
others will join them. Among them there are giants
awakening. The future belongs to these peoples.
In the name of 50 years of
resistance and relentless struggle in the face of a
force many times greater than theirs, and of the
social and human achievements attained by Cuba
without any help whatsoever from the countries of
the European Union, I invite them to reflect calmly
on their errors, and to avoid being carried away by
outbursts of anger or Euro-narcissistic inebriation.
Neither Europe nor the United
States will have the last word on the future of
Humanity!
I could repeat here something
similar to what I said in the spurious court where I
was tried and sentenced for the struggle we
initiated five decades ago today, but this time it
will not be me who says it; it will be declared and
foretold by a people that has carried out a
profound, transcendental and historic Revolution,
and has succeeded in defending it:
Condemn me. It does not matter.
The peoples will have the last word!
Eternal glory to those who have
fallen during 50 years of struggle!
Eternal glory to the people that
turned its dreams into a reality!
Venceremos!
Translated by ESTI
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