BY OLYMPIA NEWTON  
“We have shared trenches in the fight against colonialism, apartheid, disease, and illiteracy,” Raúl Castro, acting president of Cuba, told representatives of more than 50 heads of state September 15 at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana. “We have received support [from you] in the just endeavor to preserve the sovereignty and independence attained by our country following many years of bloody and courageous battle.”

The Non-Aligned Movement was founded in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. It brings together 118 states, largely from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, that are oppressed by imperialism. At this year’s summit, Cuba took over the revolving presidency of the movement from Malaysia.

“Non-Alignment…involves the struggle to change the current world economic order,” Castro said. “This constitutes a system based on exploitation and plundering, the tendency of which is to propagate underdevelopment and increase the gap between a small group of rich countries, home to just 20 percent of the world population, and a vast periphery comprising our countries and home to 80 percent of humankind.”

Among those attending this year’s summit were the presidents of Iran, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, as well as the head of north Korea’s parliament. The U.S. government declined to send a representative as an observer to the meeting.

The summit adopted a resolution condemning the recent Israeli war on Lebanon and defending Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy, while encouraging Tehran to cooperate with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency.

“We defend the right of our countries to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Castro said. “Let us call for a general and complete disarmament, including nuclear weapons…. Let us denounce the hypocrisy of the U.S. government, which while supporting Israel’s bid to increase their nuclear store, is threatening Iran in an attempt to prevent the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”
 
 
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