Vol. 75/No. 9      March 7, 2011

Below is an excerpt from How Far We Slaves Have Come!, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for March. It contains the speeches presented by Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro at a July 26, 1991, rally in Matanzas, Cuba, celebrating the 38th anniversary of the opening of the Cuban Revolution. Beginning in November 1975 and over the next 15 years, the Cuban government, in response to a request from the government of Angola, sent hundreds of thousands of volunteer troops to that country to help defeat the invading armed forces of South Africa’s apartheid regime.

In March 1988 South African troops suffered a decisive military defeat at Cuito Cuanavale, forcing them to withdraw from Angola. The outcome contributed to independence for Namibia, freeing Mandela from prison after 27 years, the unbanning of the African National Congress in South Africa, and the defeat of the racist apartheid system. Copyright © 1991 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

BY FIDEL CASTRO  
Black people of South Africa not only have had to confront apartheid, they have also had to confront the most brutal inequality and political repression, and they have had to confront the cruelest economic exploitation. They have had to confront these three great tragedies. Because of this I believe there can be no greater cause in our era than the one headed by the ANC [African National Congress], Comrade Mandela, and the many other capable and brilliant leaders of that organization, several of whom we have had the privilege of meeting here in our country.

Today those in the West are trying to ingratiate themselves with Africa, trying to ingratiate themselves with those who hate apartheid. But the fact is that apartheid was created by the West, by the capitalist and imperialist West.

The real truth is that the West supported apartheid; they supplied it with technology, countless billions in investments, and vast quantities of arms; and they also gave it political support. No, imperialism did not break ties with apartheid, it did not blockade apartheid; imperialism maintained and continues to maintain excellent relations with apartheid. It was Cuba that had to be blockaded,¹ Cuba, where the vestiges of apartheid—that is, racial discrimination—disappeared a long time ago. Cuba had to be blockaded as punishment for its revolution, as punishment for its social justice—but never apartheid. They took some half-hearted economic measures against apartheid, which did not have the least significance… .

[W]e have our dignity and our independence, our bravery and our heroism, even in the difficult times in which we live—and we will have them even if times become yet more difficult.

What are they going to tell us about? About the past? About capitalism? [Shouts of “No!”] About private property? About large landed estates? About corporations? [Shouts of “No!”] About imperialism? About neocolonialism? Do we want to hear about all that garbage? [Shouts of “No!”] What else can I call all that?

So what are they going to tell us about? About the days when there were beggars?

What are they going to tell us about? About the days of prostitution? [Shouts of “No!”] About the systematic plunder of the public treasury? About cheap politicking? About the merciless exploitation of the workers? About landless peasants, or peasants paying rent, a percentage of what they produced?

What are they going to tell us about? About that society of racial discrimination? Where in some provincial capitals whites walked on one side and Blacks on the other, on different streets, or on different paths in the park. I don’t remember whether it was in Santa Clara or Villa Clara where these things went on; I can imagine the exclusive spots here. It took different forms.

What are they going to tell us about? About discrimination? About prostitution and all the vices of that society? About barefoot children begging and not attending school? About illiteracy? About women working as domestic servants and in open or de facto prostitution? [Shouts of “No!”] They better not come to us with stories about their capitalism, their market economies, and all that madness, because we already know about that, and I think we remember it quite well… .

We can never experience a tighter blockade and more suffering than what our ancestors suffered, because today we are owners of the land; now it belongs only to the people. Today we are owners of the factories; now they belong only to the people. The people own the means of production and everything else. And we will solve our problems, we will solve them however we must. But we will never return to the slave barracks! [Shouts and applause]

They may threaten us with their sophisticated weapons. Perhaps they don’t believe they are dealing with a courageous and intelligent people that knows how to fight. And if we fought fourteen thousand kilometers away—however far it was—if we got into the trap at Cuito Cuanavale that the enemies had created and that turned into a trap for them, then here, on our coasts, in our countryside, in our mountains, in our cities, in our canefields, in our ricefields, in our swamps, we will fight as we fought at Cuito Cuanavale. [Applause] We will fight even harder than we fought at Cuito Cuanavale, and we will resist for more years than we resisted in Angola, until victory. [Prolonged applause]

This is what we can say about the sophisticated weapons of imperialism. And if we weren’t among decent people, we could tell them what they should do with their weapons. [Laughter and applause]

Our army has millions of men and women ranging from teenagers to the elderly. [Applause and shouts of “For sure, Fidel, give the Yankees hell!”]

What are they going to frighten us with, their so-called smart weapons? We are smarter than those weapons and smarter than those who own them. And our weapons can’t be underestimated either, above all because behind every one of them is a patriot and a revolutionary.