US moves against Cuba ‘crash against our revolutionary spirit’

Cuba’s Internationalist Foreign Policy 1975-80 by Fidel Castro is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for September. This excerpt is from “We Do Not Negotiate Principles,” a speech Castro gave to the National Assembly of People’s Power in Havana, Dec. 24, 1977, on relations between Cuba and all five U.S. presidents since the revolution in 1959. Forty years — and five more administrations: Reagan’s, Bush I’s, Clinton’s, Bush II’s, and Obama’s — came and went, all with the same aims, to overthrow Cuba’s socialist revolution. The demands to end Washington’s economic war against Cuba and get the U.S. out of Guantánamo are still being fought for today. And the revolution is still standing, as Castro, the central leader of the revolution who died last year, said in 1977. Copyright © 1981 by Pathfinder Press.
Reprinted by permission.

BY FIDEL CASTRO

How are our relations with the United States coming along? Well, they’re progressing somewhat. Naturally, first of all, imperialism has been dealt a great number of blows of all kinds, such as Vietnam, Watergate, and others. Its economic blockade and its attacks against us have been discredited and are untenable before the eyes of the world. The imperialists have no moral basis from which to defend that kind of policy against us.

Truthfully speaking, we’ve emerged victorious from this struggle.

Soon, very soon, the revolution will be nineteen, and we could well say that it is still attending kindergarten — kindergarten! [Applause] It is still of kindergarten age. All the imperialists’ efforts to destroy the revolution crashed ignominiously against the firm resolve of our people, the revolutionary spirit of our people, the dignity of our people, the heroism of our people. They underestimated the Cuban people and thought they could easily toy with, threaten, destroy, and demoralize them. All the Yankee might — to put it bluntly — wasn’t enough to achieve their aims. Five administrations maneuvered against us: Eisenhower’s, Kennedy’s, Johnson’s, Nixon’s, and Ford’s. Five presidents came and went, but the revolution kept standing! [Applause]

There’s a new administration in power. As we’ve said before, there’ve been some positive gestures. …

But let’s look at the essentials: what’s the essential thing? The blockade. The blockade is still on. What’s immoral about this United States policy is that they’re trying to use the blockade as a weapon for negotiation to deal with us.

And speaking of gestures, we have leveled no blockade on the United States, so we can’t reciprocate by lifting a blockade against the United States that is nonexistent, and we hope that this National Assembly will not level an economic blockade on the United States. There’s none. They’re the ones who must make the gesture of lifting the blockade!

We can’t make the gesture of giving back a piece of the territory of Florida because no piece of Florida is occupied by our soldiers. However, there’s a piece of our territory occupied by their soldiers. [Applause] …

What moral basis can the United States have to speak about Cuban troops in Africa? What moral basis can a country have whose troops are on every continent, that has, for instance, over twenty military bases in the Philippines, dozens of bases in Okinawa, in Japan, in Asia, in Turkey, in Greece, in the FRG [Federal Republic of Germany], in Europe, in Spain, in Italy, and everywhere else? What moral basis can the United States have to use the argument of our troops being in Africa when their own troops are stationed by force on Panamanian territory, occupying a portion of that country? What moral basis can the United States have to speak about our troops in Africa when their own troops are stationed right here on our own national territory, at the Guantánamo naval base? [Applause] …

Historically, it’ll always be on record that while our role is a highly honorable role, the role played by imperialism is a shameful one. Since the African peoples trust us, they have requested our cooperation. And not only are we helping the governments of Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and other governments in Africa, but we’re also helping the liberation movements in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. [Applause] We’re helping them now and we’ll go on helping them! [Applause] And no matter what they do, the imperialists have already lost the battle in southern Africa.

Ours is a transparent, clear policy. We do not negotiate principles; we can’t be intimidated by any campaigns or any pressure whatsoever. …

If we are ever going to have relations, these relations must be based on mutual respect and equality, and we are ready to have them, knowing full well that we have and will continue to have two radically different regimes.

Aside from this, we learned what human rights are when we eradicated crimes and economic and social injustice committed every hour, minute, and second; when we eradicated gambling, prostitution, discrimination, begging, and unemployment; when we created the people’s power, the true power of the people; when we laid the foundations of this beautiful revolution, in which there has been complete identification between the masses, the party, and its leadership. This indeed is democracy; this assembly, indeed, represents democracy; these discussions, indeed, are democratic. [Applause] What they have in the United States is a government of the oligarchy, by the oligarchy, and for the oligarchy, whereas our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, the government Lincoln spoke of. In the United States they have a government of the bourgeoisie, by the bourgeoisie, and for the bourgeoisie, whereas in our country we have a government of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers. [Applause]

Regarding political matters, the United States would have much to learn from us. We, however, have nothing to learn, politically, from the United States. They belong to a class society, to the political prehistory of humanity, and we to the new history of humanity, for, as [Karl] Marx stated, when the regime of exploitation of man by man disappears, the real history of human society will begin. [Applause]

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