Below are excerpts from a Nov. 25, 1994, speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro at the closing session of an international solidarity conference in Havana held during the darkest days of economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Translation is by the Militant.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, our country lost 70% of its imports, and I wonder if any other country in the world could have withstood such a blow, and I wonder how many days it could have held out — a week, 15 days or a month.
How could we have done it without the people’s support for the revolution? How could we have truly resisted without our political system, without our democratic system, without the direct participation of the people in all fundamental issues — which is what true democracy is all about? …
This situation led us to the Special Period.
We had been carrying out excellent plans before the socialist catastrophe struck — excellent plans in every sense; we were carrying out a Process of Rectification of Errors and Negative Tendencies — of both old and new mistakes, of both old and new trends — and while we were working extremely hard, that whole debacle began to unfold, leading us to what we might call a double blockade.
Because as soon as the disintegration of the socialist camp and the USSR occurred, and even before the collapse of the USSR, the United States was exerting strong pressure to halt trade between those countries and Cuba. And when the USSR finally collapsed, the U.S. exerted immense pressure — with considerable success — to cut off trade and economic relations between the former socialist bloc countries and the USSR, and Cuba.
So our country found itself caught in a double blockade, and yet the homeland had to be saved, the revolution had to be saved, and socialism had to be saved. We call it saving the achievements of socialism, because we cannot say at this time that we are building socialism, but rather we are defending what we have done; we are defending the gains we have made — a fundamental objective in a world that had changed radically. …
And under these conditions — which are more difficult than they have ever been — we must save the homeland, save the revolution, and save the achievements of socialism. What measures should be taken in this world as it exists today — a world that, of course, will not exist forever? …
This is the world we have; it is the world with which we must trade and exchange our products, and in which we must survive; that is why we must adapt to this world and take the measures we deem essential, with a very clear goal in mind.
This does not mean that everything we are doing is solely the result of the new situation; we had already been making changes, and even the idea of introducing foreign capital predated the Special Period: we had realized that certain areas, certain sectors, could not be developed because we didn’t have available either the capital or the technology to do so, since the socialist countries did not have them.
But we have had to open up further; we have had to make what we might call a fairly broad opening to foreign investment. That was explained here: under the conditions in Cuba today — without capital, without technology and without markets — we could not develop; hence, all the measures, changes and reforms we are implementing in one way or another are aimed at safeguarding our independence, safeguarding the revolution — because the revolution is the source of everything.
Safeguarding the achievements of socialism, which means preserving socialism or the right to continue building socialism when circumstances permit.
We make changes, but without renouncing our independence and sovereignty; we make changes, but without renouncing the true principle of government of the people, by the people and for the people — which, translated into revolutionary language, is government of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.
It is not a government of the bourgeoisie, by the bourgeoisie and for the bourgeoisie; not a government of the capitalists, by the capitalists and for the capitalists; not a government of the transnational corporations, by the transnational corporations and for the transnational corporations; not a government of imperialism, by imperialism and for imperialism.
That is the key difference, regardless of the changes and reforms we undertake. If we were ever to give this up, we would have given up the very reason for the revolution’s existence.