Canada has no Place on the U.N.S.C

Central Executive Committee, June 2020

The YCL-LJC condemns the Canadian States bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. As a Pan-Canadian and working class internationalist organisation we will always remain committed to building the movement for peace and solidarity. Since our 27th Central Convention unmasking the Canadian States growing role in NATO Imperialism and helping build Solidarity movements have been prioritized.

The world denounces the US's illegal blockade against Cuba... once again

The Cuban people on the march in Havana - May 1st, 2014

By Adrien Welsh, Chair of the YCL-LJC International Commission

"Cuba no está sola, todo el mundo está con Cuba socialista, Cuba vencerá"

Last Wednesday, for the 23rd time, the world rejected the criminal blockade imposed on Cuba in 1962. The outcome of the vote during the session of the United Nations on this topic couldn’t have been more clear: out of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, 188 voted in favour of the abolition of the blockade, and only 2 voted against the motion (not surprisingly the US and Israel). Since the first vote in 1992, a majority of the member countries have supported this motion. The change is that the support has become increasingly unanimous: in 1992, while only 3 countries voted against the end of the embargo, there were still 46 countries that abstained.

Despite all this, this criminal blockade keeps being imposed on the Cuban people, causing a loss of over 3.9 billion dollars this year, and 1.1 trillion since the beginning of the blockade. As a consequence, not only can Cuba not trade with the US, but also it cannot use US dollars in its international financial transactions, nor can it access bank credits from US institutions or their subsidiaries. Moreover, since 2004, fines to both US-based and foreign entities who have traded with Cuba, total over 11 billion dollars.

A Plea for Caution From Russia

We are reprinting this New York Times OpEd by Vladimir Putin for the consideration of youth and student activists in Canada, as well as discussion and debate, reflecting the contradictions and cleavages within imperialism over the question of Syria and international politics today.

By VLADIMIR V. PUTIN

Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.

Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

Palestinian Communists say: Independence Now!

Independence now is the direct goal following the recognition of the state of Palestine as an observer at the UN.

December 30, 2012

The Palestinian People's Party Central Committee held its regular meeting which discussed in details the entire developments affecting the Palestinian cause at the present phase. The Central Committee also reviewed the changes in the region and their ramifications on the Palestinian cause; in addition, it discussed the step that should come after the "non-member state" status of Palestine at the UN.

   The meeting discussed the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip which led to the martyrdom of 200 citizens, including dozens of women and children, and the injury of hundreds of citizens, and the destruction of dozens of homes and installations. The Central Committee extended a salute to the martyrs of the Palestinian people and wished fast recovery to the injured, and freedom to the heroic prisoners inside the occupation prisons. The Central Committee expressed pride in the steadfastness of our people who confronted the aggression, and praised the magnificent popular unity and solidarity of our people who continue to cling to their legitimate rights and reject all schemes that aim to divide our people.

   The Central Committee saluted our people in the Diaspora refugee camps, especially the camps in Syria, calling for more efforts to keep them away from the atrocities of the conflict in Syria and stressing on the need to protect them and provide them with relief supplies.

   The Central Committee extended congratulations to the Palestinian people on Christmas and New Year celebrations and the anniversary of the Palestinian revolution. The Central Committee discussed the ongoing preparations to hold the fifth conference of the party and decided on a series of organizational measures to this effect.

   At the conclusion of its meeting, the Palestinian People's Party Central Committee issued the following statement:

FIRST

The Palestinian People's Party Central Committee believes that the step at the UN to achieve the member status for the state of Palestine or attain the non-member status, and the Palestinian position rejecting to resume negotiations without halt of settlements and compliance to the UN resolutions, aimed to cause a core change in the rules of the political process and its framework; it also aimed to improve the Palestinian position in light of the current balance of powers and the peace process which was exploited by the Israeli occupation to consolidate occupation and settlements.

   The current Palestinian position aims to reach a new unified Palestinian strategy towards achieving the legitimate and inalienable rights of our people in self-determination and the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital and ensuring the rights of the Palestinian refugees, mainly the right of return according to Resolution 194.

   The Central Committee pointed out that the success in mobilizing international support towards the recognition of the state of Palestine as non-member state at the UN aimed to achieve the following:

1- To stress on the role of the international community, mainly the UN, and its responsibility for implementing its decisions and achieving peace in the region, especially in light of Israel's rejection of any UN role and its insistence to reproduce the negotiations process according to the same old formula and framework which led to its failure in the past, and in light of the Israeli attempts to exploit the peace process to execute more settlement expansion and impose new facts on the ground.

2- To stress on the terms of reference that pertain to the negotiations issues in accordance with the UN resolutions and the international will, mainly to define the borders of the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with al-Quds as its capital, according to the borders of June 4 th , 1967. Such an approach would block the Israeli attempts to consider the changes on the ground as basis for any negotiations process and the claim that these territories are disputed lands. In this context, the Central Committee believes that the UN and its organizations have to regain their role in any future political process. The resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council have to be the terms of reference, including the end of the occupation on the Palestinian state territories as recognized by the UN and recognizing the borders of the Palestinian state and its capital and to reject settlements in all their forms on the Palestinian state territories.

3- To reiterate the goal of establishing the Palestinian state and the unity of its territories amid the attempts to detach and isolate Gaza Strip from the West Bank, especially since the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza Strip, and through the intensification of settlement activities in the West Bank. There is also the Israeli scheme to Judaize Jerusalem and the siege imposed on Gaza Strip. All this is happening while there is internal split between Gaza Strip and the West Bank, thus endangering the project of the Palestinian state and regression of international support to it.

4- To reinforce the UN resolutions and invest their benefits in improving the legal, political and diplomatic capacity to struggle against the Israeli occupation. This can be done through developing bilateral relations and recognitions of the state of Palestine and upgrading the level of diplomatic representation, and through joining international agreements and treaties and in the UN organizations. Such efforts can reinforce international recognition in the state of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people; they also provide a chance to track down Israel for its continuous violations to the International Law and the international Humanitarian Law.

5- To refuse the attempts that aim to transform the Palestinian Authority, which was established as a temporary interim authority, into a permanent authority under occupation. On the contrary, efforts must be exerted to achieve the goal of establishing the Palestinian state and garner international recognition towards Palestine full membership at the UN, and end the occupation on its land, which is an urgent task of the Palestinian state. There is also a need to reconsider the agreements and commitments of the PA with Israel, and this must come to protect the Palestinian achievements in building the PA institutions on the path to build the independent state.

SECOND 

The Central Committee stressed that achieving the above-mentioned issues means that the direct central task of the national movement is the immediate end of the occupation and the independence of the Palestinian state which was recognized by the UN; all this must go in line with the struggle to realize the right of return for the Palestinian refugees in accordance with Resolution 194; therefore, the motto of the current phase is Independence Now and we have to mobilize all efforts of the Palestinian people in order to achieve this and we need also to work towards finding the Arab and international solidarity elements; this can be done through:

At the Palestinian level:

1- To start organizing large-scale centralized popular moves that can begin with mass protests and sit-ins until they reach massive demonstrations in all the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It must be a growing process that can create a comprehensive movement of popular resistance against the occupation under the slogan of "Ending the Occupation and Realizing the Palestinian State". It is important that Gaza Strip and Jerusalem are included in these moves in order to portray and reflect the unity of the Palestinian people around the goal of establishing the state. In order to do so, we have to unify the bodies of popular resistance and build a unified front for popular resistance from all the forces; we need also to form a central command for this front that assumes the responsibility of leading and organizing and guiding these popular moves at the central level. Poplar committees and bodies need to be established also in the districts; we can also gain from the rich experience of our people in the struggle and make use of the morale that followed the Gaza battle and the voting at the UN. This requires also mobilizing support to the Palestinian people inside the homeland and in the Diaspora, as the conditions allow in each area.

2- To accelerate work and end the internal split and build national unity on the basis of a joint struggle program and implement what has been agreed upon in Cairo and use it as basis to deal with all developments; to make use of the positive atmosphere that emerged following the aggression on Gaza and the voting at the UN.

In this context, the Palestinian People's Party calls for:

* To accelerate steps and hold the command meeting in order to activate the PLO; this meeting includes the general secretaries of the factions and the Executive Committee and the Speaker of the Palestinian National Council and some independent figures; at the conclusion of this meeting, the participants must announce the steps that aim to end the internal split.

* To form an establishing council for the Palestinian state on a temporary basis (it might be for one year). This council includes the members of the PLO Central Council and the Palestinian Legislative Council and national figures. This should be an interim phase until holding the Palestinian National Council and legislative elections and presidential elections.

* To form a national reconciliation government on the basis of the new situation, including the possibility of reducing the size of the government, taking into consideration the former decision of the Central Council regarding the Palestinian state government.

* To interact with all Palestinian people and communities and mobilize the potentials of the Palestinian people and activate the PLO role, including activating and holding elections in its unions and bodies.

3- At the Palestinian Authority level:

* To reconsider the commitments of the PA with Israel, especially in the security and economic fields, and in all other matters, including services, and start work to implement this according to a well defined plan.

* The PA has to focus its priorities on supporting the popular movement as mentioned above and support the steadfastness of the people when confronting the increasing occupation measures and offer them basic services in the health and education fields and amend the PA priorities and plan on this basis.

* To adopt an emergency financial budget in order to confront the situation and its priorities and recruit funds externally and internally and link the whole process of spending with the requirements and priorities of the above-mentioned plan and program.

* The elements of this plan are based on the following: collective responsibility for the financial burden and this means that the lower-income employees must not bear the burden alone; to support the health, social and education services and secure the minimum level of financial resources; to guide the legitimate popular moves against the occupation steps of stealing the PA funds; this must be a step and part of the struggle to end the occupation; to discuss all legal moves to hold Israel accountable at the international level; to achieve consensus on this plan with the popular sectors and this should be part of the current efforts to hold a socio-economic conference.

4- To start making changes in the PA institutions in a manner that matches the new status of the state of Palestine.

THIRD

At the Arab and international level

- To interact and communicate with the Arab brotherly peoples and their democratic forces and make use of the current transformations in the Arab world in order to garner support to the struggle of the Palestinian people.

- To focus the Palestinian efforts on boycotting Israel and imposing sanctions on it because of the continuous occupation, the aggression, the ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination.

- To interact with the international solidarity forces and the boycott movements and form a unified committee that can work with them in order to organize a centralized international solidarity campaign based on boycott and the decision of The Hague.

- To interact with the representatives of the Arab parties and forces and coordinate with them to this effect.

FOURTH

At the level of international agreements and organizations and diplomatic struggle:

- To work with the UN in order to end the occupation and cling to this demand and push towards imposing sanctions on Israel which violates the international law and denies all UN resolutions.

- To start work towards joining the international agreements that assist in exposing the occupation and holding it accountable for violating human rights and war crimes and for attacking civilians, mainly Geneva Third and Fourth Conventions and Rome Charter and other agreements.

- To join all international organizations and UN bodies, mainly the committees and commissions that work to support our struggle against occupation, such as the ICC; this work should be part of an integrated agreed upon plan.

- To activate cases and special meetings of the UN organizations, mainly to head towards the Security Council on the issue of settlements. To call for the resumption of the conference of the high contracting parties to the Geneva Convention. To call on the UN General Assembly to assume its responsibilities in the context of (Uniting for Peace) and other steps that demand from the UN to use its role and charter towards the end of the occupation on the Palestinian state lands and achieve the rights of the Palestinian people.

- To activate all causes and potential efforts to impose sanctions on Israel because it continues to violate the international charters.

FIFTH

The negotiations:

* The Central Committee warned of the attempts to push the Palestinian side to return to negotiations; this might undermine the success that has been achieved at the UN; the Central Committee calls for linking any such call with the halt of settlements and to abide by the international resolutions and secure that the UN sponsor any future negotiations on the basis of negotiations between two states with the aim of ending the occupation of the lands of the Palestinian state and resolve the issue of the refugees on the basis of Resolution 194.

Stephen Harper’s Illusions

I think –and I do not intend to offend anyone- that this is how the Prime
Minister of Canada is called. I deduced it from a statement published on
“Holy Wednesday” by a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of that
country. The United Nations Organization membership is made up by almost
200 States –allegedly independent States. They continuously change or are
forced into change. Many of their representatives are honorable persons,
friends of Cuba; but it is impossible to remember the specifics about each and every one of them.

During the second half of the twentieth century, I had the privilege of
living through years of intensive erudition and I realized that Canadians,
located in the northernmost region of this hemisphere, were always
respectful towards our country. They invested in areas of their interest
and traded with Cuba, but they did not interfere in the internal affairs
of our State.

Common Statement of the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the World Peace Council about the situation in Syria and the broader region of Middle East

No NATO war on Syria or Iran

The World Peace Council (WPC) and the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) express their serious concern about the growing imperialist aggressiveness in the region of Middle East and the new threats for peace with the plans of USA, NATO, EU and their regional allies to attack Syria, triggering and agitating at the same time civil war like situation inside the country.

Our two International Organisations salute the millions of peace loving people and youth of Syria and express our sincere solidarity to the genuine, peaceful, social protests and just demands for economic, social and political and democratic changes in the country, so that the Syrian people will be the masters of its fortunes, wealth and future.

Under no pretext do we accept any foreign political or military intervention in Syria, which is being currently planned by the USA, Israel and NATO hand in hand with Turkey and some Gulf monarchies, supposedly for the protection of civilian population and human rights. We denounce this hypocrisy and call upon humanity to oppose any repetition of the “Libya model”.

United to stop the growing war against Syria

Bombing Syria would be genocidal, not 'humanitarian'

By Darrell Rankin, People’s Voice, March 1, 2012

Events continue to move quickly towards very dangerous, destabilizing wars of occupation in the Middle East, wars that will trample democracy and conditions for working people in all countries that take part. Imperialist and reactionary countries are pushing ahead with an onslaught of deception and justifications, bringing armed groups to life, and making sure to involve as many countries as they can.

Western-backed armed groups and weapons are flooding into Syria, with the aim of creating conditions where a political solution to the civil war is impossible. Imperialist countries would rather drown Syria in blood than allow democratic elections to take place.

The former colonial powers in the Middle East such as France and Britain, the United States, Israel and the most reactionary members of the League of Arab States, are making every effort to de-legitimize the Syrian government, saying it is incapable of reform and that bloody regime change and foreign “help” are the only options.

MB action alert, news summary, Castro on 50 years

WINNIPEG PROTESTS TODAY AT 2PM-MAIN STREET AND WATER

weather looks good a high of -4C. Come on down and add your voice.


NEWS BULLETIN FOR THE WEEKEND OF JANUARY 17 2009.

Qatar and Mauritania have joined countries that severed diplomatic ties with Israel

Reports from Radio France International and Al Jazeera say that Qatar and Mauritania have cut diplomatic relations with Israel in response to the liquidation of Gaza.

The prime minister of Turkey called for Israel to be kicked out of the United Nations while the criminal attack continues.

White flag waving Palestinians shot dead by IDF

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem tells of testimony that three Palestinians in a group that was ordered out of their homes, then targeted and shot dead by IDF troops. This occured dispite the fact the group had been waving white flags . The story ran in a Belfast newspaper.

yet another UN school hit by Israeli forces, 2 dead

A UN school in Northern Gaza was hit by shells from a tank. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said Israel's actions in Gaza should be investigated as possible war crimes.Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said some Israeli actions reported in Gaza might warrant prosecutions for war crimes. The statement was made in early January.

Video from Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera has video freely available for the public to use.

WHITE PHOSPHOROUS



released under this license
you made click this line to see other videos

Bolivia now free of illiteracy
with files from Granma

Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared this country the third in Latin America to be free of illiteracy. More than 820,000 Bolivians learned how to read and write with the Cuban audiovisual instruction method "Yo sí puedo" (Yes, I Can). Bolivia joins the other two countries to have no illiteracy. The first being Cuba (1961) followed by Venezuela (2005). Note that all three are Socialist countries.


These 50 years have been ones of the resistance and strength of the people

• Interview with General of the Army Raúl Castro, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, by Talía González Pérez, from Cuban Television’s News System, December 31, 2008, "Year 50 of the Revolution."

Typescript: Council of State

Geovani Fernández and Raúl Abreu

Journalist: During the initial years of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Commander of the Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz affirmed to the people that, although the Revolution had been victorious, nobody should think that everything would be easier in the future, but that everything might be more difficult in the future. How difficult has it been in the last 50 years to construct a socialist Revolution in the face of imperialist aggression and the complex international panorama?

Raúl Castro: I vividly remember that phrase of the Commander in Chief, stated on January 8, 1959 after his arrival in the capital, at the former Columbia military camp, the dictatorship’s main garrison, because I was greatly impressed at how he could see into the future, and even more so 50 years later, because of the accuracy of his foresight.

That idea warned: "The dictatorship has been defeated. There is immense joy. But, nevertheless, there is still a lot to be done. Don’t let us deceive ourselves by believing that everything in the future will be easy; maybe everything will be harder from now on."

And that is how it has been, since the initial days. With the first measures taken in defense of the Revolution, the capture and trial of the worst killers and torturers of the dictatorship, a confrontation began with the media in the hands of the dominant forces on the continent and the planet, or part of the planet at that moment.

I remember the gigantic campaign mounted in the early months after the triumph of the Revolution. Very little time had passed and the Revolution was already advancing. On May 17, after four-and-a-half months, Fidel approved the first Agrarian Reform Act in the La Plata command headquarters in the Sierra Maestra, the location of the Council of Ministers. That law affected many U.S. interests, given that they owned the best land, basically appropriated with the advantage of the U.S. occupation of the country at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, where it was the case that they made a symbolic payment of 10 cents for hectares of magnificent land. Logically, that was the first serious affect on U.S. interests when Cuba recovered that fundamental wealth which is land.

I think that that measure was comparable to the Rubicon of the Cuban Revolution. The Rubicon was a river that delineated the border between Italy and the Roman province of Gaul. When Julius Caesar decided to cross it after the Roman Senate prohibited him from entering Italy with his army, the phrase "He crossed the Rubicon" became famous; in other words, he took an irreversible decision. And, by affecting those U.S. interests, it (the Agrarian Reform Act) was the Rubicon that unleashed, with total virulence, the class struggle and imperialism’s aggression of Cuba.

One could say that it was the first significant step, followed by others.

The constant acts of aggression, the blow delivered us when the United States refused to refine the oil that we bought more cheaply in the Soviet Union, our notification that they had to refine it, that that was its obligation, its insistence on refusing, the decision taken to nationalize its refineries, and so on, initiated a succession of blows and counter-blows. One highly important step in that summer of 1960, and a consequence of the struggle that we could not halt or the Revolution would be defeated, was the nationalization of all those large U.S. companies. We took advantage of a Latin American Youth Congress in Havana and, in the former Cerro stadium - now the Latin American Baseball Stadium - we improvised an event. I remember that we set up a small tribune, holding no more than a few dozen comrades, out there in the centerfield and, among Latin American and Cuban youth and a great population of workers and the people in general, Fidel proclaimed the nationalization of all those companies.

One cannot say that the transition of one social system to another can take place overnight, that’s impossible; it is a process of many steps, which concludes with the predominance of goods produced in the majority hands of the population.

In the case of Cuba, if there is one day that can be proclaimed as such, it is precisely that one, given the weight in the economy that the combination of all those properties that moved from being U.S. private properties to being the property of all the people, via the recently emerged Cuban state.

That time, in 1960, was when the counterrevolutionary bands started to unleash their war and grew strong in the mountains of the Escambray; although they attacked in various provinces, particularly those with mountain systems.

It has to be taken into account that the U.S. government of Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), already in its final stage, had already perpetrated the invasion of Guatemala in 1954 - seven years earlier - the progressive Guatemala of Jacobo Arbenz, a colonel, an honest man, who came to the presidency via elections and, faced with the abject poverty of the great mass of native Indians and Guatemalan campesinos, made a small reform. Small, if we compare it to the reach and profundity of ours, and that was sufficient for his revolutionary process to be sentenced to death. Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, his secretary of state, and the latter’s brother, Allan Dulles, who was director of the CIA, took that decision.

It was a smaller invasion than that of the Bay of Pigs, it was a land one, there was no resistance, President Arbenz vacillated; he did not arm the people, who were determined to fight, judging by demonstrations that could be observed. We followed that situation through the press that reached the Presidio (Model prison) on the Isle of Pines, where we had been imprisoned for 12 months for the assault on the Moncada Garrison.

In the initial years of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, that trio still decided policy in the United States (Eisenhower, the Foster brothers and Allan Dulles), while sharing or at least sharing information with the future administration that had already been elected, headed by John F. Kennedy (1961-1963).

That is why they were planning the aforementioned operation (Bay of Pigs) in 1960 and brought it forward, because they knew that we were already training pilots for MiG aircraft in the socialist countries, so they wanted to accelerate it and they noticed that we were acquiring weapons to strengthen the defense of the Revolution.

However, Eisenhower’s Republican mandate ended and the Democrat John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency on January 20, 1961.

Before continuing with this phase, it has to be said that Foster Dulles - Eisenhower’s secretary of state - was an attorney for the United Fruit Company, the one that encouraged and basically supported the intervention in Guatemala; the company owned large banana plantations and other properties in that country, as well as in other Central American countries. United Fruit had a different name in Cuba: the United Sugar Company; bananas there and sugar here. Their adventure in Guatemala in 1954 produced the desired results and they tried to do the same things, with a slightly larger, force, more aircraft, more ships, because we are an island and the invading forces had to be transported by boat; but the same people and the same interests organized the Bay of Pigs aggression, long before there was any talk of socialism here.

On January 2, 1961, utilizing the pretext of Fidel’s speech on January 1st in Plaza de la Revolución, the United States decided to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba. It was a pretext; the Bay of Pigs had already been planned. The aggression of our country was decided before the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution, which, as you know, was on April 16, 1961, thus demonstrating that the conditions were already being created for ending diplomatic relations and attacking us.

Two-and-a-half months after assuming the presidency, Kennedy launched the Bay of Pigs invasion, which began with the bombardments of April 15.

That is one example - one of many - why I say that there is only one party in the United States. On that occasion, the invasion was planned by the Republicans and executed by the Democrats. That would be like two parties existing in Cuba: one led by Fidel and the other by Raúl, with slightly different tones, but basically the same.

It should be said that the Bay of Pigs operation involved a young and promising CIA official, who took care of recruiting the majority of the mercenaries enlisted in Florida and subsequently transferred to Central America for training and their subsequent departure for Cuba. That young official, who later became director of the CIA and later still, president of the United States, was George. H. Bush (1989-1993), in this case the father of the current leader George W. Bush (2001-2009) - so that you can see that everything is the same power, the same elite alternating in power, according to circumstances.

When the Bay of Pigs took place we were making the country literate. The counterrevolutionary bands had already been dealt a powerful blow with the mobilization of thousands of workers - in the main from the capital - for what was called the Cleansing of the Escambray, and they were thinking of landing in Trinidad so that, if they failed, they were just a step away from the ill-named Escambray massif; its real name is Guamuhaya.

Given those blows to the counterrevolutionary bands in 1960, they then started studying the Bay of Pigs variant - not a bad one - it is the largest wetland area in the Caribbean - I’m referring to the Caribbean islands -difficult in terms of access, with a highway - the main communications route - that crosses the swampland, the principal communication route. There, in a place called Pálpite, in the middle of the swamp, but with a little more terra firme, they launched their parachute forces, and we had to create an offensive of tanks in Indian file: the artillery, the soldiers, the troops could not spread out, and that is one of the reasons that we had more casualties than the aggressors.

Fidel’s warning and the order to liquidate the invasion in 72 hours is known. It had to be liquidated in 72 hours, because Fidel foresaw, with much lucidity on his part, that if we didn’t do that, once the beachhead had been consolidated, they would have transported to it their puppet government, already formed and headed by Miró Cardona, waiting in a U.S. military base in Florida.

With a consolidated beachhead, a puppet government on terra firma, recognized by the United States, recognized by the OAS (Organization of American States), to whom it could turn for immediate aid, plus U.S. ships in sight, it would be easy and logical to land those troops in support of the mercenaries. That was why the invasion took place in 1961.

And making an operational jump, as we soldiers say, we were expelled from the OAS in January 1962 under the dictates of the U.S. government, and all the Latin American countries, with the honorable exception of Mexico, broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. The country that had been attacked a few months earlier in the Bay of Pigs invasion, had now been expelled from the OAS, under U.S. instructions to its Ministry of Colonies, as Cuba Foreign Minister Raúl Roa called the OAS.

Why was that? Because, once defeated at the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy’s, the U.S. administration and that the system could not take that affront, that humiliation, that defeat by a tiny little country facing its military might, and so the expulsion from the OAS was to create conditions. Just like the Yankees did before, breaking off relations in January to have their hands free and attack us in Girón in April, the OAS expelled us in January on account of our system being incompatible with its "democratic system." The objective was a direct invasion, probably in 1962 itself, which was only prevented by the presence of Soviet nuclear rockets in Cuba; on the contrary, we would have been invaded. If anyone had any doubts as to if that was the case or not, those doubts were dispelled years later; the declassification of secret documents made it evident that the aggression was already being prepared.

I am only noting the most visible aspects, the most talked about, the most significant of those years. They were five or six very hard years. The blockade was already in place, but the Soviet Union existed under the leadership of the Communist Party and Khrushchev, who had a very positive attitude. These played a very important role given that the Revolution was able to survive and resist. We were endowed with a good quantity of weapons of every type, until attaining the strength that we have today from the military point of view.

In other words, let there be another Bay of Pigs, let there be an agreement between two presidents, one assassinated and another removed from office; but then came Operation Mangosta, directed by the president’s brother, or controlled and supervised by Robert Kennedy, the U.S. attorney general, who also participated in the contacts made with the U.S. mafia for the known and already investigated attempts on the life of Fidel, out of the many that they planned.

They were five years of constant internal struggle; thousands of dead and injured, victims of state terrorism, directed, organized and led by the United States.

At that time a CIA station was created in Florida, the largest after its central offices in Langley. Hundred of CIA officials directing activities against Cuba, first the Bay of Pigs and then Operation Mangosta; that center was only superceded by the one established years later in Saigon, the city now called Ho Chi Minh, in south Vietnam, during the aggression against that country; only that base exceeded the one that they built in Miami for fighting against us.

As is known, it grew to have 179 armed counterrevolutionary bands of different sizes operating all over country; sometimes they joined up, delivered a blow, split up again; on two occasions they were in six of the country’s provinces, before the current political-administrative division, including in the south of Havana, when it was just one province.

That was for six years, I think it wasn’t until 1965 or January 1966 when we annihilated the last band in that stage; after that more emerged in different periods, which were rapidly eliminated. The Revolution gradually strengthened, there were the campesino militias, highland companies.

As I was telling you, it was only in the Escambray that they became a strength. Oriente was a very dangerous place, it was the largest province, nowadays six provinces, the most mountainous area, where there was a U.S. military base; and back there in the 1960’s, when the situation began to get complicated, Fidel said to me: "Look, you go to Oriente and I’ll take charge of the Ministry of the Armed Forces with the chief of general staff," who was Sergio del Valle, now deceased. "You go there, go and organize the Eastern Army, if we can save Oriente, we can save the Revolution." That’s the confidence he had concerning the strength of Oriente, the importance of Oriente, and in the people of Oriente province; that confidence that we have always had, in its tradition of struggle. And that’s how it was; I was there for 18 months, I founded the Eastern Army, came to Havana periodically, took part in the most important meetings, and then later, just like Fidel sent Che to Pinar del Río and Almeida to central Cuba, he sent me to Oriente every time that there was a crisis of that caliber, of that magnitude: the October Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs; but on the occasion I was telling you about, I was there for about 18 months.

That, together with the blockade, the constant sabotage - I have told you how sometimes I would arrive at the Ministry of the Armed Forces and four or five aides, links with the different territories, armies and regions in the country, would arrive with a list of what had occurred in the last 24 hours or at least, the last 12 hours of the previous night: dozens of tobacco curing houses in Pinar del Río set on fire, so many dozens of cane fields burning throughout the country; so many combats waged, so many bombs in cities and other places, so many acts of sabotage of electricity cables. Sometimes I would say to them: "Tell me the most important ones," and that was, without exception, with a greater or lesser intensity, for five or six years.

Those are some examples of a period of great activity, of much enemy aggression, although of greater or lesser intensity, that has been the struggle of these 50 years. The damage has been great, but the advantages have likewise been great.

Journalist: Starting from that historical tour, how would you define the participation of the people in terms of confronting these aggressions for the past half century?

Raúl Castro: I would say to you that these 50 years have been ones of resistance, years of survival, years of the determination of the people, in which we have maintained our strength, and that refers to the vast majority of the country.

Later came the heavy blow of the dissolution of the socialist bloc, particularly the Soviet Union, with whom we had 85% of our commercial exchange, and when the Gross Domestic Product - the value of the country’s entire production - fell by 33%; transport collapsed, everything began to collapse - at least we had warehouses full of spare parts - and a new period began, the Special Period, a term that we military personnel use for planning in the event of war. The economy went through a special period, why this term is used But, 10 years later, Fidel described that era as the most glorious in 50 years of Revolution. Why? Because of the resistance of the country.

We cannot overlook the terrorist attacks and crimes such as the passenger plane blown up off the coast of Barbados; we cannot forget our young people who were working as literacy teachers in the mountains and were killed by those bands that were operating during those first years. And so on and so forth; we cannot forget the numbers of fatal victims - which, after 50 years, stands at 3,478 - or those who have been permanently disabled, who number 2,099.

We cannot forget the 101 children who died from hemorrhagic dengue. According to international health organizations, what occurred in Cuba could no have been the result of natural causes. In the course of just a few hours, 344,203 people had to be admitted to hospital, and led to the record of 11,400 new patients being reported in just one day, July 6, 1981.

These are the issues that come up, flashing through my mind like a speeded-up film; above all today, on this date when, 50 years ago, Batista’s army surrendered to Fidel, the garrisons in Santiago, the moments that we have experienced in these last 50 years; January 1st, when we could see the army crumble, an army founded by the Americans when they dissolved the Mambí army at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th; the Rural Guard that they bequeathed to us, this army instructed by them which was beaten by the Rebel Army.

What was the Rebel Army? No more and no less than the Mambí army; it took up the arms of the Mambí army once again. The Mambises were disarmed by imperialism, by a nascent imperialism that was beginning to gather strength; hence Lenin described that Spanish-Cuban-U.S. war as the first imperialist war. The world had already been divided by the great powers during a meeting in Berlin in the last quarter of the 19th century and, in order to obtain new land, had to take it from other colonial powers. That was the pretext they used to hold onto Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Particularly Cuba, because it was the nation that had fought the hardest, for a space of almost 30 years, with its ups and downs, which allowed it to have a national anthem, a flag, a shield and a constitution with an amendment named Platt after the senator who proposed it.

That amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba whenever it deemed it necessary and it was used on more than one occasion.

The Platt Amendment remained in force until after the fall of the Machado dictatorship in the 1930’s, but things remained the same. Realistically, in terms of history, the first U.S. soldier entered Havana on January 1, 1899. That war was fought in Oriente and they entered Havana once the Spanish troops had surrendered, on January 1, 1899; and thanks to the ironies of history, the first guerrilla columns of the Revolution sent by Fidel - those of Che and Camilo - also entered Havana on January 1, another January 1, that of 1959.

That is to say that absolute U.S. control of this country lasted exactly 60 years. It is a fact that some U.S. capital had already entered Cuba prior to that; but the absolute control of U.S. imperialism in Cuba lasted 60 years, from one January 1 to another.

And those 60 years had their ups and downs; they left the country with in great complexity, great confusion and great pain. Until, from the ashes of those events, popular movements began to reemerge. The first Communist Party emerged in 1925, founded by Mella and Baliño, one a brilliant young man and the other, a veteran and friend of Martí, an independence fighter. The imperialists who controlled the country installed the Machado dictatorship and made the revolution that defeated it fail; Batista emerged, a general staff sergeant who knew all about the inner world of the Army, and with a group of sergeants, carried out a coup d’état. A few days later, he was awarded the rank of colonel; he was the next instrument of imperialism as the power behind the throne from 1933 until the 1940 elections. He was president until 1944, then went to live abroad, and we witnessed the so-called authentic and corrupt governments of Grau San Martín and Prío Socarrás, until 1952. On March 10 that same year, Batista once again emerged, as always, adopted by the U.S. government. This time, the dictatorship would last seven years.

In that period, Latin America was plagued by dictatorships in the style of Batista, which was the method used by the United States, basically to gain total control of the continent, and also the Caribbean. There were still British colonies in the English-speaking Caribbean, but the Dominican Republic and Haiti - the island called La Española and the second largest in the Greater Antilles - had the dictatorships of both Trujillo and Duvalier. That was the situation on the continent.

That’s when the struggle of Moncada began, which is well-known by our people. Batista’s dictatorship lasted for seven years, from March 10, 1952 until January 1, 1959: five years, five months and five days had passed, from the assault on the Moncada garrison to the triumph of the Revolution, coincidentally three fives together.

Journalist: It is an unprecedented event in the history of humanity that the principal leaders of a revolutionary process have, after 50 years, been able to see the fruits of the ideals for which they fought and are continuing to work so that those ideals may be consolidated. On a personal level, what sentiments are you experiencing today?

Raúl Castro: So many things, sentiments, sensations and experiences have occurred during those 55 years since the Moncada assault. We have had the opportunity to live through this era, the most glorious years in the history of this nation, one of tremendous tension, and today we are respected. The Cuban people feel proud of themselves, they feel sure of themselves, they are proud of their Revolution and have a sense of belonging to their Revolution.

Journalist: You have spoken on reiterated occasions on the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba, which has lasted for almost 50 years and which has cost the Cuban government and its people years of struggle and resistance; and also on the complex international panorama of wars, disunity and natural disasters. In today’s Cuba, after 50 years of Revolution, what strategies are you implementing internally in order to continue defending the socialist Revolution that we are constructing?

Raúl Castro: First and foremost, basing ourselves on our own efforts - Fidel already stated that some time ago - and, in particular, as we were left on our own after the dissolution of the socialist bloc; the need to base ourselves on our own work. Fidel already said that in his magnificent definition of the concept of "Revolution" on May 1, 2000 in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución.

One vital issue is the development of internal production, increasing exports, producing all the food that can be produced in this country, and saving. Nobody, no individual or state, can spend more than what is produced, that would be to leave a vast debt for our children and grandchildren; that is not ethical, we have no right to do that.

We have solved many problems but development itself entails other new ones.

The birth rate is low. By the end of this year it has increased to a certain extent, the total exceeds that of last year by 10,000 births, but it is still small.

Life expectancy has increased. We have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of elderly people. Equally necessary is to create day care centers for children - which, as you know, there are not enough of, many have closed, others have been affected. At a certain age, it is necessary to build homes for senior citizens, who can spend the day in these homes and go to their own home at night with the rest of their family; but there are cases in which they will not be able to do that on account of their advanced age. At present they have to be with their family and it is difficult for these families when they have reached a certain age, we will have to create more old people’s homes.

A high life expectancy is a great advantage. When we assaulted the Moncada garrison, the life expectancy rate was only 59 years while today it is 77.97 years. Infant mortality is reducing.

These are many positive things that bring with them new problems that we have to face.

We have not had peace, we have not had tranquility. The enemy says that socialism has been a failure. Why don’t they leave us in peace to fight on equal terms? But it has not been a failure, not even under these conditions. It has been an incessant battle.

We have had to dedicate gigantic expenditure to defense, because, as we have said on other occasions: for us, avoiding war is equivalent to winning it; but as we have added: in order to win it, by avoiding it, we have to spill rivers of sweat and not a few resources, thousands of kilometers of tunnels; apart from our warships, all units are underground. That costs, that provides security.

However much they might bomb us in one day, however much they blockade us, the problem is that in order to solve the problem of Cuba they will have to disembark, and that is when we would be equals, soldier against soldier; that is a different situation.

I would not like to see, not even in a laboratory, what would be a U.S. aggression against Cuba because the price that our people would have to pay would be very costly, very high. Although Marti stated it; freedom is very costly and one has to resign oneself to living without it, or be ready to pay the necessary price. And what we have done is known: for more than one century we have been ready to pay the necessary price, we have paid it.

But we have to save, we have to eliminate work-related incentives. If we want to balance wages in the just role that they should play, we must, little by little, or simultaneously, set about eliminating unjustified incentives, that emerged her and there, and excessive subsidies. The state always has a need to keep providing subsidies in order to create balance, helping those of lower income for one reason or another; there must always be subsidies for one thing or another, but it shouldn’t be abused. Nobody remembers what they receive in subsidies and work incentives; they only calculate their monthly wage and that calculation is a bad one. We need to learn that two plus two equals four, not five; sometimes, maybe within socialism, two plus two equals three. These are fundamental issues.

We need to know that we have been living and will have to continue living in a tense and difficult situation. A turbulent world is going to befall us, is already here, a turbulent world with an economic and financial crisis whose origins are known, but not how or when it will end, much worse and more serious than the one of 80 years ago in the 1920s. It is going to affect everyone and, as is natural, the poorest countries and, within the rich countries, their poorest citizens. Maybe, in certain aspects, we will be less affected. We have a trained population, more than 70% of the population was born under blockade conditions; if there is one country that is trained to resist these types of situations, it is ours and it is demonstrated that we are alive.

We have to give true value to work and we might well become hoarse talking and preaching that concept, but if we don’t take measures so that people feel the vital necessity of working to satisfy their needs, we will never come out of this hard patch, and we will come out of it.

Maybe we cannot solve many of the problems with the rapidity required. We have to work, we have to dedicate ourselves to that concept which is working, creating and saving. That is the situation, I think that it will be understood. These are truths, harsh as they may be, we cannot sweeten them, we have to state them.

For 2009, we have major tasks: to continue the distribution of land in usufruct; it has advanced and we are now leaving behind the initial obstacles we encountered that came from atavistic bureaucratic habits. At least in part, we are emerging from the damage occasioned to agricultural production because of the three terrible hurricanes that lashed us.

These hurricanes cost us a little over $9.7 billion - you can never come up with an exact figure of the damage caused us because it is very difficult - which is equivalent to around 20% of the country’s GDP. We used the reserves that we had to feed the population; there are no complaints in that respect. We cannot solve, in the short term, the housing debt that we have from earlier hurricanes in 2002, 2005, plus the new homes destroyed, until we have we have homes in every part of the country that can resist hurricanes with their protective roofing and that can resist steadily more frequent and violent hurricanes.

We have decided that in many coastal areas, above all on the southern coast, where hurricanes are continuous and repetitive or where there is sea flooding that destroys homes, to construct them further back. The population wants them rebuilt where they were, but if another phenomenon of this type hits, we’ll be in the same situation again. In Cuba, anything can serve as a home on account of the climate, but not everything can resist hurricanes. We are already experiencing that they are more frequent and violent because of the known reasons of climate change, fundamentally due to human irrationality, and a problem that has not been resolved.

We are full of optimism, we have always been optimists even in the worst moments, we learned that from Fidel, ever since -50 years ago on December 18 - with his two rifles joined to the five that I carried, he asked me the famous question: "How many guns have you got with you?" "Five." "And with the two that I have, seven. Now we can win the war!" He was always the same, finding strength where it seemed that there was no possibility of even surviving or of continuing to advance. That is a constant story.

These 50 years have been heroic years. Years that we had the privilege of consciously experiencing and actively participating in all of these great events, together with our people, we have to feel proud of everything we have lived through, that glory that we cannot tarnish, that we cannot let fall, that we have to continue, because imperialism is still there.

Journalist: Since the recent result of the presidential election in the United Status, various analysts in the international press have speculated that there are expectations of change with Barack Obama’s rise to the White House. What is your assessment of that?

Raúl Castro: Now there is a president that has aroused hopes in many parts of the world; I think excessive hopes, because although he is an honest man, and I believe that he is, a sincere man, and I believe that he is, one man cannot change the destiny of a country, and far less - I mean one man alone - in the United States. He can do a lot, he can take positive steps, he can advance just ideas, he can curb the tendency, almost uninterrupted since the emergence of the United States, of almost all presidents to have had their war, or their wars. He said that he goes to get out of Iraq, good news. He says he’s going to double the forces in Afghanistan, bad news. The solutions to the problems of the world cannot be founded on war.

I think that there is no solution in Afghanistan, except for one: to leave the Afghanis in peace. Only Alexander the Great entered that country and returned unscathed, maybe because he married an Afghani princess, but, above all, because he left quickly. The British suffered a defeat there in the 19th century; in the 20th century the Soviets suffered another defeat, which we all experienced, and in the 21st century the U.S. and other forces remaining in Afghanistan will also suffer a defeat. These are realities and that is negative.

The vast resources that they are being dedicated to military matters, to war, since the war in Vietnam… Why the Vietnam War? Why the aggression? Close to 60,000 U.S. soldiers killed for what? I do not know the huge quantity - it must be two or three time greater - of those disabled, wounded, mutilated. Why four million Vietnamese from both parts killed? For what objectives? What did they achieve? Why the 50-year blockade of Cuba, what have they achieved? They have made us stronger, we feel prouder, our resistance, we are stronger, we are more confident.

I hope that I am wrong in my appraisal. Hopefully Mr. Obama will have some successes; in terms of us, that he is successful, but in a just policy, and that he can helps to solve, with the power that they have, the grave problems of the world.

Our policy is well-defined: any day that they want to discuss, we’ll discuss, in equality of conditions; as I have already said, without even the smallest shadow over our sovereignty and as equals. And, as is usually the case, or was the case, that from time to time someone would come along to ask us to make a gesture, just as I received a letter from a former president suggesting - before the U.S. elections - that changes were approaching and that it would be good if Cuba was to make a gesture, with the same kindness that he wrote me I responded: the time for unilateral gestures is over; gesture for gesture. And we are disposed to talk whenever they decide, without intermediaries, directly. But we are not in any hurry, we’re not desperate, and, of course, we have said it and Fidel has said it for years: we will not talk with the stick and the carrot, that time is over, that was in another period.

That is our position, we shall go on patiently waiting. It’s incredible that with the Cuban temperament we have learnt patience; we have it and at least in this we have demonstrated it.

Journalist: During these 50 years the United States has done everything possible to isolate Cuba from the world. Recently our country has broken that isolation of the regional integration mechanisms with its entry into the Rio Group. What does that event represent for Cuba?

Raúl Castro: It was very emotional when, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, where three of the summits that I have participated in took place, in the presence of almost all of the heads of state of the Latin American and Caribbean, that for the first time in history meeting without the presence of the extra-regional powers - let’s say Canada, the United States or Europe - when I said with much emotion that I regretted that Fidel was not seated there at that moment, everyone applauded. That was a great recognition and a great joy for us, caught by the people because it was a recognition of our resistance, as I said said: "We are here because we have resisted, we have resisted for half a century!" And of course, we have to be prepared to resist for half a century more.

Life is a permanent battle, it’s an eternal fight, and there are those who tire and then renege on what they have done; thankfully, they are few. The people are standing firm and thus will maintain their Revolution for ever.

Journalist: There are many reasons to celebrate a day like today, the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. How will you pay tribute to this commemoration?

Raúl Castro: I think that tonight, at 12:00 p.m. I will be at the Mausoleum of the comrades from the Second Front who died or were subsequently buried there after the triumph of the Revolution. I want to place flowers for them, for Vilma (Espín) too, to listen with them to the cannon firing for the 50th anniversary of the great dawn and the national anthem. And early tomorrow, in the name of Fidel, I want to place some flowers for Marti, to those who fell in the assault on the Moncada, to those who fell in the underground struggle, for Frank País and the internationalists from Santiago de Cuba, as a tribute to those throughout the country. I will do so with content, with emotion and full of optimism for the future.

Journalist: Thank you very much and congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution.

Raúl Castro: Thanks to our heroic people.

Translated by Granma International