Reflections by Comrade Fidel
THE DAY FOR THE POOR OF THE WORLD
Tomorrow is International Workers’ Day.
Karl Marx called to
unity: “Workers of the world unite”, although many of the poor were not
workers. Lenin, who was even more
far-reaching, made a call to the peasants and the colonized peoples for them to
struggle together under the leadership of the proletariat.
The day for the
celebration was chosen in tribute to the Chicago martyrs who
had begun a strike on May 1st, 1886, in a
capitalist country whose working masses were suffering from unemployment and
other calamities associated with economic crises, inseparable from the
system. Their rights were not being
recognized and unions were seen by the bourgeoisie as terrorist organizations
that were enemies of the American people.
The capitalists later resorted
to their best weapons --division and economicism-- to
disarticulate the revolutionary struggle.
The labor movement was split; to many who lived
in appalling poverty the trade unions’ demands were the prime objective, rather
than changing society.
The United States became the capitalist country with the greatest differences between
the incomes of the rich and the poor. In
the shadow of its hegemony, Latin America became the Third World area where the inequalities between rich and poor ran deeper. The rich enjoyed life styles that could be
compared to those of the bourgeoisie in the developed countries of Europe. The notion of Homeland had disappeared in the
wealthiest strata of the population.
The clash between the
great power of the North and the Cuban Revolution was inevitable. The heroic resistance put up by the people of
our small country was underestimated.
Today they are willing
to forgive us if we resign ourselves to return to the fold, as slaves who after
experiencing freedom once again accept the whip and the yoke.
Today the planet is
torn between economic crises, pandemics, climate changes, dangers of war and
other concurrent problems. The political
task becomes more complicated, and there are still some who believe that
peoples can be manipulated like puppets.
The last word cannot
be said yet on the future evolution of the present US
administration. There are new elements,
both objective and subjective. We are
carefully watching and studying its every step.
We are not incendiary as some would imagine, but neither are we fools
who can be easily duped by those who think that the only thing important in the
world are the laws of the market and the capitalist system of production. We all have the duty to struggle for peace;
there is no other alternative. However,
never should the adversary be under the illusion that Cuba will
surrender.
We hope that every May
1st thousands of men and women, in every corner of the globe, will
share International Workers’ Day with us, a day which we have been celebrating
for 50 years. It was not in vain that
long before January
1st, 1959, we had proclaimed
that our Revolution would be the Revolution of the humble, by the humble and
for the humble. The accomplishments of
our Homeland in the areas of education, health, science, culture and other
fields, and especially the strength and the unity of the people, are
demonstrating this, in spite of the ruthless blockade.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 30, 2009
6:18 p.m.