This document is online at: http://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/HWNAU/
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                      With Hegemony and Intervention,
                           There Can Be No Peace
                           or Social Development

                              by Fidel Castro

Mr. President:
Your Excellencies:

     "Life is built on a dream, and dreams are dreams," as Calderon de la
Barca, the famous Spanish playwright, said some centuries ago.

     Independent of the noble intentions of all those present, in a world
where the rich get steadily richer and the poor get steadily poorer; where
some countries receive lower and lower prices for their raw materials and
basic products and others sell their manufactured items at increasingly
higher prices; where the less fortunate countries' external debt is
incessantly growing and has already reached the incredible figure of 1.5
trillion dollars; where interest rates rise arbitrarily from day to day;
where the poorest areas have explosive population growth rates; where there
is an increasing capital flight from the poor countries to the rich ones;
where the brain drain constantly steals skills from where they are most
needed; where women, indigenous peoples, black, and other ethnic groups
suffer discrimination; and where chaos and anarchy rule under the blind and
savage laws of the market, there can be no social development.

     Where there is a lack of humanity, there can be no human rights. Where
selfishness reigns, solidarity cannot exist. Where consumer societies and
waste are established as models for a population already in excess of 5.7
billion human beings, environmental conservation and unpolluted and
sustainable natural resources are impossibilities, as is viable social
development.

     Where the build-up of the arms race persists in spite of the end of the
Cold War; where not one cent of what was previously squandered on arms has
been dedicated to human progress; where military blocs are irrationally
extended; where sophisticated arms are still being constructed and
perfected, there can be no social development.

     With hegemony and interventions of all types and under any pretext,
which only happen in small countries and the Third World, without any
respect for the sacrosanct right of every country to full independence and
equality in international relations, there can be no peace or social
development. This is a falsehood, a total deception.

     Neoliberalism, the fashionable doctrine imposed on today's world,
ruthlessly sacrifices the provision of health, education, culture, sports,
social security, affordable housing, drinking water, and other basic
populational needs in underdeveloped countries.

     The fact that people live in poverty in the industrialized countries is
simply a disgrace. The fact that unemployment cannot be reduced and that it
actually grows in line with technological advances is proof of the
irrationality of the dominant system. The unrestrained growth of drugs,
xenophobia, and violence demonstrates its moral decadence.

     Cuba, criminally blockaded because it does not share the ideas of its
powerful neighbor to the north, and which lost 70 percent of its imported
goods with the disappearance of the socialist camp and the Soviet Union, has
not closed a single school, hospital, senior citizen's home, or day care
center. In spite of being a poor country, we have the highest per capita
totals of teachers, doctors, art teachers, and physical educational
instructors in the world. Our infant mortality rate stands at under ten per
1000 live births. There is no illiteracy, and the life expectancy average is
75 years.

     We have lived through an experience. We can talk about it. What those
of us present here desire is possible, but more than promises, resolutions,
and declarations are needed: we need the political will and we need justice,
not only within individual countries, but among all countries. The world's
wealth has to be better distributed among nations, and within nations, and
genuine solidarity among the peoples of the world has to be established;
only then can today's dreams become the realities of tomorrow.

     Thank you very much.