“The future of Cuba is one earned by a country that has resisted for over 50 years against the most powerful empire on Earth. The resilience of its people made this triumph materialize.” PeopleYearsMadeCountryEarthPowerfulResilienceTriumphEmpiresMost PowerfulCubaOver 50 Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The Cuban people along with international solidarity defeated this imperial position [America] in the middle of the 21st century and have demonstrated the potential of a nation that has lived under an iron handed blockade and permanent aggression including state sponsored terrorism and yet has survived. In the new circumstances we have the absolute conviction that we will move forward even more than we already have.” PeopleStatesAmericaMovingNationsMiddleCenturyPositionCircumstancesAbsolutesIncludingInternationalConvictionTerrorismMoving ForwardPermanentIronAggressionDefeatedSolidaritySurvived21st CenturyCubanBlockades Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Cubans are a people who suffered from capitalism in the cruelest way, in the social order, the economic order and the political order.” PeopleWayPoliticalOrderSocialEconomicCapitalismCubanSocial OrderEconomic Order Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The United States is the most indebted country in the world. It has almost 17 billion dollars of debt with the rest of the world while living off the world's savings. They are living off the savings of the people of Greece, the savings of the people of Spain, France etc. All of those countries that save their reserves in the banks in dollars are simply financing the American economy, and that is why the average American citizen consumes two and a half times more than their income.” PeopleWorldTwoCountryStatesUnitedHalfUnited StatesEconomyCitizensDollarsAverageDebtBillionsIncomeSavingFranceEtcReservesSpainGreeceSavingsAmerican CitizensFinancingIndebtedAmerican EconomyHalf Time Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“America did not need to be discovered because quite simply America had the American-Indians. There were whole groups of people that already lived there including very developed societies such as the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. But then came the European vision that saw the conquest as a source of advanced growth away from medieval Europe. The new revolutionary bourgeois trend formed a new perspective on what was democracy that they saw as an improvement to the democracy of ancient Greece.” PeopleNeedsWholeAmericaGrowthVisionDemocracySawsGroupsSourcePerspectiveEuropeIncludingAncientImprovementRevolutionaryTrendsConquestGreeceMedievalBourgeoisNew PerspectiveAncient GreeceMayansMedieval EuropeIncas Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“There is us living the Cuban experience that we believe is ours. We do not believe that it is perfect, but it has been above all counting truly on the people, which is where the origins of true democracy lie.” PeopleBelieveHas BeensLyingPerfectDemocracyCountingCubanTrue Democracy Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The great financial capital is not in one country, it is transnational, that is why it answers to power elites and that is why when I talk about the imperial power of United States I am in no way referring to the American people, who are a noble people that have always been moved by humane concerns.” PeopleWayCountryStatesAnswersUnitedUnited StatesConcernMovedFinancialNobleElitesHumaneReferringGreat Financial Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The American people have on many occasions been willing to shed their own blood for a noble cause, like when hundreds of thousands of Americans participated in the fight against fascism in Europe, and other causes. There are many good people there, and the Cuban people know the American people, we have many examples of solidarity from the American people in every stage of the Cuban people's fight for independence.” PeopleKnowsFightingCausesBloodStageExampleWillingEuropeIndependenceNobleOccasionsGood PeopleFascismShedSolidarityCubanNoble Causes Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“What worker or peasant can pay 80 - 90 million dollars to elect a senator or 4 billion to elect a president? Only great capital can do that. That is why we say that bourgeois democracy has been evolving in the last years into dollar democracy, this is not the democracy of sovereignty, and only the people can determine that.” PeopleYearsHas BeensLastsPresidentCan DoPayMillionsDemocracyDollarsWorkersDetermineBillionsEvolveLast YearSenatorsSovereigntyPeasantsMillion DollarsBourgeoisDemocracies Have Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When we talk about Cuban democracy we are referring to participatory democracy which is big difference with representative bourgeois democracy. Our is a democracy in which everything is consulted with the people; it is a democracy in which every aspect and important decision that has an impact in the life and society of the people, is done in consultation.” PeopleImportantDoneBigsDifferencesDecisionDemocracyAspectImpactRepresentativesBourgeoisReferringCubanImportant DecisionsConsultationParticipatory Democracy Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Just imagine, more than half of the young people in the European Union do not have jobs. How can one explain that? How can one explain that to a working family, that produces goods and services, those who produce the olive oil that is a a main source of food in any European country? They humbly work the land with great effort and then the little resources they had saved in banks have now become dust simply because they did not have the means to withstand inflation produced by the adjustment policies.” PeopleMeanLittlesCountryJobsYoungEffortHalfImagineLandPolicyProduceSourceResourcesUnionsOilSavedDustGoodsInflationAdjustmentEuropean UnionOlivesEuropean CountriesGoods And ServicesGreat EffortOlive Oil Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“It is only through popular consultation and exchange with the people about social and economic policies that we were going to define the strategic direction of Cuba in the next years. To reach prosperous and sustainable socialism, which is our aspiration, we discussed that with the entire population.” PeopleYearsNextSocialEconomicPolicyPopulationSocialismAspirationProsperousNext YearStrategicCubaEconomic PolicyConsultation Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba the elections for the powers of the State comes from the people, first it comes from meetings of the citizens at the base. In Cuba we call them blocks, the divisions of a city that is the term we use. Several blocks of neighborhoods that live in the same area gather in assemblies that are stipulated by law. In those assemblies the people choose freely among themselves who will represent them. The criteria takes into account the candidates characteristics, including if they are hardworking, If they are good people, if they have a clean past, and money has no bearing on who is nominated.” PeopleIfsFirstsStatesUsePastLawTermCitiesCitizensAreasAccountsElectionCleanMeetingsIncludingBlockCharacteristicsCandidatesNeighborhoodDivisionGood PeopleCriteriaCubaAssemblyHardworking Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Cuba is not like bourgeois democracy the ones that imposes the blockade to make Cuba change. We have direct elections. Here they put people on a list and then tell the people supposedly what they have done so they can be elected. That is the difference and why we say our democracy is truly participatory and popular.” PeopleDoneDifferencesDemocracyDirectElectionListsCubaBourgeoisBlockades Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The classics of Marxism talked of communism as a society to which a modern society should aspire, a society truly fair, where the relations of monetary exchange were not the priority but one wher the people's needs could be satisfied, and where people would not be worth more according to how much monetary wealth they acquired. Instead their value would be based on their contribution to society as a whole. It would be a society without class that would accept people based on their capabilities and their potential to contribute to that society.” PeopleNeedsShouldWholeWould BeValuesWealthAcceptingClassModernFairsRelationPrioritiesSatisfiedCommunismContributionCapabilityAspireMarxismMonetaryModern SocietyContribution To Society Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“How do we explain for example the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea Conakry? Those very powers that swindled and occupied them, in the face of the serious situation of social emergency, have not even had the capacity to send doctors there. In some cases they have sent in militaries instead because that is what they are compelled to do. They have had to send military to do it because they do not even have any doctors with the willingness to risk their lives in order to help those people that are precisely paying for the consequences of years of colonization.” PeopleYearsHelpingFacesOrderSocialSituationCasesRiskMilitaryExampleSeriousConsequenceCapacityDoctorsWillingnessCompelledEmergenciesEpidemicsColonizationGuineaSierraEbolaSierra Leone Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When the nuclear weapons were sent to the racist South African government, where a few million white people subjugated more than 13 million black people, it was so they could use them against the Cuban forces that were defending Angola. These things have not been written down but they need to be told as part of the reality of history which should not be distorted the way the historians connected to the power elite tend to do.” PeopleWayNeedsShouldUseRealityGovernmentForceBlackWhiteMillionsWrittenWeaponsSouthConnectedNuclearRacistHistorianBlack PeopleElitesNuclear WeaponsSouth AfricaCubanAngola Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The role that Cuba played and the lives of those 2,077 Cubans, whose mothers and families mourn for having lost their children in Africa, helped achieve the true security and independence of Angola. It was a contribution because in the end the Angolan people were the ones who decided that. We also contributed in a definitive way securing the independence of Namibia after years that a United Nations resolution was being ignored by South Africa and the western powers.” PeopleWayYearsChildrenEndsMotherLostNationsUnitedRolesAchieveSecurityDecidedIndependenceSouthWesternContributionResolutionSouth AfricaIgnoredUnited NationsCubaMournCubanBeing IgnoredAngolaNamibia Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Communism is an aspiration, an aspiration is an ideal, a dream, a longing of something that would be perfect, but hard to build because it has to clash with human nature and against the egotism of humans and the egotism of the elites which usually try to guarantee their own interests above those of their nations and of their own people. But they are the ones that prevail because they have the economic power, the political power and the military power.” PeopleTryingHumansHardDreamWould BePoliticalNationsInterestPerfectEconomicMilitaryHuman NatureIdealsLongingCommunismAspirationGuaranteesElitesEgotismClashPolitical PowerEconomic PowerMilitary Power Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Let's not use the term democracy as a play on words which is what people commonly do, using human rights as a pretext. Those people that really violate human rights [the West] violate human rights from all perspectives. Typically on the subject of human rights regarding the nations from the south and Cuba they say, "They are not democratic societies, they do not respect human rights, and they do not respect freedom of speech".” PeopleHumansPlayUseNationsTermDemocracyRightsSubjectsPerspectiveSpeechDemocraticWestSouthHuman RightsFreedom Of SpeechCubaDemocratic SocietyPretextPlay On Words Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In building up a democratic model I think that Cuba's contribution, little by little, has contributed to getting closer to the ideals of those philosophers, of those Greeks who thought about how a society could be fairer, how a society could really represent the interests of the people. We have tried to get closer to that from a Latin-American perspective and from the Cuban perspective.” PeopleThinkingLittlesInterestBuildingPerspectiveModelsIdealsDemocraticPhilosopherGreekContributionLatinCubaCubanBuilding UpLatin American Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
