Cuba observes May Day, bemoans global econmic crisis
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Wed 02 May 2012, 09:00 CAT
CUBAN Workers Union general secretary Salvador Valdes Mesa has called for solidarity with those workers worldwide who are victims of the global economic crisis. And for the first time under the socialist revolution Cubans from the nascent private sector joined civil servants in commemorating workers day.
Valdes Mesa, flanked by President Raul Castro who maintained his custom of not addressing the nation on Labour Day, said while there were guarantees for Cuban workers elsewhere workers and other protesters were brutally repressed for demanding their rights.
Valdes Mesa told the hundreds of thousands of marchers who included 1,900 representatives of 209 organizations from 117 countries who attended the parade at Havana's iconic Jose Marti Revolution Square that Cuba's onus was to perfect its socialist system so as to better the living conditions of its citizens.
He said every Cuban worker must put in their best if the country was to increase exports thereby reducing imports as part of the ongoing socio-economic reforms.
Valdes Mesa called for increased food and industrial production on the basis of savings and improving productivity.
"We call on everyone to work with discipline and order as a contribution to the Revolution whose continuity depends on the ability to eradicate our own mistakes including curbing economic crimes such as corruption," he said. "When we raise the flags of unity we show that the homeland, the Revolution and socialism are inextricably merged because unity will be the key to preserving the nation and the economic and social gains."
Valdes Mesa said mobilization was the most genuine expression of support from workers and the general citizenry for the revolutionary regime and its socialist policy.
He congratulated the tens of thousands of workers that in several places around the globe took internationalist missions.
"We send a message of solidarity with workers worldwide who are victims of the global economic crisis and are brutally repressed for demanding their rights," Valdes Mesa said.
He called on the US to immediately end the embargo against Cuba and to also release the Cuban five men (Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez) arrested 13 years ago for infiltrating ultra-rightwing Cuban exiles whom Havana accused of terror activities against the island.
Valdes Mesa said for Cuban workers the May 1 parade was a march for peace and future of humanity.
Gerardo Dominguez, 47, an employee with state telephone company (ETECSA) said Labour Day for the bourgeoisie was something similar to a slap on the face.
He said for Cuban workers May 1 was the greatest thing that ever existed.
"This day has been important all my life," Dominguez said in an interview. "I will keep on cherishing it because I will die a worker. All workers come here in support of the revolution and because here the rights of the worker are guaranteed."
Dominguez said the ongoing economic reforms which the Cuban government refer to as economic updating or adjustment were necessary.
"The adjustments are a necessity in order to preserve the many things we have achieved and overall on the side of internationalism and solidarity we will maintain the principle that we don't give what is in excess but that we share with others the little that we have," said Dominguez.
Another participant who only identified herself as Blanca said the workers parade was a demonstration to the world that Cuban workers were at the centre to finding solutions to socio-economic challenges.
"We are here trying to express our desire to find solutions to the effects of the global crisis and the reorganization of our own economy," she said.
Blanca said with the reforms Cuba could transform herself within 10 years.
"Ten years from today, I wish we get there in the manner we are proceeding, that is in peace without war and hoping also that climate change does not affect us too much and we are not invaded," said Blanca.
And in a sign the reforms have truly taken shape, several hundreds of self-employed Cubans (cuenta propistas) joined the parade.
Oscar Barrero, a chef at La Pachanga Restaurant, said he was overjoyed to join the parade for the first time as a Cuban from the private sector.
"We desire that we all get together and march as we did before as workers under state institutions because we are all Cubans working in different sectors to better our land," he said. "This is an honour."
Barrero said La Pachanga Restaurant located in Havana's Vedado area opened its doors over a year ago and today had 41 employees.
"We are in a marvelous situation," said Barrero. "Businesswise I think we are doing fine. We don't need any state assistance now. We are seeing an upward movement in clients and our biggest challenge is to better service delivery."
Labels: CUBA, LABOUR DAY, RAUL CASTRO
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Cuba and Venezuela heads towards economic union
By Larry Moonze in Santa Clara, Cuba
Tue 27 July 2010, 14:00 CAT
CUBAN President Raul Castro has said Cuba and Venezuela are headed towards an economic union. And President Raul said should Venezuela be attacked nobody should ever be in doubt on which side Cuba will be.
Closing the Cuba-Venezuela summit at Cayo Santamaria, Villa Clara on Monday, President Raul said the two countries had identified 139 projects with potential for establishment in the medium term adding that a significant number could be implemented immediately.
“We are headed towards an economic union between Cuba and Venezuela which constitutes a new type of relationship that allow for better management of joint projects and is at the same time an important step towards achieving real economic complementarities based in the optimal use of infrastructure, knowledge, existing resources in both countries and above all the political will of our governments,” he ent Raul said the two countries had again ratified their will to ever more strengthen collaboration with other peoples on the basis of absolute respect for the path chosen by each country “and aware that we will only triumph united.”
“It is particularly significant and hopeful that our economic ties are consolidated and grow even in the midst of an economic crisis,” he said.
“We live in a difficult economic conjuncture in which new war adventures in different parts of the world that in one way or the other affect us all are added to political and economic instability and the deterioration of the environment. In our region the setting up of US military bases in Colombia puts regional stability and sovereignty of neighbouring states at risk.”
He said Cuba supported Venezuela’s right to defend itself from threats and provocation.
“We fight for peace and harmony among our peoples and our steps will always have this objective but in the case of any problem let no one be in doubt as to which side Cuba will be,” President Raul said.
He further noted that 200 years after the beginning of wars of Independence and since long before, historic experience had taught the Cubans that: “Our America only has one alternative: unite, fight and triumph.”
President Raul said Cuba and Venezuela had thoroughly examined the progress of their exchanges in the economic, commercial and financial spheres.
He said now constant monitoring and evaluation was required so that all that has been agreed upon could be fulfilled and guarantee, by the greatest possible measure, the development of both economies in such a way as to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of the two peoples.
President Raul said priority sectors were in energy, food, health, mining and light industry.
He said Cuba and Venezuela should concentrate on efforts and resources so that the strategic projects ensure development and strengthening of political and socio-economic systems.
President Raul called on both nations to stick to agreed timeframe on all agreements.
Labels: CUBA, RAUL CASTRO, VENEZUELA
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Economic model that privileges a few represent terrorism – Ortega
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Mon 28 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT
NICARAGUAN President Daniel Ortega has said the prevailing economic model that privileges the global few represents terrorism.
In his intervention to close the 8th ALBA heads of state summit at Havana’s Palace of Conventions, President Ortega said the only thing that the alliance’s nine member states could be accused of was solidarity.
In a three-hour ceremony involving speeches by the nine leaders and interludes of music by Latin Grammy awards winners Cuba’s pianoist Chucho Valdez and Buena Vista Social Club singer Omara Portuondo including the first meeting between Fidel and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez in 1994, President Ortega said the head of terrorism was in the United States of America.
“ALBA has marked an alternative not only for peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean but all peoples of the world,” he said.
President Ortega said there was no single country among ALBA members that developed politics of death or war. He said none of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas members stood for maintaining the status quo of impoverishing people.
“None of them commit aggression to another country,” said President Ortega. “Indeed they could accuse us of solidarity and there lies the contradiction between individualism and solidarity. What is being applied in ALBA explains the reaction from those who want to keep the tyranny of global capitalism headed by the United States empire.
They cannot accuse us of terrorism and destabilisation. Terrorism is what is expressed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the blockade against Cuba, the coup in Honduras, imprisonment of Five Cubans while Posada Carriles walks free in Miami...Terrorism has its head in Washington. The imposition of wars and an economic and commercial model to the world that impoverishes the majority of the global population, poisoning the planet and putting in danger the survival of human species is what constitutes terrorism.”
Cuban President Raul Castro said the 8th ALBA summit was a very productive interchange that analysed the undeniable advances and challenges that faced the alliance.
“Being part of the ALBA implies the purpose of building rational and efficient societies that live in harmony with nature and look for social justice for our peoples,” said President Raul. “That is the cooperation and integration that we promote. And such effort needs a revolutionary spirit. As Jose Marti said: We look for solidarity not as a goal but as a way to make our America fulfill its universal mission.”
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves used the session to inform his peers of the British cruelty against his nationals before the island attained independence.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said citizens of St Vincent were forced into exile in Nicaragua, Belize and other Central American countries.
He said others would seek reparations for such cruelty.
Prime Minister Gonsalves called for support to the proposal before the United Nations for reparations for African slavery.
He said the ALBA-TCP was fundamentally a historic and cultural reclamation.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said imperialism even with the election of President Barack Obama to the White House never ceased to undermine the progress in Latin America and the Caribbean.
He said imperialism was at work to isolate and defeat governments that constituted the ALBA.
“We see Colombia now being used as a battleground against Venezuela,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said.
He said hostility had continued against Cuba by sustaining and tightening the embargo.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said there was distabilising work against Nicaragua, Dominica, and St Vincent and Grenadines including the June 28 military coup against the Honduran administration of Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
He said students on scholarship in Cuba should not think they were there because they are bright but should realise that they were studying in Cuba because of an opportunity created by the revolution.
“We have to give solidarity to this light… the work of Fidel and President Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez has been exemplary in putting the ALBA on course,” said Prime Minister Gonsalves. “This grouping, in the world of today, is resolute and steadfast to interests of all people.”
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said through ALBA countries had an opportunity to rise again from ashes caused by capitalism and neo-colonialism.
He said the ALBA had allowed member countries to face the effects of the world economic crisis from a solid ground.
Prime Minister Spencer said in the days when the world was suffering a huge recession the ALBA states under the principles of solidarity, equity and economic complementation were implementing programmes and projects of social benefit seeking to increase the quality of life of their peoples and reduce poverty.
He cited scholarships to hundreds of students from his island nation and food subsidies to the disabled as well as investments to improve the facilities at the country’s airport.
“Over its first five years the ALBA and its Trade Treaty for the Peoples (TPC) has achieved substantial progress but at the same time it has the challenge to look for solutions to climate change, especially because the Caribbean islands are vulnerable to its effects,” said Prime Minister Spencer.
Dominica envoy to Venezuela and ALBA Philbert Aaron said when his country became the first English-speaking nation to join the alliance it received massive criticism but Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit never waivered.
Ambassador Aaron said the ALBA was an alliance of struggle for social justice.
“We live in troubling and interesting times,” he said.
Ambassador Aaron said Prime Minister Skerrit could not attend the 5th anniversary of the ALBA because of electoral campaigns.
He said Prime Minister Skerrit put the ALBA as a key agenda of his foreign policy during the current elections.
Ambassador Aaron called for lifting of US-sanctions against Cuba because they were immoral, unjust and against global public opinion.
He said the Cuban revolution was a common link for all members of the ALBA.
Ambassador Aaron said the ALBA had drawn attention as it spearheaded progressive projects aimed at improving life.
“The ALBA has a human approach to economic development,” he said.
Ambassador Aaron said the ALBA recovered the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean way of life that was brutalised under neo-liberalism.
“Going into the new, the first decade, we seeing the deepening of the process of integration,” said Ambassador Aaron. “After all, what we seek, what we are seeking, most of all is true independence.”
Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA, NEOLIBERALISM, RAUL CASTRO
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I wasn’t elected to restore capitalism, Raul tells Clinton
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Monday, August 03, 2009 12:10:18 AM
CUBAN President Raul Castro has told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was not elected President to restore capitalism in Cuba or give away the Revolution.
Addressing the Cuban National Assembly of Peoples Power on Saturday evening, President Raul told the parliamentarians that recently,
Clinton said the US was open to dialogue with Cuba but was very clear in wishing to see fundamental changes in the Cuban regime.
“I am obliged respectfully to answer Ms Clinton and also those in the European Union who ask for unilateral gestures in the direction of us dismantling our political and social regime,” he said.
“I was not elected as President to restore Capitalism in Cuba nor to give away the Revolution. I was elected to defend, save and keep on improving socialism, not to destroy it. This is something we are to be very clear about since it represents the firm will of the Cuban people as approved on February 1976 in a referendum through direct and secret vote of 97.7 per cent voters.”
President Raul said Clinton should also know that the Cuban Constitution expressed in its first article that, “Cuba is an independent and sovereign socialist state of workers, organised with all and for the good of all as a united and democratic republic, for the enjoyment of political freedom, social justice, individual and collective wellbeing and human solidarity.”
He said Cuba as recently as 2002 declared irrevocable the socialist character, the political and social system contained in the constitution.
“I take advantage of this occasion to reiterate the Cuban disposition to hold with the US respectful dialogue, as equals, without a shade to our independence, sovereignty and self-determination,” President Raul said. “We are ready to talk about all, I repeat, about all, but about here, about Cuba, and about there, about the United States, not to negotiate our political and social system. We do not ask the United States to do it. We shall respect mutually our differences. We do not recognise the government of that country, nor any other nor any group of states’ jurisdiction on our sovereign issues.”
He said in Cuba, since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, there had not been any extrajudicial execution, disappearance of people or torture.
President Raul said torture in Cuba was only perpetrated at the US-held Guantanamo Naval Base.
“Yes, there was torture, and it is on a part of the Cuban territory even though it was not made by us,” he said. “That is why we said with all respect, to Ms Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State of that country, that if she wants to discuss about everything, we will discuss on everything, about here, but about there too.”
President Raul, who noted Cuba and the US were currently holding talks on immigration, said the communist island was not in a hurry to be at the table with its ideological foe, the US.
“We have been walking 50 years on the edge of a blade in which we are well trained, and we are able to resist another 50 years of aggressions and blockade,” said President Raul.
“There are some who say that US power sectors will wait for the disappearance of historic generation of the Revolution, a dark bet around ‘biologic factors’, or in other words, death of Fidel and all of us. Those who think like that are destined to failure since generations of revolutionary patriots to come, first of all our magnificent youth, will not disarm ever ideologically.”
Labels: HILLARY CLINTON, NEOLIBERALISM, RAUL CASTRO
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Neither sanctions nor hurricanes can destroy Cuba - Raul
Written by Larry Moonze in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Monday, December 08, 2008 5:20:50 PM
CUBAN President Raul Castro has said neither the US sanctions nor hurricanes can divide or defeat Cubans. Meanwhile, the third Cuba-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of state summit is underway here in Santiago de Cuba.
He further declared that Cuba-CARICOM had come a long way from the time when it was possible to isolate the island.
Leading CARICOM leaders through the Jose Marti (Cuban national hero) and General Antonio Maceo mausolems on Sunday afternoon, President Raul said Cuba had defied and was prepared to resist US hostility for another 50 years.
"As Marti said of the first war [independence war], we were not defeated by the enemies. We were defeated by ourselves when we let the sword fall down," President Raul said.
He said it was for that reason that former president Fidel Castro insisted on achieving national unity.
President Raul said Cuba had learnt from experience hence the reason it had resisted US pressure for half a century.
He said more than 70 per cent of Cubans were born under the pressures of the US-led economic, financial and commercial embargo.
"We are prepared to resist another half century of hostility from our enemy," President Castro said. "That is why not even the pressures of the blockade nor the hurricanes or anyone will divide us nor defeat us."
And during the dinner in honour of visiting CARICOM leaders, President Raul recalled that under US pressure most governments in the region had severed their relations with Cuba.
He said December 8, 2008 marked 36 years when four Caribbean nations took the daring step of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba.
President Raul said the seminal event was one of historic and strategic dimension to Cuba.
He said it marked the onset of Cuba's formal relations with the future members of CARICOM.
However, President Raul said at the time diplomatic relations were simultaneously signed with Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad &Tobago, Cuba was isolated from the continent.
"Even if we had close links with almost all of the peoples in the hemisphere we only had diplomatic relations with Mexico, Chile, Peru and Canada," he said. "Today reality is different. Cuba has full diplomatic relations with 30 of the 32 Latin American and Caribbean nations. We have come a long way from the time when it was possible to isolate Cuba. The governments of those four nations and their leaders made a significant contribution to the region we all share.
President Raul who conveyed Fidel Castro's greetings to his guests also paid tribute to Errol Barrow, Michael Manley, Forbes Burnham and Eric Williams for their 1972 decision to have relations with Cuba.
Current CARICOM president (rotation chairman) Baldwin Spencer who is also Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda accompanied President Raul in laying wreaths at Marti and Maceo mausoleum.
Other leaders included President Rene Preval (Haiti), Prime Ministers Bruce Golding (Jamaica), Patrick Manning (Trinidad & Tobago), Ralph Gonsalves (St Vincent and the Grenades), Hubert Ingraham (The Bahamas), David Thompson (Barbados), Dean Barrow (Belize), Roosevelt Skerrit (Dominica), Tillman Thomas (Granada), Bharrat Jagdeo (Guyana), Dr Denzil Douglas (St Kitts and Nives), Stephenson King (Saint Lucia) and Dr Ronald Venetiaan of Surinam.
President Raul would open the summit under the theme Cooperation for greater integration in the Caribbean.
Prime Minister Spencer and CARICOM secretary general Edwin Carrington would also make formal addresses in their respective capacities.
The detailed agenda include discussing the ongoing global financial, energy, food and environmental crises and their impact on the Caribbean countries.
The leaders would tackle the issue of Cuba and CARICOM countries in the light of the Latin American and the Caribbean Summit on integration and Development scheduled for Brazil next week.
The other aspect is cooperation between Cuba and CARICOM countries, current situation and perspectives.
Cuban deputy foreign minister Alejandro Gonzalez said the CARICOM had stood with Cuba all the way.
"This summit expresses the firm will of our country to maintain the profound ties of friendship and cooperation with the Caribbean states. These are countries with abundant dignity that the United States has not been unable to sway in its policy against Cuba," said Gonzalez.
He said since 1961, at least 2,813 professionals from CARICOM nations graduated in Cuba including 815 doctors. Another 3,141 are currently studying on the island of which 1,607 were in medicine.
Of the 1,362 Cubans currently serving in CARICOM nations 87.1 per cent are in the field of health.
The CARICOM comprises Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Santa Lucia, San Vicente and the Grenadines, Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Labels: CARICOM, CUBA, RAUL CASTRO, SANCTIONS
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Raul askes US to stop meddling in Bolivia and respect Andean nation's
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Tuesday September 16, 2008 [13:16]
CUBAN President Raul Castro has asked the US to stop meddling in Bolivia and respect the Andean nation's independence and right to self-determination. Commenting on political crisis in rightwing controlled eastern provinces of Bolivia that have left as many as 28 government and opposition supporters dead, President Raul said the constitutional order and territorial integrity of Bolivia must be respected. He reaffirmed Cuba's firmest backing of the legitimate government of President Evo Morales.
"The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba follows with utmost worry the events taking place in the sister Republic of Bolivia and the political, economic and media pressures to which President Evo Morales' government has been subjected which threaten the integrity of the country," President Raul said in declaration issued on Saturday. "Cuba condemns the interference of the United States government and reiterates that the situation created in Bolivia must be resolved by the very Bolivians in strict compliance with the principles of sovereignty independence and self-determination."President Raul called for continental solidarity with Bolivia.
He said the acts of violence that Bolivia had been exposed also threatened the peace and security of South America which served the interests of the enemies of regional integration. "The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba reiterates its firmest backing of the legitimate government of colleague Evo Morales, elected and ratified by vast majority, and its solidarity with the Bolivian people," President Raul said.
He said currently Cuban Collaborators worked in the nine Bolivian provinces exclusively dedicated to propel health and education programmes. President Raul said by last Friday September 12, the Cuban Medical Brigade had offered 17 million consultations in Bolivia. He said under the education programme, 225 of the 327 municipalities in Bolivia had reached the category of free from illiteracy. President Raul said 664,000 Bolivians have been made literate and by end of this year the goal was to cover all the 327 municipalities. The read and write literacy programme in Bolivia is sponsored by Cuba andvenezuela.
"Cuba reiterates its disposition to continue cooperating in an indifferent way with full respect for the principle of not meddling in the internal affairs of Bolivia until the government and people of Bolivia so decide," said President Raul. At the peak of the tension President Morales expelled US envoy to La Paz and his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave the American diplomat 72 hours to leave Caracas after accusing Washington to plotting to oust the Bolivian leftist government.
The US retaliated by expelling Bolivia and Venezuelan envoys from Washington and also freezing assets of three aides to President Chavez.
Labels: BOLIVIA, GEORGE BUSH, NEOCOLONIALISM, RAUL CASTRO
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Raul castigates leaders of wealthy nations
By Larry Moonze in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Monday July 28, 2008 [04:00]
CUBAN President Raul Castro has castigated leaders of wealthy nations for behaving passively towards global crises, terming their attitude selfish and suicidal. eanwhile, President Castro said none of the revolutionary attackers on Moncada dreamt they would be alive today.
And President Castro declared that Cuba would continue paying special attention to defence regardless of the outcome of the next US presidential elections in November.
President Castro also announced that the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the revolution would be held in Santiago de Cuba.
Addressing over thousands of flag-waving Cubans here at Moncada on the 55th anniversary of the attack on Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks on Saturday evening, President Castro said Cubans should bear in mind that they were living in the midst of a true world crisis.
He said the current crisis was not only economic but also associated to climate change, the irrational use of energy and a great number of other problems.
"This situation impacts on every nation but it has a particularly dramatic effect on the third world peoples," President Castro said.
He said international agencies had issued strong alerts as to the seriousness of the crisis of unpredictable consequences.
"Meanwhile, in the light of this crisis the leaders of the wealthy nations and the big transnational corporations behave passively, an attitude that is not only selfish and irresponsible but also suicidal since we all live on this planet whether they like it or not," President Castro said.
He noted the World Bank, although not opposed to capitalism, brought pressure on the G8 to take part in the solution to the problem but that the words fell on deaf ears.
President Castro said most Cubans had shown sufficient knowledge and maturity to understand the simply inescapable realities.
"Others, however, try to stubbornly close their eyes to the world problems," he noted.
President Castro said the revolution would continue to do anything within its power to continue to advance and reduce to the minimum the unavoidable consequences of the present international crisis for its people.
"Yet we should timely explain to our people the difficulties so that we can better prepared to face them," he said. "We must get used to receiving not only good news."
President Castro called on Cubans to coordinate and increase production.
"And together with production, we shall continue paying special attention to defence regardless of the results of the next presidential elections in the United States," he said. "We are now facing an enemy which is much more powerful than the soldiers of the tyranny entrenched behind the walls of this barrack and in Bayamo Carlos Cespedes. But the strength of our people has also grown tremendously thanks to its revolutionary unity, organisation and conscience and to its education."
President Castro said 55 years ago was a short time in the life of a nation but enough to confirm that July 26 marked the beginning of a new era in Cuban history.
"When we think 50 years into the future, it seems something rather distant," stressed President Castro. "However, as I look back at the past 55 years, I feel that they have gone by very quickly."
He said when they attacked the Moncada, none of the participants dreamed of being around today.
"We did not have such dreams even when following the Commander-In-Chief's Fidel Castro orders we entered this fortress victoriously on January 1, 1959, exactly five years, five months and five days later," President Castro recalled. "Most of us were 20 or 30 years old, some were even younger, and half a century seemed to us an eternity."
He said over the years, they had learned that time flies.
"Therefore to waste it away out of inertia or hesitation is an unforgivable negligence," President Castro said. "Let's never forget that this is the socialist revolution of the people, for the people and by the people. We will never betray the memory of those who fell in combat or who were murdered in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo 55 years ago."
He said 55 years ago, a group of revolutionaries attempted to take heaven by storm.
"We were then impelled by the decision to free our land from ignominy and to fulfill national hero Jose Marti's purpose to conquer all the injustice for the people," he said.
President Castro explained that following the attack on Moncada, there was blood everywhere, from the dungeons to the cellar.
"I will never forget the horrific image of the already clotted blood of my comrades spread throughout that terrace roof," he said.
President Castro said that dreadful image could only be watched away with happiness and smile of the tens of thousands of children who had studied in the classrooms of the barracks now turned into a school centre.
"Our battle today is the same that started on July 26, 1953," said President Castro. "It is only taking place in new scenarios, at a higher scale and now in defence of the great conquests attained in half a century."
President Castro said he was aware of the great amount of problems waiting to be solved.
He said most of them weighed heavily and directly on the population.
"There are still many things we would like our people to enjoy even though our reality today is very different from that found by the revolution," said President Castro. "Regardless of our great wishes to solve every problem we cannot spend in excess of what we have. And to make the best of what we have it is indispensable to save everything, foremost fuel.
Labels: RAUL CASTRO
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Raul signs decrees on idle arable land, wages
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Sunday July 20, 2008 [04:00]
CUBAN President Raul Castro has signed two decrees to redistribute idle arable land and another on wages and conditions of service for retired teachers called to duty. President Raul signed Decree-Law Number 259 authorising the handing over in usufruct of idle state land to individuals and legal entities for using in a rational and sustainable form, in line with the land's suitability for agricultural production.
President Raul has insisted on reviving agriculture to halt import dependency. Cuba's food imports this year would cost US$2 billion.
The decree on usufruct land is granted for a period of up to 10 years in the case of individuals and up to 25 years in the case of legal entities.
The maximum amount of land to be distributed to individuals without any land would be 13.42 hectares and, in the case of those holding land as their own property or in usufruct, they could increase it up to 40.26 hectares.
President Raul has asked Cubans to make idle land productive.
"We have to definitively reverse the trend of the declining area of cultivated land which, between 1998 and 2007, in just nine years, has been reduced by 33 per cent - one third of all cultivated land - and considerably influenced the limitations imposed by the Special Period," he said. "To put it in a few words, we have to go back to the earth."
President Raul said there already was a clear strategy and a plan of action from a national level to the productive base about how agriculture and cattle-raising in Cuba should be at this time when around 75 per cent of the population lived in urban areas.
"For that reason every suitable hectare should be planted, primarily in the immediate periphery of every town and city. We will bring the land to the city so we don't have to take the city to the countryside. we'll start from there, with the united and conscious effort of all patriots. We will produce food, preserve the principles achieved by the Revolution and we will continue to move forward without neglecting defense for one minute," he said.
And according to Decree-Law No. 260 published on Friday in the official Granma Daily, it authorises retired teachers and professors (lecturers) with the capacity to contribute their professionalism and experience, to receive, on a provisional and exceptional basis, the full salary of any teaching job they may fill, plus their pension.
"This decree has been expedited for convenience until the new Social Security bill is approved," it stated.
The current social security Act establishes that retirees can participate in paid work on the condition that the total of their new salary and their pension does not exceed the salary they received prior to receiving their pension.
Labels: CUBA, LAND REFORM, RAUL CASTRO
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