29 March 2019, Unisa Main Campus, City of Tshwane
Declaration of solidarity
Firstly allow me to make use of this opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the Cuban people. I accordingly reiterate our Party’s call to the US to unconditionally end its blockade of Cuba and occupation of Guantanamo Bay, an indivisible part of Cuba, and leave it to the Cuban people. Furthermore I reiterate our Party’s support for the rights of the Cuban people to self-determination and national sovereignty, including the right to determine their own path of development. I also want to reaffirm our support for the same rights to the people of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Palestine, Saharawi Republic and Swaziland
Outline of the approach and structure of the input
My input is centred on Cuba and covers both Venezuela and Nicaragua, and broadly Latin America. The input is however not limited to Latin America. Its thrust extends to other countries outside of Latin America faced with imperialist exploitation and domination.
US-led imperialist aggression is once more at its height as in the past decades in Latin America. It is also important that I flesh out the challenges facing Cuba and parts of Latin America in order to underline the importance of deepening and expanding the horizons of solidarity with the Cuban and Venezuelan people.
The significance of the Cuban Revolution and the problem of US reaction
Through Vice President Cde Ines Maria Chapman I wish to start by congratulating Cuba on its 60th anniversary of the triumph of the revolution in January 1959. As we have said before, the triumph, achievements and resilience of the Cuban Revolution are an inspiration to millions of exploited people throughout the world. The Cuban Revolution also remains a shining example of what socialism can achieve in the areas of health and education and in the general improvement of the quality of life of the poor. I further wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Cuba for its adoption of a new constitution for the country whose objective is to lay a firmer foundation for the renewal and revitalisation of the socialist path of development given the new regional and global realities today. One of the greatest lessons that the Cuban Revolution has taught us is that we must never allow our country and national sovereignty to be subordinated to an external force or to be placed on sale.
We are gathered here tonight against the background of more than 55 years of the unjust economic blockade of Cuba by the United States, a blockade that has been condemned by most of the world's nations.
The blockade of Cuba by the US has far reaching extraterritorial implications. First and foremost it is illegal and as just indicated unjustifiable. Secondly, although it is referred to as the blockade of Cuba, in reality it is a blockade of the people of other countries across the world. The “Helms-Burton Act”, named after its primary movers in the US Congress and Senate, decreed that non-US companies are liable to legal reprisals and their top executives would be banned from entering the US if they traded with Cuba. This shows that on this and many other questions of importance there is no significant difference between the republicans and the democrats in the US, as they worked together to impose this draconian law on Cuba and on other countries.
The tyrannical law was signed by Bill Clinton on 12 March 1996 when he was US president. Former US president Barack Obama loosened some parts of this illegal blockade, not out of his good heart but as an attempt to try new ways of pursuing the same US imperialist agenda. Both Clinton and Obama won their election on a ticket of the democrats. Donald Trump, who won his election on a republican ticket, is already not only tightening this blockade but is eyeing Cuba as his next target for further destabilisation after Venezuela.
This gives rise to a profound question. What is this goal around which both major political parties in the US converge, including now the liberal “Left” of the democrats as represented by the likes of Bernie Saunders? The answer is that it is the consolidation of US imperialist power in Latin America in particular and in the world in general.
At the heart of the imperialist system is economic control, in terms of which capital is both a social power and a source of political power. Often a capitalist system that is in crisis seeks to extend and deepen its imperialist agenda as part of its measures to try to resolve the crisis. The political effects of the persistent 2008 global capitalist system crisis for instance have led to the aggressive re-emergence of right-wing populism and reaction, as we can see with the rise of Trump in the US and his aggression against Palestine in the Middle East and Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in Latin America, among others.
Before the success of the Cuban Revolution on 1 January 1959 the US had firmly established itself in Cuba through the control of an enormous economic stake by US-based companies. Politically Cuba was under a dictatorship. In domestic and superficial political terms the regime was led by Fulgencio Batista, while in essence US private monopoly capital was part of the ultimate ruling class. US imperialism was the external dimension of the dictatorship and played itself out by no small measure in the Cuban domestic scenario.
The advance of the Cuban Revolution was met with the reaction of the current US blockade of Cuba and its subsequent expansion, intensification and reinforcements. The blockade as we know it is coupled with military, intelligence and political, diplomatic, propaganda and agitation strategies. The imperialist agenda uses both mainstream and internet based media to advance its unjust course. Its narrative is conveyed in many countries by uncritical or imperialist embedded media. These together with other measures are co-ordinated with the aim of bringing Cuba under the direct class rule of the US. The regime change which the US blockade and the other forms of imperialist aggression seek to achieve is therefore a means to an end – that is economic, political and broader control – and not an end in itself.
Venezuela under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez was faced with the same US-led imperialist class warfare. Its economy was isolated and attacked through a series of measures, including a variety of economic sabotage and sanctions with the aim of generating an economic crisis and exploiting it as a launching pad for an all out regime change agenda. This was increasingly intensified against the Presidency of Nicolas Maduro, and is the context in which the US and its allies have declared an unelected person, the so-called self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. This is against the will of the Venezuelan people, who have elected Maduro as their President. Nicaragua is faced with the same situation. The scenario is however wider than Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and generally Latin America. It includes support for expanded Israeli occupation of Palesine and other affected countries, that is in the Middle East. Imperiasm is revitalising its worldwide aggression. This includes militarism, as its provocative machination in the Middle East and Venezuela shows.
Cuba, Latin America and the necessity to deepen and develop new forms of anti-imperialist solidarity
Some two decades ago Latin America increasingly shifted, through democratic elections towards Left democratic governments. However in recent years these Left advances have been significantly rolled back, with the resurgence once more of US-backed right-wing governments. This of course poses a significant danger that could again produce an expanded isolation of the Cuban Revolution, which is one of the primary short-term goals of the US.
The US enjoys support from former European colonial powers and their allies. This is typified by their uncritical backing of its imperialist agenda in Venezuela, traceable to the notorious Monroe Doctrine. As Abel Enrique Gonzales Santamaria records in his book, entitled the U.S. Latin America Policy: Change or Continuity? the Monroe Doctrine originated from a message by US president James Monroe to the US congress on 2 December 1823. Monroe asserted that the US has never taken part in the wars of European powers, and that consequently, and in addition because of the so-called sincere and friendly relations apparent between the US and those European powers, the US should proclaim that any attempt on their part to expand their “system” (of domination) in the Americas should be considered hazardous to its peace and security.
This was neither in defence of the Americas nor at all progressive. It was a colonial type imperialist partitioning of global regions and the US was claiming the Caribbean and Latin American global region. Viewed from the lenses of imperialism, Latin America was accordingly considered to be the “backyard” of the US for economic exploitation and associated political domination. The automatic support offered to the service of the US by the European powers, as evidenced in the Venezuelan situation, is however also based on the interests of their ruling class. They obviously stand to benefit from the US-led imperialist agenda.
To situate the point just made, let us highlight some of the important economic facts and potential about Latin America from our own interactions through party-to-party relations, as well through a closer analysis of the developments there. Venezuela is recognised as having the world’s largest proven national oil reserves. The US obtains a significant proportion of its oil supplies from the Americas. Most of the vessels either departing or arriving on its shores use the Panama Canal. Latin America and the Caribbean provide the most important markets for the US. The Latin American region has a significant presence in the top ten mining countries, which include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. The main market for the production of their minerals into finished products is the US. This includes bismuth (88%), zinc (72%) and niobium (52%), as well as fluorite and copper (45%). Latin America has half of the tropical forests on the planet. Associated with this are significant proportions of wildlife and marine resources. Five of the ten countries on the planet with richer biodiversity are in the Latin American region, namely Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. The largest biodiversity area in the world, the Amazonia Basin, is also in Latin America. Abel Enrique Gonzales Santamaria has summarised some of these facts and figures in his book stylistically in a popular way.
The US-led imperialist aggression against the governments led by communist, socialist and generally Left parties in Latin America is part of the old, and ongoing, societal history of class struggle. The US imperialist attitude as well as that of its allies is not limited to Latin America. Imperialist regimes constitute the ultimate oppressors of the day. Their actions are anti-communist, anti-sociaist, anti-national democratic revolutions. They are opposed to the national independence of the formely colonised, complete liberation, real freedom. As the Cuban situation clearly shows, an injury to one is an injury to all. On this score, our solidarity with the people of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, with the progressive and revolutionary movements of Latin America, with the people of Syria, Palestine, Western Sahara, with the people of Swaziland, is an integral part of our shared struggle. It is sacrosanct.
Our goal is to achieve universal social and political emancipation. As part of this, we are looking forward to ever deepening strong ties based on solidarity at least with regard to international relations and co-operation at the government and party-to-party levels. The importance of deepening our solidarity ties and activities, among others in the fields of education, health, engineering, technology and broadly the economy, including trade and investment, as well as in politics, cannot be overemphasised. Working together to develop productive forces as rapidly as possible is crucial both in advancing, deepening and defending our national democratic and socialist struggles and revolutions.
There is also a need to champion solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela in the rest of the African continent, especially in the wake of the recent and highly successful SADC solidarity conference with the people of the Saharawi Republic.
Active collaboration and working together in addition in the field of the battle of ideas is also absolutely important. It is for this reason that here in South Africa we must aim to establish centres and academic research and teaching programmes on Latin America. Some of the focus areas for such research and academic centres could include:
- co-operation around comparative studies and projects on the challenges of pursuing national democratic and socialist revolutions on a terrain of capitalism both domestically and globally;
- the impact of the global capitalist crises on developing countries and Left counter-strategies and movement to build better and democratic alternatives; and
- the crisis of social reproduction both in Africa inclusive of SADC and Latin America as global regions and progressive mass struggles to transform this reality.
There is also a need to work towards establishing concrete academic/research collaboration initiatives between South Africa/SADC and Cuba/Latin American think tanks, also as part of laying a firmer foundation for people-to-people contact, in particular revolutionary solidarity. Linked to this must be a conscious effort to develop new types of scholarship to understand contemporary global realities and critically engage the conservative and liberal discourses dominating many university- and think tank-based international relations programmes. These types of studies have been actively fostered and supported by the US especially after the Soviet Union was collapsed. And South Africa itself is full of these programmes in a number of our universities. Our co-operation with progressive forces and scholarship in Cuba and Latin America must aim to diversify thinking and perspectives in international studies and particularly assert the democratic revolutionary way forward that society direly needs. The contemporary and dominant international relations studies are also devoid of the concept of Imperialism, and in addition tend to reduce world politics into a free competition between different political ideas.
Another important area of co-operation and engagement between our two continents must be around the transformation of media, especially focusing on nurturing progressive public broadcasting informed by the needs of the overwhelming majority of workers and poor in our regions. It surely cannot be that media content, analysis and coverage of countries like Cuba and Venezuela is primarily downloaded from online sites and news agencies dominated by imperialist media narrative.
It is by turning to some of the issues just outlined that we can build lasting solidarity between Cuba and South Africa and between our two continents.
Combating corruption, an essential national democratic, Left and socialist programme
Last but not least, it is also going to be important to share experiences on the struggles against corruption in our respective regions. We raise this because we are acutely aware that one of the latest imperialist offensives against Left governments in Latin America and other parts of the world was based on a purported struggle against corruption as it became the case with the imprisonment of Lula da Silva and displacement of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. It is precisely for this reason and primarily a matter of revolutionary principle that Left and progressive forces must be in the forefront of the struggles against corruption, not only in order to defeat a right-wing, and imperialist agenda but also in defence of people’s resources.
