Fidel Castros 1960 Speech to the United Nations Did More for Anti-Colonial Struggle Than the UNs Hyperbole About "Eradicating Colonialism" by Ramona Wadi!
(2020-09-26 at 14:05:21 )

Fidel Castros 1960 Speech to the United Nations Did More for Anti-Colonial Struggle Than the UNs Hyperbole About "Eradicating Colonialism" by Ramona Wadi!

This September marked 60 years since Fidel Castros first address to the United Nations, in which he delivered a scathing and truthful critique about the imperialist philosophy of war.

On September 26, 1960, facing the beginning of United States political hostilities against Cuba, while the Cuban delegation to the United Nations was excluded from meetings and diplomatic events, Fidels speech, lasting over five hours, was an eloquent reflection that seamlessly weaved the implications of United States supremacy in a historical narrative from the colonised countrys experience and perspective.

"Colonies do not speak. Colonies are not known until they have the opportunity to express themselves. That is why our colony and its problems were unknown to the rest of the world," Fidel asserted.

The Cuban struggle for independence was perceived as an opportunity for the United States to intervene and exploit the island, through a clause included in the Cuban constitution in 1901 which ensured United States dominance.

Before the Cuban Revolution, the country had merely transitioned from a Spanish colony to a United States colony. The latters expectations were of a failed revolution, but Fidels strategy involved both revolutionary consciousness and mobilisation.

Within the context of Latin American history, Fidels United Nations speech exposed the monopoly of United States-backed dictators in the region and how these were also exploited in turn once the United States determined that backing them would no longer suit imperialist interests. The regional experience was an important comparison, for Cubas social inequalities as a result of Fulgencio Batistas dictatorship were a common experience throughout Latin America.

During his speech, Fidel exhibited a document - a military pact - in which Batistas government and the United States had agreed upon "efficient use of assistance" to prevent the advancing of the Cuban Revolution.

Protecting Batistas government also translated to protecting United States interests in the country; the pacts were described by Fidel as "defence pacts for the protection of United States monopolies."

Perhaps most explicitly, Fidels detailed descriptions of Cubas challenges, including agrarian reform, provided Latin American governments with insights as to how imperialism exploited colonised territory, including the wilful United States destruction of Cubas sugar cane fields during harvest time, in a bid to sabotage Cubas economy under revolutionary governance.

Latin American dependence upon the United States, after all, was what allowed imperialism to retain a foothold in the region. An economy which failed to prosper would provide the United States with the chance to recolonise Cuba - a chance that Fidel was not allowing and which was thwarted through the revolutions insistence upon education and revolutionary participation in rebuilding Cuba.

One important point made in Fidels speech is the acknowledgement that Cuba was not alone in facing such aggression, thus communicating the Cuban revolutions region and international approach.

Another facade of United States interference in the region was the sudden United States proposals for social development, at a time when the Cuban Revolution had mobilised its citizens and within its means to rebuild the countrys social structure.

These interventions were later effected in the region through USAID, planned during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower and carried out by J F Kennedy.

To put it briefly, the United States intended humanitarian intervention as a veneer to maintain control over Cuba and Latin America through purported social and economic development and incentives.

Subsequently, this paradigm was expanded to legitimise the Cuban counter-revolutionary activities as purported "forces in exile that are struggling for freedom", in complete dissociation from the fact that these dissident groups worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency and were funded by the United States government.

In contrast to the United States, the Cuban Revolution expressed a staunch position against war and exploitation.

Had the United Nations not been monopolised by the greater political powers, Fidels speech could have been a turning point in international history.

Without resorting to useless resolutions, as is the United Nations alternative to political solutions, Cubas revolutionary philosophy was succinctly outlined by Fidel: "Do away with the philosophy of plunder and you will have done away forever with the philosophy of war."

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