On the occasion of the 92nd birth anniversary of Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, we remember some of his wise and always interesting quotes on Capitalism, during speeches and interviews between 1989 and 1993:
"The worker in a socialist system knows why he is working. He is not working just for himself. He is working for his fatherland, society, all the people, his children, the people he most loves, his parents and grandparents, if they are still living. He is working so that his grandparents can also receive medical attention, or have a place to go if they cannot be left alone or if there is no one to tend to them. He is working so that his grandparents can receive a pension so that no one is forgotten. In socialism, a man worksfor himself, his family, and many other things. He is not the worker from the capitalist system. The worker in the capitalist system has no other alternative but to work for money. How can a man be treated like that in socialism?"
"Socialism can and should work better than capitalism. Look at the number of problems that exist in capitalist societies. There is unemployment, disease, drugs, other kinds of vice. What can they do? Each individual is left to his own luck. Capitalism cannot provide a man with any other kind of destiny."
- Second anniversary of the Blas Roca Calderio Contingent, 3/10/1989.
* * *
"What a great thing it is for imperialism, which has a single party, even though it may be disguised with the symbol of a donkey, I think, or an elephant, and other parties with other symbols. They are experts in this--you should know this. But it really is the party of capitalism, the party of imperialism, the party of the monopolies, the party of the transnationals, in which the policies of the different parties are virtually indistinguishable, because the great crimes are supported by both so-called parties in unison. The Grenada invasion was applauded by both parties. The criminal war against Panama was applauded by both parties, by the two so-called supposed parties. The cold war, the arms race, and all the crimes committed by the imperialists for so long have always received the support of the sole party of imperialism and capitalism."
- Closing session of 16th Congress of the Cuban Workers Federation, CTC, at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, 29/1/1990.
* * *
"As I have told you, today we are a symbol. Everyone is watching to see what will happen in Cuba, what the Cuban people will do, what the Cuban people can do: all the people who preserve some vision for the world, who dream of progressive ideas, ideas of social justice, ideas of national unity and independence; all the people who dream of [words indistinct]; all the people who in one way or another hate with all their souls the thought of a world governed by the Yankee empire with the reactionary and fascist ideas that capitalism has spawned during its development; all the people who know a little history, who have noble and truly humane ideas, concepts, and values, hope that there is resistance to that world and that the socialist ideas can survive. The tens of millions who live in shantytowns, the tens of millions of homeless children in Latin America, for instance; the tens and hundreds of millions of sick people without access to medicine, medical assistance, or schools; those who die of anything, even though they might be saved; the 200,000 children who die in Latin America every year who would not die if there was a basic health care system in these countries; the people who are exploited and prostituted; the millions of adolescents and adults forced to beg; the unemployed, the beggars, and the destitute of this world, are all offered as examples of the legacy of Yankee imperialism. Together with the rest of the developed capitalist world, the Yankee world is to blame for the Third World's poverty and misery. The only thing capitalism has brought to 4 billion human beings is hunger and misery, as we said recently. What hope is there for these people to have medical services, housing, water, a minimum of decorum in their lives, and security?"
"I remembered that under the capitalist system it was almost impossible to create teaching or medical positions. There were, as I said before, 300,000 doctors, pardon me, 300,000 professors and teachers, but at varying levels. I can tell you that the capitalism that existed in Cuba a little over 30 years ago, as tough as it was, was not as bad as the capitalism that thousands,hundreds of millions, billions of people in the world are experiencing today."
"What is happening now is worse than what was happening in Cuba, and the situation is growing increasingly worse. Now they are offering neo-liberalism, after demanding that the people pay the last cent of the debt. Everything is being privatized. Everything, of course, is being multinationalized. All the wealth is being surrendered to capitalist, developed countries to end the poverty that was created precisely by capitalism."
"First it was colonialism, then neo-colonialism, then imperialism; summing it all up, this is the consequence of centuries of capitalist domination. Today Cuba is the trench where the most just, noble, and humane ideas are defended. We did not choose this destiny; it was assigned to us by history. We must defend socialism, national independence, and our people's dignity; we must defend the dreams and hopes of the exploited, humiliated, and suffering people of this world."
- Commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory, at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, 20/4/1991.
* * *
"There
is much talk about socialism's defeat, but where is capitalism's
success in Africa, Asia, or in Latin America? Where is
capitalism's success in those nations where millions of people live?"
"Capitalism
has ruined the world; it has poisoned the rivers, the seas,
the atmosphere, it is destroying the ozone layer, and it is adversely
changing the world's climate"
"This selfish and
merciless regime (capitalism) is destined to disappear; I truly
believe this because I have faith in humanity and I believe in
mankind, in his capacity to struggle for justice and for freedom".
- Interview on Mexican magazine "Siempre", 30/5/1991.
* * *
"Neoliberalism is in
fashion today. Tell me: How do three-quarters of humanity live? I
suppose the Africans live like people in Belgium, Luxembourg, France,
Italy? Whose fault is the famine in Africa, socialism's or
capitalism's? What about the wretchedness, the poverty, the ignorance
in which Latin American countries live? Who created colonialism? Who
created neocolonialism? Who enslaved the peoples of the so-called
Third World? Who is poisoning the environment and destroying the
planet? In the capitalist countries themselves is there a crisis or
is there not?"
- Interview on Corriere dell Sera, 5/12/1992.
* * *
"Capitalism has been
unable to create a rational society. It creates a society full of
contradictions and absurdities, full of paradoxes. It has created a
society which depletes everything, natural resources but especially
human resources, a society that alienates everything."
- Closing ceremony of the Education 93
conference at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, 5/2/1993.
