REPORT OF THE CUBAN DELEGATION TO THE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA AND LATIN AMERICA

London 25th / 26t h February 2006

1. We consider this Conference as an opportune action, courageous and of special importance now. We express therefore, our outmost recognition to all participants and particularly to the British TUC, the British Trade Unions and to the Campaign of Solidarity with Cuba (CSC) in the UK for having summoned and organise this Conference.

2. We also appreciate the fact that this Conference will propitiate an atmosphere for constructive dialogue and a respectful debate of ideas, within a democratic and pluralistic environment, beyond the habitual line of distortions and manipulations of official and deceiving speeches, related to the need of building a common agenda of solidarity with Cuba and Latin America.

3. Our country is grateful for the voices raised in Europe defending our right to determine and build our own economic, political, social and cultural model and to defend it against the external pressures and threats, which tries in vain to destroy it. We are also grateful for those critical voices that within a framework of respect have expressed their concerns or doubts regarding this or that aspect in relation to our society. Above all, we underline today the need for solidarity for Latin America as a whole, never before solidarity towards this region was so necessary.

4. Twenty-four years after the ruthless application of neo-liberal adjustment - -policies In Latin America, the number of people living in poverty, including in abject poverty, is higher than ever before. Unemployment and social exclusion has grown; illiteracy has grown, new and old diseases appears, killing millions of human begins who are deprived of essential health care services, drinking water and basic nourishment. For example in Brazil, 40 million citizens eats only one meal a day and this Is a common feature in many other countries, leading towards the death of millions of children by the way of hunger and preventable diseases, meanwhile the major transactional corporations, particularly the North Americans, appropriate extracts huge profits from our regions, exploiting not only the enormous natural resources, but the cheap labour force that has no other alternative than that of selling their labour in the face of such a desperate situation they experience.

5. But nations are less and less deceived by the songs of the mermaids with which the superpowers tries to perpetuate their domination and the rebel against imperial domination, domestic oligarchy and corrupt and puppet governments, that under the veil of a so-called representative democracy, have contribute to the devastation of their own countries.

6. Important events are taking place today in Latin America in the political, economic and social fields. The triumph of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela and the most recent electoral victory of Evo Morales (n Bolivia, outlines an unstoppable wave of changes occurring in the region. This process is also characterised by the presence of progressive governments in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay; the outcome of the recent elections in Haiti and the development of the popular movement in Peru. These are examples as to how the neo-liberal model and the traditional US domination in our region are being Increasingly defied by our workers and peoples.

7. The defence of the sovereignty and real independence of nations begins to surface through the economic and social programmes that some of these governments are implementing, amongst which we could mention the ALBA initiative (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), that stresses its emphasis on an integration based on solidarity in comparison with the FTAA (Free Trade Area for the Americas), propelled by the US who failed to enforce that treaty In the year 2005.

8. The ideas and plans promoted by ALBA are geared towards the accelerated development of social programmes, such as the elimination of extreme poverty, the development of healthcare and educational programmes, energy reassurance, as well as the protection of natural resources, food production and the protection of the environment, meaning to focus on the kind of human development and social justice based on cooperation and solidarity between our peoples and governments.

9. The government of the United States of America have reacted aggressively and with arrogance in the face of these changes. First by attempting to destabilize the Venezuelan government by the way of participating direct in the Coup d'état against President Chávez and in the Oil Coup that cost the Venezuelan people so much. Later, there has been successive and brutal pressures coming from the IMF and the World Bank against Argentina, the destabilising campaigns against Lula and more recently interfering statements against the government of president Evo Morales, when he began to implement his government's program defending the interest of all Bolivians.

10. It is necessary to promote the strongest links of solidarity amongst European organizations in relation to these processes, supported by the majority of their peoples who seek their own ways for solving the serious problems so long accumulated in Latin American countries as a result primarily, of imperialist policies, the voracity of transnational corporations and the long­term plundering carried out by the international financial institutions due to so many years of submission.

11. In relation to Cuba, it important to acknowledge that the aggressions and threats faced by our country during the last 47 years, are still being enforced today and are even more heightened. To the cruel and criminal blockade that has been drastically intensified, is added as a plus, the aggressive policy implemented by the government of the United States geared towards destroying the Cuban revolution. President George endorsed in 2004, the so-called "Plan for a Transition in a Free Cuba". This monstrous creation, drafted to a great extent by the Cuban-American terrorist ultra rightwing based in Miami, compiles in 458 pages the actions that the US government is developing with the aim of derailing and putting an end to the Cuban revolution, to re-colonise Cuba and to establish a puppet government under the control of the "Coordinator for the Transition", this would be an "administrator" very likely to the one appointed In Iraq, subordinated to the US State Department. This modern "Administrator" has already been appointed by President Bush himself who has recently toured Europe seeking the support of the governments of the region to his aggressive plans. The plan include on the one hand, those measures which according to Washington should lead to the destruction of the Cuban revolution, by the way of intensifying the blockade and political subversion with the purpose of destabilising the country and propitiate a direct military intervention and on the other hand, the execution of their plans in an occupied country.

12. The above-mentioned plan has a secret military component. An essential objective in such regard, is what the Bush administration defines as "to undermine the Cuban strategy of succession", that is nothing else than to interrupt the process foreseen in the Constitution related to who will be the successor of the Head of State, when because of any reason might not be able to carry out his duties. For such situation, they have proposed "to act in an agile and decisive manner so as to put and end to the Cuban Revolution once and for ever". This declared policy clearly underlines the intention of a direct military aggression that would have catastrophic consequences.

13. Some of the measures contained In this plan and are being applied already are:

• To destine 59 million US dollars as funds dedicated to internal subversive activities and to seek for new forms of engaging governments and NGO's of third countries, as well as international institutions in these efforts.
• This year they have destined 3 million US dollars for the creation of the so-called "independent trade unions".
• To reinforce the wrongly called Radio and TV Marti, by the way of illegal transmissions, using an airborne C-130, for which 18 million US dollars were allocated.
• To widespread a negative image of Cuba, using their Embassies overseas and a budget for that purpose of 5 million US dollars.
• To reinforce the blockade implementing: new travel restrictions to North American citizens visiting Cuba, that in practice has been reduce in more than 70°/., eliminating the policy of exchanges known as "From People to People", meaning the suppression of licenses to athletes, academics, writers and other US social sectors, preventing them from visiting Cuba and vice versa, preventing Cuban residents living on the island to visit the us.
• To limit trips to Cuba of those Cubans living in the US to a period of once each 3 years of only those regarded as first degree relative.
• To limit arbitrarily the category of relative, to those who are entitled to receive remittances In Cuba.
• To give strong steps geared towards implementing the Helms-Burton Act, as expressed in the recent expelling out of Sheraton hotel in Mexico City, of a group of Cuban officials and the seizure of their money deposits.
• To implement along with a number of NGO's and other interested parties that an "independent labour representative" residing in Cuba, or a trade union representative "in exile", could represent Cuba in the ILO.

14. In order to attain their objectives, the Bush Plan says that it is necessary to guarantee repression during the occupation, considering this as "an immediate priority".

15. The importance given by the Bush Plan to the variable of violence against the population in order to implement a new order, would inevitably turn Cuba into a territory full of secret jails, Illegal kidnappings, tortures and extrajudicial executions as those extensively applied in the US, Iraq and the Guantanamo Naval Base.

16. The government of United States will create a Commission chaired by the US, that will orient the Cubans as to how they should implement a rapid process of the returning properties, a matter that they consider as "a quite complex issue", in particular when speaking of homes, that would mean in not a few cases, that the original owners would take physical control over the building. They recognise that "the evictions from the residential buildings have the potential of creating an important dissatisfaction within large segments of the population". It is said, that this process should be completed in less than a year.

17. The control over the Cuban economy and over other resources will be exercised by a US Commission that all the way from Washington and with the help of US advisers in all the Cuban ministries, will enforce a process of privatization, a new fiscal and monetary policy, as well as other measures that should be implemented during the first 90 days of the occupation. According to their own description, the step towards this new economic system will be a slow, painful and politically sensitive one.

18. The intervention embraces the entire Cuban society: it is said that the government must be organized until the municipal level, the judicial system and the unions must be changed, as well as to organize churches, religious, civil and professional associations. The new organs of the national Executive would also be under the direct supervision of US advisers. A new parliament would be created and the changing of the Constitution would be part of their objectives: Nothing escapes the voracity of the empire.

19. This plan includes the formation of political parties base on rachitic groups organized, guided and funded nowadays by the US Interest Section in Havana. The plan also includes the elimination of the current electoral procedures, such as the automatic inclusion of electors in the electoral voting ballots. Their declared purpose is that of funded by the occupying forces. organizing political campaigns in the pre-revolutionary style, in which there was scandalous corruption. Neighbors would no longer be the ones nominating candidates , but rather the machinery of political parties supported and

20. To destroy the social work of the revolution becomes another priority for them and for this, privatization would be implemented in the fields of education and public health, also labour laws would be revised with the purpose of eliminating social security schemes, because according to the document, the economy of the "new" government would not be capable of sustaining "the undeserved level and the relaxed requirements that the communist system had in place". As an alternative, the intention is to create the "Body of Cuban Retirees" that would provide jobs, so that retirees could be able to work.

21. We Cuban regard this plan as hardly to be a serious one and at the same time, as extremely dangerous, because it could lead to a direct confrontation with the Imperial power and its Administration, dominated today by an ideology of a Nazi essence which gives privilege to the use of force, unilateral actions and disregard for international law.

22. The government of the United States and their monopolistic deceiving media discourses lies against Cuba and at the same time a policy of silence. Therefore it is paramount important that the world should know that such Plan exist and what is foreseen in it for a sovereign country, well ordered, guided by laws and upon which Washington has no right whatsoever, a country that could very well teach Bush, his corrupt Administration and his allies the deepest lessons of moral, democracy and human rights.

23. The idea that "an open market type of economy" would be the salvation for Cuba deserves a comment. We Cubans know very well which was the outcome of this policy in Latin America and the entire Third World. We even know what such policy has brought to the workers and peoples in Europe and the United States. We recall just as an example, that (n the European Union (EU), within the context of neo-Iiberalism, labour poverty has been imposed since the end of the 60'a. Trade Unionists seated here are very well aware that that vast majority of poor people in the EU live in homes where there is at least there is a complete salary income. The social and political Implications are immense due to the fact that paid wage is no longer a efficient means for protecting workers from poverty, because of the worsening of salary relations associated to labour adjustments within the neo-liberal phase of capitalism. This phenomenon as it is well known, is associated to the lesser capacity of negotiations of trade unions and therefore, to a reduce number of affiliated members.

24. But neo-Iiberalism has not only Increase the levels of exploitation of workers across the world to unbearable limits, but it has Instead been expressed in a perverse political relation, mostly at the international level and also domestically with crude trends and tendencies of right-wing drifting and the suppression of duties of the State, under the false principle that nothing should interrupt the free functioning of the market.

25. Neo-liberalism has strengthened the ultra-right-wing imperial vocation in the United States, a country whose behaviour is today that of a shameless icon owner of the world. In our judgment, all nations on the planet, their peoples and their workers has in the Bush Administration and in the ideologists of the so­called "North American Century", a common enemy, an undeniable fact that should encourage each one of us to strive for unity, mutual support and harmonisation of wills, to share more of our ideas and actions in order to face the biggest threat ever to be confronted by humankind. In the light of these realities, it is understood with clarity that solidarity amongst workers all, those from the North with those from the South and those of the South with the North, is not only an act of generosity and humanism; it is also an act of self-defence.

26. The danger becomes even worst because many European governments acts today as puppets full of resignation towards the imperial policy or, in the worst of cases, they struggle amongst themselves in order to be regarded as the most servile and active allies of the fundamentalist right-wings in the Yankee government.

27. Within this context, it is necessary to take into account the growing and conscious support of the European Union towards Washington's policy in relation to Cuba. The EU has not been able to establish its own line of independent policy in relation to our country. We recall the so-called "Understanding" agreed by the EU and the United States in terms of the application of the Helms-Burton Bill, by which Europe was not opposed to the extraterritorial application of this Law, but rather requested that their interest were not to be Jeopardised. In practice, the Helms-Burton Bill has been applied to tens of European enterprises, in full violation of the sovereignty of nations and of the right of any enterprise to negotiate with Cuba, without having the EU protested one single time to their North American partners.

28. The so-called Common Position adopted by the EU in 1996 proposed by the former Spanish president Aznar that Has also guided the European policy in relation to Cuba in the recent years, is in practice a complete recognition to the obsession of the United States of destroying Cuba. That Common Position la full of double standards and is undoubtedly discriminatory. Cuba is the only country subject to previous conditionality in order to join the Lomé Accords first and Cotonú later. No other country from Africa or the Caribbean have been compelled to accept condition in order to have access to these agreements to which Cuba has all the right because of being a full member of the ACP Group. Cuba is the only country in Latin America with whom the EU has not signed a Marco Agreement of Cooperation, under the false pretext that in Cuba, human rights are violated and that a democratic regime should be established.

29. During the last year, the new Spanish government has unsuccessfully tried to change such policy of the EU sanctions against Cuba. These attempts have failed when crashing against the opposition of governments such as the Check Republic and Poland, as well as the silent policy adopted by other governments that prefer not to "disturb" the empire. Those are the same governments and political figures who hastily attend each lecture against the Cuban revolution, organised in Europe with the funds provided by full hands by the Bush Administration. More recently, the European parliament have endorsed a new Resolution demanding from the European Executive the hardening of their policy towards Cuba. A change would be desirable, such as to see a Resolution coming from the European Parliament, asking the US and their allies, almost every one from Europe, to put an end to the war in Iraq, where tens of thousand of innocent civilians have been murdered or to end the tortures In European jails practiced by the CIA and other US Intelligence bodies. According to Collin Powell, all European governments new about these cruel practices and that they were done with their absolute approval.

30. What would be morale and fair Is to demand a resolution from the European Parliament demanding from the US government to free our five Cuban brothers unfairly incarcerated in US penitentiaries because of having fought against terrorism, or that the should demand from Washington's government not to release the number one terrorist of our hemisphere, Luis Posada Carriles from prison, a confessed author of having blown up a Cuban de Aviación civilian air carrier in full flight with 73 passenger: on board and the assassination In a Havana Hotel of the Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo.

31. We Cubans are no willing to accept a discriminatory treatment. After 47 years of hard struggle against the biggest super power ever to be recalled in history, Cuba is able to exhibit today results in the political, cultural, social and economic spheres that cannot be shown by no other third world country.

32. After the downfall of the USSR and the European Socialist Community and the reinforcement of the brutal US economic blockade, many in the world were inclined to believe that the Cuban revolution would undoubtedly be doomed to collapse. However, here we are. Have not we only had the capability of resisting and overcoming, all the aggressions and sieges, but also to embark on a road towards sustainable development, based on social justice and the utmost possible equality. Here are some figures that will serve the purpose of reflecting these assertions:

• There is a sustained economic growth of our GDP during the recent years. In 2005, the growth was that of 11.8% and we are hopeful that during 2006 it will be higher than 10%.
• There is a rapid recovery of the energy system of the country and for May 1". blackouts will be eliminated.
• This year the record figure of more than 100 thousand homes will be built for workers and their family.
• The unemployment rate is today below 2% and each day new jobs are being created, especially for the younger generation. A single example is the 150 thousand workers affected by the sugar industry restructuring; not a single one of them have been left without a job and none of them have been affected in the salary they earned.
• The past May 1". the minimum wage was increased as well as minimum pensions in 100%, benefiting 4,4 million workers and pensioners. In December, beyond the above-mentioned increase there was a salary increase of around 30% for all workers,
• The system of public health guarantee free and specialised care for all without exception at the highest level: the indexes of infant and maternal mortality are better than in many developed countries. Life expectancy at birth surpasses 77 years. The number of physicians per inhabitant is one per each 180, the highest in the world.
• Education gives coverage to 100% of all children, 98% of which reaches 6th. grade and more than 95%, 9 t h. grade. There are almost 1 million university graduates and more than 500 thousand students in our universities today. Not even one out of the 800 million illiterate in the world today is Cuban.
• Social security Is universal and covers all the retirees and pensioners in the country, who are benefited also by other programmes of social welfare.
• Basic nourishment is guaranteed for all the population without a single exception.
• Our country still considers as an unavoidable duty the solidarity towards other brotherly nations: more than 12 thousand young men and women from Latin America and the Caribbean are studying medicine in Cuba with completely free scholarships.
• More than 100 thousand new physicians will be trained in Latin America and the Caribbean in the next 10 years based on the Cuban experience and solidarity.
• Another thousand of youth from more than 70 countries, are being trained as professionals, technicians, sport instructors, etc.
• Near 33 thousand physicians and other Cuban health-care workers are rendering free medical services in 65 countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean; only in Haiti, a country occupied by thousand of soldiers sent or requested by the US, 80% of its population is being taken care of by Cuban doctors.
• More than 2 500 Cuban compatriots are defying the crude winter and harsh conditions of the Pakistani Cachemira, helping to save human lives. There in Pakistan, after the CNN and BBC news reporters had left, doctors from other countries had also left, Cuban doctors stood behind giving their solidarity, whilst the major international media showed no interest In this.
• Last year more than 150 thousand Latin American and Caribbean patients were treated and operated in Cuba as part of the application of the ALBA Agreements, a project of integration of real solidarity propelled by Venezuela and Cuba. In the next 10 years, near 3 million patients will be attended and cured and will hot be left deprived of their sight.
• By the end of this month of February, another 3 thousand Cuban doctors will be deployed in Bolivia.

33. Five years ago Cuba offered the United Nations the services of 4 thousand Cuban doctors and paramedics for combating the pandemic of HIV-AIDS in Africa, as well as the number of professors required for 20 Medical Institutes for the training and formation of 1 thousand African doctors. The only thing necessary for this was that the international community should provide the medications, equipment and necessary material resources for such productions and services. Cuba would not profit from this and would instead pay our personnel and staff their salaries that would be no doubt the most expensive and costly expenditures for the world health Institutions, as well as the most difficult asset, a human being prepared and ready to fulfil this type of mission. Up to now, no one has answered to this so generous offer. Meanwhile hundred of thousand of dollars are destined each year to finance new wars of conquest, now in the seek for oil, water and the scares natural resources of this overpopulated planet and million of Africans do not have access to the necessary medications for their treatment against such pandemic that threatens with extinguishing entire populations.

Dear Comrades, Brothers and Sisters:
34. We are respectful of the right of each nation to choose the type of political, social and economic regime that they wish and we hope that our right to build our own future may also be respected, that is to respect the severing will of our people.

35. As said by the illustrious Mexican patriot Benito Juarez: "The respect towards other peoples right equals peace,". We hope to build a world of peace in which the rights consecrated in the Letter of the United Nations for the Free Self­determination of the Peoples might prevail.

36. The Cuban delegation to this Conference, on behalf of the entire Cuban people and the Cuban workers, wants to express our gratitude to our European trade union colleges for providing us with this opportunity of exchanging information and criteria and also for the support given to our just cause as well as for the solidarity that you give us in the face of the serious threats pending over our country.

37. We hope that this conference might constitute a new step towards our mutual acknowledgement and understanding and that the basis for the establishment of a real and true cooperation between our organisations and peoples.

Thank you very much.