October 12, 2025 from Havana
Fidel speaking at the UN for the second time, October 12, 1979
On October 12, 1979, in the “20th Year of Victory” for the Cuban people, Fidel returned to the same United Nations chamber where two decades earlier he had delivered his legendary four-hour speech, the longest in the history of this international organization. On this occasion, he addressed the audience as president of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to present the results of its Sixth Summit, which had just been held in Havana. Would the Cuban leader be able to deliver a speech as significant as the first time?
His speech conveyed a number of ideas centered on one vital principle: “changing the current system of international relations, based on injustice, inequality, and oppression,” in order to establish a “New International Economic Order.” In this regard, the Non-Aligned Countries, under Fidel’s leadership, adopted as their cornerstone “the principle of peaceful coexistence”, which implies the right of peoples to self-determination, independence, sovereignty, the right to end foreign occupation, and to choose their own social, political, and economic system. “A peace that benefits the big and the small, the powerful and the weak alike, that encompasses all areas of the world and reaches all its citizens.”
Half a century ago, Fidel, backed by the agreements reached in Havana by the Non-Aligned Movement, denounced before the UN Israel’s policy “of aggression, expansionism, and colonial settlement in the territories it has occupied, with the support of the United States,” considering it “a serious threat to world peace and security.” He openly compared the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people to “the eviction, persecution, and genocide that imperialism and Zionism are carrying out today against the Palestinian people.”
A wave of applause filled the room. The firmness of his words at the podium demonstrate, once again, the strength and clarity of the leader’s principles and his determination to fight on the side of the oppressed:
“The basis for a just peace in the region begins with Israel’s total and unconditional withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories and entails the return of all occupied territories to the Palestinian people and the restoration of their inalienable national rights, including the right of return to their homeland, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent state in Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 3236. This implies the illegality and nullity of the measures taken by Israel in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, as well as the establishment of colonies or settlements on Palestinian land and in other Arab territories, whose immediate dismantling is a prerequisite for the solution of the problem.”
Forty-six years later, the genocide against Palestine not only continues but has reached monstrous proportions, despite international demands for an end to the killing once and for all. He blamed imperialism, with its modern form of colonialism, as the root cause of all the imbalances in the contemporary world based on an obsolete international order. He denounced the world economic system as unfair “and incompatible with the development of underdeveloped countries,” whose crises are not temporary, “but rather a symptom of structural imbalances and an imbalance that is inherent in its very nature.” Instead, as an alternative, he proposed the principle of “collective self-sustainability,” based on formulas for collaboration between nations.
If in Fidel’s first speech to the UN General Assembly he had displayed his knowledge of international history and diplomacy, in this second speech he stood out as a statesman with a broad command of international economic policy. He masterfully addressed issues related to unequal exchange, inflation, protectionism, imbalance in the exploitation of natural and human resources, financial resources, arms spending, the international monetary system, the indebtedness of underdeveloped countries, and economic gaps between nations, among others. He concluded that we could not resign ourselves to such a bleak outlook.
But Fidel’s proposals did not only make demands on developed countries, which were responsible for creating an unequal world. He also stressed the urgency of carrying out in the Non-Aligned Countries themselves “the necessary structural changes of an economic and social nature, considering that this is the only way to eliminate the current vulnerability of their economies and to convert simple statistical growth into real development. Only in this way (…) would the peoples be willing to pay the price required of them to be the main protagonists of the process.“ And, quoting the Final Declaration of the Sixth Summit of the NAM in Cuba, he stated: ”If the system is socially just, the chances of survival and economic and social development are incomparably greater.”
Once again, the Cuban representative—from the very lair of the monster—and on behalf of the Non-Aligned Countries, spoke out against “imperialism, colonialism, apartheid, racism, including Zionism, and any form of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference, or hegemony, as well as (…) against the policies of great powers or blocs.“ He affirmed that lifting most of the world’s nations out of underdevelopment should be ”a historical and moral obligation of those who benefited from the plundering of our wealth and the exploitation of our men and women for decades and centuries (…) a task for humanity as a whole.”
The conclusion of the speech was an example of his impeccable oratory. Towards the end, his dissertation became kaleidoscopic and his phrases are still quoted around the world, with emphasis on the one that questioned the relevance and raison d’être of the UN:
“There is frequent talk of human rights, but we must also talk about the rights of humanity.”
“Some countries have abundant resources, others have nothing. What is the fate of the latter? To die of hunger? To be eternally poor? What then is the purpose of civilization? What is the purpose of human conscience? What is the purpose of the United Nations? What is the purpose of the world?
”The exploitation of poor countries by rich countries must stop!”
“Enough words! We need action!”
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English