Portside

The United Nations Earth Summit in 1992 took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was supposed to establish guidelines for sustainable development. At the Summit, then Cuban President Fidel Castro gave a speech (short), warning of the dire consequences of failing to reverse course. Castro long warned that capitalism was threatening to destroy human civilization through ecological destruction, with the poor of the global South its first victims. Speech reprinted below.

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“The inhuman exploitation on the peoples of three continents,” he said in reference to Africa, Asia and Latin America, “marked forever the destiny and lives of over 4.5 billion people living in the Third World today.” It was this history, he said, that left “the current victims of that atrocity” in poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and sickness. Castro’s words mirrored reality. He would not end there. It was hope, not despondency, that captured his personality.

It was with deep sorrow and regret that the Cuban people learned of the passing of Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz. Granma shares some reactions to the news.

For many of us in Black America, Castro represented the audacity that we have desired and sought in the face of imperial and racial arrogance.

From poison pills to exploding molluscs, the CIA and its allies tried everything to take out the Cuban leader

Charismatic leader of the revolution and president of Cuba who bestrode the world stage for half a century.

As a contribution to this magazine I have selected the conclusion to my book Fidel Castro's Political Strategy because I consider it be absolutely relevant to the current reality we face. The first part refers to the issue of the immediate enemy and the broadness of the political front.

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On August 13, the world celebrated the 90th birthday of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz, the only individual ever to be acknowledged by the UN as a “World Hero of Solidarity.” It is very hard to think of a more important world leader than Fidel.