CUBA: Castro Terms Global Crisis a ‘Genetic Defect of Capitalism’

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Sep 29 1998 (IPS) - Cuban President Fidel Castro described the global financial crisis as “a genetic defect of capitalism,” and compared it to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

A depression similar to that triggered in 1929 would have much more serious repercussions “in this globalised world,” Castro warned in a speech which began Monday night and stretched into the early hours of Tuesday morning.

In Castro’s opinion, nothing has been more similar to the infamous crash of 1929, whose fallout was felt for more than 10 years, than what is happening on the U.S. stock markets today.

Castro, whose words were broadcast nationwide by Cuba’s state radio and TV stations, closed the sessions of the fifth congress of the Committees for Defence of the Revolution, which group 7.8 million of Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants.

The president said neither socialism nor communism could be blamed for the global markets crisis, and the cause must be sought in capitalism and “the world order it has imposed.”

He put special emphasis on the grave situation in Russia, which he warned could have serious economic as well as political consequences, and even repercussions for global security. He noted that 200 to 500 billion dollars had fled Russia, and added that there is “a mafia that has taken control of everything.”

No one knows what can happen in Russia, where entire towns depend exclusively on the barter system, and which “are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” said Castro, who added that Moscow would need at least 100 billion dollars to tackle the severe crisis it is facing.

He also commented that after Russia – Cuba’s main supplier of oil – the collapse of Brazil, and the rest of Latin America, could follow.

In Castro’s view, the United States should provide South America with assistance, to defend its own interests and prevent the U.S. stock markets from becoming the next victims.

The consequences of a collapse on Wall Street are unpredictable, he said, wondering what would happen if share prices crashed to one-half or one-third, given the large proportion of the U.S. population that has money invested in that market.

Castro said that in the face of the gravity of the crisis, a meeting on neoliberalism and globalisation convened for next January in Havana, expected to be attended by some 600 economists, has acquired “tremendous significance.” The gathering will give rise to an authentic debate among the various schools of economic thought, he maintained.

Referring to the devastation caused by hurricane Georges in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and a number of small Caribbean islands, where the disaster has claimed hundreds of lives, the president proposed an international aid package for Haiti.

He said that if France – which has close ties to Haiti – as well as Canada, the European Union and Japan “provide the medicine, we are willing to supply all the doctors necessary.”

A well-equipped Cuban medical team was sent Sunday to the Dominican Republic, one of the countries hit hardest by the hurricane.

With respect to Haiti, “it does not need air-dropped brigades, but brigades of doctors,” said Castro, who reiterated that Cuba would provide the specialists while other countries should send “teachers and resources for the necessary infrastructure.”

Castro announced emergency rescue efforts – including the distribution of an additional 156,000 tonnes of food at subsidised prices – for close to four million people in Cuba: residents of the drought-ravaged eastern portion of the island, as well as those affected by the hurricane.

“We have to resolve our own problems, with our own resources, sacrificing what has to be sacrificed in our development plans,” said the president, who added that the Dominican Republic, Haiti and several small Caribbean islands should be given top priority by those providing international assistance.

He also said Cuba would not accept humanitarian aid from the United States – “which has blockaded us for 40 years” – within the UN World Food Programme’s 20 million dollar aid package to Cuba. The funds are especially earmarked for the eastern provinces, in the grip of a severe drought since early this year.

Castro once again lashed out at Washington and its hostile policy toward Cuba. “The United States wants to destroy the Cuban revolution, crush it,” through an ideological and economic war, he declared.

He added that the kind of society developed in the United States “is disastrous for nature,” and said that country was the chief offender when it came to pollution, and the staunchest opponent of environmental conservation measures.

He also dedicated a large part of his speech to underscoring the labour of the Committees for Defence of the Revolution in safeguarding socialism and the social order, an effort he said was of strategic importance “for the survival of the revolution.”

The Committees were created in 1960 as mass organisations in charge of community-level vigilance and preventing acts of economic sabotage or other attacks on the revolution which had triumphed just a year before.