YouSaid · the spoken record

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369
first
1959-09-24
most recent
1974-09-24
sittings or episodes
6
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un-general-debate

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  1. “But although the overthrow of absolutism, mechanical inventions and the emancipating American revolutions tended to close the gap between idea and reality, the gap is now being widened and deepened as a result of the predominance of the profit motive, the pathological misdirection of technology and the growing worship of the State, with the consequent decline in the status of the individual, the mechanization of poverty and the employment of human genius in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. 12. Never before has any social system dehumanized man to such a degree. But never before has humanism demonstrated what it means as an ideal and in its practical implications as in the Cuban revolution.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  2. “Centuries later, the idea was given new meaning when, in a society based on servitude, Christianity asserted the inviolability of the human conscience as the safeguard of the dignity of the individual. The humanism of the Renaissance, the exquisite flower of the most miraculous spring-time of the mind known to history, endeavoured in vain, in that emergent society, with its divided interests, forces, relations and opposing values, to make the quality of being human the common denominator of all groups, occupations and classes, ingenuously entrusting the elimination of social inequalities to an act of individual will. With the Enlightenment humanism again flowered as an idea and during the French Revolution was given concrete expression in the famous slogan: "liberty, equality, fraternity".”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  3. “This is not a third, fourth or fifth position: it is our position, the unique position of the Revolutionary Government and the 26 July Movement, which is equidistant from totalitarian and pseudo-democratic systems of government and finds its expression in government by public opinion at home and in open-door diplomacy abroad. 11. Humanism, as an idea, can be traced back to ancient Greece. In the brilliant maturity of the century of Pericles It was expressed in a saying still remembered by posterity: "Man is the measure of all things". In that society, based on slavery, the only man who could be the measure of all things was the owner of slaves.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  4. “That is why we have said that we are a step ahead of the left and the right, and that this is a humanistic revolution because it does not dehumanize man, because man is its primary concern. Capitalism sacrifices man, and the communist state, with its totalitarian ideas, sacrifices the rights of man. That is why we do not agree with either system. Each nation must develop its own political system, bom of its own needs, and not imposed or imitated. Ours is a revolution sprung from the land of Cuba itself, ask Cuban as our music. Who would expect all nations to listen to the same music? Our revolution is not red but olive green, because olive green is our colour, the colour of the revolution which had its origin in the Rebel Army, in the depths of the Sierra Maestra". 10.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  5. “The world's great problem is that it has been put in a position where it has to choose between capitalism, which kills with hunger, and communism, which solves economic problems but suppresses the freedoms that are man's dearest possession. What Cubans and Latin Americans want beyond all else is a revolution that will satisfy their material needs without sacrificing their freedoms. If we achieve this by democratic means the Cuban revolution will occupy a proud place in world history. We do not mean the same thing by freedom as do the reactionaries, who speak of elections but not of social justice. Without social justice democracy is impossible, for men would be the slaves of poverty.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  6. “Shoulder to shoulder with them, we will fight America's great battle against economic under-development which cripples, enslaves and impoverishes and is at the root of the political upheavals, dictatorships and tyrannies of which we have been and indeed still are the victims. 9. We choose neither capitalism in its historical sense nor communism in its present form. As Dr. Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution and Prime Minister of our Government has said: "We maintain our own position between the world's two rival ideologies or political and economic systems. We have called our position a humanistic position, because of its humane methods, because we seek to free men from fear, domination and dogmas. We are revolutionizing society without oppression or intimidation.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  7. “In the face of this complex situation, the Revolutionary Government of Cuba has maintained, is maintaining and will continue to maintain its own policy, designed to serve the best interests of the people it represents and of kindred peoples. Although we cherish the ideal of a free world democratically united in its diversity, and recognize that our times call for a world outlook and that this is an organization dedicated to the improvement of human relations in international affairs, it is natural that we should feel ourselves to be closely tied by our common background, history, culture and destiny to the Latin American peoples.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  8. “There are other roads and other solutions that are wholly democratic, and Cuba has now found its own road and solution to its problems — the solution chosen by the Latin American peoples which, with natural differences of emphasis, provides us with common ground with the under-developed peoples of Africa and Asia in their courageous search for self-expression. Cuba's role in the world is to be itself and, as José Marti said, not to be an instrument used by one part of the world against another. We will never be a docile pawn on the chessboard of power politics. It is high time that the great Powers ceased arbitrarily to decide the fate of small nations. The coercive action in Guatemala, Guiana, Hungary, Algeria and Tibet must not be repeated. 8.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  9. “It is, alas, an undeniable fact that the world of today is split up into two large groups, one led by the United States of America and the other by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, both armed to the teeth, and a third group, possessing far more moral than physical strength, which tries to serve as a bridge between them. Cuba belongs by history and tradition, geographical position and international obligations to what is known as the Western group. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba, however, will neither accept nor admit false dilemmas or prefabricated divisions. In specific terms this means that we do not accept the view that the only choice is between the capitalist and the communist solution.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  10. “It is these violent contradictions, which spring from the way in which power, wealth and culture have been used and are still commonly used, that must be overcome without delay by exchanging the means of destruction for the means of production and making man himself the be-all and end-all of political, economic, social and cultural organization in national and international coexistence. The primary task and the main duty of the United Nations, in accordance with its principles and purposes, is to work unceasingly to replace our present world, built for death, by a world designed for living. 7. The international policy of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba fully reflects the humanitarian feelings which shape and govern its national policy, fashioned by the needs and aspirations of the people who sustain it.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  11. “The material world, in the control of privileged minorities, is already triumphing over the wo rid of the spirit and is seeking to fetter and degrade it. Governments appear to be ranged in hostile blocs, yet never before have they been so interdependent and has there been so pressing a need for understanding and association among peoples living at the mercy of the spark that could kindle a terrible nuclear conflagration for their destruction. And while the earth's peaceful satellite draws daily nearer to a state of vassalage to the earth, peace moves farther and farther away from this terrestrial globe. 6.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  12. “It could not be otherwise in a period of change in which the sceptre of history is in dispute, and which is compounded of progress and stagnation and of new and old ideas, methods, values and processes. One of the most striking paradoxes of this decisive period is that, whereas the great Powers are investing fabulous sums in the means of destruction and are boldly preparing for the conquest of the universe, there are millions of helpless men and women who rise at dawn and go hungry to bed. There is indeed an alarming lack of balance between the rate of technical progress and the rate of social progress. Poverty increases as man probes the secrets of nature. Freedom abounds in outer space but is lacking in our own planet. Human dignity is on the decline while scientific knowledge is in the ascendant.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  13. “We are equally confident that we can rely in like measure on the sympathy of the more advanced peoples and, above all, on that of the people of North America, who forged the liberty, progress and prosperity which they now enjoy in the course of a determined struggle against all the obstacles that arose in their path. The America of Jefferson, Hamilton and Lincoln, although different in its origin, language and history, has the same human aspirations as has the America of Bolivar, Juarez and Marti. 5. Mankind is today confronted with a situation in which birth and death, ebb and flow, light and shade, illusion and anguish, are intermingled and confused.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  14. “But neither this malicious campaign, nor these preposterous schemes, nor this threat of foreign intervention will make us yield an inch in our defence of the right of self-determination of the Cuban people and of the progressive development of our revolution. What we have been able to achieve as men, we shall hold on to as men, and we are confident that we have the moral support of the under-developed peoples of America, Africa and Asia, for the overthrow of the Cuban revolution would entail their own defeat and hence an obvious delay in the inexorable progress of their liberation.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  15. “The same interests, which remained silent, solely for reasons of expediency, in the face of the horrible crimes committed by Batista, are those which now, in collusion with a few senators and the Cuban war criminals, are instigating, organizing and financing this campaign, the primary purpose of which is to create an international climate favourable both to counter-revolutionary invasions having their headquarters in Miami and in the Dominican Republic, such as the one which was recently discovered and crushed, and to foreign intervention on the false pretext of "Communist infiltration in official circles". 4.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  16. “The scope and extent of the Cuban revolution may be accurately gauged from the campaign of falsehoods, calumnies and vituperation directed against it by North American telegraphic agencies and by the Press of various countries whose reactionary attitude and interfering tendencies are well known.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  17. “It showed this clearly when the question of the Cameroons was being discussed and it has recently given further evidence of it in abstaining in the vote on the draft resolution concerning the vexed question of the representation of China. Let me make this quite clear: the last sparks of colonialism in the Republic were totally extinguished with the shameful flight of Fulgencio Batista, the ex-dictator, and the establishment of the revolutionary Government. The dawn of the era of deliverance which this present year ushered in lit up a new stage in the history of America. It is not in vain that the revolution in Cuba had brought its own up-to-date policies to bear upon its chronic problems and to restore to human dignity the universal values that have been laughed to scorn in this hemisphere and at other latitudes. 3.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  18. “The new Cuba which I have the honour to represent has maintained, is maintaining and will continue to maintain in its international relations a position consistent with the nature and national objectives of the revolution which gave it full political freedom and which is now transforming its economic structure and social character. Today, for the first time in its history, Cuba is truly free, independent and sovereign, and its foreign policy has thus freed itself of all bondage, oppression and servitude. During the tragic seven years in which this seat was occupied by a lackey of the overthrown dictatorship, Cuba’s vote was invariably controlled by outsiders. Today, Cuba votes on its own behalf and in accordance with its own foreign policy.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)

  19. “1. It is not simply as a formal gesture that I open my statement by expressing to you, Mr. President, on behalf of the Government and people of Cuba, my sincerest congratulations on your election as President of the Assembly for this regular session. I do so with the legitimate pride and obvious pleasure of one who feels he shares this great and well-deserved honour. We are Americans, too, and ours are the triumphs of her ’sons .as well as the griefs, anxieties and hopes of her peoples. In the person of yourself, a Peruvian of distinction who has unremittingly and unswervingly striven to the highest principles of international coexistence, the new Cuba feels itself to be adequately represented in this universal parliament of nations. 2. I shall be more explicit.”

    1959-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 14 (1959)