Event in honor of the anniversary of Cuban National Hero and poet José Marti’s birth – Speech of Nicos Ioannou, member of the Political Bureau of AKEL

 

28th January 2016, Jose Mart Monument, Nicosia

 

Dear friends and comrades,

 

Today’s event in honor of Jose Marti has been established as an annual, humble and modest gathering, not just of the appraisers of Cuba’s National Hero and poet, but also of the friends of the Island of the Revolution.

This is why in conveying today the appreciation of the Central Committee of AKEL to the Embassy of Cuba for today’s invitation, we at the same time address a militant greeting to the Cyprus-Cuba Friendship Association and the representatives of the People’s Movement of the Left, who are working for the promotion of friendship and relations between Cyprus and Cuba; for the mutual knowledge of the history and culture of the two peoples; for the internationalist and anti-imperialist solidarity between the two countries.

It is worth on this opportunity to once again reiterate AKEL’s strong and consistent support towards the struggle of Cuba. We join our voices and call for an end to the inhumane blockade imposed by the US against Cuba for 55 years. We urge the US to heed and comply with the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, which for 24 consecutive years has been demanding the termination of the exclusion. We demand the US closes and dismantles the hellhole of Guantanamo in the military base they occupy in the territory of Cuba, something besides which Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged to do.

The restoration of the diplomatic relations of Cuba with the US is definitely a positive step, which illustrates that the US was forced to readapt their tactics towards Havana. Of course we must clarify that the restoration of these relations does not simultaneously mean their normalization. However, we hope that the restoration of relations will lead to the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba, as well as to the termination of the policies undermining the socialist path of the country. On the other hand however, no one should have any illusions that the US and the world’s most reactionary forces will compromise with the idea that Cuba remains unyielding and socialist; that it stands upright and is building its socialist tomorrow with the Cuban people as the masters in their homeland; that the achievements of the Revolution in education and health, medicine, science, culture and sport, social and labour rights, the status of women, in the forms of popular participation in governance inspire and rouse the peoples of the continent and the entire world.

That is why the solidarity expressed by AKEL, the People’s Movement, the Cypriot Left towards Cuba will not be weakened. Of course, in our view, the defense of Cuba is not the cause only of communists, socialists or all those who admire the heroic stance of the Cuban people. All democratic citizens of the world, every person on the planet who defends the inalienable right of every people to choose its destiny, path of development and its country’s leadership has a position in the front of solidarity towards Cuba. AKEL will therefore continue to support the preservation and strengthening of the excellent relations of the Republic of Cuba with Cuba, which last November completed 55 years. The visit of former President Demetris Christofias to Havana in 2009 and the opening of an Embassy of the Republic of of Cyprus in Cuba were a historic milestone that gave an impetus to our country’s cooperation with Cuba, which can be the bridge of Cyprus to the whole of Latin America.

 

Dear friends and comrades,

The Monument of the National Hero of Cuba Jose Marti in this very area is another testament of this friendship. In essence, it is an answer of Cyprus’s appreciation towards Cuba, in the capital of which the statue of Archbishop Makarios was erected in 2007. The creation of the monument is the fruit of the efforts made by the Cyprus-Cuba Friendship Association; efforts that were successful during the period when comrade Eleni Mavrou was the Mayor of Nicosia. The two Monuments are symbols of the friendship and solidarity between the golden green leaf of the Mediterranean and the Island of the Revolution in the Caribbean.

 

Dear friends,

Jose Marti once wrote “How infinite man is when he knows to exist!” And this phrase can summarize Marti’s entire path: a truly multi-faceted personality who put his own mark on the national struggles, history and culture, not only of Cuba, but Latin America as a whole as well. Jose Marti, the poet who is also a politician; the military leader who is also a painter; the lawyer who is a philologist, teacher, journalist, diplomat and a multilingual translator. At the same time, Jose Marti is also a staunch patriotic fighter for the freedom of his country, a revolutionary for the prosperity of the people and the poor popular masses, a visionary thinker and intellectual guided by the vision of the unity of the whole of Latin America.

The life, work, struggles and activity of José Martí are linked by a historical thread that is expressed today in all that constitutes the spirit of socialist construction in Cuba.

In his life and action we see his selfless and boundless love of his homeland which is waging an unequal battle -as it is doing today as well -the contemporary Goliath of our times. Indeed, Jose Marti dedicated himself fully to the struggle for Cuban independence and liberation from Spanish colonialism. As a teenager he ended up in prison and then in exile, because he published the journal “Free homeland.” In exile, he devoted himself to the struggle of informing the people about the struggle of Cuba. He was at the forefront of the organization of the national liberation struggle. He was the mind and soul of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. He joins the guerrilla war, devoting his life – and finally sacrificing his life in the fields of battle – without however managing to see the liberation of Cuba in 1902.

In the reflections and conscience of Marti, we will also find the revolutionary intelligentsia who sees the world not from above as some enlightened elite, but from below, from the perspective of the underprivileged, the oppressed who want to fight to make their lives and the world better; those who stand on the side of the poor popular masses and the working class which during that precise period emerged at the forefront of history with its first struggles. José Martí lived for a few years in the USA. He experienced firsthand the turmoil of Workers May Day 1886 in Chicago and wrote about the first militant stirrings of the working class and its assertions: for bread, for an 8 hour working day, for dignified work, for education and culture of the people. Marti’s phrase “With the poor of the earth I want to tie my luck” is the hallmark of the class consciousness that characterized his theory and practice.

In Jose Marti’s theory and practice, we will even find the internationalist aspect that is united dialectically and inseparably with the love for the homeland. We will find the bright vision of Latin American unity and solidarity that will come through the awakening of the indigenous peoples of the continent; the vision of “Our America”, ​​as he himself said, that is to say, the vision which belongs to the peoples of the Americas, and not to the colonialists. As Martí however saw, from the 19th century, there was also “the other America”, “the America which isn’t our own,” the terrible eagle of the North: the United States of America that was exterminating the indigenous Indian peoples, oppressing the black people and that subsequently would shackle the South American people in chains with dictators and the chains of economic and political dependency.

The humanism of Jose Marti is not some outdated page of history, or an inheritance for museums. On the contrary, today it represents the ideological and value foundation of the Second Independence of Latin America, the starting point of which is the Cuban Revolution which is continuing for half a century. Anti-imperialism, internationalism and patriotism come together in practice and not in words, as in the contemporary Cuba of the Revolution, which is giving lessons of internationalist solidarity with Cuba’s practical support – in the past – of national liberation movements in Africa; with its tens of humanitarian missions today all over the world; with its pioneering doctors offering selflessly medical and health care in the slums of Latin American countries and to impoverished Africa; with scholarships to Palestinian youth in Cuban universities and so much more. Let us remember, moreover, that a year ago, little Cuba drew congratulations from the international community for its pioneering role in the fight against the Ebola virus in West Africa, where it sent dozens of doctors and nurses, in contrast to the rudimentary contribution of the powerful and rich countries of the world.Dear comrades and friends,

It is an honor for Cuba that it embodies the legacy of such a man; a man adorning the pantheon of heroes and who has been acknowledged as the Apostle of the Cuban nation. It is an honor for us as well to keep Marti’s memory and legacy alive, but also to study his life and work: a life and a struggle whose influence reaches from the 19th into the 21st century, reaching from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean and Cyprus.

 

Dear friends and comrades,

We reverently honor the National Hero of Cuba and we raise high the banner of his universal visions.