150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF JOSE MARTÍ

Havana. January 30,  2003

Fidel at closing session of the International Conference for World Balance

BY ROGER RICARDO AND ORFILIO PELAEZ —Granma daily staff writers—

"THE greatest moment in Cubans’ memory is having been able to construct and defend this trench so that nobody could descend, with even greater might, on the nations of America and the world," affirmed President Fidel Castro at the closure yesterday of the International Conference for World Balance, organized at the International Conference Center in tribute to the 150th anniversary of the birth of José Martí.

"We have learnt from Martí the infinite value and force of ideas, ethical principles, an inspired patriotism and an elevated concept of human honor and dignity, a lesson unequalled by anyone else," Fidel observed in another part of his address.

"If in some way we have been able to honor our national hero it is by having demonstrated that a little and poor country, still making many inevitable errors of learning, has been able to do a lot with very little, particularly in the field of culture," affirmed the leader of the Revolution.

Fidel attacked the aggressive policy of the U.S. government and stressed that, faced with the sophisticated and destructive weapons with which it is attempting to subject us in order to impose an irrational, unjust and unsustainable order, the alternative is to sow ideas, sow ideas, sow ideas, sow awareness, sow awareness, sow awareness."

FINAL DECLARATION

The conference’s final declaration convened a José Martí World Solidarity Project which, based on a wider representation of world peoples and civilizations and international organizations — in particular UNESCO — and the universal consensus expressed in the creation of the UN after the end of World War II, could promote the ideals of multilateralism in order to guarantee respect for the right of nations, peoples and human beings in the spheres of peace, culture, economy and politics.

The document, read out by Armando Hart, director of the José Martí Program Office, also confirms delegates’ agreement on the need to link Martí’s thinking with the mass movements developing throughout the world, particularly the Puerto Alegre World Social Forum, as well as other popular movements against the war and the arbitrariness and injustice of the dominant system.

Danielle Mitterand, the former first lady of France, spoke at the meeting to explain the meeting point between Martí’s ideals and their contemporaneity and the progressive thinking of the eminent French politician François Mitterand.

Madame Mitterand affirmed the need to defend the values of life, human dignity and solidarity, and stressed the imperative of subordinating profit and power to an equitable life for everyone on the planet.

The message from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela came from its Higher Education Minister Héctor Navarro, who confirmed the contemporary relevance of the ideals of Simón Bolívar and José Martí in confronting the challenges of Our America. At the same time, he expressed his people’s thanks for the demonstrations of solidarity with their fight against a fascist opposition.

The closing session likewise heard a message transmitted to the conference by the eminent Brazilian academic and theologist Frei Betto. His message emphasized the profound roots of Martí’s thought in the Cuban Revolution, and the significance of José Martí’s legacy in relation to the battles current social movements are waging against the imperial hegemony of our times.