I send my mst ardent greetings to the long awaited First Solidarity Confer-
ence of the Peoples of Africa, Asie and Latin America. It is fitting that
the Conference should be held in Cuba, for Cuba has achieved a socialist
revolution, the first in the Americas, in the shadow of Goliath. Against
all odds, Cuba, led by the 26 July Movement and Fidel Castro, has defeated
decisively one of the most cruel imerialisms ~ namely United States imper—
jalism. In the present phase of world history, American imperialism has
come to be the main source of exploitation and oppression in the world.
The U.S. owns and controls nearly 60% of the world's natural resources, but
contains only 6% of the world's population. This is the basic reason for
the starvation level of existence experienced by nearly two-thirds of the
people of the world. To protect this cruel system of plunder, the United
States has created an unparalleled war'wachines! iy ors sofliegqmra cp fi.
In the course of history there haveyanny cruel and rapacious empires and
systems of imperialist exploitation, but none before have had the power at
the disposal of United States imperialists. 3,300 U.S, military bases are
spread over the globe to prevent the victims of exploitation from resisting
the domination of U.S. capitalism over the wealth of their country and the
fate of their people. During the past three years alone, paratroop inter~
ventions, marine landings, assassinations, coups d'etat and the corrupt bri-
bery of public figures have comprised the main outlines of U.S. policy in
the world. Tt should not be forgetten that the arms budget imposed on the
world by the U.S. war machine excevds the national product of Africa, Asia
and Latin America. It must be noted that U.S. capitalism has required war
production of such magnitude that it constitutes more than 50% of all econ~
omic activity in the United States. 77 cents of every 100 spent by the U.S.
Government are for military expenditure. Billions of dollars of contracts
are supplied to the military by large industry annually, and the leading mil-
itary figures are on the boards of directors of the companies supplying the
contracts. This system of rapacious exploitation is the main enemy today of
the wellbeing of the people of the world. I have campaigned over many years
in support of world peace and have sought to mobilise opinion against the
cold war and the arms race. Anyone conversant with the facts today must
acknowledge that the cold war and the arms race are the responsibility of the
United States.
In Latin America, a band of reactionary generals, at the instigation of the
Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Ambassador in Brazil, Mr. Lincoln
Gordon, crushed the democratic governaent of Joao Goulart. In Argentina,
American tanks stashed the civilian government of Arturo Frondisi, solely
because this conservative spokesman; for middle class. interests was insuff
iciently subservient to U.S. capitalism. Brutal military putsches have
been imposed upon Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala and Honduras. or decades
the United States sr od «nd supported on. of thc sost barbaric and savage
rulers in mdern times, namely Trujillo. When Trujillo no longer served
their interests, they allowed him to suffer the fate of Ngo Dinh Diem, but
the United States remained the enemy of the people of the Dominican Republic,
ag can be cus by tho arrogant military intervention to crush the brave rev-
olution of April, 1965. The fact that this naked aggression is condoned by
the Unit-d Nations, and thu ability of tho United Statva to escape cxpulsion
frou the United itions for its gross violation of the Chartor a:-ionstrmt™s
that the Unitod lntiens has beco™.c a tool of Amcrican aggrossion of tho ‘cind
displayed in th: Douinican Ropublic. All wy syupathy lics with tho struggle
Lord Russell's i#ssage to the Cuba Conference continued / of the people of the Dominican Republic, which continues at this very moment. tn the Congo, mercenary troops, acting for Belgian and American interests and shamelessly Supported by the British Government, have killed indiscriminately every living villager in the path of the advancing mercenary armies, ‘The dregs of American militarism have been used for this purpose : the merccnary . soldicry of South Africa and of the Cuban counter-rovolution. In the Middle East, United States and Buropean oil interests force poverty and tyranny on the people. British imperialisn, relying on the military and financial power of the United States, is showering the people of Aden with napalm and high explosives in an attempt to Suppress the popular movement. In Southern Africa incalculable riches are taken out of the copper belt of Rhodesia and of South Africa, and the fascist states of Salazar and Verwoerd survive through NATO arms, In South Bist Asia, 50,000 troops prop up the puppet state of lBlaysia, and right wing generals, with United States' money, have taken control of Indonesia. Throughout the South China Seas, every patriotic and radical force is gaoled and persecuted by the imperialist powers. The United States boasts of its intrigues in the Maghreb. It brazenly publishes its plans to subvert all nationalist governments, The Central Intelligence Agency, which is only one of nine such agencies in the United States, maintains a budget fifteen times as much as all diplomatic activity of the United States Government. This is a predatory imperialism and nowhere has it been wre cruel and reckless than in Vietnam. Chemicals and gas, bacteriological weapons and phosphorus, napalm and razor bombs, disembowelment, dismemberment, forced labour, concentration camps, beheadings, elaborate torture — every species of cruelty - has been employed by American imperialism in Vietnam, Clinics, sanatoria, hospitals, schools, villages have been relentlessly saturated with fire bombs : and still the people of Vietnam resist, after 25 years of struggle against three great industrial powers. The people of Vietnam are heroic and their struggle is epic : a stirring and permanent reminder of the incredible spirit of which men are capable when they are dedicated to a noble ideal. The 3, 300 military bases distributed throughout five continents, backed by the immense war production machine of the United States, constitutes a world system of oppression. They also represent the true threat to peace and the true source of the danger of world nuclear war. This Conference must consider fearlessly the means of destroying this imperialism and of achieving world peace. I have supported peaceful coexistence, out of the conviction that conflict in a nuclear age can only be disastrous. This conviction was based on the hope that the U.S. could be persuaded to come to an agreoncnt with the socialist and communist countries. It is now painfully clear that U.S. imperialism cannot be persuaded to end its aggression, its exploitation and its cruelty. .... Wherever there is hunger, wherever there is exploitat~ ive tyranny, wherever people arv tortured and the masses left to rot under the weight of disease and starvation, the force which holds down the people stoms from Washington. Peaceful coexistence, therefore, cannot be achieved by requesting U.S. imperialism to behave better. ees ce The system ao “ oppresses the people of the world is international, coordinated and powerful; but it is hateful and oppressive and in various ways resisted by the people of the world. Our responsibility at this Conference is to forge a united and coordinated resistance to this exploitation and domination. The popular struggle of 2 oppressed people will remove the resources from the control ef U.S. imperial ism and, in so doing, strengthen the people of the United States itself, who