
(Shorthand Versions – Presidency of the Republic)
Dear friends, dear friends, defenders of international solidarity;
Sisters and brothers of the Cuban Revolution:
To all of you we would like to thank you for being here in Cuba. We thank you for your participation in the Meeting, in which we share the same sentiment and the same commitment: that of human solidarity, which is also for you with your expressions, solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and with the struggle of the peoples for their true emancipation.
To celebrate International Workers’ Day, as we did yesterday in Cuba, together with representatives of the working class and solidarity movements and friends of Cuba is a great honor and a gesture of courage that our heroic people thanks you all for.
It is also an honor for the Cuban people the significant presence and participation of young people in the May Day International Brigade and in the trade union delegations that visit us (Applause).
In this Meeting, which has been held as part of the activities to commemorate International Workers’ Day, more than 1,000 delegates have participated, and 70% of them are coming to Cuba for the first time. This means that Cuba continues to be a point of reference and a meeting place for those of us who aspire to a better world; this means that the family of solidarity is also growing; and this means that in the new generations the feeling of solidarity is also germinating (Applause).
These have been days of intense days. We recently held two days of wide-ranging debate and analysis on the exclusionary and unjust International Economic Order and also on the proposals for a much-needed New International Economic Order.
Yesterday, friends and organizations in solidarity with Cuba from Canada, Uruguay, the United States, Argentina and Ecuador were also honored and awarded. To all of them we reiterate our congratulations and our gratitude.
We also salute the work of the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Network of Solidarity with Cuba and just causes (Applause); the approval of more than 100 resolutions against the blockade in the United States; the 40th anniversary of an uninterrupted friendship with the Australian friends of solidarity, who will visit us in December of this year; and also the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Che Guevara brigade, present here (Applause).


