Cuba and the Relaunching of the Non-Aligned Movement 43 years ago

The Sixth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), held in Havana 43 years ago, relaunched that organization that contributed throughout its history to the freedom and independence of several countries.

This meeting increased the number of participating nations to 96, with nine observers and 10 guests, and was attended by the largest number of leaders and liberation movements ever gathered at previous meetings.

The speech delivered at that time by Cuban leader Fidel Castro upon assuming the NAM chiarmanship was a historic contribution to the definition of the movement’s objectives and a valuable aid to the debates, and was therefore included in the conference proceedings.

On that occasion, the host Head of State defined the anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-neocolonialist, anti-racist, anti-Zionist and anti-fascist essence of the NAM.

Those of us gathered here represent the immense majority of the peoples of the world, he pointed out in his speech, in which he urged unity in the face of the plundering of the underdeveloped countries by the great centers of capitalist power.

Let us all unite closely; let us unite the growing forces of our vigorous Movement in the United Nations and in all the international forums, to demand economic justice for our peoples, to stop the domination over our resources and the theft of the wealth of our work, he said.

The meeting approved a political and an economic declaration, a program of action for cooperation, several resolutions on the international situation, in correspondence with the principles approved at the Bandung Afro-Asian Conference of 1955, antecedent of the creation of the NOAL in the first Summit held in Belgrade from September 1 to 6, 1961.