Patterson calls For Global South unity

Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson has called for the abandonment of “separatism and division” by the Global South, urging its nations to unite in defence of a fairer global order.

The former prime minister made the call in a message submitted to the first international colloquium, 'Fidel: Legacy and Future', convened in Havana, Cuba, to mark the centenary of the birth of Castro, the deceased former president of that nation.

The colloquium, organised by the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre together with Cuban academic and cultural institutions, opened at the Havana Convention Centre on Monday and will conclude tomorrow — 100 years to the day since Castro’s birth. It has drawn more than 1,500 delegates from some 60 countries.

Patterson advised organisers that a convergence of circumstances had made it impossible for him to attend in person, expressing “considerable regret” at his absence. His disappointment, he noted, was greater because of his standing as “the sole surviving participant” in the historic summit held in Port of Spain in December 1972, at which the leaders of the four then-independent Caribbean states resolved to establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba and end its isolation in the hemisphere.

That decision, he emphasised, was an exercise of sovereign right taken in pursuit of “a zone of peace in our single space”, undertaken without any calculation of the benefits that would follow.

In the decades since, programmes have been spawned, including medical brigades, educational scholarships, disaster relief and technical expertise.

He said these programmes have been provided by Cuba without “a single conditionality” and "without any request for reciprocity of any kind".

Speaking of the man he was privileged to know, Patterson described Castro as “a warrior for human dignity everywhere and a champion who was an invincible foe to injustice anywhere”, a leader who believed in the sovereign equality of nations “regardless of size, military might or economic power”.

He recalled Cuba’s sacrifice in Angola, which he credited with hastening the end of Apartheid and advancing political liberation across the African continent. He characterised Castro as “a quintessential strategist and simultaneously the supreme tactician” who invested in human resources what Cuba lacked in natural ones.

Turning to the present, Patterson pointed to what he termed “the reincarnation of the Munroe doctrine in an even more repulsive edict”, the dismantling of the multilateral system and “the emergence of a new imperium with its flagrant disregard of international law”.

His prescription was unambiguous.

“South—South solidarity is pivotal to our survival and future well-being,” he stated, calling on the Global South to honour the memory and precepts of Castro and “forge instead a single phalanx to fashion that new global architecture which is inclusive, fair and sustainable for every man, woman and child on planet Earth”.

The Global South describes developing, less-developed, or historically poorer nations, broadly encompassing countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and parts of Asia and Oceania. It serves as a modern alternative to terms like 'Third World'.

Patterson called for every participant in the colloquium, and every nation that holds sacred the essence of the human condition, to “condemn, deplore, resist and render adequate relief” in response to what he described as the “cruel, repugnant and unlawful fuel tourniquet" and the punitive embargo imposed on Cuba.

Patterson closed his message by invoking Castro’s own words from the dock in 1953, proclaiming “the clear, incontrovertible verdict” that history had already absolved him in full.

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