Single Party System Guarantees Sovereignty, Raul Castro Says

Havana, Jan 30. -President Raul Castro stressed at the closing session of the 1st National Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) on Sunday that a single-party system in Cuba guarantees the national sovereignty and social justice conquered by the 1959 Revolution."Renouncing the single-party system would just be as legalizing the party or the parties of imperialism in our homeland and sacrificing the strategic weapon of unity among Cubans."

The first PCC secretary recalled that the hostile scenario surrounding the Revolution cannot be ignored.

Our adversaries and even some of our friends, setting aside the history of permanent aggressions, economic blockade, intrusion and media hostility -as if this were a country with normal conditions not a country under siege- urge to restore the pre-revolutionary multiparty system of a Cuba under U.S. neo-colonial rule.

The Cuban president recalled the concept of PCC as a leading force of a society ruled by the Constitution of the Republic, which was approved by more than 97 percent the voters in a free, direct and secret vote.

Raul Castro said the experiences in the struggle for Cuba's independence and sovereignty confirms the need to defend the single-party system without underrating other countries with other mechanisms.

If we have made a sovereign decision, with the peoplems involvement and support, of choosing Jose Marti's option of a single party system, our duty today is to further democracy in our society, he added at Havana's Convention Center.

More than 800 PCC members attended the 1st PCC National Conference that approved an agenda to secure unity and brace Socialism, including the resolution on the Party's role in fulfilling the 6th Congress guidelines to improve Cuba's economic program.

In addition, they will prioritize preventing and fighting corruption, crime and misdemeanor, and will reject impunity and update the key concepts of PCC relations with the Young Communist League and the mass organizations. (Prensa Latina)