Why is there a single party in Cuba?

Excerpt from speech by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz closing the National Assembly of People’s Power Third Legislature’s 10th period of ordinary sessions.

Multiparty systems are imperialism’s great tool to keep societies fragmented, divided in a thousand pieces; making societies incapable of solving problems and defending their interests.

A country divided in ten pieces is the perfect country to dominate, to subjugate, because the nation is without will, since the will of the nation is divided in many fragments; the strength of the nation is divided in many fragments; all intelligence is divided; and what it has is a constant, interminable battle among parts of the society.

A Third World country cannot afford this luxury. Actually many do give themselves this luxury, clearly for quite a while they have, and for quite a while a large part have been subjugated and dominated.

Clearly, for a society that must confront the problems of underdevelopment and develop under the difficult conditions for development existent in today’s world, unity is essential…

… Thus I have the most profound conviction that the existence of one party is, and must be, for a long historical period - no one can predict how long – the form of political organization of our society.