HAVANA (CNN) - Cuban President Fidel Castro, in a speech Friday marking the 1959 Cuban revolution, noted the troubles on Wall Street and questioned if the world can sustain the capitalist economic system.

Castro said falling investor confidence in the United States and what he called the failure of "globalization," raises questions about whether worldwide capitalism can continue.

Castro didn't mention Cuba's desperate economic condition, but he did thank the U.S. House for passing a bill that would lift restrictions on travel to the island nation.

Castro speaking at Cuba's Revolution Day commemoration.

The House voted "with determination and courage for three amendments that bring glory to that institution," Castro told tens of thousands of people gathered for the Revolution Day commemoration.

In his government's first official response to the votes, Castro said he considered the action so important that it didn't matter if President Bush vetoed them, as he has indicated he would.

"We shall always be grateful for that gesture," Castro said.

The House voted Tuesday to lift restrictions on travel by Americans to Cuba, a ban that has been in place for more than four decades -- except during a brief period during the administration of President Carter.

The House also voted to remove blocks to the sale of food and medicine to Cuba and lift the cap on the amount of money that Cuban-Americans can send relatives in Cuba.

The measures now go to the Senate.

The White House said this week in a statement that the president likely would veto the spending bill if it lifted the travel ban. "Lifting the sanctions now would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime," it said.

The bill, which faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate and at the White House, would open the door for increased tourism by U.S. citizens, something Cuba desperately needs.

Castro said Cuba wants friendship with the United States, but he made clear that does not include altering Cuba's one-party socialist state.  

--from staff and wire reports