Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19600327
-YEAR-
1960
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
OCCASSION OF THE MILITIA PARADE
-PLACE-
CIUDAD LIBERTAD
-SOURCE-
BULLETIN 103,
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19600327
-TEXT-
SPEECH DELIVERED BY DR FIDEL CASTRO

Source:  Discursos Pronunciados por el Primo Ministro, Dr Fidel Castro y el
Ministro de las Fuerzas Armadas, Commandante Raul Castro, en Ocasion de
Efectuarse en Ciudad Libertad el Desfile de las Milicias, el 27 de Marzo de
1960 (Speeches Delivered by the Prime Minister, Dr Fidel Castro and the
Minister of the Armed Forces, Major Raul Castro, on the Occasion of the
Militia Parade in Ciudad Libertad on 27 March 1960), Bulletin 103, pp 1-5

Comrades of the People's Militia:

Contrary to my usual custom, I am going to be brief today.  I do
not believe that there is much to add to what we have seen here today.  I
do not believe that speeches or words could be any more eloquent than this
parade here today.   And we can certainly say that those of us Cubans who
have had the opportunity to witness an event such as this can consider
ourselves privileged, an event such as this one, displaying a people
mobilized to defend its revolution, a people prepared to defend its
sovereignty, an army of comrades who stand guard in our military barracks,
an endless, infinite army, an army in which peasants from the Sierra
Maestra, wearing their wide-brimmed hats, mingle with the legions of woman
who today march side by side with the workers and students.

This army begins in Cuba and ends in Argentina; this infinite army
beings in Cuba and ends in all corners of the world because, wherever there
are workers, wherever there are peasants -- liberated peasants or still
oppressed peasants -- wherever there are students, wherever there are just
men and women, this army is ready to defend a noble cause, ready to defend
a just principle, ready to defend the dignity and rights of man and this
army will have soldiers wherever this is the case; if all of those who in
any part of the world are prepared to spill their blood to defend the Cuban
Revolution had been able to parade here today, we would have needed
thousands of camps such as this one to shelter them -- because we are not
alone.

But we do not only have the soldiers of the Rebel Army or the
members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces; behind them is the entire Cuban
people and behind the Cuban people are all the other peoples of the world
whereas lined up against us are only the big international economic
interests, the big international war criminals, the assassins who serve
foreign interests, the assassins of 20,000 compatriots, against us are the
big monopolies, against us is the international plutocracy -- because it is
no mere coincidence that we are being attacked by the big United States
interests.

If this revolution had occurred in Saudi Arabia, instead of in
Cuba, the problems would have been the same as in Cuba, in other words. the
problems would have involved the big United States monopolies.  This is not
just a simple question of distance; it is not a geographical problem; it is
not a geopolitical problem, as they tried to explain the problems of Cuba
here; it is a problem of economic exploitation which would have given rise
to the same difficulties here as in Iran, which is on the opposite pole
from Cuba, because there would have been the same struggle between a
people's aspiration to liberate itself from economic control and
exploitation and the big monopolies and the big interests that exploit the
people. This is why, wherever there is an exploited people, the Cuban
Revolution will have defenders, in spite of all this systematic slander, in
spite of all this confusion. And those who desert here in the face of these
threats do not matter; the few traitors do not matter; the "attaches" who
allow themselves to be bought by foreign gold do not matter. What do we
care about the deserters! What do we care about those three deserters who
allowed themselves to be subverted! What do we care, if for every deserter
we have a thousand Cubans ready to take up arms! What do we care about
deserters if for every deserter we have a regiment!

And what will the enemies of the revolution say?  What will the
reactionaries say?  What will the divisioinists and the confusionists say?
What will they say after today's parade?  What will they say about their
counterrevolutionary hopes to seize power, after this parade here today?
What hopes could they possible have left except the hope to get some
foreign country to help them return to power?  What hope could they
possible have left, except to mobilize foreign armies against our
fatherland?  What hope could they possibly have left, except -- the, by the
way unfounded -- hope that the Americans would come to solve their
problems?  What little hope have they now, what little hope have they who
applaud the foreign leaders as if they were their own leaders!  What
little hope have they!  First of all, they think that a weak people can be
attacked and they think that a defenseless people can be attacked -- but
the very first stop we must take in order to defend ourselves against the
possibility of attack from them is to be strong and to be prepared.

Attacks are launched primarily against a weak people; you can
easily attack a people that is not prepared to defend itself; you can
easily attack a people that is not prepared to fight to defend itself; they
attacked the people of Guatemala because it was not prepared to defend
itself; they attacked the people of Guatemala because it was a defenseless
people.  In Guatemala, they had instituted an agrarian reform but they
could not finish it because the United Fruit Company and its allies and
sponsors organized a mercenary army, invaded the country -- and you all
know that happened then.  They had an army there that was not at all like
the Rebel Army; they had an army there that was like any other old army;
they had an army there which was led by the United States military mission.
In Cuba we no longer have that old type army; in Cuba we have a new army,
an army of the people; an army which destroyed the old army, an army which
did not learn about war in the academies in the North, nor from the
interamerican Defense Board -- a board that defends the interests of the
enemies of the people; it did not lead war from the Defense Board of the
big monopolies that exploit the peoples of Latin America; it did not learn
about war in the offices of the military attaches at the foreign embassies;
it did not learn about war in the manuals and instructions issued by the
"military missions"; no, it learned how to fight by fighting!  And it
learned this by fighting for a just cause!  It learned how to fight by
dying on the battlefields; it learned how to fight in the mountains, side
by side with the peasants and the workers; it learned to fight underground,
to fight against the torturers and the cops; this was an army that could
not be subverted, an army that received instructions only from its people.

And so, the mercenary armies that are being organized against Cuba
will not have to fight -- as they did in Guatemala -- against the old-type
army but rather against that army here which has already defeated the
mercenaries once before, that army which learned how to fight against
superior forces, that army which learned how to take weapons from the enemy
in combat.  And if once again they organize all the criminals, what hope
could they possibly have left of defeating this army?  If they once again
organize all the mercenaries, what hope could they have left to defeat this
army?  And so, first of all, any invasion force will not find an army here
that will be ready to betray the fatherland but it will have to fight
against any army that liberated the fatherland; and so, the companies and
their sponsors and owners will have their very first problem to contend
with, the problem that they will not be running into an old-type army here
as they did before; and then they will have another big problem and that is
that they will not only have to fight against that army, they will have to
fight against an even more numerous army; they will have to fight against
you all!  They will have to fight against 50,000 soldiers who paraded here
this morning!  But they will not only have to fight against these 50,000
soldiers; they will have to fight against another 50,000 soldiers whom we
are going to train in the capital of the republic; and they will not only
have to fight against the workers and the students in the capital of the
republic; they will have to fight against the workers and the peasants and
the students all over the country.

And so, the companies are going to have a problem, a problem that
will be a little more difficult than the one they had in Guatemala.  Now,
the know this, and since they know this they try to use one weapon against
the people, they try to use a treacherous weapon against the revolution,
and that weapon is confusion and division.  But our enemies are quite
naive.  They believe that the people will fall into this trap!  They
believe that the people, who feels strong because it is united, they
believe that the people, who feels strong -- and it is strong, because it
is indivisible -- they believe that the people who thinks as one man today,
who thinks only of the fatherland, only of a single idea; the idea of the
revolution, under the single banner:  the beautiful banner which was
paraded here today in front of the battalions, the immortal banner of our
fatherland, the banner which we have so many reasons to be proud of, the
banner which has been honored by so many heroes and valiant men, they
believe that the people, which is today united in defense of a single
cause, its own cause, the cause of its own justice, the cause of its own
redemption, the cause of its liberty, they believe that the people, with
all of the lessons that it has learned, is going to be divided; they
believe that the people, that the militia battalions can be divided into
factions; they would like the people to split up; they would like the
people to split up into opposing groups or factions; they want the people
to fight against itself; they want the people to fight among themselves;
but the people understand this clearly; the poor mountain farmers
understand it clearly, the students understand it clearly; the workers
understand it clearly; the Rebels understand it clearly; the women
understand it clearly; the old people and the children understand this
clearly.

And so, the foreign companies are going to run into a rather
difficult little problem here; they are going to have a difficult little
problem here because not only is the people well armed with rifles, but the
people is also well armed with the right kind of thinking.  We are not only
going to train the people in the use of weapons, we are also going to train
them in ways of thinking and in their consciences.

And what Cuban is going to be stupid at this moment?  What Cuban
is going to support the campaign of his enemies?  When was our people ever
stronger than it is today?  When were the rights of the people ever more
strongly guaranteed than they are today?  When were the poor mountain
farmers ever better off than they are today?  When did we ever have more
students attending class than we have today?  When were the workers ever
better off than today?  When was our fatherland ever in better shape than
it is today?

And when was there ever more virtue among our people?  When was
there ever more honesty?  When was there ever more patriotism?  When was
there ever more of a spirit of sacrifice than today?  When was there ever
more glory for Cuba than today?  When was there ever more sympathy for Cuba
all over the world?

And what Cuban would be so crazy or so stupid as to renounce all
of this?  And how could we possibly have achieved all this, if not by
fighting?  And how could we have achieved all this, if not by marching on
the right road?  What Cuban would be so crazy as to listen to the siren
songs of our enemies and to renounce the straight road?

We will expose the traitors and the deserters, the spreaders of
confusion and division, we will expose them before the people.  We will
continuously expose before the people the frauds and the fakers and the
hypocrites, the ones with the mercenary pens and the mercenary voices.

The enemies of the revolution are harboring some empty illusions.
The revolution is getting stronger all the time; the revolution is getting
better organized all the time and this event here today is only the prelude
of what we will have on 1 May.  Today we had a parade of the militia
battalions; on 1 May, the vanguard of the revolutionary armed forces will
parade, followed by the militia battalions, followed by the workers from
all sectors, and behind them, the people.

It does not matter that the counterrevolution is organizing
itself; we, too, are organizing. It does not matter that the
counterrevolution is preparing itself; we, too, are preparing ourselves. It
does not matter that they are organizing expeditions on foreign soil; it
does not matter that Pedraza runs back and forth between Washington and new
York, or between Washington and Miami, or between Santo Domingo and
Washington, or between Washington and Nicaragua, or between Washington and
the plantations of the United Fruit Company in Honduras; it does not matter
because we are preparing ourselves, from Punta de Maisi all the way to Cape
San Antonio. It does not matter that they buy rifles because for every
mercenary whom they arm, we will arm 50 revolutionaries. And this does not
include, as Raul said, the weapons which we are going to take away from
them as soon as they set foot on the soil of our fatherland.

And so, if they do decide to attack us, they had better think it
over a dozen times before they do anything because we are preparing
ourselves; first of all, we are preparing ourselves so that they will not
attack us in the first place; and we are preparing ourselves, in the second
place, so that, if they do attack us, they will have to pay dearly for
their insolence and boldness in trampling the soil of our fatherland.

I wish this parade today would serve as a lesson; I wish this
parade today would make them think things over and leave us in peace and
leave us to work in peace because all we want to do is work, all we want to
do is achieve the great objectives of the revolution, all we want to do is
make sure that they will leave our people alone to go on and to progress,
on its road of struggle and sacrifices, so that we may see the day,
tomorrow, when the people will have the right to enjoy the fruits whose
seeds they are planting today.

And you, the militia battalions, will not only have to be the
first in the parades and in battle; you will have to be the first in the
employment centers, in the universities, and in the educational centers,
and in the rural areas; you will have to be the first in terms of
revolutionary consciousness; you have to be the first in terms of
sacrifices and you will have to be the first in terms of setting an
example.

You, the battalions of people's soldiers, you will always have to
be the first also in terms of revolutionary consciousness; you will have to
be the vanguard in the streets, in the factories, in the rural areas, in
the schools and universities, because the militia battalions constitute not
only the large army of war, they also constitute the great army of peace.
And in peace, we must fight; in peace, we must work; in peace, we must
create, because these are our two great tasks:  to create and to defend
what we create.

And so, you will have to fight wherever any one of you may be, to
elevate enthusiasm and revolutionary consciousness; you will have to raise
the fighting spirit and the spirit of revolutionary sacrifice in order to
make us strong through a high degree of revolutionary consciousness and
this will have to be parallel to our increasing strength in military terms.

And so, I want to say again, if these battalions, which paraded
here today, should ever have to go out and defend the fatherland, let our
enemies think that we are only going to fight in the mountains, or that we
are only going to fight in the rural areas, because we are going to fight
in the rural areas and in the cities; we are going to defend the cities
street by street, block by block, house by house; we are going to fight
everywhere because they will not be able to take a single square inch of
our soil away from us without us defending it fiercely.

I wish our enemies would understand that a people such as this one
is not easy to attack; that a people such as this one cannot be defeated
because we have once and for all adopted as our own that slogan which was
the maximum expression of fighting spirit and Cuban valor, the slogan by
Antonio Waceo:  "Anyone who intends to seize Cuba will soak the dust with
his blood:" -- "Fatherland or death!"
-END-


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