-DATE-
19600902
-YEAR-
1960
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
MASS MEETING IN PLAZA CIVICA
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA FIDEL NETWORK
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19600902
-TEXT-
CASTRO IN MAJOR SPEECH EYES GUANTANAMO

Havana, Fidel Network, in Spanish to Cuba, Sept. 2, 1960, 2151 GMT--E

(Speech by Premier Fidel Castro at mass meeting in Plaza Civica, Havana)

(Text)  Citizens!  It is apparent that from where you are standing, none of
you can have any idea of the immensity of the crowd that has gathered this
afternoon.  It is a real sea of humans that overflows the Plaza Civica from
one end to the other.  For us, the men of the revolutionary government who
have seen many meetings of the people, this one is of such magnitude that
it cannot but impress us deeply and make us see the enormous responsibility
that you and we have on our shoulders.

The people have gathered today to discuss important questions--above all,
questions of international portent.  But why has hardly anyone stayed home?
Why has this been the greatest meeting held by our people since the triumph
of the revolution?  Why?  Because our people know what they are defending.
And it is because our people know that they are waging a great battle for
their survival and for their victory, because our people are a combative
people, a valiant people, that the Cubans are present here.

It is regrettable that today, when we are going to discuss the same
questions that were discussed in Costa Rica, the 21 foreign ministers of
America are not sitting here.  It is regrettable that they are not present
to be given an opportunity to see the people they condemned at the meeting
of Costa Rica.  it is regrettable that they are not present so that they
could compare the great difference between the diplomatic language of the
foreign ministers and the language of the peoples.

There our foreign minister spoke on behalf of our people.  But those who
were listening to him, a large part of those meeting there, were not
representing their peoples.  If there, in Costa Rica, men had gathered of
America--above all, of the peoples of Latin America--a declaration like the
one they pronounced never would have been articulated against the
interests of a people of America and against the interests of all the
fraternal nations of America.

And what was being discussed there?  They were playing there with the
destiny of our country.  They were (commenting?) on the aggressions against
our country.  They were (forging?) there the dagger which the criminal hand
of Yankee imperialism wants to plant in the bossom of the Cuban nation.
(Chanting)

But, why did they want to condemn Cuba?  What has Cuba done to be
condemned?  What has out country done to merit the declaration of Costa
Rica?  Our country has done nothing but break its chains.  Our country has
done nothing but struggle for a better future without prejudicing any other
country, without taking anything away from any other country.  Our people
have wanted nothing but to be free.  Our people have wanted nothing but to
live from their own labor, our people have wanted nothing but to live from
the fruits of their efforts.  Our people have wanted nothing but to own
what is their own, to own what belongs to their land, to own what is of
their blood, to own what is of their sweat.  (Chanting)

We Cubans have wanted nothing but to make the decisions which guide our
conduct and to have as our own, and only our own, the lone star flag which
waves over our country.  Cubans want their laws to be their own, their
natural resources to be their own, their destiny to be their own.  They do
not want any interest, no matter how powerful, nor any oligarchy or any
government, no matter how powerful, to be able to interfere with their
destiny.

Our liberty should be ours because liberty has cost us many sacrifices; our
sovereignty should be ours and should be complete because our people have
been struggling for our sovereignty for a century; and the wealth of our
land and the fruits of our labors should be ours because our people have
sacrificed themselves for them.  All that has been created here has been
created heree has been created by the people.  The people have produced,
by their sweat and their work, all the wealth that is here.

Our people had a right to one day become a free people.  Our people had the
right to one day be the masters of their own destinies.

Our people had the right to one day have governors who would not defend the
foreign monopolies, who would not defend privileged interests, who would
not defend the exploiters, but rather governors who would place the
interests of their country above the interests of the voracious foreigner,
governors who would place the interests of the people, the interests of the
peasants, the interests of their workers, the interests of their youth, the
interests of their children, the interests of their wives, the interests of
their old people above the interests of the privileged, the exploiters.

When the revolution achieved power on Jan. 1, 1959--little more than a year
and a half ago--what was there in our country?  What was in our country if
not tears, blood, misery, and sweat?  What was there for our peasants in
our country?  What was there for the children in our country?  What was
there for the workers in our country?  What was there for the poor families
in our country?  What had prevailed until that day in our country?

The most inhuman exploitation had prevailed.  Abuse, injustice, the
systematic plundering of the public funds by rapacious politicians, the
systematic plundering of national natural resources by foreign monopolies,
inequality and discrimination had prevailed.  Lies and deception had
prevailed.  Submission to foreign designs had prevailed.  Poverty had
prevailed.  Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of families were living
without hope in their humble cabins.  Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
children did not have schools.  More than half a million Cubans did not
have employment, and the Cuban Negro had less opportunity than others to
find work.

The guajiros lived on the boundary lines.  The cane workers worked only a
few months out of the year, and they and their children went hungry the
rest of the time.  Vice, gambling, and everything of the sort prevailed in
our country.

The farmer was exploited, the fisherman was exploited, the worker was
exploited, the people were exploited.  For the immense majority of the
people nothing was ever done.  Nothing was ever done for the people.  No
measure of justice was ever enacted for the people to free them from their
hunger, to free them from their poverty, to free them from their pain and
suffering--to free you, Cuban citizens, to free you men and women, old and
young, to free you, this immense crowd that has gathered here, to free the
Cuban nation, to do something for it, to do something for its benefit.
Absolutely nothing was ever done.

The people had to suffer helplessly.  The people in our country had to pay
the highest rents in the world.  The people in our country had to pay the
highest electricity rates in the world.

The people in our country had to pay telephone rates in accordance with the
interests of a foreign company which wrested concessions from a tyrannical
government when the blood of our heroic students was still warm on the
pavement in front of the presidential palace.

There were only 70 millions left in the nation's coffers.  In unequal trade
with the United States our country in 10 years had paid 1 billion dollars
more than the United States paid us for our articles.  There were no
factories.  Who was going to build factories for the hundreds of thousands
of Cubans who were without work?  There were no agricultural plans, there
were no industrial plans.  Who was going to take care of establishing
industries?  And what could the people do?  What could the sugar worker do?
What could the sugarcane distiller do?  What could the worker do?  All he
had was his miserable salary.  He had only the crust of bread which he
could take to his starving children.

The foreign monopolies took the profits.  (Applause)  The profits were
accumulated by the interests which flourished at the cost of the work of
the people.  This money was either kept indefinitely in the banks or was
spent on all kinds of luxuries, or particularly, was sent out of the
country.

Who was going to build the factories for the hundreds of thousands of
jobless Cubans?  As the Cuban population grew, and as each year more than
50,000 young people attained their majority (brief passage indistinct.)
What was the growing population of our country going to live on?  What were
the peasants, the peasants' children going to live on when they had neither
work nor land?  What was a growing population going to live on when the
human increase was much greater than the growth of industry and economy?
The people lacked every opportunity.  It was very difficult for the son of
a peasant or the son of a worker, the child of any poor family, to hope one
day to become a professional man, a doctor, an engineer, an architect or a
university (technician?).  There were children from poor families who, at
the price of extraordinary sacrifices, went on to higher studies.  But the
immense majority of the children of our families often did not even have a
chance to learn the alphabet.  There were entire regions in Cuba where a
teacher had never been seen.

Our people had access to work only if they could find it.  The worst was
always the lot of our people.  There never was a recreation field for our
people.  There was never a beach for our people, never a park, and in many
towns where there was a park the Negro citizens were not permitted to walk
in it.  This was what the revolution found when it came to power.  A
country economically underdeveloped.  A people victimized by all kinds of
exploitation.  This was what the revolution found after a heroic and bloody
struggle.

Revolutions are not made to leave things as they are.  Revolutions are made
to correct all the injustices.  Revolutions are not carried out to protect
or to seize privileges.  Revolutions are made to help those who need to be
helped.  Revolutions are made to establish justice, to end abuses, to end
exploitation--and our revolution was made for this reason.  It was for this
reason that men fell, for this reason that many sacrifices were made.  The
revolution came to put the country in order.  The revolution came to do
what every Cuban long had been asking to have done.  When each helpless
Cuban analyzed the life of our country and the framework of the national
life, he always said one thing:  This must be taken care of; this has to be
put in order; some day this has to be taken of.  And the more optimistic
said:  Some day this will be taken care of.

The Cubans fought a long time to put their country in order.  But there was
a very powerful force which prevented us from taking care of our country.
This force was the imperialistic penetration by the United States into our
country.

It was this force which did not allow Calixto Garcia and his brave
soldiers to enter Santiago de Cuba.  It was this force which prevented the
liberating army from carrying out the revolution when the republic was
young.  It was this force which, from the very beginning, determined the
future of our country.  It was this force which permitted the seizure by
foreign interests of the natural resources and the best lands of our
country.  It was this force which (dared to?) interfere in the affairs of
our country.  It was this force which crushed every attempted revolution.
It was this force which always associated itself with everything that was
negative, reactionary, and abusive in our country.  It was this force which
prevented a revolution from taking place sooner in our country.  It is this
force which is trying to prevent us from taking care of our country now.

This is the force which kept the tyranny in power. It was this force which
trained the tyrant's henchmen, which armed the tyrant's soldiers, and which
gave weapons, planes, and bombs to the tyranical government in order to
keep our people in the worst oppression. This force was the chief enemy of
the development and progress of our country.  This force was the main cause
of the evils we have suffered.  This force is trying to bring about the
failure of the Cuban revolution.  It is this force which is trying to bring
back the war criminals, the exploiters, the monopolies, the large estates,
poverty and oppression to our country.

The Cubans must see very clearly that imperialism, which is the force to
which we were referring, is trying to prevent our people from attaining
their full development.  They must understand that this force does not want
you, the Cubans, to be able to attain a decent living standard.

It does not want your children to be educated.  It does not want our
workers to enjoy the fruits of their labor.  It does not want our peasants
to enjoy the fruits of their (efforts?)  It does not want our people to
grow, to work, and to have a better future.

Until now our people did not have a change to understand these great
truths.  The truth was hidden from our people.  Our people were miserably
deceived.  Our people were kept divided and confused.  Our people never had
any change to discuss problems of an international nature.  The people did
not know about a single thing the American ambassador said to the leaders.
The people did not know a single thing about what was being plotted by the
foreign ministers.  The people did not count.

The people were not gathered together to be given an account of their
problems.  The people were not brought together to be informed of what was
going on.  The people did were not brought together to be informed on the
truth.  The future of our people was decided in the U.S. State Department.
Our people counted for nothing in the future of the country.

Could Cuba continue to be resigned to this fate?  Could the Cubans continue
to tolerate this system?  What did the Cubans do?  All the Cubans did was
to rebel against all this.  The Cubans rebelled against all this.

In their attempt to bring about the failure of the revolution, they began
by slandering it.  They began by waging a campaign against it throughout
the world in order to isolate us from our sister nations of the continent
and to prevent the world from knowing what our revolution was achieving.
Later when the attempts began to discredit the revolution, to divide the
revolution, and to restrain it, the more or less direct attacks began.  The
bombarding of our sugar fields began; the air attacks over our country
began; the maneuvers to deprive us of oil continued; and they finished by
harming our economy (about four words indistinct) reducing our sugar quota
by 1 million tons.

This was an aggressive policy against our country.  It was an act which
violated international law.  It was an act of economic aggression against a
small country in order to get it to desist from its revolutionary aims.  It
was economic aggression to obtain a political result.

The small nation had been attacked.  The small nation saw its fields bombed
and set on fire by planes coming from the United States.  It was logical
that any foreign ministers conference could not condemn Cuba.

It was logical that any foreign ministers conference would condemn the
United Nations for its attacks upon a small country.  The absurd thing was
that the small country was condemned by the foreign ministers just to serve
the purposes of the powerful aggressor nation.

Here is what we are going to discuss today during this general national
assembly of the people of Cuba.  In the first place, why is this a general
assembly of the people?  What does a general assembly of the people mean?
In the first place it means that the people are sovereign--that is that
sovereignty lies with the people from whom all power emanates.  The people
of Cuba are sovereign.  No one could dispute the fact that the majority is
represented here:  No one could dispute that fact that the people are
represented here.  In the annals of our country's history, never has such a
multitude gathered together.  In the annals of the history of our country
never has such an meeting been seen.  In the annals of the history of
America, never has such a multitude been gathered together.  In the annals
of the history of America never has such a gathering been seen.

Today we Cubans can speak to America.  Today we Cubans can speak to the
world.  It is not a small group of political sergeants that is meeting here
today; it is not a handful of mercenaries meeting here today.  The people
are meeting here today.  Those who want to know what a nation gathered
together looks like should come and see this.  Those who want to know what
a democratic nation is should come and see this.  Those who want to see a
people deciding its own future should come and see this.  Those who want to
know what a democracy is should come and see this.  Today we can speak to
America and to the world because we are speaking with the word (Editor's
Note:  Castro pauses here and then begins his sentence again.)  We can
speak to America and to the world because we are not a group of men who
claim to represent nations as did those who said they represented the
sister nations of America.  We can speak to America with the voice, the
approval, and the support of an entire nation.  And let those in America
who say that they speak in the name of the people meet with their people.
Let those in America who say that they represent the people and who went to
Costa Rica to speak in the name of their respective peoples meet with their
respective peoples.

Let those in America who call themselves democrats meet with their peoples
as we have met with ours here to discuss Americans' problems with them.
and let them remember that, for international decision to be valid, it is
necessary that it meet with the approval of the people.  If they want us to
accept the decisions of Costa Rica let them submit them to the approval of
their respective nations.

(Editor's Note:  At this point the crowd begins chanting and the national
anthem is played.  The interruption lasts about seven minutes.  Castro
then continues:)

It is a basic principle of public law that no foreign minister can commit
his country to an act of international law if that act does not have the
approval of the people.  A representative of any country does not go to an
international meeting by his own right.  No one has then right, on his own,
to commit the international conduct of a country.  And those who go,
without representing the countries, to commit the conduct of the countries
do not commit them to such conduct.  Any act that is made over the
sovereign will of the peoples is null and void.

Therefore, the validity of the declaration of Costa Rica depends, not on
the foreign ministers, but on the peoples, and they cannot come to the
Cuban people with the story that that declaration is valid because they say
they represent the peoples.  No.  We must be given proof that that is the
will of the peoples.

We ask the Government of Venezuela, the Government of Peru, the Government
of Chile, the Government of Argentina, the Government of Brazil, the
Government of Ecuador, the Government of Costa Rica--that is, we
respectfully ask the governments of America--to convoke their peoples in
general assemblies and submit to them the declaration of Costa Rica.

And let them not say that they cannot.  We are speaking democratically.  We
are speaking democratically because we can rightfully speak of democracy.
We can immediately gather the people and let the people decide.

Why does not the President of Venezuela gather the people together?  We
respectfully invite the President of Venezuela to gather the Venezuelan
people in Caracas and submit to them the declaration of Costa Rica.  We
respectfully invite the President of Argentina to gather the people of
Argentina in a general assembly in Buenos Aires and, as we are doing here,
submit the declaration of Costa Rica.

We respectfully invite the Government of Uruguay to gather the Uruguayan
people (few words indistinct) and to consult them in regard to the
declaration of Costa Rica.  We respectfully invite the Government of Chile
to gather in the capital--No, don't you say a thing; let us wait to see if
they gather them.  Let us wait to see if they gather the people of Chile in
the capital and consult them about the declaration of Costa Rica.

We here invite the Government of Peru, the Government of Ecuador, and--of
course, we do not speak of the governments of Nicaragua or Guatemala or
Paraguay because that would be a joke.  No, I will not speak of those
tyrannical governments such as the Nicaraguan and the Paraguayan.  No, no!
We will speak of those which call themselves democratic governments.

Democracy comes from the people.  Democracy means government of the people,
by the people, and for the people.  And the one that does not gather
the people together, that one is not democratic; the one that does not
consult the people, that one is not democratic.  To be democratic the
people must be consulted.  (Chanting and applause)

And this here, and this certainly is representation because we have no
ballot box stuffing here, nor fraud, nor bought votes, nor political
sergeant, nor machines, nor bottles, nor nothing; this here is pure.  This
one, this one really is a democracy free of impurities.  This is a truly
pasteurized democracy.

And let them not tell us that this one is less democratic than the other,
that the democracy of the political sergeant, ballot box stuffing, of the
bottle, of petty politics, of bribery, of the buying of consciences, of
complicity, of political machinery is purer than this one.  Can there be
anything purer than a meeting of all the people?

Did someone bring the people by force?  Did anyone pay the people to come?
(Several words indistinct) having the trouble that you are having, because
we know that in a close crowd there are many people who faint.  And there
are many persons.  We know the thirst you are suffering.  We know the
sacrifice you are making.  (Chanting)

When any of you come from remote places such as the Province of Oreinte or
the Province of Camaguey, or Las Villas, or Matanzas, or Camaguey, or from
the interior of Havana, or from the villages farthest from the capital, and
(then?) spend hours and hours and stay on your feet, and make all those
sacrifices which you are making absolutely spontaneously, (several words
indistinct), each of you feels that it is your duty and comes here because
you understand that it is your duty, and (several words indistinct) your
country, and that you must defend your country, and that you have (words
indistinct) of the country very high, and that you must (rise up?) against
calumny.  (Crowd interrupts) And because you know, you know that you had to
send a message to the brother nations of America, and because you know that
you had to give a reply to the declaration of Costa Rica, and because you
know that the entire people had to answer "present," because yours is a
people that is conscious of its duties, because you are a people that feels
that a great historic (role?) being accomplished, that feels that it is
defending a very noble cause, (remainder of sentence indistinct).

What does that mean?  That the people are marching united because the
people know that there interests are the ones that count, that their will
is what counts, that in their country today absolutely nothing is done that
is is not for their good.

And that is how all governors should be.  All governors should exist for
the purpose of doing good for their people, not to rob, not to plunder,
not to sell their people, nor to betray their peoples. That is why, that
is why we who really can speak (on behalf?) of democracy, propose this.

We propose it to the government of America.  And we hope that they are not
affended by this, because we are not proposing anything bad.  We are
proposing only that they gather the people together and that only the
people have the last word about the declaration of Costa Rica.  And if the
people do not give their approval, the declaration of Costa Rica is not
valid to us.

And we hope that no government of (word indistinct) of America will be
angry because we ask them to gather the people.  And, since they say that
it is us who are leaving the American family, we are telling them no, that
those who have left the American family, that is, the Latin American
family, to associate themselves with the Yankee, with the exploiting Yankee
empire, are those who went to Costa Rica.  That is to say that we are not
leaving the Latin American family.  On the contrary, we want our family,
the peoples of Latin America, to unite and have the last word because that
is our real family.

The peoples of Latin America are our real family.  But what is happening?
It is no secret.  They take away our sugar quota and then it is distributed
among all those governments that should have condemned the action.  That
is, we were the victim country.  The U.S. Government takes away our quota,
and the (several words indistinct) is distributed among the judges.

What has the Government of the United States done?  An act of bribery.
What?  To offer the judges the part that it had taken away from our quota.
But another thing, while debate is going on in Costa Rica, they grant a
credit of 600 million dollars to distribute among the governments, that is,
among the oligarchies of Latin America.  How is it possible that in the
middle of a conference a government that respects itself, a country that
respects itself, and respects the rest, goes there with a credit of 600
million dollars, offering it to the countries that are debating?  How can
it be conceived that such is a moral policy?  It is an immoral policy, the
policy of the Government of the United States which takes the Cuban quota
away and distributes it among the oligarchies.  It grants a credit of 600
million dollars in the middle of the conference and distributes it to the
oligarchies.  They may be able to buy the oligarchies with that, but they
cannot buy the peoples with that.  What is more, let them go and ask the
peoples.  Let them go and ask the peoples so they will see that the peoples
will do just as we have done.

What they are going to say is:  What we want is that the mines should be
ours, and that the petroleum be ours, and that the industries be ours, and
that the monopolies go home, that we do not need their dollars.  That is
what the peoples will tell them.

What do the people of Venezuela want?  That they be given dollars?  No,
what they want is that their dollars not be taken away, that their natural
resources not be depleted.  What the people of Venezuela want is that their
petroleum and their mines and their natural resources be returned so that
they can develop their natural resources and progress.  That is what the
Venezuelan people want.

That is what the peoples want. The peoples know that money (stays?) in the
hands of the oligarchies, the estate owners, and exploiters, of all those
who govern and direct the policies of those countries.  The peoples know
that they receive nothing.  That is why there is a diplomacy between
presidents.  They do not tell the peoples anything; the people are simple
spectators, and are not consulted when these decisions are made.  That is
why we say to imperialism that what matters is not the opinion of the
oligarchy, that the oligarchies can be sold, but the brother peoples of
America will never sell themselves for any gold of Yankee imperialism.

They went there to debate with the bag in one hand and the garrot in the
other; it is unnecessary to say that even if they had not taken the bag,
they would have obtained the declaration of Costa Rica.  Why?  Because they
were carrying the garrot.  Furthermore, even if they had not taken the
garrot, they would have voted with imperialism.  Do you know why?  Because
the great landowners of America do not want agrarian reform, the monopolies
of America do not want agrarian reform.  The exploiters in Latin America do
not want justice in Latin America.

So, out of pure fear of a revolution that put an end to all privileges here
and put an end to the landed estates and put an end to exploitation, out of
pure fear of a revolution such as this, and out of pure fear that the
peoples become contaminated by the revolutionary spirit of Cuba, they voted
against Cuba because what they want is that the example of the Cuban
revolution be destroyed.

But that is not what the workers of Latin America think.  That is not what
the peasants think, what the students think; that is not what the people of
Latin America think.  The people of Latin America, although there has been
a campaign against Cuba, although the cables of the Yankee agencies are
continually lying and repeating all kinds of falsities about the
revolution, the peoples do not swallow it; the peoples do not swallow the
lies of imperialism.

Well, we (word indistinct), we went there to debate.  We presented our
point of view there.  We debated very well.  What happened?  What everybody
expected despite the formidable evidence and the extraordinary moral force
of Cuba, those foreign ministers, although many of them were ashamed,
signed the declaration; not all of them because Foreign Minister Arcaya of
Venezuela refused to bow to the governmental directive.  (Several words
indistinct) Venezuelan delegation signed, following instructions of the
Venezuelan Government, Foreign Minister Arcaya, representing the feelings
of that heroic people of Venezuela, that heroic people of Venezuela who
have been in the street for a week protesting against the declaration of
Costa Rica--Foreign Minister Arcaya refused to sign the resolution, the
declaration.

But there is another thing.  The foreign minister who had convoked that
meeting, apparently at the instruction of his government--because it was
the Peruvian foreign minister who convoked the meeting to deal with the
alleged extra continental interference--was so disgusted by the
authoritarian spirit and the (word indistinct) of the U.S. State
Department, he was so disgusted with the farce that the Peruvian foreign
minister also refused personally to sign that declaration.  (Chanting)

And even when the Mexican foreign minister signed the declaration, almost
upon arriving in Mexico he said that he was in no way in record with the
condemnation of Cuba.  And, although the declaration was a condemnation of
Cuba, he personally said that it was not his intention to condemn the Cuban
revolution.  That is to say that the moral force of Cuba was such the
prestige of our revolution was such that several foreign ministers refused
to sign the declaration; and some of those who signed it made statements
expressing their views which favored Cuba.

It is clear that that does not (word indistinct) the contents of the
declaration.  The contents of the declaration are against Cuba.  But, of
course, such extraordinary things happened in that conference that,
according to reports from Comrade Ilivarez, the Argentine delegation
presented a proposal in English.  It presented a proposal in English.
Later they explained it was an error--but what an error, a Spanish-speaking
country presenting a bill in English.  Was this a victory for imperialism?
No, this was a victory but a Pyrrhic one for imperialism--a Pyrrhic victory
is one which damages the victor.

Let us see now what they will say about this democratic assembly and how
they will dare to say that the people are forced to praise a revolution
which is not democratic.  Their little story about democracy will be
brought to an end.  Up to this point the United States have been able to
talk about their little story of democracy.

From now on, from this point on the ones who will speak of democracy will
be we, who have gathered the people and discussed matters with the people
of our country.  And those who must use means of oppression, repressive
laws, persecuting the people there with forces of repression, jailing the
citizens, let then not speak of democracy.  He who cannot gather the people
together, let him not speak of democracy.  He who cannot gather the people
together, let him not speak of democracy.  He who cannot gather the people
together and consult them and count on the people to (word indistinct) the
country, let him not come with his little story of democracy.

Now let us discuss, let us decide, the people of Cuba are going to decide,
in this national general assembly of the people upon the declaration of
Costa Rica and, moreover, we will have to formulate our own declaration.
They had theirs.  We will have to have ours, here--the declaration of
Havana.

Nearly all the articles of the declaration are against Cuba but (several
words indistinct) we will have to decide whether to accept or reject the
declaration.  We went to Costa Rica.  We must now and here submit to the
people of Cuba the declaration.

This declaration says in its first article:  Intervention or the threat of
intervention is emphatically condemned, even when it is conditional by an
extracontinental power against an American republic and it declares that
the acceptance of a threat of extracontinental intervention on the part of
an American state endangers the solidarity and security of America.

The Organization of American States requires the rejection of (word
indistinct) with energy?  The energy of the (shark?) or the energy of the
people?  For the energy of the people that I know about, the energy of the
people is being used in acts of protest on the streets of South American
capital cities.

We are constrained to ask of the people gathered in general assembly the
first question.  In the case of a military invasion of our island by
imperialist forces should the aid of the Soviet Union be accepted or not
accepted?  (Surge of shouting: Cuba si, Yankee no!)

The first choice and the first assembly of the people of Cuba gathered in
national general assembly--the first answer to the foreign ministers of
Costa Rica--the people of Cuba, gathered in national general assembly
declare that if the island of Cuba is invaded by imperialist military
forces Cuba will accept the aid of the Soviet Union.  (Chanting)

It is good, it is good for us to also ask them a question because they said
that they condemned, to ask a question of the foreign ministers who
emphatically condemned the threat of intervention even though it was
conditional, by an extracontinental power, that is to say that they declare
that if the Soviet Union offers its military support to us in case we are
invaded by the (United States?), they condemn the offer of aid and the
acceptance of the aid.  How nice.

We want to ask the foreign ministers of Costa Rica another question:  What
do the governments of Latin America have to defend Cuba if Cuba is invaded
by imperialist military forces as Mexico, which was invaded twice,
Nicaragua, several times; as Haiti was invaded, and as Costa Rica was
invaded?

What do the governments of Latin America have?  What military units to
defend Cuba?  In the first place, they have nothing; and in the second
place, if they had it, we could not count on them anyway.  That is to say
that what they wanted for us to reject that aid, the aid in case of
aggression.  Why?  So that we would have to depend exclusively on them,
who, with all certainty, were going to leave us on the crusade.

That is why the intelligent reply, the correct reply, the revolutionary
reply, and the courageous reply is the reply that the Cuban people send to
the foreign ministers that met in Costa Rica.  So on this point, they
already know on what they must rely.

There is another point that says:  Reject, also, the attempt of the
Sino-Soviet powers to make use of the political, economic or social
situation of any American state--but they do not mention Cuba although they
refer to Cuba--inasmuch as, it says, as that attempt is capable of
destroying hemispheric unit and of jeopardizing the peace and the security
of the hemisphere.  Now we are going to ask a question.  Do the people
consider that the Soviet Union or the Chinese People's Republic are to
blame for this revolution which we have made here?  Who is to blame for
this revolution?  Who is to blame because the Cubans have had to make this
revolution?  Who is to blame?  The Soviet Union?  The Chinese People's
Republic?  Or Yankee imperialism?

That is to say that the only guilty party for the fact that this revolution
exists in Cuba is Yankee imperialism.  And therefore, the Cuban people
reject that accusation that the Soviet Union and the Chinese People's
Republic are trying too--what does it say here?--use the political,
economic, and social situation of an American state to destroy continental
unity and jeopardize the peace and security of the hemisphere.

Who are jeopardizing continental unity?  (Crowd shouts "Yankees")  Who are
dividing a Latin people from other Latin peoples?  (Yankees, crowd shouts)
Who are the ones who gathered there a group of Latin foreign ministers to
make a declaration against a Latin people?  The Yanks.  Who have been the
only aggressors in this continent?  The Yanks.

Our reply to that second point is that the only ones who have attacked the
Latin American peoples, the only ones who are destroying the union of the
peoples of Latin America and the only one's responsible for the
revolutionary state now in effect in Cuba and which will take place in
Latin America is Yankee imperialism.  And to offer conclusive proof one
example is sufficient.  Here, for example I have a treaty which was signed
Mar. 6, 1952, by the then minister of state, Mr. Aureliano Sanchez Arango
(shouts) with the U.S. ambassador.

This treaty--this treaty was called, the bilateral agreement of military
aid between the United States of America and Cuba. This is the treaty
between the shark and the sardines.  It is interesting to note, for
example, point two of the article--I realize that the people do not
understand much about this treaty because the people were not told a word
about it--this was the policy of imperialism--forcing each one of the
governments to sign a shark and sardines treaty with it, a military pact.
What kind of a pact would this be between the United States and the states
of Latin America?  A bilateral pact--binding by a series of compromises all
the peoples of Latin America.

Point two says:  The government of the Republic of Cuba promises that for
the aid it receives from the Government of the United States of America, in
accordance with the present agreement, to effect plans for defense accepted
by both governments, according to which both governments will participate
in important missions for the defense of the Western Hemisphere, unless
prior--listen closely to what the treaty says--unless for purposes other
than that for which it was granted.  That is to say, if we are witnesses,
that the planes which they granted, the tanks which they loaned, the bombs
which they loaned, and the arms which they loaned, were used to murder
peasants, to bomb peasants in the Sierra Maestra, and to kill thousands of
Cubans, that is to say, to crush the people, to make merciless war on the
people.

This treaty says that unless previous consent is obtained from the
Government of the United States of America this aid will not be used for
purposes other than those for which it was granted.

What does it mean?  That the Government of the United States of America
authorized the use of these cannon, bombs, and planes against the Cuban
people.  This is a treaty that--although it appears absurd because the
military mission has long been gone, this treaty was still in effect--we
will submit it to the people also, and we will today ask the people to
consider whether we ought to retain or annul this military treaty.  That is
to say, let those who believe that the treaty should be annuled right now
raise their hands!  (Pause)  This means that by the sovereign will of the
people of Cuba this military treaty between Cuban and the United States
that has resulted in so much blood is annuled.  (Applause)  We will not
burn it.  We will save it for history, torn as it is.

Tomorrow, the Ministry of the Foreign Ministry, as we say, of the
revolutionary government, will communicate to the Government of the United
States that the people of Cuba, by its absolute and sovereign free will,
meeting in general national assembly, has annulled this superannuated
military treaty.  (Applause and indistinct shouting)

One moment.  In the order or the day for this assembly a problem of this
kind does not yet appear.  There will be another general national assembly.
There will be another assembly and it will be necessary for us to face each
issue at the proper moment, and we will propose to the people to consider
at the proper time the problem of Caimanera.

We would like to give another explanation.  Today we are replying to events
of an international nature, aggressions of an international nature.  We
have been victims of economic attacks and when they reduced our sugar quota
by 900,000 tons we warned them in advance that they would pay mill by mill
and plant by plant for the attacks upon our economy.  They reduced our
quota by almost 900,000 tons and we have nationalized 36 of their sugar
mills, the electric company, the telephone company, and the oil companies.

Now, they still have something in reserve here so that when new economic
attacks occur we shall nationalize the remaining enterprises.  That is,
what will be the policy of the revolutionary government?  Quite simple and
quite clear, and it is also necessary for the people to understand it and
support it.  If the economic attacks upon our country continue will
continue to nationalize the American enterprises.  Moreover, if despite the
fact that our country and our people are being victimized by a series of
attacks imperialism continues its aggression against our country and
preserves in its attempt to ruin the economy of our country and to harm our
country, then we shall meet with the people in a general assembly and shall
demand the withdrawal of the U.S. Naval forces from the base of Caimanera.

Everyone knows who seized that part of our island.  Everyone knows how it
was done.  It was not through discussions with a free and sovereign nation,
but with a country under control, with a country under control and
subjected to the Platt Amendment clause.  Moreover, everyone knows the risk
of our country of an aggressive and belligerent country maintaining a base
on our territory, the risks of our population in case of an atomic war, if
there is a Yankee military base on Cuban territory.  Moreover, everyone
knows that this has always been a constant source of worry to us and that
more than once we have said that whatever may happen it will always have
been their own provocation, because we will never make the mistake of
giving them a pretext to invade our country.

If they want to invade our country let them do so without the slightest
pretext, without the slightest justification.  They will never have it and
they know what is awaiting them if they invade our country.  However, we
who well know the tricks of the U.S. State Department, we who know the
methods they have used, are telling the people, and have told the world,
that we shall never attack the base.  On the contrary, it is for us to warn
against any attack on their part, because they are capable, perfectly
capable--no one doubts it--of planning a provocation, using war criminals
so as to have a pretext.

We must always remain alert and warn the people and the world of the entire
danger.  We advise that whatever may happen it will have been their own
provocation because we shall never attack this base.  When circumstances
demand it, we shall request, democratically and exercising our sovereignty,
as we have today, the annulment of this treaty so as to recover our
territory.  However, we shall never do anything to give the imperialists a
pretext for bloodshed in our country.

As our people are intelligent, who understand how to stand firm, who
understand how to continue this struggle with the greatest intelligence,
they support the policy pursued by the revolutionary government in regard
to these delicate and sensitive questions.

Now, there is one point still left in the declaration.  It is point five of
the declaration which proclaims that all the countries which belong to the
regional organization, listen well, that all the countries which belong to
the regional organization must submit to the discipline of the voluntarily
and freely agreed upon inter-American system, and that the firmest
guarantee of their sovereignty and political independence comes from the
obedience to the measures of the charter of the Organization of American
States--look at the type of guarantees--that the firmest guarantees come
from the measures of the charter of the Organization of American States
which has not been able to defend us against air attacks, which has not
been able to defend us against the planes of the counterrevolutionaries who
are operating on North American territory, against the expeditions which
are organized;' against the attacks prepared and paid for by the U.S. State
Department; against the terrorist attacks; against the bombs and every
other kind of disturbance instigated, prepared, and paid for by the Yankee
State Department.

And, moreover, they have not been able to defend us from those aggressions
nor from the growing hostility against our country, nor from the economic
aggression.  And it declares that the member states or the organization are
obliged to submit to discipline.

Very well, before submitting ourselves to discipline, we propose that all
the member states, that is, all the governments gather the people and
consult the people about all these questions or the Organization of
American States and about the declaration of Costa Rica.  And when they
consult the people, and when the people are in accord with that, let them
then come to talk about discipline.

No.  We understand our duty in this way:  Our foreign minister goes to
Costa Rica with the Cuban delegation.  The meeting is held.  The foreign
ministers adopt such a declaration.  What does the Cuban Government do?
The Cuban Government gathers the people together and submits to them the
declaration.  Now, no state can be forced into any international agreement
against the will of its people.  We have been the first and the only one to
submit the question to the consideration of the people.

That is what we have done.  That is our duty.  We obey what the Cuban
people say, not what the foreign ministers say, who obey orders from
Washington.  The Cuban Government is not obliged to another obedience, nor
to another discipline, nor to another (word indistinct) than the decisions
that emanates from the free and sovereign will of its people.

Some questions still remain which we will submit to the consideration of
the people so that the people may say whether they are in agreement with
the policy of our country of being friendly and trading with all countries
in the world.  We would like to submit to our people another consideration.
Our people have established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.  We
would like to ask our people if they are in agreement with the
establishment of these relations--if our people agree we should maintain
relations also with the rest of the socialist countries?  (Shouting)

And another question of the highest importance remains.  As you know
imperialism has accused the People's Republic of China of interfering in
Latin American matters also when the truth is that until today our country
has not had diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China but,
on the contrary, our country continues maintaining relations with a puppet
government which is protected by the ships of the North American Seventh
Fleet.

In fact no country of Latin America has dared to establish diplomatic or
even commercial relations with the People's Republic of China.
Nevertheless, the revolutionary government of Cuba wishes to submit to the
consideration of the people of Cuba if they agree that the people of Cuba
in this sovereign and free assembly establish diplomatic relations with the
People's Republic of China.  (Scattered applause)

Therefore, our diplomatic relations with the puppet government of Chiang
Kai-shek no longer exist.  (Applause)

And if the People's Republic of China wishes to aid us also, should we be
attacked by imperialist military forces, Cuba will accept the aid of the
People's Republic of China.

This means that we are a really free country in America, that we decided
our national policy and our international policy in a democratic manner and
in a sovereign manner; democratic, that is to say, with the people;
sovereign, that is to say, without submission to the dictates of any
foreign power.  This means that we, that is to say, our people, do not ask
anyone's permission when it is going to make a decision.  That means free
people.  That means sovereign people.  Those who will not be able to call
themselves free peoples and sovereign peoples are those who must ask
permission of Mr. Herter when they are going to take a step; those who must
ask the permission of the Yankee embassy when they are going to take a
step.

This act of our people today effectively shows that Cuba is the free
territory of America.  (Chanting)  They did not want revolutions in
America.  Well, here they have a revolution in America.  They did not want
that there by any justice in any American country, that our peasants ever
have land, that our children ever have schools, that our families ever have
houses, that our people ever have employment, beaches, an opportunity for
the son of the peasant as well as the son of the worker to go to the
universities.  They did not want a people to be happy; well, they will have
a happy people even if they do not want it.  Because that happiness was not
given as a gift to that people.  That happiness is being won with much
sacrifice.  And it is a people that deserves happiness because it knows how
to win it, because only when there is a revolutionary spirit like the Cuban
people, when the people are so politically mature and as admirable as this
one, can a battle be waged like the one that Cuba is waging.

Our people have won the respect and the admiration of everybody of the
entire world for some reason, because they understand that we are a small
country, that we have had to face very great obstacles; they understand
that we were a small people under Yankee influence, subjected to Yankee
propaganda, subjected to Yankee pictures, Yankee magazines, Yankee
fashions, Yankee petty politics, Yankee customs, because here everything
was Yankee.

How are they going to talk now?  How are they going to talk now of Soviet
interference?  How are they going to blame the Chinese People's Republic if
the only influence that we would see every day and the only books we saw
here everyday and the only pictures we saw here every day, and the only
customs, and the only fashions were all from the United States?  That is to
say that if here there was an interloper, the interloper was Yankee
imperialism which tried to destroy our national spirit, which tried to
destroy the patriotism of the Cubans, which tried to destroy our resistance
to the penetration of foreign interests.

We give thanks that we have (word indistinct) an extraordinarily virtuous
people, thanks that this people began its struggle very early; it struggled
alone for its independence--for a century--a people with men like Maceo,
like Cespede, like Agramonte, like Calixto Garcia; and a people that had
such an extraordinary apostle, a man of such farsightedness, a man of human
qualities, a man of such extraordinary eloquence and wisdom as Jose Marti,
who forged the nationality of the country.

And thanks to the men, who under very adverse conditions, the men who in
the republican era waged an unequal battle against Yankee penetration, men
who, beginning with Juan Alberto Gomez and (Sanguili?), tenaciously opposed
that penetration, to the men of around the twenties and the thirties who
sacrificed themselves and fell struggling for the survival of the Cuban
nationality, the national Cuban spirit, so that the national soul was not
absorbed by the powerful foreigner--to those, to those men (of the
generations?) to those traditions from which we have been able to harvest
this maturity and this revolutionary conscience of our people who are
admired by American and the world; admired for their spirit, admired for
their accomplishments, admired for their valor, admired for their
enthusiasm, because it is a people who when it is told, you must gather
together to reply to aggression, you must gather together to demonstrate to
the enemies of Cuba that the people are with the revolution, you must
gather together to demonstrate that the people are not frightened, you must
gather together so they can see that the people are determined to keep its
promise of fatherland or death; these people have congregated in such an
extraordinary number and have filled a plaza as vast as this and have
offered a spectacle such we had never imagined.

That is what explains the admiration of our visitors.  Because there is no
spectacle more impressive nor more formidable than a people that is alive,
than a people that has a conscience, than a people that has a soul, than a
people that has morale, when it has reason, when it has a spirit of
struggle, when it is valiant, when it is capable of feeling an ideal and
for that ideal to sacrifice all individual interests.  Because when a
people reaches that degree of revolutionary conscience, the individuals
become fused in the soul of the people and then, individually, each of us
does not matter. There is something that does not die nor can ever die.  It
is that the men, individually can disappear, but the peoples endure. And
this people of ours, this revolutionary people, this multitude, this people
that parades, this people that gathers, this people that works, this people
that is preparing, this people educating itself is something that has a
eternal life, something that has immortal life, something in which the work
of each of us, the little grain of sand of each of use will be continued
throughout history because those who come after will continue the tradition
of their people, just as we have followed the tradition of those who
began to struggle for the Cuban nation almost a century ago. Those who come
afterward will continue our tradition and they will have our examples as we
have had the example of those who came before us.

And that is why the people say:  Country or death.  What does country of
death mean?  It means that none of us care about dying as long as our
people live.  Our country lives because none of us is hesitant about giving
our lives for it so that it can continue to live.  (Applause)

And why do the people say: We will triumph?  The people say we will triumph
because although many of us can fall, although individually many
compatriots, if the country requires, may give their lives in sacrifice,
this means that they will not give their lives in vain.  They will give
them so that the country can triumph.  And that is why each of us says
country or death, and the people say we will triumph.  The country says we
will triumph.  (Chanting)

We have no doubt that the country will triumph.  We have no doubt because
we know the ground we are treading, because it is not the battle of a group
of men.  It is the battle of an entire people and no entire people has ever
lost any battle.  It is a battle with right on its side, it is a battle for
justice, a battle for the welfare of our compatriots, a battle for the
good of those of our kind, a battle for the good of man, a battle for the
good of humanity.  And never has an entire people who have struggle for
such a noble cause ever lost the battle.

But also because Cuba is not alone.  It would be alone if is did not have a
just cause, it would be alone if it were not struggling for the good of
humanity.  But those who will be alone are those who are fighting against
the progress of humanity, those who fight against the good of man; those
will be more alone all the time while we, who are struggling for the good
of man and for the good of humanity will have more and more on our side.
(Applause)

Our small country represents today interests that overreach our borders.
To our small country has fallen the fate of being the light that shines for
the millions of men and women just like us who in American today suffer
what we suffered yesterday.  To us has fallen this glorious destiny and we
will be a light that will never the extinguished, a light that will be ever
more bright and whose rays will reach ever farther over the lands of our
brotherly America.  (Applause)

And that is known by our people.  That is why they respond so powerfully.
That is why they act so heroically and nobly.  Permit me and my comrades to
express here, permit us to satisfy the need to express all the pride we
feel for our people, all the satisfaction we feel for our people, the
infinite happiness for the achievements of our people.  (Chanting)

Permit us to express to you the inspiration we feel in our work, the
enthusiasm we feel in our struggle, how our fervor for this cause
increases, and how we feel that our strength and energy are multiplied to
continue working for our people, to continue battling even with the last
traces of injustice, with the last traces of poverty, to continue to work
to do good for our people, to continue to work to make our people happy, to
continue struggling to surpass our efforts, to perform our duties every day
more efficiently, to achieve greater success every day; and how, we, at
times like this, promise ourselves that even those things that have not
been done completely well, or perfectly well, or with absolute
success--because who, better than we knows that the men commit mistakes,
and that the revolutions, no matter how just, how noble, or how good they
may be, even commit injustices at times because it is men who act, who
decide, and resolve; how at times like this, before such a formidable
people as this, we feel that we too grow and we feel ourselves with even
more strength, with even more love for this cause, if more life is
possible, and with more determination to make the sacrifices that may be
necessary because it is possible that on few occasions in history has any
group of governors been so supported by the people as have been the men of
the revolutionary Cuban Government.

And to conclude this assembly, there s something else we must do.  We are
going to submit to the consideration of the Cuban people and consentient
declaration containing the points of view of the Cuban people.

It is a reply to the Costa Rica declaration, so that we can counteract the
declaration of foreign ministers with the declaration of the peoples.  The
declaration will be called in the history of America the "Havana
declaration."  (Applause)  Once this declaration has been submitted to the
Cuban people, we shall ask all the revolutionary organizations in America,
all the trade unions, the student, intellectual, and artistic
organizations, and every revolutionary man of America to support it.
(Applause)

Our declaration has prestige because it is supported by an entire people;
it has prestige because it has the democratic support of our people.  What
we must stress now as always is that this revolution came to power through
the will of the people, and that it remains in power only because it has
the support of the people.  (Applause)  We stress the fact that there is a
revolutionary government in power and that it is supported by a
revolutionary people.  Governments remain in power, either through the use
of force or through the support of the people.  The military and political
oligarchies remain in power through the use of force.  They represent the
most reactionary interests of their country; they represent the
exploitation of their workers and their farmers; they represent the
exploitation of their people; they remain in power through the combination
of force, money, and lies.  Yet is spite of the attacks, the aggressions,
and the defamation campaigns which the powerful empire to the north of us
waged with all its propagandistic might, and in spite of its economic
aggressions, its international diplomatic maneuvers, the revolution remains
in power.  Why?  Because of the people's support.

It will remain in power, as long as it has the people on its side and as
long as it fights and works for its people.  (Applause)  Here is the
declaration:  Havana declaration.

In the presence of Jose Marti's image and in his memory.  Cuba, free
territory of America.  The people, making use of the inalienable power that
emanates to them from the effective exercise of their sovereignty and
expressed through the use of the free, universal, and public suffrage has
met in a national general assembly and, in its own name and aware of the
feelings in our America, agrees to:  1) Condemns every word of the
so-called declaration of San Jose, Costa Rica--a document dictated by U.S.
imperialism that attacks the right to national self determination.  The
sovereignty, and the dignity of the sister nations of the continent;
(Applause) 2) The national general assembly of the Cuban People strongly
condemns the open and criminal intervention that U.S. imperialism has
exercised for more than a century in every country of Latin America.

The peoples of these countries have seen their territory invaded more than
once, such as Nicaragua, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Cuba.  In the face of
the voracity of the Yankee imperialists, they have lost large and rich
areas, such as Texas; vital strategic centers, such as the Panama Canal;
entire countries, such as Puerto Rico.  Moreover, these people have felt
the scurrilous treatment of the marine, from out women and daughters to men
like Jose Marti.  These interventions, made possible by military
superiority, unfair treaties, and the groveling submission of treacherous
rulers, have made for more than 100 years our America, the America that
Bolivar, Hidalgo, Juarez, San Martin, O'Higgins, Sucre, and Marti freed, an
area of exploitation, the back yard of the Yankee financial and political
empire, a place from which to obtain votes for the international
organizations, in which the Latin Americans have served as beasts of burden
for the brutal empire that scorns us.  (Applause)

The national general assembly of the people declares that acceptance on the
part of the governments that officially represent the countries of Latin
America of the continuous and historically irrefutable intervention betrays
the ideals of independence of their people, obliterates their sovereignty,
and prevents real solidarity among our countries.  Therefore, this assembly
is forced to repudiate the San Jose declaration, in the name of the Cuban
people, in view of the hopes and wishes of the Latin American people, and
as a sign of respect to the liberation attempt made by the immortal fathers
of our America.

The national general assembly of the people also rejects the attempt to
retain the Monroe Doctrine, which has been used up to now, as Jose Marti
foresaw, to extend the control of the voracious imperialists in America and
to allow them to inject their poison--as Marti also said--in the form of
loans, canals, and railroads.

Therefore, in the face of the hypocritical Pan Americanism, which means the
control of our peoples' interests by the Yankees and their control of the
Latin American governments subservient to Washington, the assembly of the
Cuban people proclaims the Latin Americanism (of?) Jose Marti and Benito
Juarez.  (Applause)  And in extending our friendship to the U.S.
people--the people of the lynched Negroes, of the persecuted intellectuals,
and of the workers who are forced to accept the leadership of
gangsters--our people reiterate their desire to walk arm in arm with
every people of the world and not with part of them.  (Applause)  The
national general assembly of the Cuban people declares that the spontaneous
aid offered us by the Soviet Union, should our country be attacked by the
imperialist armed forces, can never be considered interference.  It is, in
fact, an act of solidarity and the aid proferred Cuba in the face of an
imminent attack from the Yankee Pentagon honors the government of the
Soviet Union as much as it dishonors the U.S. Government for its criminal
and cowardly aggressions against Cuba.  (Applause)

Therefore, the national general assembly of the Cuban people declares to
America and the world that it accepts and is grateful for the support of
the Soviet rockets, (applause) if our soil were to be invaded by U.S.
military forces.  The national general assembly of the Cuban people
categorically denies that the Soviet Union and the Chinese People's
Republic have tried in any way to use the Cuban economic, political, and
social position to shatter the unity of our continent and endanger the
hemisphere's unity.

The people of Cuba have used their right of self-determination since they
fired the first shot of the revolution, since the first of the 20,000
martyrs lost his life to defeat the tyranny and conquer the revolutionary
power, and since the first revolutionary law was approved.  The Soviet
Union and the Chinese People's Republic can never be blamed for the
existence of our revolution, which is only Cuba's reply to the crimes and
injustices that imperialism has committed in America.  (Applause, shouts of
"bravo")

On the contrary, the national general assembly of the Cuban people believes
that the policy of isolation and hostility toward the Soviet Union and the
Chinese People's Republic that the U.S. Government wants us to adopt and
that it has forced the other Latin American governments to adopt, the
aggressive and warlike attitude of the U.S. Government, and the latter's
refusal to allow the Chinese People's Republic to become a member of the
United Nations in spite of the fact that this national represents almost
the total population of more than 600 million inhabitants, indeed, endanger
the peace and security of both our hemisphere and the world.

Therefore, the national general assembly of the Cuban reiterates its policy
of friendship with every people of the world; it reiterates its aim of
establishing diplomatic relations with all the socialist countries,
(chanting, applause) and, as of now and making use of its free and
sovereign will, tells the government of the Chinese People's Republic that
it wants to establish diplomatic relations with it and that the Cuban
relations that have held until today with the puppet government of
Formosa--sustained by the ships of the Seventh Fleet-are annulled.
(Shouts, applause)  The national general assembly of the people reiterates,
and in doing so expresses the views of all the Latin American people, that
democracy is not compatible with the oligarchy of big finance, the
discrimination against the Negroes, the acts of the Ku Klux Klan, and the
persecution that deprived 100 physicists like Oppenheimer of their jobs; it
is not compatible with the face that the world should be deprived of Paul
Robeson's marvelous voice for many years--Robeson is a prisoner in his own
country; it is not compatible with the execution of the Rosenbergs, in
spite of the protest and the astonishment of the world, in spite of the
appeal for clemency from various rulers, including Pope Pius XII.
(Applause)

The national general assembly of the Cuban people expresses the Cuban
conviction that democracy can not consist only in the exercise of an
election vote, which is almost always fictitious and is controlled by
latifundists and professional politicians, but also in the right of the
citizen to choose his own destiny--as we are now doing.  Moreover,
democracy will exist in America only when the people are really free to
chose, when the humble are not rendered impotent through hunger, social
inequality, illiteracy, and bad judicial systems.

Therefore, the national general assembly of the Cuban People condemns
latifundism--a source of misery for the farmer and a backward and inhuman
agricultural system.  It condemns the starvation wages and the wicked
exploitation of human labor by vested interests.  It condemns illiteracy
and the lack of teachers, schools, doctors, and hospitals; it condemns the
lack of protection for the aged in America; it condemns the discrimination
against the Negro and the Indian; it condemns the exploitation of women and
the refusal to give them equal right with men; it condemns the military and
political oligarchies that keep our people in misery, prevent their
democratic development, and refuse them the excercise of their full
sovereignty; it condems the acquisition of our national resources by
foreign monopolies and it condemns the treacherous and submissive attitude
of those Latin American rulers who surrender to the Yankees; it condemns
the governments that do not heed the sentiments of their people because
they have to obey Washington's orders; it condemns the systematic
deception  of people through press organs that obey the orders of the
oligarchies and the policy of the oppressive imperialism; it condemns the
monopoly of news by the Yankee agencies, instruments of the U.S. trusts
and agents of Washington; it condemns the repressive laws that prevent the
workers, the farmers, the students, and the intellectuals--the majority in
every country--to organize the fight for their social and patriotic rights;
it condemns the imperialist monopolies and companies that continually sack
our resources, exploit our workers and farmers, bleed and retard our
economies, and submit the policy of Latin America to their designs and
interests.

The national general assembly of the people of Cuba finally condemns the
exploitation of man by man and the exploitation of the underdeveloped
countries by the money of the capitalists and imperialists.  Consequently,
the national general assembly declares to America that the farmers have the
right to own their land, that the workers have the right to enjoy the
fruits of their labor, that the children have the right to receive an
education, that the ill have the right to receive medical and hospital
care, that the youths have the right to work, that the students have the
right to receive a free, experimental, and scientific education, that the
Negroes and the Indians have the right to be treated with dignity, that the
women have the right to demand full social, political, and civil equality,
that the aged have a right to expect security, that the intellectuals,
artists, and scientists have the right to nationalize the imperialist
monopolies, that a country has the right to trade freely with all other
countries of the world, that a nation has the right to enjoy full
sovereignty, that a nation has the right to convert its military fortresses
into schools and to arm its workers, farmers, students, intellectuals,
Negroes, Indians, women, youths, old folks, and all the oppressed and
exploited so that they may defend by themselves their rights and their
destiny.  (Chanting, applause)

The national general assembly of the Cuban people postulates the right of
the workers, farmers, students, intellectuals, Negroes, Indians, youths,
women, and old folks to fight for their economic, political, and social
demands.  It postulates the right of the oppressed and exploited nations to
fight for their liberation.  It postulates the right of every nation to
show solidarity for the oppressed, colonized, exploited, or aggressed
people, no matter in what part of the world they may be or what distance
separates them.  All the peoples of the world are brothers.  (Chanting?)

The national general assembly of the Cuban people reiterates its faith in
the belief that Latin America will soon march united and victorious, that
it will free itself of the (demands?) that convert its economy into a
source of wealth for the U.S. imperialists, and that its real voice will be
heard at the meetings (few words indistinct) expressing their own will and
the aspirations of all.

In the fight for a free Latin America, rises the powerful and genuine voice
of the peoples and it opposes the obedient voices of those who pretend to
represent them.  This voice comes from the coal and tin mines, from the
factories and the sugar mills, from the enfeoffed land, where the heirs of
Zapata and Sandino take up arms to achieve their freedom.  This voice is
heard in the works of poets and novelists; it comes from the students, the
women and children, and the aged.

The national general assembly of the people of Cuba replies "present" to
this brotherly voice.  (Applause, shouts, chants) Cuba will not fail that
voice.  Cuba is here today to confirm to Latin America and the world a
historical pledge, the irrefutable slogan of "Fatherland or death."

The national general assembly of the Cuban people resolves that this
declaration be known as the Havana, Cuba, declaration.  Havana, free
territory of Cuba, Sept. 2, 1960.

We submit this declaration to the consideration of the people, that is,
those who support it, let them raise their hands.  (Shouting, chanting,
applause)  We shall inform all our Latin American brothers of this national
general assembly of the Cuban people that we have just held.
-END-