-DATE- 19601201 -YEAR- 1960 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- LEADERS OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS EXPELLED AND DISQU -PLACE- HAVANA -SOURCE- REVOLUCION -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19601201 -TEXT- LEADERS OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS EXPELLED AND DISQUALIFIED Unsigned Source: Revolucion (Revolution), Havana, December 1960 Prime Minister Says: "Conquest of Political Power Must Be Workers' Only Objective."--"So Far He Has Only Fought for Higher Wages" In addressing the workers, who had met last night at the CTC in order to oust the leaders of the Executive Committee of the Electrical Power Plant Workers Union in the province of Havana, Prime Minister, Dr Fidel Castro, expressed his regret that a problem had come up in this sector, a problem which would only make the monopolists who had been stripped of their privileges happy; he pointed out that the principles of the old labor leadership were not longer being implemented now; these principles consisted in winning increases but the old labor union leadership was not concerned at all with [illegible word in photostat] of the workers and certainly not of the unemployed; the only objective for which the working class in a modern government must fight is the conquest of political power. The meeting was attended by thousands of workers and was held in the auditorium of the Palace of Workers. The meeting had been called by the Executive Committee of the CTC and began with a report from the organizational secretary of the CTC, Jesus Soto, who explained the reasons of the labor union headquarters in calling the meeting of last Friday as well as the reasons for calling last night's meeting; the sole purpose was to pass judgement on the leaders of the electrical power plant union, especially its secretary-general, Amanury Fraginals; this meeting was held at a moment when all of the workers, including the electrical workers, condemned the events of the 30th, when 8 bombs were exploded. Foto said that the CTC should have acted a long time ago on the problem of the electric power plants, from the moment the first trouble sprang up there -- troubles which [illegible word in photostat] opened the eyes of the workers to what was going on. The Leadership Conditions prevailing among the mass of the electrical workers actually promoted the development of these problems; the mass was ripe for this and the leadership was bad; there are other labor sectors, such as the banking sector, whom we might call a privileged sector of the working class and things have undoubtedly gone well here because that sector had a revolutionary leadership. And the bank workers rendered magnificent services to the revolution. The workers cooperated extraordinarily well because they had the stimulus of a correct orientation -- but if the leadership had been bad, we could have had problems there, likewise. The situation is the same as in any other sector where living conditions are extraordinarily better than in the rest of the working calls, when there is an ineffective leadership. Sometimes the leadership is poor but the masses are very revolutionary. What can you say when a worker makes 2 or 3 pesos? What can you say to a sugar worker in this case? The Attitude of the Sugar Workers Who does not remember the exemplary attitude of the sugar workers when it was suggested to them, here, at the beginning of the revolution, that they postpone all of their demands? Nobody could possible think that we were defending the interests of the American companies which owned these sugar plantations and refineries. However we knew just exactly where we stood at that moment and we realized that the revolution was running the risk of mortgaging itself for many years to come; it was running the risk of seeing its advance slowed down because that was a working class which had lived under oppression for 7 years, a working class which had not been shown the correct way, a working class which had been the victim of exploitation by these interests, which wanted power to remain forever in the hands of the enemy of the working class, the military cliques, the big industrial interests, the big landowners, the big businessmen, in other words, they wanted political power indefinitely and "forever" to remain in the hands of the enemies of the workers and they wanted to make sure that the workers would perennially be involved in a struggle for just a few pesos more, for one more little advantage here or there; this of course became a very bad habit as time went on because the workers did not think as a class; the workers thought in terms of sectors, unions, and the battles toward which they were oriented were not battles for the class and the people; they were simply fighting for another few pennies in their pay envelopes. But each sector did not care about any of the other worker sectors; the rest of the nation did not matter; the unemployed did not matter; the future did not matter; and all of this they exchanged like the character in the Bible who obtained a miserable plate of beans in exchange; they exchanged the right of the working class to run the country for a miserable plate of beans. The future did not matter and we lived through this vicious circle always bogged down in the miserable present and always oblivious of a better future. That was the mentality which the leaders, who had sold out, tried to create in each worker sector; and it did not matter that a wage increase or another little advantage in one sector -- which might be the electrical sector today and perhaps the transportation sector tomorrow or the textile worker sector the next day -- implied a burden on the rest of the country; the workers were not taught to think of the rest of the members of their class: "let's do it to them today because tomorrow they are going to turn right around and do it to us." And so we lived through this vicious, egotistical, and miserable circle. We not only forgot the workers who were not members of our sector but we also forgot that there were sectors living scattered throughout the rural areas who were not able to fight any battles because they did not live in the capital and this very considerable portion of the country was thus relegated to a secondary position while the city kept growing at the expense of the rural areas. And, so, while we made the farmers and the people in the rural areas pay for the products of the city at very high prices, we wanted to pay a miserable price for the products of the rural areas. The workers were not taught to think; the workers in the cities were not taught to think of the agricultural workers; and the latter were thus left to themselves; it was only after the triumph of the revolution that the workers in the city began to develop a feeling of solidarity and brotherhood with the workers in the rural areas. Political Power The first goal, the only goal for which the working class in a modern government must fight, is the conquest of political power. Because the working class is the absolute majority class, it is a fertile and creative class; the working class is the class which produces all of the material wealth that exists in a country; and so long as power is not in its hands, so long as the working class allows power to remain in the hands of the speculators who exploit it, in the hands of the big landowners and the monopolies, as well as the international interests, so long as the weapons are in the hands of the cliques and not in the hands of the working class itself, so long will the working class to condemned, anywhere in the world, to a miserable existence, regardless of how much it should be a part of this big banquet. The State and Its Powers This state was presented to us yesterday as if it were a mirage, this state, and all of its organs of power, from the military to the judiciary, all of its corrupt legislative power, this state was in the service of the exploiter bosses and the big interests; what has happened very simply here is that the instrument which is called "the state" and all of its organs of power is today a power in the service of the oppressed and the exploited of the fatherland -- even though one or the other civil servant or government official might still be in the service of these interests. In an effort to hide the fact that the Cuban bosses were really run by the Yankee State Department and the Pentagon and that the workers who were working for the monopolies were exploited by those interests, they have not triggered this terror and fear. These enterprises no longer belong to any foreign exploiter, and foreign company; their only and exclusive and definitive owner is the Cuban people; and the profits are not going to go into anybody's pocket but to the treasury of the nation where nobody will dare remove a single penny and where everybody will get what is coming to him. In their powerlessness, the enemies of the revolution are thus trying to confuse the situation and they are trying to subvert many Cubans because, in view of the incontestable truths of the revolution, in view of the realities of the revolution, that is the only thing they can do. The are still pursuing a policy of trying to divide the workers, to confuse them and to break them up into a thousand small groups. That was easy when the labor leaders were manipulated by the Yankee monopolies, when the people paid for all of the wage increases; but these leaders were the worst enemy of the people. And it certainly was difficult to be a leader in the United Fruit Company where starvation wages were paid; that company had to compete on the world market in order to get the right kind of price for its products -- a price which was fixed, upward or downward. This monopoly could bring about the downfall of governments and the establishment of a bloody dictatorship which assassinated Antonio Guiteras. Who paid for all this in Cuba, if not the people? These monopoly prices were higher than anywhere else in the Americas. And the monopolies invested millions of dollars in propaganda directed at the people, while the people paid and paid. And amid all of this they talked about the benefits of imperialism and they concealed the miseries of the people. Were the leaders by any chance trying to see to it that the workers would obtain power, through the liberation of the workers, through the recovery of the nation's wealth and through the steps for a better future? No, they only worked and fought for a few pennies here and there and they worked to improve their political and labor union positions. These leaders were unable to see beyond the ends of their nose and during the first few days of the revolution, in the face of the threat of nationalization, the strangled the enterprises and took away whatever they wanted, but everybody continued living on their knees and from alms. Perhaps they did not do this in bad faith, perhaps they did it only out of habit, or perhaps they thought that they could achieve some improvements, some of which undoubtedly were necessary and justified. But they were only interested in percentage figures and in elegant and magic and easy to juggle statistics; but this sort of thing was not so easy to do in the case of the United Fruit Company. And this is how they perhaps thought that they could pay as much as twice the daily rate of pay, knowing full well that the company could not operate that way and that it would thus have to be left in the hands of the revolutionary government. We cut the rent down as much as 50% but this affected only a few owners and, in order to raise the living standard of the people, we cut prices on real estate plots, we reduced the electric power rates, the telephone rates, and we raised the living standard; but we did not do this through insolvency, but rather by cutting the family expenditures in a way that would not affect the basic principle of solvency or balancing the budget. We prevented the cost of living from going up. The alternative was for us to scalp each other, to have wage hikes which would then result in an increase in the consumption volume -- and this is actually what happened rather unrestrainedly in many sectors. In order to achieve improvements, we must proceed to the "technification" of the system -- any other system is wrong. Improve the Lot of Those Who Are Worst Off The correct policy to pursue was to fight to improve, not the lot of those who were better off, but to improve the lot of those who were worst off; here, before the electrical workers, we want to proclaim in all honesty that we must think of the agricultural workers of the United Fruit Company before we can think of the electrical worker. Now, toward what objective should the people orient themselves? What should an honest leader in the electrical industry have done before and after the triumph? What should have been the revolutionary slogan -- even though it may not have won a single vote in the labor union elections? The slogan should have been to fight for a cut in electric power rates. This should have been the revolutionary slogan because we must not forget that the money, with which we paid 8 or 10 workers, came from the construction worker who was making 2.50 pesos or from the bottle washer, the coffee worker, or the public employee who was making 75.00 pesos or sometimes 60.00 pesos and many other workers whose average salary was no more than 90 or 100 pesos but who had to pay for light at the same rates as a millionaire or an electrical worker. You might tell me that we should have raised the electrical power rates. Well, if this is fair, then I don't know what fairness is. The Dagger Thrust to the Heart of the Fatherland But the men who took the easy way out in the past were not honest men; those were the men who ran the operation at the cost of the people and the people had to pay; and some of these regained their positions and they thought that they could perpetrate infamous acts against the children of the fatherland, counterrevolutionary acts against the working class, in other words, they thought they could strike a dagger into the heart of the fatherland, in the struggle against imperialism. We are sure that these honest words, which we are saying here with absolute frankness and in all honesty, in the midst of our electrical workers, we are sure that these words which are certainly not words of praise, we are sure that these words which are more in the nature of an analysis, words which are spoken here without the slightest trace of demagogy but rather at the risk that some of the people present here might not understand -- we are sure that these words will never be praised by any of the lie-spreading agencies of the imperialists, by any of the magazines that are in the service of big interests; these words will never receive a single syllable of praise from the criminals who once again want to soak Cuban soil in blood. This policy will not earn any praise; on the contrary, the agencies and the periodicals which slander the fatherland and the spokesmen of the spies will never praise what we have said here today. Tell me who praises you and I will tell you who you are. We do not have to conduct any long investigation here. All we had to do was read the dispatched of the UPI and the AP, the stuff which the spokesmen of the counterrevolution read, the praise dedicated nowadays to the mercenaries and the spokesmen of the big interests; we were able to draw one definite conclusion from this; anyone who is a traitor to the fatherland can be sure of getting the utmost praise from the enemies of the fatherland, from all those who have sold out for foreign gold, from all those who have sold out to the aggressors of our fatherland, all those who have sold out to the interests that want to destroy the revolution, even though this would be achieved at the cost of wiping out the entire nation. The traitors know that they can be assured of praise and pay. This is why we say that there is no use mentioning names; their actions are so repugnant that I would rather not give their names. These men have been so lowdown, so miserable; they have perpetrated every act of treason, they try to exploit the atmosphere which they have created in this sector and, through their counterrevolutionary and treasonable activities, they even went so far as to place bombs in the very offices where they were working, in an enterprise which belonged neither to the Pentagon, nor to the State Department, but to the people, under the administration of the revolutionary government. Job and Wage Increases With the help of the 15 million pesos, which the humble workers paid in, without taking anything from the electrical workers, we were able to increase wages in the electrical sector by 2,955,000 pesos and we were able to increase the number of jobs by 1,000 during the first 2 years of the revolutionary government, without sacrificing a single one of the benefits which this sector has. They tried to blow up some electric power plants without realizing that they would cause a disaster for the Cuban workers, a disaster that would exceed that of Le Coubre, which cost so many of the worker and rebel soldiers lives. They did not even try to hide their optimism with respect to the hope of converting the electrical sector into a revolutionary sector. And they did not even try to hide their boastfulness and they did what they did without any rhyme or reason. Now, there may have been some interests that were affected by this but these certainly were not general interests. For example, when measures against infiltration were taken in the transportation field, the interest of a worker who was not moral might be involved, in other words, an immoral interest was affected by this. This might for instance affect the kind of extra or overtime work that was deliberately prolonged in order to earn higher wages for the individual involved. Here we have, for instance, the case of one of these saboteurs, a certain William Lascaille Naseer, who, the people, was making 370 pesos a month. Well, this fellow somehow managed to moonlight or to create additional work for himself and this enabled him to make another 158 pesos every two weeks. In other words, during the first half of August 1960, he would get 185 pesos in regular wages, plus the overtime which he put in, making a total of 425.27 pesos for the 2-week period, in other words, 100 pesos more than the general managers of the Guiteras Electric Power Company earns. When the industry was nationalized, some of the immoral practices, such as this one, were done away with; in other words, unnecessary overtime work was eliminated; then, there was no overtime work during the second half of August and the first half of September. In October he again made 125 pesos. But during the following 2-week period he made 4 pesos in overtime and during the month of November he had no overtime during one pay period while in another one he had 41 pesos in overtime. In other words, we note here that, since the beginning of the year, under nationalization, some overtime hours were put in, in other words, there were 3 pay periods with overtime hours, one amounting to 4 pesos, and one 2-week pay period without any and another one with 41 pesos in overtime. Out of 7 pay periods, 4 did not contain any overtime hours. Now, what is the duty of the manager? Is he supposed to promote immoral practices? No! All of the benefits must be properly implemented. Now we are saving 1.5 million pesos every month for the development of electric power. And we can do this without sacrificing any benefits, with the exception of some of these immoral practices, of course. In addition, ever since the triumph of the revolution, we have been paying 4 million pesos more in standard or basic wages in this sector, in other words, this is due to the adjustment we have made here and the new jobs we have created. Here is the result of the revolution: 15 million pesos less in popular expenditures; 4 million more in terms of basic wages and 18 million for the investment program. We are fighting to improve the conditions of those who are worst off without sacrificing the benefits of those in the better-off sectors. I would really hate to read from the G-2 report, as to how this sabotage was developed (shouts from the audience, urging him to read from the report). The Prime Minister then read from the report which we publish at the end. High-Power Explosive Shouts of "to the firing squad" were heard after the reading of the report! He said that this was the result of the efforts of the intelligence service of the United States and of the Pentagon which has given the counterrevolution a special, high-power explosive to use. Everything comes from the outside: explosives, resources, and promises for more help; they already have 1 million pesos which they use in recruiting tens of thousands of former members of the armed forces and in the interior of the country they are promoting sabotage; here he mentioned the case of the pilot Martinez Malo whom they tried to force to fly to Miami. He then talked about those who never did anything against the Batista tyranny but who now managed to do all of that against the revolution. Those enemies will not find their task an easy one because they must confront a determined nation which will resist and which will fight, regardless of how many mercenaries and traitors may come. They failed to figure on the fact that they would be facing the people and the revolutionaries in this. But we have not been losing any time; we have worked hard over the past 2 years and we have done the very best we could because we know what is coming; the traitors and mercenaries, stimulated by the number of those who are abandoning their fatherland, they had better take a good look at what they are going to run into; they will see that we have been on the job all the time, creating youth brigades, worker militia forces, training the rebel soldiers and recruiting volunteer teachers; they can see that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people are organizing and preparing to fight them, whenever necessary and suitable. He then talked about the case of the uprising in Pinar del Rio and the rapid reaction from the militia forces which spotted the disturbance and wiped the trouble makers out; this should give us an idea of what we can expect from the people when the time comes to go into action against these enemies. He mentioned the small aircraft which have lately been violating Cuban air space and which must be shot down, not just in order to prove where they came from. We must [Unreadable text] electrical industry; there are cases where more than 12 members of a single family work for the electric power company and they have been recommended by Mujal and by the criminals. It is painful to do this but it is necessary and it would be useless to be tolerant toward these counterrevolutionaries. (Shouts of "to the firing squad!) He called those who perpetrated dynamite and sabotage attacks on the electric power facilities, low-down individuals and traitors. The only thing to do is to find them out and apprehend them. In the name of the revolutionary government -- he said -- I propose to the electrical workers assembly that we assume full responsibility for beating the bushes for counterrevolutionary elements, so that they will know that the very generous and magnanimous revolution can also display a firm hand when circumstances so require. We are going to beat the bushes and we are going to do a good job. Let those who want to earn their living from the fatherland earn it honestly, loyally, and patriotically. Anyone who cannot offer security to the people and the fatherland must not be stationed where he can do damage or place damaging bombs. Let them work where they cannot do any damage to anybody and if they do not want to work honestly and loyally, let them take the kind of hand-outs with which the imperialists pay the traitors. The revolution will go on and it will go forward with the good workers and with the good Cubans; you know how to roll your sleeves up and get down to work; we must have a legion of good electrical industry workers who will accept the truth and act accordingly. The revolution will keep wages at the level they are at now; it will never go against this sort of thing; and this applies also to the banking industry workers and the other sectors which are fighting against the exploiters, the criminals, the politicians; the revolution has wrested the weapons from the hands of the spies and has put them into the hands of the people and it has also put the power into the hands of the people; this power must definitely be held by the working class, by the class which produces all of the benefits of the people; this is only to the benefit of the people. I am sure -- he said finally -- that the electrical sector will be among the most revolutionary and that you will above all be workers and Cubans. The G-2 Report A report made to the government by the intelligence service, G-2, we are told that intelligence investigations of terrorist acts resulted in the capture of some of the plotters, all of whom were employed by the "Antonio Guiteras" Cuban Electric Power Company; they included some workers who were members of the labor union at that enterprises. The report added the following: While investigations were conducted among enterprise personnel, all inquires indicated that these terrorist acts had been planned and perpetrated there very carefully; during these investigations, 4 persons were arrested after having been rescued from the high seas; they had left the country and they were heading for the Florida coast; they turned out to be Julio Casielles Amigo, William Le Sante Nasser, Olirio Luis Mendez Perez, and Armando Rodriquez Vizcaino, all of them employed by the "Antonia Guiteras" Cuban Electric Power Company. After some of the plotters had been arrested, Pedro Fraginals, one of the participants in these terrorist acts, a man who was a member of the Commission of Public Order in the electric power plant labor union, along with those arrested -- had to find asylum in an embassy in the capital. Leaders Identified As a result of the investigations, it was possible to determine the leader or leaders in these terrorist acts; they were the leader of the electrical union workers, Juan Francisco Collado, Jesus Arnao Caballero, Julio Casielles Amigo and Luis Mendez Perez, men who were tied in with the counterrevolutionary traitor David Salvador; on the day of the attack, 29 November 1960, they met on the 8th floor of the building at the corner of Galiano and Angeles, where they firmed up the last detail of the operation; they also planned their departure from the country if they were discovered; after their sabotage operation, they therefore met at the "Club Cubanelesco," where they had a boat waiting for them. But when the others failed to arrive, these men went out looking for another boat which, they indicated, belonged to a fellow called "El Gallego," [the Galician] likewise an employee of the Cuban Electric Power Company; the boat capsized as the result of a big wave and the crew and passengers were picked up by the captain of the dredge, "Manate," by the name of Jose Hernandez Graniel. Later on in the day it was possible to prove that the dynamite attack had been carried out by these men as follows: William Le Santo Nasser, who was in guard duty around noon on 29 November, was to hand over the keys to the electrical junction boxes and to truck No 3-020, which was used by that company, to the company employee Olirio Luis Mendez Perez, who was to take off a few moments afterward. They Used a Truck After this was done, Olirio Mendez Perez, acting as the driver, took truck No. 3-020, belonging to the Cuban Electric Power Company, from the motor pool of that company, at the intersection of Blanco and San Lazaro, apparently benefitting from the carelessness of a militiaman by the name of Jose A. Recio Lobato, who happened to be on guard at the gate to these premises. A few moments earlier, according to a statement by the militiaman, the leader of the electrical workers, Juan Francisco Collado, arrived at the building at the intersection of Blanco and San Lazaro; the leader of the electrical workers got out of the truck before it left, accompanied by a big, heavy-set fellow who worked in the cable section of the company; then, the driver of Amaury Fraginals asked about an individual whom they called "Billete" [ticket]; when he did not find him there, he left. According to Alejandro J. Leon Hernandez, a regular guard of the electric power company, who was at his post that afternoon, when the truck was taken from the premises at Blanco and San Lazaro, Collado, the electrical worker leader, arrived a few moments after the truck; he came in a car accompanied by certain fellow by the name of Dominguez who at that time was under investigation on charges of theft which had been placed by the company against him. Report on the Facts The truck No 3-020, driven by Olirio Luis Mendez, then picked up Jorge Ernesto Arnao Caraballo on the way; this man was known by the cover name of "Viruta" [chip]. Elsewhere, he made contact with the car in which the leader Collado was traveling, accompanied by Jesus Fernandez, and another fellow known by the name of Dominguez or Domingo; the latter switched from the car to the truck and the truck then went on to the place where he brought the dynamite bombs that Collado was supposed to give him; these were the bombs which were in Collado's car. After the truck continued on its way, it was supposed to pick up someone else on Alambique Street, near Tallapiedra; this other person was likewise an employee of the electric power company by the name of Julio Cesielles Amigo, who had been earlier named in a suit by the company. Truck No 3-020, driven by Olivio Luis Mendez, thus was already carrying Jorge Ernesto Arnao, Casielles, and Dominguez or Domingo, a fellow with a German-style haircut, blonde, with a big nose, about 25 years old, as well as the explosive bombs. This frequently-mentioned truck No 3-020 was followed by the previously mentioned Juan Francisco Collado and Jesus Fernandez Hernandez, who were traveling in a 1958 Chevrolet, license number 61-357, engine motor number E-581-133666; this car was registered in the name of the Provincial Electric Power Plant Labor Union and was used by union leader Collado in connection with his union activities. The Sabotage Operation And this is how the first sabotage action was carried out in the underground electric power junction box located under a manhole cover at the intersection of Diaria and Aguila streets; to do this, Casielles Amigo broke the seal on the manhole cover and raised it; then Arnao lowered himself down into the manhole and placed a time bomb, following directions given by Dominguez or Domingo. While they were doing this, around 1400, Collado and Fernandez, were sitting in the car, near the truck, and were trying to make sure that the coast was clear; they also had an excuse ready, in case somebody stopped them, and they would say this was all on official business; at the same time they of course wanted to make sure that the sabotage operation would come off properly. They performed this same operation in all of the other underground electrical junction boxes, under the manhole covers, where they placed dynamite devices. Early in the morning, at various intervals, explosions took place in the following underground electric junction boxes: at Zulueta and San Jose, in the building of the Payret Theater; at San Jose and Consulado, right next to Radio Cadena Havana; on Galiano, between Neptune and Concordia, where the America Theater is located; at the intersection of Enna and Justicia streets, in Luyano; under the Estrada Palma Theater; on Anton, between Puerta Corrada and Diaria; on Alambique between Vives and Esperanza; at Concordia No 53; Santa Emilia No 24, and Santos Suarez. -END-