-DATE- 19610128 -YEAR- 1961 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- CASTRO SCORES ESCAMBRAY REVOLUTINARIES -PLACE- SANTA CLARA -SOURCE- HAVANA FIEL NETWORK -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19610130 -TEXT- CASTRO SCORES ESCAMBRAY REVOLUTIONARIES Havana, FIEL Network, in Spanish, Jan. 28, 1961, 1709 GMT--E (Speech By Fidel Castro at Santa Clara) (Summary) Exactly one year ago on this site, we gathered at Santiago de Cuba to inaugurate the 26 of July school city in the old barracks. Today, Jan. 28, for the second consecutive time, we commemorate that date by opening the door of another school city, where formerly the soldiers of tyranny were housed. It is possible that neither you nor I shall ever have that opportunity again. It is possible that next year we will not open another school of this type, because we are running out of old barracks. We can open new schools, but they will not provide that same satisfaction, the satisfaction of construction from old barracks these wonderful centers which are now full of machinery. Two thousand young people, the humble youth of the people, will receive technical instruction here. They will be the future technical workers who will manage our machines. They are the first of many who will come from the provinces. The idea is for 2,000 youths to be trained and to prepare to increase the wealth and welfare of our people. This will be done here where formerly the people were taught to kill, where those who robbed and humiliated the people, beat the workers, who paraded their insolence lived as parasites. To dedicate a new school is not the same as to convert a military fortress into a school. We intend to continue converting even the small barracks into schools, because every town no matter how small, had military barracks. For us this one at Santa Clara is especially important. The school has been named for one who gave his life for the revolution--Abel Santa Maria. It is a great honor and a great glory for any compatriot to have this center eternally commemorating his service to his country. Abel Santa Maria was not a professional; he was a worker who died attacking a military fort on July 26. We are sure that it is most proper and fitting that this center should bear this name, converting into palpable reality what was a dream to him and to many others who fell in the struggle. This province has given some magnificent revolutionaries; this province is eminently a province of revolution. Imperialism has made some efforts to establish a beachhead in this revolutionary province of Las Villas. (crowd chants "Paredon"). That is why the revolution needs from the true revolutionaries a greater effort that in the other provinces. The imperialists have tried to raise their head in this province, therefore the men and women, workers and peasants, will have to be more revolutionary. The revolution has to fight. Combat is what makes the revolution strong. The aggressions suffered by our country, which have placed our people on war footing, have made our revolution stronger. Any revolution which is not attacked is not a true revolution. A revolution which does not have any enemies runs the risk of falling asleep, of growing weak. Revolutions need to fight, to struggle; they need an enemy before them. The revolution has enemies in this province. The revolution has a fight in this province. Thus the province has converted itself into a trench in defense of the fatherland. This province is staunch against the enemies of the revolution and its people are proud to be in the frontline trenches of the defense of the fatherland and the revolution. Welcome to the forces of counterrevolution. They will serve to make this province even more revolutionary. They will make it stauncher and braver and more revolutionary. We must analyze why imperialism and counterrevolution chose this province to organize its counterrevolutionary bands. The people of this province must analyze why this province was chosen. What are the causes? Where is the root of this counterrevolution? We must explain the reasons for this. We do not always speak bluntly. Many times we have been tolerant. We have been generous with those who have erred. We think we have acted well, because support for our revolution is increasing. It shows that the revolution has reason to consider its magnanimity. It has shown the people the forces that attack it. It has shown them what kind of people are attacking them. But this does not mean that the revolution is always going to be magnanimous. When the people have become convinced and know who their enemies are, it is necessary for the revolution to abandon all tolerance toward its enemies. You all know the story. The war began in Oriente. It was an era in which nobody believed in the possibility of victory for the revolution. Nobody believed that it was possible to fight tyranny. It was an era when all thought that the people could not face an army. It was believed that a revolution could not be effected against the army. In those times of crimes against our people, misery, corruption, nobody tried to play at war. That truth, that new tactic for our people and for America was an act of idealism. It was bent on the proposition of making a new country, that country which is now taking its place among the countries of the world. Against those who landed here to fight for liberty, the forces of tyranny were unleashed. Those who landed did not receive arms by parachute. They did not receive mercenary gold. They knew that they had to depend on their own strength and the strength of their ideals. They knew that the imperialists would not send arms. They knew that the enemy would receive help. Many times the first encounters were fought by our men without arms. They not only had to face the forces of tyranny without arms, they had to face forces being supplied by imperialists. These were supplied with all manner of arms, including technical aid. Thus began the revolutionary struggle. Thus we fought for a year. Thus was struck the spark that became the flame of revolution, of liberty and justice. Thus began the revolution which brought freedom to the fatherland. Thus were we freed of the criminal banks which subjugated our people. Thus began the revolution which put an end to the sacking of our country which had been going on for 50 years, taking away the lands and the industries from the foreign monopolies. Thus began the revolution which gave 100,000 people their own land. Thus began the revolution which made cooperative sand farms--the lands of the monopolies. Thus began the revolution which made schools out of military barracks. Thus began the revolution which created enough teachers so that no child need be without school. Thus began the revolution which exerted its efforts for the poor, for the peasants, the women, the students. (cries of "Fidel") Thus began the revolution which put an end to exploitation. Thus began the revolution which is the basis for a brilliant future for the Cuban people. Thus began the [Unreadable text] revolution which has made a realization out of our dreams. Thus began the revolution which brought about the realization of Marti and other illustrious men who fell for our flag. They fell without seeing the chains which fettered the Negro broken. They fell by the road without seeing a Cuban Cuba. They fell by the road to serve as seed, to serve as nutriment, as guides and to serve as a banner for us. Thus began the revolution which for the first time in our history has advanced extraordinarily in solving the unemployment problem. Where before we could see thousands of unemployed, we are surprised to hear today that the sugar mills cannot perform their assigned tasks because there are not enough workers to cut cane. (Applause) Who would have said that in our country--where men lived the whole year waiting for the crop in order to earn a few cents to rid themselves of their hunger--who would have said that in only two years the crop would no longer be the only work available to the workers? Now, instead of awaiting the harvest, we find that there are not enough people to do the job. It is already a matter of concern that we do not have enough workers for the plans of the revolution. Who could have believed that some day there would be more schools than teachers? And who could have said that, where a half million children had no schools, within two years there would be more schools than children? Who could have seen that the revolution would have to hurry its selection of youth for the available schools. Escambray Opportunists Denounced That revolution began with the effort of a few, when a few saw that the fight was possible. Those, who for months had remained alone, within one year had managed to light the spark. Other young men, honest students took over the task of seconding our struggle. The idealist learned the lesson of the Sierra Maestra. The adventurers also learned the lesson alongside a few idealists. Behind this group of opportunists was a group of ambitious and corrupt men who had not come to fight, but to rob. Who came not to fight the soldiers of tyranny, but to eat cows in the mountains of Escambray; who came not to teach the peasants, but to confuse, mistreat and corrupt them. They came not to help the poor peasants but to impose a tax, a tax which they spent on high living and not to combat the forces of tyranny. (Cries of "Paredon"). There they began their division. There, our men had to separate themselves from those adventurers of the Escambray. But when Che and Camilo--those glorious fighters of the mountains--when those two reached Las Villas they found a warm welcome among the men. They found in the guerrillas who had fought the open arms of welcome. When they arrived, they were exhausted and hungry. They found there those who solicitously helped them and became their soldiers. How different it had been in then mountains of Escambray. Do you know what they found there? A sign which said: "no troops may enter without our permission" That is to say that Maj. Che Guevara and his column were not awaiting with open arms, but with hostile rifles. Those who had lived placidly in the hills of Escambray did not want the true fighters there. They did not want to be shown up; they did not want fighters there. They knew that the men arriving would change their front into a true battle front. They knew that their weapons would be taken--those weapons which were being used to kill cows, pigs and peasants. One of those leaders laughingly killed peasants in cold blood. They treated the peasants with contempt, imposed levies on the population and did no fighting. The peasants did not learn anything in the Escambray, because all they saw was abuse. Their eyes were not opened to what the revolution meant to them. They were more afraid of the so-called revolutionaries than they were of the tyrant forces. The ones who really abused them and killed them were the gangsters who had taken power in the Escambray. I shall not deny that there were men of the people who, seeing that the fight was going on, joined them. I shall not deny that among those there were good youths. But, in the majority, they were adventurers after money. Perhaps it would have been better if Che had held a council of war and executed them all. Nevertheless, we were engaged in a fight against tyranny. We were embroiled in a bitter war and we understood that such measures did not benefit the revolution and that the people did not know who was there. The instructions that the invading majors had was to unite and to dedicate themselves to creating a spirit of unity. When the war ended, those who had not been the fighters, those who did not share the risks, claimed the victory as theirs. We have had to stand for this in the name of unity. For the sake of unity we have had to tolerate this. We saw some of our men, veterans of more than 20 battles, come out with the grade of sergeant because higher grades were not available. We had seen many heroes after one year return unrecognized while others who had not fired one shot during the entire war came down as majors. Nevertheless, the revolution was generous, which is the mark of a man who fights for ideals. Those self-styled majors who did not call themselves generals and admirals because that grade was not known in the mountains, did they not know that the revolution could strip them of their rank? That is the story. The second front of the Escambray was not only a bad one, but it showed that part of the leadership of the revolution was not good. Some of the subversives insinuated themselves into the revolution in this province. The diversionist seeds were planted in this province, and the workers movements and numerous officers of administration have fallen into the hands of opportunists and pseudorevolutionaries. In this province there has been a movement against the revolution. There has been infiltration into the municipal administration, as well as the army and police, of elements that are definitely adventurist, opportunist, and corrupt. It is necessary to say this all at once because it is a thorn in the side of this province. We have to clean out all our offices in this province. In every post there must be a man or a woman of revolutionary character. When you deal with a youth such as this, a people such as this, thousands of worthy people who truly are for their country and the revolution, there is no reason to have even one shameless counterrevolutionary in the administration of the states. (Applause) There is no reason to be tolerant of the traitors. That is the reason why the imperialists have chosen this province. Here is the evil of adventurism, opportunism, divisionism. That is why they concentrate their major efforts here. They began in Pinar del Rio. They had no success. They have tried other places and failed. Here they had their agents, and there were some dissatisfied deserters who joined with the agents who were fleeing through the mountains. They all joined, abusing their offices and the tolerance of the revolution. Some officials sent arms to the rebels and helped them keep in contact with the American Embassy. They started a counterrevolution. Naturally, parachuted arms drops began to be parachuted immediately. Small amounts of arms began to reach the counterrevolutionaries. The peasants of the Escambray did not know what was happening because the seed of revolution had not been planted there. They knew only of the poor examples set before. Almost immediately the reign of terror was established against the peasants. They have hanged peasants. The revolution's forces never did this. The revolution has gathered together 1,000 peasants. In spite of the fact that they had received harsh treatment, 1,000 of them volunteered, and the pursuit of the counterrevolutionaries began. Some of them came from Guatemala, and in some cases where the militia was not ready, the peasants were sent to the Isle of Pines to prevent Guatemalan invaders from capturing it. In those days the imperialists began to send arms by parachute. To show to what lengths they went, we captured our first bazooka after 18 months of war, the second one was taken two weeks alter. Many arms were taken later, including two bazookas. One was destroyed fighting a tank. The other was given to Che and he used it to fight in Las Villas. At the beginning we had one bazooka for the whole army. Now, listen to this. We have captured enough bazookas lately to equip one whole company of bazooka troopers! They have been sending over loads of arms. When we mobilized to face the threat of invasion, the counterrevolutionaries thought it was the signal to begin their offensive. That is why the counterrevolutionary troops rose to over 500 in the Escambray and Santo Espiritu. It is clear that they were awaiting the Americans. But who got there? The militia. The counterrevolutionary bands have been deserted, they have been left alone, abandoned to their fate. It is too bad their help did not come. We would open the way for them to come. It is harder to fight these small groups. If a large group would come they would receive a magnificent welcome. What did these misguided people do on Jan. 5 when they expected the landing of marines? They did not attack the military. They attacked a school and burned it. They went to a school where a 18-year old unarmed youth (cries of "Paredon"), an honorable lad, a son of the people was teaching children and adults. He was doing a beautiful thing, teaching the ignorant. They kidnapped him and another youth, a worker a militiaman, and another peasant militiaman and brutally, horribly hanged the three. This act presents a true picture of what these counterrevolutionaries are. What errors have they fallen into? How far have the forces of imperialism gone? They cannot win. They have the use of mercenaries who are not the forces they need. These forces are fenced in, fenced in to the point where they cannot escape. When these fences are strong enough, batallions of well and specially trained militia will advance on them. Drive Against Counterrevolutionaries Now the people must cooperate. The patrols of workers militia are moving inside the fence. They carry a book for combatting illiteracy. They are moving against counterrevolutionaries and illiteracy at the same time. Never has there been a force such as this. They carry a [Unreadable text] and a rifle. Now the peasants must cooperate so that not even one may escape. When they see all is lost, some of the leaders may try to escape. That is why all the people of this area must be vigilant. All must be vigilant. The militia, the students, the workers, the women's federations. Photographs of these leaders must be circulated thus preventing the escape of any of them. The militia will try to take care of all of them but if one escapes it is up to you to see that he does not escape from then province, because I can assure all these gentlemen that what is going to happen to them is something they have never even imagined. They are going to find out what it is to come against the rifles of the Cuban worker class. The batallions of peasants militia and workers militia know that their job is to remain there while even one counterrevolutionary remains. The people of Las Villas and the families of the militia knows this. It is not a matter of one little campaign. It will be a constant battle while one remains. We are going to put in practice the tactics of the revolution against counterrevolutionary bands to see if we can, once and for all, give them an unforgettable lesson, and then we are going to convert the Escambray into the most revolutionary region of Cuba. We must continue to organize batallions of militia in this province, we must continue until all militia can take part in the lesson we are going to give the imperialists bands. (Applause) The task of all people is to be vigilant during the next weeks to prevent the escape of even one counterrevolutionary leader. That is the task we assign you. (More applause and slogans) The feminine branch of the militia will also receive training. As an immediate task we must eliminate the banks in this province. We must continue to strengthen the forces of revolution throughout the country. We will have batallions organized in every cooperative and every grange. Those who wish to play at revolution must know the serious game upon which they are embarking. These forces in the service of corruption and exploitation, who have sold their souls to the foreign monopolies, who ally themselves with the rich, the monopolists, with the discriminators, politicians, lackeys, murderers of peasants, teachers and negroes, these gentlemen, enemies of our people and of the world, will be faced by our people. The game of revolution is a serious one. Only out of struggle can a strong revolution emerge. The revolution has infinite strength and resources to crush whomever opposes it. We will crush them without any hesitation whatsoever. Afterwards, or at the same time, we shall clean out the bureaucracy of this province. We shall dedicate ourselves to work because this province has the resources and enthusiasm to convert itself into a front of riches. You shall see how this year, after the harvest, there will not be even one unemployed person in this province. In this province, as well as in other provinces, there will not be even one illiterate after this year. Literacy Brigades We have said that no sector will be too remote for our campaign. If necessary we will place a teacher in each home. With your help we will do it. We are going to recruit 10,000 teachers from students of 13 and over. School terms will end of Apr. 15. We will immediately organize all the youths who wish, and if their families wish, to go and teach. If the girls wish they can, with their parents consent, also form brigades. They are going to get 15 days' vacation this year. We shall organize them and send them out as soon as possible. We are going to form an army of learning. (Applause). We must begin to organize this army. We will organize 100,000. This will be a lesson to all the countries of Latin America, demonstrating how a revolution can accomplish things. It will be good for some of us to go out into the country where there are no comforts, a hammock instead of a bed, candles instead of lamps, no frills. We must make sacrifices. Anyone who cannot pass this test will have failed a test of his worth. Do you think we can raise this army of 100,000? The peasants in whose home you live will furnish you with board and room. Your expenses will be paid by literacy funds. These youths will receive a uniform and their travel pay plus 10 dollars per month for their expenses. The peasants will share their food with you. They have always been hospitable and generous. After Dec. 20 (interrupted by song "With Fidel" to tune of jingle bells), all scholastic centers will furnish teachers. It is urged that the lists of all volunteers be forwarded to the Ministry of Education. We must carry out this fight. We have announced the plan for the first time here so that you, the youth of Las Villas, can take advantage of it. The problem of transportation is being resolved so that between Dec. 15 and 20 we can meet and say we have accomplished the eradication of illiteracy. Church Attack Hinted We have work before us, much work. We still have to storm many castles of ignorance and superstition. We still have some fortresses to destroy where the agents of oppression are sheltered. There are still some centers where those who confuse and misguide our children are still sheltered. There are some centers where there are those who continue to write pastorals, who encourage the forces of divisionism. There is even a priest in the bands of the counterrevolutionaries who blesses the hands of assassins. The assassins receive encouragement from the pastorals under the guise of being anticommunists. The assassins murder any one they think is a communist. The anticommunist sermons cause the assassins to kidnap a youth whose crime was to teach. His training had been under our own Cuban teachers. Then the assassins says this is a communist teacher, and we must kill him. This criminal philosophy says that any man who has revolutionary ideas must be assassinated, all communists must be assassinated. That is what the pastorals do; they give them a justification for killing. Who could have thought that someday a teacher would be handed from a tree? Who could have thought that someday those hands which taught children would be stiffened under the treatment he received? This fight against our country, against the revolution of the people, will cost them dearly. The people support this and will fall with all their weight on their enemies. It will crush them as it learned how to crush a whole army in the service of imperialism, whose weapons and money availed them nothing. It took us two years to crush that nest of worms. Forward men and women of Las Villas, peasants and workers, youth and women! Forward students, forward we shall all go. Long live Las Villas; long live the fatherland; long live the martyred teacher; long live literacy; long live culture; long live work, long life progress; long live Cuba. Fatherland or death; we shall conquer! -END-