-DATE-
19630223
-YEAR-
1963
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
ADDRESSES PURS MEETING
-PLACE-
CHAPLIN THEATER IN HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA CMQ RADIO
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19630225
-TEXT-
FIDEL CASTRO ADDRESSES PURS MEETING

Havana CMQ Radio and Television in Spanish 0305 GMT 23 February 1963--F

(Nationwide radio and television broadcast by Cuban Premier Fidel Castro to
members of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution at the Chaplin
Theater in Havana)

(Text) Comrades of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba.
(Applause; voice from audience: "I cannot hear!") I cannot hear it myself.
Now I can. (Touches each of four microphones on lectern--Ed.) For several
months--can you hear now? Can you hear at this distance? Good. For several
months now, comrades, we have had the idea of holding this meeting. It was
to be a mass meeting with the members of our party. Because of a series of
circumstances it could not be held before.

Naturally, as the months went by the organization kept growing. (Audience
noise) But who is it that cannot hear? Where? Where cannot you hear?
(Castro points) Over there comrades? There? and there? I think there is a
deaf comrade. (Castro smiles and audience laughs) The organization keeps
growing in such a way that, practically, even this theater was inadequate
for the meeting we had in mind for the militants of the three western
provinces. At first we had been thinking of a more intimate meeting. But
afterwards the idea arose that it should be public, that it should be
broadcast on radio and television. The interest of the comrades of the
revolution was stirred and it daily became something more solemn. In other
words, it has become a big event, an important event; an event that has had
the effect of awakening the interest of all the comrades of the revolution
and the interest of all the people. It has served, since it was called, to
begin to gauge the prestige and the seriousness of the work which has been
developing in the nation in connection with the organization of the
vanguard party of our people.

It is for us a source of encouragement to see this extraordinary interest
because it contributes to defining the role and the place our organization
ought to occupy in the revolution. All of us ought to steep ourselves with
the conviction, with the awareness, with the task, and with the duties our
nation has ahead of it. It is well known that a revolution is above all,
not an easy task. It is a complex, hard, and difficult process. During the
first months of the revolution, many people were enthusiastic about the
revolution and yet they did not know what the revolution was. Anyone could
call himself a revolutionary.

However, anyone cannot be a revolutionary. In the beginning we observed a
phenomenon which as a matter of fact consisted of a wave of great
enthusiasm and yet there was little of what is solid in the culture of the
masses.

It is only under those circumstances that anyone can pass himself off as a
revolutionary. The times today are not those times. Anyone of you
understands perfectly that the times today are not those times. We smile
because in reality many times in those days we explained this phenomenon,
peculiar to certain phases of the social and political processes, recalling
how during the first months of the struggle, the struggle for the conquest
of power, there was a relatively small number of fighters, but when the
revolution had won then there could be seen an immense, gigantic wave. Of
course we always thought "if times became difficult if the days of the hard
fight returned, many of those who are in that wave will not move to the
call of the revolution." What I mean is that those were the times of
opportunism, but we know what the circumstances are and how under difficult
circumstances there are fewer of them. In easier times there are many.

Of course every revolutionary process ascends step by step and the number
of experienced combatants, the number of proven combatants grows step by
step, because while it can be said that under difficult circumstances where
it is necessary to give proof of a truly revolutionary spirit, many place
themselves in evidence, it is also true that in the moments of struggle and
difficult moments those who are worthy, those who have the attributes, make
themselves known. That which is worthy of our people, those of our people
who fight, the number of the people who actively participate in the
struggle, and who in difficult circumstances would fight, is infinitely
greater than the number who fought at the beginning. Why? Because simply
the revolution has been filling its ranks from the masses of the people and
that is why it can already advance like a fighting and purified mass.

What has purified the revolution most, what has purified the revolutionary
masses most, is precisely these four years of revolution. The struggle, the
class struggle, the deepening of the revolutionary process, has caused the
best of our people to begin to group, the begin to strengthen themselves.
And everyone who has worthless (y todo lo que no servia) and tried to be in
the limelight in the ranks of the revolution as revolutionaries has been
quitting the revolutionary ranks. However, the revolutionary column is
today a hardened revolutionary column, a hardened revolutionary force
where, as in war, the most stalwart remain.

We recall some phases of the armed struggle. There were certain times when
we won a victory, when we captured a headquarters, when we had a large
number of weapons available, then many people enlisted--20, 30, 40 showed
up. In the flush of victory they became eager, they asked for rifles, they
joined our ranks. But when the persecution began, when the days of long
forced marches, of hunger, of cold, of rain came, some of those people
began to desert. They used any pretext. There was a very simpatico pretext,
I do not know if Che has told about it in his articles, I have not read all
of them, but as a sincere man he could have included it. It has to do with
some people who, when we marched on the mountain trails in those difficult
days, we would ask for a few minutes to leave because they had to go
(laughter). Their platoons would halt to wait for them. Ten minutes would
go by, 20 minutes a half hour would go by, and the man would not return.
Generally they would leave their rifles behind. Sometimes, sometimes there
were those who took their rifles. Those were the ones who hurt us most.

It was not at all strange, as the months went by, as the revolution
progressed, and its strength began to be felt, that the man would show up
again enlisted in some small guerrilla force in the lowlands, or in some
area where soldiers were not being sent anymore--some of those people who
deserted in that phase.

Within the revolution, when in the first days the opposition of the
reactionary sectors of the nation began to become evident, we said that the
revolution was going to diminish in scope and to grow in depth. It was
evident and logical that the measures of popular benefit which the
revolution ordered affecting the interests of privileged and exploiting
minorities were going to unleash the struggle of classes with all its force
and the revolution was going to begin to decrease in scope but at the same
time to increase in depth.

It was the struggle against the monopolies, the struggle against the owners
of housing, the great great owners, the great owners of plantations, the
great importers and all in all the great social sector in which our country
made up the exploiting class and dominated all sources of power before the
revolution, which monopolized culture, practically monopolized higher
education, the means of broadcasting ideas, all that sector which the
revolution began to clash.

At that time the struggle began, a struggle which has not ended and of
which it could be said is just beginning. This is a long struggle and it is
going to be a long struggle. This is a hard and difficult struggle and it
is going to be a long, hard, and difficult struggle.

The revolution counts on victory beforehand. Of that nobody can have any
doubt, but we must know that this is a long, hard, and difficult struggle
because this is a revolution. (Applause) This could not have been said at
the beginning because there would have appeared persons who would have
said: "Why is this going to be a hard, difficult struggle if the struggle
is over, if Batista has already been defeated?" They did not even imagine
that that was when the struggle began.

Today it can be said. Today it can be understood, and it is possible that
among the things, ideas, idealism, the subjectivisms, we have not
sufficiently eradicated this idea of believing that the revolution is an
easy task. That is why the first thing that a revolutionary member must
know, must learn well, is that the revolution is a difficult task. If any
revolution in any era of history could be considered a difficult task, the
most difficult of all revolutions, because it is the most radical and the
most profound in the history of humanity, it is the socialist revolution.
(Applause)

The socialist revolution is more far-reaching than any of the previous
revolutions in the history of humanity because it is a socialist revolution
of the social classes. The difference, the differentiation between
exploiters and the exploited disappears for the first time since it
appeared one day in the history of humanity. In previous revolutions, like
the bourgeois revolutions, the domination of certain classes was abolished,
to implant in its place the domination of other classes which were
revolutionary at that historic moment, progressive in that historic moment,
who implanted a better social regime with respect to the previous social
regime, but a social regime still basically founded on the exploitation of
man by man.

First came the systems of slavery, then the feudal systems, then the
bourgeois system. The form of exploitation changed. Even the degree of
exploitation changed. But exploitation was maintained and always in a cruel
form. Even in the most developed capitalist nations which because of their
highly developed technology and the industry they have attained, even in
those nations we always find man abandoned to his fate, the man who is
victim of a thousand and one exploitations, the man without work, the
cornered man, because it is a fierce struggle, a fierce competition of man
against man. Under the pretext of the defense of the individual what they
do is to liquidate the individual, corner the man, and abandon the
individual to his fate.

The individual who has been fired from his factory, the individual victim
of an accident or illness without money, without means of subsistence for
his family, without means of subsistence to satisfy his most elementary
needs.

Even those nations which have been able to attain a high national
production, we see the beggar next to the millionaire. That is the way this
society is.

In order to understand the historical injustice or the condemnation by
history of such a social system we must begin by understanding and by
knowing the Marxist viewpoint, the Marxist affirmation that upon breaking
the chains of feudalism, the productive forces developed in an
extraordinary way until at a given moment in its development they began to
clash with the social system in the bosom of which they had developed. But
having attained a high level of development, being able to produce high
quantities of material goods, how absurd can a society be where a beggar is
next to the millionaire.

This is when the necessity of changing this social order becomes evident
because it is an inadequate social order for the degree of development of
the means of production and technology that man has created. The United
States, which incessantly boasts about its production capacity, is an
example of how at the side of the Rockefellers, the Morgans, and the Fords,
are the beggars, who exist in all the cities of the United States, the
inhospitable districts, the slums. There is the real fact that a great
part, a considerable part of its production capacity is underutilized,
working at 60 or 70 percent of capacity.

The United States invests more than 50 billion dollars in arms and in
military expenditures. The fact that a human society spends annually in
military services such great resources, which if they were determined among
the underdeveloped and poor countries of the world would be enough to give
them infinite relief in meeting their needs, and to understand that these
military expenditures have the sole and exclusive purpose of maintaining
domination over other countries and of subjecting and exploiting the work
and the riches of other countries, would be enough to condemn such a
society, to condemn it from the moral point of view and understand from the
historic and scientific point of view that it is destined inevitably to
disappear. (Applause)

In our country, although it was an underdeveloped country, there were
factories which were not being fully utilized. All those present there, any
of those present here, who are workers, know that if today there are some
underutilized factories it is solely and exclusively when raw materials are
lacking, when because of the difficulties created for us by the blockade
imposed by Yankee imperialism we cannot obtain those raw materials; because
from the instant the basic means of production pass to the people and such
a system of exploitation disappears, then production is not for the
market--production is for needs. And the needs were present on all sides.

The most abundant thing in our country as an underdeveloped country was
needs. There was need for everything--need for employment, first of all;
need for schools, need for hospitals, need for housing, material and
cultural needs of every kind.

The capitalists did not care about satisfying any of these needs. The
capitalists were interested in making money. The socialist state does care
about satisfying needs. The capitalist's has no soul. Has has no pity. When
he plans and organizes a business he does so for his own profit, for
himself and his class. Of course that exploiting class did not lack
anything. For them there were no needs. There were needs for the masses.
What capitalist lacked a fine hospital? What capitalist lacked a brilliant
doctor? What capitalist lacked the best medicine when he got sick? And what
child of a capitalist lacked a magnificent school, a magnificent house, a
splendid beach, and a big bank account for buying everything, from
Cadillacs to jewelry? While spending 5,000 dollars for a Cadillac, while
spending the money on a Cadillac, he did not think or care to think that at
some place in the interior the fields might be covered with marabu brush
and the people out of work. He could have no interest in a poor quarter.
For him needs did not exist.

The needs existed for the masses. To what hospitals did the masses go?
(They lived?) in such an inhuman society that even to get into a hospital
it was necessary to take along a recommendation from a politician. In the
few, ill-attended hospitals the sick were crowded together and often they
slept on the floor. The revolution came to power in an underdeveloped
country that was a paradise for a minority of exploiters and hell for the
great majority--the masses. That was the state of affairs, and the
revolution expropriated from the paradise group, it wiped out those
gentlemen's privileges, to satisfy the needs of the exploited.

Of course, it may be easy to say that. The hard thing is to do it, because
in order to do it one must face the international alliance of exploiters.
Doing it in a small country like this one which was practically owned by
the mightiest bastion of reaction in the world, was not easy. And yet we
are doing it. (Applause) Could the needs of the masses be satisfied merely
through expropriating from the exploiters? No. Expropriating or
confiscating from the exploiters was just the start. The lack of adequate
material goods for satisfying the needs of the great masses has as its
basic cause the lack of technical knowledge and of the necessary means of
production. It is what is called economic underdevelopment.

Formerly, in spite of the fact that this was an underdeveloped country, a
minority lived very well, but very well, because there was an entire
majority working for it. With the means of production we had, the means of
production that this underdeveloped country had, it was not possible to
satisfy the needs of that majority. And that aside from other factors. We
know one of the factors which most hampers and obstructs and makes our
people sacrifice. It is the enmity, the hostility, and the aggression from
the mightiest bastion of world rejection. But even without that, our people
needed means of production and technology.

Anybody who has read the newspapers or has seen one knows how a canecutting
machine does the work of 30 men. That is, a canecutting machine multiplies
a man's productivity by 30, just as a cigar machine multiplies a man's
productivity of a tobacco worker, and a farm machine, a tractor, multiplies
the productivity of a worker, of a farmer. And so our country had to
undertake a course of economic development, that is, of developing
industry, the means and techniques of production. What a revolutionary must
never forget is that only work, and work with adequate means and
technology, can create the material goods that man needs. That is the basic
economic principle, the foundation of human society. That must never be
forgotten by a revolutionary. The enemy wages propaganda, truly cynical
propaganda.

We are constantly seeing how imperialism bases its propaganda against the
Cuban revolution on the idea of the difficulties the revolution is
experiencing. And right how, these past few days, when they received with
every honor that great traitor who tyrannizes the fraternal people of
Venezuela, (applause) the partner of colonialist puppets like Munoz Marin,
and depict them as model governors because they have surrendered their very
souls to the Yankee monopolies, we frequently hear the imperialist
reasoning to the effect that the Cuban revolution can no longer be
attractive because of the economic problems it is experiencing, because of
the hunger that exists. I say the reasoning is cynical, because it is
tantamount to the following: putting all one's might, all one's hostility,
and all one's influence into blockading a small underdeveloped country and
afterward saying: Just look; they are in difficulty.

The merit of this revolution, which the peoples of America are observing,
is precisely that, in spite of everything, the revolution is maintaining
itself and continuing to progress. (Applause) What right do the
imperialists have to judge our difficulties if they by their acts cause
them? They have used all their power to create difficulties for us.

But they do it so calmly, and use that deceitful reasoning, pretending not
to know that this revolution is moving forward despite the extraordinary
efforts they have displayed to destroy it by hunger or bloodshed. And yet,
and yet, where hunger does exist, and frightful suffering, lack of culture
and neglect is in many regions of America. And there the imperialist
exploiters will be unable to help.

But we might put a question to the Yankee leaders, the Yankee (word
indistinct): If Cuba cannot be attractive, if the example of Cuba cannot be
attractive, why are you so preoccupied with Cuba? (Applause) If the example
of Cuba is not attractive, why are you so afraid of Cuba? (Applause) If the
example of Cuba were not attractive, why this hysteria let loose in the
Senate and in the Yankee press? Why this tremendous uproar about the danger
of subversion they say Cuba represents? Why so much fear? Is it not enough
to look at the map of this hemisphere to see Cuba's size, Cuba's geography,
a tiny island, a tiny bit of land in the middle of an immense continent on
one portion of which the most powerful capitalist country is established?
Why does Cuba cause them so much fear? They say we promote subversion and
they take fright. But how could we promote subversion and cause revolutions
if it has been proven that subversion cannot be victorious, because what
the imperialists and the reactionaries in America have been using against
us for four years is subversion. (Applause) And yet we are not afraid. And
yet they do not frighten us. We have crushed them and we will crush them a
hundred times. (Applause)

Then how is it possible that when the powerful state uses subversion
against the small country and the reactionary oligarchies of America use
subversion, and they fail--why are they then so afraid of subversion, if
according to their own experience subversion is useless? Is it natural for
the imperialists to be using these arguments now against Cuba? But
apparently what they are saying is what they think. Against a revolution
subversion fails; against exploitation, subversion--which then would no
longer be subversion, but revolution--triumphs. (Applause)

We do not practice subversion, of course, nor do we export revolutions.
Among other things, the imperialists can permit themselves that kind of
luxury. The imperialists have boundless resources. On the Giron expedition
alone, some 40 million dollars were spent, plus what they had to spend
afterward as indemnity. (Applause) Could we spend 40 million dollars on
organizing an expedition against a reactionary government?

No! But the odd thing is to see how calmly they make these charges against
us when they are the ones who have been doing that, and in just one of the
actions against us, they spent 40 million. And besides, because it is not
just a matter of principle, but also an unnecessary matter, because the
virus of revolution is not carried in submarines or ships. It is the
ethereal waves of ideas that carry the revolutionary virus, (applause) and
they prosper where there is an abundant medium for their culture, and in
Latin America there is an abundant medium for revolutionary culture.
(Applause)

What is Cuba? Cuba is the example, Cuba is the idea; the force of Cuba is
the force of its revolutionary ideas (applause), the force of its example.
And how can ideas be isolated? The imperialists spend millions of dollars
in propaganda, but hunger, exploitation, and poverty are such real facts in
face of imperialist lies that all the propaganda will be of no avail. The
imperialists in that manner have been fostering embarrassing examples: The
elections in Nicaragua with one single candidate, the elections in Paraguay
with one single candidate. This is the representative democracy of the
puppet-candidate. What example, what force can such ideas have in a
continent that knows that Somoza was placed in power there by the Yankee
marines 30 years ago. The famous son inherited his father's colony and
Somoza's secretary is the imperialists' puppet-candidate. Who can hope to
conquer with this sort of thing--that heir of Somoza who inherited the
presidency in the oppressed country of Nicaragua, when a just hand
castigated the tyrant? Several days ago he took the liberty of saying that
he was going to devote his efforts to organizing an expedition against
Cuba. Being president of that country he can say these things calmly, and
the State Department smiles, the Yankee imperialists smile, and their press
devotes an editorial to them.

Oh, if Cuba would declare that it is going to devote its efforts to
organize an expedition against anyone, what universal clatter, what
mobilization of forces, how many meetings would take place at the OAS, the
State Department, and the Pentagon. They can say these things calmly while
accusing Cuba of subversion. They do not speak of subversion but of
expeditions. No, Messrs. Imperialists, we know what we are, and we know
that we are an idea and that we have a force of an idea, an idea that your,
Messrs. Imperialists, will not be able to defeat. (Applause) Our column
marches forward in that zealous struggle; our column marches through the
paths of history. It is true that from that column some asked permission to
leave when they say that the fight was difficult, but those who asked
permission to leave are the cowards, the turncoats.

They cannot march with the column of their people and their country through
the paths of history, because these paths can only be walked by those who
meet the criteria, those of quality. It is precisely the vanguard of that
column that is meeting here tonight. (Long applause)

Recalling the experiences of the years of fighting in the mountains, we had
been quite concerned for our vanguard. The vanguard of our column had very
special and important tasks. It was the first unit to make contact with the
enemy, to form ambushes in the roads, to protect the route, and to mount
guard permanently. Camilo here was in the platoon of the vanguard of our
column (long applause)--that is the party, the vanguard. For that reason,
we make efforts to see that this vanguard is formed by the best
revolutionaries.

Comrades: In a meeting such as this one, I could talk about many things;
the interesting issues are many. The battlefronts are so many and this
battle is so arduous that many subjects could be dealt with. We are in the
heat of the battle against the imperialists. We are in the depth of this
historic battle, of this long battle. But there are some things, matters of
concept, that we must clarify at this meeting. Certain basic issues dealing
with concept must be expounded to further the organizational effort of our
party. We have moved slowly, but we have done good work. Some are
impatient, some ask: "When are we going to organize the party here and
there?" Some say that if we had organized the party, we could solve such
problems here and there, in some institutions and some working centers. It
is true, but it is also true that the basic issue is not to organize the
party but to organize it well. We have decided that the organizational task
must be carried out thoroughly to do a job of the highest quality.

To a certain extent the October crisis and and the problems that followed
interrupted that organizational task. It was delayed somewhat. However, the
work has advanced, slowly but surely, slowly but well. We have started in
the working centers, in the factories, and in the proletarian centers. Work
has been done in other fronts. That we have already organized nuclei in the
western provinces, approximately 10,000 members of the United Party of the
Socialist Revolution, (applause) is proof of work done. In Oriente
Province, the organizational effort has extended to another sector, the
mountains. What methods have been used by the comrades in Oriente? In the
Oriente mountains, the revolution has 30,000 militiamen organized and
trained, (applause)--basically farmers, peasants, and poor peasants--of
such a social composition, really revolutionary.

How have the comrades in Oriente organized the party in the mountains? They
have organized it in "sierra companies" (companias seranas). As each zone
has its military company of militiamen, the basis to organize the party in
the mountains has been the companies, where in assemblies the worthiness
and quality of the comrades called to form the party have been discussed
with excellent results. We have advanced, but yet have a long way to go. We
must organize the party in the administrative sphere, in the fields, in the
city sections, and in our revolutionary armed forces. (Applause)

We have started right; we have gone to the proletarian centers. We have
applied a mass method and have discovered and recruited for that
revolutionary vanguard an infinity of values, new values. In this vanguard
we must have the best in the country, the most devoted sons, the staunchest
and the bravest in the country. (Applause) Even if we are moving slowly, it
does not matter as long as we apply the correct methods, and as long as at
the end we can say that we have a formidable party, a party at its height
for the historic task of our country and of our revolution. Therefore, we
will go to all sectors, and when the party is organized, it will have the
support of the masses, because the masses will know who forms their
vanguard. The people will march behind this vanguard. We will be in better
condition to wage our battle with this vanguard organized. We must defend
this vanguard, not only organize it, but defend it.

In a series of speeches collected by a committee of revolutionary guidance,
we have expounded a series of ideas concerning the party's role and, at the
same time, have included criticisms made about me and erroneous methods,
but there are always new things. We had to fight the vice of taking the
political cadres and the mass organization cadres into the administrative
sphere. We have a good union leader. Well, he ended up in a consolidated
enterprise. There was a good political cadre, and it ended up in the
administrative sphere. Results: the progressive anemia of the political
apparatus and mass organizations.

Undoubtedly administration is very important, but the party is more
important. (Applause) The party develops its cadres and defends them, and
administrators develop their cadres with the party's help. These issues are
basic. A good political cadre should not be taken away from the party. A
good mass organization cadre should not be taken away from the mass
organization. Otherwise, we will always have a weak apparatus if we follow
this policy. This policy could be called the policy of cult for
administrators. Comrades, the party was being converted into a springboard.
Consequently, we were creating the culture of opportunism.

Every time an administrator was to be selected, a better paid job, he had
to be taken away from the nucleus. This way we are going to have
opportunists at the door of the nucleus. How can we free ourselves from the
opportunists, when the nucleus is a great responsibility and a great honor,
a position of sacrifice. (Applause)

At that time we decided the the political organization was turning into a
sort of tyrant, because it was not only the springboard for administrators,
but at the same time, a constant interference in the administration, a
constant alteration of the administration. The secretary of the nucleus
wanted to replace the administrator, but we decided not to replace him but
to pass judgment on what he had to do. We decided that administrators were
responsible, and to meet responsibility, they needed power. This was right.
But what happened, what happened in the process? Once this problem was
clarified, and it was clarified correctly, when we established the
functions of the nuclei some administrators tried to become tyrants over
the party; that is, to apply wrong methods to the party. With bad
intentions? No. Was it because they had a bad opinion of the nuclei? No.
What is funny is that it was the contrary--for having a good opinion of the
nuclei. These conditions have reached a working center. The administrator
of a consolidated enterprise would take a worker out of the nucleus and
make him head of a unit. So the nuclei began to be broken up. Then we
discussed and determined that the administrators could not dispose of party
members that way, without discussing the matter with the sectional group.
(Applause) We have had to defend administrators against erroneous methods,
and now we must defend the party against erroneous methods of
administrators--a pretty thing!

I have a long list there of administrators who took men from the nuclei.
Here we are talking to the administrators, not only to the party comrades,
because the comrades of the nucleus cannot be promoted or moved to work
outside of the center without discussing the matter with the party.
(Applause) It is necessary to defend the administrators, including good
administrators. Here we must defend many working centers from other working
centers. You can imagine what a battle we have to wage. Here are
enterprises who try to take employees from other enterprises of the
socialist state. They find a good technician, accountant, anything, and
they offer him a better salary. This is called piracy of technicians and
workers. (Applause) There are firms that practice that piracy. This is one
of the problems. They not only pirate a militant from the party, sometimes
they pirate them from another enterprise.

What other acts of piracy do some enterprises carry out? Some that actually
injure as much? They pirate students. They try to take away a student from
a technical school or a secondary school. On the other hand, the revolution
makes an enormous effort in education to prepare technicians, and an
administrator takes a student from a technological school! We make a school
for technicians to train the future navigators with a much more modern
technology, the future crews of ships who have an incomparably greater
capacity for training, and when they go on vacations, there are
administrators of fishing cooperatives that contract some of those
students, generally the best ones.

Piracy of students! All these acts of piracy within the socialist state
force us to take measures. We must protect the students! There has been the
case of a mother who is very unhappy because her son, who had a
scholarship, was offered a job for a hundred or so dollars and gave up the
scholarship. Well, we are studying a law to prohibit the contracting of
students, (applause) of secondary, technological, and first and second year
university students. Of 500 students in the first year of technology, we
discovered 300 working with an average salary of 180 because some
enterprises pay high, pay high! What have we done with medical students?
Subsidize those who were working so that they could devote all their time
to study. But, on the other hand, they enroll the students to work.

These are a series of matters that have to do with education. Of course we
are in a period of transition. In the future we will have to complement
education with work, but work as part of education. Then we must consider
the special cases in which a real need to work may present itself to a
youth, (such as?) the case of the comrade who has the misfortune of losing
his father and must assume responsibility for the family. These cases must
be studied. A good student, one in which the country has an interest to
train--help him somehow and let him continue studying! (Applause)

A student that is not outstanding and who has a need? He can be authorized.
All these things in an organized manner. I believe that it was necessary to
call this the year of organization, not because we have not advanced in
organization, but because we have many things to organize.

In the problem of employment, the control of employment, we have two evils:
1) Free employment; 2) Imperfections of our organizing apparatus, control
of employment. We are studying how to establish a flexible, practical
method that will exercise some control and will not at the same time turn
into excessive control, a flexible method, but all these things happen.

We have conferred with our young communist comrades. These are (some
things?) that, in our judgment, are erroneous. In the first place the
number of cadres in the youth organization in the province of Havana was
600; the party, 200 and some. A really disproportionate number of cadres in
the youth organization! That is mistaken. But, nevertheless, there was
something that concerned us more. It, too, was done with magnificent
intentions, but mistakenly. What was it? The recruitment of the best
students for the cadres of the youth. In the best centers they made a
communist youth out of a great boy, but at the same time, they would later
take him away to make him a cadre. The intention was very good, but the
method, in our view, was mistaken. What a youth must do before anything
else is to train, acquire an ability to give useful service to our country
or produce material goods. How are we going to turn a 16-year-old youth
into a professional cadre without his ever becoming a worker, without
learning the acquire an ability to produce or to serve his country? And it
turns out that after two years it is considered that he is not good as a
political cadre, then he is neither a political cadre nor does he have any
ability with which to serve the country.

Moreover, how are we going to turn a youth into a professional cadre at 16
or 17? It cannot be. The first obligation of the youth is to train, to
prepare himself. Let him be a communist youth, a cadre of the communist
youth, but let him remain in the center of study and, in addition, let him
study. Let it not be that he spends all day at meetings. Let him study and
develop as a technician; then let him develop as a worker, all of which
must be prerequisites for becoming a cadre of the youth and the party in
the future. Why frustrate him? (Applause)

In our opinion, those youths--we would be doing great harm to those youths.
That is why we must also protect those good students from those methods.
And the number of professional cadres, both in the party and the mass
organizations, must be at a minimum, because the more we consume and the
less we produce, the fewer material goods there will be for the country.
(Applause) The cadres are absolutely necessary. The organizations, and,
above all, the party need them, but it must always be in line with the view
of having the minimum of cadre for the work of the mass organizations and
for the party. We have many mass organizations and if we (harm?) the
institution of the professional cadre, we will be doing harm to the
organizations and to the country. That is the criterion we must follow.

There are certain problems that have arisen because while we have been in
this period of reorganization, of course, the party has not been able to
assume the tasks that correspond to it, and there has been a certain
tendency to self-determination among the mass organizations. This question
must be well understood. We have said that the party governs, but the party
does not govern on all levels. The party governs through its national
leadership and through the public administration; that is to say that the
party on the province level cannot make a decision that refers to an
administrative or productive organization of a national nature. The party
in the province cannot alter the decision of a ministry. It can discuss, it
can present to the corresponding minister a point of view through the party
or directly.

The public administration is an instrument of the revolutionary vanguard.
The party governs the mass organizations on the various levels; that is to
say, it governs nationally and in the provinces. The party also governs the
mass organization without interfering in functions of a national nature
that may be assigned nationally to a mass organization.

For example, take the case that in a town the party considered that a cadre
of a mass organization was not good and (replaced?) the cadre without
consulting the mass organization. The party must consult with the mass
organization on the local level and at a higher level, but it must not
replace. But the party directs in that locality the mass organization in
the tasks that correspond to the party, and it checks on its work on the
local, provincial, and national level.

The party tries to get the mass organization to develop. It does not ratify
the mass organization. It does not threaten them; it does not belittle
them. It promotes their development. The same thing happens with public
administration. The party helps the administration. It tries to make its
cadres develop, and the administrative cadres--sometimes a good
administrator requires characteristics different from a good political
cadre. That is why it is mistaken. What do the capitalists do? The
capitalists, vigilant of their interests, try to select from the people
whom they know--sometimes among the workers themselves--those who have
certain prerequisites in which they are interested.

Of course there is one question, and that is that in capitalism in its
advanced stage; that is to say, in its imperialist phase, as Lenin says,
there is social production although property is private. What does that
mean? That they are already operating through enormous enterprises. Any
developed monopolist enterprise has hundreds of thousands of workers.
It differs from a socialist enterprise in only one thing. The monopolist
enterprise is the private property of a group of individuals and the great
state enterprise is the property of the people; it is national, it is
not private.

Let no one think that the capitalists themselves direct their enterprises
today, they have employees. The capitalists are traveling through Europe,
in the casinos, they are (several words indistinct). The stockholders, the
large stockholders never even see the factory. Let not any of you ever
think that the stockholders of United Fruit ever came to see how the old
(Preston?) central was operating. They never came to Cuba. They had
administrators.

The people must have their administrators, and good ones, responsible ones.
They know how to choose them by their qualities. (Applause) The party does
not supplant the public administration. It helps it, it supports it. It
facilitates the development of its cadres. The party must not supplant the
function of the administration or the mass organizations. It is very
important that we keep these things clear because if we do not, supplanting
and the consequent misadministration of those organizations will take
place. The party does not administer directly. It is the vanguard. It is
the organization that unites the most advanced workers, the most
revolutionary. The backbone of a revolution is not the secretary of a local
who devotes himself to administration, to carry out the functions that
belong to the administration. He abandons the party and the constant tasks
he has within the party.

The most important task is politics--do not forget that. Experience shows
us that everywhere. Sometimes, in some areas where a great effort of work
and economic development has been made, if there is no good political
apparatus, the area is weak and everywhere we constantly see that the
revolutionary is needed, that political organization is needed. But
wherever there is a good political organization, everything goes well. Now,
(several words indistinct) have a good political organization in any corner
of the country, and the political cadre is always alert, studying,
analyzing, explaining. If there is a problem that cannot be solved it is
explained. The masses are informed because the people understand. What will
the people request of the revolutionary, that he do what he cannot? No.
They will ask that he do what he can do. And when the people are informed
of a reasonable, legitimate difficulty, the masses understand immediately.

The political cadres should exist to resolve what can be resolved, to
explain what cannot be resolved, to suggest, to speak, to alert. If there
is bad distribution in a corner of the country, or bad production, or any
problem, the political leadership does not have to learn of it from a
report from an inhabitant of the area.

That is what the party is for, with its eye open for all problems, working
with the masses, giving impetus to all it can, explaining, resolving,
suggesting, and alerting the superior organisms. That is why the function
of the political apparatus of the revolution is fundamental.

But that apparatus is one that is the product of selection. It is an
organization of selection. It is not a question of quantity, but rather
quality. And if it is not a question of number but rather of quality, how
can they move the masses? Precisely through the mass organizations, because
we have developed powerful mass organizations. Therein lies the interest of
the party in the development of the mass organizations. The party relies on
the mass organizations. It relies on the mass organizations and, therefore,
wants the mass organizations to remain healthy, that the unions, the
Federation of Women, the defense committees, the students, the peasant
organizations function well, because it relies on those organizations for
its work. If one organization is weak, the party will have a weak arm.

The youth, is it a mass organization? No. It is also an organization of
selection. The youth is the organization in which the future militants of
the party are prepared. Moreover, the youth is not autonomous. It has its
national organization, its national task, but the party on the provincial,
the local level supervises and directs the work of the youth. It is logical
that it be thus, because the maximum political authority is the party with
respect to the mass organizations and, for greater reason, with respect to
youth. The youth becomes unhappy. It is a bit jealous of its prerogative
and it protests and argues. But, in the final analysis, who here can say
that he is older or younger than the rest? In short, this revolution is
young; we cannot create an exclusive group apart. (Applause) These
questions of concept must be adequately cleared up. We may have to discuss
all these problems many times.

What have we tried to do? We have tried to go slowly, experiment. Not to
invent methods in a bureau and then apply them to a reality to which they
cannot adjust. We have tried to learn from daily work. The revolution still
has many affairs to resolve, many things. Our revolution has tried not be
formalist. What does that mean? Not to resolve things for merely formal
reasons, but rather, to pay attention to realities and to see to it that
every institution and form responds to realities.

What tasks remain ahead? An infinity of tasks; for example, local
authority. The revolution must organize local authority. This is very
important, and this has not been solved. It must be solved. How are we
going to do it? Are a group of jurists and philosophers going to sit down
to discuss how local authority should be organized, make a law, and decree
it? No. We are conducting a test, and the party in the province of Havana,
in the municipal area of Guines, is carrying out a test of organization of
local authority, structure, and methods of elections. We are going to do it
in one locality. What for? To see its effects and improve it, and with the
experience we acquire, to begin applying it in other regions so that those
organizations respond to realities and not to subjective ideas, that they
not spring from the mind of any one person, but rather from reality.

Reality--you know it from experience. As occasionally happened, as in
Baracoa, where the INIT had a bar--it was either there or elsewhere,
because I do not want to make a statement of which I am not too certain--it
was in a section of Baracoa, in which the administrator of a bar in a
remote area was drunk all day. No one had anything to do with it. The INIT
was in Havana. No local authority could decide anything. There are a series
of artisan-type enterprises that cannot be placed in a consolidated
enterprise because the enterprises are sometimes bottomless barrels in
which enterprises sometimes get lost. (Applause) One must bear in mind the
function of the consolidated enterprises. Perfect! Because it is a type of
large enterprise that has a series of similar technical problems, but not,
it happens that it was a small brick factory, or (word indistinct), or a
fruitstand--because in this country there were many artisan-type
enterprises, which corresponded to its state of underdevelopment. Of
course, the shoe, candy, and tobacco artisan-type enterprises are
disappearing as a result of the rationalization--as a matter of fact, when
those firms were rationalized, 40,000 workers were made available for other
industries. The Ministry of Industry has a plan for technological training
of those workers, who will begin to fill the posts in the new industries
that are being built. That is very correct.

Rationalization! Note the 40,000 workers freed for those industries! Forty
thousand workers! The work they did in a little (word indistinct) is done
by one machine, a more modern factory. Well, there are still an infinity of
(word indistinct). Another thing: Varadero! There were 12 consolidated
enterprises commanding there, so a combine was formed, that is, a single
authority where there were 12 authorities in command, with a superior
authority in the capital.

These are a series of things that the practical life in the nation is
teaching us how to resolve in an intelligent and correct manner. So we are
making an experiment. What are we going to place there? Small enterprises,
a movie, a bar, a coffee shop, small things administered locally, not the
large factories, of course, recognizing that this type of enterprise will
disappear with development. Then, instead of 20 (word indistinct), there
will be one or two large centers that can be administrated in another
manner. It is not to develop those artisan type enterprises, but to
administer those that exist and render some service.

An electricity pole falls and blocks a street in a little town and no one
can resolve the problem because there is no authority. To whom does it
belong? Public works! But there must be a local authority and organization
to attend to the problems and the interests of the locality and at the same
time administer those artisan-type enterprises. (Applause) Similar measures
are being taken in the mountains, particularly the Oriente mountains. And
the JUCEIs of the mountains will be organized. Certain services will be
rendered that only a local organization can administer, one whose
decision-making level is right there. If a pole over which the peasants
cross a river falls, we cannot wait until the planning council decides when
the pole will be replaced there. (Applause)

Gentlemen: I have seen that some national organisms do not even know that a
certain region exists and sometimes a region is forgotten to the world;
example: Pilon, in Oriente. It had a slaughter house, but the consolidated
slaughter-house enterprise moved it to (name indistinct). It had a fishing
cooperative, but the fishing enterprise moved it to Manzanillo. It had
warehouses, but the warehouses enterprise was taken to I do not know where,
so they did not have a slaughterhouse, cooperative, or anything. The town
was forgotten. We did not learn of this case through the party. When we
called the party, they said: We are now studying this. But the report
reached here through comrades who had gone there on visits. The comrades
immediately sent two political cadres there to promote sports, attend to
problems.

This then is the importance of the party existing in all
localities--organizations to attend to local problems. What do I want to
tell you by this? That there are many things to be organized. It was
fortunate that we have not organized them because if we had organized
through a bureau that would then pass a law, when it was applied it would
encounter a problem because it could not adjust to realities.

We must organize the socialist state, the first constitution of our
socialist state. (Applause) We could have filled this vacuum with a formal
act, a formal constitution. We do not want that. That is why we must
organize the party, first of all, and then organize local authority and
fill all the blanks that our revolution is trying to fill and has not been
able to fill in four years, especially when everyone here has had to spend
plenty of time in learning to be militiamen, training, staying in the
trenches. Imperialism has imposed on us the need to arm ourselves in order
to exist. We have had to defend our existence. Of course we have had to
devote resources, energy, men to that.

Right now we have a problem: An enormous quantity of equipment, magnificent
equipment we have--you saw some of it parade there--without the technical
personnel. Sometimes a college graduate is needed, and we do not know what
to do, whether to take him out of a technological school. If we take him
out, how will we arrange for him to be part of that unit and, at the same
time, continue to study?

(Word indistinct) seek the unity of opposites in a dialectic manner? These
are problems that present themselves every day. We need a good technician
to manage a surface-to-air rocket, but at the same time, we must take him
out of school. No, it hurts to lose a technician. What to do? A formula
must be found to solve and satisfy the two desires. Above all, comrades, we
are not thinking of the present, we are thinking of the future. One of the
things I want to tell you here from the heart is that we should not think
of the present. The present is for struggle. We must work for the future.
(Applause) Revolutionaries have their eyes to the future. Lenin and his
comrades of the revolution, when they began the struggle in the Soviet
Union, not a single tractor was manufactured there in that period. They
possibly did not even have a single plane, but they are the ones who
created the possibility for what they have today. They did not live to see
the sputniks or a ship on its way to Mars, but they worked for it.

Revolutionaries, and we are among revolutionaries here, work for the
future. That is why we concern ourselves so much with training technicians,
teachers. We know our shortcomings--they must be known--the value of
knowing them and of struggling against them. Of course, the enemy tries to
take advantage of the shortcomings. I tell the enemy that he has no right
to criticize them, only the revolutionary who is fighting to make the
country better can do so. (Applause)

The counterrevolutionary worm pit, when it criticizes, criticizes in order
to harm a revolution. (few words indistinct) I told you that a revolution
was a very difficult process, because the serious struggle begins precisely
when the proletariat is in power. It is then that the classes which
monopolized the money and the culture employ all means, including all the
vices they created. The lumpen, for example, that product of that society,
end up as counterrevolutionaries. What does that mean? Who composed that
band? Lumpen elements!

Capitalism left all kinds of vices: Gambling, all kinds of gamblers, lazy
people all over. You would go to a little town and find 10 youths playing
pool there. What do they live on? Their fathers. A few "pepillos," sons of
the bourgeois, they do nothing and end up that way because the culture
medium of the vice-ridden is capitalism. Under capitalism a marijuana
salesman, the gambler is well off, the lazy one is well off, that is his
element, the go between and all those types.

When the revolution came, since it deprived them of their way of life, they
reacted like the landowners. That is why you must not forget that the
imperialist monopolies try to sow their ideology among certain types of
privileged employees who worked for them. The support for the reaction and
the counterrevolution is not only among the lumpen when it tries to crush
the proletarian revolutions, it is not only among the big bourgeoisie, it
is among certain types of the privileged, among the lumpen, in the petit
bourgeois mind because they do not reduce (reducir) the ideological
framework of their class. There are some who do reduce it. There are many
here who have reduced it, and who are magnificent revolutionary fighters.
But the enemy of the proletariat relies on all those sectors, from the
(prostitute?) to the big bourgeois, the sloth, the one with vices, all
those people are recruited by the revolution and who everywhere take
advantage of everything. That is why the revolutionary must also be
everywhere, fighting against all the vices, (applause) opposing without
fearing the reactionaries, and combating them on whatever fronts might be
necessary, in debate and on the field of battle, (applause) winning over
them.

The revolutionaries are not frightened by struggle, because it is in the
struggle that (several words indistinct), and recalling our experience in
the war, our officers, our leaders were forged in action, in battle. If
imperialism wants to precipitate battles, mobilize its worm pit, promote
subversion, that does not matter. That too has a virtue: it invigorates the
revolutionary, it arouses him, his fighting spirit is aroused.

We have seen that a thousand times. A unit that is doing nothing, that
seldom has an enemy conducts itself differently, it reacts differently. The
revolution needs the enemy! The proletariat does not reject the enemy, it
needs the enemy! (Applause)

The revolutionary, in order to develop, needs his antithesis, which is the
counterrevolutionary. That is the spirit the revolutionary must have. It is
certain that the values are in the masses, that the column is great, that
the column is powerful, that the column of the people on the march is
invincible, regardless of the obstacles, which we know we have, regardless
of our shortcomings. We know we have many things to overcome in all fields,
in the field of production.

It is true that the effort of organization is notable on our production
fronts. It is noted. We are advancing, but we know that we must advance
much more, that we must resolve many problems, problems related to the work
norms, the wage scales, a countless number of things for which we must work
hard and seek adequate formulas, intelligent formulas, formulas that will
lead to the development of our economy, to the increase of our
productivity, to the seriousness of our work, to the quality of our work.
We know this. They are many, but we can accept them, we can resolve them.
And if we have to resolve them under the sword of imperialism, good! What
does it matter? All the better! More honor, more glory for our people, more
influence. One of the things that gives Cuba more influence is that it has
an antithesis as great as the imperialists, but they are powerless against
us. And the peoples of Latin America ask themselves: Why? Why? (Applause)

Comrades: These matters do not cover all the topics, and many other things
that are of interest to the revolutionary militants, but they were
essential matters and we did not want to lose the opportunity today to
express them. In closing, I want to make a brief excursion into the field
of the international situation. (Applause)

It is known that the imperialists are trying, persisting in their
intentions to destroy our country, this revolution. We know this. Can we
defend ourselves? Yes, this we know. We will not speak of recent events you
have read in the press, including the fact that we surprised "in flagrante"
a group of pirates (applause) sent by the CIA or the threats of the
imperialist on the occasion of the reconnaissance flight made by two of our
planes over a fishing vessel which did not even have a flag and which was
identified by those planes which were searching for the ships the pirates
had taken, a situation, of course, that is the result of the state of chaos
the imperialists have created in our seas, of insecurity they have created
against navigation. They have committed an infinity of outrages, acts of
vandalism.

Later then, they publish in the United States what they do. They practice
piracy. When our country takes measures against this, the imperialists come
out with their threats. But I do not know when the imperialists are going
to learn that we do not feel any respect for them, absolutely no respect.
(Applause) Ever since our people said "fatherland or death," they have been
well convinced that no matter what the consequences of their worthy
position they would maintain their revolutionary position.

Fatherland or death is also what (Marx?) meant when he told the
proletarians: you have nothing to lose but your chains. We did not have
anything to lose but our chains and the imperialists (applause) have much
to lose because they have an empire to lose. And this is the struggle
between those who can only lose their chains--chains we have already broken
and which we are not willing to let them place once again on our shoulders;
we are not willing to let them bind us with them again--and the
imperialists, who have an empire to lose. Therefore we understand that our
position is firmer and more resolute than theirs. We are not frightened by
them, and I think, I think they know it, even though they pretend to be
dumb. They are frightened because they fear their own shadow. And we do not
feel any respect, any fear toward them.

Today, when I arrived here, a little UPI cable arrived--I have two cables
to read here. The UPI cable: "Robert F. McNamara told the Senate Armed
Services Committee that it is U.S. policy to eliminate from Cuba both
Castroism and communism." They make a difference between us. (Applause) So
this is U.S. policy, that is the policy. "McNamara made this statement at
the end of four days of secret sessions to discuss matter related to the
defense of the nation. Part of his observations were revealed to the press
by Senator Richard Russell, chairman of the committee. For its part, in the
future, our planes will return any attack to which U.S. navigation is
subjected in international waters." A threat! "Secretary McNamara said
quite clearly that we will follow a policy that will result in the
elimination from Cuba of Castroism and communism, being careful, at the
same time, that communism not be exported from the island to other Latin
America countries. Questioned as to whether McNamara had discussed the
methods that would be used to carry out that policy, Russell replied that
the secretary of defense referred to various specific matters." He did not
say how! "Asked if McNamara had discussed the methods that would be used to
carry out that policy, Russell replied that the secretary of defense had
referred to various specific matters, but those matters are secret, he
said."

Well, there is no secret for us, we know how those bandits think. "I am
certain that our planes will down any plane of Russian design that may
appear to be attacking our navigation in international waters." That is how
the cynical imperialists fabricate that legend. "Even when the nationality
of the attacked ship has not immediately been established positively." That
is to say, if it is a pirate vessel belonging to those they send. "Then we
will begin to worry about if any mistake was made." Have you ever heard a
more cynical statement? How cynical and brazen they are. Well, we will see
how (it goes?). (Applause)

Everyone knows it. Everybody knows it. The only ones who pretend to ignore
what Cuban policy has been are these shameless ones. Cuba has never
undertaken hostile acts against any ship; Cuba has never obstructed the
seas. They are the ones who have perpetrated all kinds of vandalism and
outrages. Dozens of our ships have been attacked, all kinds of crimes have
been committed. They fly over any ship. they fly low, provocatively, over
any ships on the seas, unarmed ships. They have committed all kinds of
provocations and then they make statements of this threatening type--always
threats, always with threats, but that threat is the daughter of impotence.

We do not threaten because we have no need to threaten. We simply defend
ourselves and by all possible means. We will defend ourselves by all
possible means. And all the harm they try to do us, will be the harm we
will try to do to them. (Applause) We are not the ones who provoke; it is
they. It is not we who conduct a war against them; it is they who conduct a
war against us, a cowardly, criminal, shameful, hysterical, and impotent
war. Facts are facts, and we are here. We are and will remain; this people
is here and will stay here. (Applause)

I have just read what McNamara said. Good! Here is another cable, what
Marshal Rodion Malinovskiy, the USSR minister of defense, said on behalf of
the Soviet Government. (Prolonged applause and chanting) In a speech on the
occasion of the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet armed
forces, the text of which will be published in our press, he said,
referring to the Cuban problem: "The threat of a nuclear war has been
stopped, but that should not induce us to be calm and lower our guard. U.S.
imperialism continues with its perfidious policy. It would like to impose
its will on the entire world; it tramples international law, the charter of
the United Nations; it shamelessly meddles in the internal affairs of other
countries. This is particularly clear with regard to the Republic of Cuba,
an independent and sovereign state and member of the United Nations.

Despite the fact that the people of each country have the right to select
the form of government that is in their interest, U.S. imperialism,
apparently, does not want to reconcile itself with the fact that the Cuban
people have selected the road for the construction of a new life, the road
of socialism.

We cannot be foolish and believe that imperialists have put down their
weapons. The events we observe today clearly demonstrate what not all have
yet learned to calmly estimate the correlation of forces existing in the
world. The most wild U.S. reactionary circles, which the U.S. people
themselves classify as mad, continue increasing tension in the press and
the Congress, demanding a hard policy. Their statements are absurd.
Senators like Goldwater, Keating, Stennis, some members of the House of
Representatives and the more aggressive forces that support them have
raised a historic outcry against Cuba and they demand the U.S. Government
intervene in a more brutal manner in the affairs of the Republic of Cuba,
even to the unleashing of an aggressive war. The U.S. Government is, in
effect, stimulating this campaign. In any case, we do not have evidence
that U.S. imperialist circles are against the policy of war. If this were
not enough, they have taken the road of new provocations. They send their
submarines against our peaceful merchant ships and, using all kinds of
dangerous maneuvers, get in their way, which may be extremely dangerous.
These things violate the most elemental norms of international law and the
freedom of navigation on the open sea.

These actions are fraught with serious consequences, and it is not known
how they can end. The responsibility will be that of the United States of
America, and only theirs. We would like to warn the aggressive circles of
the United States that aggression against the Republic of Cuba would
signify the beginning of a third world war. (Applause) The peaceful forces
of the entire world will not restrict themselves to sending protests and
organizing demonstrations. They will rise up in defense of the attacked
country, and the Soviet Union will be in the first ranks of those who go to
its help. (Applause)

The peaceful forces will go the aid of the Republic of Cuba, because they
will see in that war a war against all the friends of peace and the
sovereign rights of the peoples. If the aggressive circles of imperialism
do not want to respect U.N. principles and unleash war, this war will not
be waged on Cuban territory only; it will also be waged on U.S. territory.
(Applause)

The U.S. policy with regard to Cuba is part of its general aggressive
policy. We do not forget the statement of U.S. President Kennedy that under
certain circumstances it is possible that the United States will take the
initiative in a nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union. Preventative war
has always been considered among the possibilities foreseen by the
Pentagon. In another cable, another part is contained: "I categorically
maintain that in reply to the 344 missiles with which Mr. McNamara
threatens us, we will launch a simultaneous blow of many more missiles with
a nuclear force so devastating that it will eliminate from the face of the
earth all the objectives, the political and administrative centers of the
United States (applause) and will completely destroy the countries that
have granted their territory to install U.S. bases. Once again we firmly
remind the Western leaders that the Soviet Union cannot be intimidated. The
power of our blow in reprisal will be more than enough to carbonize the
aggressors in the first hours of war." (Applause) We consider that no words
are more adequate in reply to the statements of Mr. McNamara than these,
which were made in behalf of the Soviet Union.

Comrades, for our party this will be a historic day, the day of the first
mass meeting of our United Party, the product of the closest brotherhood
and unity of all the revolutionary forces, of all the revolutionaries, who
are increasingly more identified with the cause we defend. Many of us,
years ago, marched in different organization. Today we march in a single
organization. We had our individual histories, our past participations,
until the day all together we began to create the great history of the
fatherland. Time will continually unite us more and more. Why? Because the
years we have ahead of us, and the years of revolution we have ahead of us
will be many more than the years of revolution we have behind us.

Sometimes we were separated by "I was in such and such a place," "I was in
the valley," "I was in the sierra," "I was from such and such
organization," "I was from that organization," referring to our past
histories. What must be seen is the great story we are writing together,
the great story we have ahead of us. Its magnitude, its importance
surpasses all that is past. And within 10, 20 or 30 years, nothing will be
said of those who were in this or that organization or of those who joined;
we will speak of the great, formidable organization which unites and brings
all together and which marches at the head of the column; they will speak
of the men and women who organized the United Party of the Socialist
Revolution of Cuba. Comrades: The revolution offers you work, sacrifice,
struggle! The revolution, the revolution does not have privileges.
Privileges are for the weak. For revolutionaries, history offers only one
thing, the country offers only one thing--sacrifice and struggle!
Fatherland or death, we shall win! Long live the United Party of the
Socialist Revolution. (Prolonged applause)
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