-DATE-
19630411
-YEAR-
1963
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
GRADUATION EXERCISES
-PLACE-
MIRAMAR'S CHAPLIN THEATER IN HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA RADIO & TELEVISIO
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19630411
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEAKS AT GRADUATION EXERCISES

Havana Radio and Television Network in Spanish 0341 GMT 11 April 1963--F/E

(Live speech by Premier Fidel Castro at the graduation exercises of the
basic revolutionary instruction schools of Havana Province, from Miramar's
Chaplin Theater in Havana)

(Text) Graduates of the basic revolutionary instruction schools (applause)
comrade vanguard teachers (applause) on this occasion the end of the course
of the basic revolutionary instruction schools coincides with the Congress
of the Frank Pais Brigade of vanguard teachers. (Applause) That is why it
was decided to have this joint ceremony. The functions that one and the
other perform are not exactly the same. In other words, some are functions
of education and others are functions of political formation. However all
this is greatly interrelated and above all it forms part of the effort that
the revolution makes on various fronts.

The teachers have a very important task on their hands because they are the
ones who begin by forming the minds of children, teach them their first
letters and at the same time inculcate in them habits of social life and
forge in each child the future citizen of the republic. The teacher at the
same time also has to begin giving the first lessons in history, the first
lessons on the social environment and the social reality in which man
lives.

In this case the vanguard teachers in addition carry out a doubly
meritorious task because they accomplish it in the most remote and least
accessible parts of our country and there they also in a certain sense are
formers of revolutionary consciousness (applause) and constitute a force
that helps to orient our peasants.

If it had not been for the efforts of those comrades, men and women, it
would not have been possible to resolve the problem of education of
children in the mountains. We have sometimes heard it said when we read the
cables on the plans of the Alliance for Progress of constructing schools,
and each time we hear those illusions and those false promises we recall
the fact that it is not enough to build schools to have literacy and
education. In order to have literacy and education it is necessary to have
teachers. And in order for learning to reach the most remote places, it is
necessary to have teachers capable of reaching those most remote places,
and in order to have teachers capable of reaching those remote sites, it is
necessary that those teachers be prepared, and that they come not
exclusively from the cities, and that of course they come from the most
humble classes of the population and that they be adequately prepared
because on the contrary there will be no place in Latin American where
there are enough teachers to go teach the peasants.

This subject of education could also be considered as part of revolutionary
instruction because general instruction, together with political
instruction, should begin as early as possible. It is not a purely
theoretical instruction but rather a child must be taught a number of
habits from the time he begins to reason as to the manner in which he
should behave. We will never manage to forge an entirely new society if
that entirely new society, cleansed of of many of the morasses and
weaknesses of our present society, is not begun by us from the children on
up.

The comrade (companera) who spoke here in the name of the teachers
expressed a number of very interesting ideas as to what political
instruction meant, on what it taught to see and understand in problems, on
what it had meant for many of you to acquire a concept, a method, a guide,
a number of scientific principles, to understand the social problems, and
to understand the problems of the revolution, and to understand the
historic problems. When one can count on that help, that knowledge, many
things are begun to be understood which previously were not understood.

One of the characteristics of bourgeois society is mental chaos, the lack
of explanation of problems, the lack of an interpretation of realities, and
where there are a thousand explanations, for after all there is no
explanation, that is, there is no real explanation, because it is an effort
to justify a system of exploitation and an effort to present as eternal, a
manner of production that is simply a product of history, transitory, and
doomed to disappear at a determined moment. the bourgeois society of
characterized by chaos. I repeat: The lack of a clear explanation of
phenomena and facts.

And scientific socialism, and the social system inspired by it, are
characterized by just the opposite, by the possibility of having a true and
real explanation of problems, of every problem and of process of problems,
and of the development of society. And yet perhaps one of the most
difficult things to understand is that none of these interpretations is a
mechanical interpretation, that none of these interpretations must be an
interpretation by cliche, and that Marxism is not a group of formulas to be
applied by force to the explanation of every concrete problem, but a
dialectic view of problems, a living application of those principles, a
guide, a method, and therefore the revolutionary must constantly be
thinking and analyzing.

He must not think he will find anything simple or uncomplicated or easy or
mechanical, but he must he must of necessity analyze. And problems are
many; problems imply an infinite number of facets, and besides, problems
come one after another, and when one set of questions or problems has been
overcome, there is immediately a set of new problems

I believe something that could be a great lesson in Marxism for all of us
would be to recall the process of the revolution. And if you make an
analysis of the revolution as a process, as it really is, you could derive
magnificent lessons. The present conditions for the revolution are not
similar to the conditions at the beginning of the revolution. There was not
the unity that exists today, for example; not just organic unity, but unity
of thought, unity of method, unity of orientation. And the beginning of the
revolution was largely characterized by the existence of a series of
trends, a series of opinions, a series of viewpoints. It might be said that
thousands of persons had different, definite viewpoints, that many persons
had their moods, many persons had their style of seeing problems.

If you analyze the revolution at the beginning, you will see that it is an
ascending process, in which a series of problems were being overcome one
after the other, that the revolution has taken a continued upward course
from the start; and yet that does not mean that the revolution does not
have to go on solving an infinite number of problems which it has not but
did not have then. And so problems will ceaselessly renew themselves and
will present the revolutionaries with the task of solving them.

And if we make a comparison between the process of the revolution and the
process of the counterrevolution, it becomes even more interesting, because
the process of the revolution is a rising process, a process of development
and union, while the process of the counterrevolution is a downward
process, a process of decomposition. And while the revolutionary forces are
uniting, becoming more experienced and tested, more united, and stronger,
the counterrevolutionary forces are disintegrating more and more. While the
revolution has been a constant process of union, the counterrevolution has
been a constant process of disunity. And while the various revolutionary
forces, the truly revolutionary forces, have culminated in what is seen now
arising as a powerful political vanguard of the nation, a formidable
proletarian Marxist-Leninist Party, (applause) today the counterrevolution
is a fractionization of some 500 organizations. And there is a little joke
going around Miami, because there are revolutionary jokes over there too,
and the joke goes that very frequently two counterrevolutionaries get
together in Miami to form a party consisting of two splinter parties.

The number of counterrevolutionary organizations increases more and more.
While the revolution is moving forward toward a discipline, toward union,
toward order, toward strength, the counterrevolution moves even more toward
chaos. This is a consequence of the 10,000 interpretations of the facts.

All those people, who do not know anything about history, or economics, or
anything, who neither have a method, nor a conception, nor an insight into
problems--and as each one makes his own insight, the result is that from
each insight a counterrevolutionary organization is born. Of course they
are born independently because there are many who prefer to be the head of
a mouse than the tail of a lion. (Limited Applause) And being ringleaders
of counterrevolutionary organizations, perhaps they receive some benefits
from the payrolls which they share in over there in the United States.

The revolutionary process teaches us these things. And in a day like today,
it turns out to be very timely to point out this contrast, the climatic
point of the counterrevolution's crisis is being marked. Thus, as we gather
here today to graduate the students of 78 revolutionary instruction
schools, the students of national schools of the mass organizations, such
as the CTC and the ANAP, or our youth organization; while we gather here
with more than 1,000 teachers who come from the mountains and who work in
the mountains (louder applause) while we can have the satisfaction of
witnessing all the strength and all the enthusiasm with which the
revolutionary spirit grows, but above all the conscious revolutionary
spirit, in other words, that spirit which is not just enthusiasm but is
enthusiasm and awareness at the same time, the news reports we receive
about our enemies are worthy of being read and this is why I have brought
some papers along. (Applause)

These papers are very opportune since I received them just a short while
before I came here to this event. They are UP news dispatches. We are not
going to put doubts in your head. You know why? Because they are not news
dispatches written to talk about us but to talk about them.

This UP dispatch states: "Miami, April 10"--it says, "Irritable leaders of
the Cuban exiles have broken away from the Government of the United States
in the wake of the decision by it which they labeled 'coexistence with the
Cuban Communist Government.' A spokesman for the Cuban Revolutionary
Council, recognized by Washington as the representative of the 250,000
Cuban refugees estimated to be in this country,"--(Castro aside) it seems
that they exaggerated the total a little--"angrily attacked Washington
leaks regarding supposed motives for the break.

"A government source has informed newsmen in this capital, that the
president of the Revolutionary Council, Jose Miro Cardona, had asked for 50
million dollars to prepare a new anti-Castroite army,"-- (Castro aside). It
seems that he did not figure on the 100 (presumably millions--Ed.) they
were going to have to pay afterward for indemnity. (Castro appears to
smirk; laughter and applause) "or as an alternative,"--(Castro aside) that
is if our militia's marksmanship is not much better than the other time
(Castro smiles, laughter and applause--"or as an alternative, a decisive
participation by the Council in anti-Castroite operations. However, this
report was denied by Ramiro Boza, Miro Cardona's secretary, who called it a
false and tendentious statement by an anonymous U.S. Government source.

"The spokesman for the Council stated flatly that Washington is trying to
discredit Miro because of the government's inability to make him change his
mind with respect to the break. He said that the leak was a Washington
cover-up to conceal U.S. coexistence with the communist regime of Fidel
Castro and another example of the so-called 'management of the news.'"

Here is another dispatch: "Washington, April 19, UP--I am reading UP
dispatches, mind you!--(Scattered laughter) "Relations between Cuban exiles
and the government of President John F. Kennedy have been broken.
Government officials have indicated today that the reason for the split was
the refusal by the exiles to accept Kennedy's order to quite their
offensive operations against Cuba.

"The highest level official sources in this capital are deeply concerned at
the possibility that the Cuban revolutionaries and the North American
people will reach the conclusion that the government is following a soft
policy with respect to the government of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. But
the greatest concern of these officials is that if they accept the demands
by the exiles for an immediate invasion of Cuba or for support of their
attacks against Cuban soil, this will place them in the position of
permitting the exiles to determine the policy of the U.S. Government with
respect to Cuba.

"The controversy which began when President Kennedy forbade the exiles to
leave North American territory became complicated last night when the
government announced that it had rejected the demand of Dr. Miro Cardona,
president of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, that the United States
support a quick invasion of Cuba.

"Miro Cardona presented his resignation"--I do not know what he resigned--.
(Laughter) "He presented his resignation during a meeting of the council
which lasted all night. The resignation was rejected in a communique issued
shortly before dawn in which the North American policy with respect to Cuba
was also firmly denounced. Officials of the government admitted that this
has created an annoying situation because Miro Cardona and the Council were
the instrument"--that's what it says here in the UPI cable,--" were the
instruments chosen by President Kennedy for the execution of the invasion
of the Bay of Pigs. I do not believe that there is any need for any
explanation everything is very clear.

They emphasize: "However it is possible that Miro Cardona may no longer
perform a leading role either in the exile movement or in Cuba"--(Castro
aside) Could that be a secret?--"in case circumstances require a unifying
personality." That person has not been born yet, nor will he be born.
(Laughter, applause) "We must accept the fact that the leaders of yesterday
will not be the leaders of the battle of tomorrow,' underlined an official
who at the same time praised the patient and brace actions of the leader in
the past."--(Castro aside) As you all know he did not even know when the
invasion of the Bay of Pigs arrived. "He declared that he was convinced
that Miro Cardona reflected the frustration and the bitterness of many of
the exiles when he presented his supposed ultimatum to the government last
week.

"According to officials of the State Department, Miro Cardona threatened to
resign unless the North American Government provided 50 million dollars to
organize a military invasion of Cuba or it insured him total North American
participation in a plan of invasion." (Castro ends reading of dispatch)

What will history say about these gentlemen? What will history say about
these gentlemen who attack the Government of the United States--according
to the explanation by an North American Government official--because the
United States Government refused immediately to give them 50 million
dollars to prepare an invasion?

We do not understand this way of figuring because the men and weapons they
could mobilize with 50 million dollars would last less than 50 minutes here
on our national territory (applause) or they (the North American--Ed.)
would insure him a total North American participation in an invasion plan,
and they (the exiles--Ed.) become belligerent because they (the North
Americans--Ed.) do not invade Cuba.

It is possible that never in the history of this country and possibly never
in the history of any country, have the bourgeoisie and reactionaries been
seen playing such a miserable and such a shameless role. They break (with
the government of the United States--Ed.) because they do not invade Cube,
because they do not accede to an immediate invasion of Cuba. I believe that
this by itself is enough to explain why there are 500 organizations. With
this lack of modesty, with this lack of shame, with this lack of
patriotism, with this moral nakedness of people who do not hide their
traitorous and criminal spirit against the fatherland--of course the cable
says that this is an annoying situation for the Government of the United
States. But why is it an annoying situation for the United States? Simply
because the United States Government raised crows. "Raise crows and they
will peck your eyes out" (Old Spanish proverb--Ed.) (Applause)

The Government of the United States, following a policy which was totally
against international law and right, following an aggression and hostile
policy against our country, tried to use these deserters from the
fatherland as instruments, this scum which Cuban society hurled at the dump
of Miami, and from that dump they tried to find the means, the pretexts and
the instruments to attack our country. On doing this the United States
violated laws, international laws. They became the aggressors against Cuba
and they created a situation of tension, a situation of danger to peace, in
the Caribbean, of such danger that a world war was very nearly unleashed.

Who taught these little worms to violate international laws? Who taught
them to be pirates? Who taught them to paint Cuban insignia on planes for
attacks on our territory? Who provided them with the weapons, ships, and
equipment with which they carried out their acts of piracy? Who inspired
them? Who financed them? Who encouraged them?

But a time came when the crows began to pick at the eyes of the
imperialists. At time came when the crows aspired to decide on the policy
the imperialists should pursue. A time came when the crows tried to act on
their own. That is, a time came when they escaped from the imperialists'
control. And when they escaped from that control they began creating
problems for the imperialists.

It was not the same when they acted in accordance with imperialist policy
and imperialist orders and plans mapped out by the Pentagon and approved by
the United States Government, as when they began making plans on their own.

It was not the same when they attacked a Cuban installation with planes or
ships, or when they dropped arms by parachute for the CIA, as when the
counterrevolutionaries began to act on their own with all the resources and
means that had been given them.

And naturally, since the problem of Cuba had become a very delicate problem
of an international nature, since the problem of Cuba had become one of the
most dangerous problems for world peace, when the imperialists had to
weight their actions more, and when the policy of aggression planned by the
imperialists did not coincide with the uncontrolled actions of the
counterrevolutionaries, something happened that was inevitable in a policy
without principles, a policy of aggression, an immoral policy, a policy
full of contradictions. And those contradictions inevitably erupted; they
erupted when they clashed, as they had to clash. And there we have the
results.

Does it mean that the imperialists have given up their plans for aggression
against Cuba? No. It means that the problem has become more complex, has
become more delicate and more dangerous, and the imperialists want to
handle the problem in their own way, not in the way the
counterrevolutionaries want to handle it.

Who is unaware--anybody who knows those elements--that they were going to
end up escaping from the control of the imperialists? Now it has been
learned what elements directed those pirate attacks, and we know them all
too well. One of the leaders is Sr. Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo. (Whistles from
the crowd) We know this gentlemen all too well, and what he was, and as he
was defined by our comrade Camilo Cienfuegos, as a perfect "cow-eater."
(Applause)

We remember some of the history of this gentleman from the beginning of the
revolution, when he began giving us headaches. I am not talking about the
difficulties created when he and his whole group began living without
restraint in our country, doing what they pleased, taking ranks for
themselves wholesale, distributing positions and sinecures, and the like,
but this gentleman is a type of adventurer that on one occasion created
certain difficulties for the Cuban Government. Do you know why? Because it
occurred to him to organize some guerrillas in Spain against Franco. For
this purpose he raised certain funds. He went to Belgium and began to
organize a completely wild and absurd thing, and the only thing that could
arise from this was to create difficulties of an international type for the
Cuban Government. As a result of these deeds, on his return to Cuba
where--I do not know if you remember--he began to make a collection to help
in the liberation of Spain, and we found ourselves obliged to forbid him to
make this collection and seriously warn him that the Cuban Government would
not tolerate such preposterous activities.

Who would have said that this gentleman, who began by plotting guerrilla
warfare against Franco, should end up in the United States plotting
piratical attacks upon Cuba! How strange all this is; how odd! The man is
no longer against Franco; perhaps the man no longer even remembers Franco.
Who knows? So what happened? He ended up in the Bahamas. Note well, he did
not end up in Spain or in Cuba, because he was smart enough not to do this.
It would appear that he thought it was better to work in the pay of the
imperialists than to become a redeemer in Spain.

Without doubt he did not decide to land in Cuba, because he is smart enough
not to do that. Therefore he invented something quite typical: To operate
out of the Bahama Keys under the protection of Her British Majesty's flag.
And he began to commit his misdeeds under the protection of the flag which
establishes British jurisdiction over these keys.

Of course, it was logical that we should expect this from these gentlemen,
because these gentlemen know that once they enter here they will never
escape. They know that they cannot start eating cows here. They know that
while they are slicing a cow, our soldiers can appear at any moment, and
they are not Batista's soldiers. (Applause) If during the Batista era they
could live and prosper as they pleased, that is not the case at present.

I remember that one of the things many of the peasants used to say was:
Batista's soldiers cannot go up into the mountains, but the soldiers of the
rebel army came out of the mountains. (Applause) They penetrate even into
the brush if necessary, in the caves, and in the (word indistinct). There
are no obstacles, no roads our soldiers do not cover, that they are not
able to cover. Therefore these gentlemen began operating from the Bahamas
as long as the British Government tolerated them, or until the British
Government learned of it.

Of course, we do not believe that the British Government has been an
accomplice in these misdeeds. We do not believe that anyone in England,
that any British statesman could imagine that any Menoyo could revive the
era of Francis Drake or Jack (name indistinct) after four centuries. (there
is such a difference?) between a Drake and a Monoyo. The corsairs, of the
days when people ventured on the seas in fragile boats, were known as
courageous men. These fellows today go about in small motor boats, well
equipped, well protected, well financed, attacking at night, never standing
combat, and operating in waters infested with U.S. warships and planes.

That is why we do not believe the British Government had anything to do
with these activities. There is no doubt that the British Government has
taken action against these pirates. We believe that the British Government
has adopted a serious stand to maintain peace and to avert any incidents.
They were not going to live forever in these Bahama Keys attacking Cuba,
nor were we going to stand by idly, permitting them to carry out
belligerent attacks upon our country and upon the ships supplying our
country from fixed bases. Therefore we believe that the British
Government's attitude was a correct attitude for the good of peace in the
Caribbean.

It would appear, for reasons I gave you a moment ago, that the U.S.
Government has also taken measures, as there is a contradiction between its
plans and the activities which the unmanageable counterrevolutionaries are
carrying out on their own.

The piratical attacks were creating serious risks of incidents, and two
incidents between Cuban planes and U.s. ships had already resulted from
these activities. As a result of the last incident when, because of an
error--a real one and not an invented one--a U.S. freighter was harassed by
Cuban planes due to some confusion, the Cuban Government gave a detailed
explanation of the incident; it expressed its regret for the incident; and
it also declared that it would take measures to avoid such incidents; while
at the same time pointing to the U.S. responsibility for the events which
caused them.

Some U.S. news agencies carried items stating that obviously Castro wanted
to avoid a clash with the United States and that the United States also
wanted to avoid any incidents. It is no secret that we want to avoid any
clash with the United States or with any other country. It is no secret
that we do not want a war.

It is absurd to think that we want war, that we ignore the consequences of
a war and all the suffering our country would have to undergo in a war. Our
country has never wanted a war. For that reason it seemed odd, as if they
ignored it or had discovered something, when they stated that apparently
Cuba wished to prevent an armed clash with the United States.

There was also nothing strange that we explained the incident, because we
have never practiced a policy of piracy, a policy of harassment of peaceful
shipping, and we never could have acted in revenge or as reprisal by
returning villainy for villainy. That has never been our policy, but that
is different from the willingness of our country to fight in defense of it
sovereignty.

We have never wanted war. A policy of aggression and harassment has been
imposed on us. We have had to defend ourselves, and we have had to be
prepared to defend ourselves, and we will always be ready to defend
ourselves and to pay whatever price is required for the defense of our
country and our revolution. That is quite different from a policy of war,
and of an irresponsible policy, because when at Giron our men were forced
to fight, it was not the country but the aggressors who were to blame. All
measures which the country has taken have been to defend itself from the
aggressors.

Have the imperialist abandoned their aggressive plans? We do not think so.
In recent days the U.S. President asked why these pirates did not follow
the example of those who had joined the U.S. Army. What did he mean by
this? Or what slip did he make? Was this an invitation to train them in the
U.S. Army and form forces that perhaps someday could attack our country? He
did not make himself very clear, but his statement that they could serve
better by joining the U.S. Army was revealing.

It is also clear that the U.S. rulers deserve the lesson they are learning
because all these bothersome situations, says says UPI, all these
contradictions, all these problems, are the result of their aggressive
policy against Cuba, of their hostility against Cuba. None of these
problems would have arisen, none of these problems would exist, had the
policy of aggression and hostility which they have followed against our
country not existed, since the victory of the revolution. None of the
risks--among them the risk of a world war-- would have been presented, had
they not followed a systematic policy of aggression against our country--a
policy which forces our people to search for adequate means and forms to
guarantee its security. While that danger exists, we will continue
searching for adequate means and forms to guarantee our security.

However, we can say objectively that the measures taken by the U.S.
Government to restrict or stop the activities of the pirates constitute a
positive act. It is step ahead, small perhaps, toward the reduction of
risks of crisis and war. We must objectively analyze the facts, and for
that reason we must state that it is a positive step. We could say that of
the Five Points, we have attained one. (Long applause) Four points remain
to be attained.

The only sensible thing that U.S. rulers could do, the only thing that
could contribute to a genuine solution of the crisis, which at times has
become serious and which remains latent, is to stop violations and
aggressions against our revolution and our country.

These aggressions have forced us to devote a major part of our energies to
the defense of the country, the best of our effort to the defense of our
country, a great number of responsible and competent comrades to the
defense of the country, because the defense of the country has been one of
the basic tasks of these years imposed by imperialist aggression.

We hope they learn these lessons, and we hope that these experiences serve
some purpose--that is, if they have the slightest capacity for
learning--because history, the course of events, and the facts are on our
side. Above the slandering propaganda, above the lies they circulate
against Cuba lie the facts, what is happening here, and what is happening
in the rest of America--the clear and transparent future we are forging
here, and the storms which are brewing in Latin America.

Where are some of these rulers who served the imperialists as instruments?
Where are several of these rulers who, under orders from Washington, broke
relations with our country? Where is Frondizi? Where is Ydigoras? And thus,
we will be able to ask tomorrow, or in the near future: Where are the rest?
Because the revolution is here, firm and strong as never before, invincible
as never before (applause), facing the attack of the imperialists and the
complicity of the corrupt oligarchs of other Latin American nations. They
are becoming victims of their own contradictions, victims of history's
demolishing axe.

The imperialists got from the gorillas what they got from the worms; the
gorillas get out of their control from time to time. The countries in Latin
America are victims of the contradictions between the Pentagon and the
State Department, because sometimes two policies can be seen clearly--the
policy of the State Department and that of the Pentagon. Each one of these
departments has its agents and maps, and Yankee military missions are
closely linked with the gorillas. Sometimes when the State Department has a
plan, the gorillas come along with their Pentagon friends and spoil the
plan.

Thus, the plan to place in Peru an Haya de la Torre, who is a fraud, a
damagogue, and an instrument of the State Department, was spoiled by the
gorillas, who are as reactionary as he. The gorillas came along in
Argentina and spoiled their plans, too. And in Guatemala, the State
Department was supporting Arevalo, but the gorillas came along to spoil
their plans.

Who is Arevalo?a Arevalo is like Betancourt; Arevalo is like Figures;
Arevalo is like Munoz Marin. Arevalo was the Betancourt of Guatemala.

He was the candidate of the State Department who, in view of the gorillas'
stand, plans to carry the cause of the so-called democrats of the left.
Well, these democrats and leftist will even their souls to the
imperialists. The people from the State Department think that these are
better instruments for their policy.

We know Arevalo well. Certain stores are told about him. When Batista
started the coup of 10 March (1952--Ed.), a few days later Arevalo visited
him. When the revolution triumphed, we, remembering this fact,l were
hesitant to talk to that man who had come to Cuba following the revolution,
but we decided to talk to him, on request of some of our comrades. We still
remembered bitterly his visit to Batista.

This man, however, had written a good book against imperialism called "The
Shark and the Sardine." Considering the objective value of the book, we
tried one day to obtain his permission to publish it here. But by this time
imperialism was stepping up its campaigns against Cuba, and this man is an
opportunist and a defrauder, he refused even to establish communications
with Cuba. Therefore, we were forced to publish the book without his
permission. (Applause) Since then, we all know what his policy has been:
That of following the path of Betancourt and Munoz Marin, instruments of
the State Department and avowed enemies of the Cuban Revolution, against
which he has made repeated statements.

Arevalo is no different than the others, as he pursues the same objectives
as the military junta and the gorillas who staged the coup. It was a trick
played by the instruments of the Pentagon on the instruments of the State
Department. The Guatemalan people did not lose or gain anything. But the
example illustrates and demonstrates the extent to which the contradictions
exist among the imperialists and in the oligarchic societies in Latin
America. The Cuban Revolution does not doubt that the gorillas are as bad
an enemy of the Guatemalan people as is Mr. Arevalo. And to prevent
confusion, this is the opinion of the Cuban Party. (Applause)

Our people must learn to understand the events. They must understand
national events, the national process, as well as the international
process, and especially the process of Latin America. We must not be swayed
by opportunist judgements. Our people must learn to make objective
judgments, correct judgments of these events. There is one evident fact:
that the revolution is developing in strength and awareness. The revolution
is unifying, and the enemy is weakening. The enemy is dividing.

History is on our side, and what a great lesson it is to compare how our
people are marching victoriously, with the future as bright as we are
capable of creating it, and with such a prosperous future as we are capable
of constructing it--to compare this with the chaos, despair, frustration,
and shadows which darken the present of many sister nations of Latin
American.

This is due to the fact that we stand for the truth, we are in tune with
history, and our country has grown among difficulties. This does not mean
that we have done everything right; it does not mean that all of our
problems have been solved? It does not mean that Cuba is following a path
without obstacles. The questions that each and every citizen should ask
himself are: What is it that we cannot do? What can a country which is
really master of its fate not do? That is the difference between our
country and our sister nations: We are masters of our fate and will have
whatever we want, whatever we are willing to create, and we will not have
what we are not capable of having. Because today the future is in the hands
of each man and woman, in the mind of each Cuban man and woman, in the
heart of each Cuban.

We do not call Cubans those who deserted the fatherland. We do not and
never will call Cubans those who implore criminal aggression against the
fatherland, the deserters and the cowards, they count the least. We call
Cubans those who at this hour--when for the first time one could be called
a true Cuban--were Cubans, and not those who called themselves Cubans when
Cuba was not Cuba, and did not belong to Cuba. (Applause)

The future rests on our effort, and that is the effort we are making, and
that is the effort we must double and triple. We must think that our people
are capable, intelligent, and industrious. To teach revolutionary theory is
to teach this, to acquire revolutionary awareness is to acquire this, and
to acquire revolutionary practice is to learn to solve the many issues
facing us, to begin with realities and with our feet on the ground.
Revolutionaries and Marxists, do not forget that the first thing is to face
facts, and to begin there. These facts presented by our economic problems
are the problems of an underdeveloped country without industry, depending
basically on one product--cane and sugar. Beginning with these realities,
we must move forward.

We must not forget these realities. We must not live on the clouds but on
the earth. We must know what tasks face us today and how to solve them. We
must know what tasks will face us tomorrow and how to solve them. For
example, the sugar crop constitutes one of our greatest tasks now.

These sugar crops were harvested in the past by thousands and thousands of
men. These men today are doing tasks of several types, but as cane has to
be cut, and a sugar was and is still the basis of our economy, the task of
a country which eradicated unemployment, where there is no reserve of
unemployed to do the most difficult tasks or die of hunger, the reaping of
the sugar crops becomes a basic task of the country.

This will be the basic task this year, next year, and for several years. As
we still do not have the gathering machines in sufficient quantity, nor the
cutting machines in sufficient quantity and quality, for that reason we
have that task today. This task will have the same importance next year.
Our people, beginning with reality, and not resting on their laurels, must
mobilize in the coming years using the sugar cane harvest as an example.
Next year, when we have more cane, we must mobilize the nation's forces to
reach the basic objective.

This year we must not let the traditional periods of rest prevent a
reduction in cane cutting. We must make the effort. Our mass organizations,
our Revolutionary Armed Forces, all our social forces must make the effort,
because that is imposed by present conditions. in coming years machines
will substitute to some degree for the enormous manpower now used in this
task. But the cane must be cut. And in the main it must be cut by hand now.
These are the facts that the revolutionary must see, that the revolutionary
must understand, that the mass organizations must understand, that our
party must have as a basic objective, because they are the tasks that
belong to our people at present. These last few years we have had to defend
ourselves. We have had to solve any problems. We have had to produce for
the masses under the conditions of an underdeveloped country. We have had
to create the basis of the future, and these facts are what you must keep
in mind, comrades.

Our people must be capable of forging their future. Our people must be able
to overcome their difficulties, and to understand economic issues. We must
understand economic realities. It is your duty to concern yourselves with
these issues. You must study these issues and each citizen must be able to
understand his country's problems.

Each citizen must understand that one does not solve economic problems
simply by sitting in an office. To solve all the problems, many different
tasks are involved. Many have to work in a factory, others in a farm,
others in a hospital, others in a school--that is the way we must
distribute ourselves, and that is the way we must accomplish our duties.

We find ourselves in a country where work was badly distributed, revenue
was badly distributed, and the country was in a state of chaos. We do not
extricate ourselves from that sort of situation in a few days. It will take
us many years of effort, of struggle, to organize our economy, to play our
efforts, so as to obtain the maximum from each man and woman in the
framework of society, and so that all the people can reap maximum benefits,
the maximum of goods. As the Indian Nabori said: "We do not come to
receive; we come to give. We come to learn." That is what you in the
schools, in the mass organizations, in the party, as revolutionaries, as
members of the vanguard, must bear in mind--the difficult duty we must
perform.

Let us not concern ourselves with those who do not do their duty; let us
not concern ourselves with weaklings; let us not concern ourselves with the
poor in spirit. You are the vanguard. You are the people who will set the
example everywhere you will go in the lead.

Today you finished a course, but, as was pointed out, you have just
started. You have found new perspectives through which you must advance and
through which you must continue to study. You who have studied and
strengthened your theoretical knowledge must understand that work lies
ahead, that ahead lies the application of this knowledge. Life lies ahead;
the revolution lies ahead. Ahead lies our future, which will be as
brilliant and as promising for our country as we are capable of building
it. Fatherland or death; we will win!

- O -

HUNGARIAN IMPORTS--Hungarian Trade Attache Istvan Soos said in Havana that
Cuba will receive 150 buses for urban service from Hungary this year in
addition to several transmitting plants, tractors, equipment,
pharmaceutical instruments, chemical products and a large amount of
telecommunications equipment. Cuba will send a Hungary, in addition to
sugar and tobacco, fruit preserves, copper concentrate, nickel oxide, rayon
fibers, henequin cord, and other industrial products. (Havana Radio
Progreso Spanish 1655 GMT 10 April 1963--F)

NEW ARRIVALS--The following persons arrived in Havana from Mexico: Costa
Rican Engineer Guillermo Coto Conde who will work under contract to the
JUCEPIAN, Canadian Professor of Philosophy Fred Brown, who will work in the
University of Havana under contract to the Military of Education, and
Italian Engineer (Yacredi de Caro--phonetic). (Havana Radio Progreso
Spanish 10 April 1963--F)
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