-DATE-
19630618
-YEAR-
1963
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CARDENAS LAUNCHING OF 17 FISHING BOATS
-PLACE-
CARDENAS
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC RADIO
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19630619
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEAKS AT CARDENAS LAUNCHING

Havana Domestic Radio and TV Network 1431 GMT 18 June 1963--F/E

(Live Fidel Castro speech at Cardenas at the launching of 17 fishing boats)

(Text) Workers of the Victoria de Giron Shipyard of Cardenas, comrade
students of the various fishing and ship construction schools which are
represented here, people of Cardenas: The event that brings us together
here this morning is highly satisfactory for all of us, and I think it has
much to do with the happiness that reigns in this ceremony. (Castro says as
an aside: the placard, they say to lower it so there will be order /paz/.
For order, that placard must be lowered.)

I was saying that events themselves explain the atmosphere of happiness
that prevails today at this ceremony, because we are gathered together by a
very positive event, which is a motive for real optimism. This morning,
these shipyards will launch, in perfect condition and ready to begin to
produce, no less than 17 fishing vessels, (applause) 17 ships in a single
day! Yesterday, radio newscasters were saying 17 Sigma type vessels. That
is not correct. In their refrigerators, the Sigmas have capacity of 5,000
pounds of fish. These ships are larger than the Sigmas. (Applause) They are
47-foot vessels with a capacity in their refrigerators for 17,000 pounds of
fish. (Applause) That is to say, the capacity of these ships is not the
capacity of 17 Sigmas, it is the capacity of 51; 51 Sigma vessels.
(Applause) What happens is that this model was first built here in Victoria
de Giron Shipyard and we were debating the name to give them. It was said:
"Shall we call them Victoria?" No, because the name Victoria is reserved
for 122-foot ships, which are being built.

Finally, conversing with the administrator and technical director of the
shipyard and with the comrade workers, we have decided to give a certain
name to this type of ship, and that name is: the Cardenas type. (Applause)
And it is just that is should bear the name of this city because not 10
months ago, these shipyards did not exist here. Ten months ago, there was
only a small shop devoted to the construction small recreational ships, in
which 72 workers were employed. These 17 ships were built in only 10
months, (applause) without any kind of investment in construction, and
using old ships and buildings, which were practically rendering no service.
Without any kind of investment, a work center has been created in this
city--one in which today, there are 460 workers. (Applause)

It could be said that this enterprise is a real example of what can be
done, a real example of productive work, a real example of economic
promotion with a minimum of investment and expenditures. Simply by
utilizing those constructions, working in the open air, the creation of an
important center of work has been achieved, one of great utility for our
economy. Taking advantage of the unused resources that existed here, using
the capacity of the workers, using the equipment that existed here, the
development of a plan was begun to build 24 ships of this type, ten 75-foot
ships, and six 122-foot ships. (Applause)

That is to day, that where nothing existed and without investing anything,
a shipbuilding plan was initiated which was greater than the one being
carried out by all shipyards for the construction of fishing vessels in
Cuba. (Applause) That is why I said that it is a real example of what the
people can do when they are organized, when they properly utilize their
resources; what the workers can do. Think of what it means to be able to
count on these means of production! What are these ships? These ships are
means of production. What were those 460 workers creating? They were
creating the means of production. In speaking of these means or production,
I do not mean the 50 ships because by the end of the year, 24 will have
been completed--that is, 7 more, which will be ready within a month--10
more of 75 feet, which will be ready by the end of the year; and 2 of 122
feet--but I do not refer to all that capacity. Referring only to these 17
ships, they have the capacity to produce 3 million pounds of fish annually.
(Applause)

These new means of production signify, practically, that each citizen of
the country will get a half-a-pound more of fish from these 17 ships alone.
(Applause) I think that is a clear example of what is means by economy, the
development of the economy, the creation of means of production. Thanks to
the work of those workers, the entire population will be able to count on a
higher per capita supply of fish. When the ships that are being built today
right here are completed, that per capita supply will be doubled and
tripled. (Scattered applause)

We are launching 17 ships today and another 40 of this type are already
being built in this very shipyard. (Applause) Good work has been done.
There has been production at low cost. The ships have been completed in the
minimum time. That is work in a revolutionary manner. That is work in a
socialist manner. (Scattered applause) And that is why this enterprise
should be an example of what can be done and a lesson of what can be done.
These 17 ships will be distributed--five for the Pilon Port in the south of
Oriente Province, to fish for the people who live throughout the Sierra
Maestra. (Applause)

We can tell the peasants: more milk must be produced; more coffee must be
produced; more cacao must be produced. (Scattered applause) The fishermen
will send more fish to you in the Sierra Maestra. (Applause) This is very
interesting because recently a fisherman told us that they had to consume
much coffee because of the kind of work they did and that, possibly, the
coffee-producing peasant might say: "My family and I need to eat more
fish." That is how work must be organized. That is how production must be
increased on all the fronts.

Another five of these ships will go to the Victoria de Giron school, where
they will be (Castro interrupted by applause) they will be instructing the
new generation of fishermen and, at the same time, they will also be
producing. The youth there study and produce. Another five of these ships
will be combined into a fleet to investigate the possibility of tuna
fishing with these ships. (Applause) Very well, why has this success been
achieved here in Cardenas? How has this miracle of production been
achieved? To what factors is it due? Of course, the enthusiasm of the
workers is in first place, the efforts of the workers. But that enthusiasm
had to be awakened, the effort had to be organized, that work had to be
directed. What was necessary? A good technician was necessary. A good
administrator was necessary. Fortunately, we, the revolution found here, in
the town of Cardenas, a good technician, (applause) a good administrator, a
modest man, one so modest that he had to be called with insistence for him
to come up to this platform. (Applause) That man is Comrade Juanito de la
Fe. (Applause)

Juanito de la Fe did not have the opportunity to study at a university. He
learned to build ships and he became a technician by himself, by
correspondence. (Applause) A pilot in the Port of Cardenas, he developed
his knowledge by himself, his doubtless vocation for his work. Even when he
was already directing these shipyards, he did not abandon his work as the
pilot of the port. He has not yet abandoned it completely. If his services
are needed once in a while, he guides some ship to the interior of the
port. He even--and this is a magnificent example--did not want to get paid
as the administrator of this enterprise, he wanted to continue to live
(Castro is interrupted by applause at this point) he wanted to continue to
live from what he received as bureaucrats who have very high salaries,
(energetic applause and cheers) bureaucrats who have very high salaries
without producing any kind of material goods. (Chanting)

Comrade Juanito de la Fe passed on his enthusiasm to the workers. He
organized them, created the models of these ships. He perfected them, and
he has been forming a work team; he has been forming a team of technicians,
who are acquiring experience, who are acquiring ability. Thus, the creation
of this enterprise was being achieved.

But there is one more example I am interested in noting: In this center, in
which 460 workers labor, working with hammers and saws (Castro pauses and
seems to wait for applause) there are only eight office employees. You will
find some enterprises thereabouts in which there are almost more people
working in the offices than people with working tools. (Energetic applause
and chanting) Yesterday, we were in the port of Santa Cruz del Sur. We were
visiting a small shipbuilding shop. And there, speaking of this problem of
bureaucracy, a worker, remembering the words we said on television, told
us: "We would like you to see our bank here." That is a small town, which
has a small bank. He said: "When one enters there, one can think that it is
full of patrons, but they are not patrons, they are employees." (Applause,
shouts) There are 18 employees there. These are examples that illustrate
and that must show us how to create revolutionary awareness, economic
awareness, a sense of responsibility.

In this center of work, sometimes the difficulties that exist in others are
encountered--for wood, for raw materials. What does the director of this
center do? Does he fold his arms when something is missing, waiting for it
to come? Does he send a little letter and wait three weeks for others to
solve his problem as some do? No! The director of this center of work
moves, acts, writes, visits, struggles, sends comrades to investigate. If
lumber is delayed in Oriente, he sends a comrade to Oriente to see why the
norm has not been met, what the difficulties are, what steps must be taken.
He visits the organisms, the centers of supplies. There are administrators
who, in the face of difficulties, send a little letter and fold their arms.
A plan is not fulfilled, a supply norm is not met and they say nothing to
anyone.

So, yesterday, in that shop in Santa Cruz del Sur, a worker was telling us
in all honesty, he said: "For 30 days we have almost been killing time
because they have to send us some axles and casings (camisas). We are
really killing time." What does "killing time" mean? "Killing time" means
killing the economy. "Killing time" means killing production. "Killing
time" means lessening the material goods of each citizen, making difficult
the satisfaction of the requirements of the masses. This is because there
are men who get paid, men do not produce, men do not give a yield. And
whose fault is it? The workers? No! Of course, there are cases of workers
who are irresponsible, indolent.

But in many cases the indolent and the irresponsible are the
administrators, (applause) who do not move, who do not stir themselves, who
do not struggle, who do not resolve things. Of course, difficulties do not
resolve themselves. Problems of organization do not resolve themselves.
They must be resolved. There must be discussion, there must be pressure,
one must move oneself. (Applause) If raw material is lacking, if a certain
product, which must be produced by a factory, is lacking and no one goes
there to disturb the administration, that administrator remains happy and,
moreover, he will not disturb anyone. But when those who need those
products and that raw material go to the administrator and fight with him
and debate with him, if it is not his fault, he will go to the appropriate
organism and he will discuss, and fight, and ask why he has not been
served; and the appropriate organization (applause) the appropriate
organization, when it receives pressures, resolves or discusses or goes to
the highest levels of government, then the government makes a decision, or
the government gives an explanation that such or such a thing cannot be
resolved or it can be resolved, or it comes up with a formula, or looks for
a way to resolve it.

For this, pressure from everybody is needed, the struggle by everybody,
because in our country we do not work to satisfy the needs of a rich man.
In our country today we work for the people. In our country today we work
to satisfy the needs of the masses and needs of the masses are many
(applause)--those needs that before were never satisfied, and which today
the people have the hopes of satisfying, those needs that before remained
eternally without solution and today in the mind and heart of every man and
woman is the just hope, the just aspiration of satisfying the needs of the
masses.

I am going to give you an example that will illustrate the meaning of the
people's needs. This example was given to me by a fisherman. On a really
small key on the southern coast of Cuba there lived an old man, the father
of a large family. He was more than 60 years old. He told us that his sons,
who are also fishermen, and magnificent fishermen at that, did not want him
to work. They wanted him to stay. Nevertheless, he was there on that
solitary, mosquito-ridden key with his nets in order to catch sharks and
(caguamas?), with a line with several fishhooks to catch sharks. He was
there with a small, old boat, and he said: "I wish they would give me a
better boat, because how can I give up work now, when my work is needed?
How am I going to give up fishing now, when even the black sea urchin
(erizo negro) is worth something?" (Applause) That man explained to us that
before, the tides were lost; that before, such end such a type of fish
could not even be sold. Today, the sale of any type of fish caught and
everything that is caught is absolutely guaranteed. Everything can be sold
at a good price.

We wondered why that fish was not sold before. Why did that workman of the
sea have fish left over? Was the fish left over because all the needs had
been satisfied, perhaps? Was the fish left over because perhaps everyone's
stomach had been filled? Was it because every family had an abundance of
food on its table? That fish was left over, as a man of the people told us,
because there was no money and because there was no purchasing power.
(Applause) If today we had double the quantity of fish caught before, it
would not suffice; nor would a triple quantity; nor would a quadruple
quantity.

Why would fish not be left over today? What is the answer? Because the
people today consume; because the masses today consume; because the masses
today have the purchasing power to buy that fish. (Applause) One does not
have to graduate from a university to understand that. One does not have to
be an economist to understand that. Twice as many shoes as we produce now
would not suffice; twice the amount of meat we produce now would not
suffice; double the number of houses we produce would almost be
insufficient. Previously, we used to find unoccupied houses. They used to
charge 80 or 100 pesos to rent a two-room apartment--or at the most, three
rooms, yet this same apartment today costs a worker 10 percent of his
wages--or rather, 15 or 20 percent.

It is true that we have deficiencies in the distribution of these things.
However, this is not the fundamental cause. It may be that 10 small houses
are badly distributed, or perhaps they are not distributed according to
strict justice. However, the problem does not lie there. Do you know where
the real problem lies? Do you know where the real problem lies? (Applause)
The problem lies in the fact that there are only 10 small houses available,
when we need 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000 in this or that town. (Applause)

There are many deficiencies in the matter of distribution that have not yet
been overcome. There are complaints that this or that thing spoiled, as we
were told yesterday in Santa Cruz del Sur, where the vegetables spoiled and
were not distributed, or as happened with the pineapples. As everyone
knows, the pineapples spoiled due to the lack of packing boxes. Naturally,
the people protest; naturally, the people rightfully criticize these
deficiencies. Never must a responsible official allow a product to be lost.
It must be distributed, if there is a danger of its being lost. (Applause)

Above all, when a product deteriorates, we must find out who is to blame.
We must find out who is responsible. We must make sure that things do not
remain as they were. A product spoiled, and still no one was to blame; no
one is responsible; no one is dismissed from his post. Perhaps the guilty
gentleman continues to work and to earn a good salary. (Applause; shouts)
We must demand a sense of responsibility.

Yesterday, we were talking to a taxi driver, a good one--good taxi drivers
are in the minority, of course--but this one was a good taxi driver, a man
of the people, a revolutionary. He explained to us: "Look here, when the
banana trucks arrived in Santa Cruz del Sur from Holguin and Oriente, the
bananas were covered with banana leaves. (Thus--Ed.) if a breakdown
occurred on the highway or if anything at all happened to delay the trucks,
the bananas would not get hot and they would not spoil. Today, the bananas
arrive here uncovered, without a leaf over them, and if the truck breaks
down, the bananas reach the people in bad shape." (Applause)

Therefore we must ask why this happens. Is it perhaps because the
gentleman-owner of the bananas had his private interests at heart and did
not want to have the bananas spoil so he would not lose any money and so he
covered them? Still, what right has any responsible official or any citizen
who collects a salary today to say: "I do not care. I will still keep
getting my money, whether or not the bananas get there. I have no problems,
whether or not the bananas are covered." There are vices characteristic of
an egoistic and parasitic mind that was created at the time of capitalism.
These vices are totally unacceptable under socialism, however. (Applause)
Socialism demands the greatest amount of responsibility; it demands the
greatest amount of conscience. He who does not possess this conscience and
this sense of responsibility cannot do responsible work and must be removed
from the job without hesitation. (Applause) Moreover, when such a person is
removed, he must not be given a better and more comfortable job. (Applause)
He must not be promoted. When such a person is replaced because of
inability and irresponsibility, he cannot be promoted. He cannot be
transferred to a better-paying job. Each one must be aware of the fact that
he has a responsibility in his shoulders, and that his sense of
responsibility is required of him.

Still, I repeat, whatever may be the deficiencies in organization, the
fundamental problem is that today the masses want their needs satisfied,
and they have the means to satisfy them. So we must produce to satisfy
these enormous needs of the masses. This is the fundamental problem, and it
is solved by working; it is solved by organizing; it is solved by giving
impetus to the economy. (Applause)

Thus, we must advance on all fronts, as we are advancing before the sea.
What do we have today? Today we have a fishing fleet in full development.
Fifteen Soviet seiners (arrastreros) already are working to supply us a
fishing production. (Applause) Five Japanese tunafish boats have been
incorporated into our fleet. (Applause) Sixty nationally built boats, each
75 feet long and with a 30-ton capacity, will be finished by the end of
this year. (Applause)

This year our country will consume twice the amount of fish as last year;
100 percent more fish. We must continue this impetus, because an important
source of food and supply is found in the sea. Our land area is limited;
our land area is 111,000 square miles. This area cannot be increased. It is
limited by nature. Nevertheless, the sea is limitless. There are millions
and tens of millions of square miles of it. The sea belongs to the one who
works in it; it belongs to the one who conquers it. (Applause) Our
possibilities in the sea have no limit. We can get all the food we want
from the sea. It contains digestible, nutritious, and pleasant food.

For this reason, we must even vary some of our habits. If the masses were
to satisfy their beef needs alone, the Argentine pampas would not be large
enough to satisfy all these needs. (Applause) For this reason, we must seek
the various sources of food from mother nature. For this reason, we insist
that the dining halls of the workers and schoolchildren present a balanced
diet containing meat and fish, so that our people may learn to consume fish
and to prepare fish, which makes an exquisite dish. It is also a matter of
habit to become used to this kind of food. Some people like fish; some
people have never tasted fish. It is one of the most important sources of
protein for mankind. So we can find limitless possibilities in the sea.

Therefore we have created schools for fishermen; we already have two such
schools with close to 4,000 students. We must continue to recruit young
people who like the sea, and the sea will become increasingly a sea on
which we shall have to work with modern technical means. Our fishermen will
not fish from little flatboats, propelled by oars or sails. Our fishermen
will use increasingly modern means of production, increasingly big ships.
They will no longer be fishermen fishing along the sea ledges; they will be
fishermen who push into the ocean like those on our tuna ships, which,
partially manned by Cuban crews, fished 500 pounds (as heard) of tunas from
the Atlantic Ocean. (Applause) We must awaken love of the sea, interest in
the sea. The sea has a great future for workers in our fishing fleet, for
workers in our merchant fleet, which is also growing considerably every
year. On the sea there is opportunity for the intelligent--for technicians,
machinists, pilots, workers of various kinds, handlers of the various arts
of modern fishing. On the sea there is a future for young people. We must
awaken to this future.

We are an island surrounded by water on all sides. We cannot turn our backs
to the sea. We must face the sea and advance on the sea and create this
spirit in our young people. (Mild applause) We must attend to these
schools. We must devote attention to them. We must overcome their
inadequacies. We must overcome the little grudges, like the little grudges
which there are between teachers and employees at the Gonzales Lines
seamens' school. (Loud applause) We must overcome the inadequacies there
are at the Victoria de Giron school, where there are also little, petty
grudges which must be overcome. We demand this of all who work in this
school. These little grudges must be overcome. In the middle of a
revolution it is criminal to waste energy and time on differences and minor
problems. What we must do is to work and judge each on the basis of his
work. We must demand that he assume responsibility for his work and abolish
all favoritism, all tolerance with things done badly. (Applause)

We must devote attention to those schools; improve their educational level;
improve their curricula; improve the technical qualifications of their
teachers; train new cadres of teachers, because here will be trained the
future generations of fishermen who will supply our country with hundreds
and hundreds of millions of pounds of fish and who will make it possible
for our country to have a very high nutrition index. Why? Because there are
two factors. In the first place there is our mass of cattle. Our country
has a great mass of cattle. Our country has approximately 6 million head of
cattle. We must know how to exploit our cattle. We must know how to solve
the technical problems of feeding these cattle effectively in order to
produce the maximum amount of meat, the maximum amount of milk; not thin
little cows dying of hunger on pastureland covered with weeds they cannot
assimilate. Pastureland must be planted. This mass of cattle must be
developed because with the development of this mass of cattle and with the
development of fishing, we will be able to guarantee one of the highest
indexes of nutrition in the world.

Therefore it is right that we should aspire to this. It is right that we
should fight for this. It is right that we should work for it. It is our
duty as ruler, our duty as leader; it is the duty of all revolutionaries;
it is the duty of the people. Today the people do not work for the
privileged. Today the people work for their own interests. They are
training a new generation. They are training cadres.

Here in this very center are 120 young men from the technological school of
Matanzas (Applause) who are training as shipwrights. If we want to move
forward on all levels, we must create cadres, technical cadres, cadres for
work, cadres for economy. This is the only road.

Yesterday we passed in front of a machinery school. I stopped in front of a
group of young men. I asked them what they were studying. They told me
agricultural machinery. But they were very young, and I said: "I am worried
that everything may come too easily for you. Previously, a man working in
the fields had to fight hard to achieve a change to work a tractor; he had
to give many proofs of responsibility, of being serious-minded. And you
today, with constantly new classes of young people, it costs you
practically no work at all to achieve this opportunity to study, the
opportunity to work a machine. It appears to me that you do not appreciate
it enough--that you do not sufficiently value this opportunity." And I
asked them: "What are you going to do with this? How are you going to work?
Are you going to work in accordance with norms? Are you going to take care
of the machines? Are you going to really produce?"

I was concerned about this because today there is opportunity for all men
and women. You can see it here yourselves. There are not more men working
here because there is no available personnel. There are 460, and we have
had to train more shipwrights--120 young men from the technological school.
(Applause) In other words, today everyone who wants to work has work. He
who does not have work today does not have it because he does not want to
work. Today the loafers and those who do not want to sweat are unemployed.
All who are ready to work and to produce have work in our country.
Unemployment is being left behind, and this is one of the big victories of
the revolution. Now we must create the revolutionary conscience, love of
work, discipline in work, a sense of responsibility. And we must continue
to fight. The revolution is not over, far from it. Many tasks are still
ahead.

The class struggle is still intense between workers and former exploiters,
between proletarians and bourgeois and petit bourgeois and parasites and
lumpen, even here in this very city of Cardenas. (Applause, shouting
stamping of feet) You here, in this very city of Cardenas, you know that
the lumpen abound, you know individuals who used to devote themselves to
gambling, to political chicanery, to prostitution, to all imaginable vices,
who are not reluctant to work. These are the partners of the bourgeois in
fighting against the revolution. Certainly, the outlook has been narrowing
for them. Certainly, the counterrevolutionary lumpen have seen the ring
closing in on them and it will close in further as industry develops, as
work develops, as the revolutionary conscience develops.

You can see hundreds of girls who used to work as domestics in the homes of
the very rich and of the bourgeois for miserably small wages, today work as
restaurant employees in the tourist centers, at decent work with decent
wages. You have seen that hundreds and hundreds of humble women who once
used to earn 20 miserable little pesos, 15 miserable little pesos, or even
10--and there were some who worked for their meals alone--have been
incorporated into production, into the labor force, with a satisfactory
standard of living.

The circle is closing in on the lumpen. A little less than a year ago, our
President was present in this city and in this province for a ceremony of
revolutionary reaffirmation and to declare an offensive (applause,
stamping) against the class enemies. Today the people gather to celebrate
this victory of work, to celebrate this victory of production. And what has
happened in the province?

The counterrevolutionaries have been crushed. The counterrevolutionary
bands (applause, shouts) have been swept away from the province. (applause,
shouting) And in eight weeks our war-hardened battalions liquidated the 14
counterrevolutionary bands which the CIA had organized in the province.
(Applause, shouts) They had an opportunity to see the valor of our fighting
men, how they pulled them out of their caves, how they pulled them out of
their holes, and how they even pulled them away from their toilets because
there was one band of them, (noise) there was one band which made its
hiding place beside a privy, so that on one side there was human excrement
on the other side social excrement--the counterrevolutionaries. And there
were there side by side. Hidden in this way they were located. They were
found and they were swept away.

Nevertheless, we must be on the alert because the imperialists persist in
their pledge to infiltrate saboteurs and counterrevolutionary bands.
Recently, at a key off the northern coast of Cuba, four men in one of our
patrol launches scouting around the keys were cowardly attacked by a group
of mercenaries coming from the United States. They murdered one of the
comrades and kidnapped the other two (as heard). Naturally, they fled in
the direction of the United States. You should see the reports they are
publishing. They say they "attacked a coast guard cutter" and that "the
crew surrendered." What do those cowards have that would enable them to
fight against a single one of our combat units? (Applause)

We have swept away the bands of counterrevolutionaries. We must still keep
fighting against the enemy, however. We must fight against his attempts to
bring in explosives and saboteurs and to organize other bands. We will
continue our implacable fight against the enemy on all fronts. The
revolution will continue its offensive course and it will vanquish all the
enemy's bulwarks.

If they continue with their plans, the assassins and the traitors are going
to learn how revolutionary lead tastes. (Applause) The bands have had the
opportunity of learning, but the cowards are also going to learn--cowards,
who, from foreign soil, are trying to attack our people. They find asylum
on foreign soil. They will learn how the revolution fights against them.

Let them beware if they think that we are not going to locate them on one
of those little keys around Cuba! (Applause) Let even the English and
French beware if they think they can give these cowards facilities or
permit them to use English or French islands to attack our country. If they
do, they are going to learn that they will not be safe any place. They (the
counterrevolutionaries--Ed.) are now speaking of approaching De Gaulle to
ask him to lend them some French islands. We do not believe that the French
Government will lend itself to these miserable adventures. We do not think
so. However, if those deluded people think that they are going to organize
bases on those small islands to use against the Cuban revolution, let them
know that the revolution has the means to fight them wherever they may be.
(Applause) If, however, the means at our disposal should not suffice, we
have every right to acquire the additional means we consider necessary to
accomplish successfully our mission. (Applause)

Everybody knows about the violations and aggressions committed against our
country. Everybody knows that we have respected international laws and the
laws of other countries. No one has the right to set up bases anywhere to
attack our country and we have the full and absolute right to defend
ourselves and to adopt necessary measures against the dens of bandits and
pirates. (Applause) Let the enemies of the people know than the Cuban
people are imbued with courage, more than proven audacity, and more than
enough determination to fight and defeat their enemies. (Applause) If the
counterrevolutionary lumpen and their associates, the bourgeois, (Castro
breaks off his train of thought at this point-- Ed.). We must tell you what
a comrade told us when we said that our battalions swept away the
counterrevolutionary bands in Matanzas Province in only eight weeks. This
comrade said: "We need no more than one day to sweep away the lumpen."
(Applause)

Let the enemies of the proletarians and of the labor class consider and
remember that the revolutionary power needs no more than one day to sweep
them away. (Applause) To imprison all the lumpen and to confiscate all the
bourgeois, (as heard) the revolution needs but one day. (Applause) The
revolution has not wished to take extremist postures. Never. Yet in some
places, like El Cano and Jaguey Grande, the bourgeois can find out what
expeditions and magnificent methods the revolution has with which to sweep
them away as a class.

The revolution does not wish to take extreme positions. The revolution
wants to progress at a correct pace by organizing production with
everyone's effort. It neither wants nor desires to take traumatic steps
against these exploiters, who still survive today. Still, wherever the
"worms" start agitating and go one step beyond the line, we shall know how
to sweep them away as a class whenever necessary. (Applause)

We should tell the lumpen of Cardenas and all the bourgeois of Cardenas:
"When you see you neighbor's beard burning, soak your own in water."
Patience and time are what the revolution needs because it will overcome
all obstacles; it will solve all its problems. It will abolish the
remaining privileges and injustices, the remaining egoisms, and the
remaining vices. Patience and time (are needed--Ed.). The future belongs to
our fatherland. The future belongs to the revolution. (Applause)

One thing our enemies have learned, and it is that the revolution is
progressing, that the revolution is triumphing, that the revolution has the
support of the masses, that the revolution means justice, that the
revolution engenders strength, courage, and determination which are
necessary in the struggle and which are necessary in victory. It has the
material means, magnificent economic prospects, a formidable military
strength, a most alert people, and a vanguard which is organizing itself
conscientiously, a Marxist-Leninist party, (applause) which is made up of
our best people, of our best workers. Anyone can see that the revolution is
advancing victoriously, that it is stronger than ever today, that today it
has more prospects than ever in every field, and that we shall soon
celebrate the fifth anniversary of the revolution, (applause) and that we
will celebrate the 50th anniversary as well as the fifth anniversary.
(Applause)

As the traitors grow old and die, they will die brooding over their
impotence, over their hatred. They will spend their lives deploring their
betrayal of their homeland, their departure from their homeland in order to
roam as they do without dignity, without honor, and without a country. They
will not be able to say, as we can (train of thought interrupted--Ed.) They
can say "death". They can say "betrayal." They will be able to shout
"imperialism or death." Only we have the right to proclaim with pride
"fatherland or death; we will win."
-END-