-DATE-
19630707
-YEAR-
1963
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
ADDRESSES SANTIAGO POWER WORKERS
-PLACE-
SANTIAGO DE CUBA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA PRENSA LATINA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19630708
-TEXT-
FIDEL ADDRESSES SANTIAGO POWER WORKERS

Havana PRENSA LATINA in Spanish to Latin America 1520 GMT 7 July 1963--E
(OFFICIAL USE ONLY)

(Fidel Castro talk to workers constructing power plant in Santiago de Cuba)

(Text) Havana--The prime minister and first secretary of the United Party
of the Socialist Revolution Maj. Fidel Castro delivered an improvised talk
to the workers who are constructing the Rente thermoelectric power plant in
Santiago de Cuba, Oriente. Following is a text of Fidel Castro's talk:

Fidel: Are you satisfied with the work being done here? (Shouts of "yes")
Are you happy? (Shouts of "yes") Very well, and are you satisfied with
production? . . . . (PRENSA LATINA ellipsis) It seems to me that it has
been a little weak.

We are going to speak to you here as we should, that is, as to workers, as
to people who work hard. You spend many hours under the sun and your spirit
must be adequate to the social task that you are accomplishing. You are
honorable, fighting, and strong people. You answer me "yes"-- although with
a little weaker "yes" when I ask you about production. (Someone said that
he did not understand Fidel?) Well, did the others understand me? How is
the work discipline? (Shouts of "good") In your opinion then, it is good?
How about absenteeism? . . . . (PRENSA LATINA ellipsis) Has the scholarship
test been taken here? How many of you took it? (Shouts of "everybody")
There is absenteeism, but production is normal. Let us see what those
responsible for the job think about it. What does the comrade chief
engineer of this project think?

Chief engineer: We are progressing well enough right now. Production has
been increasing since we set the labor brigades. We also are establishing
goals.

Fidel: What percentages have been fixed to the goals?

Chief engineer: We have not worked that out yet.

Fidel: And discipline?

Chief engineer: Discipline has improved quite sufficiently.

Fidel: Are the tasks controlled? Who controls the number of trips the
trucks make?

Chief engineer: The man responsible for the equipment. And we apply the
norm for all trucks.

Fidel: Are the norms high? Are you going to begin with capitalist norms or
with those being set up by you?

Chief engineer: With those we are setting up little by little.

Fidel: Lower . . . . (PRENSA LATINA ellipsis)

Chief engineer: In some cases they have been low; in others high.

Fidel: Now we have to work more than ever before. If you understand that,
and continue to understand what is essential to you and for the country . .
. . (PRENSA LATINA ellipsis) Do you know how many people were working in
construction before 1 January 1959? How many of you were working before? (A
few raise their hands--PRESNA LATINA). How many of you started to work
afterward? (Almost all raise their hands-- PRENSA LATINA). Do you know that
there are three times as many workers in construction than before? Not only
this, but that the 110,000 construction workers in the construction
ministry are working all year, and the over 30,000 before only worked part
of the year?

Most of you started after the first of January. How many of you do farm
work? You are not going to be sent to cut sugarcane. The circuit is closed,
precisely to guarantee permanent work for those who are there, and also to
that the people do not leave the farm. It is necessary that the work force
be distributed throughout the country and in different tasks. Now we have
110,000 workers in construction. If we get 110,000 men working, winning,
and if we go on mechanizing construction--about which I want to say that
many have gone from peons to operators--with that well-organized,
well-disciplined, and productive work force we will fill the country with
highways, factories, buildings, houses, and all the things we need.

Do you know how many are working on the Santiago-Pilon highway? Seventy
workers! And they are building the highway. Of course, almost all of them
are truck and equipment operators. Those 70 have a higher productivity than
all of you. And they are a better work team than all of you. What matters
to us is that you reason and think. Because what matters is that the worker
think--and the worker can think. He has more logic for thinking than a
bourgeoisie because you know indeed what work is. You come from humble
fortunes. You know what work is. It cannot scare you. You work strongly.
Reason, do not say "yes, we are going to work more, we are going to win."
One should see why one works more.

The problem does not depend on you alone. No, it depends on an entire
series of circumstances--organization, norms, the methods applied by
management, equipment. I met one of a group of workers who worked hard and
whose children we gave scholarships. We gave scholarship to 40 or more of
them.

It was a good group. But now it is dissolved. A work team has been created,
then it is dispersed. The system of keeping the worker cells and passing
them from one job to another, with known workers, is much better than
constant dispersion. The group which was working for the 26th (as received)
was disbanded. (Someone claims that he was not given a scholarship and he
was in the group--PRENSA LATINA).

Fidel: We will solve the one case that did not. One of the reasons why this
is the best group is that it has been working together a long time. Its
members used to work in the Cienaga de Zapata and they all came to Oriente
and brought along all their equipment. There was no problem in the transfer
of those workers. They are now working 11 hours a day and about 50 percent
of them even work on Sundays. They show a real spirit for work. We did not
demand this extra work of them but those people face their task as soldiers
would when they have to seize a trench.

There is another series of factors to consider. Those responsible for the
job know the people on the team. They make good teams. They have been
chosen. Many of them who used to be day laborers are now helpers. Others
who used to be day laborers are now helpers. Others who used to be helpers
are now mechanics. When the same group is held together, one gets to know
those who distinguish themselves, those who are serious-minded and show a
sense of responsibility if they are given the opportunity. It may happen
here that a valuable group may not be appreciated when it is transferred to
another place because no one knows it, because the connection has been
lost.

A series of things, of relations, exists today. Those in charge of a job
care about the workers and try to solve their problems. This, of course, is
but one of the factors. There are other factors related to the machines, a
good shop, the incessant lubrication of the machines, and the struggle for
replacement parts. In the field of construction, some factors really
obstruct work. When we set up the closed shop system, decided that no more
workers should enter that shop, and guaranteed year-round work, we did not
do a good job of it because some shops had about 50 percent too many
workers with nothing to do. Therefore, production costs rose steeply.

Absenteeism exists because there are no vacations and everyone takes a
vacation on the day he wishes. Before, they used to get vacations and rest
together. They used to work three months and then had no organized
vacations. They collected their pay and then took a vacation. They took a
vacation when it pleased them. Instead of working 192 hours a month, as
they should have, they worked 150 hours in not one but in two or three
months.

One of the disturbing problems is that an operator will not accept work in
another field. But when he leaves a job and goes to another, he must work
at something else. All the jobs are not alike. One job will have more
machines; others fewer. When we "froze" the jobs, the results was that a
number of people working as operators received day laborers' pay.

You will find, just as a man found yesterday that he carried a hammer for a
year and was being paid as a peon. This is not right. But also gentlemen,
no workshop can be organized if the people keep moving up until they
arrive, and when they go to a job which does not need operators, they do
not want to work; and thus everybody becomes an operator. They are not
going to earn more money. Those who are working on the highway earn more
than you because they are working longer hours and are paid for them. And
they earn more because every time there is an opportunity, they move from
one type of work to a higher type. The man who improves himself, rises.
They work a determined number of hours. They are not absent. Besides, one
must earn by producing according to quality and quantity. It does not
happen that money exceeds because merchandise is lacking.

If agriculture does not produce more milk, if the construction worker does
not produce more houses, then the former does not have houses or irrigation
nor does the latter have anything to eat. The problem every worker has to
understand is that each has to organize his work front and give the most so
that each receives the most.

There is another worrisome problem. Those 70 workers will not be paid when
the equipment is broken. And what happens? They get interested in repairing
the equipment; they make an effort. What happens when they are paid? There
are people who wreck the machinery so that they can go home for four or
five days. Those workers will not be paid the day the equipment is broken
down, and still they make more money than you do because they never lack
work. They work extra hours.

All those things are troubles in the question of production. Now, do I
think that you work badly? I am sure that this shop is better than other
shops. This job has priority when it comes to materials. It is a very
important basic job. Yesterday I saw a work center at the Gilbert dam,
where they are struggling. Yet they still have not reached the maximum.
Those people have good workshop equal to yours. They have high output.
Nevertheless, I asked the chief there: Do any people work Sundays? The
answer: I could never get them to work Sundays or Saturday afternoon.

A worker: Here we always wanted to work though on Saturdays, but management
did not want it.

Fidel: I do not tell you that it is indispensable or necessary to work on
Sunday. But I call attention to the fact that in that group of highway
workers many were interested in working Sundays also. I believe it is
necessary to rest. It is human. It is logical. Just as I believe that it is
necessary to rest one month out of the year instead of being absent. Thus
the family may spend that time with you. If you work well, you earn not
merely enough to satisfy family expenses, but even enough to go to Varadero
with your families, which is now within your reach. For that reason, I not
only think it is necessary to rest on Sunday, but also one month a year. If
machines need rest, man--who is not made of iron--also needs it.

Presently, with the existing demand for goods, there are many things you
cannot buy. But you can go and rest because many recreation centers have
been organized for you.

Here at this place you have an opportunity to work two hours extra, to work
a Saturday or a Sunday if you want to, to work any day you choose; that is
the opportunity the worker wants, to make money by working. It is right to
have a weekly rest and a yearly vacation, provided we eliminate frequent
absenteeism in favor of organized time off. You would earn more and the
national economy would gain too.

It is a fact that productivity in the field of construction is improving.
This is due to several factors: tackling problems of poor organization and
of supply and lack of discipline, with adequate systems.

Those comrades working on the highway are serious workers. Nevertheless,
somebody marks down the number of trips the truck makes and the distance to
be covered is known; but nobody gets angry. For if there is a worker with a
sense of honor and some checking is done, he says to himself: "They are
checking to see whether I am doing the work conscientiously."

For various reasons productivity in the sector is lower than during the
capitalist epoch, and yet productivity should be higher than before. With
three times as many workers as before, what these workers can do with a
better work method is incalculable. Remember that machines free man from
the hardest work. A machine for digging tunnels frees many men from working
with pick and shovel or hammer, just as a machine frees the cane worker,
whose job is also a hard one. There is no knowing what we can do; what we
can do is incalculable.

Sometimes they are building a road. Two, three, or four months go by, and
the road is there. Other times, when they start to built a road you can see
it progress daily. Those same workers who were in the swamps are building
another highway from Tunas to Bayamo. They have already reached El Cauto
and before the year is over they will have reached Unas, seven kilometers
from Pilon, and they started barely seven months ago. When that kind of
progress is made, how many millions of pesos it means for the economy!

Right now we are organizing a diary basin south of the Sierra Maestra. One
hundred thousand liters to supply the people of Santiago! If that highway
makes progress, milk and vegetables will arrive. And it will be no use
having 100 pesos saved up, because what counts is that work--the moving
force behind production--moves ahead everywhere, and that everybody has
something on which to spend his money. There are highways that are dying of
old age, and there are drains where the people are slowly, slowly laying
one stone at a time.

You understand clearly. This is a good example. Do you know what it means,
what the workers are doing at the Gilbert dam? It is the means for Santiago
de Cuba, with its approximately 300,000 people, to solve its water problem
definitively. How many decades has Santiago been thinking about the water
problem? There were the San Juan wells, inadequate, and the Carco Mono,
which would dry up. As a boy I lived here and I remember how everybody
clamored for a water supply. The Gilbert dam will give water to the
Santiago inhabitants who have been clamoring for water for half a century.
And industries will have water.

That thermoelectric station means that all problems of electric power are
solved for Santiago; and the possibility for Santiago to become
industrialized is there in that project you are constructing. It will mean
work for thousands of people. If we spend an extra year on it, one more
year will be lost to us in the use of that power. If we get it done a year
sooner, we will begin building another, because the economy needs it.

You must understand that the only way for this country to progress is to be
covered with factories, communications routes, and hydraulic projects, and
to mechanize and develop agriculture. That is the only way this nation can
have a high standard of living. We cannot have one now because the
capitalists used to pocket the money and spend it on building mansions,
estates for their amusement, and yachts. They did not build factories for
you; they did not care whether you had work.

And if you do not build the factories, who will? If after having eliminated
some of the parasites--there are still some; the worst are hors de combat--
the working class does not build its own economy, if it does not build its
factories, its houses, who is going to come and do it for them? Who will
come? Will the bourgeois come to build houses if they did not build them
before? What they left behind are slums.

The people want houses. Everybody is asking for a house. And who will build
them, and where are the houses to come from? By building many houses, by
multiplying installations and means of production like this thermoelectric
station, that is how we will obtain many things which we need. Cement
plants are being built. Are the houses going to build themselves? Who must
build the houses?

A worker: When will they begin the houses?

Fidel: When are you going to really begin producing? Look here, comrades,
with the 110,000 workers really producing, mechanizing work more every day,
organizing more and better every day, we will not only build all the
factories, dams, and everything else we need, but all the houses we need.

To build the houses, it will be necessary to build more cement plants, and
besides that, create a series of basic industries: cement, sanitary
products, electrical materials--or products we can export in order to
import these things--and dams to be able to grow 100,000 arrobas of cane
per caballeria instead of 50,000. I believe you possess qualities--people
of spirit--because if the 110,000 are not 100-percent good people--there
may be a few thousand truly opposed to work and incorrigible on this
point--the greater part of the mass are hard-working, enthusiastic, they
know what work means, and they have the qualities for attaining that
organization which we want.

Now, there must be discipline in work. All these problems of absenteeism
must come to an end. Gentlemen, you know very well that today the
construction sector--like all working sectors--is protected against illness
and accidents; you know that your wives have maternity benefits and that
there is a series of laws to protect you. If a man gets sick, he is cared
for no matter what the cost of caring for him, or of the medicines or the
operating room. You or any of your family, if you get sick it does not mean
hunger; if you get sick, your care is assured.

There is a series of social laws to protect you. This fact gives us the
right to demand something of you, to say that a man who is not sick and who
does not have some problem should go to his job. That is the truth. Put you
hand on your heart and think of that, think of the past, the present, and
the future. We have gotten rid of many things, as we will get rid of
poverty, (tenements?), slums, and shortages of organizing, by making an
effort on all sides, by working.

There are still very had types of work, but they can be eased with the use
of machines. There is no way but to strive and work. That is a necessity of
life, and this is the change for you to work for yourselves rather than for
the exploiters, so that they can build mansions or buy Cadillacs or travel
to Paris. Today everything is put into the economy: factories, hospitals,
houses, roads. And you must understand these things.

There is one other question within the framework of the situation: we have
shortages of this and that. I am in favor, in the case of places of work--
and the harder the work, the more consideration should be shown and greater
efforts made to provide supplies. Hard work, like working with a compressor
for eight hours--for there are jobs like being in an office working with a
pencil . . . . (PRENSA LATINA ellipsis).

(A worker interrupts to say that the first three days of sick leave are
counted against him--PRENSA LATINA)

Fidel: The legislation is not to blame. When the legislation was passed, it
was necessary to establish that pay should begin the third or fourth day at
least. Shall I tell you why? When pay began the first day, pay was being
given the man who practiced absenteeism, the man why was trying to get a
doctor's certificate. And in the past there was sick pay just for nine
days, no more. If the fellow got tuberculosis, he was out of luck, because
nobody can live on nine day's pay. Not it can be 90 days. (Applause--PRENSA
LATINA).

Why is it important to insure for the worker, the three days, or 100 days,
or permanent invalidism? Of course, we would have like to insure even one
hour, but we have neither the organization for that, nor the discipline,
nor the honesty, nor the awareness. Who was benefiting from that: It was
the absentee, the loafer, the man who was seeking a doctor's certificate.
And if the loafer continued being paid in that way, we would not be
administering properly. We would be wasting money and encouraging loafing.

This is not a big thing, when one takes into account the fact that what
matters to the worker is not protection for the three days, but for two
months or a year's sickness. And it used to be nine days, and a worker who
was hurt in an accident had to give a lawyer half to collect his
indemnification. When there is greater awareness, we will pay even for one
minute; many loafers would take advantage.

The fellow who steals a day's wages is stealing from whom? He is not
stealing from the bourgeois, not from a class that wasted money. When
somebody steals a day's wages, he is stealing it from the people, from the
persons who work. The man who works and does his part, is he going to be
working for the fellow who does not do his part? We must combat this
parasitism from now until we put an end to it. There is no right to live
high, to be a rogue. That profession is done for.

The only honorable profession is work. We must combat the gambler, the
corrupt politician, the pimp, the thief, the leech, everybody who gets
money without working. If we are complaisant and fail to combat these
practices, there will never be any benefits for you. We must combat all
that; it is our duty to combat it.

The day when every citizen sees the loafer as an enemy, it will be harder
to be a loafer; because the soldier at war, seeing a comrade not fighting,
wonders: "What will happen to me because of this fellow?" The day every
citizen sees a loafer as somebody living off other people's work, life will
become impossible for the parasite. The sick, children, old people, and
women have a right to be supported, and when you are old you too will have
that right. But do you know how much you will receive? The more industries
we create, the more you will get; the fewer industries we create, the less
you will get. Many of you are young, but some are old.

In the future we will not, as at present, face a shortage of technicians.
Now we are hunting for technicians to build dams and cannot find them. In
the future, all the work will not have to fall to a single technician, your
children will be the technicians. Perhaps some day a son of yours, a
doctor, will care for some of you.

That is what the revolution does, and it must be helped, and it is
necessary to be aware of all these things, to see the loafer as an enemy, a
parasite, as an enemy who is taking away part of our wealth. And when we
learn to see things that way, life will become impossible for them. I am
not going to tell you that parasites are done away with in a day; there is
no vermifuge that can eliminate them. Treatment of the most recalcitrant
parasites requires several doses, and if one single treatment is given, the
person dies. There are parasites that die from just one treatment but there
are other recalcitrant ones that must be dosed without killing the
individual.

But we are carrying on the battle, an unceasing battle against the loafer,
the shirker, an unceasing battle to benefit the man who is working and
producing, a battle against errors.

There were 3,000 who wanted to study diplomacy at the university, and less
than 100 for agronomical engineering. Everybody wanted to be a diplomat. It
is necessary to combat that and say: 3,000 students for agronomy and 100
for diplomatic studies. It is an unceasing struggle because many people
want to settle down to an easy job.

I told the persons employed in the mess at the Gilbert dam: "Work in the
kitchen is hard, but take good care of those workers busy on the dam
because those workers are in a tunnel for hours on end, or 10 hours on a
grader under the hot sun, or working with a compressor, and no matter how
hard your work is, that work is harder. When those men come in, be nice to
them." (Applause)

Take note. I said that if they served those workers well and were pleasant,
and if something was lacking and they explained the matter, they would be
helping build the dam, because naturally somebody has to cook for the
worker while the latter is working. Not everybody can work on the graders.
The workers at the Gilbert dam told me: "Last month we had coffee eight
times." And I remembered that in some offices I had seen coffee served five
times in a few hours. That is wrong. It is right for the man who is working
hard to go without a little coffee? It is not right. We at once ordered
them supplied with coffee and their dessert must be assured, and if it must
be taken from somebody who is doing an easier job, we will take it and give
it to the man who is working harder.

We have planned to organize good camps, with beds and mattresses and good
food. We have planned special supplies for all construction project dining
rooms because many men have to work far from home or would have to bring a
can and eat cold food. We want to organize camps with good dining rooms at
all construction centers that are far from a city. Some workers have told
me they lack clothing and shoes. We must seek special supplies for those
places. Supplies are needed for the dining rooms and if the food is not
well cooked it is worthless. There must be good organization in the dining
room and well-prepared meals. It the persons in charge do not know how, we
send them to a school and put somebody else in.

Giving warm water to a men who is working in the sun is not right. One of
the hardest jobs is in the kitchen, because it is difficult to please every
taste, even when the appetite is good. The men never say "it is good," but
"it is all right." This must be taken into account but the greatest effort
must be made. And the project bosses must see to it, even if it is not
under their jurisdiction, and see how the workers are eating. The union
comrade must do likewise, and so, we must think of this at the construction
projects.

At times we lose time and resources over these problems, as in the case of
the equipment operators who, when a shop is not available, ask for a type
of work that cannot be provided right then. Everyone must be paid according
to the work he is doing at a given moment. But at the same time, his
priority must be taken into account when more specialized work is needed.

An effort must be made for all important centers to have well-supplied
dining rooms and good food, because all this stimulated production, and
clothing and shoes for the worker. We must all put forth an effort. Of
course, what we are telling you here applies likewise to the producer of
milk, livestock, sugar. The same must be put to them all; if a man is
milking three cows, he must be told to milk 20 because milk is needed for
workers who are doing something else.

We must take this fight to every part of the country, for we have a great
future if we know how to take advantage of it. If we do not know how, we
have no future. And it costs blood, struggle, and sacrifice to create these
opportunities; it has cost a great deal of blood. As you go down the
highway you find a stone here and there for men who were murdered. We
cannot waste this opportunity. That is the task ahead for all of us--work.
This work is hard, cleaning the cane fields is hard, farm work is hard,
many types of work are hard. Every day we can improve these conditions and
the workers' welfare.

We know very well that this work is hard. But in any case it is necessary
to spend "X" hours in the sun. Why kill time? It is not a problem
concerning you alone; you are being asked for one part; there is a whole
string of questions, systems, methods, materials, all these things, that we
must resolve.

(A worker says that if somebody misses the launch, the truck does not bring
him, and he arrives at 0715 and they will not let him in--PRENSA LATINA).

Fidel: The boss must be required to fulfill his obligations and provide
transportation, and the food must be good. But the worker who is absent or
comes late is not to be excused. A list should be posted to note
absenteeism, but a habitual absentee should be fired. You do not want the
honest worker lumped with the shirker, do you.

Here we have the records of how many persons are absent from work on an
average. We must find out who the habitual absentees are. Is anybody
interested in protecting a shirker? No. This list will be put up so we can
find out who is a shirker.

I do not feel that this place of work is operating badly. My opinion is
that this place of work is operating well. But I do say that is it far from
having a "fatherland or death" spirit where production is concerned. Many
problems must be overcome in all construction centers, so that nobody will
have to come with his paid and a cold lunch. We are interested in learning
the needs of every sort at the places where hard work is done, so that we
can satisfy them and solve those problems. That is the groundwork for
creating enthusiasm in the workers and obtaining increased production.

We must continue overcoming obstacles in order to effect a revolution
because not everybody is at the same level. There are people who improve
themselves, honorable people; there are people who are not honorable. There
are people who work hard, others are lazy, some are good comrades and
others are not, some people are generous and deprive themselves to give,
while others are selfish, have a house to themselves, and do not want to
give anybody anything. We must continue educating ourselves, know what we
want to do, and what we must do for our own good. We must know how to
organize, do our duty, put forth an effort. Because if a man wants to have
a house, how is he to have it unless we make thousands and tens of
thousands of houses? The same holds true for shoes and in the problem of
food.

There is much to be overcome, comrades. One worker said he had three
children on scholarship, and in effect there are some 100,000 young people
studying on scholarships. But that costs money. This revolution has raised
the public health budget from 20 million to 110 million. Formerly there
were few hospitals, and a recommendation was needed to get in; today
everybody goes to the hospital and receives care without any
recommendation. The education budget that used to be 50, 60, or at the most
80 million has not bee raised to more than 150 million. And if we want all
our children to have hospitals, schools, assurance of an education and a
future, how are we to do it? By folding our arms and loafing? No future of
any kind will be won that way.

And there is still much poverty in this country. Yesterday we saw a woman
who said to us: "I have 10 children and I live in that hut." How could a
woman with 10 children live in a hut? How can a man on wages support 10
children? It is a real tragedy. It is still possible to have a hospital in
case of sickness, or have a school available, but how is he to dress, feed,
and provide shoes for them all?

And how is poverty done away with? By abundance. And how is abundance
obtained? Gentlemen, by building factories, by creating industries, by
making the land produce much more per caballeria.

If we obtain an average of 200 quintals of corn per caballeria, we will be
able to eat a tamale, but if we have caballerias producing 1,000 quintals
and get two crops by irrigation, then instead of one tamale there will be
10. The same goes for milk and meat and shoes. If we slaughter 600,000 head
of cattle, there will be leather for making shoes; if we slaughter 2
million, nobody will be without shoes.

Perhaps there is some poor distribution, but in any case there is not
enough to go around. There is plenty of tuna, sawfish, and so on in the
ocean, but they have to be caught, because only abundance can wipe out
poverty. And there still is a great deal of poverty and it cannot help but
hurt when we see a shack or a ramshackle house or a huddle of very poor
dwellings.

We have solved many things. Today everybody can go to school. There are
doctors in all rural areas. A total of 2,800 workers are building a school
center for 20,000 children, the Camilo Cienfeugos. In the past there were
not 2,800 workers employed on all schools under construction. Now one
single school center get the attention of 2,800. This demonstrates that
many things have been solved. Medical care, education, and social security
are a reality today. But there is still much poverty.

You know that the electric power which will come from here will operate
dozens of factories. And all the products we want to buy in the stores come
from factories. Who can fail to understand this? Is there anybody who does
not understand this?

(An elderly worker comes up and says he used to have to go around looking
for work; now he has work; he works for the revolution, he is in the
militia, he and all his family, including his wife. He realizes the need to
produce and he is never absent from work. He is at peace because he knows
that when he is unable to work, he and his family have their maintenance
assured--PRENSA LATINA) (Applause)

Fidel: The carnival days are coming and we will really see how absenteeism
goes, because you people of Santiago are a little given to carousing. I
plan to go to the Bacardi plant afterward to see how production quality is
coming along, and so I cannot stay longer with you today. I want you to
know that we do not hold a poor opinion of this center. They told us it was
going well. But we are greatly interested in the importance of this
project.

I also came to see how you are, to discuss all problems and contribute my
grain of sand to the battle for organizing everything better, under better
systems, and for making the construction sector one of great productivity,
to get along with its mechanization, and because with these men we have in
the construction field we are going to solve the construction problems
which we have to solve. That is what we want.

I will come back here in a few months to see how much we have progressed
and we will talk over things again. Now I am going to talk for a while with
the comrades of the administration and the technicians here. Today we have
lost some time from work at this center. It must be made up speedily.

(All the workers get to work promptly and enthusiastically--PRENSA LATINA)
-END-