Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19651024
-YEAR-
1965
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
SELECTION OF MEMBERS OF THE PARTY
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
GRANMA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19650930
-TEXT-
CASTRO ON THE SELECTION OF MEMBERS OF THAT PARTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE
AND ON THE PARTY

Following is a translation of a speech by Fidel Castro appearing
in the Spanish-language publication Granma, Havana, 24 October
1965, pp 12-14

Conclusions of Commander Fidel Castro on questions of party
organization during the national meeting of provincial bureaus
and regional secretaries of the party held 30 September and 1
October 1965.

Comrades: It is quite late and the work has been hard during these
two days. So I will try to brief and at least if I don't manage to be as
brief as I would like, at least you will excuse me if I speak a little
quietly.

It has generally seemed to me, as indicated by several comrades,
that among the comrades who have met here there is a good feeling about
this assembly, these meetings. That is to say I have heard several very
good opinions that it has been very useful, many things of interest have
been discussed, and the result is going to very favorable.

Also, it has been well organized in general terms and an advance
job of reporting, consultation and discussion has been done so that the
ideas were quite well worked out. This is why it can be said that quite a
great result has been achieved in these two days of meetings.

Two very interesting things have been discussed -- the matter of
the Coordination, Execution and Inspection Board and the questions relating
to the party. Naturally, I reiterate the idea that we shouldn't think that
the measures adopted are perfect. These measures must stand the test of
time and we must always watch the operation of each of these regulations
carefully so that in time we can perfect this type of statute until the
final party statutes are worked out, which could be approved, for example,
in the congress which we are going to hold the end of next year.

For our part, we have been pleased to observe the seriousness, the
responsibility and the common sense shown in all the contributions by the
comrades. Many comrades have spoken and there hasn't been any foolishness,
any digressions. Everyone has stated well expressed ideas, which shows how
a series of political cadres are developed which the party and the country
need so much. I see the progress of a series of new, able cadres and this,
naturally, is very encouraging for all of us.

I also know because of what some comrades have thought, and I'm
not going to say who, but he's right here, who told me that the comrades
had some expectations about tonight's meeting, about what we were going to
discuss. Actually, of course we have to do some things here tonight, some
news, but don't expect too much, don't expect much more than what we are
actually going to explain. I think it was comrade Joel who told me that
some even thought I was going to read the document I mentioned on comrade
Guevara. Actually, what was agreed on this was to read it day after
tomorrow, which is Sunday, when we are going to have a rally. That is to
say, we are going to have the rally which we mentioned and I think we
should have a little patience, and wait 48 hours to find out about hat
document. Actually it is a document which no one knows anything about yet;
it isn't that the comrades here couldn't have read it but we have been very
much occupied with other tasks these days, although all the comrades on the
executive board know the problem in essence.

Many Revolutionary Assets in the Country

The executive board, in accord with the proposal which we made on
28 September, has been meeting recently on the job of establishing the
central committee of the party. Naturally the formation of the central
committee of the party was a difficult thing, as to the selection of all
the comrades to make up the committee since the country has many
revolutionary assets. There are many men of merit, background, ability and
it isn't easy to make a selection of those who by reason of their ability,
their work, their function we consider the best assets and the best able to
constitute that central committee.

In the first place, we agreed that the central committee should
have no more than 100 members. Beyond 100 the problem would be even worse
because we got into categories and more categories of comrades, which would
have made the list a little long. At the same time it seemed to us that
this first central committee should not come up with an excessively large
number of members.

That number was set, which committed us to make the selection
within that figure. We have tried to give this committee great weight in
public opinion, to have this committee received with sympathy by the party
and the people, to have it inspire confidence in the country, to have
represented not only the historic forces of the revolution, but the quality
within those historic forces.

We are absolutely sure that, naturally, it will be impossible for
a task of this nature or a decision of this nature to satisfy everybody one
hundred percent, because always, always there will be some case, some
absence, some presence. But I can tell you that under present conditions,
under the circumstances in which this decision is made, we have made our
best effort. And we have made the best selection.

And I am sure that if we, for example, were to analyze all the
cases one by one, if we were to make substitutions and proposals, each one
of you, knowing the background of each one of the members of that central
committee, the merits of each one of them, the jobs they have done and are
doing, the human and revolutionary qualities of each one of them, would be
hard put to it to replace one of them, to replace any of them, by another
comrade.

The Members of the Central Committee

I am going to read the list of members of the central committee in
alphabetical order:

(The names of the comrades who form the central committee of the
Cuban Communist Party were then read)

As you see in the formation of the committee, the comrades who
belonged to the national executive board are in first place, the comrades
who have been outstanding for their good work in public administration.
Comrades like Elena Gil who have done an extraordinary job on a job front;
comrades like Tarrau, for several years director of the Isle of Pines
prison where he has done an extraordinary job, in addition to being a
serious and able comrade, of exemplary conduct. Cases like that of comrade
Pitute, who is Jose Arteaga, who throughout the whole revolutionary process
was characterized by a good, positive, fraternal attitude to everyone, who
carried out all the tasks which he undertook and who has done an important
job in the Escambray. The comrades of the mass organizations, like comrade
Pepe Ramirez, comrade Vilma Espin, and comrade Jose Matar.

We have taken account of the comrades who have been most
outstanding in the struggle against bandits, in the struggle against the
counter-revolution, above all in the Escambray, where comrade Anibal Velaz,
as all the Las Villas comrades know, was extraordinarily outstanding.

Cases like comrade San Luis, considered in his condition as
captain of the invasion column and also his loyalty to the revolution, his
self-denying job at the head of the Department of Security in Pinar del Rio
province. He is the captain known as San Luis, and I think his name is
Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez.

We have taken into account the job done by comrade Miguel Martin
Perez at the head of Youth; we have taken into account the historic merits
and communist militancy over so many years of comrades like Fabio Grobart,
or like comrade Guerrero, whose conduct and whose bravery in the face of
tyrannical repression is well known by all, as is his patient and
self-sacrificing work in the party.

We have taken into account the young brave ones who have been
outstanding in their work, like comrade Malmierca, like comrade Joel
Domenech, like comrade Lionel Sota, like comrade Risquet, who as you know
is now carrying out an important mission.

There is important participation on this central committee by
officers of our Revolutionary Armed Forces, of comrades who distinguished
themselves extraordinarily in war, and not only that. We haven't included
comrades who were very distinguished in the war and who even distinguished
themselves in certain jobs later and who nevertheless are not listed simply
because of different lacks, different defect which they never corrected.

In the case of the army comrades we have considered their
revolutionary history before the triumph of the revolution and in these
seven years of revolution in which they have worked extraordinarily in an
anonymous way, in which they have incredibly raised their cultural
capacity, their political capacity and their technical capacity: men of a
blind loyalty to the nation and to the revolution, who because of their
ability and their merits fulfill important functions in the armed forces,
bulwark of the revolution, which the enemy has never been able to
penetrate; comrades, in addition, of an extraordinary modesty, who never in
these seven years have held any post of a political type, who have devoted
themselves to their tasks, to the fulfillment of their obligations, without
ever complaining, without ever having demanded anything, without ever
having said, having shown even the least preoccupation because their names
were not counted in the bosom of the political apparatus of the revolution
which they, in an exemplary fashion and important way, helped to form.
Because actually, because of the conditions under which we today must face
our enemies and will have to face our enemies for many years, a great
number of very brave comrades have remained in the armed forces who
actually could have rendered important services in the economy, the
administration, or the party.

We think that the recognition of their merits and their ability
and their revolutionary rank will strengthen their authority with their
men, will strengthen their prestige with the units where they carry out
their functions and will contribute toward making even more firm, more
solid, the defense of our nation in the face of threats of aggression.

Thus, with this criterion, the central committee of our party has
been selected, which will carry out its functions as the first central
committee until the holding of our first congress, when we hope that the
number of members may be larger thanks to the greater development of the
party.

We have worked hard these few days, and the comrades who had the
mission today of telling these comrades of their election as members of the
central committee could tell moving scenes of great emotion with regard to
each one of these comrades. The great honor, the spirit of humility, of
deep emotion was often revealed in tears when they were informed of this
decision.

The Political Bureau, the Secretariat and
the Work Committees

The national executive board agreed to establish a political
bureau, a secretariat, as well as various work committees.

All the work committees are not included, because some, like the
one on cultural problems, should be organized later, as well as those
related to other activities.

The existence of the bureau changes the character of the
secretariat. The secretariat, also, was agreed upon as a body which has in
the first place the object of the hierarchization of certain comrades
within the central committee and at the same time to create a body which
will be able to work with the bureau, in cooperation with the bureau in the
fulfillment of the political bureau's tasks.

The political bureau was formed by the following eight comrades:
Commander Sergio del Valle Jimenez, Commander Guillermo Garcia Frias,
comrade Armando Hart Davalos, Commander Ramiro Valdes Menendez, Commander
Juan Almeida Bosque, comrade Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, Commander Raul
Castro Ruz and yours truly.

The following committees were established: Committee on
Constitutional Studies: President, Blas Roca Calderio; members: Jose A.
Naranjo Morales, Alfredo Yabur Maluf. Economic Committee, headed by comrade
Osvaldo Dorticos and also including comrades Faure Chomon, Carlos Rafael
Rodriguez, Commander Raul Curbelo Morales and comrade Joel Domenech
Benitez.

Comrade Joe Domenech Benitez will be promoted, because of great
need, to an administrative post which has to do with the economy, on which
we will report Sunday. I am not explaining it in more detail because I
don't want a question of embarrassment to arise with respect to the comrade
who is presently doing this job and with whom it will be necessary to talk
in order to tell him about it in advance.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces and State Security Committee,
formed by Commanders Raul Castro Ruz, Ramiro Valdes and Sergio del Valle
Jimenez.

The Education Committee, headed by comrade Armando Hart Davalos
because Comrade Armando Hart has had seven years of experience in the
Ministry of Education. This is why it was decided that he should preside
over this committee, even though he holds other posts which themselves
require a good deal of dedication and work. And it also includes comrades
Lionel Soto Prieto and comrade Jose Llanusa Gobel.

And the committee of Foreign Relations, headed by comrade Osmany
Cienfuegos and also including comrade Raul Roa Garcia and comrade Manuel
Pineiro Lozada. Comrade Armando Hart was also designated as Secretary for
Organization of the party.

A Step Which Will Accelerate the Progress of
the Revolution on all Fronts

We believe that this step which we have taken will cause a strong
impact on the nation and will permit the utilization of the favorable
conditions and potentialities of our revolution to accelerate the progress
of the same in all ranks and on all fronts. It marks the definitive
beginning of a work method, a method of direction, methods which we have
longed for for a long time. Our committee would have been established
several months before if it hadn't been for the circumstances of the
absence of comrade Guevara. In the midst of a great campaign of stories and
rumors, the establishment of a committee with the absence of comrade
Guevara would have seemed a very strange thing and would have led to a
great many speculations abroad and also here at home.

However, circumstances didn't permit us to report what is
pertinent in this respect, circumstances didn't permit me to publish before
the document which I mentioned on 28 September, circumstances which have to
do with the security of that comrade and with the revolutionary mission
which that comrade is carrying out. It was very recently that the
opportunity came to be able to read that document -- don't think that it is
a very long document, but it is a document which is very explanatory about
this particular and as soon as it was possible we set ourselves to the
accomplishment of these steps and that is why we announced simultaneously
the purpose of establishing the committee at the same time as the
publication of that document.

This will put an end to a series of speculations in general,
rumors, lies and finally an entire series of factors which were utilized by
the enemy and which we have borne patiently in the hope of an opportunity
to demolish all that.

As I told you, it wasn't easy to make this selection. And we have
reached these agreements by exchanging impressions and discussion with the
comrades of the executive board, in a fraternal atmosphere, in an
atmosphere of responsibility and in an atmosphere of understanding among
the comrades of the executive board.

The committee has been created, and the organs of the central
committee have been created, and we have taken into consideration all the
factors which could contribute to the formation of this leadership body, in
tune with the spirit which has always been followed, in tune with the
advance of our revolution. And in spite of its being a difficult task, it
has been done and -- in our opinion -- in a satisfactory fashion.

From the United Party of The Socialist Revolution
to the Communist Party of Cuba

It is our intention to call together tomorrow all the comrades of
the central committee in order to hold the first official meeting for the
ratification of these resolutions and the adoption of some other
agreements, among which is the idea of changing the name of our party, i.e.
of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution for the name of the
Communist Party of Cuba (Great applause). Also the proposal to found a
single newspaper, the newspaper Hoy and the newspaper Revolution, to
constitute this party's organ, and with a new name.

A Single Line in All Areas

In order that we may in the future establish conditions so that
our party may take care of all the work fronts systematically, so that we
may finally establish complete and absolute political unity, so that the
well-known stories on origins may disappear forever, so that all trace of
tendencies and all reminiscence of what everybody used to be, in order to
create and advance what everybody is today, let us step firmly forward
against all plotting, all intrigue, every manifestation of groupism, not in
the bosom of the party, but that kind of groupism which is seen especially
outside the party. Let's establish a uniformity of policy and not a
heterogeneous policy, a single line in all areas: in the ideological area,
in the economic area and in all fields, taking maximum advantage of the
resources which we have and which it would be criminal on our part after
seven years of revolution not to use to the maximum for the benefit of our
people and our fatherland.

We should be sensitive to the many needs which still remain to be
satisfied in our nation; we should be sensitive to the many problems which
remain to be solved. And we have in our hands the revolutionary power, i.e.
the dream of every revolutionary, that opportunity for which there has been
such a struggle in the history of our nation, that opportunity which has
cost so many lives and so many sacrifices and which we today have in our
hands and which we must know how to utilize properly, with the maximum of
enthusiasm, the maximum energy and also with maximum wisdom. This is why we
fought, we fought for this opportunity, Nothing belongs to any one of us.
Everything belongs to the people, everything belongs to the revolution.
None of us has the right to fight for anything except his, for anything
which interest us as persons, as individuals. In any event, the only thing
any of us as individuals can count on is our vocation, our revolutionary
vocation, and there is no revolutionary vocation without revolutionary
passion. With the passion which penetrates the true revolutionary vocation
we should dedicate ourselves to marching forward to create, to open new
roads toward new forms of social life, which requires the maximum energy,
enthusiasm, firmness and zeal of all men.

All these tasks are in our hands and it is our duty to carry them
out fully. We should work not only for today but especially for tomorrow.
In the early days of all revolutions there are men of great prestige whom
circumstances endow with the possession of great authority with the masses
and the people, but with the passage of years thousands, tens of thousands
of men stand out in political, economic and social activities. The men with
the authority appropriate to the early days of the revolution disappear and
then institutions have to replace the men, the systems, the methods. If in
the early days of the revolution and later these methods and these systems
are not created, the consequences are felt later.

A Firmly United Revolutionary People

The entire strength of the revolutionary tradition is needed and
we must create that revolutionary tradition from right now. Strong norms
and principles are essential and we must establish these norms and these
principles solidly right now.

This task hasn't been easy. Historically the dissolvent and
centripetal forces of our society often overcame the agglutinating and
centrifugal forces -- if I may use these terms from the field of physics --
throughout history Cubans often wasted their energies in useless internal
quarrels. It was thus throughout the struggle for independence, it happened
thus throughout the struggle after the misnamed independence of the
country. It happened thus in the 1933 revolution.

But this time the forces which unite have overcome the forces
which divide and for the first time in a long historical period we have a
closely united people, with immense revolutionary force which embraces
millions of men and women in Cuba, solidly united and organized. Resistance
to imperialism would not have been possible without this. The victories
achieved would not have been possible without this and today we have a
firmly united revolutionary people. It has been possible because of the
level of political development of our people; it has been possible because
of the self-denying, responsible and exalted effort of the men who have
taken part in the revolutionary process in our nation, in this
revolutionary process. It has been possible because of the spirit of many
men, many leaders, many cadres, through their self-denial, their
disinterestedness and because they knew how never to put personal things
first or personal aspiration of any kind but the interests of the
revolution, the interests of the fatherland.

And because of this, because of what has been achieved thanks to
that, to that spirit which has prevailed among the responsible men of the
revolution, we can bring this phase to an end, to a whole phase, and come
forward with a party still small in numbers but with immense prestige and
influence throughout the nation; with a party small in numbers but already
tested, disciplined and battle-hardened.

And with these forces, with the forces which the revolution has
created, we can face the future calmly and confidently.

I ask all the comrades who represent the party here as leaders in
the provinces and in the regionals for their full support for these
resolutions adopted by the national executive board of the party (Prolonged
applause.)
-END-


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