-DATE-
19680420
-YEAR-
1968
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
COMMEMORATES GIRON VICTORY
-PLACE-
PLAYA GIRON
-SOURCE-
DOMESTIC RADIO AND TV
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19680422
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEECH COMMEMORATES GIRON VICTORY

Havana Domestic Radio and Television Services in Spanish 0204 GMT 20 Apr 68
F/C

[Speech by Prime Minister Fidel Castro at ceremony at Victoria de Giron
fishing school, marking seventh anniversary of Cuban armed forces at Playa
Giron--live]

[Text] Relatives of the brave and heroic fighters who fell at Giron,
comrade officers and members of our Revolutionary Armed Forcers, comrade
fighters of Giron present here tonight, workers: We commemorate this
seventh anniversary at the same spot where the last battles of that event
were waged. This decision is in accordance with the fact that the immense
majority of our people at this time, commemorating the heroic deeds of
Giron, are displaying extraordinary activity throughout the country. In
other years, this date was commemorated by various ceremonies in various
spots, but on this occasion it was most logical and natural to commemorate
it here, especially since our people are engaged in a full-scale
revolutionary offensive.

Army Promotions

Likewise, for several years there have been no promotions among the command
cadres of our armed forces. It has been traditional, from the very
beginning of the revolution, from the initial organization of the first
struggles as well as in the Sierra Maestra, for promotions to be given
without any fanfare. Then, as our army developed and our command cadres
distinguished themselves, the first appointments of officers were made. We
must say that this was a praiseworthy custom and generally there were not
too many ranks. Many times, responsibilities--as happened in later years
and as is still happening--are in many cases greater than the ranks that go
with them. Many times we have officers in command of a division, an army
corps, or at the head of an army corp's staff, commanding battalions,
commanding large units, without the corresponding military rank. An
enormous effort has been made in these years to create cadres in our armed
forces. Not only this, but the immense majority of the revolutionary
fighters who actively participated in the war have remained in the ranks of
our army. It was logical that if our country found itself forced constantly
to defend itself, the revolution would keep men of proven capability, firm
revolutionary spirit, and profound awareness in the ranks.

In these years, since the very victory on 1 January, we found ourselves
forced--as comrade Captain Cuba said--to organize and train a powerful
army. For that reason the revolution found itself deprived of many cadres
for tasks of civil order or in constructive tasks, in the tasks of
developing the country in all fields. In this fashion, an enormous reserve
of cadres remained in our armed forces, and our army, our general staff,
our Armed Forces Ministry during these years carried out, as we said, an
extraordinary effort to create cadres.

Our country today has in the armed forces an enormous and formidable
reserve of cadres capable of any task assigned. But this has been achieved
through an incessant effort to improve. It has been achieved through hard
work and study. The immense majority of our military cadres, without
exception, have attended schools.

Without exception, including the armed forced minister and the comrades of
the general staff--in short, all the command cadres in our armed forces
have attended and have been attending various courses. Otherwise, it would
not have been possible to achieve the level of organization and knowledge
of technology that our armed forces have today. It would have been
impossible to operate the enormous quantity of military technical equipment
which we have today.

Our army during the early years, particularly the years of the struggle in
the mountains, had to satisfy itself with very simple weapons--rifles, some
machineguns, some grenades, and at the end, some bazookas and some mortars
seized from the enemy. Mines turned out to be very effective against tanks.
In short, very simple and easy things to handle technically. Later, our
armed forces began to acquire much more modern, much more complex
techniques, which required a much higher level of training. Our army and
other armed forces gradually developed and larger units were formed. At
first there were only battalions, so that when the mercenaries' invasion
took place, our military organization was fundamentally divided into
battalions, and the battalions were organized into sections.

Later, divisions were organized, and then army corps and armies; and with
each new level of organization, all the indispensable elements regarding
the use and the safety of equipment by the unit commands. Now the thing may
appear simple, but it has been necessary, as I said, to make an enormous
effort at improvement thought years of study and training. It was necessary
to create numerous military academies. These schools began to be organized
some months before the Giron invasion. Officers schools, as well as schools
for the training of the artillery and armored corps and others, continued
to develop in such a way that today there are nearly 10,000 military
students permanently enrolled in the schools, not counting those studying
abroad.

We continued with the old practice of the period of the struggle in the
mountains--that of selecting the most outstanding comrades, those who made
the greatest effort in their studies or in the performance of duty--so that
the vast majority of the promotions were received by comrades who had gone
through the schools. Only exceptionally have promotions gone to comrades
who had not had an opportunity to go to these schools. This because they
had been assigned to arduous duties in which they had shown their worth.
Thus, as an exception, in some very few cases comrades with great prestige
who earned great merit in the revolution were promoted. Some new combatants
are also being promoted. Naturally, there will be fewer and fewer of these
cases in the future. With the new promotions, with the new cadre
generations, comrades who join our armed forces, although very young, will
be promoted to the cadre studies they take.

To give examples, promotions to first captain have been given to 35
captains. Absolutely all of them were combatants in the rebel army.
[applause] And 33 of the 35 are militants of our party. [applause] Promoted
to captain were 56 first lieutenants. [applause] And the 56 are old
veterans of the rebel army and militants of our party. [applause]

The other cases are similar except that there are younger comrades in the
ranks of first lieutenant, lieutenant, and sub-lieutenant. During the war,
many of them were4 12 or 13 or 10 years old. The percentage of old fighters
from the rebel army is not so high, but of the 1,848 promoted, all together
683 are old fighters of the rebel army. [applause] Of the 1,848, 1,307 are
members of our party [applause] and 155 are members of the Communist Youth
Union (UJC). [applause] All together, 1,462 of 1,848 were promoted. This
can give us an idea of the selection and the quality of the comrades
promoted.

It is no easy matter for our military commanders to select and promote
cadres. Certainly the number of men who perform service in self-sacrificing
and exemplary manner in the armed forces is immense. We can say that
promotions are a long way from meaning privileges of any kind in our armed
forces.

We must say that one of the activities which requires more self-sacrifice,
more dedication, and more spirit of sacrifice is the activity carried out
by our command cadres. This is so to such a degree that a special
revolutionary vocation, a special fighting spirit, is required in order to
be given the responsibilities and tasks of an officer in our armed forces.

Military School Recruitment

It is proved by reality that it is not easy to recruit cadres or candidates
for military schools. It is necessary to make calls on our youth
organizations, our scholarship students schools, and our educational
centers, appealing to the sense of duty of our youth. This shows what
always happens. When responsibilities are greater and tasks harder, not all
are always willing to accept them. Nevertheless, in spite of its need for
cadres for its armed forces, the revolution will never offer privileges of
any kind. Never will it offer minor responsibilities. Never will there be
any problems of material incentives.

Following the best tradition, the tradition that has made of our armed
forces profoundly revolutionary organizations on which the fatherland can
count for any tasks, the prestige acquired in war and acquired during these
years is based precisely on the quality of the men. That is why we will
always follow the policy of recruiting the best youths, the best members,
for the cadres of our armed forces. Many secondary schools have been
established at the same time, where students from primary schools,
sixth-grade graduates who demonstrate an interest and vocation as military
cadres, are enrolled. In that sector, we must say, there are more than
enough students who can hope to continue studies related to military
science.

In the new generation, the generation now in primary schools, the sense,
the hope of following those studies is found in many students. Following
that principle of selection and quality, we have step by step, with great
effort, created thousands and thousands of cadres, always following a
revolutionary method and selection based on quality, character,
intelligence, and attitude. Nevertheless, that effort has not been invested
in the mere task of organizing a well-disciplined and trained military
force. We have learned that the efforts made in this regard did not by any
means mean a sacrifice of the overall development of the revolution or of
the country in the long run. Now we are beginning to harvest the first
fruits, which demonstrate what can be achieved by taking advantage of
experience, methodology, discipline, and the use of military cadres in
civilian activities.

Agricultural Aviation

Last year, our air forces were entrusted with agricultural aviation
activities, which in our country are growing enormously. Agricultural
activities in which aviation is used increase more and more every day. The
productivity of an airplane in many tasks is sometimes 100, 500, or 1,000
times what can be done without the airplane. Since last year, our air force
has taken charge of that task. They organized it using military pilots,
officers of the air force at their wages. It is known that if there were
superprivileged wages in our country, they were the wages of the
spray-plane pilots, who earned 1,000 or 2,000 or even 3,000 pesos per month
and they charged by the number of rows they sprayed, planted, or
fertilized. If an airplane with 10 times more capacity was purchased--such
as the new planes we were using for those tasks--the amount of money we
would have had to pay was incalculable on the basis of that rate of pay.

Naturally, such a salary could in no way contribute to molding
revolutionary pilots. Those incredible inequalities in wages were one of
the worst inheritances from capitalism, for the cost of the instrument for
carrying out that activity, the airplane, whether 50,000 or 100,000 pesos,
was defrayed by the other workers. An airplane bought with the people's
money is an instrument that must be at the service of the people. If that
airplane is used by a worker who had the chance to study certain courses,
that does not mean that he has the right to earn 10, 20, or 30 times more
with the airplane than a worker who, by cutting cane, is also contributing
to the economy and toward buying those airplanes and helping to pay for the
studies of those selected to be pilots. It is not just for a machine that
increases man's productivity enormously to cause one worker among others to
be paid 10, 20, or 30 times more than the rest.

In many types of activities, the revolution inherited those practices. It
appeared that it was very difficult, that it was impossible to fly those
airplanes, and to have agricultural aviation except on the basis of those
enormous wages. Yet we went to our air force, we went to our revolutionary
pilots, and we must say that by showing again that our awareness is and
must always be above any other interest--for we would not be
revolutionaries unless we so understood it--today we have a formidable
agricultural air force manned by officers of our air force, which has a
much higher output, a productivity several times higher,and yet for the
same pay, the modest pay they received as officers of our air force.
[applause]

This is revolutionary awareness. This is revolutionary spirit. We cannot
have in any of those highly expensive and highly productive aircraft men
who are not aware and revolutionary men above all. Deeds increasingly prove
we are right.

This same principle--the principle of using military cadres and operators
from the armed forces in the massive employment of various types of
equipment that our nation is now using for its development--has also given
splendid results. This has permitted us to conceive even more advanced
ideas. Our people are now ready to enjoy the results of that vast source of
discipline, or technology, and of the awareness which has accumulated in
our armed forces. Once more the dialectic of history has been demonstrated.
Once more it has been demonstrated in revolutionary deeds and realities how
every action by our enemies has contributed to the creation in our people
of virtue and strength.

We must say that, without the implacable and criminal blockade unleashed by
the imperialists against us, we would not have the revolutionary spirit of
the people today. They tried to strangle us. They thought up every possible
way to impose on us all kinds of privations. This led to the imperious need
for developing new ideas, new angles, new plans, new viewpoints, until we
attained the vast development of which our people can boast today, the
fullest evidence of which is this revolutionary offensive. The need to
defend ourselves from their threats, the need to organize and to maintain a
large standing army also permitted us to create that stockpile of
discipline, of technological levels, of cadres which the nation has now at
its disposal to win the battle of underdevelopment. Therefore, the action
by which our enemies presumed to ruin us again permitted us to stockpile
resources and strength, making any task today, no matter how difficult,
attainable.

Compulsory Service

At a certain time, the immense majority of our armed forces consisted of
militiamen-workers, but the equipment stockpile increased, the size of our
armed forces grew, and the workers had their jobs in the factories. It was
necessary to establish compulsory military service to serve as a manpower
source for the huge increases in our armed forces. This had to be done also
because there were men who had been serving for many years--4 5, 6, 7,
years--in the armed forces and who naturally wanted to get into some other
activity. Often they had been separated from their families for years.
These men had to be replaced. Therefore military service was established.
It must be said that military service has been a measure that has
contributed greatly to the training of our youth. When military service was
established, there were many youths who did not study, who did not work.
There were many youths who held trivial jobs and who had neither schooling
nor service nor anything. That was also an inheritance from the past, just
like illiteracy.

A youth in our country, in which the immense majority of youth was engaged
in positive and useful activity, creative activity, or training, had no
right to remain aloof from all social responsibilities. Of course, when
service was first established, those who were characterized by not working
or studying were not called. We must certainly say that the first calls
were made selectively and primarily included working or student youths,
revolutionary youths. Of course, new calls were made progressively until
today practically all youths of service age are called. A category had been
established to exempt those who were the sole support of their families.
Now, in the cases of such youths who are called or may be called, the
state, through social security, will give that support to their families
that they cannot give because they are in the service. [applause]

There were also the thousands, hundreds of thousands, of youths who were
illiterate. In military units where technology is more complicated every
day, illiterates are a serious headache. As a result, they were not called
in many cases. They were in a sort of no-man's land at a certain age, 10 to
15 years old, when the literacy campaigns took place. They were not adult
illiterates or students. They did not study n all those years and they
remained illiterate. What a shame in this country at this time, to see an
illiterate youth! What a shame and what a burden for society! Today anyone
can understand that an illiterate is a useless being in our society and
that he will be more and more useless every day. Now, to be an illiterate
is not an obstacle to being called. If he is an illiterate, part of his
service will be used in learning how to read and write and in study.
[applause]

Nationalization of Business

At this time in our country and as a result of the revolutionary offensive,
some interesting things and extraordinary possibilities have become
apparent. The struggle against the loafer, for example, was a very
difficult thing years ago because there was an immense no-man's land in
which no one knew what he was--whether he was a loafer, a half loafer, or a
loafer and a half. [laughter] In that no-man's land there were those who
evaded work and looked for some little job or some little business and all
of a sudden there appeared a youth with a bar, a business, earning almost
as much as a pilot in the past--800 or 1,000 pesos.

In what category could such a youth be placed? A half loafer, loafer, a
loafer and a half, 10 times a loafer? A loafer eats. A loafer costs
society. A loafer wears shoes and clothing and partakes of everything. An
unproductive person may consume as much as 10 loafers without contributing
anything to society. This was the case--be amazed, gentlemen--of entire
networks of men who devoted themselves to illegal gambling. Such was the
case in Oriente, where there appeared an organization of about 200 who
devoted themselves to illegal gambling, using the lottery. Two hundred of
them--200 individuals who while tens of thousands devoted themselves to
cutting cane to develop the economy of the country and to performing hard
tasks every day, who while thousands of youths in the invasion brigade
worked day and night, even risking their lives on some occasions, subject
to accidents, clearing large expanses of forests--consumed, ate, drank,
wore shoes, used electricity, transportation, medicine, and everything
else, living from illegal gambling. How many children did they feed? How
many families did they house? How many sick people did they cure? They
sought money in any way possible--God's gift which resolves problems
regardless of how it is obtained. They sought money in any illegal way so
that later on, with money, they could buy merchandise without contributing
a single service to society, a single piece of merchandise.

In the revolutionary offensive, those opportunities have been disappearing.
That includes even the opportunity to be loafers. With the nationalization
of privately-owned business still remaining, [applause] many ways of life
that were to work alien disappeared. Anyone who earned 1,000 pesos every
month could indulge himself in the luxury of having six or seven nephews
who were loafers. With 1,000 pesos he could give them everything that they
needed to live without studying, working, without contributing anything to
society. [A woman yells something and there is laughter in the crowd.] We
are truly showing them how to work.

Women and Children

We spoke of people, but people is still a vague concept in the other sense
of the word, an abstract concept. When certain studies were made, many
things were discovered. For example, we found out how many children were
going to school and how many were not, how many youths from 10 to 15 or 15
to 20 worked or studied, and how many neither worked nor studied. It is
necessary to have information to know the structure of the people, what the
people consist of, what each citizen does.

Of course,in our country, many reminders of the past have remained. For
example, there is woman's work. Women were practically excluded from
production. In the past, they did the worst things. They were subject to
all types of prejudices. There were very few opportunities for women. Many
young girls stayed at home many times because they had no jobs, no activity
to which to devote themselves.

On the other hand, there were many easy jobs suitable for women which were
being performed by strong men, healthy men who could, on the other hand,
perform harder jobs. All those things remained. At this time, extraordinary
changes are taking place, extraordinary events. The absence of children
from schools is at a relatively low percentage at this time. In many cases
it may exist through lack of proper schools, proper facilities, or proper
political and social work, but generally the number of children who do not
go to school is diminishing. It is our duty to make efforts until we reach
a point at which there is not a single child who does not go to school.

It is easier now to fight against a state in which school age youngsters,
of high school or preuniversity school age, do not go to school or do not
work. In some cases they were taken out of school by private employers or
neglected by their families. In other cases they were even working as
workers in state centers. The percentage of young men or girls who did not
work or did not study was grater. At this time in our country, with its
enormous agricultural development, with the revolutionary offensive, with
the alertness of the masses, with the growing participation of the masses
in all activities, it is much easier to fight against those reminders of
the past. A loafer formerly could hide his idleness among a crowd of
semiloafers or many loafers. A loafer now is an individual who stands out
anywhere. He is an individual who is immediately recognized in the
neighborhood. He is an individual who has no palace to go. No matter where
he is, in a mass or humans or on the job, he can be quickly discovered for
the loafer he is.

Thus, as the masses get into production, the struggle against the
antisocial elements becomes easier. In some provinces where these persons
have been detected, they have already assigned them productive tasks; of
course, not by force, but they are told: your ration book is there
[laughter and applause] at that farm or in that productive activity.
[cheers, applause] in this way it will be hard for anybody to escape.

It must be said that at present everybody is working--the loafers, those
who applied for permission to leave the nation [laughter, cheers,
applause]. The revolutionary offensive used to be fiesta time for the
worms. Here was the nation at work, the people entirely occupied with great
tasks, and the worms attacking the people behind their backs, on their
flanks, and in the rear, using all their arms and all their methods, while
they waited with delight, receiving aid from abroad or from within, or
engaged in various "industrial" activities in which they made hundreds of
pesos a month, all their problems solved, taking the first places in
queues, sowing defeatism, and spreading lies.

But the revolution, which had been carrying out its offensive in every
field of work, realized that it as being attacked on its flanks and rear,
aimed a few gun batteries at these enemies [applause] and really put them
out of action. No longer was it fiesta time waiting 3 years by living off
the work of others and longing for the day when they would enter the Yankee
paradise. Not now. The road to Miami also passes through the farm fields.
It passes through the sugarcane fields [applause] and through work.
[applause]

The principle that he who does not work has not right to eat [applause] is
getting full application. However, if someone is really ill, if anyone is
(?out) of work because he physically cannot work, even though he may be an
enemy the revolution does not deny his sustenance.

Healthy people can work at this time almost 10 years after the revolution.
If they do not, this would be unjust. This country was not freed from the
big landowners, from the Yankee monopolies, from the refinery masters, from
the factory-owners, from the owners of big stores and banks to fall into
exploitation of that kind of parasite, because the only truth for him who
consumes something is that someone is producing it; and if he who consumes
does not produce, he is living on what others produce. This is such a
simple and clear thing.

In this very measure we see ourselves increasingly farther from the old
concepts of parasitism and exploitation, because in the past society, to be
an exploiter or a parasite was almost a matter of pride. In that past
century it was the most natural thing in the world to have a man in chains,
forcing him to work as a slave all his life, and man was the property of
man. Man, his wife, and his children were sold in the market--something
which today seems absurd to all of us.

Those institutions, those laws, and that social system by which a man took
possession of the labor of thousands of men or a part of the work of
thousands of men will seem increasingly absurd--a system in which a few
hundred men took possession of a part of the harvest of tens of thousands
of peasants, in which a minority of the population producing absolutely
nothing was living on the work of the others. On our revolutionary road,
these old practices will be increasingly difficult and the possibility of
persisting in these conditions will be impossible. Today we are still
struggling against some of these old practices, but in the future there
will be none left. If there are still illiterates, in the future there will
be no illiterates. If there are still vagabonds, in the future there will
be none.

The development of the nation consists precisely of this--of eliminating
the causes which gave rise to these [word indistinct] and [words
indistinct] more profound. The fact is that we are approaching the time
when our country will have sufficient installations, sufficient facilities,
so that no a single child will be without the opportunity to go to school,
so that all children may have schools perfectly equipped both in teaching
media and in recreation equipment and subsistence, as in some schools that
the revolution has already established.

Future Armed Forces

We were talking of military service as a transitory stage. In the past few
years new procedures and new institutions have been emerging, and today
tens of thousands of youths of the technological institutes are taking part
in military units. What will our armed forces be like in the future? They
will be fundamentally organizations of cadres, of command cadres, who will
be in the ranks in our infantry, in our artillery units of different types,
and in the units of many of our services. They will no longer be youths in
compulsory military service. If each child goes to school and if
instruction up to the preuniversity level is compulsory for every youth,
military instruction will be simply part of the education of every youth,
and the bearing of arms [applause] will be the most elementary duty of
every citizen.

We propose to establish in the shortest time possible as many technological
institutes, preuniversity institutes, as are sufficient to allow our
military units to count on personnel of this type, on young students, to
make up the mass of combatants.

Needless to say, what most delights any military chief is to assign any of
his units to a technological institute, because undeniably, any youth with
an education at the first or second year of the preuniversity or
technological institute level learns the military lessons with much more
facility and much more ability. Such youth have much more ability and
facility for rapidly learning the use of complex military equipment. The
task of any unit training its personnel who are youth of the second, third,
or fourth grade is a hard task; but on the other hand, when the task is
with youths who have much higher cultural levels, this task becomes
incomparably simpler.

Therefore, in the future--and in the not too distant future--military
service will disappear, but not because this will be decided in one day.
Rather, it will practically be abolished by this new, incomparably superior
system. However, some will ask: Who will man our tank units? Who will run
our machines? Our caterpillars that pull our cannons? Who will man the
enormous quantity of artillery equipment, or armored units, or mechanized
units?

'Gigantic Brigades'

Here again is a problem. Many comrades have been 4, 5, or 6 years as tank
crew members. On many occasions, comrades from Oriente, from the mountains,
when logically they should pass to other work, were needed to train a new
tank, and a new artilleryman. If that one fired a certain number of cannon
rounds to learn to be a good artilleryman, he later had to waste as many
more rounds to teach another good artilleryman, and so forth.

What have we found? What a magnificent possibility has been discovered
lately! With the gigantic brigade, with the organization of brigades in
difference economic development fronts, we have discovered that a tankman
is a magnificent operator of heavy equipment--of a bulldozer, or a crane,
or a scrape--that a good driver of a military vehicle, of a troop
transport, is a magnificent driver of construction vehicles, trucks, a
roller, or other equipment.

What often happened? It happened that this tank operator left the army and
went to work. At best, he was given a rubber-tired tractor in another
province, or he went to another job that had no relation with what he
learned in the armed forces. Every year there was the task of training new
personnel.

What does the revolution propose? To establish with the reserve army work
organizations like the gigantic brigade or other brigades for the
construction of highways, dams, mountain-terracing--in short, for work on
the many labor fronts in agriculture where thousands of brushlands are
being transformed. To assure the tank operator that as soon as he finishes
his service or when he has been in the service several years and wants to
change his activity, he can work in these brigades; to assure him a piece
of equipment, we have been doing this, and the gigantic brigade has a great
number of comrades from the armored units.

In some of these brigades there are old operators, in many cases very
responsible men, very revolutionary, who in case of war could easily
operate a tank. What is our plan? We plan to form various brigades from the
comrades coming from military units. As they arrive in the country, we will
assign machines as "workers" to the comrades. In this way we will organize
a powerful and well-disciplined reserve army in which personnel can do
training exercises during a few months each year in their corresponding
units. One hundred percent of the personnel necessary for each mechanized
or armored unit will always be in training, and the reserve army, with its
machines, will always be in production activities.

We will have at least three operators for each tank. In the case of a
combat alarm, at the first call our best operators, our best artillerymen,
will swiftly occupy their positions in the military units. The other
operators will support the military units with their civilian equipment. In
combat, the tanks may need the aid of bulldozers, cranes, or other
equipment. All this equipment will be incorporated in the corresponding
military units in a case of war, some wielding arms and others opening
trenches, antitank wells, or roads, or working in mined fields, or
anything.

Then we will have the best tank operator in the world--one who can operate
a tank and spend the rest of his time driving heavy machinery similar to
the tank--the best driver who, when he leaves his military truck, goes to
work in a civilian truck in the daily task of production, acquiring a
special type of war experience, which is this tremendous war that is being
fought by our country today against underdevelopment. They will be men who
will always be on a machine similar to a tank, or on a truck, or on a
bulldozer; that is, men who will receive other training. We will then have
tank operators with 10 years' experience or 15 years' experience with
tanks, and artillerymen who fire cannon one year, the following year, and
the year after, accumulating experience.

So our army in case of war would not find itself with a young,
inexperienced tank operator. Instead, we would have one with much more
experience, much more mature, who is taking full part in the development of
the country, our principal task. To have a more concrete idea of this
activity, let us suppose that in the second half of this year, in the
building of roads, dams, large canals, and drainage systems, digging wells,
operating bulldozers, and leveling mountains with heavy equipment, we will
be using about 5,000 new machines, including trucks, bulldozers, cranes,
and all types of equipment--machines that have been in use since last year
and those that are deployed this year; 5,000 machines that will need some
15,000 operators. We estimate that in the agricultural development of the
country in 1970 we will have some 8,000 machines that will need some 25,000
operators. Why 25,000 operators? Because our country cannot afford the
luxury of buying a costly machine to work it only 5, 8, 10, or 12 hours.
Man needs to rest and should rest, but machines in these years of hard
struggle for the development of the country cannot and should not rest.

These machines will receive maximum maintenance after each work shift. They
need not be parked, but they need proper care, adjustments, readjustments,
and lubrication. If a machine is cared for daily, it can last a long time
without being idle for 8, 10, or 12 hours. At present, many of the machines
I mentioned are working day and night, 20 hours every day, with 4 hours of
maintenance.

The great effort to develop the country at this moment therefore requires
tens of thousands of operators. The reserve army, the reserve of our
mechanized and armored (?vehicles) with 8,000 machines, will be busy in the
development of the country--25,000 men with 8,000 machines. Those men will
work under their own officers. They will be under military officers. The
principal effort in developing the country in years to come will be on the
shoulders of the reserve army of 25,000 men with approximately 8,000
machines.

That will be our army, an organization of men technically prepared and with
a profound revolutionary conscience. The principal shock units will be made
up of worker-soldiers or soldier-workers. The planes will be flown by
pilots who serve in civil aviation or in the air force. Regular units will
be made up of students from technological schools or of preuniversity
students. Behind all these will be the rest of the people, all the
people--every man and woman who is able to bear a weapon.

Need for Preparedness

It must be objective of this country never to drop its guard, but to arm
itself more and more and prepare more and more. The day that we make the
mistake f feeling secure we will have committed a very great error. We can
feel more secure when we feel stronger, when we are better prepared in
every way, when we are able to count on a united, conscientious, working
people, when we have more arms. This should be a principle for a long time
to come, because we do not believe that imperialism will end the day after
tomorrow or that imperialists will be come as gentle as lambs.

An essential principle of the revolutionary philosophy of this country will
be the need to become stronger and stronger, to be better prepared and
better armed. When a country such as ours makes a revolution 90 miles from
the United States, when an enemy as powerful as Yankee imperialism declares
its purpose to smash it, when a country such as ours receives so many
lessons on the aggressive and criminal nature of this imperialism, it must
be really a country of all workers, soldiers, students, men and women.

Our military technological institutes already have contingents of almost
300 female comrades who are the first 300 women of our country to be taking
military studies. [applause] Military training will be given to men and
women in schools and institutes. Imperialism will see how the forces of
this country grow and how this country--which one day it tried to surprise,
which it once thought it could crush--is becoming more and more organized,
a more conscientious and stronger country. Everyone, especially our
officers, must be familiar with the line that we will follow in the future
with our armed forces.

When this is accomplished, we may be certain that we will have done what no
other army in the world has done. If being so near to such a powerful and
criminal neighbor has forced all of us to be soldiers then let us all be
soldiers. Let us also be all workers and all students. These ideas shall be
our guide in the military preparation of our people in the coming years.

Industrial Development

At this moment throughout the world, an extraordinary effort is being made.
We cannot but feel optimistic. We cannot but feel impressed with the way we
are working at this moment. Today, for instance, the workers who were
building the Nuevitas cement factory, which is scheduled to be completed in
October, sent the following telegram:

"We inform you that our commitment to start operating the first row of
ovens on 26 April has been fulfilled ahead of schedule. At 1910 hours, 8
days before the set time, the first sack of cement was produced. [applause]
As part of the builders' revolutionary offensive to fulfill this goal, they
worked without interruption for 120,000 hours--voluntary hours--in the
Giron campaign. [applause] This effort by the workmen is the tribute paid
to those heroes who fell fighting to inflict the first great defeat of
imperialism in America. The builders, aware that only with heroism and
effort every day can revolution be advanced, are prepared to comply with
all tasks assigned to us. On to victory always! Fatherland or death, we
shall win!"

On what factory have these men been working? A little old shack to produce
cement? These workers have been building a factory that will consist of
three ovens to produce cement. The first oven will produce 625 tons of
cement daily. Together, the three ovens will produce 1,890 tons daily. This
will amount to not less than 600,000 tons yearly, and 600,000 tons is
almost as much cement as Cuba produced before the revolution. This is one
of the two plants that will be completed this year. This will more than
double the cement production of our country.

Those workers are also building the thermoelectric plant at Nuevitas, which
is another important industry for our country. Cement and power are very
important for our development. To understand these problems more clearly,
the example of any one of these industries is useful. It is useful to
understand the problems of any underdeveloped country and to understand the
unsolvable problems of that large portion of the world that lives in
underdeveloped areas, problems that are unsolvable without a revolution.

For example, as for the fuel that this plant must burn--and this will help
us to understand the petroleum problem--each oven will burn 92.16 tons of
fuel oil daily. The three together will burn 276.48 tons daily. One oven
will burn about 30,000 tons of oil yearly. The three will burn 91,238 tons
of fuel oil.

As for electricity, one oven will use 37.2 million kilowatts yearly. In
other words, we must provide fuel and power for this industry. The two
thermoelectric industry units now being built will produce 60,000
kilowatts. One unit will have the capacity to produce 1.44 million
kilowatts daily. The two units will produce 2.88 million kilowatts daily,
or approximately 1 billion kilowatts yearly. This industry is planned for
six units of 60,000 kilowatts each.

How much fuel will this industry consume? One unit will consume 388,000
kilograms daily. Two units will consume 777,000 kilograms per day, more
than 700 tons of fuel oil per day, and some 200,000 tons annually. With the
six units, it will consume 600,000 tons per year. What about water
consumption? The two units will consume some 720,000 tons daily, that is,
as much fuel oil as water every day.

This helps us to relate the problems of power and fuel. Anyone understands
that without electricity there can be practically nothing in the modern
world. Many factories operate with electricity, and so do all kinds of
machinery and tools, industries producing textiles, shoes, and so forth,
motors of all kinds, and refrigeration units. This is not to mention the
electricity used daily in hospitals, schools, and everywhere by the people.
Electricity is a vital element of any modern economy, and electricity is
produced well by hydroelectric plants where countries have large rivers.
This is not the case with our country. Our small rivers are principally
used to supply dams for irrigation. Other countries have used coal, but
petroleum is the fundamental source, and now electric plants, that is,
electricity-generating plants, are being built to run by nuclear power.

This gives an idea of the importance of petroleum. Petroleum, besides being
the fundamental source of generating electricity in our country at present,
has indispensable use in transportation of all kinds, in activities of
every kind in agriculture. Our country has 20 thermoelectric plants like
this, but it needs more and more electric power. It will need or would need
to spend on the production of electricity alone 12 million tons of fuel oil
yearly.

[apparently a question from the crowd about petroleum at this point] Good,
if I am going to read the volume, give it to me later. [speaker in crowd
says that he will be able to see him later and that it is important] I
shall see that the note arrives. If you interrupt me now, I shall have to
stop what I am doing now to get the note. Get the note; someone volunteer
to get it. On the petroleum economy? [someone says "Yes."]

Very well, our country has a growing need for electricity. It will need in
the not too distant future a number of thermoelectric plants that will use
12 million tons of fuel. Now, one of the paths for the solution of this
problem has already begun with the possible use of asphaltite. It is a kind
of petroleum which, on coming to the surface, loses the light gases and
becomes a kind of rock. A ton of asphaltite is equivalent in calories to
0.8 tons of fuel. This is one possible (?substitute).

Of course, the search for petroleum is becoming more and more necessary and
fundamental. We shall say more about this later. The day will come when
humanity will often (?regret) the fabulous amount of petroleum it is
consuming. Why? Because petroleum is not used only a as fuel today. The
fundamental value of petroleum is already beginning to be its use in
petrochemistry as a source or raw material for the production of most
important products. Synthetic fibers, for example, today are produced from
petroleum.

This means that we consume not only petroleum. Our sugar mills consume
petroleum. Our sugar mills consume as fuel millions of tons of bagasse. In
Cuba, the mills operate partly on petroleum and partly on bagasse. From
bagasse we make paper pulp and it has other uses, so that bagasses has an
economic value greater than its use as fuel to run the mills. Therefore,
when our country producers the 10 million tons of sugarcane and to the
degree that it resolves the matter of another source of fuel, it will have
to begin using bagasse as a raw material of much more value and utility.

To the degree that the world populations is growing and nations developing,
what power will they use in the future? The power of the future, the
fundamental power, the power on which the world of the future most urgently
depend, is nuclear power. The power contained in a ton of petroleum is
infinitesimal in comparison with the power contained in a ton of
fissionable material. When man discovered the power of the atom, he
discovered a source of power able to satisfy the unlimited needs of the
world of the future.

Atomic power, of which humanity took note as an instrument of war and
destruction, is at the same time the only solution for the future. Thus,
any country that has a little foresight and is looking to its future must
already think about generating electricity and begin to think about the
generation of electricity from nuclear power.

Our country cannot in future years have more and more electric plant based
on petroleum. When the present program to install thermoelectric plants is
finished, we will have to think about setting up plants run by atomic
power. They are already being built now, and are very efficient. Some of
these plants are being sold. We cannot see the solution only in
thermoelectric plants. Our country has no great rivers, no great coal
reserves. The petroleum that we may find will have to be used for other
purposes. Soon a few countries like ours will have to have another form of
power. It is becoming somewhat most important for our country. That is why
our revolution is recruiting the first outstanding students to study
nuclear physics and to (?have) engineers able to operate this type of
plant.

Nuclear Nonproliferation

This is one of the questions of most interest to today's world. Soon the
United Nations will discuss a draft agreement entitled "Nonproliferation of
Nuclear Arms." In our opinion, this will be a very controversial draft on
account of the effects that it may have on the future of humanity in the
use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes in future years.

We are not going to discuss this problem, but our government will state its
position precisely and clearly in the United Nations when this draft
agreement on nonproliferation of nuclear arms is discussed.

We simply want our people to be informed on these questions and to lift
their gaze to the future. We have given this illustrative example of what
an electrical industry--a thermoelectric industry--consumes, of the
enormous quantities of petroleum it consumes. As anyone will understand the
importance of electricity, we believe that this is an illustrative example.

This example also serves to illustrate another aspect of the problems of
underdevelopment. The most difficult task of a large part of people of the
world in the future is to cope with underdevelopment. Without a revolution,
these problems are unsolvable.

Here we have in these two industries two good examples. The cement factory,
when it has the three units in production, how many workers it will employ?
It will employ a total of 420 persons. The investment will cost--machinery,
equipment and other purchases--17 million. Construction will cost 9.8
million, installation and mounting 3.4 million, and other investments 3.4
million--a total of 33.7 million pesos [as heard].

Consequently, the investment per working man is 80,000 pesos. Therefore,
when the thermoelectric power plant has two units in production, it will
employ 233 persons. Its cost will be 32.8 million pesos. For every man
working in that industry, 137,000 pesos will have been invested.

This brings to mind one of the most difficult problems that any
underdeveloped country faces in today's world. All developed countries of
the world, and European countries where industrialization started, began
with agricultural development. In Britain, France, and Germany,
agricultural revolution preceded industrial development. In those early
times, electricity was not used. First the agricultural revolution began,
and then agricultural productivity increased. During those years 25 percent
of the crops raised were used for seed. Every year, the per acre yield
increased for each seed planted. The agricultural revolution which preceded
the industrial revolution thus took place.

In those countries, agriculture furnished the financial resources for
industrial development. When they were beginning their industrial
development, with little money--the equivalent of a few months' wages--an
industry, a textile or steel industry for example, was started. The first
steel was produced by using wood. As the demand for steel increased, first
by agriculture and then by the textile industry, they began to use coal
because these countries did not have sufficient wood to meet the needs of
production. However, at that time any industry was started with few
resources. An industry began with a few thousands dollars and a few
workers. Today, nowhere in the world would one think of producing steel
with wood. Of course, any modern industry requires very complex and costly
machinery. Naturally, machines were made by anyone. A blacksmith could
build a machine and an engineer was not needed. Any man with practical
experience could build a machine. Today, in order to produce electricity,
much more fuel is needed. Instead of using 600,000 tons, one might have to
use more than 1 million tons of fuel.

Since a part of the world was developed industrially and the other part was
left behind and exploited, the classical development pattern in these
countries cannot be followed by any underdeveloped country. See for your
self the huge investments--more than 100,000 [dollars] for each man,
without considering the technicians and experienced workers, because these
industries cannot operate with illiterates.

In evaluating any of these industries, the need for cement and steel is
evident. It is clear why, beginning in 1970, with strong agricultural basis
being developed at an unprecedented rate in our country, the time will come
when the principal effort will be shifted to industrial development. This
does not mean that we have not been working in some basic industries such
as the cement, electric power, or fertilizer. Work has been going on in
some basic industries. But most of the country's resources and efforts have
been invested in machinery for the accelerated agricultural development
program in order to create the food-producing basis for our people and the
resources which will herald a gigantic effort in the country's industrial
development between 1970 and 1980.

For example, we shall have to face the steel production problem as a basic
question for which investments of hundreds of millions of pesos in
machinery have been made and also for the exploitation of our nickel
resources, as our country possesses the world's richest nickel reserves. It
is a mineral whose prices has been increasing in world markets but which
requires large investments. Had we spent hundreds of millions pesos on the
steel industry and not on machinery to solve the land-clearing, dams,
irrigation, and drainage problems, then we would possibly not even have
steel or food. First investments must be applied in those areas that give
employment to the bulk of the population and create resources to meet basic
needs and for the later development of the country.

Consequently, our people will have to concentrate serious efforts on
industry form 1970 on, but they will have a fully developed agriculture. In
order to construct steel plants and plants of the future--industries of all
types, including industries to process agricultural products--we will need
to do much work and use many men. The mechanization of cane-cutting will
permit us, if we succeed, to plant all our cane on flat land and to
mechanize sugarcane cutting 100 percent. A total of 20,000 men will harvest
the cane in our country--20,000 men on machines. [applause]

An important effort is now being made so that we will have no less than
1,000 combines available by 1970 and in order to mechanize the entire cane
harvest for 10 million tons of sugar in the following 3 or 4 years. Then we
will have to create the "army of the harvest." [applause] A very large,
well-disciplined organization will be required because the sugar mills and
trains, depending on the mode of transportation, will have to be supplied
at a precise time with an exact quantity of daily. We shall then take fresh
cane, and we will always have the sugarmills working at full capacity
during harvest time. I believe that our workers and people, because of
their experience in cane-cutting, perfectly understand the meaning of
10-million-ton sugar harvest with the participation of 20,000 men on
machines.

Naturally, by that date--before that date, very much before that date--all
cultivation will be done by machine. The planting and basic cultivation of
rice, and citrus and coffee trees, for example, will be done by machine.
The harvesting of crops does not worry us because harvesting of the coffee
crop will be like a game. It is not a difficult job. Boys in the fifth or
sixth grade can harvest the crop. In other words, this job can be performed
by men, women, youths, and older persons. Cane-cutting is the first thing
to be attended to, as well as other hard tasks which use the bulk of our
present working force. Agriculture is now progressing rapidly with
machinery because the brigade is equipped with bulldozers, most of which
have 180 horsepower.

Just imagine, in the past wood was cut with axes. Just figure the enormous
productivity of the men using machines. The machine will increase the
productivity of our workers many times. in a short span, our production
rates will increase tremendously. Ours will be a working people with more
technical know-how and more machines.

We are headed toward formation of a communist society and work productivity
is very important. We will be interested in the economic progress for
foreign exchange, but for domestic consumption to meet domestic needs we
will be interested in wearing value. If a man produces about 10 [items] in
one way and produces about 100 in another way, he will be creating 100
times more or 10 times more. If he producers about 1,000, he will be
creating 100 times as much goods for society. These are the great
possibilities facing the country, the result of the effort that we are
making today. However, we must free hundreds of thousands of men and women
for new jobs.

When we spoke at the beginning about the new things taking place--and I
referred to the case of men working on jobs that can be performed by most
interested and revolutionary women--I forgot to point out one of the things
happening at this time, namely the response and determination of thousands
upon thousands of male workers performing the 400 or more jobs which in the
future will be assigned to women only. In other words, the revolution
intended to classify the jobs that women could perform and to give them to
women. However, a movement emerged, because we had about 60,000 workers
holding such jobs. Certainly this movement, by virtue of which thousands of
youths have offered to relinquish their jobs to women so that they will be
employed in other jobs where they are needed more, has gained strength.
[applause]

We believe that this is one of the most revolutionary things that has
happened in the country recently and one of the most notable events of the
revolutionary offensive. Anyone can understand the benefits that society
derives from the freeing of thousands of men while thousands of women are
employed in activities readily available to them. Society benefits from the
transfer of healthy and strong men to other types of work where they are
needed. I had forgotten to mention this matter.

In conclusion, a new and important phase will come after 1970. It will be
the result of the great strides in agriculture during these years and the
enormous increase in our labor productivity with the mechanization of
agriculture. We were talking about petroleum. What is our present situation
regarding petroleum? We have said that in the future we had to think of
nuclear energy, but that we must think about petroleum now. We have begun
the exploitation of asphaltite, and we are beginning a stage in which our
country will seek all possible means to increase petroleum production. No
one is unaware of the importance of petroleum.

Since petroleum can become the bottleneck of our economic development,
there is no doubt whatever that our effort must be concentrated on the
solution of this problem. Our needs in this line increase yearly. I only
mentioned two factories. This year we will finish two cement plants and two
thermoelectric plants. For these alone, we will need an increase of at
least 600,000 tons of petroleum. Not for six units, but only two units. The
thermoelectric plants are not included.

Fuel Rationing

This year, fuel rationing brought exceptional benefits to the country. If
we had not rationed gasoline, our great effort would have been fruitless.
Those thousands of machines that I mentioned would be part paralyzed. The
giant brigade, the road work brigades, the brigades that are clearing land,
draining, and doing all the agricultural work on all fronts, and those
5,000 machines that I mentioned having been put into use would have been
partly paralyzed.

What has happened? Gasoline rationing saved more than 20,000 tons monthly.
We solved the gasoline problem. But tractors and bulldozers use gas oil.
So, much of that gasoline we saved was used to produce gas oil. Petroleum
is made up of gasoline and the lighter gases, gas oil which is heavier, and
fuel oil which is even heavier. But in a refinery, a given quantity of
petroleum can produce more or less a given amount of gasoline.

It can produce a little less gasoline and a little more gas oil. That is
what we did. By saving gasoline through rationing, we produce more gas oil.
Thanks to this, and despite the many machines now in operation, all of them
have continued operating. Of course it was a tight situation, and gas oil
had to be hauled continually from the refinery to keep the machines going.

As everyone knows, in these months with maximum consumption of gas oil, we
have the sugarcane harvest, with soil preparation and many other
activities. With the coming months of May and June, the rains will fall. I
hope the rains will come immediately to stop the sugar harvest and our
activities, because March and April are the peak months in gasoline
consumption.

Drilling for Oil

Yet we have been able to keep all machines in operation. This has been
possible because of gasoline rationing begun at the beginning of the year.
The fact that all those machines have never stopped working is cause for
satisfaction. These machines have been working constantly on the principal
fronts of development. However, needs increase, and there is no certainty
that they will increase in proportion to our supplies from abroad. That is
why we must produce our own petroleum at all costs.

We have very little drilling equipment. We have been engaged principally in
geological studies these past years. I think we have about 16 drilling
outfits, some of them very obsolete. However, there are many places where
we can drill, and almost everywhere we have drilled we have found oil. Very
rarely have we failed. [applause]

In the Guanabo region,the wells are all of nearly 100-ton capacity. Some
produce a little more than 100 tons, and others produce 140 tons. The third
well which began to produce recently produces much oil, like the first two.
The machines are concentrated in the Guanabo area of drilling wells, as in
other parts of the country. Wells will be dug as deep as 5,000 meters. The
Guanabo oil is about 700 or 800 meters from the surface, and we are finding
some tremendous wells.

Three wells of 100 tons capacity are producing almost all the fuel used by
the cement factory in Nuevitas. Two wells like the Guanabo No. 3 well would
produce all the fuel for the cement factory in Nuevitas, and four wells
would produce all the fuel for the two thermoelectric units. About 12 such
wells--but that is expecting too much--would suffice for the Nuevitas
thermoelectric project with its six units. That would be about 2,000 tons
of fuel daily.

Rarely does one find wells like this. In other regions, there are wells
that produce 30 to 35 tons, but generally, prospects are very good. The
first effort of the revolution, as soon as we saw the need to find oil and
the possibility of finding it, was to procure drilling equipment. in that
direction we have made some progress. It is not easy to obtain drilling
equipment, because the imperialists are active throughout the world when we
try to buy a part for a refinery or a screw for equipment to drill an oil
well. The imperialists never rest in their persecution and their
harassment, whenever we try to buy one single screw for our oil industry.
Sometimes we endure hardships to maintain the refinery and go through quite
a lot of trouble. Logically, what the imperialists want least in this world
is for us to find equipment to drill oil wells.

But apparently we have already found some equipment. We received the news
today regarding negotiation of a mining agreement between Rumania and Cuba.
Rumania is one of the socialist countries that has a well-drilling
equipment industry. It produces some of the best equipment. We have reached
an agreement under which they will supply Cuba with its drilling equipment.
Rumania gave us very favorable credit--credit of 30 million pesos in
oil-drilling equipment [applause] that will begin to arrive in our country
this year and up until 1970. If my memory does not fail me, we will receive
three times the equipment we now have. And this is only the beginning. We
must seek more equipment. We must have all the equipment necessary.

To be able to count on 30 million pesos worth of equipment is in itself a
great advance. The debt will be paid in 8 years. We will begin to pay 1
year after we receive each piece of equipment. We have 8 years to pay. We
will pay 30 percent in sugar, and the agreement includes 10,000 tons of
coffee, 22,000 tons of citrus fruits, 250,000 tons of molasses, and 2,000
tons of nickel. We were given the facilities to pay the debt in 8 years
with these products. I have read to you the total amount of each product
with which we will pay the debt.

With just a little of the coffee we are not planting everywhere, with a few
of the citrus trees we are planting, with a little of the molasses from the
cane we are planting and the sugar that we shall produce from the cane, we
are going to receive 30 million pesos of equipment to drill oil wells.
[applause] We must say that we place great value on this credit given us at
a time when we so badly need it to buy vital equipment for our economic
development.

Needless to say, we shall continue to make efforts in this direction. We
want to take advantage of this opportunity, this place, this audience, the
revolutionary offensive, to inform our people regarding these matters. We
believe that our people are beginning to understand the problems better and
to keep themselves better informed. Of course,all of us have begun to
understand our problems better, and to see these problems more clearly. The
path, the methods, and the possibilities are clearer each day.

The fact that we are better informed will be instrumental in channeling our
efforts and in insuring the success of revolutionary effort. In the past we
were too ignorant; it could not be helped. But today all of us are learning
more and more things, and we are seeing things more clearly. We understand
the causes, the essence of the problems, what our weak points and our
strong points are. And of course, there is one irrefutable fact: the first
thing we had to do--and we did it--was to learn, because a modern economy,
a society that wants to satisfy the needs of all its members, needs to work
with the aid of technology, the most advanced technology. Otherwise, it
will not meet those needs. It will always live in poverty, misery, and the
egoism which misery and poverty breed.

Current problems will soon exist no more. Those periods of scarcity, of
extreme poverty will be left behind. We did not inherit a rich and
developed country. How many reservoirs, how many roads, how many cement
factories, how many thermoelectric plants, how many open wells, how many
drained fields, how many technicians, how many tens of thousands of
engineers did we have? Just a few. A good many killed people, with notable
exceptions, took off after their masters. We have had to do everything, and
we still have a lot left to do.

Mass Education

We still go into the fields and see men with second and third-grade
educations giving their best effort, but you can hardly ask them to do much
more. However, tens of thousands of youths have already been preparing
themselves for years to perform those tasks. And if today it is difficult
to find a man with a sixth-grade education in a dairy, it will not be many
years before we will be able to have an agricultural engineer in every
dairy. And then [applause] the tasks will be much easier. However, we are
progressing, and we are progressing day by day, aware of our great needs
but serene in the knowledge that we are advancing toward their rapid
solution.

We did not have a single artificial insemination specialist, either, and we
now have 3,000; and 1,000m more will graduate this year. And the results of
this effort will then begin to be perceived.

In all spheres, on all fronts, we can see the imperative need for
technicians, teachers and professors. Those who go on to secondary school,
to preuniversity school, and to the technological schools already number in
the tens of thousands; but for every 20 or 30 youths, we need one teacher,
and a teacher is not just any person. We will have to resort to mass
television, and the best television station will have to be devoted to
teaching, because we have to multiply every teacher by 1,000; otherwise,
the large numbers of students who enter those centers will be far in excess
of the number of teachers the country has or who are graduating in these
years.

Means of mass education must be sought. Teaching is the only formula by
which a country can do the work of centuries in a few years--win the battle
of the centuries in a few years--in order to overcome ignorance,
underdevelopment, and lack of basic industries, and develop technology and
skills in everything. How many times have we stopped to think about that?

Did any one of the politicians ever refer to any of those problems? With
their demagogic slogans--water, schools, roads, which they did not build or
furnish--how could they be bothered with those problems! [applause] nor
thrashing machines! Not even threshing machines!

Irrigation Projects

The day that the giant brigade was inaugurated, we were calculating how
many million cubic meters of water we have in the country. I think there
was the Charco Mono dam--and that is a puddle, not a dam. And a little
dam--the (Mate) dam--furnishes some 20 times the water that Charco Mono
supplies. In 1973, I calculate that there will be a minimum of 15 billion
cubic meters of water available--a conservative figure.

But if what is done on the Isle of Pines is done all over the country--the
Isle of Pines has some 300 million cubic meters of water available. . .
[leaves thought unfinished]. Of course, not all the regions have the same
proportion of mountains, plains, and river basins. But a minimum of 15
billion, and between 15 and 20 billion cubic meters of water might be
possible, will irrigate a little over 300,000 caballerias of land.

It is a tragedy when drought occurs and rain is needed in order to plant
and fertilize. This is the problem that arises in a country where whole
months go by without a drop of water falling and then torrential downpours
come. This is a country that has to wait almost 6 months--as we did in
Oriente--for rain, only to see almost 2 meters of water fall in 3 days [as
received], as in El Fora). This is one of the tremendous problems of the
tropics.

We were talking about the difficulties that the underdeveloped countries
faced in industrial development, but those underdeveloped countries are all
in tropical areas. It is too much of a coincidence. But the world's
temperate zones were zones in which nature favored agricultural
development. Snow fell. Many times, the seed had already been planted
before the snow. With the water from the melting snow, crops began to grow.
They have fewer pests and fewer weed.s They do not have hurricanes.

They do not have those terrible droughts which are then followed by
deluges. But when those factors can be controlled in the tropics, 1 hectare
will be able to produce what 3 hectares cannot produce in Europe, because
we have sunshine all year long.

But lack of water must be corrected by exploiting underground waters. Water
must be drained and controlled by hydraulic systems. Weeds must be
controlled by machinery and pests with sprays. Windbreaker curtains must
check hurricanes as much as possible. Curtains can protect the planted
fields, so that when a country with a tropical climate--and we will
doubtless be the first--can control those elements of nature, it is in a
position to produce three times as much per hectare as any of the developed
countries of the world.

That is the battle we are fighting now, and that is the battle we are
winning. And with the methods we are applying, the brigades, the machines
organized into brigades, manned by disciplined men, headed by competent
cadres, and well-kept machines that will work a full 20hours, we shall win
that battle.

Latin American Problems

But we ask ourselves how the rest of the underdeveloped world is going to
win that battle. How are those problems going to be solved in Latin America
and in other parts of the world?

At Sagua, we were talking about how the contradiction between private
property and work created social conflicts, how in none of those countries
could anyone stand up before the masses and explain that it was necessary
to work for the development of the country. We said this was not the time
to consume but rather to create, to lay the foundation, since what had been
inherited was poverty, an increasing population, without any economic
development. The workers said: "We are not willing to make sacrifices! For
whom? So that a few rich men can become richer?"

When restrictions are imposed in a capitalist society, the restrictions
affect the masses with the lowest incomes, where a penny that is taken from
them is practically a penny they need for food. When a member of the
bourgeoisie has an income of 10,000 or 20,000 pesos per month, and they
take 1,000 or 2,000, he has 18,000 left. They do not deprive him of his
food. They may deprive him of a few more bottles of perfume, of one of the
cars that he is going to buy. Instead of 50 suits, he may buy 47, and
instead of seven cars, he may buy six. But when they take a peso from a
worker, they are taking a peso from the food for him and his family.

Of course, all those people are going through what we went through. They
needed to undertake a huge crusade for development. How could they do it?
The oligarchs and the bourgeoisie ask sacrifices of them, and they are not
willing to make these sacrifices. I used the case of Chile as an example. I
did not mention any names; I mentioned the country. That was sufficient
cause for a certain official newspaper to feel deeply offended. It said
that Cuba--Castro--was interfering in Chilean problems! And indeed it did
not miss making the venomous insinuation that the strikes taking place
there were Cuba's fault.

What a way to respond to reasoning! What a way to answer an indisputable
argument that the contradictions that appear in capitalist countries, the
workers' resistance is logical.

The masses do not want to make sacrifices so that a minority can become
richer. That is why no currently underdeveloped country will be able to
solve the problem of development by following the capitalist path. That is
mathematical. If you take this data, if you consider what a modern factory
costs, if you analyze how much the population increases each year and how
much resources increase, then you will see how these countries are becoming
poorer every year. All the prices for their products are lower in the
developed world, and all the machines sold to them by the developed world
have become increasingly expensive.

Add all this up. One does not have to use any other argument; one does not
even have to philosophize about history or anything else. All you have to
do is add and subtract, do a little multiplication and division, and it
will be shown that this world has no solution.

Within 32 years, Latin America will have 600 million inhabitants--600
million inhabitants. Latin America will have almost twice as many people as
the United States. What is the interest of the United States? It is to
maintain this immense and important part of the world divided into 1,000
fractions governed by oligarchies who place under the control of Yankee
monopolies the petroleum, iron, and other resources of these countries.

The first thing needed by these countries is an agrarian revolution. And
not only an agrarian revolution, but what precedes it. We carried out an
agrarian reform in 1959. What then? That was only the beginning--the
promulgation of a law does not mean the building of a dam for 15,000 metric
feet of water; the promulgation of a law does not mean the clearing up of
all the land. They promulgation of a law does not mean having 1,000 sowing
machines the next day or thousands of engineers. First one promulgates one
law. And what comes after it is the most important. In the end come the
machines by the thousands. The discipline, technology, cadres come before.

For 10 years, we have been creating the conditions for this leap.
Naturally, in the next 4 or 5 years we shall see that this country's
agriculture is growing. However, we can have the satisfaction of knowing
that we shall take the greatest leap in the history of the world in the
field of agricultural development. [applause]

Sugar Harvest

We have that tranquility and satisfaction. We shall take the greatest
agricultural leap known in then history of the world. Then will come the
exclamations, the statements about the "miracles." Then they will see how
we did it.

We are glad! Afterward you will see the people marvel, and who knows how
much they will invent. They will say that we used slave labor and so forth
and so forth. Shock will come afterward also, because this country is
turning into a power in almost all tropical agricultural lines.

Right now, the sugar agreement is being discussed in Geneva. Without Cuba
there would be no agreement [applause], and Cuba is there. The drawing up
of the agreements has already started. Our delegation stated that Cuba was
going to produce 10 million tons, so that they do not become shocked. We
could not care less whether they believe it. However, the people living in
this country know how much land has been prepared now--and this land has
been prepared better than ever before and more work has been done than ever
before.

If several months ago some had doubts about the 10 million tons, very few
have doubts now. This is not a matter of 8 million plus or 9 million, but
of at least 10 million tons and not a ton less, not a ton less, [applause]
with drought or without drought.

If there is not drought, all the better. We do not know. We are basing our
estimates on drought conditions. We have learned a lot from droughts. Our
necks almost hurt us from watching the sky for rain, [audience laughs and
applauds] and from looking on the maps to see where it rained. Well, it is
about to start raining, and of whatever rain falls less and less will go to
sea. We will be catching it everywhere. We have enough water. From this
very rain, a part goes into underground reservoirs to be exploited.

Inevitable Revolution

We are talking about the difficulties to be overcome and the question we
were asking ourselves--how can nations develop? We know this from our own
experience. It is up to Latin America to resolve its problems. How is it
going to feed 600 million human beings within 3 decades, in which the
immense majority--from 35 to 40 percent--will be less than 15 years old and
therefore will not participate in production? Without an immense effort
beginning right now--and logically human beings are not going to die of
hunger because, before dying of hunger, they will die fighting.

It is illogical to suppose that these masses are resigned to die of hunger.
For children are going to be born at any rate, because I do not believe
they will pay much attention to Johnson and his colleagues when they talk
of birth control and family planning. It is ridiculous to anyone knowing
our fields and our peasants. What kind of story are they going to give to
our peasants with this kind of thing? They are going to send the planners
to the devil. [laughter] Well, that has never been planned. [laughter]

Populations with 80 percent illiterates, or 70 percent, are not going to
permit what happened in India--millions of persons being sterilized.
Nothing more inhuman can be conceived of. The population is going to
multiply and the revolution becomes inevitable--an elementary mathematical
calculation. Currently, this is one of the greatest problems in the world
and one of the greatest problems of this continent--in the next decade and
before, because the people have already begun to feel the unbearable
poverty. There is no solution. Those who are living are living in the
valleys already occupied.

At the time of the revolution, we reach the era in which the peasants are
already reaching Turquino [Peak]. Twenty years before--30 years before--no
one had entered the Sierra Maestra. And they are reaching Turquino. After a
few more years, they will reach Poza de Baldre. All who have been in the
mountains know how they cultivated the wooded or bare areas, how the
firewood was destroyed, how the land was eroded, and how things were being
exhausted.

The population continued to grow. The economy did not grow. The peasants
were on the tops of the hills just when the guerrilla warfare began in our
mountains. This had no good solution and the situation became untenable.
The population had doubled and the same number of sugar mills existed.
There was practically the same economy as 25 years before. Those who live,
live in the valleys. to penetrate the jungles of this continent, to control
the enormous rivers, much work is needed. But to do this work, a revolution
is necessary and not only a revolution, but a revolution that will
consolidate and develop a level of culture and an organization, or
everything, and we must not lose a minute.

All those lost years lead more and more to this deadend street which has no
other outlet by revolution. One cannot emerge from underdevelopment under
the condtions of capitalism, with the contradictions between the minority
of bourgeoisie and oligarchs and the people, with a feudal land ownership
system. We had to resolve the problem of landowners first, and later the
small holdings. We have had to carry out new plans of cooperation with
peasants, to seek adequate social solutions to bring the cane closer to the
mills, to sow in every lace where we should sow, to be able to use big
machines, to raise productivity.

This continent still has to solve the problem of the land ownership system.
The only country that has advanced in a consistent manner, which carried
out an antifeudal revolution, was Mexico--the only country that had an
antifeudal revolution and agrarian reform and that has been able to obtain
a level of development higher than those of other countries.

What solution do they have? None. What is the solution of the imperialists?
Birth control; sterilization; the taking over of the petroleum, iron, tin,
copper, and all natural resources; unequal trade; the purchase of products
at lower and lower buying prices and the selling of their products at
increasingly higher prices.

What solution do the oligarchs and bourgeoisie have? None. Of course, some
thinking people are beginning to realize this. They are even beginning to
realize the stupidity they practiced against Cuba, and to feel some remorse
because they supported all the Yankee plunderers. They fell in line with
the Yankees, and they even supported them while their planes were bombing
here and their warships were supporting the mercenaries. We have seen one
of the most mortifying and most shameful eras in the history of this
continent.

Radomiro Tomic Affair

There are those who say that what they did was stupid. Of course there are
others, like a domesticated lackey that they have there in Washington, a
man named Radomiro--what is his name--the Chilean ambassador in the United
States, a trained parrot whom the Yankees have been preparing for
president--presidential candidate of Chile, together with a little maneuver
to see how they can obtain the Chilean Communist Party's support for a
pro-Yankee Christian Democrat candidate.

One should not speak of these subjects. If one talks, they immediately
stage a scandal and say: "Cuba [interferes] in the internal affairs" of
other countries. But this gentleman was questioned by some reporters and he
said that the measures against Cuba and the blockade against Cuba were very
good.

It is evident that these lackeys of imperialism feel very well. They have
been accomplices in all the evil acts against Cuba, all the crimes. On the
conscience of these gentlemen lie not only the economic blockade but the
blood shed by our people. Ah, but this goes not matter! They are treated
like decent persons, almost like progressives. The reactionary bourgeois
and oligarchs have seen themselves showered with attentions by governments
that call themselves revolutionary.

Let us go no further. Let us leave everything to its time and let history
be written. But it is logical that Mr. Radomiro Tomic--I think that is his
name--the Chilean Ambassador in Washington, presidential aspirant in Chile
with the support of the Communist Party, if possible--should declare that
the blockade of Cuba is just. He only failed to say that the blood shed was
also just, that the crimes committed were just. But these are things that
occur in these times.

Meanwhile, some people have begun to think. As I was saying, Cuba is
becoming an economic power, that the blockade has failed, that the country
is developing. I put the Geneva case as an example. [I was saying] that the
reaching of an agreement depends on Cuba. But if they do not accept Cuba's
conditions, there will be no agreement, [applause] there will be no sugar
agreement. The imperialists took away our sugar quota and distributed it
among many other producers; not a few benefited from the spoils of our
quota.

Our country is already able to produce, to raise yields per hectare,
mechanize the cane, and if the prices are so low, we know how to resist
those low prices. Others cannot bear them. Now they cannot find Cuba in a
benevolent attitude. If they do not accept Cuba's conditions, there will be
no sugar agreement. [applause]

And let them compete with us if they wish and if they can! What we say
about sugar, we can say about the rest of the tropical products. And
furthermore: 10 years will not pass before our production and exportation
of meat will exceed that of some meat-producing countries, such as Uruguay.
[applause]

We carried out our development and opened the way in the midst of a
blockade, which we have had to bear alone--a blockade carried out with the
complicity of many of those governments which undoubtedly have been
trembling at the things that are being done today in this country and which
will soon realize the stupidity of the blockades and the aggressions.

'Tropical Titoism'

Some have said that it would be a blessing if a kind of tropical Titoism
could be implanted here. What could be more absurd! What could be more
ridiculous! To believe in the possibility that this revolution is going to
regress to positions of rightists, to a Titoism or something of the kind.
What they are going to have is communism and more communism, [applause] and
real communism!

If the Yankees dream of seeing a type of tropical Titoism, what they will
have an opportunity of seeing is real tropical communism [applause], for we
are moving resolutely toward these goals supported by actions and our
conscience. Our workers, our people, our party members, our officers will
understand through simple arithmetic what will happen with our country with
10 million tons of sugar, with the increased production of all types of
foodstuffs, citrus fruits, coffee, milk root vegetables, and how, with a
small part of land under cultivation, we will be able to satisfy this
country's needs to the maximum.

They will also understand how our country can progress in the near future
toward forms of communist distribution, by this path, with this spirit,
with these methods. And we will achieve this, just as we have been able to
overcome the blockade. We will achieve this in the same manner as we
defeated Batista's 50,000-man army in the mountains, when at the beginning
there were less than six men. [applause] And we shall achieve this just as
we learned to operate the guns in a matter of days and we crushed the
mercenaries. We shall achieve this as we have been able to resist, 90 miles
from the United States, the blockade and aggressions of imperialism. More
difficult tasks have actually been carried out by this nation already,
creating conditions for tomorrow, creating conditions for what it is doing
today.

OAS Membership

If they are dreaming about tropical Titoism they are being ridiculous. They
are equally ridiculous when they talk about Cuba's possible return to the
OAS. OAS--what for? What an incredible underestimation of this people! To
think that those who left that den of lackeys, that body which is the
historic shame of this continent, through which the oligarchs and traitors
have turned the people over, bound hand and foot, to imperialism's
voraciousness [sentence uncompleted]. To think that they can even talk of
Cuba's returning ever again to that profane indecency that is the OAS! If
we ever join a regional body,it will be a regional body of revolutionary
countries of Latin America. [applause] There is no other historical way
out; nor is there another path.

U.S. Internal Conflict

In these recent times, noteworthy events have been talking place. But among
those events--one of them is the way in which protest and rebellion is
growing in the very heart of the United States. The superdeveloped country,
the country that possesses the most advanced industries, the greatest
riches, is involved in social conflicts and financial crisis! Its
warmongering and adventurist policy has led it to a crisis of the dollar,
since they have been losing the gold with which they were backing that
dollar. How did they lose it? In adventures, in crimes--like the gold they
spent on the mercenaries who invades this country, like the gold they spent
to shed our people's blood. All that gold they threw away has practically
led the American dollar to a crisis, despite their powerful and developed
industry. The society of exploitation and racism is creating a crisis in
internal order. Events have become linked together. Events--the criminal
war against Vietnam and the intolerable racial discrimination--have
contributed to the gradual awakening of broad sectors in the United States,
creating an awareness in the very heart in the United States, and the Negro
movement has acquired an impressive combativeness, just as the Vietnam war
has been engendering among young students and North American intellectuals
an awareness of the crimes and of the anachronism that Yankee imperialism
represents in today's world.

From the Negro movement's point of view, one of the deeds that reveals
imperialist stupidity, imperialist blindness, and the impossibility of
solutions within that system is Luther King's murder. Luther King defended
pacifist positions. He was an advocate of nonviolent struggle for civil
rights. He was crowned with the Nobel Peace Prize. The imperialists
themselves used the sermons of nonviolence to counteract the influence of
the more combative sectors of the Negro movement, the advocates of
responding to violence with violence. In an act of the most unqualified
stupidity, the racists murdered the apostle of nonviolence in the Negro
movement. One more deed that was not in any way extraordinary--such types
of crime are common in a confused society because of the social system.
Logically, that sneaky blow, that repugnant crime, has only served to
confirm the inability of the American system to resolve the problems of
American society.

Right in line with this crime, a cable today said that an American paper
said that Luther King's murderer might possibly have escaped to Mexico or
to Cuba. Nothing could be more ridiculous! If that individual should dream
up the stupidity of landing in Cuba, we would immediately put him at the
disposal of the U.S. Negro movement, so that it could, in a revolutionary
manner, judge him and apply the appropriate punishment. [applause]

We would not, of course, turn him over to the Yankee courts. The Yankee
courts would be susceptible to pressure from the racists. If such an
individual lands here, that would be the revolutionary government's
position, and we are sure that the leaders of the Negro movement would know
how to apply revolutionary justice to him. But Luther King's assassins do
not have to flee anywhere, because they have their protectors there,
powerful and influential imperialist figures. Let them look for him in the
homes of his protectors. It is shameful--such a shocking crime--that they
have not yet even been able to turn up the criminal.

Our people look upon the heroic struggle of the Negroes of the United
States with profound sympathy, because certainly the Negro movement is
manifesting itself in the United States with such vigor and such strength
that some spokesmen and journalists have said that on occasion that Chicago
and other cities have resembled the Viet Cong [as heard]. It must be said
that, under difficult conditions, the North American negroes are waging a
heroic battle for their rights and that they have the sympathy of the
entire world revolutionary movement, and also, of course--and
especially--the Cuba revolutionary movement. [applause]

Vietnam War

Another noteworthy contemporary fact is the crisis of the imperialist [word
indistinct] in Vietnam and the crisis of its principal promoter,
imperialist President Lyndon Johnson. His popularity was decreasing to such
an extent and opposition to imperialist policy was increasing to such an
extent in the very heart of the United States that on the eve of an
election in which a candidate from within his own party was gaining on him
significantly, he made the decision not to aspire to the presidency and to
partially suspend the bombing of North Vietnam. It is evident that that
decision was the result of tremendous defeats receiving at the hands of the
Vietnamese people. They are trying to make their defeat as painless as
possible. They are trying to limit the victory of the Vietnamese. At this
moment, it appears possible that negotiations might begin.

It is necessary that we set forth our party's position vis-a-vis these
occurrences. We see in the Vietnamese people the most extraordinary example
of heroism. We see in the Communist Party of North Vietnam and in the
Liberation Front of South Vietnam the most extraordinary examples of
revolutionary and capable organizations. It is undeniable that the
imperialists are maneuvering--these imperialists--it is undeniable that the
imperialists, defeated in Vietnam, are trying to escape their fate.

However, we should express our full and complete confidence in the
government and party of North Vietnam and the Liberation Front of South
Vietnam. [applause] No other people have given such a high example of
heroism. No people have given such proof of ability in war. No people have
given such proof of ability in politics. The Vietnamese should know very
well what they have to do--without any doubt, (?what they have) to do--and
that is why we wish to express our confidence that the Vietnamese, who did
not let themselves be defeated in war, will also not let themselves be
defeated by the diplomatic maneuvers of imperialism and that they will be
as able in fighting these maneuvers as they were in fighting in the war.

The Vietnamese people have sacrificed the blood of hundreds of thousands of
their best sons in incomparable heroism. The Vietnamese people dealt
imperialism one of its greatest defeats. The Vietnamese people have served
the cause of humanity. It is only just that the people and government of
Vietnam, the party of Vietnam, and the Liberation Front of Vietnam have our
confidence and have our backing and that we announce from here that we have
absolute confidence in their policy, their strategy, and their decisions,
and that the Vietnamese people, like the heroic people of Korea, their
party, and their government, can always count on the confidence and support
of the Cuban party and people. [applause]

These times are characterized by transcendental occurrences that are
educating humanity. These occurrences teach us many things. This seventh
anniversary has a place within that framework--within the framework of a
people in full revolutionary fervor, in full offensive, in full advance.

Giron Battle

Today has been profoundly [word indistinct] for us. Along the highway,
every 500 meters for many kilometers, are the faces of the heroes who fell.
Today's ceremony brings the occurrences of that day to our memory--those
moments of tremendous tension, of concentrated hatred of the enemy, those
moments of dramatic struggle, of incessant advance. From the first day,
from the moment they set a single foot on our sacred soil, they were met by
the incessant attack of men who did not give them a single moment of
respite, who crushed them before they even had time to report that they had
been crushed, without leaving them time for anything, advancing and
advancing and advancing. That battle lasted almost 70 hours, during which
the rifles and the cannons did not stop firing of ran instant.

We recall our extremely limited air force, manned by a handful of brave
pilots who, practically in a matter of hours, sank the enemy transport
fleet.

We recall the men with the tanks and the cannon and the antiaircraft guns
they had just learned to operate. And the advances of our columns; on the
different fronts--in Playa Larga--from Playa Larga to Giron, through
Yaguaramas, through San Blas. And we recall the final advance of a group of
tanks in a row at full speed toward the coast, because the planes had
detected launches that were moving and it was assumed that they were trying
to reembark, and it was necessary to accelerate the attack and to send the
tanks off with the order not to stop until they reached the sea--an order
which they strictly obeyed, thus finishing off the job of liquidating the
cowardly attack against an underestimated people who they thought were easy
for their villany.

That was 7 year ago. The men (?who) gave their lives will never be
forgotten, and they will occupy a higher seat of honor in the hearts of our
people as time passes. And that is why, when their names were read here and
when the comrade officers were saying "All present," nothing could have
more accurately expressed the feeling of the comrades of those who gave
their lives on that day: the idea that they could not die, they they have
not died, that they will never die--they, those who fell here, like those
who fell at the side of heroic Maj Enersto Guevara, [prolonged applause]
writing immortal pages of heroism, and those who have fallen fighting with
the revolutionary movements on other continents, following the best
tradition of the history of this country and of this revolution,
culminating the work of those who 100 years ago fired the first shots for
the conquest of the independence of this country.

Tonight, the choirs recalled the story of 100 years of struggle for
independence--a struggle that (Cespeda), (Aramont), Macedo, Maximo Gomez
started 100 years ago and that this generation has had the privilege to see
culminated--this privileged generation of Cubans, who can unfurl their
banner to the winds, a banner entirely free, entirely sovereign with a
degree of independence and dignity that it had never had, free in the
fullest, boldest sense of the word, freedom won with the sacrifice of 100
years, with the blood of 100 years; this privileged generation of Cubans
who can see the fruit of the effort of those years in the young who are
developing, in the young who today make up the most enthusiastic and
combative segment of our people.

It has been 7 years since Giron. It has been some 10 years since 1 January
1959, some 12 years since the Granma landing, some 15 years since 26 July.
And it is impossible for a people to have transformed themselves more in so
few years. It is impossible for a people to have created more than what it
has created in these years--above all,this spirit, this awareness, this
growing awareness of our history, this growing awareness of our duty on
this continent and in this world, this awareness of the importance of our
people's effort today, or the page that is being written, and to know that
we have just begun.

If deeds have occurred rapidly during these years, if our people have
advanced rapidly, from now on they will march still more rapidly forward,
more united, more aware, stronger. How eagerly past generations desired to
see this day! How eagerly they desired to see a people triumphant and
marching forward, a revolutionary people such as this, a youth such as
this, an army such as this at a time when, after 100 years from the time
the first short was fired, we feel how useful, how incredibly useful the
sacrifice of all those who fell was--from those who died at Giron to those
who (?lost) their lives in the first battles of 10 October 1968 [as heard].

And this generation can cherish the feeling of having done something. It
can cherish the feeling of having fulfilled a commitment and of having a
right to look at the future, of having no reason to blush on seeing the
past; for this generation, unlike others--frustrated for one reason or
another, frustrated basically by imperialism, by Yankee intervention which
broke up the revolutionary process, which imposed corruption and
neocolonialism on us for 50 years--generations that were not able to see
the fruit of this people's struggles, bloody and self-sacrificing
struggles--unlike those generations less fortunate than ourselves, we can
look at the present, look at the past, and look at the future with greater
tranquility, with greater satisfaction, and with greater optimism than any
earlier generation.

It is only fair to say here, as did the comrade who spoke in the name of
the officers: Long live all those who have struggled for the fatherland;
long live all those who have fallen for the fatherland; [applause] and long
live our heroic comrades who on that day gave their lives in that historic
battle so that our people (?not having seen that process interrupted once
again) might arrive at the point at which they have arrived today and might
continue forward!

Eternal glory to those fallen at Giron! [applause] Fatherland or death, we
shall win!
-END-