-DATE- 19720405 -YEAR- 1972 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- SECOND UJC CONGRESS -PLACE- HAVANA -SOURCE- HAVANA DOMESTIC SVC -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19720405 -TEXT- CASTRO SPEECH TO SECOND UJC CONGRESS Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 0242 GMT 5 Apr 72 F/C [Speech by Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro at the closing plenary session of the Second Congress of the Union of Young Communists [UJC] at the auditorium of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers in Havana--live, with simultaneous broadcast by domestic television service as well as international services] [Text] Foreign delegations invited to the second congress of the Union of Young Communists [UJC] of Cuba, comrades of the Party leadership, of the government and of mass organizations, delegates to the Second UJC Congress: First of all I would like to state that I am accepting this order not as an award I deserve, but as an affectionate gesture from the young delegates who have attended this second congress. I wish to express my admiration for the youths who received awards tonight, for their outstanding activities, for their exemplary attitude, for their value, for their communist attitude in many fields such as work, sports, study and culture in which they have attained such significant merit. They demonstrate in a very objective and concrete manner the symbol of today's Cuban youth with its perspectives, possibilities, attainments and brilliant future. After several days of arduous work, the congress comes to an end tonight. Many comrades have come to this speaker's platform and have discussed many subjects. During the sessions all of you discussed the more important matters, and arduously worked preparing theories, seeking solutions and outlining working plans. We are not going to summarize because this is practically impossible to do so--there are many subjects, materials, theories which were prepared at this congress--rather we are going to outline some views, our judgment, some of the more important problems among those discussed by you, and we are going to give our opinion to what will be the most important tasks to undertake in the upcoming years by the UJC. We wish to state that all the persons who have closely followed this congress, all those who have had the opportunity to read the documents have been deeply impressed by the development of the event, by the quality of the organization, by the profoundness, the sobriety, the objectivity, and the self-critical spirit of the assessment report, by the quality and depth of the proposals, by the quality and seriousness of the discussions and reports, by the quality and depth of the pronouncements. So, we feel greatly satisfied when we observe the progress of this organization during the past few years. We recall its very beginning when in the first days of the revolution a union of young rebels was being organized, a group to which Che devoted so much interest and enthusiasm. We recall later on during the first congress when it was organized as the Union of Young Communists of Cuba. We recall these years, beginning with the difficulties of its first era, the lack of experience, of cadres. During those days when a great ideological battle was being waged in the midst of our country, when ideas were not so clear as they are today, when the revolutionary awareness had not reached the depth it now has, and we are amazed to see that in spite of those difficulties, in spite of the highs and lows, in spite of the inevitable deficiencies which have courageously and sincerely been acknowledged and admitted by the congress, we now have this organization. Our party and our people now have this excellent and indispensable tool in the struggle and effort ahead of us in the coming years. We recall with equal acknowledgement the effort made by the youth during the past few years, the quick and determined response to all demands, the spirit ever ready to face up to any task, from the very beginning with the literacy drive, within the mobilizations for the defense of the nation, with the active participation in places of greatest risk, in the battles for the defense of the socialist revolution. We recall with deep respect the youths who gave their lives in those struggles. We recall the production efforts, in particular, the Centennial Youth Column [CJC] that gave such valuable services to the nation's economy, that contributed to resolving such a difficult and arduous problem in Camaguey Province under the conditions that the sugar harvests and the cultivation of sugarcane had to be conducted in that province, a province that is practically unpopulated. The successes of the column members were pointed out. So was the fact that the column became the work force with the highest productivity in the 1971 sugar harvest. It was the highest in the nation. The special circumstances included having been able to mold 73 national heroes of labor. These were notable successes, but it must also be said that the organization of the CJC and the manner in which this organization coped with the tasks at hand were of singular usefulness to the UJC. It is precisely in these great tasks, in these great enterprises, in these great struggles, that organizations get experience, that men develop their best qualities. They are tested and they are forged. We think that the UJC's leap in quality has much to do with the work done with the CJC. It was pointed out in the work review report, of course, that circumstances of having to turn a major part of our attention and effort toward productive tasks had led to the weakening of the work and the attention give to other important work fronts. However, the understanding of these circumstances, the organizational capacity obtained, and the new cadres that were trained will permit you from now on to have a chance to attend to various fronts, to attend to various tasks simultaneously and to attend to them well. We are sure, we are convinced, in the future that the organization will perform well in the jobs facing it, that it will be capable of waging simultaneously and successfully the struggle and the battle in the various fronts in which its activity is centered. The congress and particularly the committees have pointed out in their reports the tasks, principles and aims that will guide the work of the UJC in the next few years. The tasks in connection with the peasants have been pointed out and are very important. They support the requests made by the peasants' congress and the line of social and political development of the Cuban peasantry. The UJC's task in this field is very important. The tasks in connection with young workers have also been pointed out in every regard. Stress was placed on the matter of productivity, production and the conservation of raw materials. This is a field in which hundreds of thousands of youths act. The UJC's work in this regard is of the utmost importance. The norms and principles that should guide the selection and education of UJC members have been discussed. (?Regarding) the development of the movement, all merited attention has been given to the matter of ideological training, study, cultural and technical development, as well as the ideas, methods and systems that should guide this work of improvement. There has also been an analysis of the very important matter of the nation's defense and the tasks that must be done in the youth and student movement as well as their links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Interior Ministry to strengthen the nation in every regard against the aggressions and threats of imperialism. Moreover, four committees have worked on, discussed and set forth the tasks related to education. Everything relating to primary school, to children, teachers and the Union of Pioneers, everything in connection with youths 13 to 16 years of age who are neither studying nor working, the problems of intermediate-level schooling and of intermediate-level teachers, the problems with respect to university students and professors were also worked on, discussed and so forth. Therefore, a major part of the time and energy of the congress was devoted to education. And none of these topics, none of these activities should be underestimated. None of these activities must be disregarded. They all have major importance. They make up the tasks of the UJC in the next few years. However, if we were to try to single out or to point out an activity which, in future years, will become increasingly more important and which should have priority attention by young communists in our country in the development of the revolution because of the enormous effect it has on all the other fields, in production, in national defense, in technical and ideological training, it is the task that is related to education. I will explain: Some of the activities referred earlier, such as the column, required considerable energy on the part of the UJC, and they were very successful at it. They obtained great results. The youth column has had, has, and will have great significance; with the development of the revolution came the requirements that demanded the creation of the column. Circumstances demanded that effort and these will gradually change. It will not be a permanent problem. We must expect that in 6, 7, or at the most 8 years such missions will not be necessary, and that the circumstances that have required such a need will be surmounted. It must be understood that we are talking about the future and not about the present. Because, at the present time, that activity is irreplaceable. But we believe that in future years, at most 7 or 8 years, that column will not be in existence. At least it will not be as we know it today, or for the purpose that it now has. Other resources, among them total mechanization of the Camaguey Province's canefields, will help us solve the main problem which led to the creation of the column. But, of course, this will not be the sole factor. Many of the problems that have been discussed here today, including this problem of youths between the ages of 13 and 16 years who do not study, slow learners, problems of teachers and professors, technological backwardness--these problems should not exist in the future. Thus, the work program of the organization will inevitably have to change. It is true that some problems will continue to exist in the future for many years, problems such as the defense of the country, because as long as imperialism exists it is something that we cannot hold any hopes will change, that these problems might be solved. So, some of the tasks will be permanent tasks. Of course, the task of training and ideological indoctrination will be a permanent task in the future of our country. Others are temporary. On the other hand, the problem of education now is an essential problem, a great problem, critical problem. The tasks having to do with education point out very concrete and precise objectives which we must fulfill during the coming years. If we wish to emphasize a point in time, we can say in the next 8 or 10 years. If we wish to set a date, we could say the year 1980. When we say that the problems of education are grave and critical, that does not mean that we have not made any progress in the field of education. It means that the progress that we have made is small compared to what we have to make, that the task is becoming more complicated and more arduous. At the beginning the problem of literacy was solved to a great degree in spite of the fact that it was an effort of great merit, difficult. It cannot be compared to the difficulties facing us in solving the present problems of education. I wish to devote today's speech mainly to this matter in which it is decisive to have your participation. It will not be nor could it solely be your task. The problem of education is the task of all the people, not merely the task of the Education Ministry. It must be the task of the mass organizations, of the labor movement, of the party and of all the people, because this is the only way to approach this matter. But, within the political and mass organizations, the task of the UJC is decisive due to the fact that education has to do with millions of children and youths who constitute the contents of the UJC work. A lot has been said here about these problems. Statistics and figures have been cited. But we want to refer in the field of education to what we feel are the main problems. Among the great numbers of statistics and opinions, we have selected several. That is why you must excuse us. Even though you have heard large numbers of figures discussed during the past several days, please allow us to mention some additional figures, as few as possible but the most indispensable in order to understand the subject matter. [applause] Today's problems do not resemble those of 10 or 12 years ago. During those days, there were hundreds of thousands of illiterates. I cannot recall if there were a million or more illiterates. During those days half of the student population did not have schools. At that time there were no classrooms, no teachers, no funds, nothing for education. At the outset, the revolution faced a very hard situation, a very backward situation. It had to begin by solving all these problems--how to bring a teacher to every corner of the nation, how to bring a school, often improvised in terms of facilities, to the farthest corner of the nation. We coped with the problem of illiteracy, the lack of education of millions of persons. The problems were illiteracy, of establishing schools, of beginning worker-peasant education. Considerable work was done in all these fields. Today's problems are not like these. Today's problems are partially the result of these gains. Also, partially the result of the backlog of backwardness in our country in terms of experience, or rather the lack of experience, the lack of cadres, the circumstances in which our country was forced to cope with the revolution's problems. For instance, many technicians, professionals, persons with know-how, persons of university level and of intermediate level, and even of primary school level, many such cadres left the nation owing to a lack of political conviction, owing to fear and owing to imperialist campaigns. Thus, when the revolution triumphed there were tens of thousands of teachers without work. I don't know exactly whether there were 10,000 or 12,000. And, in spite of the fact that immediately one of the first things that the revolution did was to give employment to all the teachers--in spite of this--thousands upon thousands of the original teachers and professors quit the country. Of course, they did not constitute a majority. It must be said that the majority of the teachers and professors remained in the country, but the needs were so overwhelming that immigration of part of the teaching personnel became a truly difficult situation for the nation. Add to this the circumstance that we had to bring schools to the most remote places, to the mountains. And, of course, everyone was not willing to go to these places. And while today's problems are different, they are still very serious problems that require all the attention our country can give to them. Now, as far as some figures are concerned, take for example school enrollment. What percentage of pupils or of children are in primary school, let us say? The figure is satisfactory, a positive one. It has been growing in the past few years. At the present time 96.4 percent of the children 6 to 12 years of age are enrolled in school. This is a reasonably high figure. Total registration is more than 1.5 million of pupils in primary school. Of course, this figure also includes in part not only the percentage of registration in the 6 to 12 group, but also the large number of pupils left behind who register in primary school. This is why more than 400,000 are in first grade. Every year the figure is repeated and grows even higher. It's not just pupils of the corresponding age who are enrolled. This is a figure that is more than double the number that should really be enrolled. It is approximately double the number that should be enrolled if the system were operating in an optimum manner and if the pupils were promoted and if the pupils entered school at the corresponding age. The number of pupils enrolled is around 1.7 million. If you like, I'll give you the exact figure. This year it was 1,759,177. This was in primary school. This number should be around 2.5 times or more than the number enrolled before the revolution. In some age brackets such as at 8 years of age, there is very high enrollment. Ninety-nine point eight percent of the children in this age group are enrolled, almost 100 percent of the 8-year-olds. It is also high at 9, 10 years of age. At 10 it is 97.6 percent. At 12 it is 94.5. Of course, at this point some of the most serious problems begin to occur. At 13 years of age, it is still 86.9, at 14, 76.7, at 15 55.7, and at 16, 39.8. Thus we have 20,804 children in the 13-year old group who are not enrolled; 35,428 children of 14 who are not enrolled; 68,042 children of 15 who are not enrolled; and 91,239 children of 16 who are not enrolled. This makes a total of 215,433 [figures as heard] children which has been a topic of discussion. These children are neither studying nor working. If we cannot say this in absolute terms, then we can say it is almost absolute terms because some claim that they do some work, that they help their father with something, but the facts show that they can be classified under the category of youths who are neither studying nor working. This is beginning to become a serious problem in terms of our future prospects. Now we have a second problem. It is the matter of promotions. Promotions are at a low rate. They have been around 70 percent, and in some grades, such as fourth grade, barely 60 percent, around 60 percent. This means that there is a large number of pupils who have been left behind. The number increases in fourth grade. And so, a large backlog of pupils left behind is produced. Here are some data: Pupils left behind, those 2 or more years behind in their grades, total 719,780. In first grade there are 128,804. In second grade, 114,516. And so, it goes, successively, in figures similar to these. And the total in primary and intermediate-level school is as I have indicated. This has been creating a series of problems that are accumulating. Thus we have a problem in connection with keeping children in school. In other words, how many of those who enroll in first grade graduate from sixth grade after 6 years? And here, among the various grades, a representative one has been taken. Take the 1965-66 school year. A total of 387,000 enrolled in first grade. I'm giving you round figures. A total of 124,000 reached sixth grade. Of the 124,000, 82,300 completed the sixth grade. So, we have 387,000 in first grade, and 82,300 completing the sixth grade. All the rest were left behind or dropped out of school. In other words, 21.2 percent completed sixth grade. That is, 21.2. If the averages of developed countries are analyzed, if the averages of countries that have attained advanced education, if the averages, for example, of the Soviet Union are taken, it would be possible to compare this problem of promotion and the deficiencies that we still have in our education system. Now, if it was 21.2 nationally, we have some differences between the rural and urban primary schools. In the urban primary schools, it was 34.2 percent. In the rural primary schools, it was 11.7 percent. This means that if the problem is serious, it is even more so and greater in the country, where out of 100 youths 11.7, of every 100 who started the first grade only 11.7 as a rule complete sixth grade. This problem continues to get bigger in the secondary school. By selecting a secondary term of the 1966-67 school year when there were 59,300 in the seventh grade, that is, first year of secondary school, 17,213 reached the 10th grade. And out of the 59,300, only 8,073 completed the 10th grade. Of course, this number I have cited is equivalent to 13.6 percent. We must bear in mind that in the secondary school many students go to other fields. For example, they are promoted to the teacher-training institute, or emergency courses for training teachers. So, to be able to determine the size of the losses, or of the delays, or of the dropouts, we must bear in mind this circumstance even though it is very high. This, of course, gives some idea of the numbers entering the intermediate superior level, that is, preuniversity and technological institutes. In one year only 8,073 graduated. What factors determine these difficulties? They are many. For example, we can mention the material resources, the school buildings, the basic curriculum--for example, the difficulties in enrolling in a school in the mountains, the distances, the remote schools, the poor schools, the school in a shack, the school in a thatched-roof house. Other problems are the surroundings, the environment, the cultural level of the residents, the low degree of awareness that some will have concerning the importance of the school, the importance of education, of discipline in school, of attendance in school, of the cooperation of the residents in general, particularly the parents, with the school. This is a problem that has direct bearing. Another aspect that has considerable bearing is the matter related to the quality and efficiency of teachers. This aspect is emphasized repeatedly and, in our judgment, this is one of the most important ones. But it is not this aspect by itself. There is a whole group of problems, of a total of 79,968 teachers and professors, only 24,265 have a degree. There are some 50,000 that have no degree, more than 50,000. The number of teachers with degrees amounts to 30.4 percent. Of every 100 professors and teachers, only 30.4 have a degree. In the primary schools, 71.3 percent of the teachers do not have a degree. In the secondary schools, 73.7 percent do not have a degree. Besides this problem in the secondary schools increases with the number of graduates from the sixty grade, because despite these percentages the degree of schooling is high and the number of students graduating from the sixth grade in the primary schools continues to increase. Despite these problems, we now have 185,000 students in secondary schools. Next year there will be 220,000. In 1975 there will be some 300,000. [applause] How many would there be if we really had a high promotion and a high average of students completing the prescribed schooling? This increases the demand for teachers. Thus, this problem tends to get greater at the secondary level. This is one of the problems to which we have to find solutions. You must find a solution to it. Let us say, you will have to enforce the solution, because we feel that there must be solutions. This is reflected, for example, in the shortage of secondary school teachers, in the prospective shortage. Thus, it is estimated that between 1972 and 1976 we will need some 20,000....let me find the exact figure. [pause while Castro does so] We will need 22,477 new secondary school teachers. Do you know how many will graduate in this period? A total of 1,990. If you add some 2,000 teacher trainees [practicas docentes] then the shortage is 18,548 teachers of secondary level from 1972 to 1976. So it is no small problem, for in 1976 we'll have, or rather in 1975 we'll have some 300,000. In 1976 an even higher figure: More than 300,000 secondary school pupils. And we don't have the teachers for secondary school. Primary school does have a high figure of youths in training in regular and emergency courses. There were 24,049 in the regular course at the beginning of the course. The number of primary school teachers--the total number of primary school teachers was 20,189. There were 3,298 in the accelerated plan. Therefore, there are 23,000 training for primary school teaching. Of course, we must continue to get high promotion figures every year at the schools for primary teachers if we are to resolve the primary school problem. However, no solution can be seen through the regular courses at the secondary school level. But these are not the only problems. One was mentioned here, but I don't think it has been stressed enough. It is the problem of technical and professional training. A total of 16,203 students are enrolled in the technical-professional schools of the industrial branch and 7,757 are enrolled in the agricultural branch. Thus, 23,960 youths are enrolled in technical-professional schools, both industrial and agricultural. And if you consider that the nation has to live from industry and agriculture. If you consider that all the improvement of living standards and of the economy will depend on industrial and agricultural development, this figure of 23,960 might appear to be a figure for Luxembourg, for Monte Carlo, so I don't know what country, but not for this country! Not for this country! this is not a logical figure for a country like Cuba, which must emerge from underdevelopment, which must cope with so many difficulties of every type, from the poverty of its natural resources to the economic blockage, in addition to the poverty and misery that has accumulated for centuries. This figure does not look like a Cuban figure. It is true that for a number of years, major efforts were made to attract youths, not from regular school, but young workers and peasants, principally to the agricultural technological schools. These youths were enrolled and at one time, tens of thousands of peasant youths and workers were in school. Of course, their educational levels were very low--at times it was second grade, third grade, fourth grade-level. We were promoting technical and professional training. We knew that it would be difficult drawing from regular schools--what with the prejudice, the lack of culture, the disorientation that still existed in the nation, in addition to the low number of graduates of secondary school--to supply the agricultural-technological institutes. But what is, to a certain extent, discouraging is that in 1971, 1972, there are an increasingly smaller number of youths who prefer to opt for industrial and agricultural technological studies. Let us not say that we are in condition of becoming a nation of philosophers. All respect to philosophy. I just simply want to call the attention of youths and of their youth organization to the significance that this may have, to the significance that this has, to the immense lack of realism that this entails, and to an unquestionable gap, one for which we are all to blame, all of us, all of us who in any way may have some influence over youth, and this includes mass organizations, political organizations, mass means of communications, in short, all the factors that could lead a group of human beings to have a real attitude toward life and toward the future. All these factors, in one way or another, are involved in the fact that in this agricultural country which has to live off agriculture for many years, in this country that is poor in natural resources, where it is a hard and arduous task to earn your bread, in this country where, historically, more than half a million men are required to produce its sugar crop, on which the economy depends, in this country, which is being industrialized and which must increase the pace of its industrialization, very few youths have their minds on acquiring technical training in industry and agriculture. This is in regard to those who should matriculate. Moreover, there are empty technological institutes--industrial and agricultural technological schools. When any conscientious man, any revolutionary, passes by one of this institutions and finds it empty he must meditate, analyze and consider. It is a warning that something is not right regarding the training of our youths. Some things are not right. We are a thousand leagues from reality. However, I repeat that in order to have youths enrolled in our technological schools we must first have youths passing the grades in elementary schools and going on to secondary schools where they can also make the grades. They must be in a position to make a choice. This leads us to another form of realism. How can we solve this problem when there are only 8,000 graduates from secondary school and the capacity of our technical schools is much greater? Without ignoring other specialties, I take as an example the study of languages. There are 24,033 adults studying languages. Very well, we must be happy about the fact that many understand the importance of languages. This could be taken as a positive sign. But my question is: Why are there only 7,757 studying agriculture, and 16,203 studying industrial courses? I ask who will provide for our material needs in the future. How are they going to do this? How will they mechanize our agriculture? How will they improve the technology of our industry? Who will produce our material goods? In our country we need increasingly more machines, more mechanics, more technicians in all fields--from the sugar industry to any other kind of activity. An example is the Cienfuegos nitrogen plant. It has 52 engineers and hundreds of middle-level technicians who are studying at the university,and this is only one plant. Very often we find brigades engaged in construction, highways, dams, earthmoving, as well as a large amount of equipment. All busy at work; but not one mechanic is in sight. There are no mechanics. Automobile mechanics, electrical mechanics are needed. Moreover, there are other trades in which experts are even more scarce. Try to find a carpenter at a dam where forms must be built--and this is an important economic job--and he will not appear anywhere. The mason is not to be found anywhere--as if these trades were something to be ashamed of in a proletarian revolution. These are realities. Yet we must have industries; we need dams, we need housing, we need everything. It has been proved over and over again that it can be done if one really wants to do something. The factory workers have proved this in the building of homes. They have become masons, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, everything. And they have become all this in a relatively short time. We must think seriously about these matters. We must think about the 200,000 between 13 and 16 years of age who do not study or work. However, we must also think of the hundreds of thousands who are behind in their studies. In the province of Havana, where we have the highest promotion level--which logically has the best educational situation--a total of 27,758 youths between the ages of 13 and 16 are not in school. In addition, 26,176 of the same age group are 2 or more years behind in their studies. There are 94 youths between 13 and 15 years old in first grade, 315 between 13 and 16 in the second grade, 1,074 between 13 and 16 in the third grade. From the same age group there are 3,237 in fourth grade, 7,615 in fifth grade, and 13,841 in sixth grade. We have those who do not go to school and those who attend but who are far behind in their studies. Then we have those who are not promoted and those who graduate from the sixth grade. These are educational problems of the moment. All this reflects in secondary schools and in the university, there is, therefore, no doubt that something must be done. For this reason, we mention this revolution, a revolution which to a certain extent has been carried out, a revolution which we have begun; however, I have naturally not mentioned all the problems. We could refer to real circumstances because at times a middle-level technical school graduate--a graduate of an agricultural-livestock raising institute--cannot be sent to a dairy; he will not help produce milk because he has not been trained to operate a dairy. In other words, he cannot operate a dairy because he has been trained as an intellectual. Furthermore, we could speak about university graduates who have been sent to work in a plan where they have failed miserably, since these graduates have not been prepared mentally to face the problems of production under the conditions in which production is taking place, with its difficulties and problems. Undoubtedly this is case of the idealization of life, of reality, of lack of preparation to face this reality and its problems. This is more applicable to some professions than to others. Fortunately, in the medical area the application of a very correct concept--study and work--was combined. This led to the possibility of graduating a large number of extremely well qualified doctors. These medical students had worked in hospitals since the third year; they learned in the hospitals. They helped in the hospitals and participated in the solving of health problems under conditions in which health problems are handled. Afterward they practiced rural medicine which took them deep into our mountains and countryside, with its conditions of a lack of culture and an existing state of poverty--objective difficulties in the exercise of their function. It is only fair to say that in all branches there are youths who, despite their academic education, have made great efforts and have resolved their problems successfully; but the actual truth is that no one can say today that a high school or college graduate is really prepared for the task. Although he might be prepared theoretically, he is not prepared practically. Therefore, there are additional problems. There are those who enroll but are not promoted; those who begin but do not graduate; the few who enroll in secondary school; the few who graduate; then, the lack of usefulness of those who graduate from our institutions. The matter must be attacked at its root. This problem has not always been self-caused. However, I have not mentioned here something which you have always talked about; the fact that some students do not really study. Of the few who continue their studies, we must eliminate those who study only superficially, in a frivolous manner. One thing is true. Make an appeal, sound the alarm because the country is in danger, and everyone will say "present." We must say that there is more patriotism here than is needed. There is more enthusiasm for certain forms of heroism than we need. However, virtue in daily and systematic work, a small show of daily heroism, constancy in attitude--all are things which we cannot say we have much of so far. This is obviously a clear, objective, visible field in which the UJC will have to invest much energy--how to face up to these problems. On the other hand, there is an impressive attitude in primary and secondary students who go to the countryside. When we call on our youths to cooperate in our country schools they are always there. And they work hard and well. They have an impressive attitude. The awakening of virtue, enthusiasm and opportunities which a revolution causes in the people are incredible. It is incredible because, despite all these deficiencies and negative factors, impressive raw material can be found in these schools--and of an extraordinary quality. It can be said that the revolution has awakened something in youth--faith, enthusiasm, a new, absolutely new, situation. The revolution has made each youth be something, something which is very important, in society. The revolution has made the children and youths become almost its raison d'etre--because they are the objectives of the revolution. They are the ones who will continue the revolution, the ones who will lead the country toward stages which the present generation will not be able to achieve. They are excellent raw material, and a way must be found to solve their problems. The revolutionary experience is an excellent school. We have learned the need to wholly revolutionize our educational system. Important positive steps have been taken. There is no idea today which is not based on past ideas--which are not the evolution of past ideas. There is an idea which is not new either. It is a Marxist idea, an idea of Marti. It is the combination of study and work. It is true that our students--those with scholarships, students in general--have always had a positive answer for everything. Their disposition has always been excellent, in a general way. This has been true in everything except when it really gets down to studying. Their enthusiasm for work, heroism, or any task has been good. Before the revolution we had the rich son of the rich father. After the revolution we had the rich son of the poor people...the rich son of the poor people. But, can we blame the youths? No. These are the youths who worked in literacy programs, who helped during the sugarcane harvest, who did anything they were called upon to do. There was no other way of developing education among youths living on sugar plantations or in other places where there were no secondary schools, colleges, or technological school, except by means of scholarships; this was the only way. Did we have material goods, resources, buildings? We practically used all the country's resources just to build primary schools alone. We must recall how at the outset of the revolution all the barracks were turned into schools. We must also remember that we incorporated the schools in the labor force by means of schools in the realm of work. In my opinion the problem is one of educational concept, a matter of culture, of cultural levels and a matter of influence of old ideas, prejudices, the influence which we still are receiving from other societies--idealistic tendencies, the tendency to feel from certain realities. Who wants to go to the countryside? The countryside is severe and poor. In addition this severe and poor countryside cannot change overnight, and we will have a severe and poor countryside for years to come. All these factors cause certain evasions. We had arrived at the concept of participating part of the year in work projects; but we had not yet been applying the real Marxist concept of study and work. Some schools and university schools had been trying this system with good results. The principle is being applied now at the University of Havana, to the extent that 12,000 students have been incorporated into work centers where they work half a day. At the same time, almost 12,000 workers have enrolled in workers schools in preparation for university studies, thereby combining work and study also. This has been a great technical and intellectual boost to work centers; but it will also be a boost to the spirit of work in the university. This will also mean that university education will be geared to the solution of production problems. Labor and study will no longer be two separate worlds which are distant and different. The truth is that a university is not a factory. A university can achieve a high theoretical level, a high moral level, a high intellectual and academic level. It can have deep-rooted revolutionary convictions based on abstract ideas, on theory; but a university is not a factory. The working spirit cannot be found in a university in the same way that the factory usually lacks technological and intellectual knowledge, theoretical knowledge. This knowledge may be achieved only by the workers who spends hard hours next to the machine or the furnace every day. However a university as such can only produce intellectuals, that is, based on the old concept of the university. A work center can only produce workers. It was necessary for the university and the factory to merge so that the university could contribute its technological knowledge, its intellect, to the factory, and so that the work center--the factory--could contribute its work spirit to the university. It was even necessary to change the concept of the worker, because a good worker who enrolled in the university used to be lost to the factory. He became a mere student. We were intellectualizing the worker without proletarianizing the student. Clearly, this stemmed from many problems. In the early years of the revolution we cheated. The student was immediately employed. They would take away the engineering or architecture student and assign him to some small job, any job--so as to own him. For though capitalist ownership is abolished before genuinely socialist ownership is established, life shows us that we undergo different concepts of ownership. So, the most cunning ones would contract students in order to take him over, thereby affecting his preparation. Frequently this warped the student, because he was earning money. This posed a need to ensure that students could not be contracted, inasmuch as it was more advisable to meet an economic need. That system did not have the concept of combining either study or work. Logically, that principle was applied mechanically to the worker sent to the university. So, too, working establishments which had only a few trained workers--top-level ones--were not too interested in having that worker go to the university because he was lost as a worker--he was lost to them as a worker. The end result was that when a factory sent someone to study at the university they frequently sent a troublemaker--they wanted to get rid of him, so they sent him to the university. That system did not work. It weakened the concepts of the workers' school and the education of workers. It became necessary to correct this situation. Now the working establishment receives students by groups and also trains workers and holds on to them. They stay on as workers in the factory and remain there. Moreover, if a given field needed technical workers and a factory had more workers than it required, and this does not mean a factory, then--understand this clearly--discussing the issue and with prior approval of the workers' collective, such a technician could be transferred. In other words, we reconcile the interests of the factories. This movement has been in effect for months at the university. The students too are showing themselves to be excellent workers, again even though they may not have shown themselves to be excellent students. Indeed, we are sure that more and more students will graduate; we have not the slightest doubt that the students will study more. We have scanned some of the congress conclusions. Some state: "It is necessary for students to realize what it cost to provide schooling for them. That standard has been raised here. Students must develop awareness." Yet why should a student have to be made aware of what study costs? Awareness must be taught only to a student who does not know what it costs to produce, a student who does not produce. For only those who are not producers can be ignorant of what schooling costs, what it costs to cover such expenditures. You must clearly grasp that this training is required by a student where study and work have been combined. At the same time, it is said--and this is stated in some of the congress conclusions: "It is deemed necessary for students to respect socialist property." And, who must be taught to respect socialist property? An alienated citizen or student, a student who does not know what it is to produce, a student who does not combine study and work. Anyone who creates socialist property does not have to be told to take care of it. We have workers building their own homes,and no one will have to tell them to care for these. There is no! question of a worker's renting a home that belongs to another person. It was built by someone else, so the worker did not care what happened to it. Perhaps the worker has spent 30 years trying to build a house and had never succeeded. The house he lived in was owned by someone else and he rented it. He did not take care of it, and he was not interested in doing so. Now that workers have a hand in creating such property and know what it takes to build a house, no one has to teach them about caring for it. Something is wrong when we have to teach young people that socialist property must be cared for. If this is so, they are alienated. They have no idea what socialist property is because they are not creaters of socialist property. So we repeat what we have said before: If you want a child to care for a garden, teach him how to plant one. [applause] Teach him how to water it. [applause] Make the child cultivate the garden and no one will have to show him that it must be cared for. No one will have to spank him to care for and not destroy the garden. Teach the child how to plant a tree and no one will have to punish him for destroying trees. Those who destroy do not create; they have not the slightest idea of what it means to create. A vagrant is one who does not work, who destroys. A lumpen type, a criminal, destroys. And, do we not seek workers who make a machine or a worker who builds a bus and who rants and raves when he sees the bus was wrecked? Workers who build machine tools suffer when they see these tools ill used or underused. Frequently at a factory which turns out something scarce where this is not picked up due to transportation problems, the worker who is being spurred on to work harder and harder to produce that produce is dismayed because he sees it is not picked up. He sees is stacking up. This is because such action gives the impression that the work is not appreciated, that it is worthless, cast aside. For workers under socialism, under communism, cannot be alienated, divorced from what they produce, or care little about what they do. The fact is we have observed that, in regard to their factories, their machines, and the products they produce, they take pride and joy in what they create, believe me. Therefore, some of our correct directives are to order the launching of a campaign when it comes to property being destroyed. For a child, a young man, a human being could destroy what belongs to everyone, even your property. What are the psychological, mental factors which determine such action? Now then, unquestionably, the principle of combined work and study is the only formula for communist training. There is no other. No one will learn how to swim on land, and no one will walk on the sea. [applause] Man is the product of his environment. Man is molded by his own life--his own life. Let us learn to respect what work creates by creating. Let us teach respect for these goods by teaching man to create them. And there is no other way. If we grasp this,if we believe it as well, this and many other problems will be solved. A revolution is not and never will be an easy thing. It has been shown that it is not easy. Nevertheless, to be a revolutionary one must know this and equip oneself to solve difficult problems. I repeat that this is very complex and that many factors are involved in the issue we have spoken of. One factor is our own poverty. How many schools did we have? What possibility did we have years ago to build schools--either schools, or houses? There was a reason for this shortage: We had to expend tremendous resources on the harvest--human resources. Was the harvest not gathered by a man working 16, 17 hours, cutting and loading cane, bringing his lunch in a paper bag, and sleeping in a barn? And was the harvest not gathered by former professional canecutters? Circumstances under which cane was cut spontaneously have vanished, and who knows this better than you, the members of the Centennial Youth Column, who have had to carry out that activity and replace those who in the past used to cut cane alone. We have had to confront imperialist aggression by using numerous and highly valuable human resources to defend the country. By the same token, for many years our fundamental attention was focused--and logically so--on survival. This is how it was during the first few years of the revolution. And for many more years ahead we shall have to concern ourselves with survival. However, at the same time we will have to attend to other tasks in addition to dealing with disorganization--the disorganization which a revolution creates during its early stages, all kinds of disorganization and widespread disorganization. Frequently a revolution stirs up chaos before it establishes order, for a great number of reasons. Experience has demonstrated that, if work discipline is lost, control is relaxed, absenteeism is formented--all those things. The workday can be lost. Instead of 8 hours, only 7, 6, 5 and 1/2 were worked. All are known factors. In the end, the construction of a school was practically impossible. That is not the situation today. On the other hand, the various movements implemented--for apprenticeship and shop schools--often clashed with a lack of understanding. At other times they met with a lack of the most elementary of resources, the installations needed to carry out these activities. That is not the situation today. We believe that the country today has the means and material resources and strength to support this educational revolution. In synthesis, how do we see the situation? Here is a small book which can help us a great deal. I do not know if this book is very popular. It is not a novel, not a story or a tale. It is not a textbook, although it can teach us much. It contains statistics on the population census. Here are the statistics. I believe we can now understand more objectively the importance of these statistics. here we have the population by ages to 16 years, in a category of 17-64 and another of 65 and over. It is by province and regions. Here we have the statistics on youths who are now between 12 and 18. They number approximately 1 million--12 to 18 years old, 1 million. Those are the youths between the ages of middle-level education, basic high school, preuniversity, or basic high school for technological institutes. Of these many may be enrolled in fourth, fifth, or sixth grade. They will be in elementary schools, and improperly so. It has been seen that between 13 and 16 there were 200,000 not enrolled. There are 200,000 children not enrolled. Included in this million there will be some, logically, who began to work, and there is a portion composed of those who began compulsory military service. This million includes men and women. With respect to the men we already know: 20 percent of those in first grade reached sixth grade; 13 percent of those who reached the first year of high school, the seventh grade, reached tenth grade. Others are not enrolled. They neither study nor work. And with regard to women, to girls, they continue moving toward their homes, becoming housewives, various occupations, absolutely isolating themselves from study and production. This is the change. This million youths of both sexes, how many of them are in middle-level studies? There are approximately 250,000. Of the 1 million, 250,000 are in middle-level studies, that is in preuniversity, pretechnological, or teachers and professors in various areas of teaching. And of those 250,000, 23,000 are engaged in agricultural or industrial activities. And, of the 750,000, some are behind in their studies in elementary school and others neither study nor work, while others will be working--above 16 years of age--and others, a small number, are in the service, or the columns, or the precolumns. In 1980 there will be more than 1.5 million youths between 12 and 18 years of age. Those who are now between 12 and 18 will then be between 18 and 25. A new mass of 1.5 million will take their place, and there will be 2.5 million left in various ages under 12 years. Therefore, you will have from under 25, that is up to 25 years old, children, adolescents, and youths in a mass of approximately 5 million people. It is in relations to this mass that the UJC must work. This is its mass; this is the great objective of its work, the purpose of its work, those 5 million constituting that new generation in the fullest sense of the word. You must work with this mass during the coming decade. You now have one, which is this million of today, that will still give you many problems--there are only 250,000 studying; you have very few as militants. And it will be difficult to solve the problem of today's million, because today we lack the basic materials, the resources. We cannot prevent this avalanche from overcoming us. And this continues, and the school failures follow, and the those that do not study or work while from 13 to 16 years of age, and then the misguided, those who live without acquiring work or study habits, not disciplined, nothing. A very special situation truly awaits us in these coming years. Why? Because, as we recently said in Camaguey Province during a meeting of leaders, we live in a transitory situation in which we still lack the new man and in which we no longer have the old man. That new man does not yet exist. We cannot call a new man one who travels in a truck at 100 kilometers per hour killing people, an irresponsible one who destroys equipment, an irresponsible one who does not report for duty, an irresponsible one who does not study--such a man is not yet a new man. And the old man--is the one who lived under capitalism, who knew the difficulties of finding a job, who learned to operate a centrifugal machine in a mill, or learned to drive a bulldozer after 10 years as an apprentice, who learned discipline because life, hunger and the factory forced it upon him. Many of these men from the sugar mills have passed retirement age and have begun to retire. Today you arrive at a mill and you do not see such discipline, because the discipline of the old man is missing and we do not have a new man with corresponding discipline--self-discipline--conscientious in his duties, his tasks. A man who works side by side with such a comrade and finds him still ready and enthusiastic, will logically acquire this through the years. And that is why we often see management problems with sugarcane employees, in the operation of the centrals. Who went there? Someone with a third-grade education, someone who failed in his studies, often someone who dropped out of school. These are elements lacking in discipline, basically from the mass of men who could not be won or molded by the educational system. There are two disciplinary factors affecting a great portion of this mass: the military service and the column. These have been the two disciplinary factors and molders of this great mass which bypassed the educational system, which did not study or work, which did not acquire a profession or preparation. This mass has had these two disciplinary factors. But with respect to the girls, as an example, these were not in the service nor with the column. The disciplinary elements did not exist. She who did not study or work, did not acquire any training in industry, as a laborer, in a profession, in anything. That 50 percent who did not pass the educational system and figure it out--of the 1 million, over 25 percent in the secondary level education; of the other 750,000, half of them are women, without a profession or working habits. This is a tedious problem. This is all the more so in a country with a long tradition of no work for women, the system--in the old society--discriminating against women, often with harder jobs. They had to earn their living in a degrading manner, often selling themselves. A new situation, nonexistent under the cruel society, must be created that will not impose such onerous living conditions. And yet, this society has not yet found the formula for educating the women through educational systems, through revolutionary instruments. And half of these 750,000 are women who do not study, who do not acquire a profession, and who will work only if--they want to--if they end it more or less, if in their home they understand they must work, if someone has a positive influence over them, if someone educated them. They are not in school, or in the factory, they are not students, they are not with the youth. Who educates them? How do we educate them? These are real problems for which we must find a solution. It is clear that it will be your responsibility to train and prepare 5 million children, youths and adolescents. In 1980--8 years from now--the effectiveness of the UJC will be measured by what they have accomplished with these masses. The Education Ministry's 1980 figures on those not attending school, those not working and studying, those studying and working the number of licensed teachers, the number of unlicensed teachers, the percentage of students being promoted and of those not being promoted in elementary and secondary schools, of those who begin in first grade and complete sixth grade and those who begin in seventh and complete 10th grade, the number of students in high school and college, the distribution of these students, the number of students in industrial courses of agricultural courses--of course, other courses, such as teachers' training must be fully taken care of--these figures will tell you your achievement. Now, how are we going to do all this? By applying in a responsible way the system of combining study and work. Applying it on all education levels--elementary, high school, college and university. We already have elementary schools which are working 2 hours daily in the fourth, fifth and sixth grade levels. A curious thing happened in the Meneses School. When this school was opened, the first, second and third grades protested because they were not allowed to work in the fields. [applause] They have already harvested their first crop and they have enough for the school and to give away to workers' dining halls. They can even take some to town. This is working only 2 hours. This type of school must be developed during the coming years. It is easier to develop these schools in the countryside, where much of the basic teaching material is handy--agriculture, farms, geological phenomena, chemical phenomena and all that which is the basis for some of the subjects taught in elementary schools. An equivalent of such an institution is about to be developed in the city. The students will work 2 hours in the fourth, fifth and sixth grade levels. When we talk about work we do not mean just any kind of work. We mean useful work. We cannot make anyone waste physical energy on something which is not useful. The student must be fully convinced that what he is doing is useful. This type of school must be developed for half of our population--sugar areas and small towns. We already have the first schools. On the secondary-school level we have the schools in the countryside which began to operate last year. We now have about 10 of them. Achievements are already being noted. The Ceiba Uno School has the highest promotion rate of all Cuban schools. [applause] This school has a goal of 90 percent promotion this year. This type of school is of a better quality than the other schools. They have the correct concept and the material basis necessary. There are very encouraging indications in Santiago and Manzanillo. Secondary and college students there are very anxious to attend this type of school. They have almost begged me to assign them to such a school. This is a very positive sign. We must not, we cannot, stop at the secondary school level. The system must also be applied in the technological institutes. The first polytechnical schools are under construction on Oriente's sugar plantations. We will begin at the sugar mills. We will then build a polytechnic school beside each new factory. Santiago will have a textile factory which will occupy 80 million square meters. It will be built by 1975 or 1976. A polytechnic school will be built beside it. If the automobile industry should develop, a polytechnic school must be placed beside it. If an equipment factory is built, it must have its polytechnic schools next door. There will be a polytechnic school beside every important factory in the country so that work and study might be combined. The Matanzas mechanical plant and the Nuevitas fertilizer plant must both have their corresponding polytechnic institute. College students in the future will be studying next to a factory or in the countryside. Each student will be close to his workshop. The principle which is now in effect in the University of Havana will govern university students. Cuba will build about 300 school buildings of the Ceiba Uno type between 1973 and 1975. There are 80 brigades working on school buildings now. The Movement of Micro Labor Brigades will build the primary schools from now on. They will also build childcare centers in all new workers' housing areas. Construction will increase after 1975 when new cement factories--which are being bought--will be producing, and when we will have more building material available. The country is now able to develop its housing program, its industrial construction program, its program of dams, roads, dairies, agriculture and schools--300 buildings, I repeat, yearly. On a given day in September of this year, at the same hour of the day, 40 new basic secondary schools will be opened in the countryside. These schools will house 20,000 students. [applause] When school opens in September 1973, on the same day and at the same hour, enough new teachers' training schools, polytechnic schools or institutes, monitors' schools, technological institutes and secondary schools will be opened to care for 80,000 more students. [applause] New high school-level schools will accommodate not less than 100,000 students in1974. The 300 new school buildings mentioned above include elementary schools also. There will be new university constructions. The country is, in effect, able to create the material basis. It is up to you to prepare the human basis--the subjective factor--for which all possibilities exist. Of course, we will also have to depend on the law. It will be necessary to legislate in connection with the educational problem of the high school level. A law which is now in effect makes elementary schooling obligatory; but there is no law to obligate one to continue studying beyond the sixth grade and the age of 12. Those above 12 study if they want or do not study if they prefer not to do so. They study only if their parents want them to study. Some parents do not even force their 10-year olds to go to school. New legislation will have to be discussed with the people. Now in my opinion, this is not necessary immediately. Why? Well, because if we made a law tomorrow to enforce education up to 16 or to 18 years, we would not have sufficient schools to take care of all the students. We would not have teaching implements. We would not have the necessary teachers. Where could we put these hundreds of thousands of youths of both sexes who are neither studying nor working, between the ages of 12 and 18? We would have no place for them. Of course, we cannot wait for these laws, these institutions, these solutions. The decisions of the congress must be put into effect regarding youth movements, regarding the parallel education system, regarding school workshops, regarding the apprentice movement. We must give this movement our utmost support, [applause] because this is the immediate solution, our only immediate solution. In September 1975 we will be able to take care of about 300,000 more yearly. Between 1975 and 1980 we hoe to care for an increasing number to as high as 1 million in 1980. When this moment comes we shall have practically reached our educational revolution goal. This could be the peak of this revolution both on the primary and the secondary levels. When we speak of a million we are referring only to high school level. In 1980, therefore, we will be able to have 1 million youths of both sexes, between 12 and 18 years, working and studying at the same time. In Camaguey, for example--and this information must interest the column because it will clarify why we have been saying that some institutions will progressively disappears--there will be more than 140,000 youths between 12 and 18 years by 1980. If for any reason some will not be able to attend school, we would have approximately 120,000 youths studying and working at the same time. All those programs which now consume much of the column's energy--salt, citrus, pineapple--would be taken care of. All those factories which now consume personnel of the column--each sugar mill of Camaguey--would have a technological institute, a polytechnic school, of about 500 students who would be working and studying. Each sugar mill could have a polytechnic school and the 250 sugar mills would have 65,000 youths, and a polytechnic school each. The personnel who will be trained will not work only in the sugar mills but in the entire area, with its mechanized agriculture, with irrigation facilities, agricultural-industrial complexes; the sugar mill with all its cane areas, its combines, its collection centers, its electric power networks, its irrigation system. Personnel to meet the demand of all these complexes would be trained in these polytechnic institutes. These institutes would also train personnel for other industries. This does not mean that personnel would be trained there only for the sugar mills or agriculture. They would train machinists, lathe operators and qualified workers who could go to other industries. This simply means that the sugar mill is one of the places where the principle of combining study and work would be applied to youths between 15 and 18 years or between 16 and 18 years at three levels, because logically youths of 12, 13, 14 years would not be sent to these polytechnical institutes. To attend these, youths should be 15, 16, 17 or 18, because by then they would have the mental and physical ability to assume some responsibilities in the factories. The first polytechnic institutes will be built in Oriente by September 1973. Oriente is one of the provinces which has the most problems regarding personnel trained to work in the sugar mills. In 2 years Oriente will have a polytechnic institute in each sugar mill. Of course, Camaguey also has problems, but what happens is that Camaguey does not have the resources for construction, does not have the manpower resources which Oriente has. While this system, using secondary, teacher, preuniversity, polytechnic and technical school students, by 1980 we could have 1 million youths. If we also analyze the cost of education, we shall see that currently the country is spending more than 400 million pesos in education. Logically this expenditure will increase. We are a developing country, we are a poor country, and if education were to cost 600, 700 or 800 million or 1 billion pesos in 1980, how could the country's economy meet this demand? how could the country's economy meet this expenditure? Oh, another matter arises--the byproduct of combination of work and study would permit us to create great wealth. With that mass of youths, working 3 and 4 hours per day, the value of their production will exceed 1 million pesos by a good margin. In this manner the country would eliminate an important contradiction--the contradiction between its poverty and the need to develop the education of youth in the broadest possible manner. This would provide the economic solution of the problem. Here you have a task for the coming years. You, the student organizations and the Pioneer Union of Cuba have a task involving 5 million Cuban citizens. This is the task that we wanted to emphasize. To perform this task, the basis of the country, the resources for the development of the material base of this revolution is education. Now, if you have thousands and thousands of retarded students in the schools, what should be done with 13, 14, or 15-year olds who are in the third, fourth or fifth grade in the elementary schools? The teachers know the problems they are facing with retarded and older students, and the obstacles they create for education. The formula will be when we have sufficient installations to establish countryside schools for elementary school students, 13, 14 or 15 years of age. They should be separated from the children aged 6-10 years and sent to institutions comparable to secondary schools in the countryside. The secondary school students would take regular courses, and these institutions would be attended by retarded students, who would be with companions of similar age, combining study with work as would be the case in the secondary schools. What should be done with the secondary school retarded students? With the 16 or 17-year-old students who are in the seventh or eighth grade? They should be sent to the polytechnical institutes. Consequently, the schools will be governed by knowledge and age levels. If you want to raise the quality of instruction and the material base--the teaching personnel--there are two paths: development of an education guerrilla movement to admit more youths to the teachers school--teachers schools are under construction--and, very importantly, improvement courses for teachers without a degree. A special effort should be made with regard to the teachers without a degree. In other words,new teachers should be trained and their quality should be increased and the current teachers further developed. How are we going to solve the problem of the basic secondary school teachers? Next year--or rather this year--40 new schools will be opened. In 1973, at least 120 schools will be opened. Each school needs at least 40 teachers. If the number of students is increased--not only the number of secondary schools--how should this problem be solved? We must develop a movement among the basic secondary school graduates beginning this year. Throughout the country there are 20,000 basic secondary school students in the 10th grade. Among student and youth organizations we must develop a movement to recruit 10th grade students to be trained as teachers under more experienced teachers. Consequently, a 10th grade student could go to secondary school to work under the direction of experienced teachers and to take course there corresponding to the teachers schools. In other words, a wide ranging movement with these youths should be initiated. Instruction would also be combined in the secondary school with higher studies taught in the teachers schools. For the time being, there is no other way than to go to the 10th grade students and recruit at least 2,000 of them this year and at least 5,000 next year, and so on. We must seek an emergency solution, but an emergency solution which provides the possibility of utilizing these youths and of making them take higher courses. This is the only way we can solve the problem of the shortage of 20,000 teachers--of 18,000 teachers--we will have in 1976. The problem must be solved in this manner. This is one of the tasks that you must take into your hands. This problem can supply the content of the work of the UJC in the coming decade, but listen well, without abandoning the tasks we have at hand, without abandoning a single task, without reducing in the least the attention we should pay the youth column, the apprenticeship movement and all the tasks you have resolved to perform during the congress. When this movement advances, then we shall have another issue: the problem of military service. Currently, the sacrifice being made by the youths is not equitable. Some of them are studying and have been exempt from the military service. They might abandon studies in the university later or they may not enter the university. However, they have not performed their military service, since they were exempt by law. On the other hand, they have not received military training, and large groups of youths must join the column; other youths have to perform their military services, in many cases interrupting their studies. Consequently, the participation of youths is not equitable--the sacrifice being made by all the youths is not equitable. If we implement this system in the future we will have another situation. We must take into account that, due to the many military needs, approximately one-third of the males reaching the age of 16 or 17 years are called to the military service. If we implement this program fairly, many students would have to interrupt their studies, a move which in our judgment would not be ideal. If we establish compulsory secondary education up to the age of 18--from 12 to 18 years--and require the youths perform their military service once they finish, we would naturally have a more mature youth, with higher culture level, with more knowledge. The subject of rudimentary military discipline can be taught gradually during the various phases of instruction. Consequently, once studies corresponding to the secondary school age have been completed, any youth can be called into the military service. This is not the case now that some youths are studying, others are joining the column and others joining the military. However, in the future--once compulsory studies have been finished--at that age the youths could perform military service and various possibilities would exist. Today the military service term is 3 years. Why 3 years? Because they are very inexperienced, because they have no knowledge, because they have attained a low cultural level. When service is performed youths who have finished their secondary studies, these youths will be much more qualified personnel, much better prepared, and in many cases the military service could be reduced in terms of time. In this way every youth in this country would know what he would do from 6 to 20 years. They would know the obligations they would have to fulfill from age 6 to 18 and the obligations they would have to fulfill when they finish their secondary school studies. This is the idea, the plan, behind this concept and its possibilities. We can boil it down in this task for the UJC: the goal of incorporating 1 million young people into the work and study system, beginning now and up to 1980. [applause] The UJC, in a meeting of its leadership, and in cooperation with the mass organization, the MINED, the MINFAR, and the MININT, should examine when the issue of establishing compulsory education for youths between 8 and 18 of age should be proposed. Also, when we shall be in a position to implement and enforce that legislation. Of course this must be done progressively, for in certain regions the means will be provided before others. The first will possibly be Matanzas, or Camaguey. Oriente will take longer, for do you know how many youths 8 to 18 years old this province will have in 1980? Almost 600,000. Regardless how much is built in Oriente, the possibility of applying that law will be harder-harder at the outset. In connection with this, we were talking with Comrade Jaime, and we suggested that an idea: the greater part of the UJC and its cadres' energy has been devoted to Camaguey. That section this year and for several years will require much of the work of the Centennial Youth Column. Now then, if there are more than 100,000 youths 8 to 18 years old in Camaguey now, and there will be more than 140,000 in 1980, why not boost the construction of polytechnic and basic secondary schools in Camaguey so as to incorporate this tremendous mass of youths into work and study? [applause] What need would there be then for a young man from Baracoa to go to Camaguey to produce the tomatoes for local consumption, in the Centennial Youth Column, or to care for the citrus for either local consumption or export? What need would there be for a youth from Pinar del Rio to go to a Camaguey sugar central if we have more than 100,000 18-year-olds of both sexes there? Furthermore, we could build Ceiba I-type schools, secondary schools. And we could build polytechnical schools in each sugar central. What do we need to accomplish this? Labor force? There are two secondary-school building brigades. The MINFAR is going to organize two, the army corps in Camaguey, according to the MININT prisoner rehabilitation plan, will organize two more. And today when we spoke to Comrade Jaime we discussed the possibility of organizing two more brigades with members of the centennial column. And this year, with the other brigades to be organized from the new followers of Camilo and Che [applause], the number will rise to a total of 14 brigades. The harvest sector also will organize two, so to build polytechnical schools for the sugar centrals we would have 16 brigades altogether. These schools could educate three classes of followers of Camilo and Che--1972, 73, and 74. To build these installations and give impetus to the revolution in Camaguey, I can tell you that in just a few years we could possess the 200 schools needed to educate 100,000 Camagueyanos in this movement--100,000 young people of Camaguey. When that time comes, when cane harvesting is mechanized in Camaguey, there will be no need of anyone from Baracoa, Guatanamo, Pinar del Rio, or Havana. The objectives which the Centennial Youth Column has today will have vanished. We are accomplishing nothing by organizing columns and columns year after year. This is the solution, a final solution. If the column has been a revolutionary solution, very revolutionary, this too shall be an even deeper, more revolutionary solution. This is why I do not believe that, aside from the overall task of promoting and supporting this movement over the next 8 years, the special task of concretely pushing the creation of the movement's material foundation in Camaguey will be difficult. I do not believe it will be difficult to stir the youths to action. Proof of this is that this year the followers of Camilo and Che are building one basic secondary school in each province. Naturally, the announcement of these intentions will hamper your recruiting of youths for the followers of Camilo and Che. This will cause young people to resist recruitment, but when they are told of the goals sought, we expect their understanding, and we ask their cooperation. [applause] As for the comprehension of the working centers and the administrative organizations, they should take up this scheme we are broaching tonight. The labor movement should take it up, ponder and analyze it, so that in the forthcoming labor congress it can be even more fully examined, as it is tied with the problems of education, the educational revolution. Perhaps by that time some thought can be given as to the from and the timeliness of establishing compulsory education for young people 8 and 18 years of age--of both sexes. Before concluding, we want to refer to a grievous act which occurred early this morning or early yesterday--4 April. Actually, on 4 April as this congress was ending, as it came to a close, I read a dispatch that at the commercial office in Canada, counterrevolutionary elements undoubtedly moved by the Central Intelligence Agency executed a terrorist attack with plastic explosives that practically destroyed the Cuban commercial office in Canada. During the day, reports kept coming from the Cuban diplomatic mission, and also news items. These reported the importune circumstances in which a comrade lost his life. he was a young comrade, working in the commercial office. He was young and had a brilliant background. He was one of the founders of the Union of Rebel Youths, and he was a militant member of it. He was from Oriente, and from the Loynaz Hechavarria Central. He joined the Union of Rebel Youths when he was 13 or 14, and also served in the anti-aircraft batteries at Cuartro Boca organization at that time. What the dispatches report, the many dispatches--I want to read one here from AFP. It states: "The explosion of two powerful bombs at Cuba's commercial mission in Montreal this morning caused the death of a Cuban and serious injuries to others. According to initial reports, the attack, the second staged in 24 hours against Cuban diplomatic missions in Canada, reportedly was perpetrated by anti-Castro exiles. Police found a page from a Miami daily very close to where the explosions occurred. The explosions occurred at split-second intervals, and the violence of the shockwave threw bricks, tiles and rubble over a radius of 50 meters." "Many cars parked in the surrounding area were damaged. It is believed that the two [as heard] victims were security trainees at the mission. Losses probably total several tens of thousand of dollars. Shortly after the attack, an incident caused a confrontation between members of the Canadian antiterrorist brigade and the remaining Cuban guards. The guards apparently tried to prevent the brigade from entering the mission. According to police sources, the incident confused the Canadian agents, who took four of the Cubans to the police station. An hour later they were released after their identity was verified." This is the general news, the news reported by dispatches. We have other details: After the attack in which this comrade was killed, the Montreal Canadian Police resorted to brutal and fascist methods. According to information available to us, after the attack the police entered the commercial office, violating the immunity of this office, something which they cannot do. They broke doors with axes and also arrested several comrades, some of whom also have diplomatic immunity. A protest was made to the Canadian Government, which apologized for the incidents, claiming that the Montreal Police are a municipal police and that, apparently they do have much control over them. Great patience is needed to take so much in one day: reports about terrorist attacks, comrades vilely killed during the attack, and besides this, violations of the mission's immunity, use of axes to break open doors, breaking into the building, arrests of Cubans, and beside all of this, when it seemed that the Montreal Police had regained their sense, reports continue coming in about comrades who were beaten at the police station by the Canadian police. More reports are coming in from the Cuban representatives there about such bad deeds, which are as serious and as irritating as the terrorists'. It is truly strange that a police force in a city where a bomb was set off 24 hours ago was not able to provide protection to the Cuban diplomatic installation and has furthermore violated the office's immunity, arrested Cuban diplomats and also beat them. Apparently they do not even want to recall that a Canadian Embassy exists here [applause] and that this government has given ample evidence that it harbors no fear of any kind of powers, even those much stronger than the Montreal cops. It will be necessary for the Canadian Government to take appropriate measures to control the Montreal Police. This type of abuse and banditry against Cuban officials and their diplomatic mission must stop. In any event, the Canadian Embassy in Cuba will have no other security than that deriving from the decency of this revolutionary government. [applause] I mean to say that the security of the embassy will no longer stem from international law or any other guarantee that the Canadian government is capable of offering it, but solely and exclusively from the guarantees provided by a country that knows how to respect international law and international treaties. It is superfluous to state that these guarantees are better than those which any government or agreement can offer. It is a fact that this government has never had the habit of taking revenge or retaliating against defenseless people, against those who are not directly responsible for the acts. From the moral viewpoint, however, this implies that a government incapable of guaranteeing the security of officials of another country is morally incapable of guaranteeing the security of its own officials. This is what we have to say in connection with today's unusual events. The dispatches just say: One Cuban killed. This Cuban killed, however, is a 25-year-old youth with a wife and a 2-year-old child. This youth was born very close to my birthplace. I knew him when he was a year or two old. He was our neighbor. I can imagine what his relatives--his parents, his brothers--are going through. It is easy to say "one Cuban killed," but this report has caused the indignation of a town and the deepest anguish and mourning to a poor family. He was born on 27 October 1946 at Loynaz Hechevarria sugar mill. He came from a peasant family. In his early years he lived at this sugar mill's La Bomba district, together with five brothers and his parents. He began school at eight amidst the difficulties caused by the system, having to travel 5 kms by foot to school because of the lack of teachers. At times he had no shoes to wear. He had to help his family by carrying water, taking care of the animals and taking lunch to his father, who was the only breadwinner in the family. In 1960, when he was 14, he joined the youth patrols and the Association of Rebel Youths, where he reached five-star category and expanded this organization's activities. During the second half of 1960 he left for Santiago to attend the fourth grade. he was unable to complete this grade because he had to have an operation, subsequently returning to the sugar mill where he began working as a milkman. During the October crisis he was mobilized by the militia. He completed a mortar course in Batallion 84 of Division 56. After the crisis he became a member of the FAR and was trained as a specialist in T-34 tanks at Managua school. In March 1963 he was a tanker in the Artemisa 3234 military unit in Artemisa Pinar del Rio where he was released because he fell from a tank and injured his spinal column. In 1970 he was appointed to work in the trade mission in Canada. All those who knew him, comrades in the various activities, have a magnificent opinion of this comrade. Why was he killed? Who killed him? Why was he killed? it is clear that, as always, the wicked and the cowards have started to say that it was their doing. As was the case in Sama and in all the other places. Do they perhaps think that they are going to plant the seed of terror in this country? Do they perhaps think that they are going to scare the Cuban officials and the Cuban revolutionaries? Do they perhaps think that by committing such cowardly attacks they are going to achieve something? There are in Cuba more than enough people to go wherever one must go, to take the risks that must be taken wherever one goes. In Cuba, for everyone that falls there are 10,000 willing to take his place. [prolonged applause] Is it that they believe that the revolution is powerless? The day that this country decides to make all those bandits pay for what they have done, they will be unable to find a hole in the ground to hide in. [applause] They will be unable to find a hole in the ground to hide in. [applause] Because, when it comes to weapons, bombs and whatever is needed, in this country we are way ahead of these bandits. [applause] There is more than enough courage here to settle accounts with them and those who pay them. It would be best that they do not abuse this country's patience excessively by perpetrating actions of this nature and expecting us to always stand idly by. What can we expect from imperialism and its henchmen? Precisely today they reminded us in a very eloquent manner and confirmed what has always been said: We can never let down our guard and we shall have an enemy for a long time. Nevertheless, we are not dismayed by such actions because with imperialism, we want no deals of any kind. [applause] The imperialists know this full well. They know well what the position of the Cuban revolution is. They know the Cuban revolution's position full well, and they know that it is a strong, firm, irrevocable position. What can be expect from the imperialists, who are growing increasingly desperate? Right now, we can see what is happening in Vietnam. News has been received telling of victorious battle of the patriotic forces. We have received news about the crushing defeats dealt the imperialist puppets, and again they are insinuating or threatening to resume the bombing strikes against the DRV, bombing strikes they have been carrying out. They are again threatening to resume the bombing strikes against the DRV capital. This gives us an idea of their defeat, their desperation. We take this opportunity to express our solidarity with the Vietnamese people and to express our strongest condemnation of the bellicose threats and the threats to resume bombing strikes over the cities and capital of the DRV. The imperialists are up a deadend street. They were not able to stay in Vietnam. They were defeated. They had to withdraw their troops. But still they insist. And even though they know their cause is a lost cause, they are determined to make Vietnamese people pay the highest possible price in blood and sacrifice. These painful facts will serve to strengthen our people's and our youth's spirit, their already hearty spirit. There has been a painful loss, one more fallen fighter, one more man among the resolution's martyrs, among those who have given their life for the revolution. It is a long road, and it began a long time ago. And we were saying here, when we spoke of the 100 years of history, when the execution of the medical students occurred; from then to today, it has been a long story, a long struggle. This means great sacrifices, which you will inevitably have to continue. Nevertheless, today is not yesterday. Yesterday was a time of sacrifice, of setbacks, the 30 years of struggle without achieving independence, the 50-some-odd years of frustration and of neocolonialism. As of 1 January 1959, our people, gathering up all their history, their tradition of heroism and their experience achieved victory, and they won a definitive victory. We have had to pay a high price. We will have to continue paying the price, but the victory is definitive. Now we have other problems--they are these problems which have been discussed at the congress. They are our programs: how to increase efficiency, how to solve these difficulties, how to attain these objectives. If you analyze all the congress documents and think about their content, you will find that it is a congress and a content which perhaps no one could have imagined 15 years ago, perhaps no could have dreamed of it, that on a day like today our youth would meet to analyze those problems, that on a day like today our youth, armed with a complete ideology, with fully revolutionary passion and determination, would analyze all those problems and would elaborate formulas to solve them. If one has described a congress like this one to someone 15 years ago, he would have considered it the work of the feverish and imaginary thinking of a novelist. It would have seemed like a real science fiction study--the idea that an entire youth--collecting the best of revolutionary thought, gathering the best of internationalist awareness, gathering the best of our people's virtues--would work at setting up a program like this for the coming years, a program with such a profound moral, such a profound revolutionary, content; a program so full of enthusiasm, of optimism, of conviction, of faith in the future. All that would have seemed incredible. The fact that that meeting would be attended by delegations from the revolutionary countries and movements, that an international construction brigade--which is building a basic secondary school, which represents one of the pillars of the educational revolution of which we spoke--would attend a meeting like this--all this, which reflects the best of internationalist ties, the close relations of friendship and solidarity between our countries, all this, which would have seemed incredible 15 years ago--is precisely what highlights the magnitude and the importance of the task of the young people in our country--of the privilege, in the best sense of the word, of the young people in our country today, of the beautiful task they have before them. This country believes in the young people. This revolution believes in the youth; and with such mystic qualities, in their great prospects. In 1953, on 26 July, the fighters who took part in the attack on the Moncada Barracks were your average age. It is possible that if some historical researcher were to study the ages of all the fighters, the average age would turn out to be some 22 or 23 years--some older, some younger. And if he were to study the ages of the Granma expeditionaries, it is possible that they too might have been members of the Union of Young Communists. What does this mean? That you are precisely at the age in which our country's youth has achieved great tasks. You are--you belong to that sector of the population. You are about the same age as other men who in other periods revolutionized society. And if the researcher were to study the age of those who fought the 10-year war--the age of the Maceos and the great fighters of those times, the ages of the revolutionaries of all the periods of the country's history--he would find that they could have been members of the Union of Young Communists if they had lived today. This means that historically in our country the men of your age were the pioneers and executors of the great revolutions. Our youth have shown they posses the qualities required at this moment. They have demonstrated this by the work by the national heroes they have produced, by the battles they have fought, by their fulfillment of the present tasks. We firmly believe that, although it fell to other generations to fulfill other tasks, you too have, at this period, great tasks to fulfill. Today, you do not have to struggle to seize power, for the people won it from the exploiters. You will not have to shed your blood in our country to carry out a revolution. You have a revolution in your hands. You must carry it forward to the end. You must (?give) it its spirit, its strength, its intransigence, its purity of principles, its convictions. You must take this revolution as far as possible. That is your task: to continue the work of the revolution i Cuba and outside Cuba--in Cuba by carrying out today's basic duties and outside Cuba, by supporting it with solidarity--moral, practical, and any other type of solidarity--as was stated here in the final declaration, as fighters or as builders. We consider it good that the Latin American projection of the revolutionary struggle was highlighted. The final declaration has presented the idea of a union of Latin American countries through revolution, simply because the activity of this generation will develop within that framework in the coming decades. You must carry on the revolution in Cuba and you must play your role in the Latin American revolution. We are not going to support this solidarity with our brotherly peoples with only a declaration; it must not be supported only with our generous offer to fight, struggle and to express our solidarity in every field. There is something for which we are very renowned in the Latin American countries: we were the first to carry out a socialist revolution. We were the first to face very serious, difficult and complex problems. To correctly solve such problems and to find a solution to them is one of our basic duties toward the other nations. Because ours is the first revolution, we must find wise, intelligent and efficient solutions to these problems. In what we do here, if we do it right, we shall be helping the other Latin American countries in an extraordinary manner. We would be solving many of the problems. Those countries which in the future will have to go through this long road will look to us to ask what we did about each of the problems and what solutions we found--in all areas, in the innumerable areas where the revolution had to face serious problems; at work, in the education of youths, in all these aspects. We have the obligation of doing things well. We have the obligation of finding solutions to the problems. Not only for us, but also for the other countries of Latin America. That same duty which summons us toward solidarity, to struggle, to any sacrifice, must also call on us for the responsibility an seriousness in the fulfillment of the tasks we much accomplish here. And not only for us, but also because of the fact that we have had the first socialist revolution in this continent. We want to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all the representatives of the countries present here. We want to express our gratitude for their solidarity. We have talked about the difficulties, the great difficulties. We have talked about the