Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19720610
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
VISIT TO POLAND
-PLACE-
KRAKOW UNIVERSITY
-SOURCE-
WARSAW PRELA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720610
-TEXT-
REPORTAGE ON PREMIER CASTRO SPEECHES IN POLAND

At Krakow University

Warsaw PRELA in Spanish to PRELA Havana 0458 GMT 10 Jun 72 C--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

[Text] Dear friends of the Krakow University city: As you are well aware,
it is not easy to organize a rally here. [applause] The speakers stand, the
waves of students and the conditions are unfavorable. [laughter] You are to
be commended for your enthusiasm and warmth. However, there is too much
enthusiasm. Consequently, I will not try to deliver a speech but will try
to express some thoughts.

Today we visited the Silesian "red basin." We are now holding a meeting
with people from this youth basin at the university city. I want to ask a
question: Could the Krakow youth be called "the red basin?" [audience
shouts yes] I have seen here several things that indicate a revolutionary
spirit--the signs, the slogans and lastly this large picture of Che on the
speakers stand. [audience shouts Che, Che] You are young people and one
must assume that you are thinking of the future, that you also want to
carry out a revolution. However, what revolution are you going to carry out
now? The social revolution has already taken place in Poland. Poland is
moving ahead. Poland is progressing.

I do not know if you are happy or still want much more, but I am asking if
you want more in the material order. [Audience shouts yes]

The interpreter tells me that you did not understand the question.
[laughter] I was thinking of something else. I have been thinking of outer
peoples, of youths in other parts of the world. I was not even thinking of
Cuba. We do not produce 12 million tons of steel; we do not produce 12
million tons of cement; we do not produce 150 million tons of coal as you
do in Poland. However, we have been able to do something for our youth, our
students. In our country there are also centers for university scholarship
students; we are constructing new buildings for the students. We are
spending much money for the construction of schools. Therefore, I am not
thinking of Cuba but of other nations of Latin America, Asia and Africa. I
am thinking of those countries where 60 or 70 percent of the population
cannot read or write. I am thinking of those countries where the average
life expectancy is 25 to 40 years--half of the average life expectancy in
Europe. I am thinking of those areas in the world where much poverty and
misery still prevail. I am thinking of the world population which today
numbers 3.5 billion persons and which will increase to 6 billion in 25
years. I am considering the great challenge that this represents to today's
youth. I am considering the great challenge this represents to the youths
of the revolutionary countries, to you. I am pondering the problems that
the world will have in the next few decades, problems that must be solved
in the first place by revolution, by science and technology. A revolution
by itself does not solve problems; a beginning is made with a revolution.

Problems are solved through technological development, through the
development of productive forces, through the development of the capacity
of the masses. However, to succeed in this endeavor, a revolution must be
carried out. We can express to all the youth of Asia, Africa and Latin
America our conviction that revolution comes before development.

Social problems cannot be solved so long as there are landowners and
latifundia, oligarchs and capitalists, and so long as foreign monopolies
control the economy. What the world of the future needs is a revolution, a
revolution which is about to be carried out in many world areas.

In my judgment, your problem consists in learning how the youths of the
socialist countries will be incorporated into this revolutionary process.

It is possible that some day you will have to work in Latin America, Asia
and Africa as engineers and doctors. As youths of the socialist countries
you must increase your revolutionary awareness, go deeper into ideology. We
must not forget that capitalism still exists in the rich countries, in the
industrialized countries, and that capitalism is trying to wield its
influence over the youths of the world's backward countries and even over
the youth of the socialist countries. We must not forget that an
ideological battle is being fought in the world and that an attempt is
being made to capture the minds of the masses and the youths by encouraging
individual egoism, personal ambitions, introducing capitalist habits,
customs, ways of life.

Life in the capitalist countries is considered from a viewpoint of
egoism--national and individual egoism. They are trying to corrupt us by
showing their luxury items. They are working to seduce us by saying that in
the United States millions and millions of automobiles are sold, by saying
that they have millions of this or that. They are trying to ignore the fact
that a large portion of the world's natural resources are stolen by Yankee
imperialists, that millions of poorly paid men and women in the world work
for the Yankee monopolies. The capitalist countries are trying to ignore
the fact that they have not only exploited their workers for scores and
scores of years and that they have amassed profits not only from their own
workers but also from the colonies--the old and new colonies--and the
neocolonies. They are trying to ignore the fact that they have exploited
the world and subjected the world to underdevelopment, illiteracy and
poverty to amass the capital they now possess. They are trying to forget
that half of the world's population is poorly fed, poorly dressed and
cannot write or read.

The capitalists are trying to ignore the fact that a large part of the
world's population--children, men and women--have no shoes, hospitals,
schools or medicines. They are trying to conceal the fact that Karl Marx
said that capitalism emerged in the world by spilling blood everywhere.
They are attempting to hide the fact that capitalism and imperialism have
caused all the great wars where millions and millions of persons have died.

They are trying to conceal the fact that imperialism is still waging
aggressive and genocidal wars. They want us to forget the crimes which they
are committing in Vietnam. We must not forget that 12 million tons of bombs
have been dropped over Vietnam and that terrible destruction has been
caused there. We must not forget that millions of men, women and children
have been killed by these destructive bombing raids.

Today we visited the (?Auschwitz) concentration camp. Memories still remain
there-- marks of the death chambers and crematories where 8,000 to 10,000
persons were cremated daily. Why was this extreme reached? What is the
origin of the ideas that inspired these crimes?

Egoism--individual and national egoism--contempt for the people, the lack
of solidarity, the most primitive instincts of man. This brought capitalism
into the world; this brought imperialism into the world. For thousands of
years humanity will consider the crimes committed there with horror and
repugnance.

It is said that 4 million victims died there, but 4 million victims are
approximately half of the current population of Cuba. Four million human
beings were sent to those camps, those barracks, those torture chambers,
those gallows, those gas chambers, those crematories.

Such actions give us a clear idea of the results of the philosophy of
bourgeois imperialism, of mercantilism. We and you must think ideas these
criminal and inhuman ideas--still persist in large areas of the world. We
must think that similar crimes are being committed today and that humanity
and youth are duty bound to fight in the sphere of solidarity, in the
sphere of awareness and ideology so that some day the last vestiges of such
retrograde ideas, such ideas alien to mankind, may be swept from the face
of the earth.

Consequently, we think that each of us has a great task ahead, you more
than we because you are the growing young people and the youth that will
live in the world in the next few decades. You must study work, increase
your awareness, delve deeper into your own ideology.

For us in Cuba, for our people, there is no more important task during the
current stage that the training of our youth, youths who are training in
the schools and work, in the revolutionary ideas, in the understanding of
the problems facing today's world. Our youth has had and will have
increasing participation in the revolutionary process.

We can say that during the current stage our people are preparing their
youth for the future in the area of culture, technology and science. Our
youth is being educated without chauvinistic ideas or national egoism but
with the most profound internationalist spirit because tomorrow's world
must be the world of solidarity, the world of internationalism, the
antithesis of what humanity and class societies have known so far.

This is surely what Karl Marx meant when asked what would happen after
communism and said: "The day that communism has been established in the
world will mark the end of mankind's ancient history."

Beloved friends, beloved youth: We wish that you become the red basin of
the revolutionary process, the red basin of the revolutionary youth. We
wish that you set an example for the Polish youth.

Hail the revolutionaries!

Hail proletarian internationalism!

Thank you.
-END-


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