-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-