-DATE-
19720616
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
REPORT
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO ADDRESSES MASS RALLY
-PLACE-
DRESDEN
-SOURCE-
EAST BERLIN ADN INTL SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720619
-TEXT-
Addresses Mass Rally

East Berlin ADN International Service in German 1723 GMT 16 Jun 72 L

[Text] Dresden--First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party Central
Committee Premier Fidel Castro on Friday afternoon addressed a mass rally
in Dresden attended by 120,000 working people.

Youthful enthusiasm, chants and shouts of "Long Live Castro" accompanied
him on his drive through Dresden. He drove in an open car accompanied by
Werner Lamberz, SED Politburo member and Central Committee secretary, and
Werner Krolikowski, SED Politburo member and first secretary of the Dresden
SED Executive.

Fidel Castro, wearing the olive green uniform of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Cuba, was welcomed with a bunch of red carnations outside the
Crown Gate of the Zwinger Building. A schoolgirl wrapped her blue Pioneers'
scarf around him.

Next, chants of "Cuba Si--Yankee No" and cheers for Fidel were to be heard
intermingled with fighting songs. The bands, flute orchestras and fanfare
sections began to play.

In front of the rostrum Fidel Castro was received with the 26 July march,
with which the Cuban people commemorate the storming of the Moncada
Barracks at Santiago de Cuba and which has become the symbol of the
victorious liberation struggle against the dictatorship.

Werner Moke, first secretary of the Dresden Bezirk Executive of the Free
German Youth, greeted the guests on behalf of the 120,000 people. Young
worker Joachim Klengel, from the Sachsenwerk plant, and a girl student,
Ingrid Fuchs, of the Technical University of Dresden, also addressed
cordial words to Fidel Castro.

Amid the jubilations of the 120,000 people Fidel Castro moved to the
microphone.

"We can imagine how life in this city was rebuilt," Castro said in his
speech. "We have seen photographs of the destroyed Dresden from February
1945, and we were very surprised to learn that no weapons were being
manufactured here. Yet this city was utterly destroyed on 13 and 14
February 1945 in an act of completely unnecessary horror and terror which
cost the lives of 35,000 people. This means that here in Dresden we had a
situation similar to that in two other cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Those cities were destroyed by atomic bombs, this city by thousands of
bombers."

He described the bombing of Dresden as an "act of political terror which
destroyed one of the most beautiful cities of this country. But with the
hindsight of history we know today that the U.S. imperialists have
committed such crimes in many cities. We know how they selected their
victims. Where there were economic interests linked with U.S. monopolies,
or where there were economic or other interests which were linked to their
postwar plans, there they dropped no bombs."

"If internationally the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are condemned
because they were not military targets, then it is only right that
internationally the crime committed against Dresden in those days also be
condemned," Fidel Castro continued. "Those days are now more than 25 years
ago. Although in parts the wounds of war can still be seen, this was has
taught us two things: It has taught us the degree of irresponsibility and
crime of the fascists, what damage was done by fascism to the world and to
the peoples, and what disastrous consequences it had for mankind. But one
is also able to see the motives and interests which prompted the monopolies
to intervene in these wars."

Today the only thing one can do is to rebuild the buildings in their old
style, to restore them, and at the same time to build a new city with new
architecture. "But there are also buildings of historical value which have
been lost forever. We must constantly be aware of this and we must reject
the reactionary ideas, the imperialist ideas, those of the monopolies and
of the fascists."

"We live close to the United States in a small county with an
underdeveloped economy. We can frankly say, in a poor country," said
Castro. "For decades U.S. imperialism had a great economic, political and
ideological influence on our country. It completely ruled our economy. And
the United States is the most developed imperialist country and has
accumulated tremendous wealth, a country which was the master of Latin
America's mineral wealth, oil, copper, and minerals in general. Moreover,
this country, the United States, was master of the mineral wealth of many
other countries in Africa and Asia, a country which managed to come out of
World War II with its industry intact, a country which had accumulated gold
reserves worth $30 billion. For all practical purposes gold from the whole
world was in U.S. vaults at the end of the war.

"The ideological Struggle waged by the Cuban people against the ruling
circles of a rich capitalist country was a struggle against the ideology of
a rich country; it was a struggle of a country which had many illiterate
people; it was a struggle of a country which had no expert working class.
This was a struggle by a poor country against a highly industrialized
country."

In this struggle it was important to know which were the just and which the
unjust ideas, Castro continued. "We know from experience how the
imperialists misuse their wealth, how they attempt to mislead the masses,
how they attempt to spread lies in the face of historical truths, how they
attempt to prove that their system is just and our socialist system unjust.
But the sole historical truth is that the imperialists have amassed their
riches by exploiting other peoples, that our people are poor people because
they have been exploited for centuries by colonialism and imperialism."

Castro drew attention to the fact that the imperialists did everything
possible to take from the country the technicians, engineers and doctors.
"Of the 6,000 doctors who were in Cuba at the time of the victory of the
revolution, the United States took 3,000 for itself," he said. "And many of
our engineers and technicians, teachers and professors, were taken into the
United States in a similar manner.

"The U.S. does not confine itself solely to the complete economic blockade
of Cuba. Naturally, when the bourgeoisie and the large landowners left they
took with them also their administrators who had experience in agricultural
production."

But the people remained steadfast, and immediately after the victory of the
revolution a great political awareness started to develop. "The
imperialists used the mass media, radio, television, all communications
media against us," Castro said. "They tried to weaken the awareness of our
people by making propaganda for the imperialist system. The ideological
struggle was waged in Cuba under these conditions, and it was under these
conditions that our people have won the battle. We are not chauvinists; we
do not practice nationalism of chauvinism in any way. We are fighting
against these tendencies. On the contrary, we have fought to instill among
our people the internationalist spirit. We cite the example of our country
because we believe that history will remember how our country waged the
struggle against the most highly developed imperialist and capitalist
country, and how this battle was won."

Castro continued: "The imperialists tried to prevent Cuban revolutionary
ideas from spreading to Latin America." They used their influence in the
international organizations to force all Latin American countries to break
off relations with Cuba--diplomatic relations and economic relations.
Naturally, all diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and
Cuba were broken off. They attempted to isolate Cuba, but our people have
changed matters. They flocked around the revolution. The Cuban people
increasingly deepened their revolutionary awareness.

"The revolutionary ideas are today spreading over the entire Latin American
continent, among the citizens of Latin America. The revolutionary ideas are
also spreading in the United States itself. And we have no doubt that the
historical result will be. We are certain that one day these revolutionary
ideas will be victorious in all of Latin America and that one day these
revolutionary ideas will also be victorious in the United States. The
historical realities favor this idea and support the road to victory."

Castro said that because Cuba relied on the ideas of Marxism-Leninism it
could set itself this great task. Thus not only a deep social awareness has
developed, but also a deep interriationalist one. Wherever the imperialists
and the colonialists commit a foul deed, an iniquity, our people are
informed about it. The events in the Congo, in Algeria, in the Middle East,
in South Africa, in Santo Domingo, in Panama, and last but not least in
Indochina--all these were schools which trained us."

Imperialism is doing everything possible to isolate the GDR, continued
Castro. "It is doing everything so that this a German worker-peasant state,
the GDR, is not recognized. An economic blockade was also initiated against
this country, attempts were made to prevent the development of political
and economic relations with other countries in the world. You, just as we
do, know what isolation can mean. You know what a diplomatic blockade is,
an economic blockade. You, like we, have made progress. We can see that the
spirit of the people of the GDR, of the youth of the GDR, is a fighting
spirit."

In his speech Fidel Castro then expressed satisfaction that the World Youth
Games would be held in 1973 in socialist Berlin. He said: "Our young people
will do everything in their power to make the festival a great success for
the GDR people, because we know that this festival will also contribute
toward thwarting the campaigns and lies of the imperialists."

Discussing the utilization of science and technology, Castro said: "We know
what the imperialists are doing with science and we know that in the first
place they use it for war. We can see what the U.S. imperialists are doing
in Vietnam, how they are using computers to wage war, how they are using
electronic means to kill, how they are using laser beams to increase the
accuracy and destructive power of their bombs. We know how they misuse the
Vietnam war in order to expand their war experiences, and how all the media
of science, technology, and mathematics are placed in the service of war.

"The imperialists have dropped more than 12 million tons of bombs on
Vietnam. This is twice the amount dropped during all of World War II. The
imperialists are daily dropping 4,500 tons of bombs on Vietnam. Tons of
pesticides are dropped on Vietnam to destroy plant life. Millions of men,
women and children have died because of the imperialist aggression.
Therefore, it is a task which the students of the socialist countries must
set themselves to insure that we do not use science and technology to
destroy, but to create something new, to defeat poverty, to protect and
prolong life, to nuture the well-being of the people."

In conclusion, Fidel Castro emphasized: "We have received tremendous
assistance from the socialist countries, especially from the Soviet Union,
in technological and economic fields. The weapons which our people used to
defend themselves were received from the socialist countries, from the
Soviet Union. We also consider that this imposes an obligation on us toward
the socialist world. Let us unite our strength in the socialist community."

SED Politburo member and First Secretary of the SED Dresden Executive
Werner Krolikowski spoke after Fidel Castro. He said: "We are united in the
common front of world socialism, firmly linked around the Soviet Union. We
stand together in a firm front against imperialism, colonialism, and
neocolonialism. We are struggling to insure that the ideas of
Marxism-Leninism and internationalism will prevail everywhere in the
world."

Discussing malicious attacks by certain FRG papers against the visit by the
Cuban party-government delegation, he said: "It is what our enemies dislike
that we like. They do not like our unity. Our enemies have speculated on
some sort of disunity, but they have seen how Fidel Castro's visit and that
of his fighting colleagues in the GDR has demonstrated our friendship,
unity, and cohesion. From our rally here today. we can say to our enemies:
Everything Fidel Castro has said here we, too, subscribe to. We fight in a
common front for a common aim."

"It is here at this place of our struggle that we are reminded and will
never forget how at a time when German fascist imperialism was already
drawing its last breath, at a time when the victory of the Soviet Army over
German fascist imperialism had already become a world historical reality,
Anglo-American terror bombers saturated our city with phosphorous bombs and
acted like the worst arsonist," Krolikowski said. "We will never forget
that 20 million Soviet people gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War
not only for the freedom and victory of their own people, but also for the
liberation of our German people from fascist barbarism. We will never
forget that Soviet soldiers brought freedom to Dresden and saved the art
treasures of our city.... Our friendship with the Soviet Union is eternal."

Krolikowski continued: "In today's world, the cause of socialism and
communism is going forward, thanks to the world historic achievements of
the Soviet people under the leadership of the vanguard of the international
communist and workers movement, the great party of Lenin, the glorious
CPSU, and thanks to the vigilance and unity of the socialist community. It
is also going forward thanks to the increased struggle of the working
class, communist parties, revolutionaries in the capitalist countries, and
the anti-imperialist liberation movement."

He said in conclusion: "We are seeing how imperialism has been forced to
adjust to the new balance of power, but we know that imperialism is lying
in wait and that fundamentally it has not changed its character. We know
equally well that in implementing the Leninist policy of peaceful
coexistence we must always be on guard and must increase the
politico-ideological struggle against imperialism and its apologists."

The rally ended with the singing of the "Internationale."
-END-