-DATE-
19720704
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
JULY 3RD VISIT-AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY FACTORY
-PLACE-
UKHTOMSKIY
-SOURCE-
MOSCOW IN SPANISH
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720705
-TEXT-
Castro Addresses Factory Workers

Moscow in Spanish to Cuba 0001 GMT 4 Jul 72 L

[Speech delivered by Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro during 3 July visit
to the Ukhtomskiy agricultural machinery factory on the outskirts of
Moscow--recorded]

[Text] Dear workers of the Ukhtomskiy factory: I thank you for [words
indistinct]. Our delegation wished to visit this factory and greet its
workers [applause] because a very important cooperation project for Cuba
has been established between this factory's collective and our country.
Since 1964 this factory has been striving to solve the problem of the
mechanization of the sugar harvest in our country.

But our technicians as well as the more experienced Soviet technicians and
the Soviet machine industry have been working all these years. Technically,
at least the problem has been solved. Of course with time our harvester
will be improved, will become more efficient and will have more [word
indistinct]. But our technical achievements to date are very encouraging.
The building of this prototype, which as you know is a complex, powerful
machine, has been completed, It is also a very beautiful machine. I am sure
you will feel proud when the first of these combines are on their way to
Cuba. [applause]

But when I talk about solving the problem I am not referring just to Cuba.
It must be borne in mind that many countries grow sugarcane and that these
countries will sooner or later need to mechanize their sugar harvest. When
this time comes the machines will already be developed, their production
organized and a whole depository of the necessary experience will have been
amassed. Between you and us, we have had to work for 10 years to find the
technical answer to the problem.

We shall now have to work for another few years both in the production of
the machines and in the creation of the conditions and of the grounds for
mechanization.

It can therefore be said that Soviet technology and machine engineering
are, through this factory, solving a very important problem for many
countries. This is a result of the international cooperation and friendship
links between the Soviet and Cuban peoples. [applause]

Initially these machines will be built here, but there have been proposals
for setting up an assembly plant in Cuba in the future, for the assembly
and production of certain components. The time mist come when--through the
development of its machinery industry--Cuba will also produce these combine
harvesters. But naturally, it will be some time before this is achieved. It
is only possible to resolve the problem through you. [papsage indistinct]

As has been said here, this factory does in fact symbolize the Soviet
people's heroic struggle, in the period from the 1905 revolution to the
Great Fatherland War, encompassing the participation of the workers of this
factory in the October Revolution, their struggle against the
interventionists and the mercenary bands, the implementation of the 5-year
plans.

It is extremely interesting and encouraging for us to see how you have
managed to create this awareness, this discipline, this working spirit, and
also to see the fruits of this effort.

We have had the opportunity to see some of the most modern industries built
in recent years. We have visited the Voronezh aircraft plans and the
nuclear [word indistinct]. In Star city we visited the research laboratory
and the training center for cosmonauts. The factories we visited in
Voronezh are very modern. The aircraft plant has automatic and programmed
lathes where very complicated components are made of very special steel.
Then there are the airplanes. The TU-144 unquestionably a great achievement
of soviet science and technology--is already on the production assembly
line. Productivity is very high and every problem concerning aviation, air
communications and safety has been dealt with in that plant.

As for the nuclear factories, the fourth plant is being completed. [passage
indistinct]

You have more than enough reasons to be proud of these giant technological
achievements which in many sectors are placing the USSR in the world
vanguard.

Of course it is not possible to achieve the automation of industry at one
stroke. It is not possible to program the whole production on electronic
tape. Naturally this takes much time, many [words indistinct], many
resources.

The Soviet people have had to overcome great difficulties. After the
October Revolution, they became the first socialist state. They were
blockaded and isolated. After the destruction resulting from the first
imperialist war, they had to defend the country from invasion. They had to
work hard to carry out their 5-year plans. Then came the fascist
aggression, which took the lives of 20 million Soviet people and caused the
destruction of most of the industries and of most of the cattle. The Soviet
Union and the Soviet people again had to start rebuilding the country, to
support the socialist camp which emerged after World War II as a
consequence of the Soviet people's victory.

They had to face the imperialist blockade, the imperialist threats. [Words
indistinct] who built a cordon of military bases around the USSR. This
forced the Soviet people to redouble efforts, not only to rebuild the
economy but also to develop their means of defense. All this required a
great effort and many resources.

But in spite of this, as has been said here, the Soviet people, led by
their Leninist party, have been able to overcome every difficulty and to
emerge victorious from all these struggles.

Powerful scientific, technological economic and industrial foundations have
been laid which will enable the Soviet Union to march forward in the future
with nothing and nobody able to create obstacles to the creative and
peaceful labor of the Soviet people, with nobody who would dare to repeat
past interventionist adventures and fascist aggressions.

The Soviet people have not only built their own future but have also
created a solid bulwark from which the international revolutionary movement
gets support. The history of the Cuban revolution is proof of this, We
believe that our progress will continue at a fast rate and that the day
will come when all industries, all milling machines and all industrial
production, are also automated, and will also be [word indistinct] and when
working conditions are ever more [word indistinct] and less arduous. In
this same vein we are now fighting to increase productivity and to
facilitate conditions of the workers in our country who cut and cultivate
the sugarcane.

But the history of the Soviet people has not only left the patriotic
victories and feats, not only left the great
technical-scientific-industrial development. This history has remained in
the heart and soul of every Soviet person, in the conscience of the Soviet
people, in their revolutionary virtues, in their internationalist spirit
which has withstood all tests.

If we have been impressed by the victories in every field of the October
Revolution, what impresses us most is the spirit of the Soviet people,
their political conscience, their political culture, their cohesion and
their unity around the communist party founded by Lenin.

We who have barely begun along the road of revolution and who are on the
other side of the Atlantic and who know the vices of capitalism, the
weakensses of capitalism and the corruption of the capitalist societies,
and know its decadence, are able to appreciate in all its immense value the
moral values, the ideological values, the cultural values, and the
political values, which have been created by the Soviet people. We are able
to appreciate these virtues and these characteristics. We also have the
conviction, which words and phrases cannot express, that the Soviet people
have carried out an immortal historical task and feat for which mankind and
future generations will be eternally grateful. [applause]

This is why Leninism lives and will continue to live in the heart of the
peoples, why Marxist-Leninist ideas are winning and will continue to win
[applause] why the noble cause of the oppressed is triumphing and will
triumph, and why sooner and later the path started on that bright day of
October 1917 will be followed by all the peoples of the world. Socialism
will triumph, communism will triumph, peace will triumph! [applause]

Imperialism, its society of exploiters and the exploited, its wars and
aggressions, will also disappear. Mankind will march forward, This is what
the Soviet people have shown the world, this is what the history of the
Soviet people has shown the world. The prestige of the Soviet Union will
increase, its authority will increase among all the peoples of the world.
The friendship between the peoples of Cuba and the peoples of the Soviet
Union lives and will continue to live. [applause] The spirit of fraternity
between our two peoples will develop, and our links will develop, and in
the bosom of the Soviet people cooperation and fraternity between the
collective of this factory and our sugarcane workers and our sugar industry
workers will develop, and you will hear how these machines are going, how
they are working, and of what successes and what enormous benefits our
working people are obtaining from this cooperation with the Soviet people,
from this cooperation with the Ukhtomskiy factory. Long live the Soviet
people! [applause] Long live the Communist Party of the Soviet Union!
[applause] Long live proletarian internationalism! [applause] Long live the
eternal, indestructible friendship between the peoples of the Soviet Union
and Cuba! [applause and cheers] Thank you very much.
-END-