-DATE-
19720708
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECHES
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
JUNE 7 KATOWICE POLISH-CUBAN FRIENDSHIP RALLY
-PLACE-
POLAND
-SOURCE-
WARSAW TRYBUNA LUDU
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720612
-TEXT-
CASTRO DELEGATION DEPARTS BALTIC SEA COAST REGION

Grudzien, Castro Speak at Katowice

Warsaw TRYBUNA LUDU in Polish 8 Jun 72 p 2 A

[Report on speeches by Zdzislaw Grudzien, candidate member of the PZPR
Politburo and first secretary of the PZPR Voivodship Committee in Katowice,
and by Fidel Castro at the 7 June Katowice Polish-Cuban Friendship Rally]

[Text] Z. Grudzien:

Today, in the capital of Silesia, we welcome with all our hearts the first
secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) Central Committee and premier
of the Cuban Revolutionary Government, Z. Grudzien said. We welcome you to
a territory whose history has been especially tragic, separated from its
motherland for centuries and whose people heroically resisted the Teutonic
methods of denationalization and fought for national and social liberation.

F. Castro:

Fidel Castro stressed that, although his stay in Silesia was short, he felt
he had established close contacts with the Silesian people. I am greatly
honored, he said, by the miner's badge you have given me. I have been
greatly impressed by mining traditions.

Further F. Castro ridiculed bourgeois press reports that he was supposedly
ill and said that, on the other hand, Western press agencies never
whispered a word about the Warsaw people's welcome for the Cuban
delegation.

He then discussed his country's key problems and spoke about the difficult
task of Cuba's industrialization under the conditions of the American
blockade, about the production of 300,000 tons of steel in Cuba in 1975,
about the world's largest nickel resources in his country and about its
deposits of metal ores which make possible the development of metallurgy.
He stressed that Cuba has no power resources and will therefore for many
years be largely dependent on agriculture: sugarcane, citrus fruit,
breeding and other sectors of farming.

F. Castro stressed that the development of his country is proceeding in the
face of the constant threat from the imperialist forces, forcing Cuba to be
always vigilant and to strengthen its defense.

F. Castro then discussed the danger of petit bourgeois ideology. The Cuban
people have withstood this trial, too, he said. The people understand our
aims and are full of the revolutionary spirit of internationalism. Workers,
peasants, students and all Cuban people are impregnated with this spirit,
and all nationalism and parochialism are alien to them. We have thousands
of volunteers, he said, in various professions who want to help anyone in
need.

F. Castro stressed that revolutionary ideas are penetrating U.S. society
and that the struggle of the U.S. Negroes is increasing against
discrimination and of Puerto Ricans for national liberation, as well as the
struggle waged by students, workers, the intelligentsia--the defenders of
peace--and the opponents of the Vietnam war. The strength of the
progressive movement is responsible for the fact that thousands of young
Americans come to Cuba to show solidarity and to help in the sugar harvest,
construction and other production tasks.

The Latin American peoples, F. Castro continued, are facing a long
ideological and political struggle, and this is also true of many African
and Asian peoples. He noted the great importance of the Cuban Revolution
since the Latin American peoples have been able to arm themselves with the
weapons of Marxism-Leninism and the ideology of the workers class.
Imperialist ideology is unable to withstand its clash with Marxist-Leninist
ideology, which is crushing the entire demagogy, hypocrisy and egoism of
capitalism.

The Cuban leader said that the ties of the Soviet Union and socialist
countries with Cuba, established despite enormous distances, are an example
of the rapprochement of peoples. We educate our people, he said, in the
spirit of internationalism, and any features of national egoism are unknown
in our country. Any struggle anywhere and any effort anywhere meet with our
people's unusually strong response.

We want to express the feelings of the Cuban Revolution before you because
you are workers, and it is precisely workers, people who work hard, who are
capable of the most profound solidarity.

Our peoples, F. Castro said, understand each other because they know the
meaning of alien oppression and oppression by the domestic bourgeoisie, and
because they had to raise aloft the banner of struggle many times. Polish
history is full of great feats and examples of patriotism legendary
throughout the world. Poles fought shoulder to shoulder with the Cubans at
the end of the last century and with the French workers on the barricades
of the Paris Commune. Polish patriots and communists have written fine
chapters of history. During the national liberation struggles they fought
for national liberation, and during the proletarian revolution they fought
for social revolution. We are sure that in the era of internationalism you
will maximally develop your internationalist feelings, because no other
pronouncement is as beautiful as this one uttered by Marx: Proletarians of
all countries, unite: It inspired the Soviet and Cuban peoples and it
enjoys solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people. At the
present time, solidarity with Vietnam and support for Vietnam is becoming a
basic cause for the entire communist movement.

Katowic comrades, F. Castro said in conclusion, we are very pleased that
you are achieving successes and we are gratified with the achievements of
the Polish people.

We understand your pride when you way that you are your country's
industrial heart. To this industrial heart of Poland we bring the greetings
of the revolutionary Cuban people, and we greet here the oldest and the
youngest generations of fighters. Your secretary has told us that veterans
of 1919, 1920 and 1921, communist party fighters and people belonging to
new communist generations who are fighting for increased production and an
even fuller identification of the party with the masses are present here.
This is a fine gathering of people who symbolize the finest hours
experienced by the Polish people. The Polish People's heart, too, beats
amid this revolutionary setting.
-END-