-DATE-
19720929
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
12TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CDR
-PLACE-
HOSE MARTI PLAZA DE LA REVOLUCION
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720929
-TEXT-
CASTRO PRAISES CDR ON TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY

Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 0203 GMT 29 Sep 72 F/C

[Speech delivered by Cuban Prime Minister Maj Fidel Castro at the mass
rally marking the 12th anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution [CDR] held at the Jose Marti Plaza de la Revolucion in
Havana--live, with simultaneous broadcast on domestic television and
International Service]

[Text] Dear Comrade Angela Davis [applause], dear guests, dear comrades of
the Party Central Committee [applause], dear comrades of the CDR's
[applause]. We approach this 12th anniversary of the CDR's at a favorable
time in the revolution, at a time when our people are devoting themselves
with increasing enthusiasm to creative work, at a time when the
revolutionary awareness and the political culture of our people are
reaching their highest levels, at a time when we are going forward more
certain than ever before. In this high point of the revolution, the CDR's
have played an important role and have reflected upon themselves the
victories of the revolution, the progress or the revolution. Everything in
the revolution is growing, and the CDR's have grown as well.

This impressive mass organization now has 4,236,000 members [applause],
that is, about 70 percent of the adult population. This growth did not
result by chance. This is the result of 12 years of struggle, enthusiastic
struggle. These are 12 years of accumulated experience, 12 years of
development of the revolutionary spirit of our people. That mass of
millions, that militancy, that combativeness, that force reflects the
deepening of revolutionary ideas in the heart of the people. [applause]

The struggle and the combat have made us stronger. It is very significant
that 70 percent of the adult population forms part of this organization
which was created to defend the revolution. [applause] This is an
organization of activists, of fighters, of combatants, who contribute their
services to the revolutionary cause of varying front lines. We have our
adult population and behind it stand our youth, our students, our school
children. This represents the unity of the people, the homogeneity of the
people, the strength of the revolution, which has been forged and
accumulated during these years of struggle.

This year we have seen the CDR's at work in all places, in all activities,
and we have seen them during the past several years. culminating in this
12th anniversary. We have seen then enlivening and filling with happiness
all corners of the country. We have seen then preparing and organizing
themselves. We saw them today marching to this rally from every part of the
country in perfect organization. At the time we were in the outskirts of
the city, and we saw interminable motorcades moving down all the roads, all
the streets, converging toward this ceremony. What exemplary organization
true enough, as this event began tonight, there was a little bit of milling
around. We asked ourselves: What is going on tonight?

These events are, however, increasingly marked by their discipline, their
order, and their attentiveness. We asked ourselves at the time: What will
our guests think? For an instance it worried us to think that our honored
guest and honored member of the CDR-Comrade Angela Davis [applause]--was
going to speak. Considering the difficulties that language and translations
always pose, we imagined: What anxieties are running through her mind? Yet,
we knew we had to speak next.

Do not think I am criticizing you. I knew you would become orderly. I knew
you would give Comrade Angela Davis all the attention due her. [applause] I
have also observed the attention with which you listen every year to the
report on the committee's activities, and I further knew of the recognition
and respect you always feel toward Comrade Marturelos. [applause]

It fell to him to talk first. The commotion came from over there. I indeed
know what happened. Perhaps I had better not say it. [shouts of no, no]
Some have said it was because of the heat. Did you not say it was the heat?
[shouts of no, no] Was it not the heat? [shouts of no, no] Others said or
thought that the rally was too crowded. [shouts of no, no] ...that there
were too many people in the plaza. [shouts of no, no]

Oh, so that is it. Some of you say you wanted to see Angela up close.
[shouts of yes, applause] Then it turns out that Angela is to blame.
[shouts, applause] The imperialists were unable to convict her, but we here
blame her for the agitation. [shouts of no, and viva]

Where is Ceiba 8? Where is Ceiba 5, and Ceiba 7? Where is Ceiba 1? You of
the secondary school over there, raise your hands. [crowd shouts] What
happened is not the result of our having retrenched, it is not because we
are disorganized, what has happened is that recently a new mass has
emerged--a mass of young people who study and work.

Apparently, the youths are healthy, well fed. [shouts of yes, yes] They are
as enthusiastic as the CDR. [applause, shouting] Without passing a final
judgment.... [Castro does not complete sentence] Is there no representation
from the Isle of Pines here? Apparently they did not come. As we see it,
this is what happened: Some of the students were behind, in the back and
they tried to push to the front. This is caused by the comrades'
enthusiasm--youth and its energy.

As we are also cognizant Of the energies of the CRD, we asked ourselves
what was going to happen between the children and their parents, with the
children pushing ahead to the front. I asked myself: How about these
children? We who know the CDR so well "always with the guard up." [CDR
slogan] They indeed are in the front rank.

We know that there are many builders among you, that you have the spirit of
a builder. I asked myself: What is going to happen here? I spoke to my
Comrade Anibal, and gave him my idea. He agreed. He was quite logical: In
order to avert these earthquakes next year--and remember that the schools
already exist--it cannot be overlooked that a mass of people that are young
and numerous force their way forward, seeking to occupy the front line.
[sentence as heard] So, spaces must be reserved [applause] because
otherwise it is impossible. Then, next year, at mass rallies, we will give
them fixed positions 50 that they do not have to claim them. They will be
given a certain order, the schools with more graduated occupying the front.
[applause] In the space we assign them, there will be a specific order in
accordance with the merits and graduates of each school.

This explanation is for all, for the people here present, for the
television audience, and above all for our guests. In order to point out
that despite that new phenomenon, we must not be discouraged, but, on the
contrary, we should be happy to know that this is the result of the
progress of the new forces, and that we the organizers are to be blamed for
it because we did not foresee this phenomenon despite the fact that a few
days ago 44 schools were inaugurated with facilities for 22,000 students.
[applause]

While last year we had six or seven schools, now we have 51 schools of this
type, and next year instead of having 100,000 youths in this plan, [Castro
corrects himself] instead of 75,000 youths in this plan by 28 September,
coinciding with the 13th anniversary, there will be 100,000. So, if we do
not make room for them and assign them a place, then we will risk the
possibility of greater disorder.

It is a pity that for these reasons it was impossible to pay attention to
the report of the comrade leader of the CDR's. The report on the year's
activities, I have it here but I will not read it, so do not get restless.
We have analyzed this report and it outlines a large number of activities
during the year that are really and truly astonishing from the point of
view of the internal work of the organization. When we say the internal
work of the organization we are almost always referring to the internal
work of the adult population of the country. [Child's voice from crowd
yells Fidel] What do you want [Fidel answers, the crowd laughs] He must be
in fourth grade, not even that, it must be second grade and he is already
yelling. [more laughter from crowd] He already wants to be heard in this
event, so you can imagine the ones coming behind him.

I believe that they will be stronger. Listen to his cry. You want a
scholarship? Is it for you or for the little one? [more laughter] Let us
keep our speech going before all the children begin talking.

We said that the internal activities of the organization include more than
4 million persons, and they range from the information service to direct
work with the masses. The groups of political studies, which are held
monthly, are attended by 2 million persons. These include all types of
cadres, political lecturers, persons in charge of the study groups, the
cadres by the thousands who have been trained by the organization, the
superior schools From that activity of an interior nature, those which
refer to the organization itself to those activities in which the
organization goes all out in joining in revolutionary tasks, and which are
infinite, we can almost say that they are too many for us to mention them.

We all recall that the organization--this was also brought out her tonight
by Comrade Angela Davis--was born for the purpose of defending the
revolution, just as its name implies. As we have said before, for a long
time now this organization has gone beyond its initial functions. It went
beyond, it did not give up on them. It doubled its activities without
abandoning any. The counterrevolution is increasingly weaker. The crushing
force of the masses has reduced it to a minimum expression. The progress of
the revolution eliminates its opposite, which is the counterrevolution. The
counterrevolution has without doubt increasingly weakened. This does not
mean that it does not exist. Even though it is weaker, it has the great
supporter imperialism, which still exists. It practices counterrevolution
internationally on its own. The guard will never be let down, whatever the
size of the coumterrevolution. We must be very alert in this regard.

The formidable strength of the masses, the formidable strength of the
organization is sufficient to take care of the original task and to develop
many more tasks without any problems as well as new tasks. Every year there
are new tasks. The interesting thing about this is that none of the
previous tasks are dropped. New ones emerge and the previous ones increase.
In this manner, the matter or revolutionary vigilance is something really
formidable.

Four million adults, that is, all of the people, organizing the defense of
the revolution on all fronts, on all fronts of vigilance. Who is going to
make a wrong move? Who can make a wrong move? Not even an ant. Why? Because
the actions of 4 million activists are involved.

In the beginning, and even now as a memory, the enemies of the revolution,
the dilettantes abroad talk about the CDR's as if they belonged to a spy
organization. They think they are groups of fanatics, small groups,
dedicated to defend the revolution. Perhaps they cannot get this in their
heads, because this is too big for their heads--to understand that all the
people are working at this in an organized manner. [applause]

Those who are indeed a tiny minority are not the ones who are conducting
surveillance, but the ones under surveillance. The latter are becoming
fewer in number, while the CDR increase in number. Thus there are more and
more citizens who become CDR members rather than "worms."

This they cannot get into their heads. Furthermore, that is one of the many
many activities of the committees. As we said, every activity grows yearly,
every one of them. We remember that one of the new activities which started
years ago was the collection of raw material. If figures are examined, this
has increased year after year.

This year, for instance, they collected 88 million glass jars. [applause]
This is equivalent to [the output] of a huge glass factory. I wonder, where
did they get so many jars. As regards raw material for the paper industry,
30 million tons were collected--a record. [applause] Blood
donations--130,000 [unit of measurement not mentioned]--a record. One
hundred thirty thousand in this country, when everyone knows about the
business done with blood in the past. Talking with some doctors, they
recalled all the incredible practices that had existed in connection with
medicine--from false medicine to the blood-selling business.

Some laboratories even watered down and colored up the blood. And they sold
this for 5 pesos. [The doctors told] about individuals who died in this
country because they lived by selling their own blood. Many of these things
are hard to believe when one hears them now. Yet now it is the people who
donate all the blood our hospitals need.

Furthermore, when blood has been needed, as when the earthquake occurred in
Peru, the people were capable of making 100,000 donations in 10 days. One
must not examine the quantitative aspect of the blood, but rather the moral
effect the quantitative moral aspect which such a gesture by the masses
means. [applause] That is an activity in which the CDR have worked.

If we examine the services performed for public health, we would find the
activities impossible to count. These ranged from organizing lectures on
health, distributing information pertaining to preventive medicine,
struggling to prevent sicknesses and giving pap smears, to programs of
vaccinations by means of which many sicknesses have been eradicated from
our country-beginning with poliomyelitis, which was a scourge--and
including many other contagious diseases.

This struggle is leading us now to becoming a country that has virtually,
almost everywhere, rid itself of tuberculosis, which had been a terrible
plague here.

Moreover, this preventive medicine struggle is ideal medically, inasmuch as
it obviates the need to cure a sick individual because he is kept healthy.
The spreading of health information has resulted in the cutting down of
infant mortality, the prolongation of the life of the citizens. This
improves the people's health standards.

The work in the field of education rags from seeking pioneer leaders, the
recruiting of teachers and these number in the thousands--to work with
exemplary parents. Then too, in addition to all material practices, schools
are maintained and improved, while struggles are waged to increase
registration and to combat school dropouts.

Also, in the field of services, the CDR's actions is already discernable.
Assemblies to examine the performance of services and the distribution of
information are held--assemblies which are a vehicle for the masses to best
cooperate in providing the best services.

The CDR organize councils to support transportation, seeing to it that
equipment is maintained, cared for, and preserved. They struggle against
traffic accidents, and publicize traffic regulations and measures that can
help save many lives and tens of thousands from being injured every year.
If we do not combat this problem, as the number of cars and vehicles
mounts, we do not know how many lives will be lost and how many persons
will be crippled.

The CDR struggle to provide all kinds of social services. There are new
activities, too. There are the beautifying and cleaning up of cities--this
has been eminently successful in Oriente Province. And 16 million hours of
voluntary work have been performed in that endeavor. [applause]

Work on construction projects is also new, as is the repairing of streets.
The CDR began last year by supporting the construction of the Latin
American stadium. There it stands. We saw it filled to capacity frequently
last year.

During these last few months, the work of the CDR has veered toward helping
out on fundamental projects. The main project was the Tallapiedra
hydroelectric plant. [applause] You may recall that that plant normally
would have taken a year and a half to build, but the CDR issued the call to
support it "as though we were at war."

You recall the participation of the CDR's, which supported materially,
spiritually and morally the work which transmitted their enthusiasm to the
construction workers and made possible the construction of that plant in a
period of just 10 months. It was requested that the project be completed by
July and in July it was completed. It was requested that the plant be in
operation by the 28th, and it was ready for operation on that date.

This is a matter of great interest to us, because during those days we
suffered from blackouts due to power shortages. It was not a matter of lack
of available power capacity so much as of very poor utilization of existing
capacity. The efforts of the workers of the electric enterprise, the
outstanding improvements made in maintenance, the drives for saving power
in which the CDR's participated, made it possible this summer to have an
improved situation in the western region of the country. The number of
blackouts was reduced considerably. With the new power plant that will go
into operation, capacities will be increased by 60,000 kilowatts.

This makes it easier to maintain the other power plants. It is easier to
stop a unit for maintenance and keep the maintenance program up to date.
Even though this does not solve the problem, even though we still have
shortages in electrical capacity, even though, particularly during the
remainder of the year, we will be observing that shortage to some extent,
nevertheless the situation has improved remarkably as a result of
completing the work at that power plant. Not only did the CDR's work in
construction and assembly operations, they even carried out many tasks such
as visiting national fronts of friendly socialist countries. They secured
the cooperation of enthusiastic technicians from the GDR, as well as from
Bulgaria and other countries, who participated in the construction of the
plant.

They established contact with the Fatherland Front in Czechoslovakia. They
established contact with work centers where certain parts and equipment for
that plant had to be manufactured. They carried out international
negotiations and made possible the fulfillment of the goal.

A plant similar to the one in Tallapiedra is also under construction in
Regla. Sometime in the future, it will require the support or the CDR's.
New units of 100,000 kilowatts each are about to be constructed. These will
be completed by 1975 in Mariel. This will make it possible for us to solve
adequately the power shortage by generating sufficient energy for
industrial production as well as the needs of the people. This is a
concrete case of the practicality of the work of the CDR's.

But, they have also participated in numerous construction works. They are
now participating in the construction of the dairy farm complex; they
participate in the repair of streets as the availability of materials
permits; hey participate in the construction of Matanzas Stadium; they
participate in the construction of Cienfuegos Stadium; and they have
participated in hundreds of construction projects throughout the country.

The energy that is being generated is such that what we are going to run
short of is materials, not manpower. You have brought with you here today
the helmet of the construction workers as a symbol of this new activity in
which the CDR's have become active. If there are no CDR members supporting
the construction work in Regla, it is because we are still awaiting a
solution to the supply problem. If we were not able to do any more in
repairing streets, it is because the supply of asphalt was insufficient.
This year we now have almost twice as much on hand. This is a problem that
can be tackled better now.

But we said that it is correct for you to adopt that symbol this year,
because great energy has been put forth by the CDR's, as well as by the
microbrigades of workers. We already have 850 microbrigades in the country.
They grow in great strides, like the activity of the construction workers,
like the participation of many organizations, such as the Revolutionary
Armed Forces Ministry, the Construction Ministry, the well deserved mention
of prison inmates who participated in construction work and have made
outstanding efforts. They have made great efforts in constructing dairy
farms, secondary schools, and other school construction work. All these
forces, construction workers, soldiers, Interior Ministry combatants,
workers' microbrigades, youth columns, followers of Camilo and Che,
[applause] workers' microbrigades CDR's and prison inmates have contributed
to improve the quality of construction policies.

All those factors have provided a tremendously constructive impetus, which
has brought output to the peak of capacity. Our cement, steel-reinforcement
rods, and other construction material plants have become insufficient.
Those plants are now limiting things. In 1973--we are already at peak
output capacity, and we are laying out new plans as of now--in 1973, the
value of construction material will exceed 1 billion [pesos].

But of course, our energies are not limited. Thus we must put forth new
efforts to establish new material-producing plants. We need new cement
plants. At this time we are negotiating for three of them, three with
greater output capacity, to raise the production of cement from a little
more than 2 million to more than 5 million tons over the next 4 years.

We need new plants for producing bathroom fixtures, terrazo, rock, and
sand--all types of construction materials. It is such plants, not just
electricity, that we need. We rapidly reached the peak output capacity of
materials. Years ago the problem was the shortage of manual labor for
construction. But with the drive that has been shown, it is now a shortage
of materials.

With regard to school construction, we shall have built 5O percent more in
1973 than had been envisaged originally for 1975. This is why we shall have
such a large number of students entering into the new, revolutionary
educational system of study combined with work.

A few figures will give us a clear idea how this gigantic effort is
satisfying the need. This does not imply that we want to advance for the
sake of advancing, to build such projects just to build, We have 184
million children registered in primary schools, compared with about 700,000
in 1958-more than 1 million more registered now than in 1958. The number of
sixth grade graduates who enter the higher middle-school level is more than
100,000 actually 106,000. Before the revolution the number of middle and
high school students totaled only 100,000.

Furthermore, the number of students in all our secondary, technological
institutes, preuniversity and university levels, exceeds 100,000 annually.
And the number of students attending the intermediate and high schools is
300,000. Moreover, these figures are rapidly increasing.

In 1957, 78 million was spent on education, and this includes what was
stolen--almost all of it. In 1973, we will spend 700 million, Naturally,
this includes what has been spent, 76 million, and what is being spent on
school building.

Our new system, using youths in productive, will allow us to meet the
growing costs of education. No country with an underdeveloped economy could
afford the luxury of virtually universal education without applying the
study-work formula.

This 700 million is a very high figure, but that is the best and most
promising investment the country can make. This is because every building
becomes a production center--each school is both an educational and a
production center. Furthermore, this means an economical production center.
This is what these schools are.

There are more than 100 brigades engaged in building schools; more than 150
brigades are building dairies, and the same number building roads. Dozens
of brigades are building factories, dams and other installations.
Altogether there are about 500 such brigades throughout the country.

The labor force is not equal everywhere. In the west, in Havana, there is a
labor shortage. The Antillan steel mill is being expanded to raise its
production from 150,000 to 300,000 tons. This is the steel used for
construction.

The Regla hydroelectric plant is being built. Construction of the Mariel
100,000-kilowatt hydroelectric plant has been started. Next year we will
begin construction of the new cement plant in Mariel. Also, a new plant for
expanding, even tripling, the output of the Artemisa plant will be started.

In the eastern part of the city the dairy complex is under construction.
And many more economic and social projects are underway.

The support of the committees will be needed for several of these projects.
I had forgotten to mention that you have been helping to build, to complete
work on that modern hospital being constructed in the central Havana
district. We have many construction projects of that kind. The cooperation
of the CDR's will be needed. The cooperation of the workers' microbrigades
will be needed. The workers' microbrigades have worked on the construction
of secondary schools. They are about to complete construction of the water
treatment plant for eastern Havana. They are working at Regla.

The support of the microbrigades will be needed in Regla. They will be
needed at the dairy farm complex; they will be needed at Antillana de Acero
[steel mill]; they will be needed to support the construction of cement
plants and building materials industries during next year. All these
industries are essential for the improvement of family living conditions,
for the improvement of living conditions of all workers. Thus, power plants
as well as dairies and construction industries processing gravel, sand,
steel rods, sanitary products, in order to stay ahead of the microbrigades,
which will definitely solve the worrisome problem of housing, need to
expand their sources of material for construction work. In that regard, the
support of both the workers' microbrigades and the CDR's will be necessary.

We have reached a situation, I repeat, in which available energies are
greater than material resources. All of you wearing the construction
workers' helmet, which represents the 8 million hours of volunteer work you
have contributed to construction projects, are perfectly capable of
understanding that necessity.

I repeat the manpower situation is not the same throughout the country.
However, the problems that exist are distributed throughout the entire
country. It is not the same to build 200, 100, or 150 schools in the cities
as to build these schools in rural areas, in the sugar centrals, in small
villages. It is not the same to build in the cities as to build hundreds
and hundreds of dairies throughout the whole country. It is not only the
number of projects, or the order of the construction, but the way that they
are distributed. When the schools are built, when the dairies are built in
rural areas, networks of roads are needed; so are water supplies for human
consumption and agriculture. Electric networks are needed, as are
aqueducts, sewers, and an infinite number of jobs.

That is why you will have the opportunity in 1973, which will be a year of
great growth in construction, but in which we will have reached the maximum
amount of available materials. Throughout the entire island you will have
the chance to cooperate in this effort, especially in the effort to
increase the production of construction materials. There you have the tasks
for the next year, without forgetting the stadiums which are waiting to be
built by you, the hospitals, and all the tasks you have performed up to
now, I repeat that one of the most notable things about the work of the
committees is that every year they take on new tasks while the old tasks
increase. This is apart from the fact that the characteristics of these
tasks link the masses with the solution of their own problems.

When democracy is discussed, the democracy that was known is that of the
bourgeois politicians. What was known were the lies which the classist
society used to hide the exploitation of man. That was the democracy that
was discussed. It could not give birth to anything else than what it gave
birth to: poverty, illness, oppression, a cultural void; death, and
unhappiness. That was the past history of our country and the past of many
other countries, which have also practiced that bourgeois democracy in
underdeveloped countries inspired by Yankee imperialism.

Today, everything in this country, every project, every stone laid, every
pipe, every branch of industry, every sack of cement, every manufactured
product, every store, every poor little store--because many of our stores
are still the old grocery stores--everything done in this country, every
service be it educational, medical, or communications, everything done is
directly related to the lives of the citizens. The committees of defense
are increasingly participating in these activities which deal with their
own lives and interests.

In the committees, as well as in the other mass organizations, the
structure of a real democracy has been created; a structure for the widest
participation of the people in all their problems has been created. We have
talked of this before, when we discussed the manner in which we should
organize the community--a task in which the mass organizations and
especially the defense committees were to play a fundamental role. In the
past year, many activities which have to deal with community problems have
increased. Even before other institutions have been created, the defense
committees and the mass organizations are in fact already exercising this
function. The true foundation upon which we can build our democratic
superstructure has been created.

To a person who has lived all his life in a capitalist society with its
stupidities, such as the ones which are habitual to him, it will be
difficult to perceive something else. However, we who have had the
privilege to live in a revolution and a revolutionary process can see many
astonishing things. Our special interest and the interest of those visiting
our country in the mass organizations and in the CDR's lies precisely in
what is new and revolutionary in them. There is also an interest in the
prospects and possibilities of these organizations within socialism and
communism. [applause]

There are urgent tasks and activities in daily life. This urgent work has
been done and has allowed many possibilities to be discovered. What is
promising is not what has been done, but unquestionably what is developing,
what we will find in the future.

As the committees grow they include more and more people. This means that
more and more people are participating directly in all their problems. This
organization is very promising. There are great prospects for the future
which encourage us to continue working and struggling.

The country is advancing in other areas. Today, it can be said that the
country is advancing in all areas. This does not mean that our effort is
already the best. Our effort has improved greatly, but it is not yet the
best. Many things are being done better, but they are not yet being done
the best way. We are encouraged by how we have advanced, by the magnificent
future prospects, which are solid, which are linked to the internal
consolidation of the revolution, which are linked to the consolidation of
our foreign relations with the socialist camp, with the world struggling
against imperialism, with the so-called Third World countries that
constitute a great part of Africa and Asia. Our foreign relations and
especially our relations with the socialist community and with the Soviet
Union [applause] are more solid today than ever.

The world is changing and it is changing rapidly. Even Latin America around
us is changing. We are leaving the time far behind when imperialism, the
all-powerful master, laid down the rules and gave the orders. Today, it can
give fewer orders, and each time less attention is paid to the orders that
it gives. The panorama is visibly changing. No matter how much the
imperialists and those who disparage this revolution may regret it, the
revolution's image and strength cannot be hidden any more. We do not have
to boast about anything. Our people are not struggling for glory, vanity,
or prestige. The respect and prestige that our people have is not theirs
because they have sought it, but is the result of their serious and
unselfish effort, or their revolutionary spirit and of their international
spirit. [applause] The Cuban revolution is not looking for prestige or
respect. There are the results of its own efforts.

The imperialists' efforts have been overwhelmed by this reality. These are
the prospects clearly ahead of us. These prospects have never been as
favorable as they are today for the revolution. However, it does not mean
that the road will be easy because of this. There will be no easy roads.
There will be greater advancements and we will have a better foundation,
but advancements are made only through dedication, devotion, and work--that
is, increasingly better work. It must be clear that whatever the
advancements of the revolution may be, they will require that our effort
and work continue to improve.

It is encouraging to see the new generation. They are am encouragement for
our successes in education, in public health, in construction, in economic
work, in all areas. However, this effort must be improved. The
encouragement should be to work more and better, not to think that
everything is going well. All this is expressed by the new culture and the
new conscience of our people. It is expressed even in sports, for example
the victories at the Pan-American Games [applause] and for example the
victories at the Munich Olympics. Our teams beat those of important
industrialized nations of Western Europe. Did Cuba even dream of beating
these countries? Even the Latin Americans see the victories of the Cuban
athletes as their own, and they rightly take pride in these victories,
because the Cuban victories belong to all of Latin America and the
revolutionary world. But beyond tee medals and the athletic victories,
something else can be discerned in these athletes, and this is the Cuban
revolutionary spirit. Their discipline and dedication to sports; the energy
they expend and the morale they show.

Years ago, one would hear of well-known cases, and there are some
contemporary examples of this, as in the case of Teofile Stevenson.
[applause] He has been pointed out as being the best of the 350 boxers. He
beat the so-called "great white hope" of the corrupt U.S. sports magnates.
They offered him $3 million on that market where souls and bodies are
bought and sold, and he is considered one or the best athletes at the
Olympics. He was born of a humble family, a peasant family, in the eastern
province. And if he deserves recognition by our people for his athletic
victories which come from his discipline, his dedication to sports, his
values, his morality, we believe he also left an even better example than
all this. From the very moment then they spoke to him of the possibility of
making a million, this youth--son of a humble family--his father was a
humble laborer from the east--said that he would not trade his people for
all the dollars in the world. [applause]

What a difference between today and yesterday. The imperialists maintained
such ignominious moral conditions in this country that it was considered a
victory to get a contract, to get a salary for playing sports, to go to the
big leagues and become a professional athlete. How those magnates must be
surprised! How those traffickers in consciences must be surprised! How
surprised they must be at this example, and how they must ask themselves:
What is this? To which they will have to answer: I do not understand it.
And, as a matter of fact, they will not be able to understand it.
Considering the philosophy of gold and money and of buying and selling
people, which they place above man's most sacred values, it is impossible
for them to under stand this. For they are used to living in a world in
which gold buys anything and through which everything is sold and gained.
What an impression this example must make among these others; this spirit
which puts man's values above material gain.

This is why we say that although virtue and heroism are becoming
increasingly more commonplace in our country, all these things nowadays
seem natural and logical to us, if we look at them in the light of the
past, and in the light of a world which still lives under the yoke of the
mercantile philosophy, this phrase, this gesture, and this reply will
undoubtedly go down in history as the instance when a man began to be a
man, [applause] and ceased being merchandise, a beast, or an object of
barter, exploitation, and gain. He thus reflects the spirit of the
revolution.

We have been pointing out these things, these advancements in our country,
but we could point out others at the world level. Today we are also
witnesses of another important event--this time at the international level.
We speak now of the fact that we have with us today Comrade Angela Davis,
who spoke to us. [applause] She is here because of a great internationalist
victory. We all know and remember how her name and face were familiar to us
for many months during that international campaign--which our people
adopted with the passion, firmness and decisiveness which is common to
us--aimed at preventing her from becoming the victim of a crime, the object
of racist hate, reactionary hatred, and protecting her from becoming the
recipient of imperialist resentment because of being black and a communist.
[applause] These two qualities are the most common reasons for repression
and persecution in the United States.

And, of course, it could not be otherwise. She spoke about the conditions
of the Puerto Ricans, the Chicanos, the Latin Americans, besides the blacks
of the United States; the condition of the Indians.

There are more than 100 brigades engaged in building schools; more than 150
brigades are building dairies, and the same number building roads. Dozens
of brigades are building factories, dams and other installations.
Altogether there are about 500 such brigades throughout the country.

The labor force is not equal everywhere. In the west, in Havana, there is a
labor shortage. The Antillan steel mill is being expanded to raise its
production from 150,000 to 300,000 tons. This is the steel used for
construction.

The Regla hydroelectric plant is being built. Construction of the Mariel
100,000-kilowatt hydroelectric plant has been started. Next year we will
begin construction of the new cement plant in Mariel. Also, a new plant for
expanding, even tripling, the output of the Artemisa plant will be started.

In the eastern part of the city the dairy complex is under construction.
And many more economic and social projects are underway.

The support of the committees will be needed for several of these projects.
I had forgotten to mention that you have been helping to build, to complete
work on that modern hospital being constructed in the central Havana
district. We have many construction projects of that kind. The cooperation
of the CDR's will be needed. The cooperation of the workers' microbrigades
will be needed, The workers' microbrigades have worked on the construction
of secondary schools. They are about to complete construction of the water
treatment plant for eastern Havana. They are working at Regla.

The support of the microbrigades will be needed in Regla. They will be
needed at the dairy farm complex; they will be needed at Antillana de Acero
[steel mill]; they will be needed to support the construction of cement
plants and building materials industries during next year. All these
industries are essential for the improvement of family living conditions,
for the improvement of living conditions of all workers. Thus, power plants
as well as dairies and construction industries processing gravel, sand,
steel rods, sanitary products, in order to stay ahead of the microbrigades,
which will definitely solve the worrisome problem of housing, need to
expand their sources of material for construction work. In that regard, the
support of both the workers' microbrigades and the CDR's will be necessary.

We have reached a situation, I repeat, in which available energies are
greater than material resources. All of you wearing the construction
workers' helmet, which represents the 8 million hours of volunteer work you
have contributed to construction projects, are perfectly capable of
understanding that necessity.

I repeat the manpower situation is not the same throughout the country.
However, the problems that exist are distributed throughout the entire
country. It is not the same to build 200, 100, or 150 schools in the cities
as to build these schools in rural areas, in the sugar centrals, in small
villages. It is not the sane to build in the cities as to build hundreds
and hundreds of dairies throughout the whole country. It is not only the
number of projects, or the order of the construction, but the way that they
are distributed. When the schools are built, when the dairies are built in
rural areas, networks of roads are needed; so are water supplies for human
consumption and agriculture. Electric networks are needed, as are
aqueducts, sewers, and an infinite number of jobs.

When we visited the socialist camp we saw photos and solgans of the support
campaings for Angela Davis everywhere. This tremendous movement stopped the
perpetration of a crime, of an infamous crime. It forced the imperialists
to release Angela Davis and this movement of necessity must encourage and
consolidage the confidence of the progressive peoples. These are the other
people Angela Davis spoke about in her own fight and in her own cause.

We were impressed by Angela's words when she expressed her desire to return
to the United States to continue fighting against imperialism, against
injustice, against crime, for solidarity, against the war in Vietnam, for
solidarity with Vietnam, for solidarity with the revolutionary movement,
for solidarity with the progressive movement, for solidarity with Cuba.

And now there remain thousands of prisoners in the United States. She
eloquently discussed the growth of oppression which is revealed in
unemployment, which is revealed in the various measures taken against civil
rights and against the rights of all citizens in the United States in the
attempt to extinguish, to drown the growing movement of resistance against
imperialism.

And she referred to the case of a black soldier who refused to raise his
weapons against the Vietnamese, that is, he refused to commit the crime
which is committed daily. [applause] A man became a criminal. A man who
refused to destroy schools and hospitals and dikes, who devoted himself to
refusing to kill Vietnamese people, who refused to kill women and children,
to burn homes, to torture and commit all acts of this type. They are
demanding his head and therefore there is now a new symbol: Billy Dean
Smith. Here is a new cause for the progressive movement and a new cause for
international solidarity.

While she spoke we recalled My Lai. We recalled the massacres of the people
in Vietnamese villages, which have been publicized in photographs, firms,
in books everywhere, known by and admitted to by their authors. We recalled
that Nixon did when a court punished this murderer he was released and sent
to his home in a matter of hours. This is the philosophy of imperialism--to
encourage the criminal by telling him that the power of the empire is
behind him, that one can kill and massacre, one can kill women and
children, one can machinegun a village and burn it with all its
inhabitants, because the empire is behind you. Encourage the criminal. And
of course in the case of Billy Dean, discourage the hero, discourage the
one who refuses to commit the crime, punish the one who does not want to
kill the one who does not want to be an assassin.

We also are taking up the banner of the U.S. progressive movement during
this 28th of September celebration. [applause] We are beginning to tell the
world about this new crime, this equally symbolic act, to avoid the hate of
the imperialists falling on the head of this hero--on this hero, this man
who will go down in history as the man who refused to be a criminal when
abominable crimes were being committed. We must avoid letting him be shot,
or sent to the electric chair, or sentenced to life in prison. Let us
assume our task of publicizing and promoting the support movement among the
progressive movements and among our friends, so that the world will take up
the banner for the release of Billy Dean Smith as it did for Angela Davis.
[applause]

Angela Davis said there is much to fight for, and that some day 90 miles
from Cuba there would be a socialist United States. [applause] Skeptics see
this as impossible.

The sceptics think that these are dreams, as do the fearful and those who
shrink before difficulties. The revolutionaries never see it this way.
There was also a time when socialism was a (?dream) until the day the
Soviet Union came into existence as the first socialist state.

The liberation of the peoples of Asia and Africa seemed like a dream 30
years ago, but today it is a reality. If you want an even greater dream,
who would have thought of the Cuban revolution? What greater dream than
socialism in Cuba, just 90 miles from the United States? [applause] Nothing
seemed as impossible, although perhaps some optimists may have thought that
there was a possibility of socialism here after it had been established in
the United States. We were just a parcel of land which they thought was
their own personal property; a land subjected, dominated; a place for fun,
with brothels, cabarets; a place for climbing on Marti's statue.

What was their opinion of us? It would have seemed to us impossible to have
socialism just 90 miles from the United States. After all, had we not been
the last country to cease being a Spanish colony? Who would have guessed
that here, so close to the United States, socialism would--exist today? And
what a socialism! A socialism without any concessions whatsoever; a firm
socialism, without chauvinism of any kind; without revisionism of any sort;
without any type of concessions. [applause]

Who would have guessed that we would have this today? Had anyone written
it, he would have been called insane. This ceremony, these figures on the
number of CDR members, all of this would have been considered a dream, an
impossible dream. So, if socialism appeared here just 90 miles from the
United States, who is to say that it will not appear in the United States
itself, when the time comes, just 90 miles from Cuba? Let me say with all
sincerity that we believe this is possible. This will happen some day, and
we share this hope with the revolutionaries of the United States. We say to
them: Just as you offered us your support, so too we now offer you ours!
[applause] They shall have a bulwark of solidarity in the firmness of the
Cuban revolution's firm policies, its very line, and the revolution's firm
attitude. And we, too, shall give our support to our brothers, the
revolutionaries of the United States just as we have given our support to
Angela Davis; just as we henceforth shall carry the banner demanding the
liberation of Billy Dean Smith, and shall lend our support to all U.S.
revolutionaries. [applause] For we call the U.S. blacks, the Puerto Ricans,
the Chicanos, the Latin Americans, the Indians, the progressive
intellectuals and the workers--the other United States of which Angela
Davis spoke--our brothers. [applause]
-END-