-DATE-
19770717
-YEAR-
1977
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F.CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
PIONEERS CAMP DEDICATION
-PLACE-
VARADERO, MANTANZAS PROVINCE
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19770718
-TEXT-
FIDEL CASTRO SPEAKS AT PIONEERS CAMP DEDICATION

FL180033Y Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2351 GMT 17 Jul 77 FL

[Speech by President Fidel Castro at dedication ceremony of the 26 July
International Pioneers Camp in Varadero, Matanzas Province--live]

[Text] Dear little comrades, I know that some of you do not speak Spanish.
Despite that, I expect us to understand each other.  I believe that there
is always a language in which everyone understands each other.  It is the
language of solidarity, the language of fraternity and the language of joy.
All of us understand that language.

First, I want to congratulate the Pioneers, their organization, their
guides, their teachers, their instructors for the magnificent artistic show
you have given today.  One could appreciate the quality and progress.  And
we are very happy in thinking that our Pioneers will be able to make an
important cultural and artistic contribution during the festival that will
beheld in our country next year.

Today's fiesta is truly a beautiful one.  [There was] the show--joy, joy
and awareness at the same time, joy and, at the same time, organization,
discipline, seriousness and even solemnity.  I do not believe any one of us
or of you will forget the serious and solemn moment when the flags
representing the homelands of all the delegation present here were raised.
It seemed to us that our national anthem today was more beautiful and more
emotional.

We saw your joy.  We heard your songs and the deeply felt and profound
words of the little comrades who spoke here on your behalf.  Actually, do
you know what we felt at that moment?  Well, we regretted not being your
age.  In our times we could not experience anything similar to this.  In
our times there was no revolution, there were no mass organizations such as
this one [Union of Young Pioneers], there were no ceremonies such as this
one, there were no camps such as this one.

It is a source of joy, happiness and satisfaction for us to be able to
share with you these success and these advances.  It is not a case of
extraordinary things.  These are human things.  These are just things.
But before the revolution there was neither the human spirit nor the spirit
of justice.  These things were brought by the revolution which did nothing
but put things in order, did what had to be done and saw that everyone, as
Buillen [Cuban poet] says, had what he had to have.  [applause] [The
revolution] worked and struggled for the progress of the nation and for the
people's well-being, but the children have been the number one concern of
all of us and the number one priority of the revolution.  That is why for
all of us, not only for you but for the grownups, Children's Day is a great
day.  Children's Day is a very important day.

Our revolution has done the maximum for the children, everything that has
been within its reach.  Of course, we have advanced some.  We have already
inaugurated an international Pioneers camp.  In the first years we could
think of this.  We thought of the schools that did not exist, the primary
schools that did not exist, of the innumerable places in this country that
did not have a school, did not have a book and did not have a teacher.  In
the first years we thought of the hundreds of thousands of children, who
did not have schools or teachers.  Now, as of several years ago there are
schools throughout the entire country for all the children and there are
teachers throughout the entire country for all children.  But teachers not
only for the children but also for adults who did not have teachers or
schools when they were children and were unable to learn to read and write.
The revolution brought schools and teachers for the children and for
adults.  However, the problem was not solved.

After several years those children who already had schools and teachers
began to graduate to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth grades,
and then we did not have secondary schools or secondary school teachers.
It was necessary to work hard, make plans to also have secondary schools,
teachers, educational detachments, to have polytechnic and technological
schools and teachers, and to expand our universities, which were very
small.  After primary school, as you know come secondary schools, the
middle higher education, and then the universities.

During those years the revolution worked hard to make these schools
available.  Hundreds of them have been built in the last few years--these
beautiful secondary schools in rural areas and the polytechnic and
technological schools and the new university faculties which are being
built all over the country.  You may think much was done, but despite all
this there are not enough schools.  Teachers' training schools were needed
because there were not enough teachers.  Physical education and sports
teachers' training schools were needed to teach children physical education
and sports.  Military-vocational schools were needed, civilian-vocational
schools for the most outstanding students were needed.  Schools to train
nursery school teachers were needed to teach those who are smaller than
you, for your small brothers and sisters.  More schools are still needed.
For example you saw the students from Matanzas Art school who played a
great role here.  And all the provinces have been organizing their art
schools.  Don't you agree that these boys are doing a good job, don't you
think so?  [crowd shouts "yes"]

At one time we said that a military-vocational school, a
civilian-vocational school, teachers' schools, physical education teachers'
schools, sports schools were needed in each province.  However, an art
school is also needed in each province.  And our party has decided to
implement this policy and build in future years art schools for each
province.  You saw the painters today.  You saw how well the Pioneers
sang, and how they played the guitar, the violin, the piano and how they
danced. All this was very beautiful, was it not?  You liked it.  [crowd
shouts "yes!"] Then, besides the amateurs movement, we must also train the
best ones in the arts schools.  The revolution has done all this for you,
for the children, for the Pioneers.

After all this, schools of all kinds, universities, then it was the turn of
the Pioneers camps.  The Jose Marti camp was inaugurated 2 years ago.  Now
the Pioneers want to call it the Children's City or the Pioneers' City.
This year it has a capacity of 14,000 Pioneers.  It should have been 15,000
but we did not meet the goal.  Despite all this, this year over 100,000
Pioneers will use the Jose Marti camp; 100,000 is not a few, just during
the summer.

Last year, the Ismaelillo camp was inaugurated in the country's central
region.  Many thousands of Pioneers will also use this camp this summer.
Previously we built the Siboney camp in Camaguey.  And in the provinces the
comrades in the party and the comrades in the Union of Pioneers are
thinking how to resolve this problem.

Then it was the turn of the Pioneers palaces.  In some provinces, a
beautiful house was selected; in other provinces another.  In this manner
the Pioneers palaces are being organized modestly.  An artistic group which
preformed well here comes from the Camaguey Pioneers camp.  You see what
the Pioneers learn in the Pioneers palaces.  In Havana the Pioneers palace
is being built for the Havana Pioneers.

It's true we like the Pioneers camps, and we like the Pioneers palaces.
What a shame that we cannot do it by magic, that magic which the girl said
was reality.  I have explained to you the order in which all these things
are being done.  We would like for each province to have its own Pioneers
camp, or in the central region of the country, one for three provinces, but
for no province in Cuba to be without a Pioneers camp.  And that no Cuban
province remain without its Pioneers palace.  We will work, the revolution
will work, the workers will work to achieve this.

We cannot devote our time only to building Pioneers palaces and camps,
because we still have to build secondary, technological pre-university
schools and university faculties.  We must continue to build primary and
cindergarden schools and polyclinics and hospitals.  As you know and know
well there are many secondary schools which are not good; there are some
primary schools which are not good and which do not have all they liked.
And since we must do all these things at the same time, we cannot devote
our time exclusively to building Pioneers camps and palaces.

However, we are advancing despite everything.  Each year we have something
new.  Through the years and work we will have those marvellous things that
we like so much.

Today we can commemorate Children's Day with this camp.  It is not a bad
one.  The visitors say it is very beautiful and very good.  Actually, one
of the best places on one of the country's best beaches was selected.
There are those who say it is one of the best beaches in the world.  They
say it is one of the best.  We are happy.  And the international camp has
been built on one of the best parts of this beach.  It is planned in the
future to build the Matanaza's Province Pioneers camp on the other side of
the water tank.  Thus the international camp will have a provincial camp as
its neighbor.  When the kitchen was built it was built much bigger not so
that you could be here alone--for you number a thousand or a little over,
and do you know what the capacity of the kitchen is?  It is 4,000.  And the
kitchen for the provincial Pioneers camp [as heard] is ready and today we
visited the kitchen, which is functioning.  There are some big pots there
like this.  And we asked the chief cook how much rice he could cook there
in a single pot.  He told me:  200 pounds of rice, 1,200 rice ratios.  And
I asked him:  How about the beans--where do you cook them?  He says:  over
there.  And in how much time?  He said to me:  15 minutes.  I said to him:
What do you mean 15 minutes?  I remember that when I was jailed in the Isle
of Pines I was a cook for time to time and I had a small pot there and it
took me 2 hours to cook the beans.  They did not want to soften.
[laughter] And the chief cook in your kitchen cooks them in 15 minutes.
You can see the equipment you have there.  You already have the equipment
for the provincial camp.  The time will come when all the provinces will
have their camps and, I repeat, their Pioneers palaces.

We had hoped that the Havana palace could be completed on the occasion of
the festival.  It is more or less 40 percent complete but we are not too
certain that it can be completed for the festival [presumably the world
youth and student festival].  Well, this depends on the national bank.  It
depends on many things because money is also required to build these camps
and we are not rich and that is why we have to proceed little by little.
Let us hope that the Pioneers palace under construction at Lenin Park in
Havana can be completed for the festival.

I believe that for all of you the festival is a very important event.  I
know that the Pioneers have been working for the success of the festival
and have been inventing many things to see how they can help the festival.
It is the festival of the youths and students and we cannot forget that the
Pioneers are also students and the world festival also belongs to you.  To
a certain extent, what is this gathering if not a sort of a world festival?
What is this camp where approximately 500 of our country's best Pioneers
meet with almost 400 Pioneers of 25 other countries of the world?  The
world youth and student festival will be something like this.  What a
beautiful thing that meeting will be.  What a beautiful thing that
friendship is, that solidarity.  How gratifying it is to think that our
best Pioneers meet here with hundreds of young Pioneers from countries in
Africa, Asia, Latin America the USSR, the socialist countries and even from
Pioneer organizations in countries that are not socialist.

It is also gratifying to think that here among us we meet children from the
United States.  This place undoubtedly is very beautiful.  It has a
privileged natural area.  The beach is magnificent.  The camp looks like a
place built there over the rocks a fow meters from the beach.  But it is
not the quality of the camp or the beauty of the palace or the magnificence
of the beach and sea that give the greatest value to this institution, but
what it represents and what is symbolizes.

This the role of the international Pioneers camps:  To make it possible for
the country's best Pioneers to meet each year with Pioneers from all over
the world.  What this symbolizes and what this means in the human order, in
the order of solidarity and in the internationalist order, what there ties
mean, and what this awareness and this mentality that is created from the
early years, and the cultural political and revolutionary value of these
meetings means is the possibility that our best children may have a broader
and more humans vision of the rest of the world.  This is the role of the
international Pioneers camps.  Cuban children visit camps in many
countries, as it is done every year, and children from all countries are
received by the Cuban children in their international camp.  This is a
symbol of what future humanity should be.  This is like an example of the
ties of solidarity and fraternity which should be established among all
peoples of the world.  This is what Marx, Engels and Lenin wanted for all
humanity.  This is already practiced in part and to a certain degree by our
children.  Furthermore, these meetings will be a practices lesson in
geography, politics and revolutionary principles for the best Cuban
Pioneers.  They have already begun to establish ties for the future.  Who
knows what the future will bring for each one of you.  If we think
logically the best Pioneers in the primary and secondary schools will also
probably be the best among the country's youths in the future.  And from
the best youths in the country will come the nation's political cadres and
leaders in the future.

It is possible that some of the children with whom you meet today you will
meet again in the future when you are young people at the world festival or
at meetings of youth organizations.  It is very possible, it is certain,
that as time passes some of you will meet again with some of these children
of today as future leaders of their countries.  It is really marvelous that
such things can happen.

Some believe that the Pioneers do not understand certain things.  And I
believe that yes, the Pioneers understand many things, many things about
politics and many things about the revolution, and many things about the
present world and the future.  They know well that not everything will be
happiness, a party, that is life many efforts will have to be made, much
work and many sacrifices.

We said before that we would like to be  your age today, that in our times
we did not have these things.  But this does not mean that everything has
been done in our country, or that everything has been done in the world
because in our country and in the world, many things still need to be done.
These things will have to be done by you of the new generations.
[applause] The problems of tomorrow's world will be serious problems.  A
large part of the world is living under conditions which are characterized
by underdevelopment, poverty, misery, lack of culture, hunger.  The world's
population is growing in an extraordinary manner.  Future mankind will have
to face serious problems.  For this reason the important thing is not what
we do only for your welfare and for your happiness.  For these we do
things and we do them gladly.  The most important thing still is what we do
for your training; for your education--the effort we make to have you reach
the highest level of education, of culture and of technical and scientific
training.  The most important thing is the effort that the revolution is
making to turn each one of you Pioneers into integral men and women of
tomorrow.

And there will be no material wealth comparable to the spiritual and
intellectual wealth that society can offer each of you, and not only
cultural, technical and scientific preparation but, above everything, the
ideological and political preparation which the revolution can give each of
you.  [applause]

I am absolutely certain that the Pioneers understand this and they also
understand the meaning of the effort they are called upon to make in the
daily fulfillment of their duty in schools, studies, work and activities
they may be assigned.  When there is talk of the duty to study, it is not
done to bother children.  When there is talk of promotions it is not done
to bother the children, it is not done to make their lives difficult.  It
is all to the contrary, it is for the future happiness and the future life
of each of you.

It is also true that if the adults can do much for the children, the
children can also do much for the adults.  Parents feel happy when their
children are happy and they do everything possible to provide them
well-being and joy.  But the children have an important way to make
everyone of us happy, to make all adults happy, to make all parents happy,
and that is by studying, behaving correctly in every sense, respecting
teachers, respecting adults, acquiring that which is called formal
education and earning the best grades.  A day will come when you will be
like us, but with one difference.  In the world we lived in when we were
children there was much lack of education, much ignorance, much illiteracy.
The world in which you will live will not be a world of ignorants, of
uneducated, of illiterates because all the country's children are studying
and because all who reach the sixth grade have the opportunity to enter
secondary schools, and because in one way or another all will have the
opportunity for higher education.  You will live in a highly educated
society.  No one can predict how that society will be because this
experience is not known in our country and it just began to be known in the
world with the socialist revolution.

But you, the children of this generation, the Pioneers of today will live,
I repeat, in a highly educated society and it will therefore be a more
rigorous one and more (?demanding) in every sense.  One must be prepared
to live in that society starting now.  You will have the historic
responsibility of continuing to build socialism in our fatherland and
creating the bases for the construction of communism.  [applause] You will
have the extraordinary historic responsibility of continuing to develop our
revolution's internationalist awareness, spirit and practice.  [applause]

And this education you are receiving and this international Pioneers camp
represent the bases for that internationalist spirit.  The world is
becoming increasingly (?smaller), communications are increasingly faster.
With the development of socialism and communism mankind will become like a
single family and our plant like a single fatherland.  The new generations
must prepare themselves for that future world.  And an international camp
like this one constitutes a practical education for such preparation.
[applause]

Let us give the deepest thanks to the workers, planners and party cadres
who pushed the construction of this beautiful camp, and by their effort and
sweat have made possible the happiness of all of you.  Yesterday in
Artemisa we inaugurated a manusoleum for the remains of 17 comrades who
died in the Moncada or Sierra Maestra and came from that region.  Today we
are inaugurating this Pioneers camp, this marvelous Pioneers camp.
However, these two things are not isolated, they are on the contrary
indissolubly united because the achievements, today's achievements, today's
successes, today's triumphs were possible only with the blood that was shed
yesterday, with the sacrifices of the past.  Soon we will commemorate the
24th anniversary of Moncada.  Let us also thank all those who fell a long
time before Moncada and those who fell after the Moncada and those who fell
even longer after the Moncada.  [applause]

We know that our Pioneers understand this, they understand that much of
what we have today is owed to those who made sacrifices yesterday.
[applause] However, they also know that much of what future generations
will have will have to be done with the sacrifices and efforts of our
present generation of Pioneers [applause], that the opportunity to be
heroes will always exist, that the opportunity to make sacrifices will
always exist, that the opportunity to struggle will always exist.  The
future years will also be years of effort, of sacrifice, of struggle, of
heroism, but they will also be years of victories will have the possibility
of doing similar and even better things than those done by our generation
and past generations.  [applause]

On this beautiful day, we congratulate all the Cuban Pioneers and we salute
all the Pioneers who are visiting us from other countries.  With great
satisfaction, we could say with pride, our party and our revolutionary
government gives you this international camp which by your decision will be
called the 26 July International Camp.  [applause] Fatherland or death!  We
will win!  [crowd shouts "We will win along with Fidel"] [applause]
-END-