-DATE-
19780626
-YEAR-
1978
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO ADDRESSES RALLY ON 26 JULY ANNIVERSARY
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19780728
-TEXT-
CASTRO ADDRESSES RALLY ON 26 JULY ANNIVERSARY

FL262345Y Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2210 GMT 26 Jul 78 FL

[Speech by President Fidel Castro at 26 July Santiago de Cuba mass rally to
mark 25th anniversary of the assault on Moncada Barracks--live]

[Text] Distinguished guests, party and government comrades, people of
Santiago, fellow countrymen:

We have had the opportunity on 25 occasions to commemorate that 26 July
1953--in prison, in exile, in the mountains or in the fatherland liberated
by the weapons which on that day once again took up the fight, the just,
inevitable and necessary struggle, in order to take a new and worthy path.
Our people's struggle for liberation did not begin on that day. That day
marked the renewal of the heroic march begun in 1868 by Cespedes and later
continued by that exceptional man, who was born exactly 100 years earlier,
the mastermind of Moncada, Jose Marti. [applause]

For millenia throughout the history of mankind some men have been masters
and others have been slaves, servants, laborers and peasants who, in the
final analysis, were oppressed in the most varied ways imposed upon
humanity by the selfishness of some, the impotence and weakness of others
and the objective process of the evolution of a society which evolved from
its most primitive stages to its current state--a society composed of
beings who also evolved from the most primitive state to the marvelous
physical and moral structure of man today.

Natural and social laws laid out a ruthless path and man walked along most
of this path without real awareness. What compared to former ages makes
today's humanity privileged is the fabulous possibility it holds today to
control nature and to chart its own path in the area of social development.
This is precisely what makes the economic, social and political systems
which still survive in many areas of the world such a great crime. This is
what provides its greatest moral and heroic meaning to the determination of
the peoples. This is what gives greatest meaning to the actions and
struggles of men to change their lives. This is what gives fullest meaning
to the idea of revolution.

We too had our masters. Our native ancestors also had their exterminators;
our African fathers had those who made them slaves; their descendants and
the descendants of the masters had their colonizers; the Cuban people--even
after Cuba become a nation--had their neocolonizers; our workers and
peasants had their exploiting capitalists and land-owners; our black
population and our women had those who discriminated against them; our
children had illiteracy, hunger and disease; our adults had ignorance and
unemployment our elderly had abandonment and oblivion. To fight against
these injustices we urged struggles. To fight against these systems we had
the uprisings and deaths of the Indians; the epic combats of the slaves;
the heroic struggles of the oppressed; 10 October; 24 February; 26 July.
[applause]

On the march along this long path, our generation has been privileged to
know victory and to reap its splendid fruits. That is why we can
commemorate the date of our rebellion in the freedom, independence and
justice about which so many generations of our ancestors dreamed. However,
the ideas of freedom, independence and justice were not the same in every
age. To the slave in his time it merely meant escaping from that shameful
social and legal condition; to the bourgeoisie it meant breaking the bonds
of colonialism; to the servant it meant obtaining a job and gaining full
title to the land and its fruits.

Let me correct myself. It is a printing error, not my error. [applause] I
really must correct myself. I was thinking more of Cuba, and when I said
that to the bourgeoisie it meant breaking the bonds of colonialism, it is
true, in Cuba. In Europe it was feudalism. That is why I will go back and
stick with colonialism. That is, if you will allow me to do so. [applause]
It was not a printing error.

However, to the worker the idea of freedom, independence and justice was
very different--the elimination all kinds of exploitation of man by man,
full and real equality for all human beings, fraternity and cooperation
among all the peoples of the world. Our revolution has witnessed this age
of internationalism and socialism--of the fullest and most complete meaning
of freedom and fraternity among men.

Were we perhaps more perfect revolutionaries than those who preceded us? It
was the time, the objective conditions of society and the world in which we
lived that made us Marxist-Leninists, internationalists socialists and
communists. [applause] During all ages, in all countries and at all times,
revolutionaries fought and devoted their best energies to the noble
principle of human progress, and today's revolutionaries cannot consider
themselves to be better than those of the past. What may make today's
revolutionary different is his greater knowledge of the laws which regulate
the development of human society, and this places in his hands an
extraordinary tool for struggle and for social change. Modern
revolutionaries owe to the theoreticians of scientific socialism--Marx,
Engels and Lenin--the vast treasure of their ideas. We can say with
complete conviction that without them our people would not have been able
to take such a colossal step in the history of its social and political
development.

But even with them we would not have been able to carry it out without the
fruitful seed and unbounded heroism that were planted in our people and
spirit by Marti, Maceo, Gomes, Agramonte, Cespedes and the other giants in
our fatherland's history. [applause]

This is how the true revolution was made in Cuba, starting from Cuba's
special characteristics, its own traditions of struggle and the consistent
application of universal principles. These principles exist and cannot be
ignored. Some conceited people in the world have wanted to nationalize and
chauvinize Marxism. There even have been some who thought that they were
better than Marx, Engels and Lenin, without taking the preciseness of their
research into consideration, which is characterized by the modesty of the
creators of our revolutionary doctrine. Men cannot erect monuments to
themselves for posterity; rather it is the people and objective facts which
designate a person's role in history. [applause]

It is not without reason that refuting human vanity, our wisest patriots
have taught us that all the glory of the world fits inside a grain of corn.
[applause] On a day like today, it is not necessary to recount deeds that
are well known or show the merits of an action in which many of us, present
and alive, were witnesses or participants. [applause]

First of all, let us tell our people and the youth of the world, who are
joyfully with us on this anniversary, that the triumph of an idea in any
country always is the result of the efforts of many generations and of all
of humanity. Following the armed combat, in this enclosure, inside the
walls of this fortress, dozens of youths such as those meeting in our
fatherland were atrociously tortured and later killed by those who were
defending the interests of the exploiting classes and imperialist
monopolies in a vain attempt to halt the course of history.

All iniquities were committed by the oppressor against the brave
revolutionary combatants with the anger and hatred of those who do not
tolerate or forgive people's disrespect--as in the days of Spartacus, the
Paris Commune, Vietnam or Chile. The reactionary forces have always
believed that their power is invincible and eternal.

They could not imagine that one day, in the first socialist country of he
Western Hemisphere, in Santiago de Cuba itself and inside the walls of that
military bastion, we would meet--as representatives of the best and most
progressive of the world's youth and as representatives of a people whose
sons took part in that battle to celebrate a victorious 25th anniversary
and the 11th World [Youth and Students] Festival. [applause] This shows
that no people's just desire is impossible, no reversal is insurmountable,
no sacrifice is worthless and no reactionary regime is eternal.

Why should we explain what oppression, underdevelopment, capitalism,
colonialism, neocolonialism, racism, fascism and imperialism are to the
youth of the world, since many of them have endured and are still enduring
torture? Our experience was no different. Our battle for liberty and
progress was no different from what this means in many parts of the world
today. Our struggle was the eternal struggle of all oppressed peoples. Our
enemies were and are the same enemies. Our victories are the common
victories of today and tomorrow, for all progressive humanity. [applause]

The fact is that Cuba after 25 years from that action which we commemorate
today, after a sustained, heroic and victorious struggle is successfully
building socialism close to the most ferocious and powerful empire on
earth. It is not a euphemism or an exaggeration to say that this is a
success for the world revolutionary movement and an encouraging lesson for
all peoples, even though the imperialists and their immodest traitors to
the cause of internationalism, who today have become lackeys and allies of
the oppressors of the world, try to ignore this. [applause]

All the hatred of the Yankee empire was focused on our people. An
implacable blockade, which has now lasted almost two decades, was imposed
on our fatherland. A foreign military base has been maintained in our
country with insolent contempt for national will and sovereignty.
Conspiracies, plots, sabotage and all types of aggression have taken place
over many years. Shady plans for physical elimination of leaders of the
revolution, which today are publicly acknowledged by the authors
themselves, were worked out and put into practice by the highest U.S.
authorities. There were no means, procedures, resources--no matter how
illicit or dirty--that were not used against our country. Disease and
plague, capable of eliminating useful plants and animals, were introduced
into our land by the imperialists.

An epic ideological struggle was also launched by the revolutionary
vanguard against those who long ago governed, ordered, decided and imposed
their way of thinking on the peoples of Latin America.

Why were the imperialists doing this? What were they defending? What did
they want to maintain in our land?

They wanted to maintain foreign control over our natural resources, our
wealth and the fruits of the sweat of our people. Those were corrupt and
bloodthirsty governments in the service of their interests. The peasants
had no land, the workers were exploited, the people were illiterate,
starving and hopeless. Children had no teachers or doctors. Adults had no
health services. Fathers had no jobs. Hundreds of thousands of mothers many
times had no other alternative than to turn to prostitution. There was
discrimination for reasons of race or sex. The elderly were abandoned.
There were gambling casinos, vice, corruption and bloody political
repression.

Let us compare our fatherland today with the other nations of Latin
America. There is no imperialist or capitalist domination, and today we are
the only people in this hemisphere without unemployment, without
illiteracy, without beggars, without prostitution, without gambling and
without racial discrimination. We have the highest level of health and
education, of culture and athletic prowess in all of the continent.
[applause] We are the sole owners of our economic wealth and natural
resources. We plan our development, and the economic, social and cultural
progress of our people is strictly in our own hands. Our problems are the
same objective problems of any underdeveloped country in the world. But it
is our prerogative to decide our future with austerity and humbleness--with
freedom and dignity. [applause]

How did we Cuban revolutionaries win this victory? With resolution, with
loyalty to principles, with strong ties to the masses, with absolute trust
in the justness of our cause, with the spirit of sacrifice and heroism and
the virtues of our people, with international solidarity, with the
cooperation of the progressive movement, with the socialist community, and
especially with the glorious Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
[prolonged applause]

We said "no" to yielding to adversity, "no" to problems, "no" to pessimism,
"no" to fear, "no" to surrender, "no" to opportunism, "no" to ideological
concessions, "no" to narrow nationalism and chauvinism, "no" to the abuse
of power, "no" to the violation of principles, "no" to corruption, "no" to
vanity, "no" to demagogy "no" to the ridiculous personality cult and no to
the infallibility of revolutionaries. We knew how to say "yes" to
solidarity among men, "yes" to Marxism-Leninsm, "yes" to anti-imperialism
[prolonged applause], "yes" to proletarian internationalism [applause],
"yes" to the need for a vanguard party [applause], "yes" to collective
leadership and to democratic revolutionary principles [applause], "yes" to
self-criticism and to recognizing and correcting mistakes [applause], "yes"
to humbleness, "yes" to complete and total dedication to the people, "yes"
to admiration and respect for those who with their past struggle made
today's fatherland possible, "yes" to eternal gratitude to those who have
given us their solidarity and who with their noble and disinterested
support helped us to overcome imperialist aggression. [applause]

The Cuba you see today is not even the ghost of what it was 20 years ago,
The casinos, beggars, the unemployed and the brothels were the first
impressions a visitor received. Today, these things do not exist. But let
us not think that all visitors necessarily liked the post revolutionary
change. During the days of the popular unity [in Chile], we were visited by
the flagship of the Chilean Navy. Many cadets, with a bourgeois and
capitalist mentality, were displeased because they did not find brothels in
Havana, as they had found in all the other capitals of Latin America, in
the United States and in Western Europe. Before the revolution, there were
brothels in Cuba, and alongside the brothels there was the scaffold, as is
true of Chile today. [applause] That neocolonialist, capitalist and
underdeveloped life imposed on the nation was maintained by sheer force and
was the work of imperialist domination over our land. They did not train
doctors or teachers. However, they did train their henchmen in the art of
torture, execution and assassination of those who were dissatisfied and who
were revolutionaries --as happens today in Nicaragua, Chile, Uruguay,
Paraguay and other unfortunate countries of America and the world--with
much more refined techniques provided by the Pentagon and the CIA.

They taught how to persecute a communist, how a union was divided and how a
trained leader was imposed, how and what should be written in a newspaper,
what films we should see, what radio programs we should listen to, what
books we should read.

They decided where and how much to invest. For some reason, they were the
absolute owners of our finances, our best lands and the country's natural
resources. They outlined our policy and our destiny. What is even worse,
because of its long-lasting effects and greater difficulty in eradicating
it, they imposed on our poor and underdeveloped people the habits and
customs of consumers of the developed capitalist world, a development
brought about through the most unmerciful exploitation of its own people
and the rest of the colonized or neocolonized world and through the most
brutal unequal trade with the economically backward countries.

Bourgeois society creates its bourgeois tastes and its bourgeois scenery in
cites and rural areas which cannot be those of the societies of workers.
Alongside the millionaires' palaces are the poor neighborhoods. Alongside
the modern superhighways for fast and flashy automobiles are the muddy
roads walked by the poor peasants.

The bourgeois countries offer statistics about their per capita income but
they do not say one word about the huge difference between what a
millionaire consumes and what a worker, an unemployed person or a beggar
consumes. In our cities you will not see flashy or excessive neon signs of
publicity propaganda because we do not seek to instill in our citizens, by
means of conditioned reflex, what soft drinks they should consume or what
cigarettes to smoke as is done in the societies which ridiculously call
themselves free. Instead, you will see how in many remote places of our
rural areas, electric light bulbs are turned on in the classrooms of
thousands of our rural schools, in our polyclinics and in the houses of our
peasants. In our newspapers you will not see advertisements or social notes
on weddings, parties and recreational activities of the wealthy which were
never of interest to the worker, the real and only creator of the social
wealth. Our radio and television programs are never constantly interrupted
by commercial ads because our mass media is at the service of information,
education and culture and not social vanity or vulgar mercantile interests.
Sometimes there might not be enough paint for our greatest buildings, but
teachers or books will never be lacking schools or doctors and medicines in
our hospitals for all the children and citizens of the country. [applause]

Also, you will not see our cities filled with modern and loud automobiles
that consume large amounts of fuel because we promote and develop
collective transport and regard individual vehicles as simple work
instruments, used by technicians, doctors, professors and other workers of
our society to provide social services. Many times we have asked ourselves
what would happen to the world and its natural and energy resources if in
Asia--including China and India--Africa and Latin America, each family had
an automobile in accordance with the fictitious and absurd ideal created by
the developed capitalist societies? Someone in ancient times said: Man does
not live by bread alone. Today we can state: Not only by automobiles and
for automobiles does man live. [applause]

What was irrationally produced by the exploitation of the world and
capitalism can never be a model for mankind that in the next 25 years will
already have 7 billion inhabitants. We feel that energy and other essential
resources must be devoted, first of all, to the feeding, housing, health,
education, culture and other essential necessities for the well-being of a
man having another concept of life, society and the fruits of human work.
To this we have devoted our modest resources amid the unmerciful and brutal
economic blockade that a powerful and wealthy country like the United
States has imposed on our heroic fatherland. Despite this, no one can
ignore Cuba's advances. This shows how much can be done even while being
poor if there is the justice of socialism. [applause]

In our fatherland, you will see each citizen with a book under his arm
because we all want to study. We all want to learn. We all want to
correctly interpret the world in which we live.

We do not tell anyone: Believe. We tell everyone to think, study, decide.
[applause]

The imperialists ridiculously try to depict our country as a regime of
force. In reality there is force but the force is not in arms, laws or
state institutions. It is in the people, [applause] in the masses, in the
revolutionary beliefs and in the political culture of each citizen. The
force is not based on lies or demagogy but on sincerity, truth and
conscience. The arms are held by the people and with them they defend the
revolution without torture, crimes, death squads, missing persons,
illegalities or arbitrary actions as occur daily in the countries forced by
imperialism to maintain reactionary regimes or injustice and oppression.
This has begun to be recognized today by even our most bitter enemies. This
is due to the seeds of revolutionary principles and ethics that we sowed at
Moncada and which bore fruit in the liberation war and subsequent
development of the revolution. Above the mountains of imperialist slanders,
the historic reality stands firm and invincible.

Our country is ready to continue its march. We are already drafting our
second 5-year plan. Serious studies are being made regarding our outlook
for economic, social and cultural development up to the year 2000. In a
relatively short time we will have a 20-year plan. Each province, city,
municipality will know, with the maximum accuracy possible, what its future
will be and what tasks it will be assigned in the country's development.

If one wishes to get an idea of the future it is sufficient to say that
this year alone 18,000 citizens have received their teachers and professors
certificates. [applause]

For those who believe that we are becoming a country of soldiers it is only
necessary to point out that the number of persons graduated as teachers and
professors is 20 times higher than the number of armed forces officers
graduated this year [applause] although for every Cuban being a soldier or
officer is a very high honor because arm's in the fatherland and even
outside the fatherland are at the service of the noblest causes of the
revolution and internationalism. [applause]

In the final analysis we are all soldiers of the revolution. However,
knowing how to teach is even more difficult than knowing how to die. Our
men struggled and died more than once for this right because men must know
how to die so that humanity can survive. [applause]

We are resolutely advancing toward becoming a country with high culture.
Our path in this field has no limits. We will live from what our
technology, our natural resources and our sweat are capable of creating,
but we will not be selfish like the snail locked up in its own shell, and
we will offer the world everything that is within the reach of our
revolutionary and internationalist generosity. [applause]

What is our own life without you? What is Cuba without the rest of the
world? If our dreams of yesterday are today's realities our dreams of today
will be the realities of tomorrow. It will be the same for all the peoples
of the world if we are capable of dreaming together for a better future.
[applause]

Since realities cannot be forgotten it is necessary to say that today's
humanity faces dramatic problems. First of all, there is the vital matter
of overcoming the risks of nuclear war. In other times men solved their
political conflicts with stone axe, spears and arrows, their swords, their
cannons and even their planes, their battleships and their tanks. However,
no other era of human history has possessed arms so destructive and deadly
as those which exist today.

What yesterday was a game of irresponsible ambitions in which the
privileged classes could indulge in defense of their interests and their
goals of dividing up the world or destroying the advance of progressive
ideas, as happened in the last generalized war, today, with modern and
sophisticated means of mass destruction, becomes universal suicide and the
crime of wounded humanity [less humanidad]. It is still to be determined
whether man can survive the diabolical arms which he has been capable of
devising.

If we examine the elemental realities, we see that the overall political
and social progress of humanity is below its capacity for destruction and
extermination. It is not the revolutionary and progressive forces which
have created this dramatic and dangerous situation. The watchwords of peace
and coexistence among all nations of the world were launched at the very
dawn of the first socialist state by Vladimir Ilich Lenin. [applause]

Socialism, whose fundamental objective in the economic field is the
development of the productive forces and the equitable distribution of the
fruits of work, has no need for war, for dividing up the world or for arms
production. Planned development of the economy and the essential
requirements of man in no way demand the investment of infinite human and
material resources in the sterile arms race. It was not the first socialist
state which declared war against the countries of different social systems.
It was the imperialist powers which decided, with intervention and
blockade, to eliminate the first worker and peasant state and, at the sane
time, smash the revolutionary movement everywhere in the world.

This policy gave birth to fascism and World War II. The crusade against the
Soviet Union by Hitler's Germany, which armed itself with the cooperation
of the other imperialist powers, cost the first socialist state the lives
of 20 million of its best children. A high price was also paid by the
peoples of the imperialist countries for the harebrained anticommunist and
profascist adventures of its rulers. Who can deny these historic truths?
Who can hide the fact that the capitalist countries were fundamentally
responsible for the outbreak of that war? Who can forget that it was
precisely socialism which made world domination by fascism impossible? What
country other than the United States, in a virtual substitution of Hitler's
Germany, became the crusader of anticommunism and counterrevolution in the
world? What other country can truly threaten world peace? Who practices a
power policy? Who has filled the world with military bases? Who promotes
the arms race? Who needs the military industry to face the domestic
economic problems and satisfy the interests of its powerful monopolies?
Those who reproach the socialist countries for their defense programs
forget the lesson of fascism. They forget the historic reality that it is
imperialism which has imposed on our countries, with its aggressions,
blockades and threats, the necessity to invest large resources in military
expenses which are completely alien to the requirements and objectives of
the socialist system. [applause]

By principle, we Marxist-Leninists know that social changes cannot be
imposed from abroad, the same way that they cannot be averted when peoples
decide to make them through any means. The socialist peoples do not seek to
export revolution. Nobody exported socialism to the Soviet Union, the same
way that nobody exported it to Cuba. Ever since socialism was born only the
imperialist countries have tried to export their system: capitalism,
reaction, counterrevolution, fascism.

What interest cam humanity have in the arms race? Why spend for arms what
people need for food, housing, health, education, recreation? Hundreds of
thousands of millions of dollars are invested every year for military
purposes.

Mountains of arms for extermination are piled up every year before the
amazed eyes of a world plagued by mountains of problems of
underdevelopment, hunger, excessive population growth, unemployment,
diseases, illiteracy, a growing scarcity of foodstuffs and natural
resources and environmental pollution.

Obviously, there is only one final solution for this tragedy: That mankind
overcome its capitalist and imperialist phase, that social justice and
cooperation be developed universally. However, in each country this is a
task for its own people.

Mankind must be preserved for a better future. A pessimistic position on
the need for and the possibility of peace is inadmissible and absolutely
irresponsible, like that of some who argue that war is inevitable and even
instigate it thinking that perhaps they will be the only survivors.

The peoples have the duty of struggling for peace and, at the same time,
for social changes. Will we perhaps allow ourselves to be intimidated with
threats? No, because we are optimistic and because we know, as Marx taught
us, that the oppressed have nothing to lose but their chains. [applause]

The U.S. Government now raises the watchword of human rights. We, the
Marxist-Leninists, have made man, his material and spiritual well-being,
his economic, social and political rights the raison d'etre of our lives.
We who struggle for the elimination of every form of exploitation of man by
man will always be, of course, in favor of real and true human rights. We
will even be glad if Carter's preachings succeed some way in influencing
some of his close allies like Hicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti,
Chile, Paraguay Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Zaire, South Africa, Saudi
Arabia, Iran, South Korea and the like into stopping their genocidal
practices and their habit of torturing, causing the disappearance of and
assassinating fighters for democracy and progress. [applause]

With this, the capitalist, neocolonized, proimperialistic regimes and that
of the United States itself would be a little less inhuman. However, it
still remains to be proved whether a bourgeois, imperialistic and
warmongering regime can promise real human rights to anyone in the world
within and outside its borders because such a system exists only to serve
using all of its resources and means domestically and abroad--the rights
and interests of big capital. With what moral right can the rulers of a
nation speak of human rights when within it the millionaire and the beggar
coexist, the Indian in exterminated, the black man is discriminated
against, women are prostituted and large masses of Chicano, Puerto Ricans
and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited and humiliated? How can this be
done by the rulers of a nation where the Mafia, gambling and child
prostitution predominate, where the CIA organizes subversion and universal
espionage plans and where the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of
preserving material assets while exterminating human beings, in an empire
that supports reaction and counterrevolution throughout the world, that
protects and encourages the exploitation by monopolies of the wealth and
human resources on all continents, unequal trade, a protectionist policy,
an incredible squandering of natural resources and a system of hunger for
the world? How can this be done by the representatives of a capitalist and
imperialist society whose essence is the exploitation of man by man and,
with it, egotism, individualism and total absence of human solidarity? How
can such watchwords be written by those who train and send military
supplies to the most reactionary, corrupt and bloody governments in tie
world such as those of Somoza, Pinochet Stroessner, the Uruguayan gorillas,
Mobutu and the shah of Iran, to mention only a few cases?

How can there be talk of such rights by those who maintain close relations
with the South African racists who oppress, discriminate against and
exploit 20 million Africans, by those who supply the Zionist aggressors
with large quantities of sophisticated weapons with which they dislodged
the Palestinian people from their lands and who refuse to return to the
Arab countries [applause--Castro repeats himself] and they refuse to return
to the Arab countries the territories they have taken by force.

How can the leaders of a nation speak of human rights when their
intelligence agencies organized attempts against leaders of other nations
and their armies dropped explosives in Vietnam many times the equivalent of
the nuclear bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing millions of
Vietnamese, without even having the dignity of apologizing for the one and
indemnifying the other? How can the leaders of such a nation speak of human
rights when they have traditionally intervened in the nations of Latin
America, subjugating the peoples of this continent to their exploitation,
and who are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of children
each year through illness and hunger? In fact, how can the imperialist
government that maintains a military base by force on our territory and
subjects our people to a criminal economic blockade speak of human rights?

It would be excellent if President Carter, in practicing what he preaches,
would order the release of Lolita Lebron [applause] and the other Puerto
Rican patriots who already have served over 25 years of unjust
imprisonment; of the Wilmington 10, arbitrarily jailed; and an amnesty for
the thousands of U.S. Negroes who were driven to crime as a result of
discrimination, unemployment and hunger. [applause]

Each U.S. ruler fabricates his own rhetorical phrase for Latin America and
for the world. One spoke of the good neighbor, another of the Alliance for
Progress. Now the watchword is human rights. Nothing has changed in their
policy toward the hemisphere and the world. It all remains the same, with
the diplomacy of guns and the dollar and the law of the strongest
prevailing, The phrases are as short-lived as the administrations. The only
thing that prevails in Yankee policy is its lies. [applause]

We are saying that imperialism supports fascism in Latin America, apartheid
in Africa, neocolonialism on all continents. The imperialism policy,
however, is much more subtle, as it promotes division among socialist
nations, encourages nationalist currents and chauvinism and looks for
allies within the progressive movement. Once firmly opposed to nationalism
as an expression of the spirit of independence of the peoples against the
colonial system, and still opposing it in its struggle against imperialism
and in defense of the legitimate rights of every nation, imperialism still
hopes that the exasperation of that sentiment--in other words
chauvinism--will clash with the principles of socialism and
internationalism. They believe that in Asia, Africa and Latin America that
current will always be stronger than the revolutionary or internationalist
spirit.

They view everything else on the basis of their technologies as
industrialized nations, on the monopoly of international credit
institutions, and on the still abundant monetary resources of the
capitalist Western world. The gold amassed through centuries of exploiting
their own workers and the colonized, neocolonized and underdeveloped
peoples is now enhanced by the multimillionaire group of states such as
Saudi Arabia and Iran, which partly derive their fabulous profits from
economically poorer nations. With such resources they plan to sweep away
the progressive movement of the so-called third world.

It is true that the effects of the world economic crisis are strongly felt
in nations with progressive governments, with few resources, heavily in
debt and heartlessly subjected to the burden of financial problems.

Rightwing forces score electoral victories in some countries as a result of
economic difficulties while the reaction, in the meantime, resorts to
fascism to confront the same difficulties by means of the most brutal
repression.

The International Monetary Fund and other credit organizations--traditional
instruments of U.S. policy--impose onerous conditions, weaken the popular
foundations of governments not to their liking and undermine their
political stability. Such circumstances are favorable to pressures and
submissions which lead to temporary victories by the reactionary forces in
some nations of the world.

We would not be honest if we denied that the progressive and revolutionary
movement itself is facing serious difficulties. The repugnant betrayal of
the cause of inter-nationalism perpetrated by the Chinese leaders, their
insane behavior and their shameless alliance with the imperialism powers
have constituted a harsh blow against the world's progressive forces
Vietnam, Angola and Cuba, small countries which won solid and recognized
prestige in the world because of the herioc pages they wrote and are still
writing in their resolute, firm and unflinching struggle against
imperialism, are now suffering from the brutal attacks, [applause]
hostility and the slander of the treacherous Chinese leadership.

In the case of our own fatherland, after almost 20 years of U.S. aggression
and harrassment failed to force it to its knees, we now see the incredible
and infamous fact that the current Chinese leadership justifies the
economic blockade of Cuba and the presence of a Yankee naval base on our
territory.

There is no longer any difference whatsoever between the imperialist and
Chinese news agencies with regard to their gross and scheming language, in
the perfidious and despicable arguments they use to attack Cuba.

Soviet aid, which was so decisive for the consolidation and survival of the
Cuban revolution during its most critical years when the imperialists
snatched the sugar markets away from us and stopped our supply of food,
medicines, fuel, spare parts and essential raw materials, is being vilely
slandered. After receiving such decisive support we Cubans will never
forget that the arms with which we defended ourselves in Giron against the
imperialist aggressors were supplied by the Soviets [applause]

If the United States did not commit genocide against Cuba by means of a
direct aggression, it was due to a large extent to the Solidarity and
support of the USSR. History cannot be so coarsely denied. The human
language has more noble objectives than that.

Cuba's internationalist policies, the unbounded generosity of our country
whose children fought in Angola against the South African racists to
prevent them from stealing from the Angolans the independence they won
after 15 years of herioc struggle and our solidarity in the battle of the
Ethiopian revolution against foreign aggression promoted by the United
States, the NATO powers and Arab reaction are characterized by the Chinese
leaders with the same, and even worse, vile and rude terms that the
spokesmen of imperialism use, although the latter use more subtle and less
wildly false terms.

Internationalism is the most precious essence of Marxism-Leninism and of
its ideals of solidarity and fraternity among the people. The Cuban
revolution would not even exist without internationalism. In being
internationalists we are paying our debt to mankind. [applause]

Although we do not like to talk about the irreproachable way the Cuban
revolution has complied with its internationalist obligations, it is
necessary to recall that our military cooperation with Angola and Ethiopia
was nothing new.

In Cuban soldiers went to the sister republic of Algeria in 1963 to support
it against a foreign aggression carried out a few months after its herioc
struggle for independence and victory to snatch a portion of its territory.
Cuban soldiers went to Syria in 1973 when that country, as a result of the
latest war against the Zionist aggressors, requested our aid. Cuban
fighters struggled and died to help in the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and
Angola against Portuguese colonialism. It is no secret that our worthy
comrades died during the guerrilla struggle in Sierra Maestra in Bolivia
alongside Che. [applause]

This internationalist tradition of the Cuban revolutionaries began even
before the triumph of the revolution when more than 1,000 volunteers many
of them communist fighters--went to Spain to fight fascism. [applause]

International solidarity and the spirit of sacrifice and struggle of the
communists has profound and beautiful roots in the world revolutionary
movement since the glorious days of the Paris Commune.

The Yankee imperialists practice their solidarity with reaction, the
bourgeoisie and fascism. There are hundreds of thousands of U.S. military
specialists and soldiers in Western Europe, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran,
South Korea, Japan, the FRG and dozens of other countries. Why may the
imperialists cooperate among themselves while the revolutionaries may not?
[applause]

Our military specialists now in Africa and in other areas have been
requested by absolutely sovereign governments. The United States, on the
contrary, deploys tens of thousands of soldiers in Panama against the will
of its people. The United States has thousands of Marines stationed on a
portion of Cuba's own national territory against the will of our
fatherland. What right does the United States have to demand the withdrawal
of our military personnel from Africa, where they now are at the expressed
desire of progressive, absolutely independent revolutionary governments?

How can those who support these demands of imperialism be described in
political and moral terms? Anything can be expected from a country where a
ridiculous mortal has been converted into a god, where they destroyed the
party and its best cadres during the days of the mad adventure of the
Cultural Revolution and allowed themselves to be dragged by the petty
bourgeois spirit and big-power chauvinism into betraying internationalism
and converting a socialist state into a satrapy of nepotism where the wives
and sons-in-law of the rulers became members of the Politburo.

Anything can be expected. Why should it surprise us that the Chinese
Government today supports the bloody and fascist Pinochet regime and the
repressive military governments in Latin America? Why should we be
surprised that it cooperates with Mobutu or with the NATO interventionist
forces? Why should we be surprised that it joins South Africa in the the
fight against Angola? Or that it joins Egypt in its traitorous separate
peace policy? Or that it joins the reactionary forces of Britain and the
(?FRG)? Or that it joins NATO in Europe, or Yankee imperialism everywhere,
or that it grossly and dangerously wagers on the inevitability of a third
world war?

But of all the crimes committed by the Chinese leadership, the most
objectionable is its hostility toward Vietnam. Everyone knows that behind
Cambodia's extremism stands Maoism and the Chinese leadership clique.
Everyone knows that behind the provocations against Vietnam stand the
Chinese. Everyone knows that behind the artificially created so-called
problem of the (?Hoa) stand the Chinese. A complete chauvinistic campaign
is now being waged in China against the Vietnamese and all Chinese
economic cooperation with Vietnam has been suspended.

It is in this criminal and unscrupulous manner that the Vietnamese effort
to rebuild the country, cruelly devastasted by the imperialist war, is
being sabotaged.

The attitudes of the Chinese Government remind us of the Yankee arrogance
against Cuba. During the first years of the revolution, the imperialists
also tried to bring ships, without our authorization, to transport U.S.
citizens. They promoted the immigration of thousands and thousands of
Cubans, particularly professionals, specialists and skilled workers. They
launched a massive slander campaign against Cuba and adopted severe
economic blockade measures.

Vietnam, the fatherland of the most modest and unassuming Marxist-Leninist
of our time, the unforgettable and beloved Ho Chi Minh, [applause] Vietnam,
this thousand times heroic people whose patriotic and revolutionary deeds
astounded the world, is today also a victim of Chinese aggression and
betrayal. Some days ago, international cables announced violations of the
Vietnamese borders by Chinese military aircraft. If their criminal hand is
not halted in time, we shall see military provocations and serious Chinese
aggressions against heroic Vietnam. This is why we must offer the
Vietnamese people our most energetic solidarity and support. [long rhythmic
applause]

Our party intends to reorganize the Committees of Solidarity With Vietnam
against the threats of imperialist aggression. Although it may sound
absurd, this time the aggression is being organized by the imperialist' new
ally in the field of counterrevolution.

The disregard for people, norms and principles must have a limit. It must
halt somewhere. It must finally find a resistance in the world. Not even
Albania, a small socialist country which, during the first days of the
division of the revolutionary movement, supported China follows it today.
China also withdrew its economic cooperation from Albania.

The Chinese people, this fighting, hard-working, unselfish, heroic and
revolutionary people, will settle accounts sooner or later with the
traitors who have placed their beautiful internationalist flags at the feet
of imperialism. [applause]

There are two paths open in the world today--reaction and progress. One
must choose: one cannot be neutral. Lately, because of shadows which have
fallen on the revolutionary movement, because of opportunism and
unprincipled politics, the trend of conciliation with imperialism has
gathered some strength.

Opportunism, economic problems, chauvinism, demagogy and political
cowardice lead to hesitations in many basic problems.

One cannot be neutral in the Arab peoples struggle for the recovery of the
occupied territories and the recognition of the Palestine people's rights,
[applause] between the African peoples and their neocolonizers, between
Angola and its invaders, between the rights of the Saharan people and the
occupiers of their territory, [applause] between the Ethiopian revolution
and the Somali aggressor, [applause] between the Yeioeni revolution and
Arab reaction, [applause] between the progressive Arab countries and the
reactionary Arab countries, [applause] between Vietnam and those who
threaten and harass it, [applause] between the South Africa, [applause]
between the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe and Ian Smith, [applause] between
Mozambique and the Rhodesian and South African fascists, [applause] between
Namibia and its colonizers, [applause] between the Cypriot people and the
foreign occupiers, [applause] between the progressive and rightist forces
of Lebanon, [applause] between Allende and Pinochet. [lengthy applause]

One cannot be neutral in the face of issues such as Panama's sovereignty
over the canal, [applause] the right of the peoples of Belize and Puerto
Rico to independence, [applause] the blockade of Cuba and the Yankee naval
base at Guantanamo. [lengthy applause, shouts of "out" and indistinct
slogan]

One cannot be neutral in the face of imperialism, colonialism,
neocolonialism, racism and fascism, and in none of the many situations of
political, economic and social struggle between the reactionary forces and
the progressive forces of the world. [applause]

Our revolution has been characterized by the rejection of all forms of
political opportunism. That militant, clear, firm and determined policy of
Cuba, alongside the just cause of peoples and its increasing authority and
prestige in the international sphere worries some people, particularly
Yankee imperialism, which vainly tried to isolate and destroy our
revolution.

According to reports from the United States, this government has contacted
15 nonalined countries to question Cuba's role in this movement. But the
nonalined movement is not the OAS, [applause] a ministry of colonies where
imperialism acts at will as masters of this hemisphere. But it would be
interesting to know what 15 foreign ministries the United States has spoken
to and what their reply has been.

Since when has the United States the right to be the mentor and guide of
the nonalined countries? What shameless governments could participate in
this maneuver? We have always advocated that the nonalined movement--in
whose foundation Cuba participated along with Nasir, Nehru, Nkrumah and
other leaders, many of whom unfortunately have died--be characterized by
its quality and not its numbers.

We have always been opposed and shall continue to oppose having countries
belonging to imperialist blocs participate in this movement. [applause] We
have always opposed and will continue to oppose the introduction of fascist
and reactionary governments, mere pawns of imperialism, as Trojan horses
within this organization. [applause]

We have always believed and will continue to believe that the nonalined
movement should not be an amorphous, opportunist, traitorous movement, but
that it should be an anti-imperialist, anticolonialist and progressive
force able to positively influence world policy. This was the spirit which
prevailed in its creation and it cannot be conceived in any other manner.
[applause]

Cuba is a nonalined country because it does not belong to any military
bloc. It is opposed to reaction, imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism,
fascism, racism, Zionism, unfair terms of trade and exploitation of
underdeveloped countries. [applause]

Cuba positively supports liberation movements, just causes and progressive
forces all over the world. These are the essential goals for which the
nonalined movement was created. [applause]

Why does the United States worry so much now about the sixth summit
conference in Havana? Why does it try to sabotage it? Who are playing the
game in this maneuver? What goals do they seek within our movement? It is
because the United States, the traitors, opportunists, neocolonialized, the
[word indistinct], those who traffick in principles are worried about the
firm, militant, honest and uncorruptible role of Cuba. [applause]

If some governments are for sale, Cuba cannot be bribed. [applause] The
United States knows it. We will not make any concessions. We will not
betray our internationalist principles. He will never bow to imperialist
pressures and blackmail. [applause]

We do not follow chauvinist interests. We do not make deals with our
international policy. We are ready to resist the imperialist blockade for
however many years it may last. If others yield, if others are bribed, if
others betray, Cuba shall stand as an example of a revolution which does
not surrender, sell out or fall to its knees. [long applause]

Struggle does not intimidate us. Since we started on the road of the
revolution our spirit has never been discouraged. No true communist has
ever feared difficulties. Our fatherland was forged with the steel of
indomitable revolutionaries. In our minds flow and in our hearts beat the
purest ideals of Marx, Engels and Lenin. [applause]

In our veins flows the blood of the heroes of 68, 95 and 53, [applause] of
De Cespedez, Marti, Maceo, Abel Santanaria, Frank Pais, Camilo and Che.
[applause] They are the heroes of Yara, Baire, Moncada, Gramma, the Sierra,
Giron, the October crisis, the internationalist heroes of Antifascist
Spain, of Angola anti Ethiopia. [applause]

When our people are asked for volunteers for internationalist missions, not
only thousands or tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of fighters
demand the honor of being chosen. [applause]

The same attitude is displayed by Cuban doctors, professors, engineers,
technicians and workers whenever they are asked to contribute toward
cooperation with Africa and other parts of the world. This reflects the
spirit of our people. This shows our political culture, the complete
victory of revolutionary ideas, the solidary communist blood that runs
through the veins of the men and women of our fatherland. [applause]

The world revolutionary movement has made great progress in this century.
Forces grow, our ranks swell, experience becomes enriched. The treachery,
haughtiness, weakness and blindness of those who have been incapable of
following the luminous path of the revolution, out of vanity, deification,
petit bourgeois stupidity, chauvinism or opportunism will never stop
humanity's victorious march. [applause] Because in this era in which we are
living humanity as a whole has no alternatives but war or peace. This and
civilized and peaceful coexistence among different social systems shall
prevail as the wisest and only solution as long as [en tanto] each people,
without interference of any kind, choose their own social and economic
destiny, which can be none other than progress, a just and solidary world
where man--as Marx and Engels said--will stop being man's wolf. [applause]

The forces of socialism and peace are too powerful today for imperialism to
be able to impose its policy of hegemony and retrogression on the world.
And these forces, including among them our very dear Lenin's glorious
fatherland, constitute the most solid and invincible deterrent to the
greed, adventures and outrages of reaction in the current era. These forces
keep Asia, Africa and Latin America and their natural resources from again
being divided among and colonized by the imperialists.

Humanity will not return to the past. Peace will be preserved. The peoples
will march on paths of progress with nothing or no one being able to stop
them. Moncada is an example. The Cuban revolution is a stimulating
substantiation of this truth. The 11th youth and student festival for
peace, anti-imperialist solidarity and friendship, [applause] which we are
celebrating for the first time in the Western Hemisphere with optimism,
with great hopes for tomorrow's world, with the absolute conviction that
the future wholly belongs to progress, freedom, justice and brotherhood
among men and peoples, is irrefutable proof of this. Fatherland or death.
We shall overcome. [applause]

-END-