-DATE- 19810421 -YEAR- 1981 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- CLOSING OF THE WPC PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE MEET. -PLACE- PALACE OF CONVENTINS -SOURCE- HAVANA DOMESTIC SVC -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19810423 -TEXT- Fidel Castro Speech FL220135 Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2143 GMT 21 Apr 81 [Speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro closing the WPC presidential committee meeting at Havana's Palace of Conventions--live] [Text] Dear comrades, our fatherland feels enormous pride in hosting this meeting of the WPC presidential committee. We highly appraise the value of this gesture of friendship and solidarity toward Cuba. We are particularly glad to once again welcome to Cuban soil this active, tireless and tenacious fighter of world renown, our dear comrade and friend Romesh Chandra. [applause] In our opinion, this meeting is notable for its timeliness and its organizers' good judgment in choosing the Central American and Caribbean area to hold the meeting. It can be said that since the days of the so-called October 1962 crisis, the human race had never had more reason to feel so worried, threatened and uneasy about the danger of war. Then, more than 18 years ago, it was the U.S. imperialist policies which led the world to the imminent danger of a nuclear confrontation. It must be recalled that the U.S. Government created this huge risk in its anxiety to get even for the crushing defeat of the Playa Giron mercenary invasion and as a conceited and arrogant reaction to the legitimate measures adopted by the revolution to defend the country's integrity and sovereignty. The world was able than to stop just short of the abyss. Cuba's invulnerable position demonstrated that our people could not be intimidated or subjugated by any means. International solidarity, especially the serene policies of the Soviet Union, made it possible to preserve peace and eased tensions in the most dangerous moments. Mankind breathed more easily after going through that hair-raising experience which revealed the folly of the imperialist policies of Cold War and international blackmail. Following the October crisis, the road to detente began to unfold despite many obstacles. The Soviet Union, vitally bound to the interests of the socialist community and the world's revolutionary, liberation and progressive movement, once again played the most active and decisive role in the struggle for an international atmosphere based on mutual trust, the development of normal relations and even mutually advantageous economic, scientific and technical cooperation as the basis for detente in the military sphere, a limitation of the arms race and, subsequently, the measures that would make disarmament possible. As we know, no progress was made beyond detente in political affairs. The signing of the Helsinki accord was the highest level reached. Since then, especially in the past few years, the ultrareactionary forces of the United States, entrenched in their positions, succeeded in sabotaging and paralyzing detente. And today they are trying to reverse the course of this process to decontaminate the international atmosphere. The way in which these power groups attempt to play with the survival of the human race is absolutely criminal and irresponsible. If in 1962 there were more than enough megatons in the arsenals to obliterate the last trace of life on earth, today the number, power and effectiveness of strategic arms systems have multiplied in a chilling way. The frontiers of terror have been long crossed and no new method of mass destruction that might be added today could instill more dread in the hearts of its presumed victims. The human race can only be exterminated once. No sensible person doubts that the outcome of a nuclear war, under the present circumstances, would be equally cruel to aggressors and victims, to warmongers and neutrals, to atomic powers and all the nations that do not possess these arms. There is even the risk that technical failure, a subjective mistake or simple carelessness might precipitate a reaction of catastrophic consequences. The peoples of the world who confront so many dramatic problems face the danger of being wiped out by accidental factors. Tens of thousands of atomic weapons hang over their heads. Never in its thousands of years of existence had humanity experienced such a thing. That is why the struggle to halt a new world war becomes the most pressing, unavoidable and decisive task of our times. We are not and never will be fatalists. We do not accept nor will ever accept the notion that a world holocaust is inevitable. The human race must have a nobler fate. The selfish and exploitative interests of a small imperialist minority cannot make use at will of the fruits of the whole history of civilization and dictate the fate of peoples. Man's intelligence faces enormous challenges and peace by itself is not the solution to all problems. Peace is only the basic condition for the huge abundance of energy and necessary resources to be employed in a consistent manner so that all mankind, not just part of it, may live honorable, decently and decorously. Peace is an indispensable requirement in the great battle against underdevelopment, disease, illiteracy, lack of housing and the growing shortage of foodstuffs, raw materials, energy and water, which are already acute problems for hundreds of millions of souls in the poorest areas of the world. One cannot close one's eyes to the obvious danger of war implicit in the actions of the most aggressive and dangerous elements of imperialism. It is known that the lengthy negotiations of more than 7 years which brought about the SALT II treaty--now ignored by unilateral decision of the United States--were based on the recognition of a military balance. Any attempt to upset that balance is extremely dangerous and could result in fatal consequences. The U.S. military budget is now close to $150 billion a year. Despite this, the new administration proposes a sustained increase in these expenditures in coming years that could reach by 1985 the incredible amount of $330 billion for belligerent purposes. Such a decision can only drag the world into a new and unbearable spiral of the arms race at precisely the time when the worldwide needs for development cooperation and assistance are most dramatic and urgent. This new burden, as usual, would fall on the shoulders of workers and of the poorest countries. The mirage of reducing in short term the effects of the economic crisis by military spending can only make stagnant production, inflation, unemployment and chaos even more serious and irreversible. It should not be forgotten what the exorbitant and unproductive spending on the war of aggression against Vietnam led to. Moreover, the socialist world will not submit to the threat. The most elemental sense of responsibility forces socialism to preserve its conquests, integrity and basic conditions for world peace at any cost, even at the sacrifice of huge resources that might help in its own development and cooperation with other countries. The situation is so serious that no alternative is possible. If today worldwide military expenditures amount to some 500 billion a year, if today these expenditures constitute an unbearable, criminal and absurd burden, we have the right to ask ourselves the disturbing question: How far can the present policies of Yankee imperialism take us and what can be the consequences of those adventuristic and irresponsible policies? The United States surrounds the Soviet Union and other revolutionary countries with 2,500 military bases and installations on the soil of tens of countries. It keeps more than 500,000 soldiers and thousands of nuclear missiles aggressively deployed all over the world. As you well know, even Cuba has to bear against its will that part of its national territory which continues to be occupied by a naval base with Yankee military troops and installations. In Europe, the United States forces its NATO allies into an accelerated growth of their military expenditures. It tries to reduce resistance to its aggressive policies and imposes on them the installation of qualitatively new strategic arms. The decision stands to set up 572 medium-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe aimed at the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries. Orders for Pershing II and so-called cruise missiles to augment the atomic arsenal in Western Europe reach several billions of U.S. dollars. This is much more than the national income for an entire year of several countries combined. But the United States is not only turning Europe into a powderkeg. In the East, it tries to drag Japan into the arms race and an aggressive strategic alliance against the Soviet Union, counting on the Chinese as an ally for a confrontation with the USSR and against the liberation movement in Asia. China in turn, with the approval of the United States, carries out unceasing aggressions against Vietnam, doubles pressures on Laos and encourages counterrevolutionary bands and the hostility of neighboring governments against the people of Kampuchea. In light of these realities, we can understand how urgent it is that work be carried out following specific programs that will make it possible to save the road already traversed in search of peace and halt the dangerous trends in the current international situation. The serene and constructive stand of the Soviet Union despite the provocations and threats of the United States is once more demonstrated in the peace proposals formulated by distinguished Comrade Leonid Ilich Brezhnev at the 26th congress of the CPSU. These proposals have been favorably received by world opinion. Fortunately, the Soviet Union knows how to maintain serenity and does not falter in its struggle for the noble cause of peace. The situation created by imperialism in the Middle East is an explosive one. It cannot be denied that Israel feels encouraged by the guarantees it receives from Washington in its recent aggressions against southern Lebanon, where hundreds of persons were murdered. At the same time, the dubious deal between the Yankees and the As-Sadat regime in Egypt and the delivery of billions of dollars in arms to that reactionary government disclose the essence of the betrayal and crime perpetrated against the interests of the Palestinian people and other Arab countries which are the victims of Zionist plunder. Threats of aggression are voiced against Syria, Libya and other anti-imperialists Arab governments. Using the deplorable conflict between Iran and Iraq as a pretext, the U.S. imperialists carry on with their plan to set up their so-called Rapid Deployment Force in the Middle East and multiply their military and naval presence and their bases of operation in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The fact that the largest petroleum reserves in the capitalist world are found in the Middle East gives a special aggressiveness to imperialist actions in this area. Like Israel, the fascists of South Africa are encouraged by the new U.S. administration. A shady maneuver by several Western powers is underway to try to foil Namibia's right to independence and to dismiss the only legitimate representative of the Namibian people-- SWAPO. Provocations against the frontline countries continue to increase. Mozambique is continuously facing hostile actions. Independent Zimbabwe is threatened. There are reports about large concentrations of South African troops in the northern part of the occupied territory of Namibia and the imminence of a large-scale racist attack against the southern part of the People's Republic of Angola. The economic and technological ties linking U.S. imperialist corporations and other Western countries to the Pretoria racists are constantly becoming known, ties which are in flagrant contempt of all UN agreements. Among other aspects, these relations include the program of South African nuclear development which will make it possible for that country to produce its own nuclear weapons if it has not already achieved this. Who are the ones guilty of allowing such a threat of extermination to be raised against Africa's independent peoples? Who are the ones supporting at any risk a regime which is an insult to mankind's civilized consciousness? Are they not the same ones which have transformed Somalia and other countries into aggressive bases directly threatening the revolutions of Ethiopia and democratic Yemen? This meeting of the WPC Presidency has laid stress on Latin America's situation and, particularly, that of Central America and the Caribbean. We must refer to them. A few months ago, during the second PCC Congress, it was noted that while in other areas of the world the United States had been forced to take into consideration the real factors of the situation, the undeniable might of socialism and the caution being observed by its own allies, in Latin America, however, the imperialists had considered themselves to be free to do as they pleased in undertaking actions and moving forward their reactionary policy. The time elapsed since then has demonstrated this truth. The heroic and determined struggle of the people of El Salvador has urgently stirred up the greatest concerns of the new U.S. administration. As usual, the crudest pretexts have been used. An attempt has been made to make the world believe that the fight of that people-- in just 15 months the army and the tyranny's repressive groups have murdered more than 15,000 persons--was the product of an international plot. To make such an assertion is the same as ignoring the fact that the Salvadoran people have been struggling for the past 50 years for their liberation. It is the same as ignoring the situation of terrible poverty, ignorance and ferocious exploitation in which a very small and insatiable oligarchy maintains that country. It is the same as disregarding the fact that the men and women of that small nation, including old people and children, are forced to defend their own survival against a genocidal regime which literally wipes out entire towns and carries out insane massacres. Despite world public opinion, the United States is sending massive quantities of arms and military personnel to advise and assist in the repression and terror. It has been officially announced that the U.S. aid to the fascist Christian Democratic junta since the beginning of the year will be doubled during the rest of the year. Against heroic Nicaragua and its glorious Sandinist revolution, which today are enmeshed in the arduous and complex tasks of national reconstruction, imperialism has also directed the aggressive course of imperialism. The fact that such a big and powerful state as the United States applies economic reprisals against the Nicaraguan people and attempts to make them surrender through hunger by suppressing credits for essential foodstuffs provokes indignation. Hundreds of Somoza followers and mercenaries are currently training on U.S. territory to invade Nicaragua, and the U.S. Government does not even admit any knowledge of what is going on. It is equally inconceivable that the organization, training, arms supply and financing of numerous camps of counterrevolutionary agents existing in Honduras close to the border with Nicaragua can take place without the intervention of the CIA and the Washington administration. Every attempt to drown in blood the Nicaraguan revolution is a threat to peace and a challenge to the world democratic and progressive movement. In the same category can be included the attempts to destabilize Grenada's revolutionary government, which is characterized by its unwavering and unequivocally progressive and anti-imperialist position. The Guatemalan people are bravely struggling for liberty. More than 70,000 patriots of that country have been murdered since the mercenary invasion organized by the CIA and the United Fruit Company in 1954. Today the people's struggle is growing, as is repression. But the brutal regime, which is drowning that country in blood, is one of the friendly governments which should not be harassed. Its henchmen, as in Haiti, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and other reactionary governments, receive from their protectors large quantities of arms and resources in order to maintain themselves in power. The U.S. Government has created a special Caribbean command. Aggressive maneuvers are taking place in the seas near our coastline. The United States is conducting an essentially militaristic policy in this region. What is the sense of that arrogant and threatening language of arms? Simply, it is an attempt to intimidate the struggling peoples and, above all, to frighten, isolate and impose a policy of pressure and blackmail against Cuba. Our country, as is well known to all, has endured a rigorous and total economic blockage for 20 years. Added to the blood spilled through armed aggressions, piratic attacks, sabotage and other subversive acts, which have been carried out by imperialism against our country one must mention such criminal actions as stopping Cuba from acquiring in the United States medicines for saving lives. The imperialists do not resign themselves to the policy or principles of our people. Recently, the voices demanding that Cuba be erased from the political map of this continent have taken on new life. The media campaigns have attempted to generate an anti-Cuban climate of extreme hostility. There are reports of plans for a military blockade or other actions, including the possibility of direct military aggression. Cuba does not threaten the United States. In the face of threats, Cuba is maintaining a calm and responsible attitude, but a firm one. We struggle for the right to a peaceful life for our people--to the degree that we increasingly become stronger and more invulnerable to any enemy aggression; to the degree that we make each compatriot a Spartan soldier ready and willing to defend our fatherland's sovereignty and integrity to the last drop of blood. [applause] Imperialism's meddling policy transforms the Central American and Caribbean area into an explosive focus of tension, similar to those of the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, the Middle East and Europe. But the warmongers and interventionists are not the only conspirators against peace. The huge arms arsenals are not alone in threatening peace. Peace is also threatened by the extraordinary and complex problems that imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism have created around the world. As we have previously stated at other opportunities, without development and, at the very least, justice for the peoples, there can be no peace. In today's world, an urgent period of international cooperation on a large scale must begin if we really want to raise the level of living of the peoples, remove a large part of mankind from underdevelopment and safeguard international peace. The true fact, however, is that all just and prudent initiatives which have been promoted by our countries inexorably clash against the selfish, or frankly sabotaging, attitude of the principal capitalist superpowers. Added to the colossal waste that the arms race represents is the fact that the hard reality for development barely amounts to 5 percent of world resources devoted to systems of extermination. Meanwhile, the poorer areas of the earth experience a rapid multiplication in population and no one knows where the foodstuffs, clothing, housing, education, health services and new sources of employment will come from for the gigantic human wave due to arrive in the next few years. If today the earth is populated by more than 4 billion persons, by the end of the century it will be closer to 7 billion and will double in the next few decades. The foreign debt of underdeveloped countries is estimated today to be more than $500 billion. Every year the balance of payments deficit of these countries worsens. Unequal trade and the high cost of energy are virtually liquidating the economies of the poorer countries. A large number of them, above all those importing oil, have to devote a large portion of their meager resources for debt servicing. Meanwhile, during the period 1970-78, the transnational enterprises reported a profit of $2.4 for every dollar invested in underdeveloped countries, and the United States, particularly, obtained in that same period $4.5 for every dollar invested in the backward economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the United States itself, and other highly industrialized capitalist countries, the working masses are victims of the economic crisis and the arms race. In those countries, unemployment currently remains at the highest levels of the postwar era. In the United States alone more than 8 million persons wander around looking for jobs, and from 20 to 25 million poor U.S. citizens will experience some bad situations because of this year's unpopular warmongering budget, which is also a direct threat against peace. We believe that without an extraordinary, determined and responsible effort on a worldwide basis, there can be no solution to the worrisome problems harming our peoples and peace will be in jeopardy. Without real cooperation, without a real and tangible new international economic order whose results reach out to all and benefit all, beginning with those who need it most, the peace we seek will be an unreachable mirage. We do not accept the idea of the inevitability of war. We measure the dangers calmly, without being dragged into pessimism. By nature, revolutionaries are optimistic. However, we do not believe in spontaneity. We believe that peace, detente and civilized coexistence between states must be gained with our struggle and strength. Socialism does not need war. Socialism came into this world with the decree on peace as a banner. Arms are only the resources imposed upon us by the need to defend ourselves in the face of the threats and aggressions of the enemy. The glories which our people seek are those of creative work. We will know how to struggle for them. The imperialists and warmongers can no longer decide as they please the future of the world. They have to take into consideration socialism's might. They have to take into consideration the strength of the world revolutionary movement. They have to take into consideration the firm position of peace of the countries forming - the Nonaligned Movement, which certainly form the absolute majority of the international community. They have to take into consideration the vast and growing universal movement in defense of peace, in which all of mankind's vigilant awareness is expressed. The WPC embodies the desire of the broadest international social sectors to unite and avoid a new war. Its history of more than 32 years of hard and selfless work makes it worthy of our confidence and determined support. If never before have the dangers been so great, also never before has our strength been so great. Dear comrades and friends of the WPC: You convey to us with this meeting the certainty that the future of peoples, no matter how many tests await us in the future, entirely belongs to freedom, justice and peace. Fatherland or death, we shall win! [prolonged applause] -END-