-DATE- 19870108 -YEAR- 1987 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- HAVANA PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE MEETING -PLACE- KARL MARX THEATER -SOURCE- HAVANA TELE-REBELDE -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19870109 -TEXT- CASTRO ADDRESSES HAVANA COMMITTEE MEETING FL081607 Havana Tele-Rebelde Network in Spanish 1300 GMT 8 Jan 87 "Portion" of President Fidel Castro's speech at the Communist Party of Cuba [PCC] Havana Provincial Committee Meeting held in Havana's Karl Marx Theater on 7 January -- recorded] [Text] Comrades, when just a few days ago Comrade Lezcano...[Castro rephrases] I talked to Comrade Lezcano about the activities, plans, and programs we should implement in 1987, he told me that he had scheduled a wide-ranging party meeting for Wednesday, 7 [January] here in this theater. I believe this theater has never been used better than when a meeting such as this one is held. I planned then to participate in this meeting and I told Comrade Lezcano I would not miss it. [laughter] I was listening closely when he was summarizing 1986 events to see if he was going to forget something. He mentioned everything regarding defense and different activities held in every area. I thought to myself that he had not mentioned the event held in front of the embassy [as heard] and the acts in front of the embassy. [indistinct crowd remarks] He mentioned it. I later thought he had not mentioned the matters regarding microbrigades as an important aspect of 1986, and he mentioned them. Finally, there was something that if he did not mention, it was because it could be considered to be implicit. Among the important things the party did was simply create the conditions for such a high spirit and morale present among party members and the people from Havana which resulted in the response the capital gave to the measures program. That is very important because I believe the capital has really given a firm, courageous, and impressive response -- as the rest of the country has shown but specially the capital because it has been more directly affected. If a peasant who lives in Escambray does not have electricity services, he cannot suffer the consequences of the rate increase. If bus fares are increased, the peasant lives in Escambray does not have to... [rephrases] the horse does not change its transportation fare in the mountains. [laughter] Transportation fares by horse or mule have not been increased. We have really been impressed by the response -- of course we expected it, we are not surprised by it or anything. This is only possible when there is a revolution, when people have a consciousness, when there is a party, a militancy behind all this. The most impressive thing is the way the people have understood the problems. That is the most important thing. This does not mean that the entire population is happy with the measures but according to the polls there was a high percentage of people who agreed with the measures and completely understood the situation. There was some confusion regarding the details, whether potatoes were assigned to organizations, if the substitution of rice for potatoes affected the population at large, if the reduction of a quarter pound of meat applied to the entire population, and a number of those kinds of details that were clarified later on. A very high percentage showed ... [rephrases] I do not believe that there is any other place with such a high percentage of understanding regarding situations and specific problems. The polls have revealed those sectors -- I say there are sectors, there are people who do not read the paper, do not watch television, and find out about things in the streets. That group never understands. Some are confused. Some do not understand the situation of the world we live in, the deep economic crisis existing everywhere, the crime being committed against Third World countries through the prices of goods and all those things. That is reflected in that kind of poll. The subjective factors which have made these types of measures necessary have not been concealed. On the contrary believe that there has not been a place where such serious and strong criticisms have been made as it has happened in our country. I do not know any place, anywhere, any revolution which has analyzed problems with the sincerity, clarity, and harshness that our country has analyzed its problems. I believe this has been a test for the revolution to measure its strength. It also measures our peoples' capabilities, their cultural and political level, their political education level, and even their level of economic education despite those gaps we have mentioned and, of course, despite the defects our revolution has, of the limitations, the mistakes the revolution has made. But I believe that the mistakes all revolutions have had have been overcome and this is what we are doing at this time. I am not going to expand on this because I can do it at another time. A revolution is also a great test, a great experience All kinds of ideas and initiatives interlace in revolutions. I even remember that at the beginning of the revolution there was chaos. There was no sense of discipline. I have always given the example that one day the area chief of an agricultural development zone at the former Oriente Province decided to occupy Nicaro. Let's say it was an occupation of a strategic enterprise. It was a very important measure, a very important one. It was an extremely important decision. An area chief of an agricultural development zone thought he had the right to occupy that large imperialist enterprise in our country. They did it without further considerations and did not stop to think or ask anyone. Many of those things happened during the first years of the revolution, all kinds of things happened. Factories were occupied all the time. It was not even the central government that took the decision to occupy a factory. Generally, important decisions, important laws, important nationalizations, all those things were made by the central government but a great number of anarchic things often happened. A revolution involves a long learning process. Opinions, ideas, all kinds of tendencies interlace in a revolution. Naturally, all those factors have an influence. I believe that what has happened in other countries in the past also influences a revolutionary process and the way other countries' experiences are interpreted. At times experiences were incorrectly interpreted because other countries' experiences were underestimated. Other times, the opposite happened. Other countries' experiences were mechanically copied without considering if such experiences could really be applied to our country's specific circumstances. In sum, there were many factors that influenced, Sometimes when some mistakes are being corrected, others are made. Opportunistic people can take advantage of the situation during those rectification processes. All that is possible. I do not believe we are going to have the risk of that happening during this one we are implementing. I believe this process is being conducted in our country in a very orderly fashion. I Remember there was a time when it was necessary to rectify sectarianism problems in our party. There was a time -- many of you may remember, some are too young, this happened over 20 years ago. Well, an incredible tendency was created within the party. The party was almost turning into a clandestine one the same way the revolution committees [Committees for the Defense of the Revolution] were turning into clandestine [Unreadable text] because of those tendencies. Who knows where they came from. But sectarianism was a reality greatly harming the revolutionary process because it was detaching many people from the revolutionary process. A strong battle was needed to overcome that situation of sectarianism. I remember that when the battle against the sectarianism situation was waged I was deeply concerned about another situation developing from it, that another kind of sectarianism did not develop. Since cadres from the old Marxist-Leninist Party were the ones who were mainly involved -- it was not their fault but some leaders' fault who were duly criticized at the proper time -- a different kind of secretarianism was created among those who had been in the mountains, in other kinds of struggles and other kinds of activities. Sectarian feelings against the old PSP [Peoples' Socialist Party] members were created. I remember that that was a concern and I talked several times about it and we ended by avoiding it. I believe that the process of rectification of idealist problems -- as we called them -- created at certain times...mistakes were made, somewhat anarchic tendencies were also developed, sometimes it was one ministry or another and when we realized it a measure was already in place. As a result of those different kinds of negative tendencies worse tendencies developed. I say it just like that, I have no problem saying it. They were much worse than idealist mistakes and did not jeopardize the peoples' consciences. They could be idealists because everything was based on consciousness. They could be idealist because of an excess of equalitarianism. They could be idealist because they did not understand that the true communist man with a fully developed consciousness did not exist yet and that 70 or 80 percent of the population were able to work with a communist spirit and another 20 percent relied on that 80 percent and it could practically cancel out the results of what that 80 percent was doing. Undoubtedly, it was expensive to pay the tractor operator the same salary whether he worked on 5 hectares or 10 or pay a dockworker the same whether he handled 3 [Unreadable text] or 10. Undoubtedly, those tendencies and those idealist mistakes had to be corrected. That is the truth. But at least those mistakes did not jeopardize the peoples' consciousness. I do not believe no one jeopardizes himself by contributing to the revolution hundreds and thousands of hours of voluntary work during those difficult times. They participated in many projects of agricultural and industrial development, construction projects, everything. Those people did not corrupt themselves. It could be said that those people made efforts beyond their capabilities. Certain methods and mechanisms had to be introduced to rectify those mistakes. Sure, maybe there was a time when material incentives were not considered and there were only moral incentives. It was unquestionable that there was a need to also use economic resources, material incentives, especially in those very difficult jobs that require constant efforts during long hours. During the struggle against those negative tendencies or idealist mistakes much more negative tendencies were developed. I called them mistakes of "panzismo" but "panzismo" from "panza" [belly] the consciousness of men, the soul of men, the heart of men, the honor of men, the shame of men were no longer considered and considerations were made and behaviors were such as if men only had stomachs and no hearts, no conscience, no values, and moral principles which are the ones that make men achieve great things. We could not be fooled and that concerned us a lot and we pointed it out many times. I believe that during the rectification process of idealist mistakes copying was introduced in a huge way. Everything was copied without taking into consideration our country's specific situation. Undoubtedly, opportunist tendencies developed and people with the spirit to save the revolution and the fatherland thought they would save them and would miraculously solve all the problems concerning needs, backwardness, all those things. Actually, that type of tendency developed and that explains many of the things that were taking place without our own members and cadres realizing it. Who knows what was going to happen if that pandemonium broke loose. It is incredible. No one knows what would have happened if we kept that up. It was a path that took us away from the revolutionary methods, styles, and spirit. We had taken part in the war and I do not remember during those 25 months of fighting when people had to make terrible efforts, huge sacrifices, take risks, and witness how many comrades died -- I do not remember one single case in which an individual received material incentives to do what they did. That did not happen during the invasion of Giron, or the struggle against the criminals, or internationalist missions. All the great things this country has accomplished have been done with revolutionary spirit. It did not do it and would never have done it for money. I remember the work performed by microbrigades. They worked 10, 12, and 14 hours in Alamar. That is how Alamar was built and many buildings in this country. They did it with the salary they made in the factories. There was none of that if you work a certain period of time you are paid 3, 4, 5 hours overtime. When we started to revive the microbrigade concept we thought if we have a laborer who, because of all these distortions, is making 1,000 and 1,200 pesos, huge salaries, that does not correspond to his work. And if we have to fulfill internationalist missions? When a man goes to fulfill internationalist missions, the country gives him his salary, supports his family with the income he used to have. So I ask myself, can a country that undertakes that materialistic path of economic incentives and all those things maintain an internationalist consciousness? Here there used to be many people who were considered well-versed because they were bookworms and experts in Marxist concepts and Marxist-Leninist quotations. They read all the volumes. It seems that while some worked, others dedicated themselves solely to reading. [applause] They were converted into a type of Marxist-Leninist priest. They had the last word in Marxist-Leninist questions. Nevertheless, they did not understand these things. They did not have the essence of socialism, the essence of internationalism, the factors that actually move man to realize great historic achievements. In reality, they were extreme bureaucrats, extreme technocrats in the understanding of those problems. One has to say these tendencies emerged during the past struggle against errors and they are much more dangerous for our revolution. Yes, they are much more dangerous and I believe that since then... [changes thought] also, in time, some of these negative tendencies were checked promptly before they corrupted us, before they corrupted our workers and our peasants and before they corrupted our militants. You know there was a problem with militants. There was a problem. Virtue needs to be cultivated while vices, negative things are like weeds that grow unaided. The seeds of those weeds were being planted in all factories, in all centers, everywhere. Where would we end up, following that road? The revolution has maintained itself here for 28 years against the most powerful empire in the world with all its societies of consumption and with all its resources, programs, and all those things. Because, as I have said before, the bland parts of those plants have become rotten. They have left, but the bone, the hard part, the part that is iron has remained here in our country. [applause] -END-