-DATE-
19920408
-YEAR-
1992
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro at UJC Congress on Direct Distribution
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Cuba Vision Network
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-92-069
-REPORT_DATE-
19920409
-HEADER-
==========================================================================
Report Type:         Daily report             AFS Number:     FL0804172592
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-92-069          Report Date:    09 Apr 92
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     5
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       6
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       08 Apr 92
Report Volume:       Thursday Vol VI No 069

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Cuba Vision Network

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Castro at UJC Congress on Direct Distribution

Author(s):   President Fidel Castro at the Union of Young Communists, UJC,
Congress in Havana on 2-4 April-recorded]

Source Line:   FL0804172592 Havana Cuba Vision Network in Spanish 0100 GMT 8
Apr 92

Subslug:   [``Excerpts'' of intervention by President Fidel Castro at the Union
of Young Communists, UJC, Congress in Havana on 2-4 April-recorded]

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [``Excerpts'' of intervention by President Fidel Castro at the Union of
Young Communists, UJC, Congress in Havana on 2-4 April-recorded]

2.  [Excerpts] This is very important because we cannot lose [words indistinct]
all its complexities must be studied. It is not so easy to adopt distribution
guidelines. We must study the containers if we are going to implement direct
distribution. Undoubtedly, direct distribution, whenever possible, is always
better. It is more difficult for the cooperatives to distribute directly. They
have to transport the products: two caballerias of yams to state collection or
some place. What you were going to say?  [passage omitted]

3.  I am sure that if we can use direct distribution, we will save time and
raise quality. It is possible not to consume more fuel and it is possible we
would need half the number of trucks. There are times when a truck is delayed
two or three days. It is possible to return containers for better collection,
all these kinds of things.  There is no doubt that the ideal would be direct
distribution. But no other country of the world has it. They must be collecting
from the small farmers and transporting to a larger market and from that market
to another and another and another; but only we have direct distribution. There
has been enormous progress. I have seen it.

4.  I was told once, here in Melena del Sur, that over 5,000 people were
mobilized in one day from Havana to harvest potatoes for an enterprise. I asked
myself how many would have been mobilized in one day [words indistinct]? How
many days would the potatoes have waited for collection, after they were
harvested, without being loaded on the trucks? Since that time when thousands
were mobilized in one day to right now, there has been a really valid change.

5.  Thanks to people, you can do what you want. If we educate people, if we
make them see the importance of their work, if we treat them as they should be
treated, if we win them over to this task. The people must be won over. The
people must be won over to socialism the same as to capitalism.

6.  You cannot believe that capitalists do not do things to win the people
over. They exploit them, they take money they did not work for, they take from
everything, they get rich. They have a thousand times more income than a worker
has but do they worry about the family? They give them condolences if there was
a death in the family.  They get involved, they play politics with the people.
I would say that is how they do their political work, because people do not
respond only to material stimulus and possessions.

7.  I have seen men in war [words indistinct] and they do a lot more [words
indistinct]. The other day I met with a special troop. It was 2200 and they
were still harvesting potatoes there in Alquizar. They had been working for
more than 12 hours but they were cool as cucumbers.  They were finishing
loading the bags.

8.  What makes people do this? It is not money. It is an awareness, a sense of
duty. One must know how to win over the people. Even the same cadres that you
see working here in agriculture do not realize how much they have changed. I
recognize it because I saw them before, when they were demoralized, when they
had no work force, when everything was full of weeds. This a completely
different situation. They have changed and do not realize it.

9.  Capote [not further identified] has changed and he does not realize it.
Argelio [not further identified] has not changed, because he is new; but he
does extraordinary work there. Argelio, the man that predicted [words
indistinct] as a prophet he is a disaster. But they have changed. We have
noticed it. University professors have changed. Rectors have changed. They are
different people. Researchers, students, [words indistinct] have changed. The
mobilizations have also changed. They are not the same as they were and all
this can be achieved in these very difficult times with the limited number of
resources that we have.

10.  I mean that we can see that each man fulfills his duties in the fields if
we act as one. If we all combine our strength, if we all combine our energy,
our willingness, our decision that things be done well, waging an implacable
war against anyone who gets in our way. Changing what needs to be changed. We
also must create, look for people who have the ability to do these things. We
cannot do without this in the special period or in normal times, or at any
time. It is what we have to know how to do.

11.  We also must feel encouraged by the changes we have seen in the people;
many of these changes have a subjective character. There is a lot we can do.
You that are...[pauses] now that you are in the special period, well, how
unfortunate. But, we hope, one day we will be happy we had a special period. We
will be very happy because we learned to walk by ourselves. We learned to think
with our own minds and to fix things the way they needed to be fixed as true
patriots, as true revolutionaries, as true Mambises because we have fallen on
times like 1868 and 1895; even more, because we are defending what they
defended in 1868, 1895, and all those periods.

12.  Now it is our turn to defend it. That is the reason I say that these
difficult times, the special period, is also a great historical opportunity. I
am sure, I am sure that one day we will be glad that we had a special period
for the things we will have learned. What we need now is the willingness, the
spirit to move forward. This is the key.  We do not depend on anyone else. No
one is going to come and solve our problems for us. No one is going to do
anything for us. We will have what we are capable of doing. That is what I can
tell you after the little I have been able to participate in this commission
preceeding the congress. As I promised, I have left you enough time.  I have
been waiting for the rain to stop. [laughter, applause].

-END-