-DATE-
19920410
-YEAR-
1992
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro Addresses UJC Congress Closing Session
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Cuba Vision Network
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-92-071
-REPORT_DATE-
19920413
-HEADER-
==========================================================================
Report Type:         Daily report             AFS Number:     FL1004192792
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-92-071          Report Date:    13 Apr 92
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     19
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       21
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       10 Apr 92
Report Volume:       Monday Vol VI No 071

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Cuba Vision Network

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Castro Addresses UJC Congress Closing Session

Subheadline:   Participates in UJC Debates

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

Source Line:   FL1004192792 Havana Cuba Vision Network in Spanish 0100 GMT 10
Apr 92

Subslug:   [``Excerpts'' of remarks made by President Fidel Castro during the
two day plenary sessions of the Union of Young Communists, UJC,
Congress in Havana on 2-4 April-recorded]

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [``Excerpts'' of remarks made by President Fidel Castro during the two day
plenary sessions of the Union of Young Communists, UJC, Congress in Havana on
2-4 April-recorded]

2.  [Excerpts] [Passage omitted on comments by other delegates] No, I was
thinking about this. There were all kinds of the one-day mobilizations. I
remembered yesterday that I was recently told that once almost 5,000 people
from Havana were mobilized to Melena del Sur, that was in 1980 or 1981, for one
day. This is completely crazy-the amount of transportation. The number of
people does not matter if there are not enough trucks because then the potatoes
lay for three or four days in the fields. If 5,000 men dig the potatoes, they
need to be bagged, loaded, and then they need to be transported.  Everything
needs to be planned.

3.  Before, almost all the mobilizations were for one day and there were a
great many, except those that were mobilized for the cane harvest and all these
things. Even Havana had a lot of people participate in this. This also happened
a little bit with the mobilizations for national celebrations. The celebration
for the October Revolution was held on 7 November.

4.  I saw these mobilizations. They began early, at 0700, 0800 and by 1000
everyone was coming back. It was a colossal cost in trucks. It was a show, a
picnic, or something like that. I said well, if they are going to work why not
work the whole day. To work only two, two and a half, or three hours! Why not
get organized and if there is not enough work for everyone then do not take
them, leave them there in the area, in the municipality fixing up a park,
cleaning, doing other things.

5.  Nevertheless, if the one-day mobilizations did not exist, the populace of
Havana Province, for example, would not be able to participate, from the
province, not from the city but from the province, because there are all kinds
of one-day mobilizations. Now, the people from Alquizar, Guira, Bejucal, from
all these places, they live close-three, four, or five kilometers. They are not
used to the idea of staying in a camp. I do not know if it would be easy to
persuade them, being three or four kilometers from their homes, to leave their
homes to stay at a camp.  We have to consider this; we need more camps, plus
cost, plus food, all these kinds of things.

6.  We cannot talk in absolute terms of eliminating the one-day mobilizations
because the one-day mobilizations can work in many small villages. They can get
there on bicycles. Some people can go and return to their homes, if they are so
close-three, four, or five kilometers. Because do not forget that Havana
Province has approximately 19 municipalities, no? [unidentified delegate
answers: Yes] 19 municipalities. They are small, isolated villages like Nueva
Paz, Nueva Paz [repeats].

7.  Those from Nueva Paz can help there. They have plantains next door.  They
have a lot of crops next door. They can leave their homes in the village and
walk to the fields to work there. Of course we cannot do without all of the
people. Because Havana Province's duty is to produce food. The agriculture duty
of Havana Province, especially the miscellaneous crop enterprises, is to
produce food for the populace, for the City of Havana, and produce food for
Havana Province, which has 700,000 inhabitants, and food for the City of
Havana, which has 2.1 million inhabitants.

8.  That is supposed to be the task. Of course, Havana Province also produces
milk for the City of Havana and the province. Havana Province also produce
sugarcane.  Havana Province produces more than half a million tons of sugar.
You could say that Havana Province produces sugar for the rest of the country.
In general, it has a productive agriculture program, but its most important,
fundamental task is to produce food.

9.  Before, that food, the agriculture sector in general- when the population
was a lot smaller, when the populace was fed with a lot less resources, that
is, they received a lot less food-all these crops destined for the city were
produced by the provinces. What has happened is that if you went to any
village, there was so much social development that everyone was working in
something, in some service, bakery, transportation, child care center, school,
polyclinic, business. Many times we asked, where are the people of all these
villages, of all these municipalities? How many agriculture workers are there?

10.  I had a study done because the Guira Enterprise, with approximately 300 or
200 plus caballerias, had a little more than 200 workers. So, where were the
people? The people were in the city. We had created many forms of employment. A
lot of employment that is not fundamental right now.  We cannot give up this
worker pool, of everyone, of that immense populace which is spread throughout
the whole province. I understand that some cooperatives are helping a lot.

11.  I understand that, for example Guira mobilizes approximately 700, 800
persons every day. They mainly work in cooperatives that are close by. Now,
perhaps what has to change is the concept. Perhaps what must be established is
that those who now go for one day should go for a complete day and that they
get there using simple means, by bicycle, or walking; once in a while if it is
a little farther by using some kind of vehicle. But we cannot talk about
eliminating one-day mobilizations because we would have to house all these
people, build camps.  Where would we put them?

12.  It is not the same for the City of Havana. What was really crazy were the
mobilizations from the City of Havana to the fields for one day. Today they go
for 15 days. If we are going to do it better, we would build camps for
contingents. This would be the optimum thing to do. In my opinion, it seems we
would be doing ourselves great damage, from a conscientious point of view, a
political point of view, if we were to look for a solution to the capital's
food problem without allowing the people in Havana to participate.

13.  In my opinion, it is phenomenal what the medical students have done to go
[rephrases] all the university students, not only in Havana but throughout the
whole country. It began here but it has already spread. You do not know how
much they have helped. You do not know the satisfaction it gives to see the
spirit there is in these camps. The way they are working. The serious way they
work. It is something truly impressive. It is something truly revolutionary.

14.  I am sorry that Tania, who is such an efficient leader, organizer, and who
also knows how to communicate, was not able to express everything about these
15 days, from 15 to 29 March, because is was a magnificent, excellent,
extraordinary thing. If you had heard about it here it would have served as an
incentive to all the youth, to all the delegates of the congress. Well, if we
had organized 70 contingents, these students would not be participating, no
university students would be participating.

15.  The revolution that has occurred, and which I was explaining yesterday, is
that there has also been an enormous influence on the agriculture workers. The
agriculture workers are working twice as hard as before.  The students from
schools in the fields are working, producing two or three times more than what
they produced before they were combined with the camps.  The students from the
schools in the fields are working a lot better. There has been a complete
change in every sense.

16.  If we were to let ourselves be carried away by the idea that the most
useful thing would be to create 60, 65, or 70 contingents that would work for
two, three, or four years, then the people would not participate in this
struggle, and it seems vital to me that the people participate in this
struggle; among other reasons, so that the people will understand certain
phenomena. If they do not participate, they will not understand. I believe that
our population, especially in Havana, is getting a great political and
revolutionary education because we speak of ideology but if they do not know
anything, if they do not know everything, if they do not know what it costs to
produce a pound of potatoes, if they do not know what hard work is, if they do
not participate in the solution of these problems, politically we would lose a
lot, ideologically we would lose, revolutionarily we would lose. That is why I
believe that with these mobilizations, what must be clearly defined is what
kind of one-day mobilizations must be eliminated. [passage omitted with remarks
by delegates]

17.  This is important because here every so often we panic over fuel, gas,
other fuels, and to have a charcoal reserve-think what having 0.5 million sacks
of charcoal would mean. That is almost one sack per household in Havana. In a
similar situation if they lacked fuel, gas, lacked something, this would
resolve a lot, really.

18.  That is why we plan to increase charcoal production in Cienaga. It is very
important. That is why it is so important that the Brazilian ovens function.
[passage omitted with remarks by delegates]

19.  We are creating a reserve of scientists. Because even if we cannot use all
of them immediately we are going to need them in the future and instead of
having them misusing the time it is better to have them involved in a
preparation process. [passage omitted with remarks by delegates]

20.  What you say is important not only for the scientific-technical training
of these youths but in the training of the revolutionary consciousness, a
patriotic feeling, a feeling of responsibility, a loyalty to the country,
because the enemy tries to steal information. They try to steal many of these
youths. I believe that you should not let immature people, people that are not
solidly trained, have contact with the enemy. They should not be exposed to the
influence of ideas and become involved in relationships with the capitalists.

21.  Sometimes we are not strict enough when it comes to this. We are not
careful enough. Sometimes we do not make good choices of the kind of people
that get involved with these elements because the enemy will try to hit us as
much as possible in this field, steal our technologies, steal our brains also.

22.  I believe that we require the same things of a scientist that we require
of a soldier or specialist; that is, solid ideological training and an
unconditional loyalty to the revolution and the nation. What you said is
important not only from a scientific- technical point of view, it is important
from a political, moral, revolutionary point of view. I personally agree 100
percent with what you have said. [applause]
-END-