SOLIDARITY WITH THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE!
[The following excerpts have been translated from the speech given by Fidel Castro on July 26 at Santa Clara in the province of Las Villas in commemoration of the twelfth anniversary of Moncada, where the armed struggle against the Batista dictatorship began, Photographs in the July 27 issue of the Havana daily El Mundo show that the crowd was. as huge as at previous celebrations, and evidently just as enthusiastic. ]
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Today, under the revolutionary power, who needs to use influence to have his life saved in a hospital? (Shouts of: "No one.") Who needs to use influence to get a chance to study? (Shouts of: "No one."") Who needs to organize a neighborhood committee to Riead for a school teacher or construction of a road? (Shouts of: one." ) Viho needs to use influence of any kind? No one!
And this is the enormous difference between that system and this system. And thus it would be good if our enemies, so blind, so stupid, could just get a glimpse of this sight this afternoon, Because as a demonstration of the power of the people, as a demonstration of the revolutionary spirit of the people, we, who have the privilege to see this meeting from the platform, are sorry that each and every one of you can't be up here to see what you can't see from where you're standing, what you could see in a photograph from here perhaps. But how can a photograph show what we are looking at from here? It would be good if those who send murderers to kill school teachers could see this, could see that nearby, where they murdered Conrado Benftez, 6,000 youth are studying to be school teachers, (Applause, ) |
It would be good if they could see the results of the terror they tried to sow among our people, to see how little their crimes paid off, of what little use their money was, how useless their weapons were, . It would be good in this way to destroy their illusions once and for all. It would be good for them to understand that the Revolution cannot possibly go back, that the Revolution is an indestructible fact in the history of our country, and that our people are able not only to overcome all economic obstacles that the enemy is trying to put in their path, but that our people are able to resist any attacks the enemy dares launch, And that our people are able to struggle for a year, for ten years, a hundred years, against our only enemy if he tries to invade this country and conquer it.
In this sense, all the people of the world must be infinitely grateful to the people of South Vietnam (applause), because the people of South Vietnam have provided the world with an extraordin-= ary lesson, The people of South Vietnam, confronting hundreds of
Yankee bombers, and tens of thousands of Yankee soldiers intervening in their country, are carrying on a victorious struggle, defeating the imperialists, and they are teaching them, they are teaching them that there is no military force great enough to overcome a revolutionary people no matter how small the nation, and that all:.modern technology, all the bombers, and all the economic resources; are not enough to defeat a small nation that has decided to struggle.
: Our people have given lessons, our people have always shown this same spirit, but when we look at the example of South Vietnam, all. of us feel admiration, all of us feel moved, and from here we send to the Vietnamese fighters, from the invincible bastion of Las Villas, our message of solidarity (ovation), our message of solidarity and support to this heroic people, whose youth know how to die, facing the imperialist firing squads without faltering, without begging for mercy, saying long live their country, shouting, “Death to imperialism and long live the Revolution!" "Long live freedom and long live Communism!" (Applause. )
. Because these heroic people, who are undergoing massive bomb= ing, these heroic people are fighting and dying not only for them= selves, but also for us. They are fighting and dying for all people who in’ one way or another are threatened by the imperialists, - They are fighting and dying to curb the imperialist aggression, to curb the aggressiveness of the imperialists.
- In desperation the imperialists are talking about sending more and more soldiers. But how can the imperialists stop the liberation of the peoples? How. can the imperialists crush the Revolution in all parts of the world? They do not have enough planes, nor enough troops to simultaneously crush the Revolution in Asia, the Revolution in Africa, the Revolution in Latin America. (Applause. )
The imperialists have powerful weapons; they have great military and economic resources, but they cannot exterminate Humanity. To crush the Revolution they would have to crush the peoples of twothirds of the world; they would have to crush all the peoples of Asia; they would have to crush all the peoples defending their freedom or struggling for freedom in Asia; they would have to annihilate the peoples of.Latin America.
Because the imperialists are persisting in their repression in Vietnam just as they are intervening in Santo Domingo in order to frighten the peoples, in order to intimidate the peoples... But the peoples understand the weakness of the imperialists; they understand that it is their weakness and their fear that is driving them to intervene in Vietnam, that is driving them to intervene in Santo. Domingo, that is driving them to threaten Cuba, that is driving them to threaten to intervene in any country in the Americas where a Revolution breaks out,
But how can the imperialists intervene in all the countries
of Latin America? Today they are intervening in Santo Domingo; tomorrow they will have to intervene in Peru; the day after, they will have to intervene in Colombia; the day after that they will have to intervene in Guatemala; the next day they will have to intervene in Brazil, And orle day they will find themselves obliged to intervene throughout the Continent; arid they will perish i in its mountains, in its: jungles, in its rivers and cities.
' For us this attitude of imperialism involves a danger, because some imperialists preach that it is necessary to liquidate Cuba, that to liquidate Cuba is to liquidate the Revolution in Latin America, And to this, in reality, it is necessary to tell them in reply that in. the first place Cuba cannot be liquidated; in the second place, the example of Cuba can never be liquidat ed.
-.To invade our country the imperialists would run big risks. In the first place, they would run the risk of unpredictable consequences of an international character, and they would run the risk of a struggle that would never come to an end; because all the divisions they have ~- even if they called up the reserves -- would not be enough to make the Cuban people submit (applause), would not be enough to crush the resistance of millions of Cubans. But in addi-~ tion -- we know this -- to crush Cuba would not crush the Revolution in Latin America,
The Revolution in Latin America, the same as in Africa and the same as in Asia and the same as in any part of the world where oppression exists, is inevitable with Cuba or without Cuba, with the Cuban Revolution or without the Cuban Revolution. (Applause, )
Naturally: the Cuban Revolution has given it an impulse, has -in the first place ~- set the example, shown solidarity, given moral encouragement. And there is no way of crushing this example,
No matter how much they exert themselves, or how irritated they become, or how they train mercenary troops, or how they threaten, the Yankee imperialists cannot prevent the liberation of Latin America. sooner or later. No matter how irritated they are they cannot prevent the liberation of Vietnam or the liberation of the other: peoples oppressed by them in Asia. This is inevitable. This is’ what we proclaim here; we have no fear of proclaiming it. a
We have no illusions; we do not believe we are immune to risks and dangers. We do not believe we are immune to an attack which the imperialists in their impotence, in their hate and desperation can launch at any time against our country. We have no illusions. We are running these risks, we are running them consciously. And naturally we are preparing for these risks,
“And it is our duty to be better and better prepared in face of these risks, As the revolutionary movement develops in Latin América, the hatred of the imperialists will mount against us. °:
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As the revolutionary movement develops:in Latin America, the imperialists will blame us more and more. As the revolutionary movement develops in Latin America, the threats and dangers will increase. But we will not tell the peoples of Latin America because of that, "Wait, don't make the revolution, because it will endanger Us 9" Not We exhort the revolutionists of Latin America to strugglel (Applause.) We exhort the revolutionists of Latin America to follow our example, and we readily run the risk. We show the peoples of Latin America the possibility of Revolution, and the threats and the dangers and the risks don't bother us.
Naturally we don't want the fruit of our efforts destroyed, naturally. We have worked arduously for the well-being of our country, for the security of our country, for the future of our country, but we are not afraid of the danger because of that, we don't flee from the dangers because of that. Although Cuba runs a risk, although the imperialists menace us, we want. the Revolution, we want the liberation of the peoples of Latin America; we don't stop to look at our triumphs in an egoistic way; we don't stop to enjoy our triumphs in an egoistic way; we want the peoples of Latin America to have the same triumphs as us; we want the peoples of Latin America to follow our example, because we know, in addition, that when peoples rise nothing and nobody can stop them. (Applause. )
The OAS [Organization of American States]? What is the OAS used for? (Shouts.): The right of intervention? What good will the right of intervention be? The imperialists claim that the OAS has reached agreement on intervening militarily against a revolution in — any country. What good will these agreements be? What good will the OAS be if along with imperialism the institutions and. organizations used by the imperialists to exploit and oppress the people are torn to shreds? Along with the OAS the military castes are going to be overturned, the feudal oligarchies are going to be overturned, asthe Revolution develops; and the Revolution will develop inevitably because it is-a law of history.
And what is our duty at the present moment in which the: ‘world is living? Because the world is living through some of the most extraordinary moments in all its history, a universal. awakening of the desire for freedom among the peoples, of the desire for justice among the peoples, We have to work in various ways. In the first place we must more and more develop the revolutionary consciousness and the internationalist consciousness of our people; we must develop our armed forces.and our means of defense; we must work arduously in the economic field to achieve the social and economic objectives. of the Revolution. .
That is, we must work on various fronts. It is necessary for -the Revolution to advance in the economic field; this will make the Revolution stronger politically, morally and militarily. We have to develop the people ideologically; this will also make us stronger; and we must increase our people's means of combat.
_[Castro then discussed some of the economic problems facing the country, the struggle against bureaucratism, the role of the | revolutionary party, problems of administration, the need for independent thinking in all-the problems facing the Cuban people, and the unity of the People and its leadership in the | Struggle! against imperialism,
Sometimes we ask ourselves ona day like this if it's going to be us bringing a message to the people, saying something new to the people, or if it is the people who are going to give a message to us, if the people are going to tell us something new. Because, who is. speaking here, you or us? Formally, us. In reality you, Because it is you.who are going to give a new impulse to the Revolution, you who are going to give fresh energy to our minds and spir-. its, new fervor and revolutionary inspiration. (Applause.) Itts just as if every twenty-sixth of July the people met and demonstrated their strength in order to give a new impulse to the Revolution, in. order to give a new impulse to the revolutionary leaders.
Because wo .don't meet to go over history; we dontt meet to talk about history; we don't meet to record past history; we meet to write new history; we meet with the strength which this enormous column has accumulated on the road in order to resume the march with this strength; we meet in order to say that we are not just a few, that we are not just a hundred men; that we are not just a‘dozen men; that we are a whole people on the march, writing history, that we are writing it as other peoples have written it, as they have-written it with sacrifices, as they have written it with blocd,
With blood the Dominicans are writing the history of their | country today! (Applause.) With blood, they are writing it -- the Venezuelans, the Colombians, the. Peruvians, the Guatemalans! With blood the Congolese are writing it! With blood and sacrifices the: peoples are writing their history! (Prolonged applause and cries of: "Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!")
And who are they, who.are they who are spilling our blood?- Who are they who are filling .our road with obstacles? They are the same ones who are spilling the blood of the Dominicans; they are the same ones who are spilling the blood of the Vietnamese; they are the same ones who are spilling the blood of the Congolese; they are the ones who are spilling the blood of the peoples who want a better life, who want culture, who want peace, who want health, who want decency, who want freedom. They are the exploiters, those who cannot live without spilling the blood of the people, who cannot live without sponging on the labor of others, thriving on the sweat of the peoples. And thus the peoples have to write their history with sacrifices, with sorrow, with blood, and pay this price. (Applause. ) And that is how we wrote our history,
This is not a . gift; the Revolution was not a eifts the Revo-
ey oe lution was only the fruit of this effort, of this. blood, of this sacrifice by a whole people. And it will continue to be like that.
It doesn't matter how long the road may prove to be; it doesn't matter how hard the struggle may be, our struggle and the . struggles of the other. peoples. Our enemies are powerful; but..the peoples: are more powerful. (Applause.) It doesn't matter how great the obstacles are; the will of the people to overcome these obstacles is greater, It doesn't matter how great our lack of culture was; the thirst of our people to know and to learn is greater. It-:doesn't matter how great our underdevelopment was, our poverty and our...economic backwardness, the creative labor of the people is greater... And with the creative labor of the people we will overcome our economic backwardness, we will overcome our underdevelopment, we will overcome: our poverty (applause); with the creative labor of the people, led-by revolutionists, with a revolutionary spirit, we have-to continue constructing at the cost of sacrifices a beautiful homeland (ovation); we have to continue constructing the world of tomorrow, this world in which the youth already growing up are an example,
The spirit of our youth is already shining, and they are showing.it by their actions, as we saw yesterday in this same place, as we see in this. contingent that is part of the 15,000 youths who are studying to be school teachers; as we see in the spirit of our future school teachers (applause), in the spirit with which they work, because they say that there, there in that school, neither sun nor | shade makes any difference in how they work (applause), in that school there's neither cold, nor heat, nor rain, nor drought when: they begin a job; these youth who, when some machines broke down and they had to finish the work, ended up breaking the rocks with sledge: hammers. (Ovation.)
Our hopes are in this generation, in this generation which with this spirit in the fields and cities will educate our children; with this same spirit, improving all the time. And thus. what they achieve =-- which will be more than us -- will be outdone by the very ones they educate,
And this homeland, this country, we will build it, overcoming all the obstacles, We know we can do it! (Applause.) The sweat it costs doesn't matter, the dangers it costs don't matter. What we are doing and creating is in line with the future, The threats bearing down on the fruit of our. labor don't worry us. What we have done once, we will be capable of doing again (applause). and of doing it as many times as may be necessary. SO
There is something that cannot ever be destroyed with bombs, or planes or weapons; there is something which, as in a seasoned soldier is not lost; those conditions, those characteristics that make a veteran soldier, and like a seasoned, veteran soldier, a formidable soldier, it isn't lost in battles, instead it grows. And as a seasoned and veteran people, our people, its spirit doesn't
give way in battles, its revolutionary spirit rises!
There is something not built of stone. A factory is built of stone, irrigation works, a highway, are built of stone. There is a work not done with cement, with nails, nor with stones; it is what a people build, the education a people receive, the consciousness a people acquires, The virtues which a people develop are not seen but they exist and they are ) invulnerable.
Everything material can be destroyed here; with the material many lives can be destroyed, but no one can destroy the spirit of our people, nobody can destroy the history of our people, nobody can destroy the example of our people (applause); the revolutionary consciousness of our people, their extraordinary generosity, their. magnificent humanity, their enthusiasm, their optimism, their char- . acter, which is the cement | of their strength, nothing -- nobody -=can destroy this,
Thus on a day like this we meet to look ahead; we meet to renew our strength, to gather fresh inspiration, and so that the next year will be even better than this one, and so that the economic progress will be greater than this year (applause);: so let us 3 profit from this experience, this impulse, let's intensify it.
.Since our homeland is united today, since it is without distinctions as to regions or provinces, since it is without discrimination or oppression, since it is a whole without privileges, the July 26 celebration will move from place to place in the Island, in the West, in the Center, and in the East, a year in each region of the country, bearing the message of union and. brotherhood among all, bearing the glorious banners of our dead, the spirit of our martyrs, who rose up in all corners of the Island to conquer freedom for all, dignity for all, a triumph for all. And it will rotate year by year, and year by year will be like a plebiscite, year by year it will be like a trial, so that the people can judge the acts of the Revolution because it is the people who judge the acts of the Revolution; it: is. the people who have the say and not the slanderers.
It is. the people who have the say, the final say, not the tons of paper and ink which the detractors of our homeland and of our Revolution write, caught up over there in the eternal dreams of those with illusions, dreaming of returning to a past loaded. with ignominy and crime, of shame and. humiliation, consoling themselves over there in their intrigues, in their slanders, in their lives, in their ugly profession of serving a foreign master and of fighting their homeland as mercenaries, paid by foreigners.
And I believe that a North American correspondent -~ I don't know if he was invited or if he came by himself -- who came here two or three days ago, because there was another correspondent which was authorized, who was with the Broadcasting System, I believe, or something like that, who said that he was arrested,
And the truth is that last year we invited some North Ameri- -can journalists, some of them wrote more objectively, others less -objectively...But, in short, this year when they were bombing Viet-. nam and when they were intervening in Santo Domingo, we didn't want: to invite any Yankee journalist here, to our country (applause and exclamations of: "Throw him out!") «= no, no, no, don't throw out the one who came <= except a journalist who had the dignity and courage to combat the crimes his rulers were committing.
. But one came -- and we learned: about it by cable. “Good, let him look around; good, let him take photographs, let him take films, let's: see if the imperialists there can count on such support from the people; let's see if the imperialists there in Washington or in New York, or anywhere, are capable of arousing the enthusiasm of a total of more than 500,000 citizens assembled together (applause): let's see if any of these puppet rulers, like those in Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay and the rest, * who order their mercenary soldiers to trample on the independence of a brother country in the Americas, if any of these puppet rulers, representatives of this. farce called “representative democracy," those who say over. there... that they are going to guarantee freedom against socialism, : against Communism, let's see if any of them -- or.all of them together -<-.-. are capable of bringing together a people, are capable of bringing.:: together a half million (applause), like those who are meeting here, under the banners of socialism, under the banners of Communism, because our banners, by being correct, by representing the interests of the humble and of the exploited, increase our. strength, While -. they, all together, under the banners of. ignominy, don't succeed in bringing together -- not even with all those on their payroll, all. their cops, and all their thieves put together -- not a tenth of the people who have assembled here (applause).
And more or less of a crowd can be brought together by various means; what is not possible is to artificially inspire enthusiasm in the crowd, And over there they can't figure it out. How is it possible that this people that lived under capitalism and knew all that, the same and even better than in other places, is meeting here supporting their Revolution, supporting their party? So, what power lies in revolutionary ideas? What are the powers of Marxism? Because we are Marxist- ‘Leninists! . (Applause. )..
Were we always that? No, most of us were not; and, nevertheless, now we are! I was not a Marxist-Leninist; I was not one when I was ignorant, when I knew nothing about the laws of history, when I knew nothing about society, about social processes and about the _ history of humanity. The most I had ~= like many others -- was a rebel spirit, an enthusiasm and liking for public problems. But as I overcame this ignorance, as I came to know something, as I came to understand, I began to be a revolutionist. : Wnat were we on July. 26 [1953] ? We could not be called Marxist- Leninists on July 26, conscious Marxist~Leninists, but a group
of youth who organized the July 26 Movement. We studied Marx and we studied Lenin. And among the books we were going over at the time of the attack on Moncada, were the books of Marti and the books of Lenin, (Applause. )
Could we be called Marxist~Leninists? - Not We had much to learn; we still had much to understand. And if we were capable of understanding some of the essential principles of Marxism, the reality of a society divided between exploited and exploiters, if we were. capable of understanding the role of the masses in history, we had not yet developed our consciousness and our revolutionary culture sufficiently to understand, in all its profundity and magnitude, the phenomenon of imperialism. It can be said that we understood it theoretically and we saw it from a distance. Our immediate task, our struggle with minute resources against the military power crushing our country, occupied the greater part of our attention,
We did not learn about the imperialist phenomenon in a book; we read about it in books, but we learned about it in the flesh. We learned about it in the fresh blood of the workers, in the crimes that were committed; we learned about it in the course of the revolutionary process; we learned about it on a daily basis in the way these same imperialists proceed throughout the world.
We felt impelled to take up the calling of revolutionists$ we had the feeling of revotutionists and the conviction: of revolutionists. We lacked theory; we did not learn it day by day; we did not learn it in only a theoretical way; we learned it in reality. Nobody taught it to us; we learned it by ourselves; we developed our ideas as we became revolutionists more and more, as we understood scien~ tific socialism more and more, as we sought a better explanation for the problems of history and of society.
And this was the way we acquired our theory, our political philosophy; and it wasn't a surface varnish; but something in our bones, something in our minds and in our lives, and we made ourselves into Marxist-Leninists, (Applause. )
Naturally our enmies would have liked us to be some kind of “liberaloids," petty-bourgeois reformists. And we were petty-bourgeois, but fortunately we broke out of this ideological and class shell (applause), and adopted the ideology of the exploited, of the oppressed, of the humble, of the workers,
They would have liked us to remain in dirty politics, and in ignorance; they would have liked to perpetuate the past in this land. But the misconceptions of the imperialists! They said that Marxism- Leninism was.an exotic idea, a foreign idea. a
Ideas, however, are a universal heritage; the ideas of the French Revolution were scattered throughout the world; the bourgeois ideas of the United States arose from a philosophy that was not the
OS ee work of North American authors or philosophers, but of- Europeans. — They said that they were exotic, but what they didn't know was how well these so-called Marxist-Leninist ideas: take root in this climate. (Applause.)
Because likewise here; when Columbus arrived, there was no pol cane, but how well sugar cane grows in this country!” (Applause. ) And we are the biggest producer of sugar, and our cane gives the highest yield of sugar, And if this grows well, how well revolutionary ideas grow in this country! And we will be one of the best producers of revolutionary ideas}! (Applause. )
And this is what they didn't expect. They thought that the ideas of the exploiters would flower here, the ideas of the slaveholders, the ideas of those who practice discrimination, the ideas of the oppressors of people; and these ideas were swept out -= and with them, their apostles, and with them the class that carries and defends these ideas -- to give way to the ideas, the ideology of the workers, of the humble of our homeland, and the cultivation of these ideas,
And in the strength and the truth of these ideas lies the explanation of the power of the Revolution; in the rise of the humble men and women of the people lies the irrefutable proof of the theory of the class struggle; in the invincible power of the Revolution, the irrefutable confirmation that the masses are the motor of history; that a revolution of the masses, led by a party armed with a scientific ideology, is invincible. And this is the explanation for the successes of the Revolution, of the strength of the Revolution.
We learned Marxism in books, but above all we learned it in life. And thus we are becoming more and more socialist, we are becoming more and more Marxist, and we will struggle more and more for a world of good men, of generous men, for a people that is like a great family, in which every man and every woman has not just a brother but millions of brothers and sisters, millions of sons, millions of fathers and mothers (applause), because we are not like the capitalists who believe that man is a wild beast, we do not think like the capitalists who believe that man is a wolf, egoistic and brutal; because we believe in man, in the feelings of man, in the goodness to be found in the human heart; because we believe that these feelings are capable of growing limitlessly and boundlessly.
Thus we can call ourselves fighters for Communism, fighters for this better world, and be sure that we will achieve it.
Let us turn our thoughts and dedicate ourselves at this moment to those who fell in the struggle, to expressing our solidarity with their families, with their mothers, with their brothers, with their wives, telling them how dear they are to all of us, and how. certain it is, that lives sacrificed in a good cause are never sacri-
ficed in vain,
Homeland or death!
We will win!
(Ovation, )
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK.
1'éditeur),