[The following is the text of President Fidel Castro's May Day speech in Havana. The translation and footnotes are by Intercontinental Press/Inprecor.]
* Compatriots:
We know how many hours you have already been standing in this plaza (SHOUTS OF "No!"). We ask only one more effort of you (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "Fidel, friend, the people are with you!").
Well, we are now going to give another proof of discipline. We are going to remain silent.
I was saying, or I was trying to say, that this afternoon when we were coming to this meeting we could again see the incredible spectacle of absolutely empty streets. Could we imagine the size of this meeting? We figured it would be a big meeting, we figured it would be the biggest meeting in all twenty-one years of the revolution, but it was really impossible to imagine its size. Perhaps the only way we could manage to see how big this meeting is would be from the top of the tower, perhaps from the air, perhaps only graphically, through movies or television or photographs (SHOUTS OF "It is the people who love you!" AND APPLAUSE).
I don't say it or I don't appreciate it in terms of what it means as support for us. I say it and I appreciate it in terms of what it means as support for our noble and just revolutionary ideas, what it means as support for our revolutionary cause (AP- PLAUSE).
What was involved was a show of strength, but not simply to show it. In recent days a mass battle has been carried out, the likes of which has never before been fought in the history of the revolution, both in terms of its breadth and in terms of its depth. The events that motivated it are known. It was necessary to do this! (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "Let them go, let them go!" AND "Hey, hey, what do you say, all the worms should leave today!"). We had to show the enemy and teach the enemy that you can't play games with the people (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "You can't play games."). We had to show the enemy that you can't play games with the revolution (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS). We had to show the enemy that you cannot insult a people with impunity (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "No!"), that you cannot threaten a people with impunity (SHOUTS OF "No!). And this image that we see here before us is the one they dreamed of destroying: the image of what the people are, the real revolutionary people, the proletarian people, the working people, the peasant people, the fighting people, the student people! (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF *The people united will never be defeated!").
They probably believed that the revolution had been weakened (SHOUTS OF "No!"), and you can see what a "weak" revolution they have discovered (SHOUTS OF "No!" AND "They should go, they should go!"), see what kind of revolution they have found. That is why it was necessary to fight this battle.
As you know, in recent months our party, our people have been carrying out a stubborn and self-sacrificing struggle to be demanding, to overcome inefficiency, to defeat the difficulties; calmly, steadfastly we have been carrying out this important work for some months. It could be said that our revolution, our people, our party had dedicated themselves to this task, and to the tasks of production, in the first place to the sugar harvest, and to the planting; confronting the problems of the tobacco mold, of the cane rust, of swine fever which have mysteriously-mysteriously!- appeared almost simultaneously in our country'; confronting the various problems of our revolutionary process, struggling for development, struggling to improve it all within our material possibilities, preparing for the congress of our party. We were involved in this task.
But why did this situation arise? This is not a coincidence, but it turns out that, as in all the previous circumstances, each time they have messed with us they have ended up in worse shape, each time they provoked us they have ended up losing.
You know the facts, and if it were not for the foreign journalists who are present, it would not be necessary to speak very much about the earlier events. But the issue broke out following the provocations at the embassies of Peru and Venezuela.
The whole world knows that imperialism would like to affect the relations between Cuba and Venezuela, and between Cuba and Peru, that for a long time it has been manipulating things with this in mind.
We cannot forget that it was precisely in Venezuela, and with the participation of Venezuelans, that the monstrous crime of Barbados was planned, organized, and carried out —one of the most unspeakable acts that has occurred in the entire revoluthat tionary period.? Everyone knows these people have not even been tried, and that frequently there is even talk of their being freed, because some of them have long ties with the ruling party in Venezuela.
We cannot forget that in Peru it was the navy of that country-the navy of that country, and we know it, I think they would not dare to dispute it-the navy of that country!, agents at its orders, who sank our two fishing boats, the Rio Jobado and Rio Damji. An incredible provocation. But, in addition, we also cannot forget how the fishing agreement that existed between Cuba and Peru, which lasted a long time, which was working perfectly well, which was useful, very useful for the Peruvians since it helped to produce food for the Peruvians and also helped to produce food for us, was unilaterally cancelled, also on the orders of the navy, cancelled so they could sign private contracts which would make an individual, without doing anything, without doing anything but signing his name, into a millionaire. We cannot forget how the government of Peru failed to fulfill the contract for construction of twenty tuna boats that we signed with them, in line with which our country also spent tens of millions of dollars on a fish processing plant; and despite that the contract was not fulfilled, the tuna boats were not built, and we are left with a processing plant and no tuna boats.
This whole affair has its history and its antecedents. Logically these things were placing a chill on the relations that at one time were warm and close with the revolutionary government of Velasco Alvarado (APPLAUSE), relations that were opened in those difficult days for Peru, caused by the earthquake, when our people responded to an appeal by the revolution, despite the fact that there were no diplomatic relations, and made 100,000 donations of blood in ten days, and our doctors and our nurses volunteered, and our construction workers volunteered, and our people volunteered to aid the sister people of Peru (APPLAUSE). Yes, the sister people of Peru, because we call and will always continue to call the people of Peru, like the people of Venezuela, our sister peoples (APPLAUSE).
We gave the people our blood with plea sure, because in general it is the people who die in these catastrophes, their houses are the ones that fall down; the houses of the rich, of the bourgeois, are earthquakeresistant. If we have to do the same thing again for the people of Peru, we would do it; just as we would again do it for the people of Chile if there was a repeat of the circumstances that led to the donation of part of our rationed sugar, as Laura Allende recalled yesterday in her beautiful letter.
This is our people! This people who are here, this people of workers, of soldiers (APPLAUSE); the internationalist people, the people of the glorious fighters in Angola and Ethiopia, the people, more than 100,000 of whose soldiers and reservists of their armed forces have already fulfilled internationalist missions (APPLAUSE); the people who when asked for teachers for Nicaragua, offers 29,500. That, that is this people, not the lumpen they want to put forward as a picture of the people, not the scum that went to the embassy of Peru! (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "They should go!", "Down with the scum!", "All those who don't want to work should go!" "Hey, hey, what do you say, all the worms should leave today!"). That was what insulted our people the most.
That dust-and other dust-caused this mud, and that breeze brought these storms. And it is a strange thing, something that did not happen in any other embassy. When corrupt elements, delinquents, lumpen would go to the Peruvian embassy to ask for a visa, they wouldn't give it to them. They didn't give them visas. But when they entered by violence, crashing a truck or crashing a bus through the fence, ah, then they received them with full honors, they sheltered them, they gave them asylum, they paid for their passage, and they received them as heroes. This could have no other consequence than encouraging the lumpen to carry out these activities, there could be no other result.
And the patience that we showed for practically years did no good. We explained to them that this was wrong, that this would bring bad consequences, that this was going to stimulate violence against diplomatic missions, that they should not continue this policy. On repeated occasions we solved the problem for them, because they said that they did not want to live with those types inside there.
Well, we could have said, let them stay there the rest of their lives. "But, please," they told us, "we do not want to live with these people." And so we authorized the departure of the individuals. We did it repeatedly and what we warned always happened: as soon as one group left, another entered. That's how it was.
But why only in the embassies of Venezuela and Peru? Why didn't this happen in the Mexican embassy, for example? Why didn't it happen in the embassy of Guyana, or in the embassy of Panama, or in the embassy of Jamaica? Not to speak of Nicaragua and Grenada, which not even a crazy person would consider entering whether with a tank or a truck. It did not occur to them, it did not occur to them because the lumpen know and understand governments almost as well as we do, and they know that Mexico had a friendly attitude toward Cuba, that it would not permit this despicable act, these irregularities, nor would Panama permit it, nor would Guyana permit it, nor would Jamaica permit it. Why did these things take place specifically at the embassies of Venezuela and Peru?
It is clear that behind all of this, behind the monstrous crime of Barbados, behind the boats that were sunk in Peru, behind the cancellations of the fishing agreements, behind the nonfulfillment of the contract to build the twenty tuna boats, behind all that and behind all these provocations is the CIA.
Our patience continued until the death of soldier Ortiz Cabrera (APPLAUSE) took place, up to that point, up to that point.? The point had been reached when we could not tolerate any more and we said: whatever the price-and understand this clearly-whatever the price there must be an end to the provocations. And when the revolution says: it is ready to put a stop to something whatever the price, the world can be sure that it will put a stop to it, whatever the price (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF: "For Sure!").
We simply withdrew the guards at the embassy, and we knew what was going to happen. Because you cannot have imperialism and the lackeys of imperialism going around for so long enticing the lumpen by offering them villas and castles, offering them paradise, offering them everything, filling them with illusions on the one hand, while on the other hand they close off entry into those countries. It's a curious thing: they encourage them to enter illegally by force, they encourage them to leave illegally; but they won't allow them to enter if they ask normally and peacefully.
We knew that when the guard was withdrawn, as soon as the lumpen knew that there was no guard, the embassy would fill up with lumpen. And that is exactly what happened. It could be said that the lumpen did exactly what was expected.
Well, it was necessary to reestablish a provisional guard, because the guard at that embassy is provisional. I want them to take note of this, since the problem of what to do with those who penetrate an embassy by force remains to be solved. (SOMEONE SHOUTS: "Withdraw the guard!"). Withdrawing it now does not have much importance because we have withdrawn the guard from the Florida peninsula, which is much larger (AP- PLAUSE). We have had to withdraw the guard from the peninsula of Florida; they have a much easier way for going to the United States (APPLAUSE).
Imperialism immediately began using this problem, the whole bourgeois and rightist press in this hemisphere and in the world began using it, to launch a deluge of slanders and propaganda against Cuba. We expected it. But in this battle we win, we are winning, we will win completely, because we not only defied Yankee military threats; we defied the imperialist information monopolies; we defied the barrage, we defied the campaign with total calmness.
If one is not ready to defy dangers of all types, dangers of military aggression as well as dangers of their propaganda, one cannot respond adequately to the enemy; to be intimidated in the face of the propaganda is like being intimidated in the face of enemy rifles. There is no reason to be afraid of anything; we have learned this perfectly well during twenty-one years.
But they unleashed the international campaign around the idea that the people wanted to leave, that there were many dissidents, especially around this idea: dissidents. There are lumpen there, in that embassy-as you were able to see for yourself in the documentary—who don't even know what the word dissidence means (LAUGHTER).
Then they orchestrated their campaign around this and, of course, in the front ranks was the imperialist press, and as you can imagine the reactionary and rightist press of the hemisphere and the world, a campaign aimed against socialism, against communism, against the Cuban Revolution.
Parallel with this, the Yankees were doing exactly the same thing as had happened at the embassies of Venezuela and Peru. In recent months, in recent months there has been an increase in illegal departures. The individuals hijacked boats, often taking the crew hostage, and then they were received in Florida as heroes, as dissidents, as patriots, etc. And we warned them, we warned them repeatedly through diplomatic channels. We also warned them publicly, because we spoke specifically of this on March 8, International Women's Day, at the closing session of the congress [of the Federation of Cuban Women].* We warned them in every way of the consequences it might have, and that we might open up Camarioca again.
That day we pointed out what the policy of the revolution is and will be, a basie idea of ours, and that is that the work of a revolution and the building of socialism is a task for absolutely free men and women and is absolutely voluntary (APPLAUSE). Those who do not have revolutionary genes, who do not have revolutionary blood, who do not have a mind that adapts itself to the idea of a revolution, who do not have a heart that adapts itself to the effort and the heroism of a revolution, we don't need them in our country. (SHOUTS OF "They should go!"). And, in short, they are an insignificant part of the people; because the imperialists want to hide, it hurts them to recognize some truths; for example, no other revolution has the strength of militant masses that the Cuban Revolution has (APPLAUSE).
That is, our revolution... it's not good to make comparisons with anyone, it is never pleasant, but certainly the mass strength, the moral strength, the political strength, the ideological strength that the revolution has is tremendous, and when it is put to the test, look at the results, look at the April 19 march, look at this meeting today; but not only in terms of numbers, but rather fundamentally the quality and spirit of the people (APPLAUSE, SHOUTS OF: "Fidel, the scum should leave").
This is the picture that imperialism wants to hide, because that picture does not suit it, it wants the peoples to lose faith in Cuba, it wants peoples to get discouraged about the example of Cuba.
Moreover, in this whole hemisphere—we will leave out Nicaragua and Grenada, but perhaps they would be in agreement with us-despite everything, despite there still being lumpen here unfortunately, despite there still being declassed elements here, despite there being antisocial elements, we have the fewest antisocial and lumpen elements in the whole hemisphere, we are the country in the Americas that has the lowest robbery rate-in spite of the fact that there are thieves-the lowest crime rate, the tiniest drug rate, there is no prostitution, and gambling is not tolerated and its totally prohibited. The Grenadians and the Nicaraguans still have not been able to overcome this situation and it will take them time to overcome it, because we too were not able to overcome it in the first or second year of the revolution.
But no society in the entire hemisphere has a more healthy moral atmosphere than our society (APPLAUSE); no society has greater moral values than those that this society of ours has reached after twenty-one years of revolution, with a sense of justice, with a sense of honor, with a sense of dignity, with an appreciation and an admiration for merit, for work, for sacrifice. And it is shown every time it is put to the test. As we have said other times, when the wars in Ethiopia and Angola broke out, hundreds of thousands of Cubans came forward to volunteer to participate in those struggles. It is shown by the fact that there are 50,000 of our compatriots, between military and civilian personnel, who are working abroad; it is shown by the fact that Cuban technicians are working in thirty-five countries (AP- PLAUSE).
And imperialism no longer had allies here. In the beginning it had the bourgeois elements, the landlords; it had vacillating elements of the middle class, including the petty bourgeoisie; but now, where is it going to find allies? Among the workers? (SHOUTS OF: "No!). Among the peasants? (SHOUTS OF: "No!"). Among the students? (SHOUTS OF: "No!"). Will it find allies among our honest manual and intellectual workers? (SHOUTS OF "No!"). No! In the beginning imperialism sought out some classes because they existed as exploiting classes in our country and they were its allies. Now all that is left to imperialism is the lumpen, that is imperialism's only potential ally; and some people who have a lumpen mentality or are mixed up with the lumpen, that's all; but that is the only potential ally left to imperialism, and starting from that it has to invent its refugees, its asylum seekers, its dissidents.
And I was saying, that parallels with this business at the embassy, the United States was encouraging illegal departures from the country, and this is fundamentally what led to the opening of the port of Mariel.
Mariel!, which has already far surpassed Camarioca; Camarioca was child's play next to Mariel (FROM THE CROWD PEO. PLE SHOUT: "Mariel, Florida, we have now opened a wound" [a rhyming chant in Spanish]). They say: Mariel, Florida, we have now opened a wound (LAUGHTER). But look, it was more of a self inflicted wound. I'll explain.
Because the interesting thing is that this time we were not the ones who took the initiative to open up Mariel, no, they took the initiative over there. In the heat of the situation and of the campaign created in the United States itself around the events at the embassy of Peru, the idea of sending boats to nick un these lumpen arose soonboats to pick up these lumpen arose spontaneously in Florida, and then we simply limited ourselves to saying that the boats would not be met with cannon fire because they were not coming on a war footing, and that they would be met with full courtesy, and this thing was opened up. I don't know if it is a self inflicted wound, an act of hara-kiri or something like that, but it was opened. Now let's see how it will be closed, how they can close this (LAUGHTER), now we will have to see, we will have to see. They are performing a wonderful sanitary service (LAUGHTER), wonderful. Now they are complaining.
They say that there are delinquents, as if this were really a discovery, as if they were surprised to find some delinquents. But who do they think entered and remained in the embassy of Peru? Did they think they were intellectuals, artists, or technicians, engineers? What did they think, what did they think was in there? They thought that it was propaganda on our part, they thought that we were unjust, and that we were calling these "poor little dissidents" lumpen. And this was the type of element that made up the immense majority of those who were in the Peruvian embassy. Of course some of them brought family, and we are not going to say that a child is a lumpen; it is a sad thing for a child to be the son of a lumpen, it is a terribly sad thing. But the immense majority of the people who were there were of this type: lumpen.
Some softies, as someone said (LAUGH TER), some shameless types who had hidden their feelings. You know them, the committees know this well, better than anyone, they know that some of these people also snuck in, that, by the way, these pretenders were the ones who produce the most irritation.
Now, well, Mariel was opened, and we are strictly, rigorously following our slogan: that anyone who wants to go to any other country that will receive them, should go (SHOUTS OF "They should go!"); and that the building of socialism, the revolutionary work, is the task of free men and women. Don't forget this principle, don't forget this principle, which has immense moral value (APPLAUSE).
Now, we did not just give safe-conduct passes and passports only to those who were in the embassy, no. We gave them to every lumpen who asked for one, to everyone who asked for one. But, of course, the lumpen said: "This is International Lumpen Day!" (LAUGHTER.) When they heard us say this, well many lumpen wanted their passports and their safe-conduct passes. And what are we going to do? Why should we deny this to them? As Granma said, "it would be unfair and unconstitutional."
So, what do they think they are going to receive over there? Of course, at the beginning, ah!, they got the oh-so-refined bourgeois, the oh-so-well-dressed landlord, and they got the doctor, the professional.... And doctors, remember they took half the doctors there were in this country; we had 6,000 and they took 3,000. Now it is very difficult for them to get a doctor, very difficult indeed, because we now have a different kind of doctor. First, there are those who stayed here, the best; then there are the doctors trained in a different spirit of solidarity, in a different spirit of humanity, doctors who are not merchants. And we have plenty. This is proven by the fact that there are about 1,500 doctors serving in internationalist missions. It is no longer the same kind of engineer, of architect, of professor as in the first days of the revolution, no (APPLAUSE).
Because it must be said that many interesting things have been revealed in this battle. We should begin by noting the incredible participation of the youth, the combativity and fervor of our youth, because this has been the first great battle of an entire generation of young people (AP- PLAUSE). The massive participation of women, a notable thing; but, in addition, the attitude of the intellectuals, the intellectual workers, the journalists, the writers, the artists, the technicians, the professionals, the doctors, a magnificent attitude! It must be said that the intellectual workers have also been in the first ranks of this battle-not to mention the students!
Of course, imperialism used to pick and choose. Well, how is it going to select now? As Nuez says, the only thing they can do is swallow the whole sword, right to the hilt (SHOUTS).® That is the situation.
But this was not the whole problem; this was only part of the problem. While this was going on, and the big propaganda campaign, they announced military maneuvers in the Caribbean-now this is much more serious-with air and naval landings at the Guantánamo Base. This was more serious, more serious, it was especially more serious taking into account the world situation; more serious if we analyze imperialism's increasingly aggressive policy toward us.
Because while in the early days of this administration there were some gestures that could be considered positive, later the most reactionary elements, the so-called hawks inside the United States government have been increasingly imposing their line, and this line was increasingly aggressive against Cuba.
This did not just begin now. It began at the time of the Sixth Summit Meeting of the Nonaligned Countries. They were angered by Cuba's strength, by Cuba's prestige, by Cuba's positions, and Cuba's victories in the Nonaligned Movement. In the middle of the Summit Conference they launched that huge and hypocritical campaign around the Soviet personnel that were in Cuba; personnel, a quantity of Soviet military personnel that has been in Cuba in similar numbers since seventeen years ago, since the October [Missile] Crisis, something that didn't have anything to do with the agreement of the October Crisis, Soviet military personnel. The Yankees knew this; they knew it; they have known about it since that time, and all of their presidents have known it.
And suddenly they "discovered" a Soviet military unit. They said it was a brigade, for our part we did not feel like calling it a brigade, and we called it something else, I think it was Training Center Number Twelve. It's all the same, the name is of no great importance. But yes, we do not deny that there were these personnel, that they are there, and we are very happy that these personnel have been there for seventeen years. We're only sorry that there have not been more training centers, that this was not number thirteen, number fourteen, number fifteen! (APPLAUSE.) Because we would be much happier still if we had several more such training centers, because they are magnificent training centers, let me tell you.
But they knew all about it. That's imperialism's hypocrisy and duplicity. In the middle of the Nonaligned Conference they launched a huge scandal around this, they began a big campaign, which later would end up affecting even the prestige of the United States government. Because, why did they discover it at that time... And [Carter] had to take certain measures.
But coupled with this propaganda campaign, coupled with it, and using it as a pretext, they organized a Caribbean Task Force and they installed it over there in Florida, at Key West. They established a multiforce operational command.
Their basic concern was caused by the revolutionary victory in Nicaragua and the growing upsurge of the revolutionary movement in Central America. They began to make their preparations to establish a capability to intervene. And, of course, they used the pretext of the Soviet military personnel in Cuba. And they also used it to begin exerting pressure against us and to make threats against Cuba, and at the end of last year they carried out a little maneuver at Guantánamo. But now this maneuver was to be much bigger, more massive, with more resources, more soldiers, of a stranger character. And we said: No, no, no, this cannot be. We are not going to sit still to the idea that they are going to organize this maneuver just like that.
This maneuver, as has been said, is clearly a practice invasion of our country, a masked practice invasion on our own territory. This is what is really intolerable, what is unacceptable: a maneuver on how to invade Cuba carried out on our own territory.
The maneuvers became a serious problem, and we were not going to stand around with our arms folded. Of course, measures were immediately taken to mobilize the Oriente Army, and with reinforcements from other provinces to organize a Cuban armed forces maneuver in the face of the Yankee maneuver (AP- PLAUSE).
(APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF "Fidel, for sure, hit the Yankees hard!")
It was natural that the hurricane would turn back toward the United States, and the hurricane did turn back toward the United States.
Well, the United States has imposed a blockade on Cuba for more than twenty years, a harsh economic blockade!, that even prohibits the sale of food and medicines, even medicines! It is a brutal thing, put in effect twenty-one years ago.
The United States occupies a piece of our territory by force and against the will of our people. On what doctrine, on what principles, on what law, on what legality can you base the act of maintaining a naval base on the territory of another country against the will of the people? This has no legal basis, no juridical basis, no moral basis, no basis in any principles; it is simply an act of force.
The United States sends the ultramodern SR-71 planes over the territory of Cuba, planes that fly at an altitude of between 25,000 and 30,000 meters, at a very high speed. And every so often throughout the country we hear these booms, because as they break the sound barrier they cause sonic booms the length of the country, and walls shake, and glass shakes, and windows shake every time the SR-71 passes (SOMEONE SHOUTS: "Let's knock them down!"). It's not so easy to knock them down, not so easy, technically it is not easy.
Now, is it legal to do this? Is it legal to blockade our country? Is it legal to have a naval base on our territory? Is it legal to violate our air space? (SHOUTS OF "No!"). And they are doing these things. And in addition, there is the maneuver.
But this is not the only thing imperialism did in all these years. Many of the comrades who have spoken here have mentioned and recalled the La Coubre, they recalled Girón, they recalled Escambray, they recalled the sabotage, they recalled the plans for subversion, they recalled the attempts and the introduction of diseases to our agriculture, they recalled the plans to assassinate leaders of the revolution, they recalled Barbados, they recalled many things, because there are many deeds that the United States can be reminded of.
So, it wasn't that we capriciously diverted the hurricane that began in the Peruvian embassy back toward the United States, but rather that the natural course of the hurricane was toward the United States, and the natural course of the struggle against those violations and that blackmail was for us to eliminate the restrictions on departure by sea, withdrawing the guard from Florida. It was the natural course and it should not have been so surprising to them, because they knew it was going to happen.
And as I said, formally we were not the ones to open Mariel, it was opened from over there, and we do not have any police over there. This is their problem, something they have to do; because if no one wants to obey their orders, that's their problem. But we have the right, and what we are doing within our territory is legal, we have the right to authorize the departure of the antisocial elements that want to go. We force no one-absolutely no one!- let that be understood. We have never deported a single person! Ah, but we are absolutely within our rights to authorize the departure of the antisocials, and that is what we are doing. Well, this battle is getting interesting.
Today, beginning early this morning, cables and news began arriving saying that the Yankees have suspended the naval landing at Guantánamo. Listen to this. Even a U.S. radio station, in the early hours of the morning, said that the naval exercise but not the air exercise had been suspended. But later this afternoon we received official information, and we were able to confirm it with the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, as well as the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, which sent this open cable. It says: "We have just spoken with Mr. Myles Frechette, head of the Bureau of Cuban Affairs of the State Department, who confirmed that the military maneuvers projected for Guantá- namo have been totally cancelled" (AP- PLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF: "Fidel, be respected!").
"Frechette commented that there had been communications with the Voice of America' radio to point out its error regarding its transmission reporting that parachutists would take part in that maneuver."
It appears and they say that they will now carry out the maneuvers over there, on the Florida coast and on the east coast of the United States. While we know that these maneuvers are still definitely aimed against us and against Central America and the Caribbean from there, we are not going to dispute their right to have maneuvers over there on U.S. territory. What we were disputing was the right to hold maneuvers on Cuban territory.
If this is the case, there is no doubt that it means a great success for our people's struggle and for international solidarity (APPLAUSE). Therefore the Cuban government will suspend the special maneuvers that the Oriente Army was going to carry out under the name Girón-XIX which were to begin on May 7 (AP- PLAUSE).
But the March of the Fighting People will still take place, the March of the Fighting People will still take place! (AP- PLAUSE) because the march was not simply against the maneuvers, but also against the blockade, against the base at Guantánamo, and against the SR-71 spy flights (APPLAUSE), and we must prevent the Yankees from trying to gain the advantage of the people demobilizing in the middle of the battle (SHOUTS OF "Never!"). The March of the Fighting People must take place, and it must take place with even greater force than the April 19 march (APPLAUSE). It is a mobilization of the people against the blockade, against the base at Guantá- namo, and against the violation of our air space. We must not remain quiet, and we must show world public opinion that we reject and that we are willing to struggle against these things.
Of course if the United States government were to announce that it has suspended the blockade against Cuba, that it is going to return our occupied territory at Guantánamo, and that it is going to suspend the SR-71 flights, then, very good, we would, with pleasure, suspend the March of the Fighting People (APPLAUSE). They are not going to do that, they are not going to do that. But they are going to respect us a little more, they are going to learn a little more about Cuba, they are going to learn to respect Cuba more (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS OF: "Fidel, be tough, Cuba must be respected!"). They have suspended the maneuver, but they have not renounced the right they have claimed for themselves of turning around and holding it in three months, in four or five months, or whenever they feel the international or other circumstances are more favorable. Therefore, what they must do is relinquish their presence on this piece of our national territory.
Therefore, we will continue to uphold these three banners, and we will organize the march. They say that I am organizing it. They say: "This is organized by Castro." Clearly the mass organizations did it. Of course the masses have their political leaders, and the masses have their party; we don't go along with hypocrisy of any kind, because here we are, and we've got it all together (APPLAUSE); we don't go around creating fictions, we don't go around creating fictions! We are united, and we have a party, we have a leadership; but, of course, the party cannot organize the march, it can't. The march can only be organized through the mass organizations, this meeting could only be organized through the mass organizations, and only through the miracle of a revolution can you create the enthusiasm of a meeting like this. These are facts.
All right now, the whole people has participated in this, the whole people has participated, as we are participating in this meeting.
Therefore, the March will take place on Saturday May 17, not on the eighth; because the maneuvers were to begin on May 8, but that is not the specific date when they were going to carry out the amphibious landing. So the March of the Fighting People will take place on Saturday, May 17, throughout the country. This time it won't be a million, I estimate that around five million people will march that day throughout the length and breadth of our homeland (APPLAUSE).
But, of course, that is why I say that we must not let our success make us overconfident; this is not the time to be overconfident. The enemy still exists, it is still strong; it harasses us, it blockades us, it threatens us, all the more so in the heat of a new world situation, where we are at the threshhold, or already in the midst of a situation of an arms race and of cold war. Therefore we cannot drop our guard and we must remain alert.
For that reason the party has instructed the Armed Forces to form Militias of Territorial Troops, as one more force (AP. PLAUSE), that will be made up of men and women, workers, peasants, students, all those who are able to fight, and will organize them and structure them so they will be able to defend every piece of the national territory (APPLAUSE). All those who are able to fight and are not part of the reserves of the regular troops will be able to be part of the Militias of Territorial Troops.
We should be clearly aware that in Cuba-just as in Nicaragua, even though Cuba has a much stronger army than Nicaragua, as would be expected, since there has been more time and Cuba has a much larger population-aggression against us will be confronted not just through a regular war; it will also be necessary to confront the enemy through people's war. Both things: resistance by the regular units and resistance by the whole people.
Do you know what really makes us strong—us, and Nicaragua, and Grenada? The fact that these are people's revolutions, revolutions with deep roots, with great popular support; and any enemy would have to think that it would be madness to invade a country like this, it would be madness because the same thing could happen as happened to Napoleon's troops in Spain, which entered and then could not figure out how to leave, or his troops in the old Russia, who entered and then also could not figure out how to leave. Yes, they can enter; but if they are going to tangle with a people like this, if they tangle with a people like this, it is much harder to then leave. This is the problem (APPLAUSE).
That is, we must prepare ourselves for the two kinds of war: conventional war and people's war-the two wars, both types of war. This will force the imperialists to think long and hard before they commit the blunder of invading our country.
But there are dangers for us, because some of those people have already begun to speak in more aggressive terms, some have called for ignoring the 1962 agreements, that is, they are again beginning to put forward the thesis that they have a right to invade us. Others have very cynically said that if a conflict should develop in another part of the world, they would take the liberty of carrying out action wherever it best suits them; in a word, they were referring to Cuba, given the fact that Cuba is extremely far from the Soviet Union and the socialist camp.
So we must be realists, we must be realists, because these dangers arise from the growing aggressiveness of imperialism, and from the theories and things that they are putting forward. But they should know what they will find here. That is why we said that this mass meeting was so important, because this shows imperialism that there is a people here-and what a people!
I would say that this is a battle that has been launched today in defense of the integrity of our homeland (APPLAUSE). Your very presence, your very presence in this Plaza is a battle, and an important battle, in defense of the integrity and security of Cuba. Because the most dangerous thing is that the enemy might misread things, that the enemy might delude itself.
But we are also going to do something else. We have already begun work on drawing up plans of how the country could survive and resist in the event of a total blockade; in the event of a total blockade what each one of us would have to do. And beginning with the premise that no food entered the country, that no fuel entered the country, what we would have to do to survive and resist.
Because they are also talking about this thesis. They say: okay, let's not carry out military activity on the ground, instead let's mine the ports. One of the objectives of the planned maneuvers was to study how they would do this. They speak of naval blockades, reckoning how difficult it would be for a country without oil to survive a naval blockade. And we have to draw up plans for what we would do in such a situation.
By the way, Regan, or Reagan, or Rigan, I don't know how it's pronounced, who is certain to be the candidate of the Republican Party, has come out in favor of carry. ing out a naval blockade of Cuba. Of course none of this will be easy, we must let them know that. But we have the duty as revolutionaries, as a realistic people, to have a response ready for each and every one of these problems.
But what they cannot count on is that Cuba would ever surrender, because we will never surrender, we will never surrender! (PROLONGED APPLAUSE).
If a climate of peace does not exist in the Caribbean, the blame for that is not ours, it is theirs. They should end their blockade, they should give up their base at Guantá- namo, they should stop their flights over Cuba, they should respect Nicaragua, they should respect Grenada. And if to this we add the point of noninterference in the internal affairs of other peoples in Latin America, then a climate of peace, of dé- tente could be created. We have the duty to struggle to develop peace and collaboration between peoples. But we will never do it by getting on our knees at imperialism's feet to beg for peace (SHOUTS OF "No!" AND OF "Carter, CIA, the same crap!").
The international situation tends to become more complicated. I want to call attention to, and take this opportunity to speak about, the situation in Iran.
All of us are interested in these problems, because a conflict there or anywhere else could lead to decisive actions by them anywhere else, as they have so cynically stated. That is, what happens in all parts of the world is of interest to us; it is of interest to us as revolutionaries, it is of interest to us as conscious people, and in addition it is of interest to us for ourselves. What happens in the world is of interest to uS.
You all know that in Iran the shah's dynasty lasted more than thirty years. Those people lived under a fierce tyranny for decades. The people had overthrown the shah once, and the CIA put him back into power, just as it did in Guatemala, exactly the same. This is common knowledge, it is part of history, all the documents and all the proof exist. He murdered hundreds of thousands of Iranians. He jailed, tortured, committed all kinds of horrors. The Iranian people, with great courage, with great patriotism, almost without arms, and despite the fact that the shah possessed the most powerful army in the region, overthrew the shah. And naturally this led to anger against and a powerful rejection of the policy of the United States. When the United States then committed the error of bringing the shah into their country, this provoked a popular explosion, an explosion of indignation among the Iranian people, which led to the events at the United States embassy in Iran, the taking of the embassy, and the capture of a group of embassy staff.
The arrogant United States response to events of this kind is force. It was the CIA's action in installing the shah there that produced this hatred among the masses. It was the support the United States provided to the shah that produced this hatred of the United States. It was the arrival of the shah in the United States that produced the explosion of the masses.
And we have always held the position that this problem must be solved through political and diplomatic means and not by force; this problem of the embassy and of the so-called hostages.
But the United States has committed a series of errors. Their first error was to practically confiscate, to seize control of billions of dollars that the Iranian state had on deposit in U.S. banks. This measure of force, of arrogance, this illegal measure, could not help but increase the anger of the Iranians. And each thing the Americans have done has irritated the Iranians more. The U.S. mobilized big forces, aircraft carriers, dozens of naval units, and sent them near Iran. They threatened Iran, and this naturally angered the Iranians more. Moreover, they were talking about carrying out military actions before July. And, in fact, they carried some out, like the attempted commando attack in Iran that tried to solve the problem through force and surprise.
They have further complicated the situa tion. The students have now dispersed the so-called hostages. In short, any act of force against the people of Iran would be very dangerous.
Moreover, the United States has now prohibited trade with Iran and has established a type of blockade against Iran, and it is threatening to take new measures, and is trying to get Western Europe and Japan behind the economic blockade against Iran, that is, an attempt to make Iran surrender through starvation, something similar to the things they have done to us.
In Iran a real people's revolution has taken place-there is no question of thatwhich has extraordinary force. And it is our duty to support Iran, to solidarize ourselves with Iran, because everything that is taking place in Iran reminds us of what happened in our own country (AP- PLAUSE).
At the same time, we must work to try to get the conflicts between our Iraqi brothers and the Iranian brothers to cease. We must work to see they resolve their problems through diplomatic means, because these conflicts are only grist for the imperialist mill.
Well, now, what will happen if the United States succeeds in establishing this blockade against Iran? Will they try to conquer it through starvation? But Iran is a country that belongs to the Third World, that belongs to the Nonaligned Movement and to OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
OPEC has the power to stop an economic blockade of Iran; it has that power in its hands if it warns that oil shipments will be suspended to countries that join the blockade against Iran (APPLAUSE). Because the West cannot apply an economic blockade against Iran if OPEC is against it, if OPEC resists it, if OPEC, totally correctly, warns of the consequences.
OPEC could say: well, if you want to starve 35 million human beings to death, we won't send you oil so you can ride around in your cars. This is OPE's hour, the moment of truth for OPEC, when it can show that it is good for something besides raising prices and accumulating big fortunes. It is the moment of truth for OPEC, it is the moment of truth for the nonaligned countries, and it is the moment of truth for the countries of the Third World.
Therefore it will be very interesting to see what OPEC does. And we hope that OPEC will not act like the OAS [Organization of American States], that it won't do what the OAS did when the imperialists established their blockades and their aggressive plans against Cuba.1° This is a problem we must follow closely, we must mobilize our relations, our friends internationally to give support to Iran.
Of course, Iran is far away. But right here, near us, we have the case of El Salvador, where they are committing real genocide, where they are murdering thousands of patriots.
To understand how inconsistent the politics of some states are, we have the example of what the Andean Pact did around this and other problems. We are not opposed to the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean. On the contrary, we favor it. And, with Mexico, we were founders of SELA, the Latin American Economic System. But we are opposed to the political Mafias in this hemisphere, because they don't lead to anything. We would have welcomed a progressive Andean Pact, or better yet a revolutionary Pact. As one of the signs on the March of the Fighting People said, the Andean Pact should become the real pact of Bolivar and of Sandino.
But what did it do? What has it done, for example, with regard to the provocative and threatening maneuvers that the Yankees were organizing? It didn't even issue a statement. What have they done with regard to the blockade of Cuba, which is a crime? They have not even issued a statement condemning the blockade. What have they done with regard to the base at Guantánamo? They have not issued a single statement demanding that this territory be returned to us. What have they done with regard to the spy flights over Cuba, which are a shameless violation of our sovereignty? They have not issued a single condemning statement.
What have they done about Puerto Rico, a brother people, which imperialism wants to gobble up, which the United States wants to annex? They have not said a word. What have they said about Iran and the blockade against Iran? As far as is known up to now, they have not said even one word. What have they said about the genocide being carried out in El Salvador? Not a word. And in recent months thousands of people are dying and have died there.
They did issue a deluge of propaganda against us around the Peru events, and there there wasn't even a single injury.
Let's just say that over there, where thousands of patriots are dying, the Andean Pact does not say a word. And there is a reason for that. Because, specifically, the ruling party in Venezuela, which is one of the members of the Andean Pact, supports the genocidal government of El Salvador, just as in Panama it supports the so-called Christian Democracy, which is a reactionary right-wing group that is conspiring against the progressive government of Panama.
These are the facts. And in relation to this problem, they adopted a demagogic policy against Cuba; they acted like a Mafia. I won't say that the conduct of each of them has been the same. There were some differences between them, but this was all that the Andean Pact was good for.
There is, I repeat, this situation in El Salvador, which requires the broadest international support in order to stay the hands of the imperialists.
These demonstrations of ours are part of the struggle not only in defense of our own integrity, but also in defense of the integrity of Grenada, of Nicaragua, in defense of the sovereignty of the countries of the Caribbean and Central America. It is part of our struggle.
Therefore this meeting has had a unique character. It has really been an international meeting of the workers. For us it has been an occasion of great honor, great satisfaction; we have felt very encouraged, very strengthened by the presence of Comrade Bishop at this meeting. He took part in a meeting in Grenada this morning, and then this meeting in Havana in the afternoon (APPLAUSE). The presence of Comrade Daniel Ortega (APPLAUSE). You have met both these leaders before, at the Sixth Summit. The presence of the president of the World Peace Council, Comrade Chandra, who is among us (APPLAUSE). The presence of the leader of the World Federation of Trade Unions, Comrade Pastorino (APPLAUSE). We have been honored by the valued presence of representatives we could call them, of the best of the Latin American intellectuals, Comrade Juan Bosch (APPLAUSE) and Comrade Gabriel García Márquez (AP. PLAUSE).
All this has meant a great deal to us, providing a really historic character to what has been the greatest meeting of the revolution.
In addition to maintaining our mobilization and preparing ourselves for the May 17 march, we have to turn this energy not only into political strength, not only into military strength, but also into productive strength. As Veiga explained, the next weeks will be decisive both for the end of the sugar harvest and for the great quantity of cane that must be planted and weeded. We must turn this energy into productive strength.
We must also convert this tremendous strength that has emerged from this colossal mass battle, that has emerged from this revolutionary rededication of the people, that has emerged from the anger expressed against the bums, parasites, lumpen, against the antisocials, into a strength of consciousness, into a weapon in the struggle to be more demanding, the struggle to overcome shortcomings, and the struggle to defeat the difficulties. This is very important: we must be capable of turning this incredible, gigantic strength into a weapon in the struggle against our own shortcomings, in the struggle against our own weaknesses.
Many emotion-filled things have taken place today, many stirring things. The most basic, the most fundamental, has been the people. I believe that for all of us, this afternoon will remain an unforgettable experience, an indelible experience.
Without being demagogic, without try. ing to flatter, but rather expressing the deepest, most sincere, and most heartfelt spirit of justice, I would venture to say that a people like this deserves a place in history, a place in glory. A people like this deserves victory!
Patria o muerte! [Our Country or Death!]
Venceremos! [We will win!] (SHOUTS OF "We will win!")
(OVATION)
Notes
1. Blue mold devastated Cuba's tobacco plantations in 1978-79, from which they still have not recovered. Sugarcane rust or smut is having a major impact on the sugar yields in this year's harvest. African swine fever was detected in Guantánamo province late last year and has led to the preventive slaughter of large numbers of pigs.
The CIA has had a history of introducing agricultural diseases into Cuba. In 1968 a specialist working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was arrested for introducing coffee blight into Cuba. Much of the coffee crop was lost to the blight. In 1969 and 1970 the U.S. treated clouds with chemicals to try to ruin the Cuban sugar harvest. And in 1971 the CIA introduced swine fever into Cuba, causing a major outbreak of the disease.
2. On October 6, 1976, a Cuban airliner bound from Venezuela to Cuba, carrying young Cuban athletes, was blown up in mid-air over Barbados. All seventy-three people on board were killed. In an October 1976 speech Fidel Castro charged that "the CIA directly participated in the destruction of the Cuban plane in Barbados" acting through counterrevolutionary Cuban terrorists.
3. Pedro Ortiz Cabrera, a twenty-seven-year-old Cuban policeman was killed on April 1, 1980, while doing guard duty at the Peruvian embassy in Havana. Ortiz, from a poor peasant family in Oriente, left a five-month-old daughter and a twenty-four-year-old wife. He had been a member of the Young Communist League since 1973.
4. See Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor, April 14, 1980, p. 382, for that portion of Castro's March 8 speech.
5. In October 1965 Cuba turned the small port of Camarioca into an emigration port for those Cubans who wanted to leave the country and invited Cuban exiles in the U.S. to pick up their relatives and friends. At the same time Cuba called on the U.S. to negotiate on setting up regular flights between Varadero Beach and Miami to take out the bulk of those wishing to leave. As a result of Cuban pressure, flights between Cuba and Miami were reestablished in December 1965 and continued for seven years.
6. Nuez is a well-known Cuban political cartoonist.
7. In August 1979, the U.S. administration claimed that it had recently discovered a Soviet "combat brigade" in Cuba. On August 31, the State Department claimed "this is the first time we have been able to confirm the presence of a Soviet ground forces unit" in Cuba. Later U.S. sources admitted it had been there since at least 1962.
8. On October 22, 1962, President John Kennedy ordered a complete naval and economic blockade against Cuba, demanding that the Soviet Union withdraw missiles it had placed on the island. On October 28, the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in return for a pledge that the United States would not attempt an invasion of Cuba.
9. La Coubre was a French merchant ship that was blown up in Havana harbor on March 4, 1960. It was proven that U.S. agents had a part in planning the sabotage, in which nearly 100 people died and over 200 were seriously wounded.
Playa Girón on the Bay of Pigs was the landing point for more than 1,500 U.S.-organized Cuban counterrevolutionaries who invaded Cuba on April 17, 1961. The invasion was wiped out within seventy-two hours.
In 1961 U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary groups carried out armed struggle in the Escambray mountains.
For a list of sabotage attacks against Cuba and attempts on the lives of Cuban leaders, see IP/I, April 7, 1980, pp. 339-340.
10. On February 14, 1962, Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States. The expulsion of Cuba was soon followed by a total trade embargo by the remaining twenty members of the OAS, with the sole exception of Mexico, which continued to maintain diplomatic and trade relations with Havana.
11. The Andean Pact is made up of the governments of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru.