CASTRO CALLS FOR REVOLUTIONARY DEFENSE AGAINST IMPERIALISM
[The following extract from a speech given by Fidel Castro on May 1 has been translated by World Outlook. The passage is of unusual interest in showing the revolutionary basis on which the Cuban leaders stand in their appeal for a united defense in face of the aggressions of U.S. imperialism and the danger that these aggressions can take the world into a nuclear holocaust. |
The imperialists have become extremely aggressive. And they are aggressive, as I already said, because they are desperate and afraid. And we also know that by their very nature they are master blackmailers, In Vietnam they began with reprisals. They continued with systematic attacks and with sending troops to the South and with the bombing of Vietnam, etc.
Naturally this aggressive attitude of the imperialists worries people everywhere. In less than a year there was the intervention in the Congo, the aggression in Vietnam, the invasion of Santo Domingo -- a series of irresponsible, adventurous, dangerous actions. Mad with fear of revolution, shocked at the inevitable transformations. occurring in the world, the United States is seeking to block the road to history in Asia, Africa, Latin America,
It is necessary to stop the imperialist aggressiveness. Cer=
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tainly, the problem of peace preoccupies us. It would be senseless, irresponsible, not to understand the importance of peace. But the defense of peace cannot be passive. You can't preach for a peace like heaven. Peace at any price? No! The peoples! concern for. . peace does not involve and must never involve giving the imperialists the right to sacrifice peoples with impunity.
We believe, we..sincerely believe, that this is not the road to peace. We are faced with the mentality of blackmailers, of exploiters, of calculators, the Yankee mentality, the mentality of the Yankee rulers.
First of all, this Mr. Johnson is a perfect actor. During his election campaign against Goldwater -- who put forth the aggressive theses of imperialism -- he presented himself as the defender of peaceful solutions, as the enemy of any military adventure. He did this to exploit the worry and uneasiness of the North American people and to take votes away from Goldwater. And then, elected president, he carries out the policy of the Pentagon "gorillas" [military strong men], the most reactionary circles of the United States -- a policy of blackmail, based on the theory of nuclear equilibrium. We believe that it is necessary to change this mentality, to show the imperialists that they are. playing with fire. Otherwise the danger of war will increase,
Our people, and all the peoples of the world, all the peoples of the socialist camp, know that it is necessary to face this reality and the risks flowing from it. These are the risks imposed on us by history and by the epoch in which we are living. It is necessary to cut the claws of imperialism, in Vietnam and everywhere. In Vietnam, the USA is trying to create the necessary conditions for internation~ alizing the conflict and smothering the freedom movement,
It is necessary to spike their plans, to turn north Vietnam into a cemetery for Yankee planes. By all means -- with planes and anti-aircraft fire, with the aid and participation of the whole socialist camp. But this is not enough. It is also necessary to clearly tell the United States that internationalizing the war in south Vietnam means internationalizing the conflict in southeast Asia; to warn that the presence of South Korean and Australian troops authorizes the socialist camp to send its own volunteers to south Vietnam. Imperialism must be told that we are ready to face the necessary risks. And I am certain that they will then begin to think, while now they are attacking without thinking; they are killing and destroying without thinking. No.one wants or can want war. People want to live in peace, to work in peace, to develop in peace, to seek their own happiness in peace, But happiness is a right that must be conquered with intelligence,
In face of a policy of aggression and intervention, a strategy is necessary, the strategy that must give an impulse to revolution
everywhere, on all fronts. In opposition to the strategy of aggres-. sion, of intervention --- the revolutionary strategy of the peoples, the revolutionary movements and the Communist parties of the entire world. Against the aggression of the "gringos," a revolutionary offensive on all fronts, an impulse to the revolution on all fronts! We want peace, but we will not pray for peace, we will not make angelic declarations in favor of peace. No one can accuse us of being bitter-~enders; it's one thing to be bitter-enders and something else again to oppose the imperialists! blackmail. It's one thing to be bitter-enders and something else again to establish a scale of values; and in this scale of values in human consciousness, peace is important. However, there is something that stands above peace. We want peace for everyone; the conception of peace for us and war for the others is foreign to us. Peaoe for us while they drop phosphoe rous bombs and napalm on the Vietnamese? No! Peace for all peoples, and the right to use it in freedom. We. face a dangerous enemy and we must meet him with intelligence and decisiveness. This enemy is a tiger, most certainly, If you turn your back, he will leap. But if you face him, he will not attack. The Yankee millionaires, the monopolists, enjoy living and don't want to die. It is likely that the peoples exploited and oppressed by the Yankee millionaires and monopolists are in a state of mind more favorable to facing death. When the millionaires and monopolists begin to understand that they too can die, despite their power, they will also begin to think differently.
As for us, we can draw our own conclusions from the events in Santo Domingo. We must prepare ourselves. Or, in other words, "when you see your neighbor's beard on fire;-it's time to grease your gun." It is necessary in fact to oil our arms, to prepare well to show these imbeciles, this imbecilic Johnsen, what they are in for. So that they can't say as they did the first day at Santo Domingo: "The marines landed without trouble...!" And the dead there will be counted by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, and by the millions if necessary!
Our-conclusion is the following: Let's prepare well, arm ourselves better, reinforce our defense by all means, make the enemy understand that if he. sets foot here, the war will not end as long as -a single one of us remains alive, or as long as a single "gringo" remains alive in our country! The people don't want to die; nobody wants to die, On the contrary, everybody looks to the future with enthusiasm, but with tranquility. We are struggling for a future without worries and without fear, and that is the basis of our tranquility. Nobody wants to die but everybody is ready to die. Nobody wants to die, but if they compel us to fight, our enemies will learn what it is to really fight! When they begin to massacre the citizens of our country, the enemy must also begin to learn what bullets are, and arms, Let the imperialists understand that they cannot destroy our arms by surprise! They will have to destroy them one by one, with a man shooting at them from each one! Each gun, each tank, each
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cannon! Nobody can say we are a belligerent people or bitter-enders. We are a peaceful. people, but don't touch us! In this country, the Yankees have created enough hate, enough disgust, enough contempt -for all they have done to us and for all .they have done to other peoples, And our hate has accumulated not only because of the aggression against Cuba! The aggressions in Vietnam, in the Congo, in Santo Domingo, and: all the other countries only increase this mountain of hate against the imperialist enemy, only gives us more strength!