BY FIDEL CASTRO
The following speech was given by Cuban president Fidel
Castro at the end of a demonstration held August 5 along
Havana's waterfront in which half a million people marched
in defense of the Cuban revolution. The speech was printed
in the August 8 issue of the Cuban daily Granma. The
translation, subheadings, and material in brackets are by
the Militant.
I'm going to start now, without waiting for you to rouse me, so I'll take just a few minutes, and hope you will excuse me.
Dear friends from different countries who have visited us in a noble gesture of encouragement;
Dear compatriots:
You can't hear, right? Well, what can one do [shouts],
nothing can be done. I know from a little experience how
these events are in places like this - over here there are
still people a kilometer and a half away on this side, and
over there they are a kilometer away. The site isn't ideal
for a rally, the crowd is really huge, and I understand
it's not easy to communicate with everyone like this, nor
was it planned this way; something else was expected. For
that reason I said I came to reflect briefly, because this
rally is itself a real miracle! Well, believers will say it
came from heaven. Those with a different philosophy will
say it's a miracle of patriotism and revolutionary spirit
of the people. [Applause] We absolutely respect, as a
sacred principle, all beliefs; but it really seemed
impossible that this event would occur today, and I say to
you that in many years of revolution, I have never seen
such uncertainty about a march and rally.
I had planned to join the march about 1.7 kilometers from here, at Maceo Park, a place that is symbolic of the events of a year ago. I was going to join there, but on the way I saw such a downpour...not a cloudburst, but a storm - such a deluge that I really didn't think it was possible to organize such a march. I thought: What will people do? And I said: Well, they'll probably march. I was sure of that. At 4:00 on the dot, those who are there will surely set out. [Applause]
I saw the streets of the Plaza district, where the march began, turned into rivers, such a downpour that you couldn't see anything, and I said: Well, if 10 people show up it's already a victory. [Applause] By my estimate, without exaggerating and, if anything, underestimating - Vicky [Victoria Velázquez, first secretary of the Union of Young Communists] will say no, there are more - at least a half a million people have joined the march [applause and cheers], in these physically unimaginable conditions.
I would have been here among the 10. Of course I can't claim credit for having gotten my share of water, because when I arrived at Maceo Park the rain had stopped; but there were people who had been there for a while standing in line, helping organize, and they were wet, some shivering with cold, because they really got soaked. And it wasn't one, but two, intense, very intense cloudbursts! So I didn't get my quota of water. What merit can I claim today in this march? None! [Applause and shouts]
Pride in our people
What I have had is the privilege of enjoying an event of
this nature, which makes us feel truly proud of our people;
proud of the revolution and its results in the
consciousness of the men and women of this country; proud
of our youth, for being capable of organizing such
brilliant events. [Applause] I have many reasons for
feeling gratified.
Vicky was saying, among other things, that we were here today because I had been here last August 5. I came then because I had to come - it was my most elementary duty to be with the people at a moment in which the enemy had worked overtime to create a disturbance. A disturbance! It can't be said it was even an attempt at rebellion, they were simply disturbances. Those disturbances were created around groups that mobilized to steal boats to go to the United States, where they were received like heroes.
But they were really carrying out destabilizing activities. At that time you could hardly go to Regla, because someone would pull out a knife, someone else a pistol, they would hijack the Regla shuttle, or a little, medium-sized, or even big boat. They would steal anything, because, for the purposes of the propaganda against Cuba, the bigger the scandal, the better, and over there, they would get an extraordinary welcome; they received privileges no citizen in the world gets. All this was for the purpose of destabilization, in the midst of a difficult economic situation, in the midst of great sacrifices by our population. And it was those groups that began to create disturbances.
However, following our philosophy that this people is revolutionary and is with the revolution and will be, under any circumstances [applause], we weren't going to allow ourselves to be provoked. What did the external enemy and their internal allies - even though they were a small minority - want? They wanted to provoke a bloody confrontation. They wanted us to use arms. And we have arms, arms for millions of people, that are for defending the revolution. But we have our arms to fight external enemies.
Unless they land here, unless they use arms inside the country against revolutionaries, we have no need to use arms, having the people and the masses to defend the stability of the revolution. [Applause]
That was my role: to help prevent anyone from being provoked, and we preferred they shoot at us rather than us firing the first shot. And the result was unprecedented; in a matter of minutes, the entire people took to the streets and established order. Their massive presence and spirit established order without the use of arms. Where else in the world does this occur?
Those who watch television - and everyone does - see what happens around the world; in civilized, developed Europe; in the United States, in the richest countries, crowds of police are constantly seen firing buckshot and tear gas, beating and kicking people on the ground - this appears on television every day in many countries. And you see people killed, so many killed, so many wounded, so many arrested. It's common, it's our daily bread.
That doesn't happen in Cuba. Oh! but if in Cuba there is the least attempt at a disturbance, there is so much propaganda, so much talk everywhere, you would think the revolution was being overthrown.
Some years ago we said this revolution would not crumble. [Applause and cheers of "This does not fall!"] Some years back we used an image, that this revolution couldn't be whipped, because it was made of steel and wasn't beaten with egg whites - that is to say, it wasn't frosting [laughter and applause] - and it's based on popular support, on the consensus of the people, on the consciousness of the people of what this country was and can never return to. This is true regardless of their opinions, or the fact that they protest over everything that justifiably should be protested, or even complaints due to not having all the information and to the rebellious nature of the people.
This is the most noble, selfless, courageous people imaginable. It's a people that struggled fiercely for its independence and won it, that struggled very hard for justice; that fortunately achieved, through the revolution, a higher level of culture than the great majority of countries in the world. It has a high level of education and there are fewer illiterates, for example, than there are in the United States, total illiterates or those they call "functional" illiterates. [Laughter and applause]
Cuba still stands
This country has many qualities. It has learned and it
thinks. This country is writing one of the most glorious
pages ever written: since the socialist camp crumbled,
since the USSR disappeared and many people in the world
believed Cuba would last only days, or at most, weeks, five
years have passed and here it is: And look at its strength!
[Applause].
August 5, 1995, will be remembered too, because this rally has been organized under incredible conditions. It pained me to think of the effort the youth had made to organize this rally over so many days, and just when it had begun these acts of nature occurred, and I believe anywhere else such a crowd would have dissolved, but that isn't what happened.
That's why I say that this day, August 5, 1995, will also be historic, and every year it will be our duty to remember the great victory of August 5, 1994, when the people smashed the counterrevolution without firing a shot. This date says a lot, it teaches and inspires a lot, because the people don't face the same conditions as 10 years ago, when there was an abundance of many things, so many that we even wasted them - fuel, resources, everything. That is one of the disadvantages of abundance.
Today we have less than half of what we had. Today we face tougher tests, more complex ones; but out of this test, without doubt, we will emerge stronger. [Applause] Those are`the advantages`of`difficulties. ` Standing here in front of this event, I am convinced that none of us will ever forget what we see today. I have had the privilege of seeing many rallies, challenges of all kinds in war and peace, the heroism of war and the heroism of peace. But I would say this, without reservations, despite knowing the problems we have, despite knowing there always are those who lack the necessary spirit under conditions like these, I believe the [Cuban] people today have more worth, more consciousness, and more heroism than ever. [Applause]
Perhaps some thought they were going to take photos of a line of citizens marching down the Malecón and that 100 soaked people would gather here, dripping wet, and they could say, "Look how the Cuban revolution is doing!" They weren't going to speak of the downpour, the storm, the deluge. They were going to say that no one wanted to attend the August 5 rally and that only 100 people showed up.
What a remarkable response! We feel the duty, really, to thank our people and the people of our capital. [Applause] It is precisely in the capital where we have the most problems with housing, water supply, transportation, of electricity, and many other things. And look how the people of the capital act!
You there below, visitors from 65 countries [attending the Cuba Lives International Youth Festival], you aren't up here to see what we are seeing. We're happy you've been able to accompany us on this glorious day. [Applause]
No embargo against dictatorships
I truly have no words to express our gratitude for the
support you have given us, for this beautiful Cuba Lives
youth festival. I have no words to express our gratitude
for the fact that you have accompanied us in such difficult
times, and it's worth emphasizing that among you are 262
representatives of the people of the United States, because
this also tells us about the qualities and virtues of the
people of the United States [applause], who are opposed to
the unjust and criminal blockade being imposed against
Cuba, the likes of which have never been used against any
other country, and which has been in effect for more than
35 years.
They didn't do this against apartheid, nor against governments in Latin America that disappeared 2,000 or 10,000 or even 30,000 citizens, the location of whose remains is unknown. This was not done against governments that disappeared more than 100,000 citizens in a small country like Guatemala. [Shouts] They do it against Cuba, where there is not a single death squad, a single disappearance, a single political assassination in the streets; a country - I say it with all the energy that the truth gives us - where no one has ever been tortured. [Applause] I wonder in which other country the same can be said.
Every day, even children are killed, and teenagers, and even children are prostituted in many countries in the region. That's the reality. Every day people take justice into their own hands, there is violence, drugs, and problems that don't exist in Cuba. Yet we are the only country that is blockaded in the world.
It's for this reason that we must react with great dignity and honor, with a great sense of patriotism, with all the necessary patience and to wait as long as necessary. We can't have any illusions when extremist elements are dictating policy today in the United States, aiming to erase all social benefits for the people of the United States.
It can't be ruled out that in the future these extremist elements, using all their resources, which are plenty, might gain total power in the United States for 4, 8, or 12 more years. If these extremist elements succeed and gain control, not only of the Senate but of the government, it will mean for us new periods of danger, risk, blockades, and that's why it's not an exaggeration to say that if we must struggle another 100 years, we will struggle another 100 years. [Applause]
Our country has struggled more than 100 years for its independence, quite a bit more than 100 years, against attempts to annex us, to swallow us, to devour us. We can never give up that struggle, and we won't give it up! Time doesn't matter; in this we have to have more patience than the Chinese; in this we have to act, one might say, with the wisdom of a thousand-year-old people.
And I am sure that neither this generation nor subsequent ones - that is, neither the youth of today nor those of tomorrow - will give up that glorious struggle, not only for independence and freedom but for equality and justice. [Applause] Our people will never renounce those aspirations!
We neither exaggerate nor dramatize when we say we're ready to struggle as long as necessary. Yes, we should do things better and better, and we're obligated to do them better, to be more efficient, to be more dedicated to our obligations, to our duty, to our beloved and heroic people, to learn all the lessons from these difficult times.
Vicky was telling me some of our visitors' impressions when you saw, for example, the Computer Center, or the rehabilitation schools, the schools for the disabled, the child-care centers, the family doctors, the hospitals, the efforts this country makes to sustain all this and how, in spite of having lost 70 percent of our imports, not a single school or hospital has been closed, nor is there a single child without health care or education. [Applause]
What excuse can those who handle great resources - billions and billions - find or use when they haven't been able to solve even one of these problems? Capitalism has been unable to solve even one of these problems. [Applause]
There are countries that have countless amounts of oil, mineral resources, reserves in the banks, and they cannot point to any of the things that our people, in a special period and under a blockade, can point to.
What will we be able to do, then, the day the blockade ends, the day they leave us in peace? We will struggle for that day and wait for that day, and your confidence will not be betrayed, your love and encouragement will not be useless, the seed you plant in our hearts will never be lost.
We will continue to count on you and on the millions and millions of people like you who, fortunately, exist around the world. [Applause] We will continue to count on this support from everywhere.
Cuba welcomes youth festival
The youth of the world will meet again, and if they
can't meet somewhere else, or if a country doesn't offer
itself for a festival organized like this one, then a world
festival can be organized. What's lacking is not money,
what is needed is modesty, generosity, good will
[applause], like that of those families who hosted you,
like that of the neighborhoods that welcomed you and
greeted you everywhere. Millions are not needed, so it can
be organized like this festival, in which each person made
an effort and paid for their own trip.
After this experience, if world festivals don't continue, then here in Cuba, under a special period and a blockade, we have enough generosity, common sense and organizational capacity to hold an event of this kind. [Applause]
It's not that we're proposing it here; I was told it was to take place in South Africa but that it wasn't possible. Reactionaries don't like such festivals. Right-wing extremists and hegemonists don't like them, and so not many people are concerned about holding youth festivals.
But what a beautiful event this has been, what experiences it leaves us with - the method, the style, the meetings in the provinces. Cuba is even bigger and a festival can reach Baracoa, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, everywhere, with or without a hurricane, because a storm went around the Youth Festival, but it behaved well, it headed north. It's not that we wished it would go to Florida; it would have been better if it had veered earlier and headed to the Atlantic; but, well, it left you and us with the water, because I believe you were greeted with water and you got wet. So you may return to your countries a little bigger, having grown like our sugarcane, which is growing now with the water and the heat. [Laughter and applause]
Thanks a lot, thank you very much, dear guests. [Applause and chants of "Fidel, Fidel!"] Cuba lives and will live as long as there are men and women like you in the world, as long as there is a people as heroic as ours, capable of defending that right to life! [Applause]
Once again, I loved that slogan Vicky proclaimed here so beautifully:
Socialism or death!
Homeland or death!
We shall win!
[ovation]
Now we turn over the stage to the musicians, whom we almost forgot, so their magnificent art can be enjoyed by the whole country, by those here and at home.
A speech can't be listened to for much more than half an hour. But good music, good art can be enjoyed all afternoon and all night.
Thank you. [Applause]