Fidel Castro - At Havana labor rally lyrics

Havana, Radio Radio Progreso, in Spanish to Cuba, Mar. 23, 1959, 0207 GMT--E (UNCLASSIFIED) (Live speech by Premier Fidel Castro at Havana labor rally) (Text) Cuban workers, People of Cuba, we have let ourselves go a bit, and it would be well for us to come back down to earth. Nobody ever knows which public appearance will be the hardest for him. When he has felt that some of his appearances were hard, another will come along still harder. For me none has been as difficult as this one today, when I intend to disagree with our distinguished guest, Jose Figueres. I am afraid of expressing my disagreement and failing in the elemental courtesy due our guest. It is hard to speak to the people today, because every revolution is difficult and complex in itself, and this is aggravated when to the complex domestic problems of the country we must add complex international problems. Without going beyond our domestic problems, our task is a difficult one in itself, because (words indistinct) and because this is a true revolution, not just one more farce of the many America has witnessed; because this is a revolution, not a barracks coup; because it is (words indistinct); because it is a surgical operation, with amputation required, and an end to daubing on a little mercurochrome. We have big problems. We have a good proportion of those who have studied here, and they have studied because they are the only ones who had that privilege, because vested interests and (word indistinct) monopoly is almost the same thing, because vested interests and a monopoly of the organs for disseminating ideas are one and the same thing; because vested interests and the power to mobilize all resources created by man for the purpose of influencing other men are one and the same thing; because vested interests and old reactionary law are one and the same thing; because vested interests and (word indistinct) unluckily adapted to the situations that were established through the decades and the centuries by those vested interests are one and the same; because the vested interests of the national oligarchy and of the international oligarchy are the same, and because national and international reaction unite against the Cuban revolution; because the entire reactionary oligarchy of the hemisphere unites against the Cuban revolution; because the press campaigns emanating from the offices of the international news agencies have been echoed by the reactionary press of America; Because in every corner of the hemisphere it prints the slander and lies sent out by the news agencies; and in those countries it is the same interests or similar interests as those that are opposing the revolution here--interests like those that sustained and made possible the tyranny here; interests like the ones we are routing here; interests that do not want a revolution like this to take place in other countries of America. (And it is true that?) there is such a campaign, a campaign so great, so infamous, and so persistent that even men like Jose Figueres, whom we supposed free of fears and prejudice, have been influenced by these campaigns. And in this way an effort has been made to isolate us, to turn feeling against us, throughout the hemisphere; and in this way an effort has been made to turn the hatred (of more than two-thirds?) of the hemisphere against the most moral, honest revolution (word indistinct). More has been said about any war criminal who has been executed, in all newspapers of the hemisphere and in international dispatches, than about all the (20,000 crimes?) that Batista committed (words indistinct). (And what is their objective? To isolate us first and attack us afterward; to (undercut our domestic support?) and the sympathy felt for us by public opinion in the hemisphere, and then invade us through mercenary cliques, invade us with ships from Santo Domingo or Florida, with expeditions organized by the Trujillos, or Masferrers, or Venturas, or (name indistinct). All right. You say the people are with me. But you forget that people are susceptible to deceit and (word indistinct). You forget the age-old prejudices that inflame nations. You forget the resources and methods they have for causing us all sorts of domestic problems. You forget the little campaigns that are getting established against the revolution more or less openly. You forget those (false stories and caricatures?). You forget (rest of sentence indistinct) We have been too generous. (many words indistinct) We have been too noble, because there are some persons writing here who should not have a right to write (few words indistinct), because there are some already speaking here less than three months after the victory (few words indistinct). We have been too generous, and through our own generosity they are doing all the harm (they can?), and they are already trying to instill the idea of (war?), infamous slander, [Unreadable text], and doubts. And since this is a revolution that must overthrow interests, for otherwise it would not be a revolution, this revolution must untangle many tangled things and make a clean cut as Alexander for example cut the Gordian Knot, for there was no other way of undoing it. Reaction already has powerful allies. There are already campaigns, like the one to shut all apartments so nobody can rent a place (few words indistinct--ed.); like the campaign to throw all the employees out of the apartments; like the campaign to dismiss all girls working as servants; like the campaigns to stir up dissatisfaction by every possible means; like the international campaign carried on by the wire services against the Cuban revolution; in conjunction with the campaigns carried on in the United States against the Cuban revolution in conjunction with arms purchases, the purchase of planes by Trujillo, the pa**age of war criminals between Santo Domingo and Florida and Santo Domingo without the FBI having found--how odd, how odd--even a little pistol on the gangsters. You forget that the reaction knows the psychology of our people. It knows our people were used to bad governments and have a conditioned reflex against the word "government" (few words indistinct) that is easy to exploit, and our people have a nonconformism that is easy to exploit. It knows our government has enormous problems because we inherited 50 years of embezzlement, immorality, special privileges, low politics, and corruption of every kind. We have inherited a republic of six million souls with the same resources that hardly enabled us to live when we numbered only three million; a republic with 700,000 unemployed; a republic with 60 million pesos in monetary reserves, whereas the dictatorship took it over with 500 million. The reaction knows in what difficult circumstances the republic was left to us and that the people are impatient, and that there is despair, bitterness, and hunger among the people--despair that shows itself in acts that are unjustified, as in the case of the dismissed bus workers, 90 percent of whom were to be reinstated in the shortest possible time. Those men who had had to wait seven years unheeded, instead of taking hope when they say we had reinstated 90 percent of their fellows, on the day after the most revolutionary session held by our revolutionary cabinet, I open the paper and read how some interested agitator had started them on a hunger strike. Somebody confused those men; somebody found it easy to induce them to that step; surely this (few words indistinct) did not appear in the seven years of tyranny and so there was no hunger strike, and he comes to stir one up against the revolutionary government, the revolutionary government that did not have to be asked for (help?), the revolutionary government that from the first earned the hatred of the oligarchy and vested interests for its firm stand on behalf of the poor and lowly. If that is the case, if the reactionary national oligarchy has means of causing us economic difficulties, if international oligarchy, the enemy of our country, has in its power the means of creating economic difficulties for us, like that plan looming up to cut our sugar quota; if the national and international oligarchies both have means of sabotaging our program for industrializing Cuba, I am not far wrong in saying that we need the most determined and absolute support of all the people. We need the most determined and absolute spirit of self-sacrifice from all the people, because today the enemy has the advantage of all the evil he has sown; the enemy has the advantage of all the ruin and hunger he has sown; paradoxically, the enemy has in his favor all the harm he did the country, because we are only flesh and blood, impelled by a series of vital needs, with scant means for satisfying them immediately, and the enemy knows he can exploit these advantages. He can count on the advantage of our people's despair; he can count on the vices that will predominate in our collective mentality. A good proof of this last point is that this afternoon I doubt there was a single citizen without a letter asking me personally, as if I had time to solve the big problems of the nation, (words indistinct) the individual problems of the citizens, because they used to come to all the politicians, and now that all the politicians have vanished, they all come to me, as if on top of all the problems I have in the revolutionary government I could attend (to their problems?). In the great majority of cases they come to ask me an honorable thing. They come to ask for work, because they want to earn their living by the sweat of their brow. (Sentence indistinct). And I wonder, a little sadly, if they do not understand this, how can they understand the deeper problems, and how is it possible, with all the difficulties we have had, if we cannot at once solve all the problems pending before the nation, that these despairing people, these people who do not understand the duties of governing, shall not fall easy prey to confusionism? (Words indistinct) try to solve our problems selfishly? How, for example, shall the workers of one sector forget the problems of another sector? How shall we forget that the economy is a [Unreadable text]. How shall we forget that we must proceed with great care if we do not want to make our ills worse? And I see at times that without taking enough time, without even going through the labor ministry, which is a revolutionary labor ministry, measures are taken that fail to show the consideration due a revolutionary labor ministry, a revolutionary CTC, and a revolutionary government. In short, at times you try to hurry us without taking account of the extraordinary circumstances that we have to overcome and the accumulation of problems facing us. If we fail, if we are unable to carry out our plans, the only ones harmed will be the workers themselves. If the revolution fails for lack of (help?), the only ones harmed will be the peasants and the workers, if no (word indistinct), because all the people would suffer the consequences of a failure of the revolution, but the worst hit would be the workers and peasants. And that is why, when I have to call for sacrifices, I do not ask them of the mill owners, but of the sugar workers. When I have to call for sacrifices, I do not ask them of the big vested interests, but of the workers. This is because, for the first time, a government can speak to the peasants and workers as to friends and comrades, the only ones it has a right to call on; and when we have to sacrifice the vested interests we do not task it; we impose the sacrifice by means of revolutionary laws. When it is a question of requesting, we call on our comrades the peasants and workers, for the republic we are creating, the nation we are redeeming, will not be the paradise of the vested interests, as it always was, but a home where happiness can be found by the poor and lowly of our people. The obstacles we will have to overcome are great and will be even greater unless the people adapt themselves, as they must, to revolutionary reality; they will be still greater if the people forget that the men in government are not the same as in the past (words indistinct). Everybody knows that we held cabinet meetings on set days. Everybody knows that every cabinet meeting produces a revolutionary law. Everybody knows that laws must be studied, debated, revised. And yet there is hardly a day when the cabinet meets that there is not a demonstration, with the use of loudspeakers, by some sector with its problem (words indistinct). (At the last meeting of?) the cabinet they turned up their with loudspeakers, talking and talking (words indistinct). I ask you how a cabinet can sit down calmly to discuss matters, how a cabinet can (treat delicate matters?) such as laws, in the midst of a constant hubbub, agitation, (pa**age indistinct) that they should go see the labor minister, at the ministry offices, and realize that their group problem must yield priority to the problem of the whole nation, which we must see to. And at times, unfortunately, (some citizens?) struggle for control of the unions. They have drawn the workers into a regular competition in presenting demands; they have drawn the workers into competing (pa**age indistinct). Before raising the income level of the best-paid sectors, we must raise the income level of the worst-paid sectors. (Pa**age indistinct) achieve an increase in the employment level. (Pa**age indistinct) lowering the cost of living, lowering rents, lowering rates, lowering medicine prices (pa**age indistinct). Already thousand and thousands of workers are employed on public works; already plans are under way for construction of the savings and (housing?) institute; already thousands of persons are receiving an income from the sale of bonds, even though there are difficulties because many of them lack sufficient funds to purchase the bonds, a problem that will be solved in a suitable way. Laws that have been pa**ed (words indistinct) for you to build your own houses in the two years ahead, under the urban reform law, whose importance has not yet been realized by the people (pa**age indistinct) by virtue of which no ground for establishing an industry or a work center or for building one's own house can cost more than four pesos per square meter anywhere in Cuba. (pa**age indistinct) and very soon twice as many construction workers will be employed as ever before in Cuba. Agrarian reform, whose basic law will be approved before Apr. 15, is a law on big landholdings. It combines in one law all agrarian legislation. (Pa**age indistinct) I believe it is my duty to tell the people about the things on my mind and how they must collaborate with their revolutionary government and how it is helping them. (Pa**age indistinct). But not everybody;s mentality has developed enough in the revolutionary way; a revolutionary consciousness is lagging behind the people's feelings. The people's feelings are all revolutionary, but their mentality is still not wholly so. The people's mentality is conditioned by many inherited prejudices, many vestiges of the past, and many old customs. If the people want to overcome this evil they must begin by recognizing it. If the people want to see a correct course for themselves they must accept the postulates I was talking about. (I told?) that battles must be won by us and in that order they must be won; the battle against unemployment; the battle to raise the standards of the lowest paid workers; the battle to bring down the cost of living; and one of the most just battles that must be fought, a battle that must be emphasized more and more, which I might call the fourth battle--the battle to end racial discrimination at work centers. I repeat: the battle to end racial discrimination at work centers. Of all forms of racial discrimination the worst is the one that limits the colored Cuban's access to jobs. It is true that there (exists?) in our country in some sectors the shameful procedure of barring Negroes from jobs. Everybody knows I am not a damagogue. Everybody knows I hate demagogy. Everybody knows I never touch a problem unless (words indistinct). There are two kinds of racial discrimination or cultural places. The other, the worse of the two, the first we must combat, is racial discrimination at work centers. If the first form limits access to certain circles, the other, a thousand times more cruel, limits access to places where a living can be earned. It limits the Negroe's chances of satisfying his needs, and so we commit the crime of denying the chance to work to the poorest group particularly. While the colonial society made the Negro work as a slave, made the Negro work more than anybody else, and without pay, we commit the crime in our current society, which some have wanted to call a democratic society, of doing just the opposite and trying to prevent him from working to earn a living. And so, while the colony worked him to d**h and (beat?) him to d**h, we want to starve our colored brothers to d**h. It ought to be necessary to issue a law to establish a right that is earned by the mere fact of being a human being and a member of society. It ought not to be necessary to issue a law against an absurd prejudice. What should be proclaimed is anathema and public condemnation against those men, full of leftover prejudices, and who are unscrupulous enough to discriminate against a Cuban, to mistreat a Cuban, over a matter of lighter or darker skin, because, after all, we all have a (lighter or darker?) skin. Here if anybody's skin is (now?) somewhat dark it is because he is descended from the Spaniards, and Spain was colonized by the Moors, and the Moors came from Africa. We have skins that are more or less dark because they did not come straight from Africa. But nobody can consider himself of a pure race, least of all the (whites?) The same way that we are going to organize and wage a campaign for buying domestic products, without a law or legal penalties being needed, we are going to put an end to racial discrimination at work centers by waging a campaign to end this (shame?), to end this hateful, repugnant system with a new slogan: work opportunities for every Cuban, without discrimination for race or s**. Let there be an end to racial discrimination at work centers; let whites and blacks all get together to end hateful racial discrimination at work centers. In this way we will gradually build the new fatherland. (We must?) mingle at recreation centers, (sentence indistinct). At school black and white learn to live together like brothers. And if they mingle in the public schools they mingle afterwards at recreation centers and they mingle everywhere. But when they are educated separately, and the aristocrats educate their children apart from the Negroes, it is logical that later whites and blacks cannot mingle at cultural or recreation spots. (Pa**age indistinct) build playing fields at public schools where blacks and whites can play together, and also establish clubs--or let us change the name and call them recreation centers--as we are going to do at all beaches; we are going to provide recreation centers for public school children, where they can have fun, play, and enjoy the bounties of nature, and know the joy to which every child has a right, the white child and the black together, as in the schools, so that later, still together, (few words indistinct) black man and white man at some work center. Let this be one more reason for us to change the public school from its current status of Cinderella, from the little house (few words indistinct) without desks or educational material into a true educational center endowed with all resources and means, so our public schools can stop being a stepchild that everybody feels sorry for and (words indistinct). (Pa**age indistinct)...We will rent them to those who will pay dearly for them, and with that money we will pay the men charged with operating the national administration of public beaches. (several sentences indistinct) Some of the things that we will build here are schools, hospitals, recreation centers, housing. Because in the future there will not be a citizen or family that will not have its own house. Moreover the agrarian reform will be a blessing for our farmers. We will industrialize the country if the people help us now, if the people understand our situation, because if we had 500 million in reserve as there were on March 10, we could immediately invest 75 million pesos in new industries. But being virtually on the floor with regard to our reserves, and seeing the need to consolidate it --because the worse that could happen to us is the devaluation of currency--we will have to make great efforts to get and mobilize capital for industry. (words indistinct) agrarian reform will completely eliminate unemployment in our country. (several words indistinct) But that has to be the result of today's seeds, sacrifices, and sacrifices which are like seeds which we are planting in dignity,and with patriotism will germinate for the future of the country. Today we see how many fathers and mothers (words indistinct) and that only happens during the great eras in the history of countries, only in their great hours, (words indistinct) the peoples carry their children. That is because those children are a symbol, because, more than us, it will be our children who will reap the better fruits of sacrifices and work that we are all doing today. (sentence indistinct) We were educated without hope. We were born without hope. Our forefathers planted only pain and tears for us. They only planted bitterness and misery for us. They only planted tragedy and (words indistinct) for us. They planted only despair for us. And we have suffered the consequences of the past. We have suffered all the misfortunes, and I see in every man (words indistinct) and every mother (words indistinct) the fruit of the damned seed that was planted in the past for us. That is why I am filled with emotion when I see children on their parents' shoulders, and I think how generous is the devotion of this people, how worthy is this people that is planting for a better future for its children. Let not our (faults?), our ignorance, our (words indistinct) prejudices, our lack of maturity ruin the future we are preparing for those children. (pa**age indistinct) But why sow pessimism? And even less, in the face of that, why sow disconformity? Why say that in the face of that tragedy (words indistinct)? Why not proclaim our right to live even though they k** us? Why not proclaim our right to life even though they destroy us? Why not say here the entire truth? Why not say that while there are military bases here belonging to one of the powers which is preparing for defense and has taken civil defense measures and has prepared refuges against atomic attacks, we, who have its base, on the other hand, do not have even a miserable (words indistinct) in which to hide? Why not say that while the dangers of war are being trifled with, we are defenseless? We are here (prisoners?) (words indistinct) without any hope. (several words indistinct). Why not say that while in the difficult days we were asked for things, in peace we have suffered all the injustices? (Why not say that we have borne the war)? Why not say that in the name of that solidarity they sent 500 pound bombs? Why not say that in the name of that solidarity, they armed the tyrant? (words indistinct) Costa Rica was invaded by the henchmen of Somoza, the United States sent him two or three (figure indistinct) at a peso. Here it was the opposite; they sent Batista tanks and planes at a peso in order to fight against the people. Why not say that the aggressions which are worrying us at this time are not coming precisely from another continent? Why not say that the aggressions that worry us can come from mercenaries from the beaches of Florida or from Santo Domingo? All countries have their own problems, and our problems are ours. Let them not give us (words indistinct) problems. (pa**age indistinct) Live on our knees? What for? At any rate, (words indistinct) because we are all going to die sooner or later. (Words indistinct) die every day. Some die from heart trouble, others in auto (accidents?), (words indistinct), or from hunger as many have done here. (several sentences indistinct) The trouble is that the people here have never been able to speak. (several sentences indistinct)... the great interests have k**ed 20 times more than Batista's tyranny. (words indistinct) Fear of d**h? Why? If there is a remedy for your (words indistinct) why worry? If not, why worry? (Words indistinct) we should march forward for our country, for our people, and for our own future. We must continue sowing for our future, continue making an effort, and defending our rights with our lives. It has been said here that the people had to be prepared to defend their revolution. We have mentioned here the training of the workers. I say more, we must train even the women and children. We must train the people for their defense, to see if an expedition tries to come here to see what (words indistinct) can await the enemies of the revolution. The enemies of the revolution cannot destroy it. (sentence indistinct) Because no matter how much the revolution may lose in battle (words indistinct). And here, some not all, but part of the interests created, only part of the (words indistinct) by the revolution. We may not now have 95 percent, or 85, or 80 or 75, and possibly even less, but we will always have a majority. (sentences indistinct) The revolution may not be widely (supported?) but it will be more deeply (supported?). And those who will be for the revolution will be those who will (die?) for it like the workers who paraded there. So we will not be defeated in any elections because we will always have a majority. We will hold them here whenever you want them. I want to tell you that we will not be defeated in an election. (pa**age indistinct) Robbery always existed here because the principal officials were the principal thieves and (several words indistinct). I want someone to tell me how (words indistinct) after so much sacrifice, so much d**h on the road, after so many crosses like the ones carried by our (words indistinct) So that danger does not exist. The danger that we might (words indistinct) anyone? No sir, we do not want the (words indistinct) of many people here. We do not want to intimidate anyone or attempt to buy anyone. We do not need to buy anyone to defend us because we know how to defend ourselves. We do not have to intimate anyone so that we will not be attacked because we fear no one, and because they must convince the people. (sentences indistinct) They will attack us, using the same liberty we won for the people. And it is worse--I say this just in case--to say that we try to subordinate newsmen by mentioning a wage increase or by intimidating them, by accusing them of being counterrevolutionaries. We will defend wage increases because they are just, because we want all reporters, like any other intellectual workers, to live comfortably from his profession, because we do not want so (subsidize?) the newsman. (Word indistinct) because we do not call any one a counterrevolutionary unless he is really one, except those who undertake a campaign of lies like the foreign campaign (sponsored?) by the interests of international oligarchies, only those who support the criminals of war, only those who change suspiciously like one who is paid, from one position to another just as a vulgar mercenary changes (caps?). Now I say that they have the right to write whatever they want, but they also have the right to listen to everything we have to tell them (words indistinct). I do not want to name names because I do not want to (attack?) anyone. But let them know that we will oppose all mercenaries and traitors and all the servants of the counterrevolutionary reaction resolutely. Because they are not going to come here to tell anyone that the counterrevolution is (words indistinct), that is not a counterrevolution. If we do not act in time they will bloody the country. They may do so, but with the people warned in time, they will do so with the blood of mercenaries for they will remain here about as long as a [Unreadable text] at the door of a (words indistinct). I was saying that if they cannot hope to return to power in an election because they have no following, how can they do it with (weapons?) against a people who know how to fight? So what hope does the counterrevolution have of regaining power? With foreign aid. The counterrevolution's only hope of winning, since it knows it does not have the slightest chance of gaining it with the people's support, is with foreign aid. Thus the counterrevolutionaries are, above all, traitors to their country,. They are foreign (words indistinct), who have (words indistinct) to attempt the counterrevolution again. Since they cannot have the slightest hope of winning power by elections, why all this (words indistinct) abroad? What does it mean? Why the campaign of lies against the Cuban revolution? What does that mean? It means only that the counterrevolution's hope to regain power lies in foreign aid. (Few words indistinct) traitors to their country. (Few words indistinct) whoever attempts to take over Cuba, will bite the dust. Let them give up all hope of restoring the past, (few words indistinct). Let them not be deluded. Even if they use all means, all propaganda, and resources to obstruct us, to divide us, to weaken us, they will not succeed, because I know my people. I know their shortcomings, (words indistinct), and I also know their extraordinary (words indistinct). This, our people, this country of Marti and (words indistinct) will not be (words indistinct) again. It would be better if they gave up because if I have mentioned our shortcomings, our need to (mature?), to unite even more, to organize ourselves, to unite ourselves into a nation, unite the middle cla** with the farmer and the workers and leave out only the small group (words indistinct). Convince yourself that the revolution cannot be stopped. (sentences indistinct) I speak to you as I spoke to the members of the (words indistinct) institutions. I spoke to them in patriotic language and they applauded. I spoke to them in revolutionary language and they applauded. They are with us. They are with you, they are with the (words indistinct). The nation must stay united against the international oligarchies. The nation must remain united so that they will find us firm, so that they will find us strong. Let the (words indistinct), who constituted the interests of the (words indistinct) and who are incapable of the slightest sacrifice for the country, desert the nation. Let the enemies of the nation and the enemies of the fatherland desert the nation's ranks. Let the traditional traitors desert the nation's ranks, but let them desert in time so we can recognize them in time. The nation has a very great task ahead. It has a very tough task ahead And that is the work of real men and not of (words indistinct). This task is for generous men, and not for the selfish. This is a task for the courageous, not for cowards. And if when the revolution seemed least likely to triumph, we did not hesitate to march forward, how can we hesitate now? If when were were a small group lost in the mountains we did not hesitate, how can we (words indistinct) the triumph of the revolution now? My life has had many moments of emotion, but few like today's, few like seeing the working cla** and all the people who live here in the capital parade by with their placards on behalf of their rural brothers. (sentence indistinct) The demands were not for themselves but for their brothers, the peasants. I note how the idea has sunk deep into the minds of the workers. I see that they have understood that without prosperous farmers, without farmers having purchasing power, there can be no progress in industry, there can be no end to unemployment, there can be no prosperity for the working cla**. How thoroughly the idea was taken hold! It was moving. Still more moving was the sight of the tractors with (trained?) units that are going to win the great battle. And still more moving than the parade of the tractors was the march past of the infantry (few words indistinct). Yesterday the rural guards and soldiers were never able to march together with the workers and peasants. What pride and emotion it is for us today to see those (words indistinct) of yesterday converted into a martial army marching at the head of workers. They still did not all have caps; they did not all have the same cap, because the revolution, which has allotted millions for schools and universities, has not yet provided credits to buy caps for the soldiers of the rebel army. Moments of emotion like this one come rarely in a lifetime and they are more than enough recompense for all sacrifices and all (wishes?). I shall end with an apology and an appointment. I apologize to our guest for having been forced to disagree with his views, with all the respect and consideration that our hospitable people have for visitors,. And I take leave of the people with a new appointment, I take leave of the working cla** with a new appointment. Goodbye until May 1. -END-