Fidel Castro - 1ST NATL CONGRESS OF FEDERATION OF CUBAN WOMEN lyrics

Comrade delegates to the First National Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women: (Shouting from audience--Ed.) What happened? (More shouting from audience) When I saw the protest I thought "have they changed their name?" (laughter) because at the moment I said "The Federation of Cuban Women" some of you began to say you could not hear. The one who did not hear well was I. (laughter) However, it appears that you hear better now. True? Come a little closer. We said and we are going to say that this congress signifies for our feminine organization a great step forward. Numbers alone show how much this organization has grown--from 17,000 to 400,000 members. (Applause) Our 400,000 federated women have just finished holding their congress, approving their statutes, agreeing on the tasks to be done, that is to say that they are 400,000 organized women conscious of their tasks. In like fashion all the ma** organizations of the revolution are advancing and this will permit us to continue with our revolutionary struggle with advantages which we did not have at the beginning. Women in society have interests which are common to all members of society but they also have interests which are their own interests as women. Above all, hen the creation of a different society is attempted, to organize a better world for all human beings, the women have great interests in that effort; among other things, the women constitute a sector which was discriminated against in the capitalist world in which we lived. In the world we are building it is necessary that every vestige of discrimination against women disappear. However, even if from the legal and from objective points of view all vestiges of discrimination were to disappear, there would still remain a number of circumstances of natural order and of custom which make it important for the women to be organized, to work, and to struggle. In our country, beginning with the problem of work, there were innumerable activities which were forbidden to women. Recently the paths have been opened to the activities of women in a number of tasks. It was very difficult previously to find a women as an administrator of an enterprise, a factory, a sugar central. It as very difficult to find a women working in transportation, for example. It was difficult to find a women working in a number of jobs in economy. This was due to custom and above all prejudice and the discrimination under which the Cuban woman lived in the previous society. It is necessary that women open their own paths, not only in various types of manual work, but also in intellectual work. It is, for example, significant that in the course which will begin within a week for preparation to enter into the medical school, out of 1,200 applicants there are more than 500 girls. (Applause) This signifies that in the field of science there are women in a much larger proportion than had been seen up to this moment, and it is so in other fields. This is not only just but necessary. It is not only just that women have the opportunity to develop their abilities for the benefit of society, but it is also necessary for society that women have all the opportunities to fully develop their abilities. It is not surprising that that society which wasted everything among other things wasted the talent and the qualities of women. (Applause). That is to say it wasted these qualities and these talents. The country needs them. In addition there are a number of problems which may be termed interests of the feminine sector exclusively within society, basically those which refer to their natural condition as mothers. These are problems which belong exclusively to this sector and which in many aspects makes it imperative for that reason that society give them special attention and special help. It is well known how difficult it is for a women to be able to perform a job if, for example, there exist no institutions to take care of the children. Thinking of that problem the revolution gave impetus to the childrens centers. (Applause) Nevertheless, the children's centers do not resolve everything. Even if there were the necessary number of children's centers--and this number does not exist--the children grow and when they are no longer of the age for the children's center they still need someone to prepare their meals and someone to take care of them. There are problems relating to a number of tasks called "domestic" which have enslaved women throughout history. Women need institutions which will free them from these obligations which require so much effort and so much human energy. In all that order of things there is much to be done in our country. We, in conversations with the comrade leaders of the Federation of Women, have spoken about some of these problems which have already been included in the tasks and projects of this federation. All have problems with the children; they have problems with the children when they are old enough to go to school, and they are not only interested in the childrens centers but also in the school dining rooms. (Applause) They are interested in the laundries. (Applause) I said that you are not fighting for those things. Possibly in the other organizations they will not think of them. It is necessary for you to promote and be the ones who work for the various administrative organizations, including the creation of those centers which may help women to perform the tasks which today enslave them and steal from them an enormous amount of time which should be used in production. There are also other tasks, such as that of cooking at home, a task which custom has a**igned to women. The women are also interested in the workers dining halls. (Applause) It is evident that women have extraordinary interests in the revolution; first, the conditions which will permit them access to proper useful, work; conditions of a social and legal order, institutional order, and, in addition, the conditions which will permit them to free themselves of all those ties that bind them to a number of activities. This does not depend on laws but on initiative and, since naturally the women are more interested in this, they are the ones who should carry out these measures. The revolution gains, the country gains, society gains. In the same measure that we are a small country with great natural resources of possible development, we will need more technicians and more workers to be able to take advantage of all those resources and raise the general standard of living of the people. That is why we need to incorporate women into production, but in order for the women to be incorporated into production and at the same time continue to carry out that important function of reproduction it is necessary for women to have a number of institutions and resources within society which will permit them to be a worker and at the same time a mother. (Applause) Naturally, these conditions will not be created overnight. In some of them we have certain limitations. In the children's centers we have said that the basic problem is in the cost and that each center demands a high contribution on the part of the state. This, from a financial point of view, constitutes an obstacle to the unlimited establishment of children's centers. Taking advantage of this knowledge the other organizations which may be established will necessarily have to be established on a basis of costs. Let us give an example: If, in any school which has 300 students, there is established a dining hall for the serving of lunch to the students to that they will not have to return to their homes and so their parents do not have to waiting there at home to cook for them, and that student pays in that dining hall exactly what that food costs for the nourishment he is given, then is is possible to furnish a good lunch, cheap, and the dining hall pays its own way. We are going to give another example: The child who has lunch 25 times per month and has to pay whatever the lunch costs--let's say 45 or 50 centavos--that makes 12 or 12.5 pesos. Two children cost 25 pesos; that is what they would have to pay. This is infinitely less than if the mother had to leave work to take care of them to prepare lunch of if she has to pay someone to prepare lunch, because this would mean having to pay someone plus the cost of the means for the children plus whatever that person would eat at their home. It would no longer be 25 pesos for two children. It would be 60, 80, 100. Now, if when we establish a dining hall in the school we charge 15 centavos, each dining hall becomes a debit, and then dining halls can be built of 10,000, 20,000. But there comes a time when you can build no more. If they are established on a pay-as-you-go basis they can then be built on al unlimited scale, and all that are needed. We are dealing not with gratuitously giving a service but rather of lending a service, which is still a great service to all of society. If we do not have the resources today to give them gratuitously--and it would be an illusion that in this phase when we have to develop our economy we can give such a service gratuitously--we can give away very little; we are speaking of organizing these services. The same thing happens with the worker's diners. They are very important for production, these worker's diners. These are dining halls for the worker who lives a long way from his home, or even if the does not, if he desires to lunch there, for example, he would save the two hours he would use to go and come from his house, he would save transportation costs, he would avoid tardiness, he would not have to perform work at home in case his wife also works. Therefore, one of the things we must develop are dining halls in the factories. This, it can be said, is a measure of an urgent nature. Since in the coming year our country will have an increase in production (applause), it is the intention of the revolutionary government to begin a system of worker dining halls in order that that increase in production, a portion of it, will directly benefit the workers. In this manner there are already some workers sectors, as in the case of the miners, whom the revolutionary government has decided to send special rations of supplies. (Applause). The lumber workers who work in distant places in the forests, who work hard, will also be sent special rations. (Applause) The construction workers engaged in the construction of roads, highways, distant works, hydraulic works, they will also have dining halls throughout the island. (Applause) The 350,000 sugar workers (applause) will get special rations of food during the harvest. (Applause) Finally, in the first three months, beginning in the capital, because it in the city which most contributes to solving the problems of transportation, during the first quarter of 1962, dining halls for 60,000 workers will be built in our capital and they will furnish good meals at cost and at the same time without taking them out of the ration book. They will be extra rations. Meanwhile, during 1963 the main effort will be made in this order of things in the organization or workers' dining halls. In the following year of 1964, efforts will be principally in the establishment of school dining halls. This is a logical order. First production, that is to take care of the needs and the feeding of the workers, because in the same measure that our production increases, we will have greater resources to resolve the other problems. However, it is the intention of the revolution within the next two years to install a great number of these centers, first for the workers and afterwards for the students. (Applause). We will endeavor to build an efficient organization and in that organization many women may work. (Applause) Of course--I do not know if you know this--in the food handling field access used to be virtually prohibited to women, and they are the ones who have historically done the cooking. Nevertheless, in spite of that historic right, they did not have access to the food handling field. Since this will signify that thousands of persons will have to work in these organizations, it will be a sector where many women may find employment, and for the time being in the worker's dining halls, except for the first chef and the second chef, who because of their experience within that workers' sector will be men, women will be used there as helpers but with the opportunity to advance later. Above all, many of these women, though serving as helpers, may serve in other capacities in which they are competent in the dining halls which will be organized the following years in the schools. (Applause) We are able to begin to carry out these measures thanks to the fact that the revolution begins to count on additional resources as a result of the increases in production. (Applause) When we speak of increases in production we speak of real statistics based on absolutely true data; an increase derived from a great effort which all the comrades of the revolution are making in that sense and whose fruits are already evident. Nevertheless, we will begin to count as of the beginning of next year, and the production figures will be compared in a number of products next year and this year. That is the way we have arrived at some figures of production, for example fish, which has been between 60 and 70 million pounds total for this year. Next year we will have from 60 to 70 million pounds more--approximately 50 percent will be our production and the other half as a result of the fishing agreement with the Soviet Union. (Applause). This will permit us to improve supplies in the rural areas. This is important because historically the capital had a much greater consumption than the interior and when supplies were apportioned it was done on the basis of traditional consumption of each region. Now we will have to increase supplies principally in the interior of the republic. (Applause) Next year we will be able to take the products of the sea to the rural areas. We will have millions and millions of pounds of cod, for example, to take to the rural areas and the mountains, and in general to the interior to places where fresh fish is not eaten. There is an increase of production in the factories (not explained--Ed.) of less than 2 million this year compared to more than 4 million next year, 100,000 cattle more than this year, (applause), thanks to the fact that slaughter of them was restricted, that the slaughter of cows was not permitted. This naturally restricted the consumption of meat. This meant present sacrifices. Another think would have been the authorization of a wholesale slaughter of all the cattle people wanted. Our cattle herds would have decreased and within a few years we would have had a very serious problem without any hopes of solving it. As for the manufacture of footwear which depends on the number of cattle that are slaughtered, if during these few years we would have slaughtered a million or a million and a half cattle, there would have been an abundance of shoes for every one, but in the coming years there would have been neither meat nor shoes. (Applause) Would it have been preferable to being in good shape today irresponsibly to have given up having much more in the future? That could not be done. We had to preserve our cattle herds. This will permit us year by year to have a greater consumption of meat, a greater consumption of milk, a greater consumption of hides. By next year we will have more hides with those 100,000 additional cattle which are going to be slaughtered. We will have more than 100,000 hog hides which we did not have this year. Year by year we will have more hides. This year some 11 million pairs of shoes will be produced. However, for 1963 we will already be able to produce nearly 15 million pairs of shoes (applause). Each year we will be able to produce more. It is possible that for 1965 we will be able to produce nearly 20 million pairs of shoes. (Applause) We are interested in increasing production during the coming year by some 3 million pairs more. Another thing we are interested in is better distribution of those shoes, because at this time when everybody has the money to buy a pair of shoes it is necessary to improve the total distribution of shoe production. Previously there were shoes to spare, sometimes hides were even exported but even then there were shoes to spare. For whom were there shoes to spare? For those who could buy them, but that was based on the fact that hundreds and hundreds of thousands did not wear shoes. Many children in the rural areas reached the age of 15 without ever having worn shoes. (Applause) Today we do not export hides and still there are not enough shoes to go around. There is also the problem of quality, in which field a great effort is being made, and we expect that the effort in that field will have good results in order that the shoes instead of lasting two months will last six months or a year--(applause) above all so that the heels do not come off women's shoes. (Laughter and applause). In fowl, beef, fish, and pork there are considerable increases in production. The problem today is to improve supplies in those regions which have lacked these supplies, that is to say to distribute them with justice. We said a few days ago that already the greater part of the more serious problems of our economy are being overcome. Already the most difficult phase has been pa**ed. Naturally, in this difficult phase we have counted on a very important factor; the solidarity of the socialist camp (applause) and very particularly the Soviet Union. (Applause). This has permitted us to successfully conquer the hardest phases of our economy. It will permit us during the course of a few years to develop our resources to such a degree that with our own resources we will be able to continue forward. Today we advance with considerable help from abroad. We must be able to know how to make good use of that help and not waste it, but rather invest it in productive enterprises, invest it in instruments of work. The importance of investing in instruments of work is demonstrated by an example. I will give you one: The first five fishing boats of the Soviet Union, which arrived at our capital and which will be turned over to Cuba, are worth 2 million pesos. However the products which these five boats can obtain from the sea are worth to the public 8.5 million pesos per year. (Applause). That means that an investment of 2 million in converted into a return four times greater in the space of only one year. It is clear that all investments are only equally productive, but we said a few days ago that we were not going to increase the number of automobiles or luxury items. We will, however, see an increase in the amount of instruments of production, factories, agricultural machinery, dams, highways, and transportation equipment, because those are the things that will permit us to raise the living standards of the ma**es, that is, of all the people. That is why we must not waste a single centavo, and we must know how to invest all the help we receive, above all in productive enterprises. That is what will permit us to effect considerable savings in production, and advance rapidly in the economic field. Fortunately, our people already understand these things better. Every day they understand these problems better, they are very obvious problems. We must dedicate ourselves with all possible attention to the problems of production. That is our principal task. We have to produce! For whom do we produce? (Applause) For whom do we produce? (Applause) For ourselves! That is to say, the people produce for themselves and nobody steals from them, nobody takes the fruit of their labor abroad. On the contrary, from abroad comes more help. (Applause) Nobody takes from us. They give to us. They help us. (Applause) And not that the people work for themselves the people have the opportunity of obtaining all they need. How? With work. (Applause) With production. (Applause- singing-chanting) Our country is a clear example of what humanity could attain if there were peace, if the warmongering forces were curbed and were forced to accept a policy of peace. This is a clear example of what humanity could attain if the immense sums which are spent on armament were spent on capital goods and were invested in the development of the poorer countries. With the resources spent in 5 years, not to say 10, or with a part of the resources that are spent in 10 years which humanity today spends on armament there would be enough to develop all the most economically backward regions of the world. However, who is it that opposes this? Who are the ones interested in not having peace? (Shouting) Who are the only ones interested in having the world living on the edge of war? Why? (Shouting) For a number of reasons, among others because they are merchants in war. (Shouting) Who is it who oppose, what force oppose disarmament? (Shouting) It is some monopolies, some corporations which sell billions worth every year; within the capitalist system disarmament would mean a tremendous crisis for those companies. In a socialist country, in any socialist country, in the Soviet Union, what does disarmament mean? (Applause) Does it mean the ruin of a company? No. Does it mean that somebody will become unemployed. No. They immediately dismantle that factory. Where they have been building tanks they begin to build tractors, trucks, and agricultural machinery. Nobody is left unemployed and the country will begin to spend that money which it was spending on war materials on useful goods, productive goods. There would be no problem of any sort. In contrast, what would happen in the United States if there was disarmament? Who opposes it? The companies. Those companies are the first interests affected. They are interested in the business of war. It is clear that even the capitalist system could find solutions if there really existed the will to find them by other routes and not the route of manufacturing arms. However, the route of building arms is the most convenient for all these merchants of war. That is why they oppose any policy of peace. Besides this the imperialists are interested in maintaining forces with which to frighten the underdeveloped countries, the colonized countries, and that is why they oppose inflexibly any policy of peace. However, it is very clear to all humanity that the only ones interested in not having peace and those who are causing such tremendous harm to the world are the merchants of war, principally the Yankee monopolies. They are the ones which today create these tensions and these problems, among others the problems with our country. These are problems which the Cuban people and the Cuban Government are facing determinedly with the support of the Soviet Union, (applause) and as you have known, our President will go the United Nations to denounce there the aggressive policy of the United States against our country. A proof of the senselessness of the warmongers and who they are, the most reactionary elements in the United States who promote aggression against Cuba, is a sign waved by the racists of the South during their protest against the attempt of a Negro youth to enroll in the University of Mississippi. One of the signs read: "Federal troops for Cuba, yes; for Mississippi, no." This was in answer to the pressures of the central government and the decision of the central government to use Federal troops to force obedience of the law so that the decision of the courts would be applied to defend a principal of equality. They said "Federal troops for that, no--Federal troops to invade Cuba, yes." This is one of the times--with justice--that it can be said that troops should be used; that is, to fight discrimination and not to attack another country. However, the racists, the discriminators who oppose the entry of a Negro youth into that university prompt aggression against our country. Against those signs we say "Federal troops against the discriminators, yes; against Cuba, no." (Applause) Because when Federal troops go to defend the right of a Negro youth to enter a university they will be doing something just there within the United States. When they come to invade our country they are doing an unjust thing. There (in the United States--Ed.) they can even receive the acknowledgement of their adversaries because we understand that this is a correct action. Now an invasion of our country by these Federal troops would not be just. They would be committing an act of piracy, banditry, a crime, and they would come here to die like bandits (Applause). That is why those who there represent that most reactionary line are those who most proclaim the aggression against Cuba. However, the aggression is no longer a simple thing, it is no longer a game, it is no longer a pleasure trip by a long shot. Because they are still living in the past and their mutual clock is still set 10 or 15 years slow, they shout today what they could have shouted then but it is something which cannot be shouted today because today things are different and what would be best for the imperialists is to set their clocks to the correct time. (Applause) Our free advice to the Yankee senators, to the little Yankee men who advocate aggression against our country is to set their clocks correctly. (Applause) They would not then shout that which cannot be shouted today. They should know that these invasions cannot be promoted because, aside from being against all laws, against all morals, against all principles, it is against the very hide of the Yankee senators and congressmen. (Applause) That is why it is to be hoped that some signs of the times will warn them that they are living in the past and to not commit this absurdity. We hope that they will not commit this foolishness and we say this very calmly in a country where neither the men nor the women are afraid. Those senators should be a little more informed as to how the people think. These people of Cuba are not the miserable deserters, the group of deserters or traitors who are over their urging the imperialists against Cuba. The people of Cuba are these here, and what they should ask themselves, those gentlemen, is what do our men and our wives and mothers think. (Applause) They should ask themselves if these people are afraid, (shouting) and then ask themselves why these people are not afraid, (shouting). And then answer themselves saying that these are a people with the right, these are a people filled with dignity; full of conviction; convinced that they are in the right; that they have the right to do what they are doing and that what they are doing is not harming any country, and that what they are doing is to the benefit of their own interests without harming anybody. It helps our country and we have the right to do so and it is not a right which we only talk about but one which we undertake with whatever sacrifices are necessary, which we will underwrite with our lives, at any cost. (Shouting--applause, chanting for about 5 minutes--Ed.). The Yankee government leaders scorned this country for a long time. They humiliated it for a long time. They were mistaken for a long time as to the dignity and the same of our people. These are not those same people whose sons had to wander throughout the world bearing the humiliation of having people believe that this was just another state of the North American union; that the students of the schools of the United States themselves believed that it was just another key, because they did not even know what it was all about. The times have pa**ed when a Cuban counted for nothing in the world. We live in the times in which a Cuban, when he has shame, that is, one of the Cubans who are with their fatherland, (applause) is received with demonstrations of kindness, affection, and acknowledgement in any part of the world, and that the honor must be as high for a good Cuban as is the same for a bad Cuban. I imagine that they will receive a bad Cuban with the same amount of contempt anywhere as they will admire a revolutionary Cuban. (Applause) That place in the world, that honor, has not been won by our people in a lottery but rather by fighting, sacrificing, working. That place was won as a result of many sacrifices and much blood. It is time that the Yankee government leaders understand and learn once and for all the moral quality of the Cuban people so that they will understand once and for all why they have not been able to defeat us, (applause) so that they will understand why, with all their gold, all their threats, all their blockade, and all their campaigns, the revolution is going to enter into its fifth year and they have not been able to do anything to it. It is time they understand once and for all that they have been defeated (applause), that they understand that they are vanquished and to leave us in peace. The problem with us is not of our making, they brought it on themselves. (Applause) If they brought this problem on themselves let them rid themselves of it. That is to say, that they give up the idea of removing us. (Applause) The problem is when will they finally resign themselves, when will they leave us in peace? (Shouts of "never"--Ed.) but they will sink faster if they do not leave us in peace. (Applause) That is the situation--they must convince themselves, they must persuade themselves. Of course they know that their hope that we would sink economically has failed, and the other, the hopes of invading has also failed (applause) because they can no longer invade us (applause), or at least they cannot invade us with impunity. The matter is now flour from another sack. (Applause) What we want is to live in peace. How much will we arm? Until they leave us in peace. Until they leave us in peace, and simply, we have to guarantee peace for ourselves. That is why all the steps and measures taken by the revolutionary government are for this purpose--to guarantee ourselves peace--to guarantee that they leave us in peace and to guarantee that they will let us work, because it is hard to have the people work hard for its future in all aspects, preparing their children for tomorrow while living with a threat hanging over their heads; with the danger of imperialism hanging over our heads. (Shouts) It is very sad, and that is why our people have to guarantee peace for themselves, to be left alone. They say that a madman with grief is strong, and imperialism is one of these madmen who knows what he is doing. Once the conditions for peace are guaranteed we can dedicate ourselves entirely with confidence to working, and to creating; to produce so that we all will have everything more in the material sense and more in the cultural sense. That is to say more of all things. I believe that our people well deserve it. I believe that the worthy men and women of this country well deserve it, and they will attain it. That is why, comrades, now that we will soon enter the fifth year (applause) that is to say that we are going to finish the fourth year and enter into the fifth, when the revolution is entering a more mature phase, a very superior organization, let not the women remain behind. (Applause) Let the women place themselves in the front ranks (applause) in this revolution which means so much to Cuban women; in this revolution which means so much for the children of the Cuban women; Cuban women whose children are in the schools, in the technological institutes, in the universities; whose sons are today in the mountains gathering coffee together with their peasant brothers (applause) Cuban women whose sons are in our combat units, in our infantry divisions, in our artillery units, in our airplanes, as soldiers of the people, as soldiers of the fatherland, Cuban women whose sons and whose husbands are in the work centers advancing the revolution. Cuban mothers who like you are in the first place in the heart of every Cuban must also be in the first trenches in the front rank--in the vanguard of the revolution. Fatherland or d**h; We Shall Win. -END-