Fidel Castro - SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA AT LOYALTY RALLY lyrics

Workers, farmers, students, all Cubans: We have a lot to talk over with you. In this great rally today there are important matters to be dealt with. This is or should be more than just a moment of enthusiasm. It should be above all a time of meditation. Every nation must search for the source of its problems. It is not enough to know the facts. It is necessary for the people to know the factors behind the facts. The support of the people gratifies us. There extraordinary enthusiasm gives us satisfaction. But, above all it interests us that the people should meditate. It interests us that the people should think because the people should find an explanation for the problems with which they are confronted. I am not here to make a speech. I am here to reason with the people. I am here to converse with the people. Never has there been a time when it was more necessary that there should be the most complete understanding between the people and us. After all, those of us who make up the Council of Ministers and occupy the key positions of the government are merely men of the people. We are simply carrying out the will of the people and fulfilling the desires of the people. Never has there been a time when it was more necessary that the Cuban people and we, the revolutionary leaders, should think and act as one. If our enemies engage us in battle we will give them battle. If they attack us they will find all of Cuba to be one great army. We are not dismayed by deserters and cowards. After all we have just been through a war. In the war we learned that some men desert and some men turn cowards; but they do not matter because they are the minority. We know that we have with us the people of Cuba and the people are not going to become cowardly. There is only one way for our people to obtain victory and make progress--through courage. We know that the people will not become cowardly. We know that the people are willing to die alongside their revolutionary government. The people know that we can end this struggle only by winning or by dying in the attempt. The people know perfectly well that the men who today have the reins of the government in their hands, these rebels who have appeared today on this platform, are men who are willing to die alongside the people. When the people of a nation are courageous and willing to face d**h, when their leaders are willing to die with them, that nation is invincible; that nation cannot be overcome by anything or anybody. * * * These are the questions we should ask ourselves: Why are we being attacked? Why have we had to meet here together again? Why are there traitors? Why is there an attempt to make the revolution fail? What accusations are being made against the Revolution? Why are certain charges made against us? What ends are being sought? How should the people contend with these maneuvers and motives? How can the success of the Revolution be a**ured? What measures have we taken and what measures are we willing to take in order to defend the Revolution? Before going further I want to defend the Revolution? "UPI 3:38 p.m. Officials of the customs of Miami are investigating the news that six or seven airplanes are in flight from the Miami area toward Havana to drop counterrevolutionary leaflets over the rally in support of Castro being carried out in Havana. Customs official Joseph Portier said that he had information that these flight were being made but he did not know what success they may have had. "`We are trying to place agents in these possible flights,' Portier said. He also said that he had sent agents to various airports of the meridional region of Florida and that some of the airplanes that took part in the alleged flight to Havana were rented and others were private property." I read this bulletin for the simple reason that I know that the people are not afraid. But at the same time while we have been here on this platform we have received the following communication from the head of the regiment of the Rebel Army in the Province of Pinar del Rio: "Be advised that an avionette has flown over the city and [from it] were thrown hand made grenades as well as an incendiary bomb at the Niagara Sugar Mill. A house was set on fire between the post office and the Army garrison. It was at six thirty in the evening. They also dropped pamphlets." That is to say, the very authorities of Miami recognized that six or seven airplanes left from that area en route to Cuba and that they were still waiting for the results of the flights. Very well. Now we can give the first report of the results. And we beg them, if they will be so kind, to go ahead and send along the official war communique letting us know the pilots' tally of this daring sortie against the people of Cuba. * * * This is the limit. We cannot be sure whether it is shamelessness or whether is it complete impotence on the part of the United States that the authorities should report news of the fifth aerial bombing mission over our territory. How is it possible that the authorities of a nation so powerful, with so many economic and military resources, with radar systems which are said to be able to intercept even guided missiles, should admit before the world that they are unable to prevent aircraft from leaving their territory in order to bomb a defenseless country like Cuba? I wonder--and this is a question we should all ask ourselves in order to find an explanation for what is happening... I wonder if the authorities of the United States would be so negligent as to permit Russian emigrants from Alaska to carry out bombing raids over cities and villages of Russian territory. I ask myself if they would be so careless as to permit that act of aggression from their territory. Next I ask myself how it is possible then that the authorities of the United States should be so careless that on the other hand they do permit these aerial attacks against a country of their own Continent--permit this aggression against a small and weak country that has no resources to defend itself from those attacks, and has no military power. I ask myself if the cause for this neglect is that we are a weak nation. Are the authorities of the powerful nations careful not to permit acts of aggression against other powerful nations, and yet do they on the other hand permit these acts against nations like us? I can see no other explanation. I cannot conceive of any explanation other than the fact that Cuba is a small nation unable to defend itself from those attacks, a country that is not a world power. I am unable to find--and I do not believe that there is--any other explanation, because the honorable attitude for powerful nations would be to make certain to prevent their territory from serving as a base for aggression against a smaller country... as well as to prevent raids against a powerful country. * * * Who are those who attack us from the United States and why do they attack us? When I contemplate these problems I cannot avoid remembering the first days after we won the war. I cannot avoid remembering the overwhelming joy of our people, the infinite happiness of the Cuban people. I remember they were happy because the war was over and because no more blood was going to be spilled, because no more homes and no more villages wee going to be burned, because the murderous bombings were not going to be repeated again. Our people were happy because they had obtained peace. Our people were happy because none of them could ever suspect that some day from foreign territory, the criminals, the same merciless hordes who cowardly fled the first of January, would return with their inconceivably inhuman methods to spread terror among our people. It is painful to remember those days because they remind us of a happy people who believed that never again would they have to suffer terror at the hands of that group of criminals that we had finally driven out of power. * * * But why do they attack us? And what is the reason for the tolerance of the American authorities? On another occasion like this when all the people were a**embled here to defend our country from an organized campaign of libel and slander I said that our enemies were using defamation in the press in order to lay the way for acts of aggression against us. The months have not yet pa**ed by and we have had to call the people together again. This time not just to defend ourselves from slander, but to struggle for the very survival of our citizens, and in defense of the safety of our children. What we can depend upon we have mobilized. We have mobilized the Cuban people. We have gathered a million Cubans together on three days' notice, to proclaim before all the nations of the world, our protest against the acts of barbarity which, in one afternoon and in the course of just a few minutes, produced 47 victims among our unwarned and defenseless civilians. But why are we attacked? Why don't airplanes fly out of Florida to attack the dictatorship of Trujillo? Why don't airplanes leave the United States to attack the dictatorship of Somoza? Of course, airplanes should not leave the United States to bomb us here nor bomb anybody, anywhere! They should not go to Santo Domingo nor to Nicaragua. They should not go anywhere. But what we must ask ourselves is: Why precisely is Cuba chosen? After all, there are emigrants of all nationalities in the United States--even many emigrants from our sister nation Puerto Rico, that has the right to aspire to be one more independent nation in Latin America. And, nevertheless, although there are many emigrants from many nations, Cuba just happens to be the one country to which airplanes depart with emigrants abroad to attack a civil population. Why precisely Cuba? If there is one country with which the United States should be more careful, if there is one country about which the United States should be concerned that these incidents should not occur, this country is Cuba. Cuba has just been through a two years was during which airplanes of American origin were used to drop on Cuban cities and on the Cuban countryside rocket projectiles and incendiary bombs also of American manufacture. Thousands of our people were murdered with weapons of American manufacture. The least we could expect after having destroyed Batista's mercenary army, after we liberated our people from tyranny, the least that we could expect is that our people should not continue to be bombed from bases located in the territory of the United States. What can we think of such negligence on the part of the authorities of a country which right here, in the heart of our country, maintains a naval base to protect its citizens from an attack of any kind? How is it possible that the return [for the use of Guantanamo as a naval base the American Government does not prevent] bases located in the United States [from being used to subject us] to attacks carried out by our war criminals who are harbored in the United States? How is it possible that in return for the risks we run with the presence of that military base (*) in our country, the cottages of our farmers, our sugar mills, and our civil population are exposed to incendiary bombs and to machine-gunning from airplanes that come here from the United States? * * * What would be the reaction of the American public if the American public were aware of all this? In the name of the people of Cuba I appeal to the public opinion of the United States. I do not conceive nor believe that the people of the United States could approve of such irresponsibility on the part of the authorities of their country. I ask myself what would happen, what would the people of the United States say if planes departing from Canada or any other country should drop incendiary bombs on American factories and houses and then make a raid on the capital of the United States, with the result that city hospitals would be crowded with men, children and old people, wounded by machineguns. The people of the United States still have fresh in their memory the treacherous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. I am sure that under no circumstances would the American people, who experienced such profound indignation over Pearl Harbor, approve these aerial attacks [on Cuba] nor would they by any means accept the explanation that the authorities are unable to prevent these flights. As I said a few days ago, the people of the United States would have to come to the conclusion that either their authorities are accomplices to the raids on Cuba or the American nation has been deceived by its authorities, and is defenseless. How is it possible that the American people can be told that they are safe even from guided missiles if the government is not even capable of preventing small aircraft from taking off and landing as they please from their territory? (*) Guantanamo Naval Base. * * * Another question that we must ask ourselves is: What do our enemies expect to accomplish with these bombings? Do they simply want to make us live in a constant state of fear never knowing at what hour of the day they can scatter d**h and destruction among us? This in itself would be sadism and vengeance (characteristic of our war criminals). But what we all suspect is even worse: that by using surprise bombings they think they can finally bring about such a state of fear and cowardice among our people that we might abandon our Revolution and--by turning the government over to mercenaries and reactionaries--deliver Cuba back into the hands of the Masferrers, the Pilar Garcias, the Venturas, the Carratalas. On one hand, Cuba is being threatened by economic strangulation, that is to say, the loss of the sugar quota which provides our principal income. On the other hand, we are being subjected to aerial attacks that have the objective of terrorizing us so that we will renounce our magnificent revolutionary reform program and give up our hope of creating social justice here in our island. What has the Revolutionary Government of Cuba done to deserve this aggression against us? Our internal problems and our international problems simply result from opposition to the Revolution itself. It is our process of revolutionary reform that has caused aggressions from outside Cuba as well as treason inside Cuba. * * * What has the Revolutionary Government done? The only accusation that can be made against the revolutionary Government is that we have given our people reform laws. Everything we have done can be reviewed with pride by our people. Why are the people of Cuba with us? Not just for purely sentimental reasons. The people support the Revolutionary Government because we have pa**ed revolutionary reform laws. Why do the farmers support the Revolutionary Government? Why do the workers support the Revolutionary Government? Why do the immense majority of the people support the Revolutionary Government? Who do the people defend the Revolutionary Government? Simply because we have been defending the people, because we have been carrying out reforms in Cuba. Here in public we are going to give our answer once and for all to those who slander and belittle the revolution. They will finally have to remove their masks; they will have to admit that the accusations they make --that we are communists-- can be attributed exclusively to the fact that they have not dared to admit that they are against our reform program. Since there are no just complaints or accusations that can be made against our government, our enemies resort to that old bugaboo that they have been using for the last 50 years. They label us falsely as best suits their schemes to commit aggression against us, and thus they proceed, aided and abetted by foreign interests that are our enemies. What we must an*lyze is what the Revolutionary Government has done and what we must ask is whether the people of Cuba are in agreement with that the Revolutionary Government has been doing. Do you approve of our having given you honest administration of public funds for the first time in the history of Cuba? Do you approve of our having put an end to smuggling? Do you approve of our having abolished the practice of payroll padding in the offices of the government? Do you approve of our having eradicated gambling from the daily life of our average citizen? Do you approve of our having tried and executed guilty war criminals by firing squads? Do you approve of our having recovered property that was embezzled during the dictatorship? Do you approve of our having converted the headquarters of the old Political Police into a children's playground and of our having changed the old Army headquarters into a scholastic center that the children of Cuba so needed? Do you approve of our having converted army regimental headquarters into other schools? Do you approve of our having cancelled the dishonest concession that the dictatorship gave to the Telephone Company? Do you approve of our having put the price of medicine within the reach of the people? Do you approve of our having created ten thousands more jobs for teachers out in the rural areas? Do you approve of our having founded the National Institute of Savings and Housing which has already built 10,000 homes? Do you approve of our having provided a Social Security Bank? Do you approve of our having taken steps to develop the tourist industry on a large scale as an important source of income for our country? Do you approve of our having returned to the workers their union rights and all the other benefits that were taken away from them during the tyranny? Do you approve of our having reduced the rents so that every family could have a place of their own? Do you agree that it was right for us to give boats to the fishermen so they could keep the profits from their own work and stop being exploited? Do you approve of the consumers' cooperatives that we have organized in the country to prevent the farmers from being charged the double prices they have always been charged? * * * Are you in favor of the Land Reform? Do you approved of our having given land to the farmers? Do you agree that it is right that the farmers who produce charcoal, in Cienaga de Zapata, Peninsula de Guanachahabibes, Belice, Yateras and many other parts of Cuba should have cooperatives where they can sell their charcoal, rather than being exploited as they always have been? Do you approve of our having built decent housing for the farmers and of our having constructed highways and schools from one end of the island to the other? Were you in favor of the old system of rural police at the service of the big landlords and the monopolies? Or are you in favor of the soldiers of the Revolutionary Army who are today the allies and friends of the farmers? The Rebel Army does not commit injustices. The Rebel Army works exclusively in behalf of the people. Do you approve of our having helped the farmers go back to the rural areas that had become abandoned as a result of the greed and selfishness of the big landlords? Do you agree that it was right for us to protect our monetary reserves in order to make funds available to industrialize the country? Do you agree that we are right in insisting that the country import tractors now instead of Cadillacs? Do you agree with us that it is right for us to plant as much rice as we can instead of importing it? and produce as much lard as we can instead of importing it? and produce all the cotton we can instead of importing it? all the foodstuffs we can instead of importing them? and in this way provide jobs for more than half a million of our fellow Cubans who are unemployed? Do you approve of our plans to industrialize the country? Then, I ask: has the Revolutionary Government done anything that the people do not approve? What has the Revolutionary Government done except defend the interests of the people? What have we done except sacrifice ourselves for our country? In four centuries of Cuban history never has there been such an altruistic movement. * * * In the 1500's the Indians of this island were persecuted and slaughtered by the Spanish conquistadores. For over three hundred years during the colonial period there was slavery in Cuba and human beings were bought and sold like animals. Our own seven year struggle against tyranny cost 20,000 lives, while thousands of homes were destroyed by fire thanks to selfishness, greed and vested interests. At long last the destiny of Cuba is being shaped by a revolutionary movement which is fighting against inequality and injustice--a revolutionary government which is determined to redeem our people and to destroy evils which, in some instances, have been in existence for more than four hundred years. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba has begun to build what has not been built during the 50 years that this country has been a republic--streets, water works, schools, hospitals, and industries. What have the people of Cuba and its Revolutionary Government done except defend Cuban interests in Cuba and abroad? I ask myself and ask you if the worthy and courageous position taken by the people of Cuba in the international organizations is or is not correct? I could go on asking whether or not you approve of our having given the common people the right to use those beaches which used to belong only to a small privileged group, so that now with all stupid prejudices abolished all Cubans can go to the beaches, whatever color their skin may be. I ask you whether or not you approve of our having given all Cubans, whatever color their skin may be, an equal opportunity to work. We could go on indefinitely asking what has the Revolutionary Government done that is not for the benefit of the people. * * * The problem is: if we plant rice, we interfere with foreign interests; if we produce lard, we interfere with foreign interests; if we produce cotton, we interfere with foreign interests, if we cut down the electric tariffs, we interfere with foreign interests; if we make a Petroleum Law, like the one which is about to be decreed, we interfere with foreign interests; if we carry out a Land Reform, we interfere with foreign interests; if we make a Mining Law, like the one which is about to be announced, we interfere with foreign interests; if we create a Merchant Marine, we interfere with foreign interests. If we try to find new markets for our country, we interfere with foreign interests. If we attempt to sell at least as much as we buy, we interfere with foreign interests. Because our Revolutionary Laws have an adverse effect on privileged cla**es inside Cuba and outside Cuba, they attack us and attack us and call us Communists. They accuse us, trying to find some pretext to justify aggression against our country. By any change is the Land Reform Law not [good for] Cubans? By any change is the reduction of excessive electricity rates not [good for] Cubans? By any change is the reduction of excessive telephone rates not [good for] Cubans? Is it by any change not [good for] Cuba that we make an effort to create a Merchant Marine? Is it by any change not [good for] Cuba to plant rice and cotton and to produce lard in our country? Is it by any change not [good for] Cuba to build houses for our workers, our farmers, and the Cuban families in general? Is it by any change not [good for] Cuba to reduce the price of medicines, many of which come from foreign laboratories? Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to defend our monetary reserves? Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to buy tractors instead of Cadillacs? Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to provide ten thousand schools--which is twice the number that had been provided in the fifty years that Cuba has been a Republic? Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to convert our fortresses into scholastic centers? Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to give boats to our fishermen? To give equipment to our farmers? To give our workers what is due them? Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to proclaim it the duty of Cubans to consume Cuban products? * * * Is it or is it not [good for] Cuba to protect our national industries? Are the measures adopted by the Revolutionary Government not Cuban, or are they the very essence of Cubanism? Then, what do those wretched conspirators charge us with? Of what can those criminals, those false and shameless men [like Diaz Lanz and Huber Matos] accuse us, except of having undertaken measures for the benefit of Cuba? What do not [serve the interest of] Cuba are the foreign monopolies. What does not [serve the interests of] Cuba is the Electric Company. What does not [serve the interests of] Cuba is the Telephone Company. Nor does the United Fruit Company. Nor does the Atlantic and Gulf Company. Nor do the contracts to foreign shipping companies that carry cargo into and out of our ports. The greater part of the rice we consume, the greater part of the lard we consume, the greater part of the textile products we use, the greater part of the manufactured items we use give profit to others not to Cuba. Those trusts which operate our mines and which have obtained unfair concessions here [give profits to others], not to Cuba. Those companies which were handed over the concessions to exploit most of our land with possible oil wealth [would give profit to others] not to Cuba. The bombs which k**ed our farmers during the war were [manufactured elsewhere], not in Cuba. The arms and ammunition with which 20,000 of our countrymen were k**ed were [manufactured elsewhere], not in Cuba, and were not [good for] Cuba. The men who trained the mercenary army destroyed by our Revolution, were not Cuban and were not [good for] Cuba. The campaign of lies and slander being carried out against us does not [originate in] Cuba and is not [good for] Cuba. Those magazines which seek to degrade our people, those internacional news agencies which write about non-existent horrors in our country, are not Cuban and are not [good for] Cuba. This is the truth, this is the truth which must be told to the people. This is the truth which the false and shameless refuse to admit. They refuse to admit that they are spreading their poison in a campaign against our Revolution simply because we have taken measures for the good of Cuba. All the great vested interests, both national and international all the enemies of our country have banded together under the same pirates' flag and screaming the same battlecry. * * * Do the reactionaries by any chance want us to give military training to the farmers and the workers? No, certainly not. You have probably noticed the attitude of the mouthpieces of the reactionaries such as this new mouthpiece which pretends to represent the Autentico Abstencionista party, which indeed it does not represent, because the real representative of the Partido Autentico Abstencionista is Dr. Carlos Prio Socarras and he is here with us. Those who publish this new newspaper have allowed themselves to be seduced by the siren song of Diario de la Marina and Avance. And what has this new newspaper done? One of the first things is to join forces with the traitor Huber Matos. In the second place, it tries to make the same insinuations accusing the Revolutionary Government of being Communist. In the third place it prints: "The Revolution, in order to defend itself from its enemies, does not need to arm the workers and the farmers, especially when the proven courage and sk** of the Rebel Army is taken into account and inasmuch as the Revolutionary Government has the moral support of all the people and of all the country." And a few lines further along they print: "If the above is not taken into consideration in a democracy, it would be necessary to continue using the tactic of calling rallies of the ma**es--a tactic so risky and so tedious for the country when peace and order are more important". Peace in the face of criminal bombing and machine-gunning of our people! * * * It is good to be aware of their attitude in order that the real Autenticos, those who used to constitute the strength of the Autentico Party, may never allow themselves to fall under the influence of those gullible individuals who have been misled by the schemes of La Marina and Avance, gullible individuals who have allowed themselves to be pushed along by the mouthpieces of the reactionaries and the counterrevolutionaries and who are now parroting the same arguments as Trujillo, the Rosa Blanca and the international monopolies that are working against Cuba. As I said before, the people should not allow themselves to be confused. It is money of the robber barons that has brought out this new sheet. I said that we should carefully contemplate the whys and wherefores of the attacks against us. Why is there such opposition to our training the workers and the farmers? It is very simple. The reactionaries would like for us to have an army such as they supported in what they would call the "good old days". They would like a professional army, such as Cuba used to have. That would be their only hope because such an army down through the years might come to be an instrument of the reactionaries. They have hopes of being able to find somebody greedy for power, some traitor like the one we have just discovered. They have the hope that in a career army they might some day be able to corrupt soldiers and officers, and they have the hope that in the moment least suspected the armed forces of the Republic might determine the fate of our country, because they remember that the big trusts, the vested interests, the robber barons and other power groups and cliques affected by the revolution, all those selfish minorities, are accustomed to using the army as their tool. The army was the instrument of the foreign interests and of the worst elements in our own country. It was no accident that the army of Cuba had foreign instructors. * * * Since they know that a tremendous revolutionary force resides in the people, since they know that civilians with military training could defend all they have won for themselves, the old privileged cla**es are allergic to everything that is implied by the military training of workers and farmers. On the other hand, we believe that the best allies of the soldiers are the farmers and the workers. In our opinion the best ally of the army is the average citizen. The best troops of the rebel army are the farmers. The officers' clique that supported the traitor Huber Matos were not the kind of soldiers and officers of rural origin who are the pride of the Rebel Army. Huber Matos' accomplices did not belong to the most invincible, to the most courageous, nor to the most steadfast of the Rebel Army. (*) Huber Matos. The fine soldiers who have gone with their rifles and machine guns up to rooftops to improvise anti-aircraft defense of their fellow citizens are soldiers from the Sierra Maestra. They are the "guajiros" from the Sierra Maestra who used to make up the front lines. Those soldiers are true rebels. Why? Because they themselves used to live in the country. They were born in the country and they grew up in the country. They have seen the rural police wield the bu*ts of their rifles and the backs of their machetes in the interest of the mighty landlords. In the rural parts of Cuba these rebel soldiers have been the hopeless poverty of our farmers. They have seen the horrible spectacle of barefoot, diseased children. In the countrysides of Cuba these guajiro soldiers were acquainted with all the innate goodness and all the heroism of the underprivileged farmers. Nobody will be able to use these rebel soldiers either against the rural population, nor against the civil population in general, because these soldiers do truly understand the spirit of the revolution. It has been their lot to live through and suffer under the conditions that made this revolution necessary. They gave an example to all the farmers of the country and they led the nation to victory. Workers and others citizens of Havana, the riffles that protect you are the rifles of the guajiro soldiers from the Sierra Maestra. * * * And workers, students, farmers, and all the rest of you Cubans with patriotism and love for your country, if the time should come to give battle to defend our rights as Cubans, and to defend the sovereignty of the Cuban nation, you may be sure that those soldiers who are here in Havana protecting you and all the rest of our Rebel Army would want to have you shoulder to shoulder alongside them. The reactionaries do not want this. What the reactionaries would like is an unarmed civil population and an army which is corruptible and that some day may be able to put a brake on the revolution and make our country backslide. This is why the betrayal of Huber Matos is such a serious matter. It was the first attempt to utilize members of the Rebel Army against the revolution; it was the first attempt to corrupt officers, to use them against the people, against the interests of the people, against the Cuban revolution. Of course the reactinaries do not want the workers and farmers to be given military training. Because they always have the hope that if the country's only defense is a professional army, they might some day be able to win over some officers. They might be able some day to corrupt a professional army and once again have an instrument with which to perpetrate another coup d'etat, like the 10th of March. But there will never again be a 10th of March in our country. The concept of the professional army as the only defense of a country is diametrically opposed to our revolutionary concept that the nation should be safeguarded by the people, with all the strength of the people and all their love for their country. * * * What do the traitors do? What is the first thing that they do? Repeat the same battlecry as Trujillo, repeat the same battlecry as the Rosa Blanca. Repeat the same battlecry as the criminals of war. Repeat the same battlecry as the international monopolies that are enemies of Cuba. They are accuse the Revolutionary Government of being Communist. What the traitors do first of all is to say "Trujillo, you were right!" That is to say to the war criminals, "you were right". That is to say to the big foreign trusts, "you were right". That is to say to the Rosa Blanca, "you were right". That is to say to those who are bombing our territory, "you were right". The first that they do is to hoist up the same pirates' flag as the war criminals, as the Trujillistas, and the Rosa Blanca. And still they object when we call them traitors! What ends do they pursue with all this? The purpose of dividing the people, of confusing the people, of weakening the nation. Traitors that they are, they want to confuse the people when it is most important for the people to think clearly, and to be aware of what are Cuba's best interests, and of what are the interests of our enemies, of those who cannot share the feelings of our people. Traitors that they are, they take up the standard of the Trujillos, of the war criminals and of the international vested interests who are enemies of Cuba. All those that join forces with the traitors are traitors. And all those who at this moment have the gall to preach disunity of the people, are traitors! All they would accomplish if they could weaken the nation would be to make the powerful enemies of our Revolution feel encouraged to attack us. I say that those who are to be blamed for the bombs are not only those who drop them, but those who right here [in Cuba] inspire the attacks, those who--like Pepin Rivero, of the Diario de la Marina and especially those at Avance--, have been encouraging the counterrevolutionaries. Treason is committed by all those who join forces with the traitors. Why do they do it? Because they oppose our revolutionary reforms. It is not me whom they oppose. It is not the president of the Republic whom they oppose. It is not Raul, Che, Camilo, Almeida, Efigenio Ameijeiras whom they oppose. We are the targets but it is the revolutionary reform program that they oppose. If we had not pa**ed revolutionary laws, they would dedicate the greatest praise to us. Their attack is against the revolution and the revolutionary laws. It is because of the reform program that they accuse us. I have shown that the laws that are being carried out are truly Cuban and are of benefit to Cubans. What are not Cuban are the selfish interests which oppose the revolutionary laws. Moreover, who are carrying forward this revolution? Who are the men together with me on this platform? While I listened to the words of our revolutionary leaders on this platform, when I heard Major Camilo Cienfeugos, Major Guevara, Major Raul Castro, and Major Almeida, and when I heard our other fellow veterans of the rebel army like Universo Sanchez, Efigenio Ameijeiras and others, I remembered the early fighting phase of the revolution in the Sierra Maestra. * * * I remembered those days of tremendous difficulty, of untold hardships, when such a small group remained steadfast. I was reminded of those days of hunger and cold when we had no coats to shield us from the rain, and no blankets in which to wrap ourselves, to escape from the dampness and the cold of the mountains, those days when we hardly had shoes on our feet and only a few bullets for our rifles, while we were pursued by droves of soldiers. I remember those first days when the Revolution was thwarted and we were overcome because we were so few. I remember those days in which, with the absolute faith of men who have dedicated themselves to a great and good cause, we persevered, we continued our struggle without becoming demoralized although we were so few in number; here on this platform I have been reminded of those days because I saw here those men who were pillars of strength in the truly difficult, the truly bitter hours. I looked back on all that epic that those faithful revolutionaries wrote. I looked back on it from the first days of Moncada to the invasion, in which two columns under the command of two of the majors who have just spoken to you here, crossed the plans of Camaguey to take help to the fellow rebels who were fighting there, and wrote one of the most glorious pages of military history. That feat would have to be compared with the great feats of the great generals of history. And they are not generals; they are only majors. We have abolished the rank of generals and colonels that used to be a curse to Cuba. (*) Twelve who survived the "Gramma" landing, Dec., 1956. When I listened to our faithful revolutionaries here, I said to myself: "Where are the twelve?" Of the twelve, several fell in battle, the others are here. The Revolution has had no deserters among the real revolutionaries. Huber Matos, who betrayed us at the approach of the climax of the ASTA Convention, in the midst of the extraordinary effort that we had put forth, is one of the latecomers. Huber Matos is one of those who came into the war, not for the sake of this country, but for his own ulterior motives. He is one of those who went to war not to make his country great but to gain notice for himself. We cannot say that a revolutionary deserted, when he deserted. The day that would be sad would be the day that some of those who were the heart of the Revolution should fail us--the day that one of those who came with us in the "Gramma" should fail us, or the day that there would be a deserter among those who shared all our reverses with us and who have come this far without hesitation. * * * Furthermore, when I see the other officers of the Rebel Army, the other leaders of the revolutionary organizations, for example, the leaders of the University Students League, I feel a**ured that the revolution is stronger than ever and more united than ever. On what side do we always find the good soldiers? Where will the good revolutionaries always be? On the side of the people. When I see a million ardent fellow citizens here, I realize that the revolution is stronger than ever, and that the stab in the back just received, far from weakening the revolution, has strengthened it. These traitors a**ume importance only because they have behind them all the resources of the reactionaries, all the reactionary press here in Cuba and all the press of the international oligarchy. All the resources of the counterrevolution are behind them. They are no more than peons of the counterrevolution, miserable instruments whose statements are given space only in the newspapers that are mouthpieces of the counterrevolution, mouthpieces of the reactionaries. This is not a struggle between individuals. It is a struggle of vested interests, of big trusts against the interests of the Cuban people. That is why the reactionaries do not praise Cuba. Naturally, the reactionaries do not praise Camilo. The reactionaries do praise the traitors. The reactionaries do not praise Almeida. The reactionaries do not praise loyal men. The reactionaries praise the traitors. The reactionaries do not praise the men of ideals. With loyal men, with men of ideals, they can accomplish nothing. The reactionaries glorify the great traitors. * * * The reactionaries do not praise steadfast men. They praise men who surrender, men who give up, men who become cowardly, men who sell out. Some men sell out for money, others for adulation; still others for both money and adulation. But in what company do we find those who so perversely, so shamelessly, accuse the government of being Communist? What do they do but repeat the same battlecry as the Trujillos, the Rosa Blanca, and the other enemies of our country? Do they think that they are going to intimidate us, or do they fail to understand how convinced we are of the justice of the measures that we are taking? Do they fail to understand that we are so firmly convinced that we are serving our people, that only be depriving us of life itself --and not even then-- will they ever be able to suppress our ideals? * * * The reactionaries--those who bomb Cuba, those who drop bombs with the same pretext that the traitors repeat today--are lusting after sensation. What they want is a sensational counterrevolutionary show. What they want are traitors to make the worst charges against the Government so that these charges may be printed in the headlines of their newspaper in order to spread confusion, in order to weaken the Revolution. No, they don't write a word against the bombs, or if they do they use on what they write the lukewarm touch [characteristic] of those who file reports to satisfy appearances and to disguise their position. The position of those who bomb us in Havana cannot be disa**ociated from the position of those who betrayed us in Camaguey. When the former deserted, they first wrote a letter for publication in the newspaper; when the latter deserted they also wrote a letter for publication and used the same arguments that were used by traitor Diaz Lanz. The counterrevolutionary press printed Diaz Lanz's statements accusing us as Communists and printed all of Huber Matos's statements accusing us as Communists. The end result of that plot was the dropping of bombs and would have been the releasing of rivers of blood on Cuban soil. This betrayal and the libel by Huber Matos is as ignominous as that of Diaz Lanz, and the worst is the moment that he chose. He did the same in the Sierra Maestra; when the troops were already on the march and he knew that our interest in the offensive would make me restrain myself, he sent his insolent letter to me. And now, in the middle of the ASTA Convention, when he knew the extraordinary interest of all Cuba in making a success of the visit of those tourist agents, he thought that we would restrain ourselves this time too; so he took the first steps with his plot. But those plans were wrecked with the help of the people, [of Camaguey] not the rabble as the reactionaires call the people. * * * When we began to govern Cuba, there were only seventy million dollars in monetary reserves in the banks. Now that we are making an extraordinary effort, when even the school children contribute their pennies to build up the economy, when the entire nation is making an effort, when all the construction workers labor nine and ten hours, when all the workers are giving us a percentage of their income for the industrialization of our country, at the very time that international cables are arriving with predictions that part of our sugar quota is going to be taken away. Diaz Lanz plans his aerial attacks and Huber Matos interrupts the ASTA Convention with his treacherous and criminal plan. These are the ways they try to block the Revolution's progress they ways they try to destroy the Revolution. By using economical threats and by thwarting our plans for developing our country. That is why when our people make such great sacrifices to gain one inch or one foot, it is unfair that these wretched conspirators destroy in minutes all that we have accomplished with such difficulty. What these miserable traitors want to do is to strangle the economy of Cuba, and spread terror among us until they succeed in making our nation fail. But I ask myself: What are they trying to do? Do they suppose that the revolution is not going to be defended? Do the Trujillos, the war criminals, the traitors, the foreign monopolies and the enemies of Cuba, believe that the revolution is not going to defend itself? Don't they understand we have the support of every farmer in Cuba? Don't they understand that we have the support of every worker in Cuba? Don't they understand that nobody is going to make the people of Cuba fall back? The people know very well who are their friends and who are their enemies. Don't the conspirators understand that the people of Cuba cannot even be confused? Every day the people know more and every day they are wider awake. Why do the conspirators get together and plot? Why do they drop bombs? Why do they plant hand-made bombs? Why do they openly elaborate their counterrevolutionary campaigns? Simply because they know they are running no risk. They know that now, because of the respect and generosity shown by the Revolutionary Government, it is not dangerous to conspire. They know of our efforts to carry out our Revolution with complete kindness: they know of our efforts to carry out our Revolution without using "strong rule" tactics against the enemies of the Revolution. This has encouraged them. They know they are taking no risks. That is why they conspire. That is why they come from Santo Domingo and land in Trinidad. That is why our troops find certain uprisings led by men who are not Cuban. That is why our enemies drop bombs, that is why they cause 47 victims in our defenseless country--because they think that our people are defenseless, because we discontinued the trials by Revolutionary courts. That is, they take unscrupulous advantage of the generosity of our Revolution. Little does it matter to them that 90% of all Cubans support the Revolution. They are ready to machine--gun the people, and bomb the people--to destroy the people [if necessary and if possible]. * * * And every day they have more gall. Every day they are more insolent. On the very front pages of the newspapers, they hide behind a woman's petticoats to write more or less that the Prime Minister is a criminal. What they never dared to publish against the dictator, what they never published against the government during the tyranny, they write against a man whose army was the first in the world ever to conduct a war without allowing a single prisoner of war to be k**ed, the first army in the world never to leave a single wounded enemy soldier on the battlefield, the first blockaded army--surrounded and blockaded for two years--to deprive their own soldiers of medicines in order to share their medicines with the enemy wounded. So every day with more nerve, with more gall, the reactionaries contrive to create confusion, to instigate treason, to whitewash the traitors and to aid and abet the unworthy men who abandon the cause of their people to serve the enemies of their people. They so dare because they know how great an interest we have in bringing the affairs of the nation back to normal. They know of our interest in developing the economy of our country. They see that we are striving desperately to find work for our people, to industrialize our country, with no a**istance other than that of our own people. They see us struggling heroically against giant foreign interests and they do not want us to win the battle. They do not want us to be able to concentrate all our energy on the revolutionary reform program. They want to destroy the revolution with their terrorism and by means of economic strangulation. But the revolution is not just mine; the revolution belongs to the people and we are doing nothing but carry out the will of the people. * * * Now that is has become imperative, now that is has become a duty, to defend the revolution, it is the people who will have the last word. Now, with all our countrymen gathered together here, I an going to ask the people whether we should resume trials by the revolutionary courts... I want the people to express their opinion and to decide this matter. Those who are in favor of reestablishing the revolutionary courts should raise their hands. Since it is necessary for us to defend our country against aggression, since it is necessary to defend our country from aerial attacks from foreign bases, since it is necessary to defend our country against treason, the Council of Ministers will meet tomorrow to discuss and approve the law re-establishing war tribunals for as long as they are necessary. And even though the courts will be the ones to decide according to law the sentence of each of the guilty, I want the opinion of the people. Please raise your hands those who think that the invaders of our country deserve to face the firing squad... Raise your hands, those who believe that the terrorists deserve to face the firing squad... Raise your hands, those who believe that pilots who fly over our territory and drop bombs on our people deserve to be condemned to d**h... And please raise your hands those who believe that traitors like Huber Matos deserve finally to face the firing squad. * * * Everybody knows that we did our best to put an end to the war tribunals. Everybody knows the grief we were caused by the defamatory campaign made against our country while we were punishing the guilty. Everybody knows the efforts we have made to increase the tourist trade to develop the source of income for the country as part of the peaceful development of Cuba's wealth to feed the Cubans, to give them jobs. Everybody knows what a great effort we are making to carry our revolution forward, with the maximum of generosity, with the maximum of tolerance, with the maximum of good will. Everybody knows how we dislike having to give again to the gang of base individuals who try to belittle us, to the international wire services, and to certain magazines and newspapers who slander us, another opportunity to present us before the world as callous and cruel. Everybody knows how much we sacrifice by re-establishing war tribunals and even the harm that will result to our economy, especially after that wonderful convention of the American Society of Travel Agents here. After thousands of our people worked so hard to make the convention a success, all the benefit we expected from it becomes no more than a vanishing illusion thanks to the traitors, the criminals of war, and the other enemies of Cuba. Everybody knows how hard and difficult it is for us to make this decision. But since we must defend our country from aggression, since we are being bombed, since our enemies want to defeat us by terror and hunger, we have no other alternative but to defend our country. We are men who do our duty. Cuba must, first of all, survive as a nation and defend her sovereignty as a nation. To survive is the matter of most urgency and must take precedence even over our most worthy illusions, even over our fondest dreams. * * * We have always envisioned a future in which we can bring about an era of peace and happiness. We have always dreamed of alleviating the pain and misery of the forgotten, of educating the uneducated, of feeding the hungry. We have always looked forward to providing the essentials of life to those who have always been the forgotten ones here in Cuba, those whom we remembered, when nobody else remembered them. While others spoke of democracy and of freedom they forgot that where there is ignorance, where there is hunger, and where there is despair, one should speak not of democracy but of oppression. Many Cubans have been held all their lives under the oppression of the big monopolies and robber barons. The first right of man is the right to life itself, the first right of man is the right to bread for himself and his children, the first right of man is to live by the sweat of his own brow; and all men are entitled to be given an education. Here the children of rural families died for lack of medical a**istance; these children had no rights. Women became old before their time and died prematurely; these women had no rights. Entire families fainting from hunger had no rights. These Cubans were denied the right to life itself. * * * The men who deceived our people by making false use of abstract ideas always ignored those who make up the majority of our people, those for whom no one ever did anything, for whom no one ever fought, those whom we set out to redeem without taking the essentials of life from anybody else, those whom we are going to redeem by developing the wealth and resources of our own country. It is our dearest wish to bring relief to these people. We have dreamed and we will continue to dream of a revolution in which the will of the majority of the people may prevail over the selfish minorities. Greed on the part of the selfish minorities is what makes them unable to adapt themselves to the revolution which is a reality in Cuba today. We have dreamed that the great majority who support us would be respected by the minority. Instead, we have harvested counterrevolutionary campaigns, mercenary invasions, uprisings led by foreigners, aerial attacks from bases in foreign countries, and unscrupulous opposition by newspapermen who misuse freedom of the press to whitewash traitors in a concerted scheme of sabotage against us. As a consequence we have harvested the bombing of sugar mills and the destruction of homes in the country and 47 victims in the capital. But we are not willing to permit terror to take over the country. With Santo Domingo on one side and Florida on the other side, we are not willing to sit idly by while every mother, every son, and every wife, from one end of the island to the other, lives as I saw families live in the Sierra Maestra--with a veritable psychosis about airplanes, in a state of terror from bullets and bombings. We must defend our country. Since we must defend our people, since we must defend our school children--the same children that I saw parading and singing on their way to this impressive concentration--since we must defend them; since we have been harvesting only evil; and since our enemies have become so audacious, it is good for us to let the world know that the Cuban people have decided to defend themselves. Before the Cuban people are anihilated, the Cuban people are ready to anihilate as many enemies as are sent against them. Before allowing themselves to be murdered, the Cuban people are ready to die fighting. The reactionaries, the invaders, and the counterrevolutionaries, both inside Cuba and outside Cuba, whether numerous or few, will find a nation that is proud to declare that we do not wish to do harm to anyone; that we do not wish to jeopardize any other people in any part of the world; that we wish only to live by our own labor; we wish only to live from the fruits of our own intelligence and wish only to live by the work of our own hands, but in order to defend our aspirations; in order to fulfill our destiny in this world; in order to defend rights that are the inalienable rights of any people of the world, big or small, today, yesterday or tomorrow, in order to defend our honest aspirations, the Cuban people are ready to fight. Men, women, children, even the aged, we are all ready to fight. Ours is a just cause, we do not wish harm to anyone, and no one has the right to do us harm. Today we proclaim that we do not fear anything or anyone, that we do not fear the measures taken against us, and that we are not afraid to take all the measures we may have to take against those who wish to destroy us. Today Cuba has attracted the attention of the whole world. Cuba has won admiration all over the world and we are not going to lose or abandon the respected position we occupy among the peoples of Latin America and the other people of the world. Cuba is not going to be unworthy of the glory and prestige we have gained by defending our legitimate rights. * * * Our revolution has been a success because of the kind of people you are. Otherwise, we could not carry out this kind of revolution. Those who have never studied history, and those who forget the history of other nations, those who have never read the chronicles of mankind, from the times of Greece to the present day, are the only ones who can fail to understand what a revolution is, and are the only ones who can be unaware that anybody who attempts to block a revolution will be crushed under the people's advance. Only those who are ignorant of history fail to understand that the hesitant and the cowardly are carried along by the people. Cuba is the scene of one of the most interesting and extraordinary revolutionary processes ever known, if we take into account the obstacles that must be overcome, if we take into account the powerful resources that are being used to crush our revolution. The people of Cuba have a mission to fulfill and we will fulfill it, because the people of Cuba are the kind with whom a revolution like this can be carried out. Those who lack the courage of their convictions are not important. When have they been important in the history of a nation? Those who hesitate do not matter. When have they mattered in the history of a people? The cowards do not matter. When have the cowards mattered in the history of a people? When we were only twelve men, what did it matter that some hesitated and some lacked the courage of their convictions? Did they prevent the revolution from attaining an extraordinary victory? Twelve men finally succeeded in bringing the rest of the nation into the struggle. Today Cuba is holding her head high. Today Cuba fears no obstacle. This entire revolutionary nation is now on her feet and must not fear anything or anyone. The whole nation holds her head high like one great united army above those contemptible men who try to create confusion, above those unscrupulous ones who try to divide Cuba and weaken Cuba. Men of no feeling, they are unable to share in this hour of illusion the emotion or the spirit [that has been aroused] in Cuba after four centuries of struggling for justice. * * * High above those who try to weaken it, the Nation stands united and disciplined like a single army. The people of Cuba are proud as a people. The nation is proud of its destiny. The people of Cuba are thinking as a nation for the first time, and united in a great cause. Those who are against Cuba are all those who are unable to understand this great cause that has been undertaken by our nation, by our guajiro soldiers, by our farmers--who constitute one half of our social group. Cuban workers, Cuban students, professional men and women of Cuba, and all other worthy Cubans of all walks of life, are aware that the fate of our nation is at stake. Our every survival as a nation is at stake. In order to attain peace and happiness, and well aware that our nation is involved in a heroic struggle that can free us from the bonds of economic and political slavery, the people of Cuba are determined to win these final battles in the struggle that began in the past century. The nation is convinced as it has never before been convinced that it is upholding a just and good cause. The nation is convinced of our loyalty, the nation is convinced that from this struggle there can be no retreat for us and we shall not retreat. The nation knows that we will not give up the fight until our bodies are laid to rest. The nation is conscious of its destiny, certain of its rights, proud of its History. When I see the emotion that shows on the face of all our people, I can have no doubt that Cuba will emerge victorious, because I firmly believe that a nation such as ours has become must be respected. Nothing can dismay us now; we will not let accusations stop us; we are not concerned for our own lives; we care only about the destiny of our nation. The trust and faith placed in us by the people will not be betrayed, will not have been in vain. We are very conscious of our duty at this hour, and we can a**ure that we will do our duty. And just as, in the past, we a**ured you that the victory would be ours, we a**ure you now that if, as a nation, we can go ahead as we have begun, we will overcome our obstacles, because when the people of a nation are willing to fight for their rights, are ready to die, they must be respected. * * * Those who preach fear are our worst enemies, those who preach fear are preaching our destruction, those who preach fear preach the extermination of our people. Get thee behind us! we say to the cowards. Get thee behind us! we say to the fainthearted. Get thee behind us! we say to all those who are trying to further their own petty ambitions in this, Cuba's finest hour. Get thee behind us! we say to all those who board the victory train when all goes well and abandon it at the first sign of trouble. Those who have courage, we invite to stay with us. Those who have faith, we invite to stay with us. Those who are ready to give all they have, we invite to stay with us. Anyone who lacks courage, anyone who has doubts, should lose no time in leaving the ship. Let the cowardly recant, let those who have no faith recant. Those who have a sense of duty do not fail in it. Those who have a fighting spirit do not renounce it. Those who do not feel able to play a role in this unique moment in our history, should go their way. Those who do not believe in the Revolution should go their way. We believe in the people and we know that the people will [justify our belief, in them]. Any government true to the people, will find the people true to the leaders of that government. It is not without meaning that this rally is bigger than the one we held 8 months ago. It is not without meaning that after 10 months of Revolutionary Government the people of Cuba give even greater support to the revolution. The reason is simply that the Revolutionary Government has been true to the people. To all those who said that the Revolutionary Government was going to grow weak and lose favor we say: Look at the people, and you will see that only the men who betray the people lose their strength; the men who remain loyal to the people never lose the people's favor. * * * What we want to point out is the progress of the revolution. What we want to point out is that every day we are given more co-operation. What must not be overlooked is that soldiers are building highways and schools, that teachers are working for half salary, that workers are voluntarily increasing their working-day to help the government, that citizens are collecting dollars, that children are collecting pennies, that workmen are working on Sundays to contribute their labor as a donation to the resources of the revolution. The wonderful spirit of self-abnegation on the part of the people, the stirring of the conscience of the people, the willingness to sacrifice whatever is necessary, the conviction that their destiny can be won by sacrifices, the certain knowledge that they themselves--and only they--can guarantee a better future and that they must rely on themselves, and the realization that heroic peoples are the only ones who have the right to be free, to be happy and to be independent: All this is what encourages us. It is heartening for us to see that our people are ready to make whatever sacrifice necessary, that they have the courage to cope with any risk that arises, and have courage enough to let our enemies know that if they come, that if they drop bombs, and if they fire their guns at us in attacks upon us, the nation will be defended as long as a drop of blood remains in any of our people. Cuba will never surrender, every house will be a fortress; we will fight on every terrain necessary and with all kinds of weapons, and those who plot to take over Cuba will--as Maceo used to say--find only dust mixed with blood. * * * So, if we cannot buy planes, we will fight on the ground when the fight comes down to the ground. If they persist in dropping bombs, we will build underground shelters and tunnels. The people are in a fighting mood, and we shall immediately begin training the farmers and the workers and the students. The tribunals of war and the Revolutionary military courts will be re-established and the pilots who land on Cuban territory will inexorably go before the firing squad. We will defend our country by fighting on every terrain necessary, and if England does not sell us the planes, we will buy them where they will sell them to us. If there is no money [in the treasury] to buy combat planes, the people will [give the money to] buy planes. And right here, right here, my friend Almeida, I give you the pay checks of the President of Cuba and of the Prime Minister, as a contribution to buy planes. In closing, I want only to say: The Land Reform is here to stay. The Petroleum Law is here to stay. The Mining Law is here to stay. The Revolutionary measures taken to defend Cuba are here to stay. The Education Reform is here to stay. The Reform of the University and all our reforms are here to stay. If anybody wants to criticize us for this, let them criticize us. If they accuse us, [for this] let them accuse us; if they attack us, [for this] let them attack us. We shall fight those who dare plan the destruction of the revolution. And we take an oath in the name of the people of Cuba --that is, in the name of you and us-- that either Cuba will triumph or we shall all die [striving toward that triumph]. Now, more than ever, we take for our own the words of our national anthem: "Hasten to the fight Cubans, the country is proudly watching: do not fear a glorious d**h. To die for your country is to live on".