SPEECH BY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF FIDEL CASTRO, FIRST SECRETARY  OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CUBAN COMMUNIST PARTY AND PRIMER MINISTER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT, AT THE MASS RALLY HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA STAIRWAY ON MARCH 13, 1968, IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ACTION OF MARCH 13, 1957

Comrades from the Central Committee;

Comrade students;

Fellow members of the Party, members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, of the Bureau of the Women's Federation and of the Trade Unions; workers all gathered here tonight:
  
Apparently this stairway is not large enough to accommodate all who have attended this event in representation of the revolutionary forces.

I want to start by saying that tonight’s speech will be a boring speech, and it will be a boring speech because we feel it is necessary that we present some facts and figures to illustrate what we intend to do. You should be most attentive, because whenever it comes to figures and numbers we need to be focused lest we get bored or fail to understand.

We know there are a number of issues in the air; we know that many people have been waiting for a mass rally hoping to hear comments on various issues. It is true that in the early days of the Revolution public opinion in the capital – which was characterized, and I say this in all frankness, for always being somewhat fickle – required that we appeared frequently on television to explain all kinds of issues, both major and minor.

I still remember the days when if there was someone like Pardo Llada we had to go on television and explain why someone like Pardo Llada fled; if a traitor like Diaz Lanz resigned or deserted we needed to appear on television to comment on such defections; if one day, after presenting us with a fine snapper, Mr. Miguel Quevedo took his yacht and left Varadero for Miami, we had to go on television to explain that problem, that scandal. I recall being practically still recovering from pneumonia at the time, and I had to leave bed to appear on television to explain about that problem. Why? Because of some sort of fickleness that characterized public opinion, especially in the capital, which swung from optimism to pessimism, from enthusiasm to discouragement.

That was quite obvious at times, when the Revolution started to be faced with problems. With the passing of time, the awareness of the population of the capital became stronger and more stable. Of course, it is not necessary that we appear every week or every day to explain something, but it was clear to us that some issues needed to be explained.

There have been a series of events. Naturally, and for the purpose of better illustrating things to the people I should say something about explanations. It’s been the style of the Revolution to always explain the problems to the masses. And it has been a characteristic of this revolution to explain as many problems as possible. I say “as many as possible” because unfortunately not all problems can be discussed publicly. We are an established State and as such we logically have to follow certain rules. Given the complex and difficult world in which we live not every and each problem can be discussed in public always. Is it because we do not trust our people? No, never! It is simply because it would be to our detriment if some issues of a diplomatic nature, issues that have to do with the relations between States, and things of that sort, came to be known to the enemy.

Of course, we do not go to such extremes as, for example, in the US, where it is said that some documents about Kennedy’s assassination will only be made public by the year 2050 or 2060, if I remember correctly. Certainly not all problems can be the subject of constant discussion and not all issues can be discussed publicly; and I reiterate that it is not and will never be for lack of trust in our people. However, we also expect our people to trust its leaders and its Revolutionary Government (APPLAUSE). Likewise, we hope that in the difficult and arduous tasks and responsibilities entrusted to it, the revolutionary leadership can always feel that it is so trusted and supported.

Some of the issues, like the one related to the micro-faction, were widely discussed, at least as widely as possible. In that case I spent many hours explaining a number of topics, and my speech was not published for the same reasons that I have just presented.

Some consideration was given to publishing parts of the speech, but in fact we preferred to publish it in full or not at all in order to avoid printing half explanations. However, I hope that we will not have to wait for 150 years before some of these documents are available for reading.

Anyway, it is true that some of the political manifestations of the micro-faction elements and the micro-faction issue itself could have been discussed more extensively, as we did at the meeting of the Central Committee. I must say certainly that the micro-faction means nothing as a political force; as to its political intentions, its actions were of a serious nature; and as a trend within the revolutionary movement, it is an openly reformist, reactionary and conservative trend, although we understand that there are many such trends nowadays. However, for us the micro-faction is a closed matter.

The revolutionary tribunals were not as severe as many wished them to be, but, after all, unnecessary severity has never been a characteristic of this Revolution.

However, we believe there are other issues that are more relevant and of greater interest and importance. Needless to say, today we will not essentially address issues regarding our international relations. There is quite little to be said at the moment. For instance, you know about the decision of our Central Committee not to send a delegation to the meeting of communist parties that was held in Budapest. That is not a fundamental matter now; I mean, it is not extremely important to discuss this question now.

There are issues of a national nature that have to do with our current situation and the development of the Revolution which, in our view, are much more relevant. Specifically I would like to refer to the protests, to the sort of discontent, confusion and uneasiness regarding the supply of goods and mainly certain specific measures, like the suppression in recent months of the milk quota of the adult population of the city of Havana.

Some people were apparently dissatisfied with the reasons published in the newspaper, and perhaps the people of good faith who are dissatisfied are rightly so. It was a brief note explaining the fundamental reason for the measure. It did not present all the factors nor was it a detailed explanation. In addition, some rumors have circulated concomitantly in recent weeks in the capital of the republic.

This situation with rumors is not something new, of course, as is not the absurdity of some of the rumors.

As I was saying, rumors were started simultaneously that we would ration eggs, and people made long lines in the places where eggs are sold in order to buy some quantities, sometimes in excess. Other rumor was that bread would be rationed. In addition to this situation regarding the supply of food, a long line is said to have been made in the Palace of Marriages because someone said, or some people said, that we are going to ban marriages until after I don’t know what age.

That reminded me of the situation regarding parental authority, about which the counterrevolution spread rumors, and even an apocryphal “law”. That rumor about parental rights is so ridiculous, that if we asked comrade Llanusa to give us an idea about how hard it is for the Ministry of Education to satisfy all the scholarship applications, all the applications for school canteens and kindergartens, it could help understand how materially impossible some of those absurd rumors are. And as far as we know, mankind has apparently fulfilled the divine mandate to grow and multiply itself. I really don’t know by what means and in what ways could we prohibit marriages by law; that’s an absolute nonsense. But, of course, maybe someone took the rumor as a pretext to speed up the wedding (LAUGHS). Someone around here has just said "he is speaking rightly"; maybe he is among those concerned with that rumor (LAUGHS).

In fact we wondered what can be the basis for that kind of concern and uncertainty, and naturally we have come up with some explanations. They are partly based on real difficulties, and also they may be due to circumstances such as, for example, the international relations of our Party and our government. Maybe the need to ration gasoline, together with the circumstances of the meeting of the Central Committee, that severely judged the pseudo-revolutionary micro-faction, were factors that contributed to create a state of anxiety and uncertainty. As I said, together with the real difficulties, one day an oil well appeared on scene. Perhaps the finding of the oil well would not have been made public if it were not for the fortuitous circumstances that it is a few meters from the Via Blanca highway almost in the middle of the town of Guanabo, of all places.

And I say that maybe we would not have made it public, because we are opposed to creating illusions, we are opposed to creating an exaggerated optimism about anything. Logically, we wanted first to know what the potential of the well was, evaluate it fully and avoid that the well could be taken as a reason to say, " the fuel problem is already solved," as if opening a well was like opening a trench or opening a water well. So we issued a brief press release saying that the well had to be evaluated first.

However, the news about the well spread like wildfire throughout Havana and, of course, that was not a rumor, in any case, not "an oily rumor." There was immense optimism. The excesses of optimism may be somewhat related to excessive uncertainty or excessive concerns. And we believe that a revolutionary must always be calmed, in all circumstances: in the face of adversity, in the face of difficulties and in the face of success. After all, a revolution is necessarily full of all kinds of emotions, all kinds of efforts and struggles, and of all kinds of processes. So there will be ample opportunity to experience every kind of emotions.

However, we thought that this tremendous excess of optimism could be related, as I said earlier, to a feeling of uncertainty. If you are confident in what you are doing, an oil well is good news; but you should be ready to do with the well and without the well, with oil and without oil (APPLAUSE).

At the same time, these events reveal some lack of information, they show that we do not make the most effective use of the means of information available, and we don’t even make the best use of the formidable organizations that the Revolution has. Everybody knows that through the Party, through the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, through the Women's Federation and the trade unions and youth organizations, within hours the Revolution can move the republic, can shake the country, can scupper any rumor, can refute all who spread the rumors and sow pessimism and defeatism (APPLAUSE).

It could be argued that we are to blame because we don’t use the information media more effectively, or because we do not provide sufficient information to the revolutionaries through the various organizations. But at the same time there is still evidence of some ideological weaknesses among our people, of a lack of political education in the sense that the term “political education” can be understood today.

I mean a greater awareness about the contemporary problems of the world, a greater awareness of the serious problems that humanity is facing today; and undoubtedly, a greater awareness is required about economic structures and, above all, about the problems that a country like ours must solve and under what conditions.

Ignorance leads to simplicity, it makes you simplify the problems and imagine that everything is very easy and that, no matter how complicated, a quick and immediate solution is just around the corner. There's an inclination to groundless talk and to light and superficial analysis, more than to getting to the bottom of things and making an in-depth analysis. It has always been some sort of a characteristic here to have plenty of "cheap wise people".

And it is a tendency that still remains from past years, as if the Revolution had not taught us enough about the profundity of these processes.

We must say that the abuse, rather than the use, of the manuals on Marxism-Leninism has been one factor contributing to the lack of sufficient political education. It should also be noted that many revolutionary militants have studied in the Schools for Revolutionary Education, as they are called, which actually were meant to provide revolutionary education teaching about philosophy and the fundamentals of Marxism.

That, of course, is useful, necessary and convenient. However, as the most formidable teacher of revolutionaries that it is ultimately, the Revolution has taught us that a huge chasm sometimes lies between general ideas and praxis, between philosophy and reality. And above all, it has also taught us how obsolete the manuals have become, how anachronistic they have become, because many times they don’t say a word about the problems that the masses should know. Often times they are only abstract, vague generalities without content, and you think that you have a really educated militant but in fact you have a militant that is unaware of many of the most serious problems of the contemporary world.

It should also be said that there is much cliché, much of stereotyped phrases, and a little bit more than that – although it is not our intention to discuss the manuals; I should say there are some lies.

That is a factor that has unquestionably contributed to that kind of weak training and education that our masses still suffer from. And we believe that it would be most useful if there was a better understanding about these issues.

Of course, the Marxist texts do not include much literature that deal with these problems. It would indeed be beneficial that those who can somehow do something and can spread some knowledge think about what issues and in what way we can enhance our people’s revolutionary awareness.

There is yet another factor. There are a series of questions about how to build communism, a number of issues that are discussed in schools and are applied or not applied in real life, and which by themselves become intractable problems; some of them almost become international political problems by a mere presentation of views. The fact is that some kind of international hypersensitivity on these issues has come to occur, since some countries apply them while others don’t; and when you do not apply them and state your reasons, some people feel very much offended and tend to view as a lost sheep the people that does not follow the beaten path, although the narrow path leads nowhere.

All these factors have certainly become additional obstacles to a better education of the people.

Although that's not all, of course. There are real difficulties. We should not nor should revolutionaries deny difficulties, ever. Denying the difficulties amounts to playing the ostrich. Additionally, revolutionaries should never shirk responsibilities.

If they said that we all or the vast majority of us were very ignorant when the Revolution triumphed, it would be absolutely true. It would also be true if they claimed that a great many of us were aware of our ignorance. We always refer to that day of January 8 when we reached the capital and we talked about a feeling that we had experienced before; the same feeling we had when we landed in the Granma boat on December 2; or rather, not the feeling on that day, but our later realization that on that day we had much to learn in the field of guerrilla warfare and in the field of arms. And since we had that experience, this time it did not take us by surprise, and we understood that our situation was similar and we have much to learn in the coming years.

We believe that being aware of these truths, being aware of our own limitations and ignorance is something extremely useful for revolutionaries, because whoever is not aware of his/her ignorance will never learn, will never progress.

We have also seen cases of revolutionaries who not only were ignorant, but thought they knew a lot. And they not only believed they knew a lot, but sometimes they made some of us believe they had some knowledge.

Today we can say that everyone has learned something in this process, although, again, we still have much to learn. Indeed, no revolutionary must never, ever be ashamed to acknowledge his/her limitations. The life of every revolutionary must always be an eternal learning process.

And I say this because I hold that a revolutionary should never shirk any responsibility and a revolutionary should never try to hide difficulties; a revolutionary should never stop taking on any responsibility and confronting any difficulty.

And I said that such difficulties are in fact real. What is our share of responsibility? We can only know with time. What is important is that we have a conviction; what matters is that we all have the certainty that we have made all that was possible, and have tried to do our best at every moment and in every circumstance.

How much contribution could have been made by a much experienced set of cadres of the Revolution? No one could say. However, there is an unquestionable fact: in the objective and real circumstances in which a people in our situation must face its future, there are real, objective difficulties which are hard to overcome. I mean that, objectively, even if we had nine years of experience today – except for some minor details, if we did not believe in some illusions and in some lies – without a doubt we would do exactly what we have done.

This Revolution has gone through different periods, it has gone through different circumstances and has undergone special moments; and we can say that in each of the key issues, in each of the fundamental decisions, if we were to go through the very same circumstances, even with all the experience we have today, we believe that our decisions would be exactly the same.

Maybe at times the Revolution was not quick enough to prevent certain trends to grow among the masses. One such trend was leading to a comfortable situation, to the idea that we were defended, the idea that no problem would ever arise. In fact, when the much-publicized intercontinental missiles were mentioned once or twice, everyone here was immediately talking about intercontinental missiles, and counting on them as if they really had them in the pockets. It did not matter whether it was in a meeting of a rural community or somewhere else, there was talk about the famous rockets everywhere. I recall that we were always a little bit concerned about that theoretical use and abuse of the rockets issue. In our view, it tended to create some complacency on the idea that "we are defended; let's sit back and relax", when in fact the right move, the only intelligent and truly revolutionary move was to always consider ourselves, always count on our own strengths, and never stop making every effort in anticipation of the potential need to confront a direct aggression from our imperialist enemies. We should consider ourselves first, and only ourselves, and always be willing to defend our lives at all cost and not wait for anyone to come and defend us (APPLAUSE).

A kind of complacent mentality also emerged in the field of economics, in the use and abuse of the idea that in case of problems there would always come help to immediately solve them; it created some complacent mentality in the sense that the people could be deviated from the idea that the fundamental effort, the decisive and crucial effort would have to be made by ourselves. And that our primary duty as a country with an underdeveloped economy was to intend to do our utmost to promote economic development as much as possible, and not to believe that the road ahead of the Revolution is an easy path and a path where all is taken care of.

It would have always been better to come to understand that in the difficult times when a people sets on the road to economic development any foreign aid and foreign resources may be important, but what matters would always be our determination, our conviction to make this country move forward either with external resources or without any external resource (OVATION).

So, I believe that, indeed, that would have been the best revolutionary education for the people. Undoubtedly, such revolutionary thinking cannot go with weakness, or hesitation, or fickleness, or pessimism, or with defeatism and those that spread it. And we must acknowledge that our masses still have not gotten rid of those real factors, of those subjective factors that are still present.

Yet, we are a people characterized by great enthusiasm and determination in decisive moments, a people capable of sacrificing its life in an hour or a day, a people capable of heroism in just one minute, but a people that lacks the virtue of daily heroism; a people who still lacks the virtue of tenacity and courage and of showing that kind of heroism not only in the dramatic moments, but on every single day. That is to say, a people that still has to show tenacity and consistency in its heroism.

It should also be said that some bourgeois institutions, ideas, relations and privileges still exist among our people. And we cannot escape our guilt and our responsibility. It’s always been our intention to do things the best way, to go deeper each day; but there is no doubt that some institutions and privileges have remained longer than what is appropriate. And such privileges and institutions are feeding the trends that I referred to, and are keeping such weaknesses in the people.

So it is in the light of these facts and circumstances, it is against this background and in view of the concerns and the rumors, that I want to make my statements today. For your information, allow me to refer to and comment on some of the real difficulties that we are facing.

I will speak specifically about the problem that led to some misunderstanding or disagreement, and that is the issue regarding milk. May this serve as a concrete topic for other more important issues that we should discuss.
I will present some data about the production of milk in recent years, its growth pattern and its current situation.

In 1962, a total of 219,414,000 liters of fresh milk were collected; in 1963, the total was 217,151,000.9. I’d better give you round figures: 1964, 225 million; 1965, 231 million; 1966, 329 million; 1967, 324 million.

In addition to the production of fresh milk, where collection increased in a little over 100 million liters per year (production was higher than that, of course), the imports of condensed milk were as follows: 4,663 tons in 1959; 6,683 in 1960; 6,719 in 1961; 12,698 in 1962; 16,643 in 1963; 21,637 in 1964; 22,197 in 1965; 16,455 in 1966; 19,692 in 1967; and we have planned to purchase 18,000 tons in 1968.

Apart from condensed milk, we are importing powdered milk which is used to reconstitute milk. Powdered milk imports were as follows: for skim milk in 1959, 27 tons; 1,826 in 1960; 1,494 in 1961; 5,561 in 1962; 10,867 in 1963; 11,346 in 1964; 17,045 in 1965; 16,248 in 1966; 18,837 in 1967; and the plan for 1968 is 16,405 tons. The cost of the 18,837 tons that were purchased last year was 5,977 million pesos in foreign currency. The plan for this year is 142,000.

We made additional imports of whole milk from countries with which we have an agreement. In 1959, 232; in 1960, 117; 3,209 in 1961; in 1962, 405; in 1963, 19; in 1964, 711; 3,675 in 1965; 1,561 in 1966; 2,156 in 1967; and in 1968 we have been able to purchase 2,000.

As for cream, also in the form of powder – to reconstitute milk of another kind – we purchased 5,547 tons last year, and 3,000 this year.

In the case of milky cereals, 1,467 tons were purchased in 1967, and 3,000 tons this year.

This means that in the past years there was an increase in both imports and the domestic production of fresh milk.

The production of evaporated milk (part of the fresh milk is converted into evaporated milk) was 317,415 boxes in 1957, and 355,000 in 1958; 129,000 in 1959; 214,000 in 1960; 314,000 in 1961; 360,000 in 1962; 267,000 in 1963; 223,000 in 1964; 640,000 in 1965; 713,000 in 1966; 715,000 in 1967. So it increased from 129,000 in 1959 to 715,000 in 1967.

Likewise, the production of condensed milk increased from 1,726,880 in 1959 to 2,705,524.

Such has been the rather stable rate of growth in milk production.

However, this year there were drops in the production and collection of fresh milk. For example, in three major provinces and in Havana: in January 1967, 131,000 liters were collected daily in Las Villas, against 122,000 this year; in Camagüey, 159,000.7 in January of 1967, and in 1968, 135,000.4 liters; in Oriente, 180,000.2, and in January 133,000.7. In Havana, 184,000 in January of 1967, against 173,000.8 in January of 1968; and 190,000 per day in February of 1967 against 138,000.7 in February of 1968. This means that the daily collection dropped substantially in these two months.

On the other hand, although the number of tons of powdered milk purchased in convertible currency is almost the same, there is a reduction of about 4,000 tons in what we have been able to buy from countries under an agreement for powdered milk. So the situation arose where we either invested several million dollars to purchase more powdered milk or we made the decision, as we did, to stop supplying the milk quota for adults in the city of Havana. Not taking that step would have meant reducing the supply of milk in the provinces and in other cities where the consumption of milk is lower than in Havana.

I have here data about the distribution of milk by province these two months, where you have seen that Las Villas, Camagüey and Oriente had already experienced a considerable reduction in the production of fresh milk. However, in January last year we distributed 119,000 liters per day in Las Villas, and 130,000 this year; in Camagüey, 106,000 in January of last year and 127,000 this year; 155,000.9 per day in Oriente in January of 1967, and this year 182,000. In February the numbers are similar. As to liters per day: in February of 1967, 111,000; in February of this year 113,000 in Las Villas; in Camagüey, 98,000 per day in February of 1967 and 113,000 this year; in Oriente, 154,000 per day in February and 185,000 this year.

For the first time it was necessary to send powdered milk to the provinces of Camagüey and Oriente that had never been supplied powdered milk. Otherwise the consumption levels in those provinces would have been affected.

What is the level of milk consumption in the country as a whole? It is not exactly the same in all provinces. Some regions have traditionally been more dedicated to animal husbandry and milk production; and sometimes the levels of consumption were historically higher in some regions than in others. Now, let’s look at the overall consumption in different regions of the country. In 1967, from 0 to 6 years of age, one liter per day; in Guane, Pinar del Rio, for the 0-6 years age group one liter. When I say the ages I mean they receive one liter. Artemisa, from 0 to 6 years; Guanajay, from 0 to 6 years; Northern Coast, from 0 to 6 years; San Cristobal, from 0 to 6 years, one liter, and from 7 to 13, one liter. That was what they received, and people over 65, one liter in 1967.

In metropolitan Havana, from 0 to 7 years, one liter; and one liter per day for households with five people over 7 years. Such distribution of one liter a day per every five persons over seven years was not done in practically any other region.

In Matanzas they had one liter from 0 to 7 years; from 0 to 7 in Jovellanos, from 0 to 7 in Colón, from 0 to 7 in Cardenas, from 0 to 7 in Jagüey; from 0 to 7 in Unión de Reyes.

Las Villas has different numbers. In Santa Clara, from January to May, one liter from 0 to 4 years; from May to December, one liter from 0 to 6, and from 7 to 13 years half a liter (spring is from May to December). In Cienfuegos, from January to May, one liter from 0 to 4 years; from May to December from 0 to 6, and half a liter from 7 to 13. So, different towns of the provinces distributed a larger quota in the spring than in the dry months.

In Camagüey the situation is more or less similar, although almost all towns distributed half a liter from 7 to 13 years. This year it is one liter from 0 to ....¹

Now, look at the difference in Oriente: one liter from 0 to 3 years in Santiago de Cuba, from 0 to 7 in Bayamo, from 0 to 4 in Guantánamo, from 0 to 4 in Palma Soriano, from 0 to 5 in Manzanillo, from 0 to 2 in Holguin, from 0 to 2 in Mayarí, from 0 to 2 in Banes, from 0 to 2 in Baracoa, from 0 to ...² in Victoria de Las Tunas. And this year it is one liter from 0 to 2 in almost all the regions.

In order not to eliminate the milk quota of the adult population of Havana it would have been necessary to leave children from 0 to 2 years without milk in many places of the province of Oriente.

There are other factors. I have already referred to the decline in domestic production and in imports. Let’s look at rainfalls during the past year compared to the previous year. In the province of Pinar del Rio rains were not poor: in 1966, 1,558 mm; 1967, 1,349. In Havana: in 1966, 1,651; in 1967, 1,242. There was a 400 mm difference. In Matanzas: 1,702 mm in 1966 and 1,338 in 1967. However, in these three provinces rains were not poor but very much belated; in the province of Havana, for example, rains started almost in June.

In Las Villas there were 1,587 mm of rain in 1966 and 1,042 mm in 1967, which is a difference of more than 500 millimeters.

Camagüey had 1,468 mm of rain in 1966, against 960 millimeters in 1967.

As for the province of Oriente: 1,324 mm of rain in 1966, and 837 millimeters in 1967.

These data were collected by the Sugar Ministry in the sugar mills. We also have more detailed information from the Water Resources Institute.

While they show a significant decrease in rainfall in the provinces of Las Villas, Camagüey and Oriente, the total figures might not really show the seriousness of the drought, as the amount of water that rainfalls bring is not the only thing that matters but the date and periodicity of the rainfalls are also important. We remember that in Las Villas and Camagüey (...)³ inches fell in 24 hours in early June, and then it hardly rained for more than two months after that. And we remember the case of the province of Oriente in July, around July 26, and this year we have been checking the rainfall levels nearly on a daily basis and it was really distressing to know that in the province of Oriente there was practically no rain in the spring and in the fall.

By way of example and evidence of the importance of rainfalls, I should say that from May to October – in the two driest years before this one after the triumph of the Revolution, 1962 and 1965 – from May to October of 1962, we had 718 millimeters of rain; that was a dry year. And from May to October of 1965, we had 753 millimeters of rain; it was a dry year. However this year – that is, the year that just ended, 1967 – from May to October we had 582 millimeters of rain. So, in the decisive months of spring and autumn we had the lowest rainfalls on record in the province. It was a really dry year. No blame should be put on the weather, nor is there any reason to exonerate the weather. We should simply examine these facts.

I have read the rainfall data. I could now tell you about another very interesting fact: the prices of sugar in convertible currency during the past years.

In 1963 the price got to 8.48 cents a pound, that was the average price. In 1964 the average price was 5.86. In 1965, 2.12. In 1966, 1.86. And in 1967, 1.99. And in 1968 it is still below two cents. It is common knowledge that some of the raw materials and essential products that we cannot get in countries with which we have signed agreements must be purchased in convertible currency. Prices have been lower than they were, say, 30 years ago. The prices from 1952 to 1965 were: 4.28, 3.52, 3.37, 3.35, 3.58, 5.27, 3.61, 3.08, 3.25, 2.91, 2.96, 8.48, 5.86, and then fell to 2.12, 1.86, 1.99.

Probably very few people have an idea of how much effort, how much work, despite these incredible prices, has been necessary to keep the economy running; and not only that: we have continued to make considerable efforts for development. How many have, at least for a while, thought about and pondered on these prices, on the consequences that these prices would have had at any time in the history of our country? I don’t mean only the reduction or elimination of the distribution of milk to adults, but who could guarantee that children could continue to receive one liter of milk daily until the age of seven as they did when sugar – which gives us the hard currency with which we have imported considerable quantities of milk for reconstitution – was priced at 8.48; how were we able to preserve that liter of milk in 1965, in 1966, and in 1967 and are preserving it in 1968. How many posed themselves this question, how many have stopped to analyze and ponder on this?

Naturally, our population has grown considerably and this country has no food reserves, so it has had to live from hand to mouth. Furthermore, every year our country has had to make major purchases of equipment and machinery for its development, and needs to meet those obligations religiously year after year. And we have had to do it while the prices of sugar have remained below two cents in areas where we must get a major part of our resources for imports.

Under such a situation, a year of severe drought like this one is more than enough... If many have not had the opportunity throughout the year, perhaps, to worry at least once about this, the men at the head of economic organizations and the Government have been, day by day and hour after hour, concerned about these issues and trying to find solutions to these problems.

Last year a tremendous effort was made to fertilize the cane fields and we expected to see it translated into significant yield increases. The country has also been doing a substantial effort in the development of its livestock, and whoever works in that field, or is informed, or occasionally hears a speech, or reads a newspaper and is interested in these things, is quite aware of everything that has been done in this regard. We can say that nowhere has an effort in livestock been more intensive, more promising and more serious than in Cuba. Suffice it to say that over 10,000 pedigree sire bulls have been imported since the triumph of the Revolution. Suffice it to say that from zero inseminators that we had when the Revolution triumphed we now have over 3,000 inseminators.

The landowners did not leave us with thousands of sire bulls nor thousands of technicians who at least knew what insemination was. They left us an extensive cattle racing modality where the vast majority of the cattle is the zebu breed which usually produces either no or very little milk, like one liter or one and a half liter. Thousands, tens of thousands of men have been struggling all these years with these animals which are pretty unfriendly and fierce; these men have attained such increases in milk production mainly from the zebu cattle, because cows don´t calve within 24 hours, and calves don’t grow and can be milked overnight.

At this moment, our country has hundreds of thousands of calves and heifers that are already a crossbreed of dairy cattle with zebu cattle, but we have to wait, it will be a while before they start producing. This process can be accelerated to a certain extent, as it is being done now, by having those heifers reproduce as young as possible.

Of course, there is a time lag from the moment you start up something, as there was from the moment we came to know what insemination was and realized we needed to resort to insemination, to the moment that the first inseminator was trained here, and later some tens of inseminators were trained and we began to inseminate the first cows; and we sent to Europe some veterinarians to learn modern techniques, and laboratories were opened, and insemination centers were built, and we imported over 10,000 sire bulls one by one. That has not been done by any country our size, and is very unlikely that large countries with far greater resources have done the same. I'm sure that all the Latin American countries together have not imported in these years half the number of sire bulls that Cuba has imported in recent years alone.

However, the time lag from the moment that the country invests $100,000 to purchase one of the best specimens that have ever been available to promote the future development of our livestock, to the time the first daughter of that sire bull starts producing milk, is in the best of cases of at least 50 months. Not just 50 months; I am referring to the results of employing the offspring of that sire bull. When an animal is bought at such a high price the intention is to use thousands of its offspring to develop livestock in the country, and, in any case, the time lag is considerable.

You cannot skip those processes; they are natural processes that involve an inevitable wait, because the landowners did make plans for us. Those who exploited this country, the imperialists and their allies, did not bother to create the conditions so that our people one day could have a liter of milk or more than a liter of milk, not only for children but for every citizen.

Some people, unquestionably counterrevolutionary elements ...because the enemy takes advantage of these circumstances and the difficulties through an organized campaign directed from abroad. Among some of the painful nonsense that was heard was that milk was being sent to Viet Nam. The Vietnamese have never asked us for milk, but if the Vietnamese ever asked us for milk and we were to react with decorum ... (OVATION), our most elementary duty would be to send it to them! Some of it, or half of it, or all of it if necessary, because the Vietnamese are giving us more and are giving the world more! (OVATION): they're giving us and are shedding for us their blood, and they are shedding it for all peoples of the world!

And I cannot but think that only perfidious people who want to destroy the beautiful feeling of solidarity and the internationalist awareness developed by our people are the only ones interested in spreading maliciously such perfidious comments for the benefit of the imperialists, of those who are there killing so many people. And the situation there is not about children from 7 to 15 not having milk or about adults not having milk, or about children 1 to 7 years old not having milk, but rather about children being torn apart by shrapnel, children torn to pieces by bombs, children burned alive with "napalm".

While we work here, while we cope with the problems of development here with more or less difficulties, the civilian population and combatants in North Vietnam and South Vietnam, that heroic people, have to witness the destruction of their work of many years and see tens of thousands of its best men and women die in the battlefield.

If a day comes when we don’t have enough honor, dignity and shame to react and fight, and confront and crush the scoundrel who attempts to sow discord, on that day we would not deserve to consider ourselves revolutionaries! (APPLAUSE).

Who can call himself or herself a revolutionary, and what would be the worth of the term revolutionary, if the revolutionary concept was reduced to so miserable a dimension?

And indeed there are some around. The propaganda is made by the imperialist enemy with the intention to weaken us. And it is that the efforts that our country is making today, the enormous efforts to secure our bread for today and especially for tomorrow, have no parallel except for the efforts by the imperialists to hinder our way, to set up difficulties, to create all sorts of problems to overcome the Revolution through starvation.

The imperialists have pinned their hopes on those floppy, weak and cowardly elements, on their either conscious or unconscious partners and allies. That's their hope.

Naturally, those who have for so long waited eagerly for the opportunity to go to those same imperialist murderers that keep our country blockaded to receive from their hands their miserable bread crumbs – the shameful bread that they give to whoever renounces to having a homeland and does so not when the homeland is in disgrace but when it is living the most glorious time in its history (APPLAUSE) – it is logical that they resort to disguising and concealing the whole truth about how that country has pursued a tough policy and has used with utter cruelty its full political and economic influence to hinder the development of this country to such an extent that, with the exception of Viet Nam and Korea, there is no country to which the imperialists have managed to cut its trade relations with the rest of the world at a greater scale.

Often times, the problem is not even to be able to have foreign currency; sometimes we have the foreign currency but can’t buy anywhere or we have to buy at much higher prices. The imperialists have done the unimaginable to create difficulties, with a strategy in mind: to subdue our people through starvation; based on a hope: a hope pinned on the floppy, the weak, the cowards and traitors.

It is good to see, for example, that the capital city – where such attitudes reach their peak – is precisely the region of the country that historically has enjoyed a higher standard of living even after the revolution. Even today, after nine years of a Revolution that has pursued a policy to meet the needs of the interior, still today, with a population that is 27% of the country’s total, the province of Havana takes 38% of wages, 35% of internal trade and 49% of services marketed.

In 1967, the population of the province of Havana received a total of 1,094 million in wages. Altogether, wages and other types of revenue of the population of Havana make a total income of 1433.8 million for the province.

As to expenses: the province spent in internal trading 847.7 million; in gastronomic services, 254.5 million, and 321 million in other expenses. So it’s not just that revenues were high in this province, but expenses were similarly high.

Regarding medical services, despite the number of hospitals that have been built in the other provinces, which are great hospitals, the capital still enjoys many things that they do not have elsewhere in the country. You can travel sometimes tens of kilometers and not find a road, or rather you did not find a road before as they are beginning to be seen now and in quite a number; but you don’t see a light bulb and some people have never seen one or know practically what they are like unless they have been to the city. The same applies to many things; sports facilities, or in many cases, dwellings; there aren’t enough; but many families have had the opportunity to have a good home at a low cost and in most cases free of charge; sports facilities, sporting events, cultural events. In general, the population of the capital has naturally been a lot better than the rest of the country, and we must admit that the rest of the country has been making much greater efforts in these years without a doubt.

Of course, this is not to be blamed on the population of Havana, because the population of Havana is now marching to work massively and with incredible enthusiasm; the population of Havana is fundamentally above the trends that persist in people whose ideology is contrary to the Revolution ... We keep in our memories the battalions of workers and students of Havana who mobilized in every difficult circumstance by the tens of thousands to fight the counterrevolutionary bands in the Escambray mountains, or marched to repel the mercenaries who invaded the country in Girón, or in every difficult moment, like the October Crisis and other times; we also recall the tens of thousands of workers who spent months cutting cane in remote and unpopulated regions of the province of Camagüey, and remember the evidently majority revolutionary and militant sector of the people of Havana.

However, it is necessary to speak about this so that revolutionaries are informed and know what to expect, so that revolutionaries are aware and stay alert and do not let themselves be confused, and so that they don’t need to remain silent in the face of any malicious provocateur.

As a result of these circumstances, there were lines at the places where they sell eggs, where chicken is sold, at restaurants, and some people bought 20 pesos and 30 pesos in eggs. We almost had to ration eggs. If they want to buy all the eggs stock in a few days, then we would need to ration the product. Of course, the people who have such a reaction make the food supply problem worse.

Let’s look at the growth in the production and collection of eggs. In 1962, 174 million; 1963, 190 million; 1964, 297 million; 1965, 911 million; 1966, 1,011 million; 1967, 1,173 million; for 1968 we have estimated 1,200 million approximately. No doubt we have more laying hens now than ever before. It is also true that the weather is not behaving in a most convenient way. This year there were belated cold temperatures, and strange things about the weather, as you have noticed. But production will be at least at the level of last year’s. Of course, assuming hens will not go on strike (LAUGHTER), we do not expect production to fall short of the plans. And if a hen said, "I will not lay this egg because it will be eaten by a counterrevolutionary", that hen would be absolutely right (LAUGHTER). Because there are many who are waiting for "the right moment" while they eat the most eggs; what they're waiting for is for the little plane to arrive.

Naturally, no one can know how high consumption can grow here, because this was a plan of 60 million eggs per month and is now of about 100 million, and still these problems are occurring. Some reserves are made at a certain point of the year, because the hens have their seasons too and in some periods they lay more eggs than in others.

This year the weather was undoubtedly adverse. Late rains in the western region significantly affected the production of tubers. It was also affected in the spring and in the fall and virtually throughout the year in Oriente, Camagüey and Las Villas. The rain situation also hit the milk production and even the production of beans.

This year the situation is far from being comfortable, but we will have numbers similar to last year’s in foodstuff like fat and rice. By the end of the year we will begin to see the fruits of the considerable efforts being made to expand the rice production. The numbers for beef are roughly similar; of beans we will have 10,000 tons less, that is, 82,400 against 93,100; and again, the only solution is to use foreign currency, but we must use those funds to meet other more important needs, and especially to honor the country’s obligations. We will have some 27,000 additional tones of wheat flour compared to last year. Regarding seafood, the increase from last year is of about 6,000 tons. The situation is not in the least comfortable as we must take into consideration the population growth. However, we do hope that the weather will not be as relentless this year.

It still isn’t raining in Las Villas, Camagüey and Oriente. You may see the situation in the newspapers, but you should be careful because while the maps of the Meteorological Institute about rainfalls have three colors – red for heavy rains, blue for lighter rains and green for drizzle – the newspapers have just one color, and you can see there are many dots marking points where only three millimeters of rain fell and then believe that it rained there. I think the newspapers will have to come up with some symbols – as they cannot use colors – to indicate when rains have been severe or when they have been light, so that the people ... I mean, we believe that all the people should also know what is rainfalls situation so as to be better informed and aware of the problems. And we still have no rain.

However, in the Western region rains often occur this time of year and the weather is favorable; and we believe that the general conditions are more humid so we hope that rains this year will behave better.

The drought situation has led to considerable speculation about the sugar production, and it is true that the drought has affected the production of sugar. It has caused a drop of almost one million tons of sugar in the province of Oriente. Had this been a normal year, the country's production would have reached approximately 8 million tons. However, it is by no means a disastrous harvest; we have already produced 2,476,306 tons, having milled 1,916.5 million arrobas⁴ of cane, and having 2,217 million more to be milled. So the harvest, even despite the severe drought, will certainly exceed the 5.5 million tons of sugar (APPLAUSE). We still have to mill over half the cane precisely when yields are higher.

But then, of course, how long will this country have to depend on having or not having rain? Can it be possible to have a secure economy, a secure production while these conditions remain?

Where are the efforts of the country headed at present? The greatest effort is being made in the construction of waterworks. It is increasingly evident and unquestionable that if agriculture is to be secure the first factor to be secured against is drought.

A drought reduces a long season crop like cane by 30% or 40%. In the case of a short season crop, it kills it. If you plant some corn or some beans you will lose it. If you plant taro out of season – in June – you will not see any yield; if you don’t plant it in March, or in April at the latest, it does not yield, nor will it if you plant it and there is no rain.

The lands with irrigation in Cuba were negligible. The simplistic and “cheap wise” people believe that making dams is like flying a kite. But making a dam is really something! ...You can ask Faustino and those who have worked in the Hydraulic Institute. All the things that are needed to make a medium-sized reservoir! From locating the site, to making the relevant geological survey, through to finding the clay and making the design. Had it not been for the work of several years, the intense work done on projects, we would not be able to give a boost to the works, a boost to the waterworks, because we would have an excess of equipment. However, this year the hydraulic construction works will receive earthmoving equipment with a capacity to move 60 million cubic meters of earth per year. And a serious, accelerated and extensive program is being implemented using the available resources to the maximum.

What is our aim? Our objective is, first, to secure the cane. The ten-million tons harvest issue has become more than just an economic goal; it has become a matter of honor for this Revolution; it has become something whereby to measure the ability of this Revolution. The enemies have placed all their bets to us failing that goal; the micro-faction was happy and predicted the failure of the Revolution, that is, the failure of the revolutionary line within the Revolution with the idea that the 10 million would not be made, and then we would have to be quieter, more relaxed, more docile, more submissive, which means we would stop being revolutionaries. And, of course, a revolutionary would rather seize being than stop being a revolutionary! (APPLAUSE).

This means that we know that the 10 million target has become the way to measure the Revolution; and if the Revolution is set a goal to be measured by, no doubt it will reach that goal.

We have to prepare ourselves even to accomplish this harvest, even if we had a year as bad as this one. At this point, the country is making considerable efforts first to plant more land, and we will plant over 25 000 additional caballerías⁵ of cane this year. We are aiming at having in the next 18 months more than 20 000 new caballerías of cane under irrigation, as well at draining considerable tracts of land in sugar cane areas.

This, of course, does not waive the other goals. This year a colossal effort is being made across the country in several directions, not only with sugar cane; but the cane is the main target, and the number of machines as well as the number of men, but especially the quality of the men, augur well for our success.

Whoever has the habit of reading, whoever stays informed, knows that thousands of men have been working day and night for months throughout the island. Whoever leaves the city at least to visit a friend or a relative may see that in this country the machines don’t stop neither in daytime nor at nighttime; and the very workers of Havana may see quite often the lights of tractors working at night and in the early morning. And it seems that there is plenty of machinery at the Agricultural Belt, and the Belt has approximately one for every 170 or 180 machines in the rest of the country.

They are publishing a news bulletin called "Noti-Cordón de La Habana"⁶ and will soon publish a another one called "Más allá del Cordón” (Beyond the Belt), as the "Noti-Cordón" has turned out to be interesting – and indeed it is the first news material that I read every morning; it is necessary to also inform the population about what is being done a little beyond the Agricultural Belt. The fact is that some wonder if taro will be planted in part of these lands that are clayey, or if we will plant banana. This has already been explained; I recall that when the town of Valle Grande was inaugurated I gave a comprehensive explanation of what is being done, why it is being done, what it is all about, and what is being done in other parts of the country. Some people ask "Why do they plant so much coffee?" If it was done in the course of 20 years they would not have realized that it is a lot of coffee; however, it is noticed when it is done in the course of a year, because never before was a plan implemented and planted at the speed and with the massive and increasingly enthusiastic participation of workers of the capital as the Havana plan is.

In the province of Oriente, where approximately one million quintals of coffee is harvested, this year they have produced some 900,000 quintals already in spite of the weather conditions and as a result of the effort that has been doing. However, it should be noted that these 900,000 quintals are produced in small plantations scattered over an area of 20,000 square kilometers; while here in the Havana Agricultural Belt, we will produce coffee as a byproduct of fruit plantations and as nearly as much coffee as they are producing in Oriente but only in an area of just 200 square kilometers.

We estimate that the number of machinery needed to harvest the coffee in the Agricultural Belt is about 100 times less than what is needed to harvest the coffee plantations in Oriente which are scattered in the mountains, and we should also look at the cost of the transport to carry the fertilizers, the staff, make the harvest and transport the product. In fact, it is not only that we must harvest the coffee in a 20,000 km area, but it also has to be transported an extra distance of 1,000 kilometers to be consumed here in the capital. So the capital at least will plant its own coffee and produce its coffee, and apparently quite soon; and will even export some of it.

The plantations in Oriente will not be in the least neglected; coffee will be collected and exported from there. We do not think we have an excess in coffee, but it would be all the better if there were; we could only hope for the time when need to confront the problem of having in excess and not in shortage. The question is to streamline our efforts taking into consideration a number of factors: requirements, consumption, markets, opportunities, economic plans, among other factors.

A garrulous member of the micro-faction said: "Look all the planting they are doing there, but they do not plant citrus, they will plant mangoes". It is just but one of the many ignorant people that exist, because it is very likely that he has never read a word about citrus plants and does not know a bit about where citrus trees should be planted to avoid that they are hit by pests and rot. By the way, the Havana Agricultural Belt plan includes no less than 400 caballerías of great red clay land for citrus plantations.

All this effort allows us to manage, organize and streamline agriculture nationwide. The country is making a truly huge effort right now, not in a single front but on several fronts; not only in terms of waterworks but also in terms of roads and highways.

The number of additional lands that will come into production this year is unprecedented in the history of this country or in the history of the Revolution itself. It will take some time, but everything takes time; and we must learn to wait.

When many of us were thinking on making the revolution we were being kept isolated in the prison cells; however, it never crossed our minds that it was impossible to carry out the Revolution. Some men have gone through more experiences than others, through some moments of adversity and difficulty. Those who have not learned that, logically, feel discouraged by the difficulties; others have learned – and it is necessary that mainly our people learn and that all revolutionaries learn – that nothing can daunt or thwart the will of the people.

We have talked about these issues that led primarily to the analysis of these problems. We still have some material to cover, but do not panic...

In recent days, someone rummaged about some papers and came across a study which relates to these issues that I have been discussing here and which was conducted by none other than the Agrupación Católica Universitaria (University Catholic Group) in 1956. I believe that they plan to do an article on this paper at Bohemia magazine. If you have a little patience, I'm going to read some selected pieces which for some may not be so recent and perhaps are recalled by others. This is about a survey: "The survey had three main objectives:” – say the authors– “to do for the first time in Cuba a true, detailed statistical survey on the living conditions of agricultural workers that would serve as a solid basis for analyzing and finding solutions for the economic and social problems; to ensure that the members in the cities had a chance to get acquainted with the reality in our countryside and understand its difficulties; and last but not least, to be able to make an informed assertion based on evidence in the sense that Cuban peasants are torn between abandonment and helplessness as victims of national egotism, and that our nation cannot aspire to real progress while due attention to our countryside is not provided.

"The city of Havana is experiencing a period of extraordinary prosperity, while the people in the countryside, especially our agricultural workers, live in conditions of stagnation, misery and despair that are difficult to believe.

"At the end of one of the meetings we have had in recent months, Dr. José Ignacio Lasaga said something that we will hardly ever forget: 'In all my travels through Europe, America and Africa rarely did I find peasants who lived in greater misery than the Cuban agricultural worker'”.

It explains that there were 350,000 agricultural workers with 2.1 million dependents and with an annual income of 190 million pesos only. This means that although they account for 34% of the population they have only 10% of the national revenue.

It goes on to say that all of them should feel guilty for that entire situation, and so on. It added that Cuba as a republic was still young, and that as "a small nation is thus subject to the economic instructions of the great powers". It means imperialism, but said it very gently so as not to upset the yankees. Our beloved country still suffers intensely the evils of absentee landlordism whereby the wealth is produced in the fields but enjoyed in Havana. The Cuban agricultural worker, deceived by governments and forgotten by leaders of all the national sectors, astonishingly remains honest, upright and humane, waiting in sadness but with dignity that the better trained and better equipped come to open the way for them and teach them to march forward to development and progress.

"May God allow that this study of the economic situation of the Cuban agricultural worker serves to throw a light of evidence on the current injustices, as information for the detailed analysis of the causes, and as the basis for a fair and speedy rectification".

It seems that God allowed!

They say here that they did a methodologically well-organized research to know what the peasants ate, how they lived... of course, I am not going to read the whole paper, but ... if you’ll bear with me I can find ...

"Only 4% of respondents said that meat is part of their usual meals. As for fish, it was reportedly eaten by less than 1%; 2.12% of agricultural workers consume eggs, and only 11.22% drink milk.

"Bread, the universal food par excellence, a symbol of human food consumption itself is consumed by only 3.36% of our agricultural workers".

These are the levels of consumption of two and a half million people; they were who planted, cut, cleaned and sustained sugar cane.

"Rate of tuberculosis infection. Regarding the rate of tuberculosis infection, 14% of peasants interviewed allegedly suffer or have suffered from tuberculosis. Thirteen per cent had also suffered from typhoid fever. Thirty-six percent have parasites...were aware of having parasites. "

They continue to explain on the health care situation. The most striking piece of data is the following:

"Some 80.76% reported receiving assistance only from the doctor, that is, the private physician who charges for his services. Only 8% receive free care from the State, and this is a very significant piece of information. We must always bear in mind, however, that they are referring to the workers who live in remote areas.

"The employer or the union provides medical assistance to 4% of agricultural workers, and also 4% receive professional assistance from private clinics.

"Drugs. For the study on this matter, each interviewer first inquired if there were drugs in the house, and later asked to be shown all the drugs that there were at that particular time. In each case they took note of the type of medication and the manufacturing laboratory if it was a pharmaceutical product. The most important results are: 70.49% of the households had drugs at the time of the interview, 46.67% of the drugs were master formulas – what we commonly call formulas – the rest were what are commonly called patents, that is pharmaceuticals that are produced by laboratories and sold in pharmacies already packaged.

"Of these patent medicines, 74.77% were from ethical laboratories, meaning they were produced by credible manufacturers.

"The remaining 25% were from non-ethical laboratories, commonly called in Cuba “chiveros” or “chivos”. These laboratories operate as follows: they produce a series of almost completely useless products, which have a very small cost of production, and they take them to doctors of low morals for business. The doctor prescribes the product and receives half the profit. As the product is sold at a high price, such illegal business constitutes an important source of revenue for the doctor, to the extent that there are frequent cases of medical professionals especially in the interior of the country who do not charge for their consultations and live entirely off the profits from the business with the chiveros laboratories.

"A quarter of all drugs prescribed to the peasants by their doctors are useless, chivo medicines."

This is not a "red" or subversive organization; it is an organization that decided to do some research, that remembered the incredible conditions in which a great part of our people lived....

There are still quite a few people among the masses who are unaware of one of the most disturbing and serious contemporary problems of our times. It is the problem of underdevelopment – that word that is heard so often. What is it? What does the term “underdeveloped world” means? How can you explain it in a clear and precise manner?

The world is divided between developed countries and underdeveloped countries. Euphemistically they are called developing countries; in the jargon of international organizations they are called developing countries. I want to present some data that will help our masses put the problem of Cuba in the context of the world situation today.

Some of the developed countries began to develop 100 years ago, they did so slowly and many of them relied on the resources they extracted from the colonies which were plundered mercilessly, on the resources extracted from the masses that were exploited beyond belief. There are the stories and chapters written by Marx and Engels about the situation of the working class in England; the cases of people who worked for 15, 16 hours, of children under 10 years working full days in the worst of conditions; so, from the sweat of the colonies and the sweat of the workers those countries obtained the resources which they invested and used to begin to develop.

The industrial development took place mainly in Europe, the United States and Canada. Therefore, those economically developed countries are incredibly ahead of the rest of the underdeveloped world, which they exploited in the past and which in many ways are still exploiting directly with new institutions, or indirectly.

However, let's look at the gross product of developed countries, their production in 1960 and their estimated production for 1975. In 1960, t he total value of production in the United States, with a population of 180 million, was 446.1 billion dollars – let’s say pesos; that was the gross product of the US economy in 1960, and by 1975 it will reach 865.4 billion dollars for a population of 235 million. In Western Europe the value of production in 1960 was 394,659 million for a population of 353 million inhabitants; the estimated value for 1975 is 750,748 million for a population of 402 million. Japan produced 55,604 million in 1960 for a population of 93 million; and it is estimated that it will produce 138.35 billion in 1975 for a population of 106 million. Canada, 31.53 billion for a population of 17 million; the estimate for 1975 is 63,527 million for a population of 23 million.

That's the world, mostly regarding the developed capitalist countries. We should also need to include South Africa and Australia.

So, all these countries, the United States, Western Europe, Japan and Canada, had a total gross product of 927,893 million pesos in 1960. It is estimated that in 1975 it will reach 1 trillion 818,025 million, that is nearly 2 trillion – the Spanish trillion, at least in my time, was a million million, the British billion I think equals one thousand million; here we are talking about the Spanish billion.

Now, what was Latin America’s gross product in 1960? It is 61.75 billion for a population of 204 million. That is, the comparison is between the total in Latin America of 61.75 billion and the 446.1 billion in the United States. According to optimistic estimates that apparently will not be realized, it will produce 117.8 billion in 1975 for a population of 299 million.

As to Africa: in 1960, 21.72 billion for a population of 240 million. In 1975, 40.5 billion for a population of 338 million.

The Middle East: 7.3 billion pesos in 1960 for a population of 51 million inhabitants. In 1975, 13.7 billion for 76 million inhabitants.

Asia, excluding China: 68.75 billion for a population of 797 million. The estimate for 1975 is 129.3 billion for a population of 1,140 million.

All the countries of the underdeveloped world produced as a whole 159.52 billion pesos in 1960 for a population of 1,294 million. That is, the whole of the underdeveloped world produced one third of what the United States produced, less than half of what was produced in Western Europe, and is expected to reach 301 billion pesos in 1975.

That means that in 1975 the underdeveloped world as a whole will have a gross production much below that of the United States in 1960.

The underdeveloped world, with 1,294 million, will have 1,853 million inhabitants in 1975. So, the per capita production in the developed world in 1960 was 12 times that of the underdeveloped countries, and in 1975 it will be 14 times as much.

While the developed world will increase production by nearly a trillion and its population will increase by only 122 million inhabitants – that means 122 million new inhabitants with 890 billion more in production – the underdeveloped countries’ population will increase by 559 million inhabitants and its production by 142 billion pesos only.

Therefore, between 1960 and 1975 production will increase in developed countries by 7,300 pesos per year for every person living in those countries, while in the underdeveloped world production will increase by 250 pesos for every new person. This means that for every person that is born in the developed countries the growth in production will be 29 times the production increase in the underdeveloped world for each new inhabitant.

Regarding income: in the United States the per capita income was 1,762 dollars in 1960, and will be 2,564 in 1975. An increase of 802 pesos.

In Canada, 1,296 pesos in 1960; it will be 1,981 in 1975. A 685 pesos Increment.

France, 1,078 in 1960; it will increase to 1,848 per capita in 1975. Increment: 760 pesos.

England, 1,087 in 1960; 1,620 in 1975. Increment: 533 pesos.

Italy, 960 in 1960; 1,733 in 1975. Increment: 773 pesos.

Japan, 393 in 1960; it will increase to 860 in 1975. Increment: 467.

The underdeveloped countries as a whole in 1960 (this does not mean that all countries have the same figures; it is an average: you take the total income of all regions and divide it by the total). Overall in 1960, the per capita income in the underdeveloped world was 70-85 pesos, and in 1975 it will be 90-110 pesos.

So, while it increases by 802 in the United States, by 685 in Canada, by 760 in France, by 533 in England, in Italy by 773, in Japan by 467, in the underdeveloped countries it will increase by some 20-30 pesos.

So, if the average increase or the average income, for example – the per capita income – in the United States compared to that in the underdeveloped world was 22 times higher in 1960, in 1975 it will be 25 times higher.

The deficit in the balance of payment in trade of the underdeveloped world with the developed capitalist countries was 4.64 billion in 1960, it will be 10.5 billion in 1970, and 18. 9 billion in 1975.

This unspeakable poverty is compounded by the investment profits that are taken away. This means that from their earnings they have to deduct all that the consortiums and monopolies take away from these underdeveloped countries. Another form of subtle but clear exploitation also plays its part; it is the fact that as the developed world can impose conditions on the underdeveloped world, they pay increasingly cheaper for the products from the underdeveloped countries while the manufactured goods from the developed world are sold at increasingly higher prices.

For example, it is estimated that by 1975 the price drop for tea will be 6%, for wool 6%, for cotton 6%, 9% for cocoa, for hides and leather 9%, 14% for jute, 32% for rubber.

That is the situation. Is there a solution for it? Is there a way out? What brought about this situation? Can any underdeveloped country today do as those countries did when they began their industrialization? If they cannot, why is it? What are the factors that stand as the fundamental obstacles for that? One such factor is the increase in population.

Let’s look at the growth of the world’s population: in 1967 the world’s population increased by 70 million people; in 1968 the total world population will be 3.5 billion; in 1968, 118 million people will be born and 49 million will die.

At this rate, the world's population will reach the figure of 7 billion people by the year 2000. And for many of you, especially for students, the year 2000 is not so distant really.

Previous FAO estimates were 6 billion but at the current rate it will reach 7 billion by the end of this century.

Now, what is the situation in Latin America? Let's see what the US Population Office reports according to information received on the 10th of this month.

"The Population Office estimated today that in 32 years’ time the population of Latin America will increase by 157%, the highest rate of growth in the world.

"The current population of the region, which is now 268 million, will reach 690 million by the end of the century.

"Comparatively – said the Office – the population of North America and the Soviet Union will increase by 42% in the same period, while Europe’s will 25% only ".

So, while Europe – which had 353 million in 1960 and produced about 400 billion – will have a population increase of 25% in 32 years, Latin America – which had 204 million in 1960 and produced 61.75 billion or 6-odd times less than Europe – will see its population grow to be 690 million over 32 years.

The paper states:

"The Office warns that Latin America, with the exception of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, is in a position just slightly more favorable than that of Africa which has the highest infant mortality and illiteracy rate and the lowest per capita income and longevity index."

It goes on to say:

"The highest growth rates in the world are those of El Salvador, 3.7; Dominican Republic, 3.6; Venezuela, 3.6.

"At the same time, the Office notes that the area from Mexico to Panama is the world’s fastest growing region, where the population will double in about 20 years if the current pace continues."

It adds that:

"It is almost always the case that the countries with the highest population growth rates are those in which the large proportion of disadvantaged children has serious social and economic problems.

The Office states that staggering enough in the current demographic situation is the growing imbalance between the rate of food production and human reproduction.

It reports that "Every day there are more than 190,000 new mouths to feed – says the research team; yet production does not reach even one third of the 1 billion extra calories that are required to provide this human mass with at least a starvation diet."

This is said by a population office of an imperialist country, the most imperialist of all imperialisms.

Constantly, almost daily, they publish news about this tremendous problem of experiencing a population growth in the world without a food increase.

"New Delhi, India, March 12, Reuter: The sterilizations so far carried out massively in India, will prevent the birth of 10 million children over the next 10 years, it was reported today in Parliament.

"The minister of Family Planning, Sripati Chandrasehar, informed the State Council (Upper House) that so far a total 3.5 million people have been subjected to sterilization operations.

"The surgery is voluntary in India, whose population of 515 million increases by 13 million per year according to recent official figures.

"In November, after a storm of questions in Parliament, they scrapped a plan for the compulsory sterilization of parents with three dependent children.

"Chandrasehar also said today that the Indian government has proposed to pass laws this year aimed at increasing from 15 to 18 years the age at which girls can marry."

Maybe one "bolero"⁷ read this cable news and had a “cable short-circuit”.

Anyway, this is something that needs increasing attention as one of the most serious problems of the world today. And we’ll see the impact this has on development issues.

So you see what the imperialists propose: controls, including sterilization and almost forced sterilization. That is to address this situation through the sterilization of the human species.

Not long ago, the US Secretary of State said in alarm that if science and technology did not find a solution to this problem, the world would be exposed to a thermonuclear explosion. They are so frightened by these insoluble facts that see thermonuclear bombs exploding everywhere; and it seems that this bomb that is coming to be will grow unabated and cannot be subject to agreements or controls of any kind.

How and why does this phenomenon affect so tremendously – together with other factors – the issue of development for the underdeveloped world?

The countries that started the Industrial Revolution last century were England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, among others.

What was the population growth rate in England when it started its industrial development? It was 0.6% per year. At that time various plagues, diseases and epidemics used to set some kind of natural balance. Epidemics killed quite a lot of people. They did not have the modern advances and medicines that have practically eradicated many of those epidemics.

So, England was growing at a 0.6% rate per year; France, 0.4%; Belgium, 0.7%; Germany, 0.8%; Italy, 0.8%.

With an increase rate of 0.7%, population could grow by 40% every 50 years. This means that with an increase of 0.7% population could reach 40% every 50 years.

During the first 60 to 100 years of development, these countries achieved only 1% increase in gross product per inhabitant per year. That is to say, the countries that initiated the era of the Industrial Revolution, in the first 60 to 100 years of their development managed to increase their gross product per inhabitant per year by only 1%. Despite their exploitation of colonies in many cases, the ruthless exploitation of workers, children and women worldwide, they managed to increase their gross product per year by 1%.

They invested every year only 6% of the gross national product to that end. So, while they invested 6% of the gross national product, and had a population growth of 0.7%, their economy grew at the rate of 1% per year.

Only when their revenues were three to four times higher than the average per capita income of the currently underdeveloped countries, when they had four times more per capita income than a person in the underdeveloped world has today, did they raise to 12% the investment percentage of the gross national product. That is, when they had a level four times that of any underdeveloped country today, they raised, or rather there was an increase – as it was not a planned action but one that resulted from reality – in the share of the gross product invested in development to a total of 12%.

Now, that's the story of how development started, what the population growth was, what percentage of gross domestic product was invested, what percentage of that was increased, and how much they increased it over a period of 60 to 100 years.

However, if a country grows at a rate of 2.2% its population will triple in 50 years. So, if in 50 years the developed countries had – or could have – a population increase of 40% – when they began to develop, any underdeveloped country whose population increases by 2.2% will triple its total population in 50 years and will need to invest at least 12% of their gross product only to offset the population growth.

This means that while the countries I was referring to were able to offset the population growth and increase production by 1% a year by investing 6%, an underdeveloped country today, with a 2.2% increase in population, needs to invest twice as much just to offset the population growth without increasing the yearly per capita production.

If due to the huge increase in population, that country wishes to increase the per capita gross product by 1% a year, it must invest at least 16% of its gross product. Thus, a country with a growth rate of 2.2% and a 16% of gross product investment will offset the increase in population and raise production by 1% per year. So, in 80 years’ time it will double its revenues and such revenues are today 10 times below the per capita income in Europe, and 20 times below that in the United States.

This means that a country that has a population growth of 2.2% and invests 16% of its gross product will increase its yearly production by 1%, and in 80 years will double its current income, which is one twentieth of the US per capita income.

In order to increase its per capita gross product by 2%, a country whose population grows 2.2% must invest 20% of the gross national product.

None of these developed countries invested up to 20% before their revenues were already five or six times higher than the current income of the underdeveloped world.

Now, we have seen that in Latin America the population growth rate is not 2.2%. Where did that 2.2% come from? It was taken by the United Nations as an index of the average population growth in the underdeveloped world; but the reality is different, the growth rate is higher.

So, Latin America, with a 3.2% population increase, would need to invest 25% of the gross national product to reach a 2% per inhabitant yearly increase of its gross product. It would need to invest 25% of the gross national product, but it does not invest it nor can it invest it and it never will under the current political conditions.

Having an incomparably higher per capita income, no currently developed country ever invested such high figures.

There is another problem related to the increased population. We are not promoting planning or controls, so don’t anybody panic. Those are measures proposed by the imperialists for the underdeveloped world. The only measures that we believe can work are different.

A population increase of 2.2% in countries where life expectancy is low, that is, where many people are born and people live less...over 30% of the population is under 10 years and cannot take part in production.

Therefore, another factor associated with this huge yearly increase is that over 30% are under 10 years, while in developed countries the children under 10 years account for 15% to 18% of the population. This means that the rich, who have a much, much higher income, have far fewer people under 10 years; almost half of what a poor country has with a negligible per capita income. An underdeveloped country therefore has twice as many people under 10 years as a developed country.

In developed countries, the per capita food production grows no more than 2% per year, despite the low population growth; with all the technical means available, the developed countries roughly manage to get a 2% increase.

In Latin America as a whole – when I say as a whole I mean in average, because some have more and other have less – with a population growth above 3%, the per capita food production in 1961 was 2% lower than what it had available before the Second World War.

The United Nations 1967 Yearbook says: "Both in Africa and Latin America, where no food production increase was recorded since 1965, food production decreased in 1966. The level lost cannot be easily recovered, because it would require in 1967 an increase of 7% to match the 1964 per person level".

In this desperate race against time, when the population increases by 3% in a year, when a stagnation or a decline occurs, the effort required to reach the previous level is almost impossible to make. This means that a progressive decline in the per capita food production is bound to happen. The difficulties to develop food production are really great, really great, especially as many of the land already used for agriculture is the best land, the closest to cities, and the challenges involved in terms of transport, roads, technology, irrigation and fertilization are indeed very serious.

Production can be increased in an incredible manner, especially from very low technical levels; however, the tough part is to have what is needed to reach such technical levels.

What were the factors that facilitated the development of the pioneering countries that hinder it today? I talked about population, the population growth, the percentage of the population under 10 years. One such factor is modern technology, which involves an investment cost incomparably higher today than at that time. You will understand that in the era of horse-drawn carriages, at the time of the first spinning machines, at the time of the first equipment that did not involve much technology, much cost or much investment, men with certain practical experience could invent certain types of machinery. The investment cost per active worker, that is, in order to employ an active worker what had to be invested in the machine had a value equal to the salary of a worker during 5-8 months at that time. The money that they required to invest was the equivalent of what a worker earned in five or eight months.

Nowadays, the investment in machinery that is required to build a modern industry in an underdeveloped country equals the wage earned by a worker during 350 months or 30 years. It is quite clear; take any example, take any of the cement plants, or if you will, the nitrogenous fertilizer plant in Cienfuegos – with a foreign currency cost of more than 40 million at least and a total of over 60 million at most, and which will employ less than 1000 workers; and certainly, fertilizers can only be produced in a really modern industry, otherwise everything would go to waste, including the fuel. The production of nitrogen, if we do not wish it to be unsustainable, must be done with very modern machinery, and that industry costs the country about 60 million, more than 60,000 pesos per each worker that will be employed there. Therefore, the complexity of modern technology requires a huge investment that is about 60 times higher than what was needed when those countries began the Industrial Revolution.

There is another issue: most of the rudimentary machines that were used to start the Industrial Revolution could be produced locally, so England and France imported about 1.5% of the equipment needed; they imported 1.5%.

Given the technical complexity of modern machinery, the underdeveloped countries have to import at least 90% of the machines they need – and clearly, it's not the same to build a car than a locomotive.

So, the first machines with which the developed countries started their industrial development were made domestically. Today, for any industry that an underdeveloped country needs it must import all the equipment and pay a high price for it, because that kind of machinery is necessarily very costly, 60 times more than the cost of the equipment per worker. Additionally, that very technical complexity requires skilled workers and specialists that should be trained over many years in expensive training programs.

These aren’t, of course, the only problems. They are but a few that serve to explain the current phenomenon, the insurmountable obstacles encountered by the countries of the underdeveloped world.

There is another issue that is taken into account and it is that in many underdeveloped countries some sectors of the population are engaged in many non-productive activities, ranging from bureaucracy to business activities, so that a very high proportion of the population and resources are employed in these activities.

All this is an objective presentation of the problems, of the objective difficulties. Let’s look now at the subjective issues: the social system, the political system, the feudal-type use of the land, oligarchic governments of force imposed by imperialism or neocolonialism, the domination of the imperialist monopolies over the economy, the plundering of natural resources, the looting of even the technical resources. In addition, one of the most serious problems is illiteracy; in 1950, 90% of the countries in the underdeveloped world had an illiteracy rate of more than 50%. More than 50%!

No doubt that once we understand these things we become more aware of the monstrous crimes committed by the imperialists against the world, of the monstrous crime that is the repressive imperialist policy against the revolutionary movement whereby it imposes aggression, imposes war and manufactures puppet governments of all kinds. For what purpose? To keep the world under such situation. And why? Because they want to preserve the interests of the financial oligarchy in those countries.

The fact is that when a country achieves industrialization, much of its standard of living depends or will depend on the productivity of labor, on the industrial equipment, in order to be able to achieve a high per capita production. And, of course, despite all the privileges and the exploitation of man, the life of a worker in a developed capitalist country is different from the life of a peasant or a worker in an underdeveloped capitalist country.

The United States does not only have a modern, technologically equipped industry with a high level of productivity and does not only take away the natural resources of and extorts and exploits much of the world through its monopolies, through unequal trade, but also drains the technical staff from the underdeveloped world.

Here are some figures: of 43,000 engineers who migrated to the United States between 1949 and 1961, 60% were from underdeveloped countries! You should remember the figures: increasing population, gross domestic product, incredible difficulties in the underdeveloped countries, and on top of that 43,000 engineers migrated to the United States in a period of about 12-13 years, 60% of them from underdeveloped countries. Of the 11,206 people who migrated from Argentina to the United States between 1951 and 1963, 50% were engineers; so, half of 11,206 Argentinean migrants were engineers.

Of course, as there has been no revolution in those countries they make a fine selection of the people that they allow in. Their case is not like ours; from here they take the lumpens, the bourgeois, the landowners, the henchmen, all kinds of people, there is not much to select from here. In Latin America they authorize a few people and select highly-skilled technicians.

In 1950, 1500 engineers and scientists migrated to the US from around the world. In 1967, the rate of engineers and scientists who migrated to the United States was 6,000 per year. So the United States, taking advantage of its huge economic resources, plunders the world, and especially the underdeveloped world, of scientific and technical experts. This is a situation that affects not only the underdeveloped world but also Europe that is beginning to lag somewhat behind the United States despite these numbers, despite its standard of living, its development and its technology. The United States sacks Europe of all the technical experts that it can from every industry; they even invest only 10% of the value of the company, because they do not purchase with US money in Europe but mobilize in Europe the capital needed for investments as they own the most advanced technology.

And we have heard of that situation very often, of news about the US buying an Italian factory, or a Spanish factory, or an English or French factory or a factory in any other country. On one occasion, there was almost a social problem with regard to some rice harvesting machinery that we tried to buy in Europe; we were negotiating with a plant in Belgium but it was not possible at the end – they did not sell us the machines although the workers were idle. The workers favored the sale but it was not made because a US company owned some shares of the factory. It so happens that when a US company owns shares in a factory in Europe the rules there are not set by the government of the European country concerned but by the US State Department, the US Secretary of Commerce, the US government.

And Europe resents how the United States is purchasing its industry, penetrating it, plundering it of its best technicians and pursuing a policy of penetration that threatens to leave Europe lagging behind the United States.

We have seen, or tried to see or to have an overview of these realities which the manuals do not cover; they do not cover either some very important issues such as the unequal exchange whereby the developed world plunders the underdeveloped world.

Let’s see the specific situation of Cuba, a country that started its economic development after the Revolution. Cuba’s population growth rate increased on average by 2.3% per year over the past five years. This figure is three to four times the rate that the industrial countries had when they started to develop.

In 1953, 36.3% of the population was under 15 years, in 1967, 37.9% of the population was below the age of 15; in 1953, 6.9% of the population was over 60 years; in 1961, as a result of the increase in life expectancy, 7.2% of the population is over 60 years. These figures are apparently low, from 36.3% to 37.9%, from 6.9% to 7.2%.

However, you will see how this affects the percentage of the workforce. Taking the ages of 15 and 60 as the working age limits, the change in the age structure means that in 1967 we have 226,000 fewer people in the working age group than what we would have had if the structure of the population remained the same as in 1953. I mean that if we had now the same population structure of 1953 – 36.3% below age 15 and 6.9% over 60 years – we would have 226,000 more people between the ages of 15 and 60; the increase in population on the one hand and the average life expectancy on the other hand make us have more than 200,000 fewer people in the working age group.

According to estimates, our population will reach 8,349 million inhabitants by 1970; that is, 8,349 million people in 1970; there will be 1,214,000 people under 5 years; 1,125,000 people in the 5-9 years group; and 916,000 people between the ages of 10 and 14. Therefore, by 1970, there will be 3,255,000 people under 15 years, that is to say, 39% of the Cuban population. Just think how much we must increase production, the production of milk, the production of food, all kinds of production, for a population that grows in some age groups.

However, with a population increase of 2.3% per year and with almost 40% of the population under age 15, our people must necessarily make a considerable effort. Just to offset population growth it is necessary to invest at least 12% of the gross national product, to compensate for growth; to grow at the rate of 1% and double the income in 80 years, say, at least 16% of the gross product; and 30% of the gross national product to develop the economy at a rate of at least 5% increase in the yearly per capita gross product. And this effort must be made mainly with the active population that is about half of the population minus children and people over 60 years.

Naturally, I’m giving you some indexes. What’s the overall investment that is needed worldwide? This does not mean that it will occur in a precise, mathematical way, it all depends on the areas where investments are made. Our possibilities are greater in agriculture, because it is a natural resource that is available; there are climate issues involved; the level of technology needed in the development of agriculture is not the same as in, say, the steel industry; the level of investment needed is not the same. Therefore, some fields need more investments than others. I’m just presenting ideas, which is the only way to explain roughly how a country can develop, the obstacles that it encounters on the way, the population growth and its influence; that is, an idea of the investments needed. If you invest in something you should stop consuming it. A good example for us: the foreign currency that we have. If we dedicate all of it to consumer products and none of it to buy machinery, irrigation equipment, or machinery for drainage, for waterworks, the result is clear: we may eat today but we will not eat next year, and food will be increasingly scarce, with a growing population and with a greater dependence on climatic factors and imponderables of all kinds. That is clear.

Now, how have investments increased these years? State investments totaled 607.6 million in 1962; in 1963, 716.8; in 1964, 794.9; in 1965, 827.1; in 1966, 909.8; in 1967, 979 million; and the estimate for 1968 is 1,240 million pesos. In 1967, adding state investments to other accumulations, as for example the increase in livestock – that is not slaughtered in order to allow for its growth– increased inventory, etc., the country dedicated 27.1% of its gross product to development. This includes the country's resources and even the external resources that are mobilized. So, if a credit is available you can buy a bulldozer, or you can buy milk, one of two things; a credit means that you have to make payments later. The people that tour the Malecón know that many machines are coming into this country; but that’s not what is most important. How much can be done with a machine that is brought to the country today, organized into brigades, under strict discipline and optimal maintenance? Incomparably more than any time before.

In 1968, it will reach approximately 31% of the gross national product available. We believe that no other underdeveloped country is currently undertaking this kind of effort; not even close, not even close! It does not matter that the results are not perceived yet, because the construction works in Nuevitas have been going for several years and it will be only this year that the first cement factory will start operations, the cement factory in Siguanea, the construction of the fertilizer plant in Cienfuegos, in Nuevitas; investments like in the El Mate dam that was under construction for about four years and was closed in August; it has not given us a drop of water yet, but it is a reservoir for 250 million cubic meters and we expect it to collect enough water this year to irrigate large areas.

We have been making great efforts; the country has made huge investments in education, in universities, in the teaching plans; it was an effort that started practically from scratch with the literacy campaign. The country has been making these efforts and it does not matter that the fruits of that sustained effort are not yet seen. I should note that these investments do not include an estimation of the value of voluntary work; that is, all the voluntary work done increments all these figures that I have presented. The hundreds of thousands of people who mobilize to fill coffee bags, to plant, to work, to open holes, all the people that are working throughout the country in big groups, every effort they make, every plant that they sow, adds to the 31% of the gross national product invested in the development effort. And our country will look at it with deep satisfaction in the future, and rejoice with deep satisfaction on what it is doing today.

It's true that we are working for the future, but not only for future generations, because in a way this generation will get to see the results of its work. There is no doubt about that.

What is the general status of education? There are 2,193,741 people who study, including children, middle level students and adults. There are approximately 250,000 boarding students and 150,000 under a semi-boarding modality.

By the way, there is a piece of information that is not proper for this point in our talk but which should not be forgotten and it is related in part to this, when we talked about the food supply issues.

For example, in 1965 in social services, that is in education...in 1965 food was supplied to 156,300 people; in 1968 to a total of 389,300, including students in boarding and semi-boarding schools.

Health and social welfare: in 1965, 62,300; 108,500 in 1968.

Recreation and sports: 900 in 1965; 16,800 in 1968.

We have also the fishing fleet and the ship crews which have increased from 300 (sic) to 9,400; and the number of employees at schools and boarding schools grew from 30,600 to 50,500.

Sugar cane harvests and other worker’s mobilizations: 228,000 in 1965; 397,000 in 1968.

Workers’ canteens: 130,400 in 1965; 544,000 in 1968.

So, apart from what is distributed with the ration book, from 626,300 in 1965 we are now providing 1,529,200 daily food rations for the above-mentioned purposes, which is an increase of approximately one million people.

The people in the field of education represent 80% of the population of the province of Matanzas, if I remember correctly. One million five hundred twenty-nine thousand people are about three times the population of the province of Matanzas. And the increase in such areas since 1965 has been from 626,300 to 1,529,200.

Whenever people are mobilized for whatever purpose anywhere you have to serve them food. This does not include the field of defense and internal order.

That is why I remembered those figures when I was talking about the state of education.

Primary education: an enrolment of 1,391,478 students; secondary education: 177,087, of which 160,308 are in the junior high level and 16,779 in senior high school; technical and professional education: 45,612 in schools, industrial technological institutes, the fishing school, etc.; primary teacher training, 18,121; universities, 34,532; adult students in the Schools of Workers and Farmers and in schools for women’s upgrading, 405,612; others, 7,092.

Technological institutes for workers: 46,595 students; youth agricultural schools, 28,832; building workshops schools, 10,663; ITM⁸, 1,626; the Ministry of Public Health, 6,060; higher schools of physical education and sport, 2,462; there are 33,622 children in day-care centers.

Increase in the number of elementary school students: 1,391,478; the number increased to 1,443,000 in 196 ~⁹; and in 1974-75 it will reach a total of 1,636,698 elementary school students who will need a great number of teachers, because all the teachers trained, all the courses for people’s teachers, in Minas de Frío, in Topes de Collantes, are not enough.

There is still some school absenteeism. For example, in the 6-12 years group there are still about 50,000-100,000 children who do not attend school. So there we have a future mortgage in the making: between 50,000 and 100,000 don’t attend school.

The current total of middle school students is 240,820. These numbers are really considerable. There will be 269,000 in 1970, and 530,000 in 1974 or 1975.

This does not include distance education or the projections for workers’ institutes which will gradually decrease as all higher education institutions receive the students from the primary schools and the school system.

This is the situation with education where a huge effort has been made and yet it is not enough. The Ministry will grant now some 40-odd thousand scholarships for various types of schools and is working hard to lead the young towards the activities where they are needed. In fact, we need them in a number of specialties, in a growing number of studies, and a very important issue is that of teachers.

In order to solve that problem it will be necessary to resort to television. Such a considerable increase in the number of students in the middle and middle-high education is impossible to sustain unless we resort to a technical facility like television as there is no way that we could train all the teachers required for that huge, fast-growing mass of students.

The first trials with television are already being made and we believe that we will be one of the first countries to introduce television as a formidable tool for education. We had two strong stations, and education has been relegated to a channel that barely covers the entire country.

Any future investment in television should be made for educational television, and we should establish technological institutes and true universities in the future, because if we are to cope with the problems of the modern world the future demands that we practically never stop studying. A people that fails do so will be stagnant and lag behind the rest of the world. We should use television as much as possible as an educational tool and to support this enormous educational movement, considering the tremendous shortage we have of teaching professionals.

I said that our people is making a great effort; however, we do not think that this has been the generation of Cubans that has been called to make the greatest effort. Other generations of Cubans, as the generation whose epic and historic days we commemorate this year with the one-hundredth anniversary of the start of the struggle for the independence of our country ...

We may not come to understand clearly how much we owe that generation that marked a path of struggle in a time when there were also autonomists, reformers and even annexationists; and still they took up arms. It seems that even at that time there was also a discussion about the roads and paths, and there were all kind of charlatans that shunned the challenge of their time. And that generation fought for ()¹⁰ years, fought for 30 years and never even saw independence.

The generation of the early years of the republic, which saw the country diminished by the Platt Amendment which gave the Yankee forces the constitutional right to intervene, even though such forces do not require a constitutional clause to perpetrate their crimes. Even those generations did not come to know many of the things that our people can see as real things today.

We talked about economic development and our country has attained a considerable social development in recent years, the virtual eradication of illiteracy, the opportunity for all the youths to study, for every youth and every citizen to work; opportunities in sports, social opportunities, housing options, health possibilities, endless possibilities that were not known to or could not be enjoyed by the generations of Cubans that preceded this generation.

This generation is making a great effort and should be willing to do even more if the circumstances so demand.

However, when we talk about this generation of Cubans, who do we mean? Do we mean absolutely all Cubans? No! that would be false, that would be a lie. Just a part of the people, although significant in size, is bearing the brunt of this epic battle for the country's development. It is not all of the people.

We have said that we had been too lenient, excessively, even generous, because as hundreds of thousands, even millions of people in our society work anywhere and go and cut cane or work at the Havana Agricultural Belt or anywhere across the country, there are still a considerable number of people who do not participate at all in this effort. And in a way, we call on the masses to work for themselves and also for those who do not work, also for the bums, also for the parasites, also for the privileged, also for a certain type of exploiters that still exist in our country.

If the Revolution were to be blamed for something it would hardly be for having followed an extremist line but in any case for not having been radical enough. And we must not lose the opportunity or miss the moment to increasingly radicalize this Revolution. And we must finally make ours a revolutionary people (APPLAUSE).

There still remains a privileged crème, which thrives on the work of others and lives considerably better than the rest, watching others work. Loafers, in perfect physical condition, that put up a timbiriche¹¹, any kind of small business to earn 50 pesos every day breaking the law and the hygiene standards, breaking all rules, while they watch the trucks full of women who go to work in the Havana Agricultural Belt or to harvest tomatoes in Güines or anywhere else (APPLAUSE).

If many people were to doubt the nature of this revolution for allowing such kind of parasites to remain still after nine years, they would be absolutely right.

And we believe that we should very seriously set ourselves to putting an end to all parasitic activity that still exists in the Revolution (APPLAUSE).

Take, for example, incredible things, that can only be properly grasped when analyzed in depth. For example, in Havana, in the capital of the Republic, there are still 955 private bars that are earning plenty of money and consuming all that there is. And certainly when it comes to bars, the less we have, both private and public, the better (APPLAUSE).

We are in no way against people having fun, or people enjoying in recreation. But our people has tasks now that are much more important, more vital. I was telling you about the effort that this country has to make. And these are years of work! And as long as we do not fully realize that based on these facts that I’ve been presenting to you, we will not properly and fully take on the correct path of the Revolution!

Nine hundred and fifty five bars! I'm not going to read the stories about these bars for various reasons, but here we have quite a few surveys of these bars: who they are, what they buy, where they buy, how much they sell, how much they earn, what they do, who they meet, what they talk about (APPLAUSE) ... They do not even imagine...We have them by their names and all. But as we try always not to cause more traumas than necessary, and as most of them have a family, we will not bring up stories or names here. I’ll just refer to general information:
"Following Party instructions, a series of surveys on and statistical analysis of the material collected by the different comrades were ordered so as to have a more concrete understanding of the problem and implement solutions that take into account the social and economic character of our Revolution.

"Studies were conducted by members of the PCC, and information was collected in the regions of Plaza, Centro Habana, Guanabacoa, Boyeros, Marianao and Diez de Octubre.

"In the course of this study, the Party members did all kinds of surveys with the assistance from the comrades in charge of Vigilance in the CDRs. In view of the methods used, these studies cannot be considered a true statistical sample that faithfully represents the universe, but they will certainly help understand the magnitude of the problem and guide future actions. We are attaching the cases studied in view of their political significance.

"Survey findings, types of sales, table No.1. As this table shows, the highest selling product is alcoholic beverages. The comrades who did the work were told that the state company has not made deliveries of alcoholic beverages for over four months, with the highest percentage (100%) found in the region of Centro Habana.

"Gross income and profit. Sixteen percent have a daily income of at least 50 pesos (10, 25, 30). Forty-three percent have a daily income of 50-99 pesos, while 41% earn over 100 pesos" – and some more than 200 pesos a day...of gross income, I mean.

"Profit. Fifty-five percent have a profit of less than 25; 13%, 25-49 pesos a day; and 32% more than 50 a day; 50, 100, 150 and even 300 ...

"Revolutionary attitude, morality, social service and other sources of income:

"Revolutionary attitude. Seventy-two percent maintains an attitude contrary to our revolutionary process.

"Clientele. Sixty-six percent of the customers who frequent these places are antisocial elements.

"Social service. None of these establishments provide any service of public benefit, and they represent a 78% " – that is, of those that do not provide any kind of service.

"Other businesses. Twenty-eight percent of bar owners have other businesses.

"Source of supply. It was found that of the total of bars surveyed, 66% make illegal purchases while seven bars do not specify the type of supply they have.

"Summary. Findings of the study conducted on private bars:

"Illegal purchases of alcoholic beverages, bad revolutionary attitude on the part of owners and employees, antisocial clientele, poor service to the population.

"Recommendations: they must be either nationalized or closed" (APPLAUSE). "If nationalized they should not continue to function as such; a study of the area needs should be made. Many of these establishments are located in premises which were living quarters originally and they can be returned to that use. Most of these bars have fine refrigeration equipment, which can provide good service in canteens or other state facilities."

General research on private businesses in Havana.

"Findings of the surveys conducted by the Party.

"Legality. Of the 6,452 private businesses surveyed in the metropolitan area of Havana, 1819 had no legal authorization to operate. They account for 28.2% of the total" – so almost a third of these businesses were illegal.

"The regions of Boyeros and Plaza de la Revolución showed the highest percentage of illegal cases: 41% in Boyeros, 38% in Plaza. The lowest percentage corresponds to Centro Habana, where only 20% of private businesses lacked legal documentation.

"In the 60 surveys conducted by the municipal administration, the illegality percentages are lower: only 10%.

"Sanitary conditions. The sanitary conditions in almost half of the business establishments were not good or were classified as fair or poor. Of the 6,102 businesses that reported on this, 2,471 had fair sanitary conditions and in 567 the conditions were poor. The business establishments surveyed in Diez de Octubre had the most disastrous sanitary conditions of all; 2/3 of them – or 61.9% – had fair or poor sanitary conditions. However, in Plaza de la Revolución and Guanabacoa, the sanitary conditions of about a third of the businesses surveyed were not good.

"Exits from the country. Another survey area referred to the people who will renounce their statehood. Of the 8,508 included in the survey, 499 were found to have requested for permission to leave the country.

"The highest percentages with exit permit applications correspond to the regions of Guanabacoa, Marianao and San José, while the lowest percentage was found in Centro Habana.

"In the data gathered on fried food stands and similar timbiriches, reports showed that a large number of the people trying to leave the country are engaged in such businesses which earn them high income and allow them to establish stable relationships with lumpen and other antisocial and counterrevolutionary elements.

"Physical condition of business owners. Approximately two thirds of the owners of private businesses were in apparently good physical condition, with extreme figures ranging from 59.6 in the region of Diez de Octubre to 77.8 in the Guanabacoa region.

"Of the 6,176 cases reported, 3,914 were registered as being in good physical condition.

"Eighty-eight percent of owners were reported as being in bad physical shape, while 3.3%. were disabled persons...

"Twenty-four point six percent were in a fair physical condition; that is to say, almost 90% is classified as being in good or fair condition.

"Other characteristics. The number of owners working directly in their business was also surveyed and in metropolitan Havana they account for 87.6%; that is to say, 12.4% of business owners dedicate themselves to receiving the profits and do not contribute with any physical effort to their business.

"According to the survey findings, 14.9% of the owners have other income additional to the business surveyed, and the highest figure was found in the region of Boyeros where 22.4% of the owners have other income.

"Of the 60 cases surveyed by the municipal administration, 80% of the business owners live off their business exclusively; the exploitative nature of these private business owners is shown by the information concerning the existence of employees in 31.1% – almost a third – of the businesses included in the survey. The highest percentage is found in Centro Habana, where 40% of business owners have employees whom they exploit. This index is lower in the Boyeros region.

"They survey also examined whether the owner’s household had other income, which was the case in 27.9% of cases, with maximum variations of 18% in Guanabacoa region and 35.2% in Boyeros region.

"Membership in political organizations. The municipal administration surveyed this aspect among 2,056 owners of private businesses in countryside Havana, as well as in metropolitan Havana, and as part of the specific survey of timbiriches with very different results.

"The highest percentage of people who are not actively involved in the Revolution is found among owners of fried food stands, where 39 out of 41 people, or 95.1% of those who reported this data, were against the Revolution.

"In countryside Havana the percentage of people not actively involved was 77.7%, with the San José region having the highest percentage, 80.7% of owners who are not members of any political mass organization.

"This percentage was lower in the survey conducted by the municipal administration.

"The moral and social behavior -- which goes with revolutionary attitude -- was assessed in the survey of the timbiricheros¹². Of the 18 people who reported the data, 18 had antisocial and amoral behavior.

"Table 9 shows the time span of business ownership. In countryside Havana, 10.2% of the owners have less than a year in business. Thirty-six percent have less than eight years, so they started business after the triumph of the Revolution.

"San José shows the highest figure with 57.7%. That is to say, more than half of business owners in San José started to operate after the triumph of the Revolution.

"The lowest percentage, 35.7%, was found in Mayabeque.

"The study conducted by the municipal administration of metropolitan Havana showed 51.7%.

"Specific analysis of fast-food stalls. This study covered specially a group of fast-food stalls and individuals selling fried food and other food varieties. Omelet is the best selling food, usually with bread. Of the 50 stalls surveyed, omelet was sold in 43, obviously as it is made of a readily available product.

"The second highest-selling dishes were fish croquettes and breaded fish, followed by fritas¹³. Also sold but in smaller quantities are stuffed potatoes, frituras¹⁴ and sardines.

"Others include shrimp, fish, squid, burgers, guarapo¹⁵, cigarettes and matches, smoothies, sweets, coffee, soft drinks.

"The work done in these cases by a group of Party members is of extraordinary interest. These studies highlight the political importance of addressing the problems that create this mercantilist infrastructure that appears when the state agencies do not provide adequate service to the people. Lumpens find an appropriate environment to profit and live in every vice and exploiting others.

We attach information on 10 cases that clearly demonstrate this problem.

" Gross sales and profit. The gross income of timbiricheros has unexpected characteristics. Twenty percent of stalls have gross sales in excess of 100 pesos daily, 35.5% daily sales of 50-99 pesos; while 44.5% sells daily less than 50 pesos.

"In Centro Habana all sold more than 50 pesos.

"Their daily profit goes hand in hand with these earnings. Twenty percent of owners earn more than 50 pesos a day while 53.3% of timbiricheros earn more than 25 pesos.

"This kind of profit is possible because of the big difference between the production price and the selling price, as well as the sales volume. An example of this is the fried-food stand at the Luyanó road that sells more than 200 pieces a day. For croquettes: the production cost is 8 cents; the sale price is 20 cents; a 150% profit. For fritas: the production cost is 8 cents; the sale price is 20 cents for a 150% profit. Breaded fish: 10 cents; sale price, 35 cents, 250% profit. Omelet: 11 cents; sale price, 30 cents, 173% profit.

"The daily average sale was $66.40 with $43.57 of profit on $22.83 cost.

"Operating characteristics. Forty-six percent of owners are self-employed; but another 44% have employees and sometimes the owner does not personally works but appears only to collect the sales proceeds. Forty percent leases their stand, but also exploit employees.

"Finally, 10% keeps a business partnership with another individual, sometimes a relative.

"With regard to the origin of the goods, according to the study 20% of owners get their raw material legally through quotas set by the MINCIN or use their family quotas.
"Another group, that accounts for 18%, is supplied illegally ranging from the purchase of raw materials on the black market to stealing cooking fat in bakeries and illegally trading in oil from the grocery stores, even state grocery stores. Others are supplied in the countryside, buying overpriced products. The most common type of supply is a mixture of legal and illegal purchases.

"Table 15 shows that 18% of owners have other businesses, positions or income additional to what they earn with the fried-food stand. It’s usual to see owners doing all kinds of purchase deals. Some work in state workplaces while others receive some type of pension or retirement pay.

"Summary and Conclusions: we hereby present the findings of the survey conducted by the municipal and provincial governments and the Party in relation to private businesses, with the following characteristics:

"a) Illegalities committed by these businesses. Poor hygiene. Owners have poor involvement in the Revolution. Antisocial way of life. Racketeering, theft and bribery to obtain the raw materials.

" San José stands out with the highest percentage of non-involvement, the highest percentage of owners engaged in counterrevolutionary activities and the highest percentage of stands established after the triumph of the Revolution.

"Recommendations: absolute prohibition by the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Public Health and the Local Power of new such establishments. This type of businesses should be abolished gradually while the Local Power and INIT should ensure that the people can buy similar food products with higher standards of quality and hygiene.

"To this end three consecutive phases are suggested..." They propose many phases, we could skip some of them.

In brief, are we going to build socialism or build timbiriches? (LAUGHTER) It's not even a matter of economic impact, despite the obvious results of all these businesses.

Is there any timbiriche out there? Are you going to relinquish it...?

" Through private grocery stores the private sector sells 77 million pesos out of a total of 248,961,703."

The study in fact covered the whole country. We talked about this problem on July 26; we were seeing these businesses grow, year after year, with increasing income and profits, with people leaving a productive job to engage in this type of business; and there was also the hygiene problems. There is even a study made by the Public Health branch that speaks of the hygiene problems involved; they have studied all that. The issue with the boys, how they took boys out of the schools; the corruption, the bribes, the illegal activities of all kinds.

We didn’t make a revolution here to establish the right to trade! That revolution was already made in 1789 with the bourgeois revolution – most of us have read something about it; that was the revolution of the merchants, of the bourgeois. When will they finally understand that this is the revolution of socialists, that this is the revolution of the communists? (APPLAUSE) When will they finally understand that we didn’t shed our blood fighting against tyranny, against mercenaries, against bandits, to establish the right for anybody to earn 200 pesos selling rum, or 50 pesos selling fried eggs or omelets, while the girls who work in these places earn a modest salary, a modest income that the economy of our country and the development of our economy can pay them? No way!

And the warnings are of no use, and that reality is of no use. They are rushing the last drop. As long as the privilege remains, they cling to the privilege to the last day and the last day is approaching, the last day is approaching! We must say clearly and conclusively that we intend to eliminate all manifestations of private trade. We will provide a job to whoever can work, and whoever is unable to work will be given whatever is needed, because we don’t deny anyone a means of support. There are many tens of thousands of people that have been given assistance by the Revolution, whenever it was so requested, and not as a concession but as a duty of the Revolution! We have said that today nobody has any reason to be helpless, nobody! Everyone is entitled to be helped, to be given a job and if a job cannot be provided then we provide assistance to whomever we cannot give a job. We hope to be finding more and more work for everybody, work is what will eventually be in excess and it is only with work that we will win the battle against underdevelopment.

A whole set of racketeers subsist ... We remember that the "Diario de la Marina" newspaper, which was the mouthpiece of capitalism, threatened that any measure that harmed the "sacred freedom of trade" discouraged trade and constituted an obstacle to the development of trade. But nobody can fool us; we have taken all possible steps to stop capitalism and still capitalism tries to revive everywhere.

Surely there is blame to be put on our unwary, naive and careless fellow revolutionaries – and on some who are not comrades; and there are some of those out there in the groceries and other stores who are acting mischievously and steal and sell on the black market. That means we need to be more vigilant.

All types of contracts were being made and they paid some guy 100,000 and 200,000 pesos for building one thing here or another thing there. The Ministry of the Light Industry was established to examine all these problems in depth and find every possible way to address these needs, as many of these businesses arise as a result of existing needs: from a slipper to any kind of device; any piece of anything would serve to make anything. One day in Las Villas they found a man who had 300 women working in their homes using scraps of some kind of raw material to make ropes, hammocks, anything.

Whoever says that capitalism is discouraged is lying; capitalism must be uprooted, parasitism must be uprooted, the exploitation of man must be uprooted (APPLAUSE).

Needless is to say that the Revolution is not eager to make enemies gratuitously, but neither can it fear making enemies when necessary; so it must be said very clearly that in this country there is no future neither for trade nor for self-employment or private industry or anything of the sort. Let the self-employed pay for the hospital then, for the school, pay for everything, and pay dearly! (APPLAUSE) Theirs is a very comfortable position: the rest is paying for them the school, the hospital – for them and their family; if medical care costs 5,000 pesos they have it paid, they have everything paid, and they pay nothing. It is also a way of living off the work of others and of exploiting others.

And capitalism was a ladder of exploitation, a pyramid where those on top exploited those below them, and those in turn exploited the ones below them... This happened many times even among workers, because there were workers who had wages five times higher than the cane cutters; there were workers who could buy one of those used cars that were brought from the United States, as they had a salary of 300, 400 pesos, maybe working in an office of an American bank or a monopolist company. And the people that were cutting the cane and supporting the economy were in fact the ones paying for the automobile, the gasoline and everything, but they didn’t eat. By principle, capitalism established the ladder of exploitation, and it is clear that we have to snuff it out at its source.

We cannot encourage or even allow selfish attitudes if we do not wish that men follow the instinct of selfishness, self-centeredness, a wolf-like life, a beast’s life, man as the enemy of man, as the exploiter of man, tripping man. The concept of socialism and communism, the concept of a superior society entails a man who is free of those feelings, a man who has been capable of trading those instincts for a sense of solidarity and brotherhood of man.

This leads us to another topic, the much-debated issue of incentives. A theoretical debate went on for a long time and it seemed to be a methodological question, although we believe it is a much profound issue. In our view, a communist is not educated by inciting man's ambition, man’s individualism, and the individual desires of man (APPLAUSE). If we are to fail because we believe in the capability of human beings, in the ability of human beings to be better, let’s fail if necessary but may we never give up our faith in the human being! (APPLAUSE)

Many times we have seen man acting out of a sense of honor, giving more than his work: giving his blood, giving his life, driven by deep moral factors. Of course, I do not intend to make thorough analysis of this issue, but suffice it to say that it is not only a matter of principle for us but also a real and objective matter, can an underdeveloped country afford to do differently? When we reviewed the figures, didn’t we understand clearly the depth of the abyss, the degree of poverty that our country has to surmount because of the backwardness in every respect, including technically and economically, left behind by colonialism and imperialism? Isn’t it understandable that this country has to invest every penny, and cannot invest in anything superfluous? Are we going to hand out money to people as an incentive and have nothing to sell to them? Are we going to stop investing in the effort to close the enormous gap between us and other countries and instead purchase superfluous things to increase the value of the peso and have men do anything to earn a peso to buy them?

We have been discussing here the effect of money, how money is the instrument that allows man the access to wealth, money is what allows people to enjoy everything independently from work. Just look at those who earned 300 pesos, the bar owner, exploiting people, and earned 100 pesos and 150 pesos, it is all about money, money, money and power ...

Unfortunately, in our current situation we can’t do without that instrument of distribution that is money, but we must at least eliminate the unlimited access to money and every privilege related to money. At this stage, we can’t do without money yet, but someday, if we are to reach communism, we will dispense with money (APPLAUSE).

There are already thousands of people here, tens of thousands, scholarship students, who do not use money, ... Of course, money is still the means to access many things: to go to the movies, to go here and there, for a great number of things – yet there are not enough things – and it exists as a means of distribution, but it is a bitter and transitional instrument that we must seek to abolish (APPLAUSE).

I fully understand the price of saying some of these things. Some outdated scholars of dull revolutionary sensitivity, some great-grandchildren of revolutionaries, call us idealists that postulate idealistic things which can’t be realized; there may even be some in the micro-faction that call this a petit bourgeois idealism. This may be a petit bourgeois idealism, but the grocery owner, the bar owner that earns 300 pesos, is not a petit bourgeois or anything. The rule of money, corruption through money, an instrument between man and the goods that man creates.

We are working, we are creating wealth; we see hundreds of thousands of people getting a job now, we see that work begets enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm leads to work, and that work creates abundant wealth. The Marxism that we think we understand is the Marxism of Karl Marx; we may be wrong; we can’t say that we are infallibly wise and that we are never wrong, but the kind of communism in which we believe is this communism that we are proclaiming here (APPLAUSE). And if we understand Karl Marx and his most profound ideas well, it is that real, fraternal, humane, generous communism for which we must struggle, and struggle we will, and we will promote it as it is the only one worthy of the struggle.

Besides, should there be material incentives here? Who can offer more material incentives that imperialism? With its developed economy, with its technically equipped industry it can offer more than anyone else, and indeed it does so; and in fact many of those that take their bags and leave under whatever pretext are shunning the reality of their homeland, they are shunning today’s work to go and live there as parasites in a way, to earn more and have all the things that are available in a country with a standard of living and income twenty times the average of an underdeveloped country, maybe not twenty times higher than Cuba’s, but maybe about six or seven times.

We will begin to close the gap by doing what we are doing. But many use the pretext of the Revolution, people who have no ideals, no spirit for struggle, and who are insensitive to everything, and migrate. Then the imperialist country uses the advantages of its standard of living to bribe whoever they can with offerings: the technicians, the lumpens, you name it; they take anyone. But they just have to wait and see!

Already there are some that have begun to rob things there; reportedly a plane was brought yesterday by three Cubans, of those who left, they got bored, grabbed a plane and brought it over here. The crew was talking nonsense and mysterious things, some guys ... And the truth is that we charged them and let them go. But we must remind them that they have quite a few of our boats and planes in the US which they have not returned to us and they must be returned, otherwise there is no reason for us to take the trouble to return them anything (APPLAUSE). There is even a helicopter; they have welcomed and still harbor people who have murdered boat crews. It is true that some of these crafts are oldies, but it is a moral problem, even if we use them as scrap. They, the Swiss Embassy and others, must start taking steps to put on a ship and bring here all those oldies; they cannot put the blame on us that the airplanes are here because they started it all, with their encouragement and training; and for many years they harassed us; they encouraged people saying " hijack a boat", "hijack a plane." We did not encourage such actions, but are in fact watching quietly how they reap the fruits of their shamelessness and piracy (APPLAUSE). They taught hideous crimes and are beginning to suffer the consequences that are coming in an absolutely spontaneous manner. They enjoyed making our country live through endless horrors and now see the consequences; you could almost say that there is an air route established by those who are hijacking planes for any reason, even for fun.

Naturally, with their standard of living as a developed economy, with an income that is incomparably superior to that of any developing country, imperialism can offer every kind of material incentives, and what can we do to counter that? What else should the Revolution do but to strengthen awareness, to raise all the moral values of the people? Like the internationalist feeling of solidarity, the sense of justice, of equality, of love for the homeland, of love for the people, of love for the struggle; like the satisfaction of facing a big, historic task and accomplishing it, of standing up to and overcoming difficulties. That's the kind of people that we must promote. Everything else is ridiculous. And the fruits of going too far down that road are also beginning to be seen elsewhere.

We will continue on our path; we will make our Revolution and we will do so primarily with our own efforts. Big indeed is the effort that we must make! The people that is not ready to strive has no right even to mention the word independence, sovereignty; not even to mention the word! Let’s struggle tirelessly, among other reasons, to minimize our dependence on whatever comes from abroad (APPLAUSE). Let’s struggle to the maximum! We have tasted the bitterness of having to depend to a considerable extent on what comes from abroad and know that such dependence can be turned into a weapon, and there may be at least a temptation to use it against the country.

Let us strive to be as independent as possible, whatever the cost!

Of course, that offended the "principle" of the micro-faction, that was a crime: dignity was a crime, the sense of shame was a crime, the Revolution was a crime!

The country is making efforts: it has made an effort in the field of fuel, of gasoline, considerable savings in fuel that have been diverted to the immense work of agriculture. The situation is tense; our machines are working day and night, and the situation is difficult in terms of fuel, of lubricants, but we are making the most of what we have and working to the maximum. This means that our machines will not stop, our plans will not remain unrealized. Besides, as the machines are not enough despite their numbers we are also resorting to the massive use of oxen, of animal traction, and we must educate the oxen and learn to handle them and have them do even more than the machines, and if the day comes when we have bigger fuel problems we will use the oxen to do part of the work that the machines do (APPLAUSE).

There is oil in our country’s subsoil. Our problem today is to drill the holes. And of course, the drilling operation is not easy. But of the 111,000 square kilometers of our country’s total area, 56,000 have oil structures; many parts of the country have been proven to have oil. We have to drill and drill deeper, and there is even premium-quality oil at different points at greater depths. We must direct our main effort to drilling.

The Guanabo well is producing 90 tons per day, and the well being drilled 125 meters from it has already produced some oil and it has a pressure at least twice that of the Guanabo well initially (APPLAUSE). And the country has fuel. Our challenge is drilling, and that’s where we are directing many of our efforts today; to agriculture, to hydraulics, fuel and drilling.

Naturally, our refineries are producing almost at their full capacity. Having three refineries producing at full capacity means that we will need to have additional ones in anticipation of repairs or any problem, including sabotage... We must reinforce security in our refineries and raise the revolutionary awareness of our workers as the CIA has always done every effort to strike us in that field and any sabotage against the refineries would be a heavy blow to the country at this time.

However, we will always have to import some fuel since not all the oil can be transformed into gasoline, diesel fuel, or whatever you want, but nature provides for certain proportions, and what we will have in larger quantities is diesel fuel.

Now, part of the gasoline that we are saving is being transferred as far as possible to diesel fuel...I mean, in refineries, within certain limits, we can increase the production of diesel fuel from gasoline. So, with some of the gasoline that is saved we are making diesel fuel and fuel oil. In addition, we have already initiated preparations to operate an asphaltites mine that will produce about half a million tons per year; also, studies are underway to use asphaltites in the production of cement, in electricity generation, in sugar mills, trying to make the most of our national resources. There are also plans to use the gas that is coming out in the Guanabo well to operate some industrial plants.

We are compelled by necessity to develop in the use, in the research and the earliest exploitation of our natural resources.

Our large deposits of nickel are also known.

Logically, we will need to make new investments in the field of nickel in view of the rise in nickel prices. But one day we should also produce steel, fuel and steel; the promotion of technical development and the massive training of technicians are key. Often times a machine stops operating because there is no rolled steel or steel bars, because we lack one thing or the other, and you can see that steel is needed everywhere.

We can produce steel, chrome, nickel; especially we can exploit nickel and with the byproduct – iron – develop the steel production. Such investments can’t be made right now, because at this point in time we should not make large investments that take years to yield but instead in what can immediately produce as much as possible: a small dam, a large dam, or whatever, but something that quickly produces goods, wealth and food. The effort is now on whatever can contribute to improving the situation in an immediate way, or in some other fields that have an immediate impact on development, like fertilizers and cement. Investments in the steel industry will have to be much larger, and will have to be made in the 1970-1975 period. Until 1970 we should concentrate our greatest efforts in the development of agriculture and in the rest of the fields in which we have been working. We should continue developing the fishing industry, transportation, the construction industry; and this year we will give a big boost to the field of hydraulics and roads, to put new lands into production and to create the conditions that will spare us from everything from drought to pests. We are usually hit by hurricanes but we are planning to erect sturdy windbreaks to protect plantations, so that a hurricane may knock down some crops in some parts of the country but will not destroy the plantations. This problem has required special attention. Numerous University research groups are working on these issues.

The Rector was telling me that we really have a university now, in terms of research and work; the university is actively involved in work and research and is throbbing and attentive to all the problems of the economy.

Therefore, we have already planned our way to 1970, and as of 1970 we will need to put great emphasis on other industrial investments.

However, agriculture will demand a great from us, as will the dairy industry that will require us to build many plants to produce powdered milk and cheese, for example. The agricultural development itself...the production of citrus fruits will compel us to build the necessary industries, as will the increase in coffee production; all of that, in brief. We have great tasks ahead of us in the coming years, but we are certainly profoundly convinced that we will begin to reap the fruits in a not distant future. And we hope that some of the difficulties we have now will not to prevail this year; however, we must always be prepared. What matters is the disposition of mind: if this year turns out better, good; and if is two times better, better still; but we should always be prepared for a similar or worse situation.

We should keep an undeterred disposition; we should not allow anyone to come and demoralize the revolutionaries, and not cease to strike back, to respond and to act. That is your duty, as well as ours, the revolutionary militants and the mass organizations.

We must learn a lesson from everything, every event and every experience should serve to strengthen the Revolution. We have come to understand that now is the time to launch a thorough, strong revolutionary offensive (APPLAUSE).

We should raise people’s reliability, spirit of work, revolutionary consciousness, the combativeness of the masses, so that the enemy will not feel encouraged. Because some gusanos¹⁶ and the imperialists have got encouragement from the fact that we have our opinions, by the fact that our country has its own personality and criteria in foreign policy, quite broad and absolutely independent.

But we should tell everyone – the micro-faction and the gusanos who are bound by the same umbilical cord – not to be encouraged by anything or anyone, that they should never forget that this Revolution was kept up by a handful of men, six, seven, twelve, and that this Revolution’s flag is being kept hoisted by the best, the noblest, the most courageous and most combative members of our people (APPLAUSE) who will know to live up to the hundredth anniversary of the start of our struggle for independence; a struggle for independence that was started by one generation and was culminated by this generation that will defend it to the last breath, to the last drop of their blood. Because when we say: Homeland or Death! we mean, Homeland or Death! We shall overcome!

 

(OVATION)
  
 

1 Translator’s Note: Illegible in the original text.

2 Translator’s Note: Illegible in the original text.

3 Translator’s Note: Text missing.

4 Translator’s Note: Unit of weight of between 11 and 16 kg (24-36 lbs) according to region.

5 Translator’s Note: One caballería of land has 13.4 hectares.

6 Translator’s Note: A news bulletin about the Havana Agricultural Belt.

7 Tranlastor’s Note: A person that spreads rumors.

8 Translator’s Note: ITM is the acronym in Spanish for Military Technical Institute.

9 Translator’s Note: (sic)

10 Translator’s Note: Number missing in the original text.

11 Translator’s Note: In this case, a stand or place where cooked food is sold.

12 Transtor’s Note: In this case, the owners of the stands or places where cooked food is sold.

13 Translator’s Note: A burger-shaped fried food suposedly made of minced meat.

14 Translator’s Note: A fried food made of any of various products including grated corn, taro and mandioca.

15 Translator’s Note: Iced sugar cane juice instantly extracted from the cane.

16 Translator’s Note: Counterrevolutionaries.