After spending almost one month in Chile, at the end of the first year of President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government, Fidel Castro addressed a mass meeting in the National Stadium in Santiago, warning about the dangers of fascism and the lessons of the Cuban revolution.
Beloved President;
Revolutionary Chileans;
Chileans:
President Allende’s words have made such an impact on us that we have to calm ourselves a bit. The president has said some very moving and courageous things, analyzing a number of current events. But in my case, although I have been a part of some of them, I am a visitor, and I must not concern myself with such events. We must and can speak of other things that are common to the interests of all our peoples. We must and can concern ourselves with other questions that are common to all revolutionary processes.
There’s one question that’s very common among Chileans, one we have run into almost everywhere and which reveals the great patriotic spirit and something of the patriotic pride of you Chileans. For you fill your lungs, breathe deeply and ask, “What do you think of our country?”—although you already know the answer, you already know what impression it has made. Or you ask, “How have you been treated in this country?”—although you already know how we feel toward those who truly love this land.
Of course, one can say many things about one’s impressions, about the majesty of the mountains, the blue of the sky, the beauty of the moon, your natural resources and your impressive landscape. But we aren’t geologists or naturalists. And, unfortunately, the only thing in the way of poetry that comes to mind is the refrain that attributes a little poetry and a little madness to everyone. I imagine you Chileans are also familiar with this refrain.
But there are other things that interest us far more. We are interested, above all, in the human landscape, in the people, in you Chileans.
We have dedicated our lives to the human question, the social question, the revolutionary question. What most stirs our interest is the struggle of the peoples and of humankind, the historical march of humanity, advancing from the human being who lived in primitive hordes to the human being of today. What interests us the most is the living spectacle of a process in its critical moments.
The march of humankind has been slow. Sometimes it has halted. Occasionally it has even gone backward. But it has also speeded up at times. And these are moments of crisis, these are revolutionary moments.
We haven’t come to Chile as tourists. We have visited Chile as revolutionaries, as friends, as supporters of this process and of this country. Here you must permit us a small difference of opinion with the president, though not a constitutional difference or one of protocol. He said that we hadn’t come to learn or to teach. And where I beg to differ with him is that although we are absolutely in agreement that we didn’t come to teach—and I don’t know what kind of fear exists in those who go around with their little libels saying that they have nothing to learn and who, in the very saying, are reflecting some kind of complex, some unconscious fear. Nevertheless, we would like to say in all frankness that we did come to learn.
But, let no one think that the libelers and seditious proponents of reactionary political theories were right when they said how great it was that we had come to learn about elections, parliament, certain kinds of freedom of the press and so on. That’s all very interesting, but we’ve already learned more than enough about those things. We’ve learned a great deal during the past 50 years about those bourgeois, capitalist freedoms; and we know only too well about their institutions. Now, we don’t say they aren’t good. Greek democracy was good, too, in its time. In its time the Roman republic, with its millions of slaves, its gladiator circuses and its Christians devoured by lions, also signified an extraordinary advance of human society. The medieval period was also considered an advance over primitive slavery, despite feudal servitude. The historic and famous French revolution also signified an advance over medieval society and the absolute monarchs who enjoyed prestige in their time—who were themselves once considered a step forward in the march of human progress. And there were even some so-called “enlightened despots.”
It was the advent of a new form of production, and the creation of new relationships of production and ownership and of the appropriation of products that gave rise to all those superstructures, once considered advances in the march of humanity.
But anyone claiming that any particular society or social system and the superstructure that it represents is eternal is mistaken, because history has proved otherwise. One social form succeeds another and is, in turn, succeeded by yet another, and so on, each new social form being superior to the old.
Even the bourgeoisie, in its era—before there was any such thing as a proletariat—was revolutionary, a revolutionary class, and led the people in the struggle for a new social form, led the peasants who were serfs of the feudal lords, and led the artisans. There was no such thing as a proletariat at the time. And human society continued its march.
To claim that the form which emerged two centuries ago is eternal, to claim that it is the highest expression of human advancement, to claim that humanity’s progress culminated with it, is simply ridiculous, from any historical or scientific point of view.
Moreover, all decadent social systems and societies have defended themselves when threatened with extinction. They have defended themselves with tremendous violence throughout history.
No social system resigns itself to disappearing from the face of the earth of its own free will. No social system resigns itself to revolution. As we said before, all those systems were once good. It is only today that they are condemned by history as decadent, as anachronistic. And anachronisms hang on just as long as they can. Anachronisms exist as long as the people lack the force to do away with them. Anachronisms exist only as long as they can’t be replaced. But just because something can’t be done away with at a given moment of a process doesn’t mean that it is here to stay.
In our country, which has known various forms of the exploitative state, those instruments that served the exploiters to repress the exploited, their institutions, have been changed. It is scarcely a secret that changes have taken place in Cuba.
In the Technological University, responding to a question, we said in effect that we were not representatives of democracy. We were not representatives of democracy! Much less when you know perfectly well who have been called representatives of democracy in this hemisphere!
And we said that in our country our people need no one to represent them because the people represent themselves.
Very profound changes have taken place in our country. Very profound! It is difficult to understand from a distance. It is very difficult to understand, especially through the prism of the lies and calumnies in which reactionaries have specialized throughout history. There is a difference between the revolutionary and the reactionary. The difference is that the revolutionary lives by inner convictions, by deep motivations, and to lie is a violation of character, the lie is a violation of a human being’s innermost feelings. The lie is the weapon of those in the wrong. The lie is the weapon of those with no argument. The lie is the weapon of those who disparage others and, above all, of those who disparage the people.
Truth, reason, ideas, thought, awareness and culture constitute the revolutionary’s arsenal and the weapon of the contemporary revolutionary is the correct interpretation of the scientific laws that govern the march of human society.
We do not lie, nor will we ever lie! And we are not afraid to confront any adversary in the realm of ideas. The truth will always emerge victorious in the long run. The task of the revolutionary above all is to arm the spirit, to arm the spirit! For it is true that no physical weapon is worth anything if the spirit is not well armed beforehand.
We don’t expect you to understand the problems of our country from such a distance. We don’t expect that. It isn’t even a basic question. All we mean when we say we came here to learn is that we didn’t come to learn about decadence or anachronisms in human history. Nor are we fundamentally interested in the day or the hour, how or when a people decides to sweep away the anachronisms. No one anywhere will sweep them away unless they are able. No one can sweep them away before their time. But may they always be swept away as soon as possible.
We have come to learn about a living process. We have come to learn how the laws of human society operate. We have come to see something extraordinary. A unique process is taking place in Chile. Something more than unique: Rare! Rare! It is the process of a change. It is a revolutionary process in which revolutionaries are trying to carry out changes peacefully. A unique process, practically the first in human history—we won’t even say in the history of contemporary societies. It is unique in the history of humankind, trying to carry out a revolutionary process by legal and constitutional methods, using the very laws established by the society or by the reactionary system, the very mechanism, the very forms that the exploiters created to maintain their class domination.
So it is really something unique, something rare.
And what has our attitude been? We, the revolutionaries, did nothing unique, nothing unusual. The Cuban revolutionaries at least have the merit of having had the first socialist revolution in Latin America. But we don’t have the merit of having made it in an unusual and unique form. But what has our attitude been? Solidarity with the process in Chile. Solidarity with the people who have chosen this road. Our understanding, our moral support, our curiosity, our interest.
Because, as we have said on other occasions, revolutionaries did not invent violence. It was class society throughout history that created, developed and imposed its system, always through repression and violence. In every epoch, the instigators of violence have been the reactionaries. Violence has been imposed on the people in every epoch by the reactionaries.
We observe, and the world observes with enormous interest, how this Chilean process is developing today, even with the present correlation of world forces.
For us, then, this constitutes an extraordinary event.
We have been asked on several occasions—in an academic way—if we consider that a revolutionary process is taking place here. And we have said without the slightest hesitation: Yes! But when a revolutionary process is begun, or when the moment arrives in a country when what can be called a revolutionary crisis occurs, then the struggle and the battles become tremendously acute. The laws of history are brought to bear.
Anyone who has lived in this country three weeks, anyone who has seen and analyzed the factors, the first measures taken by the Popular Unity government—measures that hit hard at powerful imperialist interests, measures that culminated in the recuperation of the basic wealth of the nation, measures characterized by the advancement of social sectors and by the application of the law of agrarian reform (which was not passed by the Popular Unity government, but which had been passed previously and only timidly applied)—these measures, it can be said, have proved the great historical fact that a process of change generates a dynamic of struggle. The measures already carried out, which constitute the beginning of a process, have released social dynamics, the class struggle; they have released the fury and resistance—as is true in all social processes of change—of the exploiters, the reactionaries.
All right. The question that immediately strikes a visitor observing this process is whether or not the historical law of resistance and violence by the exploiters will be fulfilled. We have said that there is no case in history in which the reactionaries, the exploiters, the privileged members of a social system, resigned themselves to change, resigned themselves to peaceful change.
Therefore, this is, in our opinion, a matter of vital importance, an aspect that has aroused our interest and which has taught us a great deal in the past few days. Yes, gentlemen—especially those who didn’t want me to come here to learn—I have learned a great deal. I have learned how the social laws operate, how the revolutionary process operates, how each sector reacts and how the various forces struggle. We have gone through these experiences. And we’ve felt it in our own flesh—not because our flesh was bruised by a rock or a bullet. I haven’t even seen a rock—not even at a distance. As a visitor, as a friend, as a person in solidarity with you, I have felt another type of aggression, with which I am more than familiar: an aggression in the form of insults and campaigns.
We do not ignore the fact that our visit might very well aggravate a number of problems. In fact, it might even be a stimulus to those who wanted to create difficulties for the Popular Unity government. At a time when, according to what is being said, there are hundreds and hundreds of journalists here from all over the world covering our visit; at a time when people all over the world—in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America—are talking about this visit, about this meeting between Chileans and Cubans, between two processes which had such different beginnings; at a time when the image of Chile is in everyone’s mind, it is obvious that this visit might cause some irritation, some feeling of discomfort, some exasperation which, in turn, might lead to the worsening of certain attitudes.
As a visitor, representing the people of Cuba, I have received extraordinary affection. We have had the opportunity to appreciate, to see how these phenomena are manifested.
Unquestionably, the person visiting this country was not Benito Mussolini. The person visiting this country was not Adolf Hitler. The person visiting was not a fascist, or a tool of the Yankee monopolies. The person visiting this country was not a friend of the powerful and the privileged. The person visiting this country was a friend of the humble people, a friend of the workers, a friend of the farmers, a friend of the students, a friend of the people!
This is why, after having been invited by the president, when we spoke with Chilean compañeros and they asked us what we would like to see on our visit here, we said we wanted to see the mines, the saltpeter, the copper, the iron, the coal, the workplaces, the agricultural centers, the universities, the mass organizations, the parties of the left, everything and everyone; we wanted to talk with the revolutionaries and even with those who, though they could not be considered revolutionaries, were decent people. We could not think of a better way to spend our visit.
And this is the way our visit was organized.
Why did we want it this way? Because we know where we can find our friends, among which social class. We know that wherever the workers, the farmers, the people of humble origin are, there we find our friends.
And that is why we got the kind of reception we received everywhere—in every town, university and agricultural region—the extraordinary reception we got in every workplace without exception. In every one of them! In fact, even in those places where the reactionaries had done their best to confuse the thinking of the workers. Even there!
The spirit of the workers, of the humble people, of those who create wealth with their sweat, was the same spirit the law of history dictates. This is why we took the opportunity to confirm this; how this phenomenon arises despite the deluge of calumny and lies about Cuba emanating from the news agencies controlled by the Yankee monopolies. Despite all their efforts, what did they achieve?
Naturally, we didn’t expect to be given a friendly reception from those interests opposed to the workers, the farmers and the humble people of this country. You’d have to be out of your mind to think that. We knew that our presence here wouldn’t be welcomed by the powerful, the landowners, the reactionaries.
In a nutshell, Chileans, we didn’t expect to be given a warm welcome by the fascists.
And, I repeat, we have learned something else. We have witnessed the verification of another law of history—we have seen fascism in action. We have been able to confirm a fact of modern day life: that the desperation of the reactionaries, the desperation of the exploiters today leads toward the most brutal, most savage forms of violence and reaction.
You all know the history of fascism in many countries, in those countries that are the cradle of that movement. You are all familiar with the history of how the privileged, the exploiters, destroy the institutions they once created—the very institutions they established to maintain their class domination, the laws, the constitution, the parliament—when they are no longer of any use to them. When I say they invent a constitution, I mean a bourgeois constitution, because the socialist revolutions create their own constitutions and forms of democracy.
What do the exploiters do when their own institutions no longer guarantee their domination? How do they react when the mechanisms they depend on historically to maintain their domination fail them? They simply go ahead and destroy those institutions. Nothing is more anti-constitutional, more illegal, more anti-parliamentarian, more repressive and more criminal than fascism.
Fascism, in its violence, wipes out everything. It attacks, closes and crushes the universities. It attacks the intellectuals, represses them and persecutes them. It attacks the political parties and trade unions. It attacks all mass organizations and cultural organizations.
Therefore, there is nothing more violent, more reactionary, more illegal than fascism. And we have been able to confirm, in this unique process, the manifestations of that law of history in which the reactionaries and the exploiters, in their desperation—and mainly supported from the outside—generate that political phenomenon, that reactionary current: fascism.
We say this in all sincerity; we have had the opportunity to see fascism in action. We sincerely believe that nothing else could teach us as much as this visit has.
Of course, it is said that nothing can teach the people as much as a revolutionary process itself. Every revolutionary process teaches the people things that would otherwise take dozens of years to learn.
This raises a question: Who will learn more and sooner? Who will develop more of an awareness faster? The exploiters or the exploited? Who will be quicker to learn the lessons of this process? The people or the enemies of the people?
Are you absolutely sure—you, the protagonists in this drama being written by your country—are you completely sure that you have learned more than your exploiters have?
Then, allow me to say that I disagree—not with the president, but with the masses.
Tomorrow there’ll be a headline in some paper somewhere in the world, reading, “Castro disagrees with the masses.” We disagree on one aspect of the appreciation of the situation.
In this sort of dialogue on scientific and historical matters, we can say that we are not completely sure that in this unique process the people, the humble people—who constitute the majority of the population—have learned more rapidly than the reactionaries, than the old exploiters.
And there’s something else: The rulers of the social system that revolutions transform have had many years of experience to their credit, many, many years of experience! They went on accumulating experience, culture, technology and tricks of every kind to use against revolutionary processes. They confront the people, who lack all that experience, know-how and technology, armed with this experience and technology accumulated over the years.
If you don’t mind our speaking frankly, and as we have said, we are incapable of lying: We may be wrong, we may get the wrong impression about certain things, but we will never say anything we don’t believe. We sincerely believe that the enemy, the reactionaries, have learned much quicker than the masses.
Is it because the people lack something? Is it because the people of Chile lack patriotic virtues, character, courage, intelligence and firmness? No! We have been deeply impressed by the qualities of the Chilean people. And yet, when we spoke with the farmers here, after having chatted with them for half an hour, we asked them how far they’d gone in school, and they answered, “We don’t even know how to read or write.”
We were deeply impressed by the fiery Chilean character. Everywhere we went, at receptions, during our tours, we witnessed this courage, this determination; we saw how the people swarmed over our cars. Moreover, very often we saw how the women, holding children in their arms, stood firmly across the road, with an impressive determination and courage.
We have seen in the Chilean people qualities that our people lacked in the early days of the revolution: a higher level of culture, a higher level of political culture. Listen to this carefully! A higher level of political culture, a much higher level of political culture! This is because the situation in our country was different from here, where, for example, there was an electoral victory for the Marxist parties, and other organizations that supported those parties.
In regard to political culture, you have started from a higher level than ours. Moreover, you start from a patriotic tradition dating back 150 years, a national tradition which dates back 150 years. You start from a much higher level of patriotic awareness, a higher awareness of the problems in your country.
Imperialist ideology had made deep inroads in our country. Our country had been invaded by the imperialist culture, by the way of life and the customs of that society so close to us, US society.
Therefore, in that sense, we were much weaker than you. You can see that there is a whole series of factors that reveal your people started from a much higher level than we did. From the economic standpoint, Chile has more resources than Cuba. Chile has an incomparably higher level of economic development than Cuba based on natural resources which it now owns. In other words, Chile now owns its own copper, where 30,000 workers produce close to one billion dollars in foreign exchange. It produces oil, almost two million tons. It has hydroelectric power resources, iron, coal, a food industry much more highly developed than Cuba’s, and a textile industry. In other words, you start from a technological and industrial level much higher than the one that existed in Cuba.
Therefore, all the human conditions, all the social conditions necessary for progress exist in this country.
However, you are faced with something we didn’t have to face. In our country, the oligarchs, the landowners, the reactionaries, didn’t have the experience that their colleagues here have. Over there, the landowners and the oligarchs weren’t in the least concerned about social changes. They said, “The Americans”—they called everyone from the United States “Americans”—”will take care of that problem. There can’t be a revolution here!” And they lay back to wait.
This is not the case in Chile, though!
The reactionaries and the oligarchs here are much better prepared than they were in Cuba. They are much better organized and better armed to resist changes, from the ideological standpoint. They have all the weapons they need to wage a battle on every front in the face of the advancing process. A battle on the economic front, on the political front, and on the front of the masses—I repeat—on the front of the masses!
Now then, that is the essential difference, but there are others. There are others! I won’t discuss them because they concern totally different issues.
However, when our revolution won, when it began—we say that January 1 marked the triumph of the revolution, but, historically, we consider it as the beginning of the process—we also met with some resistance. Don’t ever think that the reactionaries and oligarchs in Cuba never put up any resistance. There was plenty of it! They resorted to everything they had, to every weapon at hand, with the direct aid of the imperialists. They challenged us on every front—mark my words—on every front. They fought us on the ideological front. They tried to fight us on the front of the masses and they fought us on the front of armed struggle.
It might be said of us that we started a process of armed struggle in Cuba, but we did not invent armed resistance. That’s something that comes at a high price. The armed resistance of reaction cost our country more blood and more victims than the revolutionary war. Just listen to this: More people were killed as a result of reactionary violence than during the revolutionary war. The struggle cost us hundreds upon hundreds of lives, hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars. This is because of the sabotage, the bands of armed mercenaries practically all over our territory, the infiltration of spies, the dropping of weapons by parachute; all these things cost us many years of struggle. The mercenary invasion of the Bay of Pigs, the threats at the time of the October [Missile] Crisis—a crisis brought on by the imperialists—have forced us to keep fighting all these years.
All right, now we have beaten them everywhere. We beat them first on the ideological front; second, on the front of the masses; and third, on the front of armed struggle!
In our opinion, the problem of violence in these processes—including the Cuban process—once the revolution is in power, does not depend on the revolutionaries. It would be absurd, incomprehensible and illogical for revolutionaries to engage in violence when they have an opportunity to advance, to create, to work, to march toward the future. Therefore, it isn’t the revolutionaries who promote violence in these circumstances. And, in case you didn’t know this, you’ll find out through experience.
That’s the experience we went through when the Cuban revolutionary movement won.
Don’t ever think that we had it easy! Believe me, it wasn’t. And you can believe something else, too. There were more political parties in Cuba than there are here! We had everything there. Therefore, you shouldn’t be discouraged. There were all sorts of differences, but, on the other hand, there was always a drive to unite, an awareness of the need to unite, to increase our forces. That’s one thing that was never lacking.
You all know that in our country the parties were not merged by decree. No one should think that the parties had to merge. No! In Cuba, the revolutionary forces gradually merged together. It was a gradual process that took years.
Today, there’s one revolutionary force in Cuba—the revolutionary force of the people of Cuba.
I have no idea how many people are here now. You might know more or less how many. But I can tell you that it takes 10 minutes to get as many people together in Cuba. And we can get together 10 times as many in a couple of hours! And yet the population of our capital is two-thirds the population of Santiago de Chile.
Our country has reached a high level of unity, a high level of revolutionary awareness. A very sound, really solid form of patriotism has been created, which makes our country a bulwark of the revolution and one trench among the nations of America that the imperialists will never be able to destroy.
We were simply amazed when we heard the president [Allende] say that a very important newspaper in Washington—or New York—has published statements by a high-ranking government official who said “the days of the popular government in Chile are numbered.”
I would like to point out—regardless of the rudeness and intrusion, the unheard-of prophecy, the offense and insolence—that it’s been many a year since some crazy US official had the idea of saying that the days of the Cuban revolution were numbered.
It would be logical, in view of a statement like that, not only to get angry, to protest the insult to one’s dignity, to protest against the offense, but also to ask what makes them believe such a thing and why they feel so confident about it. What kind of calculations did they make? What computers did they put into operation to figure this out? This doesn’t mean that Yankee computers don’t make mistakes. In the case of the Bay of Pigs, the Pentagon’s computers, the CIA’s computers, the US government’s computers, everybody’s computers were wrong—a million times wrong.
Nevertheless, one must ask what are the grounds for such optimism, for such an assurance, and where does the encouragement come from. And you are the only ones who can supply the answer.
Or maybe you’d be interested in hearing the opinion of a visitor who is not a tourist? Do I have your permission to express it?
All those in favor, raise their hands.
Well, in view of the permission granted me in this sort of plebiscite to express my opinion in such matters, I say that this confidence is based on the very weakness of the revolutionary process, on weaknesses in the ideological battle, on weaknesses in the mass struggle, on weakness in the face of the enemy! And the enemy abroad, which supports the enemy at home, tries to take advantage of the slightest breach, of the slightest weakness. In fact, we should say that it is the result of weakness in the effort to consolidate your forces, to unite them and to increase them.
You’re going through a period that is very special, albeit not a new one, in the matter of class struggle. There are countless examples of this. You’re going through that period in the process in which the fascists—to call them by their right name—are trying to beat you to the streets; they are trying to isolate you from the middle strata of the population. There is a specific moment in every revolutionary process when fascists and revolutionaries engage in a struggle for the support of the middle strata.
The revolutionaries are honest. They don’t go around telling lies. They don’t go around sowing terror and distress or cooking up terrible schemes.
The fascists stop at nothing. They’ll try to find the weakest spot. They’ll invent the most incredible lies. They’ll try to sow terror and unrest among the middle strata by telling the most incredible lies. Their objective is to win over the middle strata. Moreover, they’ll appeal to the basest sensibilities. They will try to arouse feelings of chauvinism—that narrow-minded nationalism—and all sorts of selfish feelings. They will resort to every method they can think of. They will try to arouse feelings of chauvinism, arouse the lowest passions, arouse the most groundless terror. The fascists stop at nothing.
We’ve seen it here, because we had the opportunity to see certain things during our long, hectic trip—long in distance and long in time (and here we are in agreement with the complainers)—we’ve had an opportunity to hear the lies, the sort of things they say. Where were they aimed? With respect to our visit, what was the purpose of all these lies? To be honest, there was only one way to visit this country and that was by remaining speechless, by not uttering a word. What they wanted was a deaf-mute or something like that—and someone who wouldn’t even use sign language, because it’s possible to say a great many things by signing. First there was the pharisaical attitude: “He’s here. He was received. We hope he will remember where he is, that he will mind his own affairs.” Then, later, the business with the pie, “The man eating a pinon pie,” and “The man having his picture taken with the girls with the hot pants.” Then the lies: “Fidel hooted at in Los Andes,” and “Fidel gets cold welcome in Chuquicamata.”
It’s always the same story, an attempt to arouse chauvinism, to present every gesture, every attitude, every word, every answer to a question put by a student, as meddling. We have seen this day after day, how everything is used as a pretext to arouse mistrust, fear and resentment. They are quite adept at this kind of thing. And, from our standpoint as observers we see how the fascists are trying to make headway and gain ground among the middle strata, and to beat you to the streets. They are trying to demoralize the revolutionaries. There are places where we have found the revolutionaries looking hard hit, and there are places where they even appeared discouraged.
If we weren’t sincere, if we didn’t believe in the truth, we wouldn’t dare say what we just said. It might even sound as if we were saying something that the enemy might use to its advantage, to gain ground. No! The only way in which the enemy can gain ground is by deceit, by confusion, by ignorance, by lack of awareness about the problems!
If you want my opinion, the success or the failure of this unusual process will depend on the ideological battle and the mass struggle. It will also depend on the revolutionaries’ ability to grow in numbers, to unite and to win over the middle strata of the population. This is because in our countries—less developed countries—these middle strata are quite large and are susceptible to lies and deceit. However, in the ideological struggle, no one is ever won over except through the truth, sound arguments and by right. There is no question about that.
Yes, I hope you will win. We want you to win. And we believe that you will win!
There was something today that made a deep impression on us, and that was the words of the president, especially when he reaffirmed his commitment to defend the cause of the people and the will of the people. Most especially when he made a history-making statement—that he was the president by the will of the people and that he would fulfill his duty until his term was over or until his body was taken out of the palace. Those of us who know him know very well that the president is not a person of words but a person of deeds. All of us who know his character know that this is the way he is.
When you can count on such a sense of dignity; when the people know they can depend on the person who represents them today and who, in those few words, expressed his determination to resist the attacks of the enemy abroad who are complicit with the reactionaries at home; when the people know this and the enemy knows it, too, that in itself means assurance, confidence, a banner.
And as Latin Americans, we congratulate the president for his courageous, dignified statement.
We saw how the people reacted to the president’s words.
[Responding to someone in the audience]
I wouldn’t put it that way, “By right or by force.” There are phrases that are historical, which have a value in themselves due to their historic character, and have become symbols. By right, by the force of right and by the physical power and the people’s power that accompanies right!
When the chiefs, the leaders, are ready to lay down their lives for a cause, the men and the women of the people are ready to lay down their lives too!
The people are the makers of history. The people write their own history. The masses make history. No reactionary, no imperialist enemy can crush the people! And our country’s recent history proves this!
How did we manage to resist and why? Because of the unity of our people, because of the strength that such unity generates.
We said that it would take two hours for us to get together 10 times as many people as there are here now. And we also say that we can have 600,000 people in arms within 24 hours!
A close, unbreakable unity between the people and the armed forces has been created in our country. This is why we say our defense is strong.
There’s something that experts in the history of war and professional soldiers know: The individual plays a decisive role in battle; moral factors play a decisive role in battle; and morale of the combatant plays a decisive role in battle. Those familiar with history and great military deeds know that when the forces are united, inspired and deeply motivated, they can overcome any obstacle. They can assail and take any position and make the most incredible sacrifices.
What is it that gives our people this deep motivation in their defense against threats from outside? The fact that, when it comes to defending our homeland, that homeland is not divided into millionaires and paupers, wealthy landowners with all the privileges in the world and miserable peasants without land or work, living a life of poverty; the fact that our homeland is not divided into oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited, ladies overloaded with jewelry and girls forced to lead a life of prostitution. Our homeland is not divided into privileged and dispossessed.
When our campesinos are called to form part of the armed forces, they know that they will not be defending a country of exploiters and oppressors, a country of privileged men and women, but rather a country of all the people and for all the people, a country that provides bread for all instead of abundance for some and hunger for others, instead of honors and grandeur for some and humiliation for others.
We have seen this, we have experienced all this—the deep motivation, the spirit of our people, of men and women, everybody, in combat. They know what they are fighting for. They have developed a great awareness of what dignity means. Ours is a people united behind a just cause, a people defending its own cause, defending a flag which means more now than it ever did before.
The people are so noble, and patriotic feelings are so aroused in them that even in class societies, in a society of exploiters and exploited, they have been capable of fighting and dying because they had a symbol of the homeland, an idea of what homeland meant, for which they were willing to lay down their lives. Even though they were the humble, the scorned and the exploited in that homeland, they still defended it!
Imagine their motivations, their degree of heroism, when they know that they are defending a country that is theirs in the fullest sense of the word!
No people, no armed force, has more power to fulfill the sacred duty of defending the homeland than where exploiters and exploited are a thing of the past. In other words, where the exploitation of human beings has disappeared.
It is not by accident that history taught us a lesson not too long ago. In World War II, which brought about the collapse of a number of powerful armies, what was it that the fascists did to attack Europe, to invade France, Belgium, Holland and practically all of the western world? They sowed their fifth column, promoted division and morally disarmed the people. When the fascist hordes attacked with their armor, when their motorized divisions broke through, they made their greatest gains from the demoralization of the people.
But when one day, two years later—in June 1941—four million experienced veterans of that same fascist army launched a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union, what did they find? They found stiff resistance, from the very first moment, from the very first day, from the very first hours. They found a people ready to fight and to die, a people who lost 18 million lives, who had the most extraordinary experience of war in recent times.
And don’t let it be said that the Westerners learned how to fight! With fabulous superiority in their favor, and at a time when the Nazi army was practically destroyed, they landed in Normandy and reached the border with no difficulty. And then, in that famous episode of the Ardennes, a few armored divisions pushed them back scores of miles.
Now then, the fascists threw more than 300 divisions into their attack on the Soviet Union, and the people of the Soviet Union resisted and put up a fight. What a mistake the fascists made! They thought the whole thing would be like a military parade—but that treacherous attack ended in Berlin. And it was the Soviet army that crushed the fascist hordes!
Here we have a perfect lesson from history. Never before, notwithstanding the proverbial patriotism of that nation, had they put up such a heroic, determined resistance. This was because the society of the feudal lords and serfs, of the czars with their absolute power, no longer existed. The socialist state resisted even more. And what’s really extraordinary is that this socialist state, made up largely of peasants, became the strong industrial power it is today, and the country which has helped small nations such as Vietnam and Cuba to resist such great dangers as imperialism.
Military men know what a people united, militant and deeply motivated means: that such a people makes victory possible, that such a people can beat all odds against them and that such a people can demonstrate all kinds of heroism.
We mentioned the French revolution. You will recall that when the bourgeoisie was a revolutionary class and led the people, the same thing happened—the country, invaded by a great many nations, not only resisted but went on to defeat the aggressors. This is because, in a revolution, the people become united when age-old injustices disappear, and forces come forward that nothing and nobody can defeat.
Somebody, a historian of that revolution, once said, “When a people embarks on revolution no force in the world can stop it.” This is why we say that our country is powerful and united. We have made progress and we feel satisfied. However, if you’ll allow me to express, in all sincerity, one of our conclusions and one of our impressions to you Chileans—who are so curious, who are so interested in impressions—I’ll tell you an impression that comes from my very heart. When I see history unfolding, when I see these struggles, when I see how hard the reactionaries are trying to demoralize the people, when I see the means they resort to, I come to one conclusion, one that comes from the bottom of my heart: I will return to Cuba more of a revolutionary than when I came here! I will return to Cuba more of a radical than when I came here! I will return to Cuba more of an extremist than when I came here!
I am trying to express an idea. When we wish to express something we try to find the words to reflect our ideas. The lessons I have learned and the experiences I’ve gone through make me feel more and more identified with the process our country has gone through; they make me feel an even greater love for our revolution; they make me appreciate our successes and our progress.
I don’t want to dwell on this subject.
I am deeply grateful for your kindness and patience. You know I must leave and you know that you don’t need me here.
I am very grateful for those words that I take as a kind of apology for those who tried to throw a wet blanket on my visit, demanding that I leave and practically promoting a law to have me expelled.
Yesterday, we were even joking about it, and we did joke about it until yesterday. However, today, we are not in the mood for joking, having read about something I won’t comment on. I’ll only refer to the way one feels when one reads news of injuries, of fires, and of a lot of things that happened when we were having a reception in the Cuban embassy, attended by more than 600 prominent Chileans. And, until then, we’d be joking and saying, “What are the requirements for becoming a Chilean citizen?” There was a lawyer there and we asked him, “How long does it take? How long does one have to reside here?” and, “Where are the forms that should be filled out? I want to fill out one of those forms,” and things like that.
It was all right to joke at all the insults and the rest. In fact, I was tempted to carry the joke a little further. After all, you wouldn’t deny a Latin American the right to become a Chilean citizen, provided he met all the requirements, would you? Maybe in 10 or 20 years? I don’t know. The whole thing was a joke.
To a certain extent, we feel that we are the children of a whole community, part of a world much larger than Cuba and Chile, and that is Latin America.
The day will come when we’ll all have the same citizenship, without losing one iota of our love for our homeland, for that corner of our hemisphere where we were born; for our flags, which will be sister flags; for our anthems, which will be sister anthems; for our traditions, which will be sister traditions; and for our cultures, which will be sister cultures. The day will come when our peoples will have the power to take an honored place in the world, when the powerful will no longer be able to insult us, when the empire, proud and arrogant, will no longer be able to threaten us with tragedy and defeat or make any other kind of threat. Because it is not the same thing to threaten a small country as it is to threaten a union of sister nations that may become a large and powerful community in the world of tomorrow.
The day will come when reactionary ideology will be defeated, when all narrow-minded nationalism, the ridiculous chauvinism which the reactionaries and the imperialists utilize to maintain a situation of division and hostility among our peoples, peoples who speak the same language, who can understand one another as we understand each other now will be defeated. Reactionary ideology makes for division.
For America to be united and become “Our America,” the America Martí spoke of, it will be necessary to eradicate every last vestige of those reactionaries who want the peoples to be weak so they can hold them in oppression and in subjection to foreign monopolies. After all, that is nothing but the expression of a reactionary philosophy, the philosophy of exploitation and oppression.
Allow me, not to extend my visit, but only to express a few more ideas, if I may.
What is it that we want to say? Among other things, an elementary expression of gratitude to all those with whom we have been in contact—and we’ve had ample contact with the people of Chile. We have met and talked at length with the workers, the students, the campesinos and the people in general in our visits to so many places here. We have talked with journalists and intellectual workers and with economists and technicians, like those in the ECLA. We have met and talked with deputies, with the leaders of the parties of Popular Unity, with the leaders of the organizations of the left; with everybody.
We have met with the workers’ representatives. We have met with the women of Chile. We have met with the cardinal of Chile. We have met with more than 100 progressive priests who make up quite an impressive movement. We have talked with members of the army, the navy and the carabineers. We were met with affection and respect everywhere. And we have tried our very best to answer all the questions put to us.
Of all these meetings, those that provoked the greatest irritation and criticism were the meetings with the cardinal, the meetings with the progressive priests and the meetings with the members of the army, the navy, the air force and the carabineers.
It is necessary that we explain the essence of these meetings and the reason why they came about. Have we, perhaps, been engaged in a campaign of demagoguery or acted in contradiction to our own convictions? We say this because we noticed the special emphasis that was placed on a number of these things.
It could be said that if anyone had to bear as many insults as I did it was the cardinal. We had many things to talk about with the Christian left and with the Chilean priests, many, many things based on principles rather than on opportunism, on profound reason, on convictions rather than on profits; based on the possibility—and the need—of bringing together this Latin American community of Marxist revolutionaries and Christians, the Marxist revolutionaries and the Christian revolutionaries.
We spoke at length with the priests about the foundations for our convictions now and always. Let’s not confuse these meetings with the problems that the oligarchs in our country created by trying to use the church to fight the revolution!
We have often spoken of the history of Christianity—that Christianity which gave rise to so many martyrs, to so many people who sacrificed themselves defending their faith. Those who can lay down their lives for the sake of their faith will always have our deepest respect. However, we will never feel the slightest respect for those who defend illegitimate interests—their egotism, their full stomachs—and who are incapable of sacrificing their lives for anything or anyone.
We examined the many points of coincidence that might exist between the purest precepts of Christianity and the objectives of Marxism. There are many who have tried to use religion to defend exploitation, poverty and privilege; to transform peoples’ lives in this world into a hell, forgetting that Christianity was the religion of the humble, of the slaves of Rome, of the tens of thousands who were devoured by the lions in the arena and who had very definite ideas about human solidarity or human love, and condemned greed, gluttony and selfishness.
That was a religion which, 2,000 years ago, called the merchants and Pharisees by their name, which condemned the rich and said that they would not enter the kingdom of heaven. That was the religion which multiplied the loaves and the fishes—precisely what the revolutionary today intends to do with technology, with human hands, with the rational, planned development of the economy.
When you search for the similarities between the objectives of Marxism and the most beautiful precepts of Christianity, you will find many points of coincidence. You will see why a humble priest who knows what hunger means because he is in close contact with it, who knows what sickness and death and human pain mean, or why some of those priests who practice their religion among the miners or among humble peasant families become identified with them and fight shoulder to shoulder with them. You will see why there are unselfish people who devote their whole lives to the care of people afflicted with the worst diseases.
When you find all those points of coincidence you will see how such a strategic alliance between Marxist revolutionaries and Christian revolutionaries is possible.
The imperialists—and, of course, all the reactionaries—don’t want such an alliance to take place.
We also spoke at length with the military. And when we say military we mean members of every branch of the armed forces. However, these talks came about spontaneously. They were not planned. They were the result of the official attention given us, of the extraordinary attentions with which the president, the ministers and other government authorities showered us. At the airports, everywhere, those in uniform and their representatives were there, too. Thus, a series of conversations took place, spontaneously, at the receptions and during our meetings with the authorities. It was obvious that those in uniform and our delegation had many things to talk about.
In the first place, our country has been forced to live through a tremendous experience. We, the Cuban revolutionaries, had to go through many unique experiences during the various stages of our struggle. First, as irregular fighters, in the beginning. Then as fighters with certain ideas and tactics of struggle. We, the Cuban revolutionaries, were forced to fight against great odds throughout our revolutionary war.
We went through many stages—adversity, success, very difficult moments and total victory. Later, we went through other experiences—our country was invaded by mercenary bands and we had to fight them for years. These bands were armed with the best weapons made in the United States, radio equipment and other war materiel.
We have lived through the experience of the Bay of Pigs and through the experience of the October [Missile] Crisis, when our country lived through days of tension and danger, when our country was threatened by dozens of nuclear missiles.
We have lived through the experience of having to organize combat units in the face of a real, a great danger. We have had to develop powerful armed forces, create schools, learn how to handle modern armaments, learn new combat techniques. We have studied the experience, the reports and the documents of the last world war.
Undoubtedly, from the technical point of view, from the professional point of view, there were many things we might have discussed. Interest in Cuba’s experience, Cuba’s process, and the natural curiosity about historical events that everyone possesses. In addition, there were issues of a human nature, the competence, efficiency, traditions and history of each country, the present and the future. What will be the future of our peoples in the face of the technological gaps that are growing between the developed nations and those that have been left behind? What are the prospects in weapons, the new systems of armaments?
That is, from both the professional and human points of view, as things related to the future of our peoples, there were plenty of broad themes of this kind on which our talks developed.
We had the chance to meet many very talented, upright, efficient people, many worthy individuals, thanks to those talks. We had the chance to speak on matters related to our traditions. We have learned—all of us—many things.
So was this a sin? Was this a conspiracy? Was this a crime? Was there anything that anyone could feel offended by? And why, since we talked with the priests, the cardinal and the ECLA technicians, shouldn’t we talk with those in uniform in Chile? Why did they fear these talks so much? Whom have we offended with them?
Even during the revolutionary war [in Cuba] we held talks. While fighting, we held talks with the enemy, and we discussed things. While fighting, we analyzed who was right and who was wrong. If we talked with those fighting against us, why shouldn’t we talk with those who treated us with every courtesy, kindness, every consideration and full respect?
This is why we would also like to express our thanks to them today for their attention—today, December 2, which, without anyone’s planning it this way, is singularly appropriate for this, as it marks the 15th anniversary of the landing of the Granma, which brought a group of 82 combatants to a swampy coast in Cuba.
Comparing all of Batista’s forces to ours, the odds were a thousand to one. In all, counting the various branches, he had around 80,000 combatants. A few days later, our situation was much worse, and only seven of us armed men regrouped. The odds: Ten thousand to one, or even greater. A little more than ten thousand. Ten thousand to one! And we weren’t unnerved. We didn’t lose heart!
Perhaps this will help you to understand why we aren’t afraid to show what the weaknesses of the revolutionaries or of a process are at a given time.
Ten thousand to one! And we didn’t lose heart. We kept on going, overcoming very difficult circumstances, and always fighting against overwhelming odds. Even at the end of the war, the odds were a little over 20 to one against us. That’s what our process has gone through.
I’m telling you this, Chilean revolutionaries, in relation to this day, which it is our duty to commemorate, in order to show that there’s no way on earth to defeat a revolutionary people, a people armed with a doctrine, with an idea; a people determined to defend a cause—there’s no way on earth to crush it.
We have said this so that there may never be any discouragement in the revolutionary ranks! So there may never be discouragement! So morale may never be other than at its peak! The actions of the enemy don’t matter! We must always say, “Forward!”
Revolutionaries are moved by profound motivations, by great ideas. They do not promote fear. No! Even though they are familiar with the fate of crushed revolutions. To cite two examples: The revolution of the Roman slaves, led by Spartacus, which was crushed by the oligarchs, and cost the lives of tens of thousands of people who were nailed to crosses along the roads leading to Rome; and the revolution of the Paris communards which was drowned in blood.
We could cite some more recent examples. Every time a revolution gets under way, fascism appears along with all its tricks and schemes, all its maneuvers, all its hypocrisy and pharisaism, all its tactics of promoting fear and making use of lies and the most criminal methods. But there’s nothing to fear! Fight back with arguments! Fight back with reason! Fight back with the truth! Fight back with conviction! Fight back without fear of the consequences of defeat! Fight for an idea! Fight for a just cause! Fight back knowing that you’re right! Fight back knowing that the inexorable laws of history are on your side! Fight back knowing that the future is yours! Advance with the masses! Advance with the people! Advance with ideas! Advance uniting forces! Advance gathering forces!
And all this that I’m saying to you today, all these things about which I’ve spoken at length—thanks to your patience and understanding—all these things I’ve said about tactics and unity, about the possibility that we may all participate in this great crusade on behalf of our sister America, was not an invention I made for my visit to Chile, are not just things that are said in passing. We have here this document, proclaimed 10 years ago, and known as the Second Declaration of Havana, and we believe that it would be appropriate to read a few paragraphs which sum up our revolutionary strategy since that time. Perhaps they may be of some use to you.
On leaving you, what could we possibly leave as a memento? If some of these ideas, some of these concepts can be of use to you, we will be very satisfied, at least in a spiritual sense, for having in some way reciprocated your affection.
The paragraphs I refer to and which run consecutively, read as follows:
Imperialism, utilizing the great movie monopolies, its news services, its periodicals, books and reactionary newspapers, resorts to the most subtle lies to sow divisions and inculcate among the most ignorant people fear and superstition against revolutionary ideas, ideas that can and should frighten only the powerful exploiters, with their worldly interests and privileges.
Divisionism, a product of all kinds of prejudices, false ideas and lies; sectarianism, dogmatism, a lack of breadth in analyzing the role of each social layer, its parties, organizations and leaders—these obstruct the necessary united action of the democratic and progressive forces of our peoples. They are deficiencies of growth, infantile diseases of the revolutionary movement that must be left behind. In the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle it is possible to bring the majority of the people resolutely behind goals of liberation that unite the spirit of the working class, the peasants, the intellectual workers, the petit bourgeoisie and the most progressive layers of the national bourgeoisie. These sectors comprise the immense majority of the population and bring together great social forces capable of sweeping away the imperialist and reactionary feudal rule. In that broad movement they can and must struggle together for the good of our nations, for the good of our peoples, and for the good of the Americas, from the old Marxist militant, right up to the sincere Catholic who has nothing to do with the Yankee monopolists and the feudal lords of the land.
This movement can pull along with it the most progressive elements of the armed forces, which have also been humiliated by the Yankee military missions, the betrayal of national interests by the feudal oligarchies and the sacrifice of national sovereignty to Washington’s dictates.
These ideas were expressed 10 years ago and do not vary one iota from the ideas we hold today.
Our revolution has stood firm by its principles. It is not dogmatic. It moves forward, advances. Its development even includes significant strides forward. But, at all times, it has stuck to a principle, has followed one line, one road. The revolution is characterized by its confidence in the people, in the masses, in ideas and in victory. It is characterized by its firmness and its uncompromising attitude. A broad-minded attitude on the one hand, and firmness in principles on the other!
We have met and spoken at length with many Chileans. The only ones we haven’t spoken with—and will never speak with—are the exploiters, the reactionaries, the oligarchs and the fascists.
We have never talked with the fascists, and we never will!
As far as the rest of the Chileans are concerned, it has been a great honor for us to have met them, to get to know them, to have talked with them and to have exchanged views with them.
Beloved Compañero Salvador Allende, we will be leaving this beautiful country very soon. We will soon be saying goodbye to this hospitable, magnificent, warm-hearted people. We are taking back with us a memento of our visit—the indelible memory of our stay here, of all the affection, all the attention, all the honors that you heaped on our delegation as the representatives of the people of Cuba and the Cuban revolution.
All we want to say to you, beloved president, and to all Chileans, is that you can count on Cuba. You can count on her unselfish, unconditional solidarity, on what that flag and that homeland really mean. Not the homeland of the exploited, but the homeland of free human beings! A homeland to which the revolution gave equality and justice! A homeland where humankind regained its dignity!
To those who attempt to deny the legitimacy of the revolution, let them observe its force and then try to explain how it is possible for us to resist the powerful Yankee empire on the cultural front, on the political front and on the military front, if we don’t have a conscious, united people, a people who knows what dignity and freedom mean.
There’s our country, firm and staunch! There’s our flag; a flag which represents the dignity of Cuba, which represents the nation in the broadest sense of the word, which represents patriotism in its most fraternal sense, as sons and daughters of Cuba and sons and daughters of America!
These two symbols that today wave together here also represent the closeness of our peoples, of our ideas, of our cause and of our motives.
Because today is December 2, allow me to end the way we do in Cuba:
Patria o muerte! [Homeland or death!]
Venceremos! [We will win!]