Che Guevara gave this speech on July 28, 1960, to the delegates to the Latin American Youth Congress and regional political leaders, including Jacobo Árbenz, former president of Guatemala. It contains the nucleus of the ideas later the subject of his important work, “Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution,”1 and outlined his concept of solidarity with the peoples of Latin America.
Compañeros of the Americas and the entire world:
It would take a long time to extend individual greetings on behalf of our country to each of you, and to each of the countries represented here. We nevertheless want to draw attention to some of those who represent countries afflicted by natural catastrophes or catastrophes caused by imperialism.
We would like to extend special greetings to the representative of the Chilean people, Clotario Bletz, whose youthful voice you heard a moment ago. His maturity can serve as an example and a guide to our fellow working people from that unfortunate land, which has been devastated by one of the most terrible earthquakes in history.
We would also like to extend special greetings to Jacobo Árbenz, [former] president of the first Latin American nation [Guatemala] to raise its voice fearlessly against colonialism, and to express the cherished desires of its peasant masses, through a deep and courageous agrarian reform. We would like to express our gratitude to him and to the democracy overturned in that country for the example it gave us, and for enabling us to make a correct appreciation of all the weaknesses his government was unable to overcome. In this way, it has been possible for us [here in Cuba] to get at the root of the matter, and to decapitate with one blow those who held power, as well as the henchmen serving them.
We would also like to greet two of the delegations representing countries that perhaps have suffered the most in the Americas. First of all, Puerto Rico, which today, 150 years after freedom was first proclaimed in the Americas, continues to fight to take the first, and perhaps most difficult step of achieving, at least in formal terms, a free government. I ask Puerto Rico’s delegates to convey my greetings, and those of all Cuba, to Pedro Albizu Campos. We would like to convey to him our heartfelt respect, our recognition of the example he has shown with his valor, and our fraternal feelings as free men toward a man who, despite being in the dungeons of so-called US democracy, is still free.
Although it may seem paradoxical, I would also like to greet today the delegation representing the purest of the US people. I would like to salute them because the US people are not to blame for the barbarity and injustice of their rulers, and because they are innocent victims of the rage of all the peoples of the world, who sometimes confuse a social system with the people of that country.
All of Cuba, myself included, open our arms to the individuals and the delegations, to show you what is good here and what is bad, what has been achieved and what has yet to be achieved, the road traveled and the road ahead. Because even though all of you come to deliberate at this Latin American Youth Congress on behalf of your respective countries, I am sure each of you also comes here full of curiosity to find out exactly what is this phenomenon of the Cuban revolution, born on a Caribbean island.
Many of you, from diverse political tendencies, will ask yourselves, as you did yesterday and as perhaps you will do tomorrow: What is the Cuban revolution? What is its ideology? Immediately the question will arise, as it always does, among both adherents and adversaries: Is the Cuban revolution communist? Some say yes, hoping the answer is yes, or that the revolution is heading in that direction. Others, disappointed perhaps, will also think the answer is yes. There will be disappointed people who believe the answer is no, as well as those who hope the answer is no.
I might be asked whether this revolution you see is a communist revolution. After the usual explanations about communism (leaving aside the hackneyed accusations by imperialism and the colonial powers, who confuse everything), I would answer that if this revolution is Marxist—and listen well that I say Marxist—it is because the revolution discovered, by its own methods, the road pointed out by Marx.
In saluting the Cuban revolution recently, Vice-Premier [Anastas] Mikoyan, one of the leading figures of the Soviet Union and a lifelong Marxist, said that the revolution was a phenomenon Marx had not foreseen. He noted that life teaches more than the wisest books and the most profound thinkers.
The Cuban revolution was moving forward, without worrying about labels, without checking what others were saying about it, but constantly scrutinizing what the Cuban people wanted of it. The revolution quickly found that it had achieved, or was on the way to achieving, the happiness of its people; and that it had also become the object of inquisitive looks from friend and foe alike—hopeful looks from an entire continent, and furious looks from the king of monopolies.
This did not come about overnight. Permit me to relate some of my own experience—an experience that could help many people in similar circumstances gain an understanding of how our current revolutionary thinking came about. Even though there is certainly continuity, the Cuban revolution you see today is not the Cuban revolution of yesterday, even after the victory. Much less is it the Cuban insurrection prior to our victory, when those 82 youths made the difficult crossing of the Gulf of Mexico [in November–December 1956] in a leaky boat to reach the shores of the Sierra Maestra. Between those young people and the representatives of Cuba today there is a distance that cannot be accurately measured in years, with 24-hour days and 60-minute hours. All the members of the Cuban government— young in age, young in character, and young in the illusions they held—have nevertheless matured in an extraordinary school of experience; in living contact with the people and with their needs and aspirations.
Our collective hope had been to arrive one day somewhere in Cuba, and after a few shouts, a few heroic actions, a few deaths and a few radio broadcasts, to take power and drive out the dictator Batista. History showed us it was far more difficult to overthrow a government backed and partnered by an army of murderers, and backed by the greatest colonial power on earth.
Little by little, each of our ideas changed. We, the children of the cities, learned to respect the peasants. We learned to respect their sense of independence, their loyalty; we learned to recognize their age-old yearning for the land that had been snatched from them; and to recognize their experience in the thousand paths across the hills. From us, the peasants learned how valuable someone is when they have a rifle in their hand, and when they are prepared to fire that rifle at another person, regardless of how many rifles that other person has. The peasants taught us their know-how and we taught the peasants our sense of rebellion. From that moment until now, and forever, the peasants of Cuba and the rebel forces of Cuba—today the Cuban revolutionary government—have united as one.
The revolution continued to progress, and we drove the troops of the dictatorship from the steep slopes of the Sierra Maestra. We came face-to-face with another reality of Cuba: the workers—both in agricultural and industrial centers. We learned from them, too, while we taught them that at the right moment, a well-aimed shot fired at the right person is much more powerful and effective than the most powerful and effective peaceful demonstration. We learned the value of organization, while again we taught the value of rebellion. Out of this, organized rebellion arose throughout the entire territory of Cuba.
By then much time had passed. Many deaths marked the road of our victory—many in combat, others innocent victims. The imperialist forces began to see there was something more than a group of bandits in the heights of the Sierra Maestra, something more than a group of ambitious assailants arrayed against the ruling power. The imperialists generously offered their bombs, bullets, planes and tanks to the dictatorship. With those tanks in the lead, the government’s forces again attempted, for the last time, to ascend the Sierra Maestra.
By then, columns of our forces had already left the Sierra to take over other regions of Cuba and had formed the “Frank País” Second Eastern Front under Commander Raúl Castro. We were winning over public opinion—we were now headline material in the international pages of newspapers from every corner of the world. Yet despite all this, the Cuban revolution at that time possessed only 200 rifles—not 200 men, but 200 rifles—to stop the regime’s last offensive, in which the dictatorship amassed 10,000 soldiers and every type of instrument of death. Each one those 200 rifles carries a history of sacrifice and blood. They were rifles of imperialism that the blood and determination of our martyrs dignified and transformed into rifles of the people.
In this way, the last stage of the army’s great offensive unfolded, under the name of “encirclement and annihilation.”
What I am saying to you, young people from throughout the Americas who are diligent and eager to learn, is that if today we are putting into practice what is known as Marxism, it is because we discovered it here. In those days, after defeating the dictatorship’s troops and inflicting 1,000 casualties on their ranks—five times as many casualties as the sum total of our combat forces, and after seizing more than 600 weapons—a small pamphlet written by Mao Tse-tung fell into our hands. The pamphlet dealt with strategic problems of the revolutionary war in China and described the campaigns that the dictator Chiang Kai-shek carried out against the popular forces, which just like here were called “campaigns of encirclement and annihilation.”
Not only had the same words been used on opposite sides of the globe to describe their campaigns, but both dictators had resorted to the same types of campaigns to try to destroy the popular forces. The popular forces here, without knowing of the manuals already written about the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare, used the same methods as those used on the opposite side of the world to combat the dictatorship’s forces. Naturally, when somebody lives through an experience, that experience can be utilized by somebody else. But it is also possible to go through the same experience without knowing of the earlier one.
We were unaware of the experiences the Chinese troops accumulated during 20 years of struggle in their territory. But we knew our own territory, we knew our enemy, and we used something every person has on their shoulders—which is worth a lot if they know how to use it—we used our heads to guide our fight against the enemy. As a result, we defeated it.
The westward moves came later, and the breaking of Batista’s communication lines, and the crushing fall of the dictatorship when no one expected it. Then came January 1 [1959] and the revolution, without thinking about what had been written, but hearing what was needed from the lips of the people, decided first and foremost to punish the guilty, and it did so.
Immediately the colonial powers splashed the story all over the front pages, calling it murder, immediately trying to do what imperialists always try to do: sow division. “Communist murderers are killing people,” they said. “There is, however, a naive patriot Fidel Castro, who had nothing to do with it and can be saved.” In this way they tried to sow divisions among those who had fought for the same cause. They maintained this hope for some time.
One day they happened upon the Agrarian Reform Law, and saw that it was much more violent and profound than the law their very intellectual, self-appointed advisers had counseled. All of those advisers, by the way, are today in Miami or some other US city, like Pepín Rivero of Diario de la Marina, or Medrano of Prensa Libre. Others, including a prime minister in our government, also counseled great moderation, saying, “one must handle such things with moderation.”
“Moderation” is one of those words the agents of colonialism like to use. Those who are afraid, or who think of betraying in one way or another, are moderates. In no sense, however, are the people moderate.
The advice given was to divide up marabú land—marabú is a wild shrub that plagues our fields—and have the peasants cut marabú with machetes, or settle in swamps, or grab pieces of public land that might somehow have escaped the voraciousness of the large landowners. To touch the holdings of the large landowners was a sin greater than anything they imagined to be possible. But it was possible.
I recall a conversation I had in those days with a gentleman who said he had no problems at all with the revolutionary government because he owned only 900 caballerías. Nine hundred caballerías comes to more than 10,000 hectares [25,000 acres]. This gentleman, of course, did eventually have problems with the revolutionary government; his lands were seized, divided up, and turned over to individual peasants. In addition, cooperatives were created on lands where agricultural workers were already beginning to work collectively for a wage.
This is one of the peculiar features of the Cuban revolution that must be studied. For the first time in Latin America, a revolution carried out an agrarian reform that attacked property relations other than feudal ones. There were feudal remnants in the tobacco and coffee industries, and in these areas land was turned over to individuals who had been working small plots and wanted their land. But given how sugarcane, rice and cattle were cultivated and worked in Cuba, that land was seized as a unit and worked by workers who were granted joint ownership. Those workers are not owners of single parcels of land, but of the whole great joint enterprise called a cooperative. This has enabled our far-reaching agrarian reform to move rapidly. Each of you should let it sink in, as an incontrovertible truth, that no government here in Latin America can call itself revolutionary unless its first measure is agrarian reform.
A government that says it will implement timid agrarian reform cannot call itself revolutionary. A revolutionary government carries out agrarian reform that transforms the system of property relations—that does not just give peasants unused land, but primarily gives peasants land that was in use, land that belonged to large landowners, the best land with the greatest yield, land that, moreover, had been stolen from the peasants in past epochs.
That is agrarian reform, and that is how all revolutionary governments must begin. On the basis of agrarian reform the great battle for the industrialization of a country can be waged, a battle that is very complicated, in which one must fight against very big things.
We could very easily fail, as in the past, if it weren’t for the existence of very great forces in the world today that are friends of small nations like ours. I must note here for everyone’s benefit—for those who like it and those who hate it—that at the present time countries like Cuba, revolutionary, non-moderate countries, cannot respond half-heartedly as to whether the Soviet Union or the People’s Republic of China are our friends. They must answer with all their might that the Soviet Union, China and all the socialist countries are our friends, as are many colonial or semicolonial countries that have freed themselves.
These friendships with governments throughout the world is why it is possible to carry out a revolution in Latin America. When the imperialists carried out aggression against us using sugar and petroleum, the Soviet Union was there to give us petroleum and to buy sugar from us. Without that, we would have needed all our strength, all our faith, and the devotion of the people, which is enormous, to withstand the blow this would have signified. These measures taken by “US democracy” against this “threat to the free world” would have had huge effects on the living standards of the Cuban people, and the forces of disunity would have done their work, viciously playing on the effects.
There are government leaders in Latin America who still advise us to lick the hand that wants to hit us; to spit on the one who wants to help us. We answer these government leaders who, in the middle of the 20th century, recommend bowing our heads: We say, first of all, that Cuba does not bow down before anyone. Secondly, we say that Cuba, from its own experience, knows the weaknesses and defects of the governments advising this approach—and the rulers of these countries know them, too; they know them very well. Nevertheless, Cuba has not deigned or allowed itself, or thought it permissible, to advise the rulers of these countries to shoot every traitorous official or nationalize all the monopoly holdings in their countries.
The people of Cuba shot their murderers and dissolved the army of the dictatorship. Yet they have not been telling governments in Latin America to put the murderers of the people before firing squads or to stop propping up dictatorships. Cuba knows there are murderers in each one of these nations. We can attest to that fact because a Cuban belonging to our own movement [Andrés Coba] was killed, in a friendly country [Venezuela], by henchmen left over from the previous dictatorship.
We do not ask that they put the person who assassinated one of our members before a firing squad, although we would have done so in this country. What we ask, simply, is that if it is not possible to act with solidarity in the Americas, at least don’t be a traitor to the Americas. Let no one in the Americas parrot the notion that we are bound to a continental alliance that includes our great enslaver. That is the most cowardly and denigrating lie a ruler in Latin America can utter.
We, the entire people of Cuba who belong to the Cuban revolution, call our friends friends, and our enemies enemies. We do not allow for halfway terms: one is either a friend or an enemy. We, the people of Cuba, don’t tell any nation on earth what they should do with, for example, the International Monetary Fund. But we will not tolerate them coming to tell us what to do. We know what has to be done. If they want to do what we would do, good; if not, that is up to them. We will not tolerate anyone telling us what to do. We were here on our own until the last moment, awaiting the direct aggression of the mightiest power in the capitalist world, and we did not ask for help from anyone. We were prepared, together with our people, to resist through to the final consequences of our rebel spirit.
We can speak with our heads held high, and with very clear voices, in all the congresses and councils where our brothers of the world meet. When the Cuban revolution speaks, it may make mistakes, but it will never tell a lie. In every place where it speaks, the Cuban revolution expresses the truths that its sons and daughters have learned, and it does so openly to its friends and its enemies alike. It never throws stones from behind corners; it never gives advice containing daggers cloaked in velvet.
We are subject to attacks. We are attacked a great deal because of what we are. But we are attacked much, much more because we show to each nation of the Americas what is possible. What is important for imperialism—more than Cuba’s nickel mines or sugar mills, Venezuela’s oil, Mexico’s cotton, Chile’s copper, Argentina’s cattle, Paraguay’s grasslands or Brazil’s coffee— is the totality of these raw materials upon which the monopolies feed.
They place obstacles in our path every chance they get, and when they themselves are unable to erect obstacles, others in Latin America are unfortunately willing to do so. Names are not important, because no single individual is to blame. We cannot say that [Venezuelan] President Betancourt is to blame for the death of our compatriot and co-thinker [Andrés Coba]. President Betancourt is not to blame; he is simply a prisoner of a regime that calls itself democratic. That democratic regime could have set another example in Latin America, but it nevertheless committed the great mistake of not using the firing squad in a timely way. Today the democratic government of Venezuela is again a prisoner of the henchmen Venezuela was familiar with a short while ago—and with whom Cuba was familiar, and with whom the majority of Latin America remains familiar.
We cannot blame President Betancourt for this death. We can only say the following, supported by our record as revolutionaries and by our conviction as revolutionaries: the day President Betancourt, elected by his people, feels himself a prisoner to such a degree that he cannot go forward and decides to ask the help of a fraternal people, Cuba is here to show Venezuela some of our experiences in the field of revolution.
President Betancourt should know that it was not—and could not have been—our diplomatic representative who started the affair that ended in a death. It was the North Americans, or in the final analysis the US government. A bit closer to the events, it was Batista’s men, and closer still, it was those dressed up in anti-Batista clothing, the US government’s reserve forces in this country, who wanted to defeat Batista yet maintain the system: people like [José] Miró Cardona, [Miguel Angel] Quevedo, [Pedro Luis] Díaz Lanz and Huber Matos. In direct line of sight it was the reactionary forces operating in Venezuela. It is very sad to say, but the leader of Venezuela is at the mercy of his own troops, who may at any moment try to assassinate him, as happened a while ago in the case of the car packed with dynamite. The Venezuelan president, at this moment, is a prisoner of his repressive forces.
This hurts, because the Cuban people received from Venezuela the greatest amount of solidarity and support when we were in the Sierra Maestra. It hurts, because much earlier than us Venezuela was able to rid itself of the hateful and oppressive system represented by [Marcos] Pérez Jiménez. It hurts, because when our delegations went to Venezuela— first Fidel Castro, and later our President Dorticós—they received great demonstrations of support and affection.
A people that has achieved the high degree of political consciousness, that has the high fighting spirit of the Venezuelan people, will not remain prisoners of a few bayonets or bullets for long. Bullets and bayonets can change hands, and the murderers themselves can wind up dead.
But it is not my mission to list here all the stabs in the back we have received from Latin American governments in recent days and to add fuel to the fire of rebellion. That is not my task because, in the first place, Cuba is still not free of danger. Today Cuba is still the focus of the imperialists’ attention in this part of the world. Cuba needs your solidarity, the solidarity of those from the Democratic Action Party in Venezuela, the URD [Democratic Republican Union], and the communists, and COPEI [Independent Political Electoral Committee], and any other party. It needs the solidarity of the Mexican people, the Colombian people, the Brazilian people and the people of every nation in Latin America.
The colonialists are scared. They, like everyone else, are afraid of missiles, they too are afraid of bombs. Today they see, for the first time in their history, that bombs of destruction can also fall on their families, on everything they have built with so much love—as far as anyone can love wealth and riches. They began to make estimates; they put their electronic calculators to work, and they saw this set-up would be self-defeating.
This in no way means that they have renounced the suppression of Cuban democracy. Once again they are making laborious estimates on their calculating machines as to which of the available methods is best for attacking the Cuban revolution. They have the methods of Ydígoras, Nicaragua, Haiti. For the moment, they do not have the Dominican method. They also have the mercenaries in Florida, the OAS [Organization of American States] and many other methods. And they have power to continue improving these methods.
[Former] President Árbenz and his people know they had many methods and a great deal of might. Unfortunately for Guatemala, President Árbenz had an army of the old style, and was not fully aware of the solidarity of the peoples and their capacity to repel any type of aggression.
One of our greatest strengths is being exerted throughout the world— regardless of partisan differences in any country—the strength to defend the Cuban revolution at any given moment. Permit me to say this is a duty of Latin America’s youth. What we have here in Cuba is something new and it’s worth studying. You will have to assess what is good here for yourselves.
There are many bad things, I know. There is a lot of disorganization, I know. If you have been to the Sierra Maestra, then you already know this. We still use guerrilla methods, I know. We lack technicians in necessary numbers commensurate to our aspirations, I know. Our army has still not reached the necessary degree of maturity and the militia members have not achieved sufficient coordination to constitute themselves as an army, I know.
But what I also know, and I want all of you to know, is that this revolution has always acted with the will of the entire people of Cuba. Every peasant and worker who handles a rifle poorly is working every day to handle it better, to defend their revolution. And if at this moment they can’t understand the complicated workings of a machine whose technician fled to the United States, then they are studying every day to learn it, so their factory runs better. The peasants are studying their tractor, to fix its mechanical problems, so the fields of their cooperative yield more.
All Cubans, from both the city and country, share the same sentiments and are marching toward the future, totally united in their thinking, with a leader they have absolute confidence in because he has shown in a thousand battles and on a thousand different occasions his capacity for sacrifice and the power and foresight of his thought.
The nation before you today might disappear from the face of the earth because a nuclear conflict may be unleashed on its account, and it might be the first target. Even if this entire island were to disappear along with its inhabitants, Cuba’s people would consider themselves satisfied and fulfilled if each of you, upon returning to your countries, would say:
“Here we are. Our words come from the humid air of the Cuban forests. We have climbed the Sierra Maestra and seen the dawn, and our minds and our hands are filled with the seeds of that dawn. We are prepared to plant them in this land, and defend them so they can grow.”
From all the sister countries of the Americas, and from our own land, if it should still remain standing as an example, from such a moment on and forever, the voice of the peoples will answer: “Thus it shall be: Let freedom triumph in every corner of the Americas!”
In a mass assembly in Havana on September 2, 1960, the people of Cuba adopted the Declaration of Havana, which denounced US maneuvers against Cuba and ratified Cuba’s sovereign determination to proclaim its full independence. It was a historic moment, because Washington immediately began to blackmail other Latin American nations into denouncing Cuba at the Organization of American States—actions that finally led nearly all the countries in the region to break with the Cuban revolutionary government.
Che Guevara addressed a mass rally in Camagüey on September 18, 1960, which adopted the same declaration.
Compañeros:
Once again, the people and representatives of the revolutionary government of Cuba have met to talk about the latest events that have taken place in this part of the world, in the Americas, and to place before you, for your consideration and possible ratification, the resolution of the People’s General Assembly in Havana.
It is good to recall that the Declaration of Havana, as it will be known from now on in history, is the reply of the Cuban people, meeting in a General Assembly, to the imperialist acts of aggression that the “master” Herter and his Latin American lackeys devised in San José, Costa Rica.
It is also good to remember that all of the revolutionary advances that have been made in the past year and a half, a period filled with very important events for the history of Latin America, constitute a steady response by the people to acts of aggression both from abroad and from inside Cuba by large landowners and other counterrevolutionaries.
Just after January 1, 1959, we began executing the war criminals who had been convicted of having committed terrible crimes against humanity. Then the US press and the mercenary press in Latin America unleashed their first campaigns against us, condemning the executions in the name of humanity— that same humanity they ignored here in Cuba, as in many other parts of Latin America, when the people were being pitilessly assassinated. The revolutionary government’s response was to call all of the people together in front of Havana’s Palace of Government for them to decide whether or not they wanted revolutionary justice. And you will remember that the entire people spoke out for revolutionary justice and against foreigners’ meddling in our laws and our development.
When the Agrarian Reform Law was passed, a campaign immediately began—and is still going on—against all the members of the government, accusing us of having committed iniquitous crimes and also accusing us of being a “beachhead” of international communism here in Latin America. Among other things, they accused us of having a missile base in Camagüey, of having a submarine base south of our island and of launching attacks against the colossus of the North.
It seems they really considered us a dangerous adversary. Now, when the United Nations is opening another session of the General Assembly, there are only four leaders in the whole world that have the exalted privilege and great honor of being detested by the US plutocracy, and one of those four leaders is precisely our Prime Minister Fidel Castro.
We should be asking ourselves, what is it about Fidel that worries the US authorities so much? What is it about the people of Cuba, a small, underdeveloped island—as they describe us—with a population of only around six million, that makes the United States hate us just as much as the Soviet Union, which has a population of over 200 million, possesses the most powerful means of destruction on earth, has the most powerful army in the world and is the declared enemy of the United States? What is it about Cuba that makes the United States compare it with [the] People’s [Republic of] China, which has 650 million inhabitants—the nation with the largest population on earth—and is the second greatest power in the socialist world? What is it about Cuba? What is the danger posed by the Cuban revolution?
Men and women of Camagüey, the danger posed by the Cuban revolution is you and me. The danger is that what we’re doing may spread throughout Latin America, that the custom of talking with the people and asking the people’s advice whenever necessary may spread through Latin America. Because, if you ask the people of Latin America what should be done with the large landowners, all of them will give the same answer as you; all of them will denounce large landholdings.
And if you ask the people of Latin America who their enemy is, who has sabotaged their development for 50 years and who has installed rulers such as Trujillo and Somoza who have massacred their people, all of the Latin American people will say that the US government is guilty of the most terrible crimes. They will say that the US government has promoted genocide in Latin America and still uses its rifles (as Batista did here) to maintain the system of oppression by a few over the people as a whole. This is why they fear us and why they want to isolate and destroy us: they are very afraid that our example will spread, that cooperatives will flourish, large landholdings will be broken up and bearded guerrillas will appear all over Latin America. They are afraid that the Andes will become another Sierra Maestra.
That is what the US authorities fear: our example. They know just as well as you do that what they have said about missiles in Camagüey and about a submarine base are lies. They know that this government has not sold out to any other government on the face of the earth and that if the Soviet Union or the government of the People’s Republic of China or any other power on earth should ever make its assistance to us dependent on our giving up a part of our sovereignty or our honor, Cuba would immediately break with them. We have accepted assistance from the Soviet Union and the hand of friendship that all of the socialist powers have extended to us, because they have offered that assistance and friendship without attaching any political strings to it.
They know we don’t have the same conditions they have; they know that socialism has not been established here. They simply offer us their assistance so we can continue along the path we have freely chosen, and this is why we have accepted it, because no stipulations have dishonored that assistance, because these weapons that you see are weapons that the government of the Republic of Czechoslovakia sold to us unconditionally. There is no pact of any kind that restricts us in the use of these weapons; they are ours, to be used in defending our sovereignty—there are no other stipulations limiting their use.
The history of these weapons is another thing the United States does not like. Why are these weapons here? Did we try to get them from Czechoslovakia right from the start, or don’t the US authorities remember how we went from one European country to another, trying to buy weapons and planes, and how we took up a collection among the people to be able to buy these planes and these weapons?
What was the imperialists’ response? They pressured all the European governments in their sphere of influence not to let even a single bullet reach Cuba, and the last government that stood firm against the empire’s pressures—it maintained that position up until recently—has now told us that it won’t send us any more rifles. We had the choice of accepting assistance from the socialist countries and being attacked as “communists” or doing nothing here and being wiped out as fools.
It’s been a long time, compañeros, since the Cuban people could be fooled with words, promises and empty posturing. When we were faced with that dilemma, we accepted the challenge, and here are the Czech weapons. Soon, planes from any power willing to sell them to us will be flying here, and there will be tanks from other powers, and cannon, bazookas, machine guns and ammunition of all kinds for those weapons, bought from whoever will sell them to us.
This is another example that the US authorities don’t like.
The same thing happened with Guatemalan democracy some time ago.
One fine day the Guatemalans weren’t sold any more weapons; the rifles began to age, and the cartridges began to run out; and that democracy began to look for weapons with which to defend itself against the attack that was being prepared precisely by the people who would no longer sell them weapons. And when, in the end, exercising its legitimate right to do so, it bought a handful of rifles from a socialist country, it was attacked, because the United States wouldn’t allow a “communist” base to exist so close to the Panama Canal. And then the pirate planes that were allowed to leave Panamanian airports without any insignia pitilessly bombed the Guatemalan people until the aggressors subjugated the government and plunged that country into the poverty and ignominy in which it exists to this day. That is what the US authorities want. When they see the example of Cuba, they suffer greatly, because those bestial reactions are the spawn of spite, the spawn of the suffering of those who see their imperial privileges reduced once and for all.
Without any right to do so, they are trying to confine Fidel Castro to a tiny part of Cuba’s territory; they are also trying to assassinate him, if possible. They are trying to destroy our democracy; they would like to trample on and massacre our people. When they learned about the Soviet missiles, they controlled their fury and replaced all the insults they had planned to hurl against our people with high-sounding words. That is why they’re like this, just like wild beasts that become more dangerous and more aggressive when they are wounded and restrained. That is what US imperialism is like now, restrained by the forces all over the world that want their liberation. The people are clamoring for their freedom and fighting against the puppet governments, which are threatened with losing their privileges, threatened with losing all the wealth they amassed from the sweat and blood of the people. That is why they’re like this, why they’re bellowing from impotence and attacking anybody within striking distance, like mad dogs.
In view of all this and aware of the importance of the Declaration of Havana—considering all this background and the reasons for this declaration—I will now read it. When I have finished reading it, raise your hands if you agree with what it says.
The people of Cuba, Free Territory of America, acting with the inalienable powers that flow from an effective exercise of their sovereignty through direct, public and universal suffrage, have formed themselves in a National General Assembly beside the monument and memory of José Martí.
The National General Assembly of the Cuban People, as its sovereign act and as an expression of the sentiments of the people of Our America states:
FIRST: Condemns in its entirety the so-called Declaration of San José, Costa Rica, a document that, under dictation from US imperialism, offends the sovereignty and dignity of other peoples of the continent and the right of each nation to self-determination.
SECOND: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People strongly condemns US imperialism for its gross and criminal domination, lasting for more than a century, of all the peoples of Latin America, who more than once have seen the soil of Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, Santo Domingo and Cuba invaded; who have lost to a greedy imperialism such wide and rich lands as Texas, such vital strategic zones as the Panama Canal, and even, as in the case of Puerto Rico, entire countries converted into territories of occupation; who have suffered the insults of the Marines toward our wives and daughters and toward the most cherished memorials of the history of our lands, among them the figure of José Martí.
This domination, built upon superior military power, upon unfair treaties and upon the shameful collaboration of traitorous governments, has for more than a hundred years made of Our America—the America that Bolívar, Hidalgo, Juárez, San Martín, O’Higgins, Tiradentes, Sucre and Martí wished to see free—a zone of exploitation, a backyard in the financial and political Yankee empire, a reserve supply of votes in international organizations where we of the Latin American countries have always been regarded as beasts of burden to a “rough and brutal North that despises us.”
The National General Assembly of the Cuban People declares that Latin American governments betray the ideals of independence, destroy the sovereignty of their peoples and obstruct a true solidarity among our countries by accepting this demonstrated and continued domination. For such reasons, this assembly, in the name of the Cuban people, with the same spirit of liberation that moved the immortal fathers of our countries, rejects this domination, thereby fulfilling the hope and the will of the Latin American peoples.
THIRD: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People also rejects the attempt to perpetuate the Monroe Doctrine, until now utilized “to extend the domination in America” of greedy imperialists, and to inject more easily “the poison of loans, canals and railroads,” as denounced by José Martí long ago.
Therefore, in defiance of that false Pan-Americanism that is merely the prostration of spineless governments before Washington and rule over the interest of our peoples by the Yankee monopolies, this assembly of the Cuban people proclaims the liberating Latin Americanism of Martí and Benito Juárez. Furthermore, while extending the hand of friendship to the people of the United States—a people that includes persecuted intellectuals, blacks threatened with lynching, and workers subjected to the control of gangsters—this assembly reaffirms its will to march “with the whole world and not just a part of it.”
FOURTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People declares that the spontaneous offer of the Soviet Union to help Cuba if imperialist military forces attack our country cannot be considered an act of intervention, but rather an open act of solidarity. Such support, offered to Cuba in the face of an imminent attack by the Pentagon, honors the government of the Soviet Union as much as cowardly and criminal aggressions against Cuba dishonor the government of the United States. Therefore, this National General Assembly of the Cuban People declares before America and the world that it accepts with gratitude the help of rockets from the Soviet Union should our territory be invaded by military forces from the United States.
FIFTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People denies absolutely that there has existed on the part of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China any aim “to make use of the economic, political and social situation in Cuba… in order to break continental unity and to endanger hemispheric unity.” From the first to the last volley, from the first to the last of the 20,000 martyrs who fell in the struggle to overthrow tyranny and win power for the revolution, from the first to the last revolutionary law, from the first to the last act of the revolution, the people of Cuba have acted of their own free will. Therefore, no grounds exist for blaming either the Soviet Union or the People’s Republic of China for the existence of a revolution that is the just response of Cuba to crimes and injuries perpetrated by imperialism in America.
On the contrary, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People believes that the peace and security of the hemisphere and of the world are endangered by the policy of the US government—which forces the governments of Latin America to imitate it. This US policy seeks to isolate the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, and engage in aggressive and provocative acts, systematically excluding the People’s Republic of China from the United Nations, despite the fact that it represents nearly all the 600 million inhabitants of China.
Therefore, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People confirms its policy of friendship with all the peoples of the world and reaffirms its intention of establishing diplomatic relations with, among others, the socialist countries of the world. From this moment this Assembly expresses its free and sovereign will to establish relations with the People’s Republic of China, therefore rescinding relations with the puppet regime maintained in Formosa [Taiwan] by the Seventh Fleet of the United States.
SIXTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People—confident that it is expressing the general opinion of the people of Latin America— affirms that democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy; with discrimination against blacks; with outrages by the Ku Klux Klan; nor with the persecution that drove scientists like Oppenheimer from their posts, deprived the world for years of the marvelous voice of Paul Robeson, held prisoner in his own country; and sent the Rosenbergs to their death against the protests of a shocked world, including the appeals of many governments and even Pope Pius XII.
The National General Assembly of the Cuban People expresses the Cuban conviction that democracy does not consist solely of elections that are nearly always managed by rich landowners and professional politicians in order to produce fictitious results, but rather in the right of citizens to determine their own destiny, as this assembly of the people is now doing. Furthermore, democracy will come to exist in Latin America only when people are really free to make choices, when the poor are not reduced— by hunger, social discrimination, illiteracy and the judicial system—to the most wretched impotence.
Therefore, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People:
Condemns the backward and inhuman system of latifundia—large, poorly cultivated holdings of land—a source of misery and poverty for the rural population; condemns the starvation wages and the heartless exploitation of human labor by illegitimate and privileged interests; condemns the illiteracy, the absence of teachers, schools, doctors and hospitals, and the lack of care for the aged that prevail in the countries of the Americas; condemns discrimination against blacks and Indians; condemns the inequality and exploitation of women; condemns the military and political oligarchies that keep our peoples wretched, and hinder the full exercise of their sovereignty and their progress toward democracy; condemns the concession of the natural resources of our countries to foreign monopolies as handouts, disregarding the interests of the people; condemns governments that render homage to Washington while they ignore the sentiments of their own people; condemns the systematic deception of the people by the press and other media serving the interests of political oligarchies and the imperialist oppressor; condemns the monopoly of news by agencies that are the instruments of Washington and of US trusts; condemns repressive laws that deter workers, peasants, students and intellectuals, who together form a majority in every country, from joining together to seek patriotic and social goals; condemns the monopolies and imperialist enterprises that plunder our resources, exploit our workers and peasants, bleed our economies and keep them backward while subjecting politics in Latin America to their own designs and interests.
Finally, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People condemns:
The exploitation of human beings and the exploitation of underdeveloped countries by imperialist finance capital.
In consequence, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People proclaims before the Americas:
The right of peasants to the land; the right of the workers to the fruit of their labor; the right of children to education; the right of the sick to receive medical and hospital care; the right of youth to a job, the right of students to free education that is both practical and scientific; the right of blacks and Indians to “a full measure of human dignity”; the right of women to civil, social and political equality; the right of the elderly to a secure old age; the right of intellectuals, artists and scientists to fight through their work for a better world; the right of states to nationalize imperialist monopolies as a means of recovering national wealth and resources; the right of countries to engage freely in trade with all other countries of the world; the right of nations to full sovereignty; the right of the people to convert their fortresses into schools and to arm their workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, blacks, Indians, women, the young, the old—all the oppressed and exploited—that they themselves may better defend their rights and their destiny.
SEVENTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People affirms:
The duty of workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, blacks, Indians, youth, women, the aged, to fight for their economic, political and social rights; the duty of oppressed and exploited nations to fight for their liberation; the duty of every people to make common cause with all other oppressed, exploited, colonized and afflicted peoples, wherever they are located, regardless of distance or geographical separation. All peoples of the world are brothers!
EIGHTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People affirms its faith that Latin America, united and victorious, will soon be free of the bonds that now make its economies rich spoils for US imperialism; that keep its true voice from being heard at conferences, where cowed ministers form a sordid chorus to the despotic masters. The assembly affirms, therefore, its decision to work for this common Latin American destiny, which will allow our countries to build a true solidarity, founded on the free decision of each and the common goals of all. In this fight for a liberated Latin America there now arises with invincible power—against the obedient voice of those who hold office as usurpers—the genuine voice of the people, a voice that breaks forth from the depths of coal and tin mines, from factories, and sugar mills, from feudal lands where rotos, cholos, gauchos, jíbaros, the heirs of Zapata and Sandino, take up the arms of liberty; a voice heard in poets and novelists, in students, in women and in children, in the old and helpless.
To this voice of our brothers and sisters the Assembly of the People of Cuba responds: We are ready! Cuba will not fail!
Cuba is here today to proclaim before Latin America and the world its historic commitment and irrevocable resolution: Homeland or death!
NINTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People resolves that this declaration will be known as the “Declaration of Havana.”
Before proceeding to a vote on whether or not to ratify this Declaration by the National General Assembly of the Cuban People, I would like to comment on each of its most important points. This is a historic declaration that will live on as long as there is history in the world. This is the first cry of true, reasoned freedom that a Latin American people has addressed to the entire world. It exposes—and this is important—the true essence of US democracy. It is the “democracy” in which the great black singer and actor Paul Robeson was kept sometimes in prison and sometimes in what those who don’t think like the imperialist oppressors consider a larger prison—the United States— because he was black and because he struggled for recognition of black people’s right to be treated as human beings.
US democracy is the “democracy” that murdered the Rosenbergs but which, before killing them on the charge of espionage, gave them a terrible choice. That husband and wife, honest intellectuals who had earned their daily bread by working, were condemned to death but could have saved themselves. The only condition—which imperialism always demands—was that they renounce their self-respect. If they had “confessed” that they were the agents of a foreign power, if they had “confessed” to a crime they hadn’t committed, they could have saved themselves. But instead they proclaimed their innocence to the world and were condemned and executed.
That is the essence of US democracy: hypocrisy as the norm for action. That couple left the world a simple, emotional memory when they said that, although they were young, had children, loved life and didn’t want to die, the price they were asked to pay for their lives was too great, and they preferred death. That was the reply of the Rosenbergs, who were condemned in the period when McCarthyism was spreading throughout the United States, condemned because their accusers considered them communists and for being Jews.
US democracy is the setting in which blacks are lynched in the South, a black boy is lynched for having looked too long at a white woman, divisions are established among people and individuals beat and massacre all who oppose them. And it is very clear that, if you approve this resolution of this General Assembly, you will be making the same choice as the Rosenbergs: life is very beautiful, and it’s worth living. But if the price that is asked for life is a people’s honor, then it’s preferable to die. That is the choice that is presented at the end of the Declaration of Havana, stated simply in just three words: Homeland or Death!
Moreover, the Declaration of Havana takes a stand on two of the worst plagues ever to afflict humanity. One is the system of large landholdings, which is intrinsically exploitative, denouncing it in all its forms for being detrimental to self-respect. Furthermore, for the first time in Latin America and before the entire world, basing itself above all on the people, the Declaration of Havana states something that all of us have wanted to hear for many years: it denounces the exploitation of human beings by others and declares that the peoples’ main goal is that such exploitation be completely eliminated, so that nobody exploits even one of the citizens of any country.
That is our goal, the goal for which the best people in the world have struggled for years and years and for which many martyrs have died in every country in the world.
If you, the members of this Assembly of the people of Camagüey, agree with all of the statements in the Declaration of Havana; if you denounce the system of large landholdings; if you denounce self-styled US democracy as false and as something that exploits the peoples; and if you declare that the peoples’ main goal is the abolition of the exploitation of human beings by others, raise your hands.
Well, compañeros, the Declaration of Havana has been approved by acclamation. Now, I am going to read you the text of a telegram addressed to our Prime Minister setting forth the conclusions we have reached today, for your approval. If you approve it, the telegram will say the following:
Commander Fidel Castro Ruz, Prime Minister of the revolutionary government [of Cuba]:
In the same square in which, more than a century ago, Joaquín de Agüero, José Tomás Betancourt, Fernando de Zayas and Miguel Benavides gave their lives fighting for their homeland’s social justice and political freedom, the people of Camagüey, constituted in a Provincial General Assembly, resolve: first, to ratify the historic Declaration of Havana in all its points; second, to support its firm stand in the denunciation of US imperialism’s exploitation of the underdeveloped peoples of Latin America and the rest of the world; third, to call on the General Assembly of the United Nations to put an end to US imperialism’s bellicose plans and thus facilitate the definitive attainment of world peace; and, fourth, to pledge, by the example of Ignacio Agramonte and all the others who gave their lives fighting for our people’s happiness, to remain united and determined to defend our homeland’s soil against all attacks by “the brutal and turbulent North that scorns us.” With the flags of our homeland unfurled, Camagüey proclaims, We Will Win! Homeland or Death!
I submit the text of this telegram for your consideration. Those in favor, raise your hands.
Firmly convinced that this Provincial General Assembly of Camagüey will be followed by others, supported by the workers, peasants, students, intellectuals and people as a whole and by the rifles of our revolutionary army and militias, I declare this first General Assembly of the People of Camagüey concluded.
Now, let’s sing our glorious national anthem.
Compañeros of Cuba and from every country in the world who have come to the foothills of the Sierra Maestra to deliver a message of solidarity with the Cuban revolution:
This is a day of joy and of youth, but also a sad day of farewell. Today, we are bidding farewell to the compañeros from all over the world, who came here to work for the Cuban revolution and to get to know this revolution and its people better. You worked with great youthful revolutionary enthusiasm, and I think that, in addition, you learned about our people: a people like any other, composed of millions of individuals who now constitute a united mass and who are willing and determined to fight to the death to defend their recently acquired rights—to maintain them and to continue advancing toward new achievements.
I would be making a mistake if I were to explain to you compañeros who come from many different parts of the world what a revolution was or if I were to urge you to follow this example as if it were the only one in the world.
This is nothing more—but also nothing less—than a people that has begun a revolution and is very firmly committed to it. Many young people from other parts of the world already know—as the Cubans do—what it is to begin a revolution, and they also know what magnificent results the people obtain when they manage to break the bonds that have held back their development.
Unfortunately, many compañeros from Latin America and other regions represent peoples that haven’t yet begun a revolution. They may not be able to understand what historical factors gave Cuba—a country no more subjected to colonialism than any other and no more exploited than any other—the strength required to begin the struggle that would break its chains.
It’s difficult to explain, in terms of current theories, why it was here in Cuba that the first cry for definitive freedom was raised in Latin America and what it was that enabled us to advance as far as we have. I won’t try to explain it. Nor do we claim that the Cuban example is the only way to make the people’s most cherished hopes a reality or that this path of struggle is the only way to achieve true happiness, which consists of freedom and economic well-being. However, many of the things that we did here can be done in nearly all the countries that are oppressed—oppressed, colonial and semicolonial, not “underdeveloped,” as they call us, because we are not underdeveloped. We are, simply, badly developed, because imperialism, which seized our sources of raw materials a long time ago, set about developing them in line with its own needs.
It is not necessary to give many examples. You know about Cuba’s sugar, Mexico’s cotton, Venezuela’s oil, Bolivia’s tin, Chile’s copper, Argentina’s cattle and wheat, and Brazil’s coffee. All have a common denominator: the economies of all these countries are based on a single product (or, at most, two)—and on a single market, as well.
We know, then, that, on the road to liberation, we must struggle first against having a single market and then against having a single product; we must diversify foreign trade and domestic production. Up to here, it’s all very simple. The problem lies in how to do this—by parliamentary means, by armed struggle or by a combination of the two? I don’t know, nor can I give an exact answer to that question. All I can tell you is that, in Cuba’s conditions of imperialist oppression and of oppression by its domestic puppets, the only way out we saw for the Cuban people was that of armed struggle.
To those who, overflowing with technical jargon, ask how much capital is required to begin an agrarian reform, I would say that the only capital you need is the people, armed and aware of their rights. With just that capital we carried out our agrarian reform here in Cuba, deepened it, have continued to advance in it and are setting out on the path of industrialization.
Naturally, the efforts of an entire people can’t be summed up in such a simple formula, because this is a struggle that has already cost much blood and suffering, and which the imperialists are trying to make cost even more. This is why you must unite firmly around those weapons; this is the only way to lead the people to their definitive goals, by uniting uncompromisingly, not allowing anything or anybody to sow division, because, as Martín Fierro said, if brothers fight among themselves, the others will devour them. Imperialism is familiar with this maxim, which the poet adopted from the people; imperialism seeks to divide and conquer. Thus, it divided us into countries producing coffee, copper, oil, tin and sugar, and it also divided us into countries that compete for the market in a single country, constantly lowering prices, so it would be easier for imperialism to defeat our countries one by one.
The maxim that can be applied to one country can also be applied to all countries that aren’t fully developed. We must unite. All the peoples of the world must unite to obtain freedom; economic well-being; confidence that all problems can be solved in the future, and the knowledge that, with enthusiastic, creative daily work, we can reach our goals and that nothing can prevent this.
The imperialist powers exist. You know them, and so do we, because they have exploited us. The compañeros who were born in those countries know them, too, because they have lived inside the monster and know how terrible it is to live in those conditions when you have faith in the human spirit. The peace-loving countries, which are surrounded by nuclear bases and are unable to implement all their plans for development, also know them.
We all know them, which is why we must try to unite in spite of the governments that seek to divide us; we must join together—not only young people, as we did here, but also older adults, the elderly and children—to prevent the most terrible of all the wars with which humankind is threatened and to attain those goals that everyone wants. When the people know all this—and the people aren’t ignorant; they want to unite—all countries whose rulers have sold out will start pressuring many of you, putting you in jail and oppressing you in other ways to make you forget what you have learned in a free country or to make examples of you to keep the timid from taking the path of honor.
This has already happened to people from other Latin American countries who have visited us, and, unfortunately, it will keep happening. Many of you will have difficulties; many of you will be called “the lowest kind of human being, allied to strange foreign oppressors and to the worst enemy”—an enemy which is trying to destroy what they call democracy and the Western way of life. The Western way of life is represented here by the people of Algeria, who are struggling, and by all other oppressed peoples that are struggling and giving their lives to achieve happiness, which they never enjoy.
The path is not an easy one; it is not even easy for those who, like us, have managed to surmount the first obstacle and establish a people’s government. A very difficult stage still lies ahead, one in which the false democracies will punish the people more and more, and the people’s indignation and anger will continue to grow until they are filled with hatred and become a human wave that seizes weapons, fights and takes power. These are the current conditions: sooner or later, the people in the colonial and semicolonial countries—the countries which still bear the yokes of governments that are puppets of imperialist powers—will have to take up arms to establish governments that represent the people and join the other peoples in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe in order to create a better world.
You will see many things. You will see that, though imperialism was caught napping in Cuba, it has woken up; the cries of the people have awakened it. You will see “international” police forces created, in which leadership is given to those who have the most experience in the struggle against communism (in the case of Latin America, the United States), to take up weapons and fight against any country that rebels—or, rather, to arm our Latin American brothers so they will do this under the shameful banner of the Organization of American States. You will see this in Latin America— and soon. You will see this because the people will rebel and because the imperialists will create those armies. But the history of the world will continue, and we—or this generation of our compañeros, if we should die in the struggle—will see that those peoples will win, even against those forces armed by the most powerful country on earth, and will destroy imperialism.
We of this generation will see the world liberated once and for all, even if we have to go through the worst suffering and privations and even if, in their madness, the imperialists unleash a war that will precipitate their own demise. If any of the peoples manages to attain its independence without going through that struggle, the only prescription for development in this struggle is to unite the people and to carry out serious economic and social reforms, using the capital of weapons and the people. It is also very important to educate the people quickly.
We, who have had the rich experience of the Cuban revolution, are thrilled to see our people acquiring greater knowledge, revolutionary faith and revolutionary awareness every day. Here is a simple example of that: you applauded all the delegations from our sister countries here today but applauded three of the delegations with particular fervor, because they are in special situations.
One of these was the delegation representing the people of the United States—a delegation that should never be confused with the US government—a delegation of the people who don’t accept racial hatred and don’t differentiate among individuals on the basis of the color of their skin, religion or economic position. Another one that you applauded with great fervor, because it represents the opposite pole, was the delegation from the People’s Republic of China. So, you applauded the delegations of two peoples whose governments are at loggerheads—one whose government deceives or opposes its people and the other representing a government that has the full support of its people.
You also warmly applauded the Algerian delegation. The people of Algeria are writing another marvelous page in their history, fighting as we had to fight in the mountains, but not, as in our case, against an invasion of their soil by people who had been born there—who, no matter how savage, always respect something. Rather, the Algerians are fighting against invading troops from a foreign country, who have been trained to kill, are steeped in racial hatred and have been educated in the philosophy of war.
Our people also gave generous applause to the delegation representing the people of France, another delegation that does not represent its government.
We ask ourselves: is our people’s success in carrying out our revolution due to their grasp of political affairs, as has been shown by their knowledge of which delegations to applaud the most fervently and in their differentiating between governments and peoples, even at moments such as this, when the Cuban delegation to the United Nations has been subjected to bitter hatred and brutal repression, expressed in both verbal and physical abuse? Was that political knowledge responsible for the revolution? To some extent. The Cuban people are so knowledgeable because they are carrying out the revolution. By exercising their revolutionary rights in the course of these 20 months since the triumph of the Cuban revolution, they have learned everything expressed here, which you, delegates from all over the world, have seen for yourselves on our island.
The first prescription for educating the people is to have a revolution. Never think you can educate a people by means of education alone, with a despotic government still in place; the people must learn to win their rights. First of all, teach the people to win those rights; when they are represented in the government, they will learn everything that you teach them and much more; the people will learn everything effortlessly.
We, who are members of the revolutionary government, which is a part of the people, have learned many things while in office—always asking the people, never divorcing ourselves from them, because a ruler who isolates himself in an ivory tower and tries to direct the people with formulas is a failure and is heading toward despotism.
The people and the government should always be the same thing. Let me tell you, compañeros from other Latin American countries and from colonial countries that haven’t yet won their independence who are visiting us, that you don’t have to know how to read and write to lead the people; if you do know how to read and write, all the better, and, if you’re a philosopher or mathematician, that’s fine, too. But the most important thing you must know for leading the people is how to interpret what they want, and it’s much easier to do this if you’re a part of the people, if you’ve never been isolated from the people by education or any of the other barriers that separate many individuals from the people today.
Therefore, we have a government of workers, peasants and people who knew how to read before—who were in the minority—and have learned the most important things in this struggle.
You can see this here in the Young Rebels. When you listen to Major Joel Iglesias on Sunday, you will learn that this major of the Rebel Army was only 15 years old when he went to the Sierra Maestra; he barely knew how to read, and he didn’t know how to write. Now, he is leading the young people, not because he has become a philosopher in a year and a half, but because he can talk with and is a part of the people and because he feels what all of you feel every day and can express your feelings; he knows how to communicate with you.
If governments consisted of people like these, they would be much better.
Therefore, I congratulate all governments in the world whose leaders have suffered alongside their people; have learned how to read and write in the course of the struggle; and are now, as always, identified with the people.
You came here from all over the world to learn about and work with us; but also, in spite of all the teachings you brought us, those of you who live in countries that haven’t gone through this experience yet and who are preparing yourselves for it were able to learn something new, because this is a part of history, and history cannot be changed.
There are many things to be learned from Cuba—not only the good things that you see every day, which show the people’s enthusiasm and fervor; you can also learn from the bad things, so that, when the time comes for you to govern, you won’t make the same mistakes we’ve made. Learn that organization should be closely linked to the people’s victory and that, the deeper that organization goes, the easier victory will be.
You came here to work, to build a school city, but, when you arrived, not everything was ready. The school city was in recess, and you couldn’t finish that small monument to human solidarity that you wanted to leave there. It’s a shame, though it’s worth just as much to us the way it is as it would have been if you’d built the most beautiful castle; but it’s also a lesson that organization is important, that you can’t think that revolutionaries are celestial beings that have come to earth through the grace of God, that they simply open their arms and begin the revolution and all problems are solved as soon as they arise, thanks to their enlightenment.
Revolutionaries have to be not only indefatigable workers but also organized. If, instead of learning through the mistakes you make in the struggle—as we have learned—you apply this experience of the need for organization to the revolutionary struggle, it will benefit the countries in which you fight for the revolution. This is one of the lessons that you can take from here, from this specific example, because we couldn’t offer you a positive experience in this regard. […]
1. See Ernesto Che Guevara, Che Guevara Reader, pp. 121-29..