Tie Hands Off Cuba

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every militia member, every worker, every young person, every student, the Revolution is invincible. The Revolution is invincible!

For this reason, these concepts are necessary as part of our people's political and ideological preparation. We have already said "Patria o Muerte!" and we have to be consistent with this idea, which wasn't conceived by us. It was conceived by our first freedom fighters and has been the essence of our patriotic spirit, the spirit of struggle that our nation has had throughout its history. The United States has good reason to fear such a people.

"We won't return to the past!"

It's clear that there are battles that may be even tougher than military battles and the United States is hoping that perhaps it won't even have to invade the country, that the difficulties arising or that may arise, which are more serious, as a result of the collapse of the socialist camp or a result of the problems existing in the USSR-a country now trying to preserve its integrity as a great multinational state, a country now trying to stabilize itself and a country which certainly has very big problems-the United States is hoping the the consequences of this situation will cause insurmountable economic difficulties for the Revolution.

The United States is dreaming that these problems will bring back capitalism to Cuba; it is dreaming that all our land will again become private property, that our factories will become private property, that our means of production will become private property.

It is dreaming that perhaps our capital and our cities will once again be teeming with brothels, gambling dens, casinos, barefoot children, beggars. It dreams that perhaps the nation can grow used to having thousands or millions of jobless people. It can see the Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action country filled again with illiterates, without schools, without technological institutes, without the health system which is now considered one of the best in the world.

It has the absurd and crazy idea that our country will return to the past-to a past of injustice, inequality, racial and sexual discrimination. It dreams that women can again become a sort of property in the heart of a society of classes. It is dreaming about these absurd things which perhaps the overwhelming majority of you never knew but nevertheless understand, sense, see.

In the rest of the capitalist world, it tries to seduce the peoples with its absurd consumer societies, in places where the riches stolen for centuries from the Third World accumulated. Capitalism hasn't created anything but sterile luxury and an incredible waste of the earth's natural resources, in order to create super-rich societies where, incidentally, not everybody is rich and there are many homeless people, beggars, and a lot of other evils.

What capitalism has PrI isr wi the in I06 un! Ca oth ele of di th Al of of ge to cO pr ga do ce vi ga

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could die a natural death or in war.

Now that we're talking about war, now that the United States has used its sophisticated weapons, I would like to say that in the case of aggression against our country, the Political Bureau could disappear, and I ask you: if the Political Bureau disappeared, would the Revolution disappear? (Shouts of "No!")

A command post could disappear, the General Staff of the army or of the armed forces could disappear in a war, but does this mean that the soldiers would stop fighting? (Shouts of "No!")

Any command post, any leadership, any leader or group of leaders could disappear in a war, but what couldn't disappear is the Revolution. As long as one combatant remains and resists, the Revolution will continue to exist.

When a people is imbued with these ideas, when a people is convinced of these ideas, that people is invincible, and no weapons, Photo courtesy of Tony Ryan . 42.

..we ought to tell the United States: stop your illusions, stop vour day-dreaming, for if we are brave enough to die and shed our blood, we'll also have the courage to endure all the material suffering that may be necessary to save the Revolution... world during centuries of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and exploitation are four billion human beings living in poverty-four billion human beings! Every day, 40,000 children die who could have been saved.

The worst kind of atrocities, the worst kind of humiliations, the worst kind of injustices, the worst kind of abuses, unhappiness, suffering, that's what capitalism has brought into the world. In addition, it has poisoned the seas, the rivers, the atmosphere.

I don't know what kind of capitalist or socialist experiences some people not precisely from the Third World lived through, but a Third World country like Cuba, which lived through all that, a country like ours which lived through centuries of colonialism, which lived through decades of U.S. domination, during which they committed in our country all sorts of abuses—once some U.S. sailors even desecrated the sacred statue of Jose Marti in Havana's Central Park, in what was one more expression of their insolence and arrogance and at a time when they weren't as unilaterally powerful as they are today; a country like ours, which lived through so much horror, will never resign itself to that past, a people like ours, who learned the meaning of freedom, who for the first time in history learned the meaning of independence, who for the first time in history knew the meaning of national dignity and will never go back to capitalism, will never go back to being a U.S. possession and colony.

Preparing for difficulties ahead That's what you are expressing on a day like today in a rally like this—that idea that there won't be a return to the past, that idea that the United States will never again become the master of our sacred nation. That's why we must be ready to meet all the difficulties and make all the sacrifices.

No one can imagine the difficulties we must confront and how the country has managed to get around those difficulties so that no one is thrown into the street, so that no one is left without an income, so that no child is left without a school, so that not a sick man or woman is left without a doctor.

I'm absolutely certain that no other country in the world could have confronted the difficulties as we are confronting them but, we must be prepared to confront even greater difficulties. Yes!

And we ought to tell the United States: stop your illusions, stop day-dreaming, for if we are brave enough to die and shed our blood we'll also have the courage to endure all the material suffering that may be necessary to save the Revolution, we'll have the courage to endure the shortages that may be necessary to save the Revolution.

Capitalism and imperialism have nothing to offer to revolutionary peoples.

You are already witnessing what those countries which used to call themselves socialist are now going through—millions of unemployed, inequality, injustice. They were offered miracles and thought that by the next day they would be living better than the bourgeoisie in Paris, and what they got instead is the other side of the coin.

Capitalism and imperialism have nothing to offer the peoples but humiliation, inequality, exploitation, the law of the jungle. And we don't want inequality, we don't want exploitation, we don't want the law of the jungle, we want man to be the brother of man rather than the predator of man.

That is why our fighting spirit, our willingness to sacrifice our heroism must be an integral one.

Today we still have many things available and we're making big efforts, getting ready for the moment when more things may be in short supply, what to do if we should have less fuel. And we're training hundreds of thousands of oxen, in case it should become necessary to plow the land and prepare the land with oxen if we don't have enough fuel for the tractors. We're distributing hundreds of thousands of bicycles among the population and if we have time, we'll distribute millions, so that people can ride to work on a bike. In other words, we're getting ready for greater difficulties.

That's why the principle of "I am the nation, I am the Revolution, I am the dignity of the country, I am the honor of the country, I am the army of the country," must be applied in all aspects, including economic aspects. We have a very great responsibility (continued on page 11,

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