IT IS NOT A WORLD FULL OF JUSTICE
"That is the world we are living in. It is not a world full of goodness; it is a world full of selfishness. it is not a world full of justice, it is a world full of exploitation, abuse, and plunder, where millions of children die every year—and could be saved—simply because they lack a few cents for medicine, a little vitamins and minerals, and a few dollars for food, enough for them to live.
"What kind of world is this? What kind of world is this where a barbaric empire proclaims the right to launch surprise and preemptive attacks on 70 or more countries, capable of bringing death to any corner of the world using the most sophisticated weapons and techniques of killing?"
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A PIECE OF TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY FORCE
"A world where the empire of brutality and force reigns, with hundreds of military bases across the planet, including one on our own land, where the United States intervened arbitrarily when Spanish colonial power could no longer be sustained and when hundreds of thousands of the best sons of this people, which had barely a million inhabitants, had perished in a long war lasting around 30 years; a repugnant Platt Amendment by virtue of an equally repugnant resolution that treacherously granted the right to intervene in our land when, in its opinion, there was not enough order. More than a century has passed and it still occupies that piece of territory by force, today the shame and horror of the world."
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THE HOLOCAUST OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
"A major accomplice of this bandit, which is the pro-Nazi state of Israel, supports the blockade. It must be said, because those who commit such crimes did so in the name of a people who for more than 1,500 years suffered persecution throughout the world and were victims of the most atrocious crimes in World War II, the people of Israel, who are in no way to blame for the genocidal savagery, in the service of the empire, that is leading to the holocaust of another people, the Palestinian people, and also proclaim the repugnant right to launch surprise and preemptive attacks on other countries.
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THREATS AGAINST IRAN
"Today, there is already debate in the international arena about what day and what time, or whether it will be the empire, or whether it will use—as it did in Iraq—its Israeli satellite for a preemptive and surprise bombing of research centers seeking to obtain nuclear fuel production technology.
"We know that country well. It is a country of 70 million inhabitants that is committed to industrial development and rightly believes that it would be a great crime to compromise its gas or oil reserves to fuel the billions of kilowatt-hours that its industrial development urgently requires as a Third World country. And there is the empire, seeking to prohibit this and threatening to bomb.
"(...) That's how the world works. And we'll see what happens if they decide to bomb Iran to destroy any facility that allows it to produce nuclear fuel."
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IT IS IDEAS THAT UNITE US
"No one followed the Revolution out of devotion to anyone or out of personal sympathy for anyone. When a people reaches the same willingness to sacrifice as any of those who loyally and sincerely try to lead them and guide them toward a destiny, that is only possible through principles, through ideas.
"It is ideas that unite us, it is ideas that make us a fighting people, it is ideas that make us, not only individually but collectively, revolutionaries, and it is then that the strength of all is united, when a people can never be defeated and when the number of ideas is much greater; when the number of ideas and values that are defended multiply, much less can a people be defeated."
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STUDENTS ALWAYS FOUGHT
Eight students were shot in 1871 and were the foundation of the noblest sentiments and spirit of rebellion of our people, who were so outraged by that colossal injustice; like the nine students whose deaths we commemorate today, murdered by the Nazis in Prague on November 17, 1939, on the eve of World War II.
"The memory of those medical students was always present in the history of our youth, and students always fought against tyrannical and corrupt governments. Mella was one of them, also from the middle class, because those from the poorest classes, the children of peasants, could not read or write, so how could they enter a university or even high school?
"I was able to come to Havana because my father had the means, and so I got my high school diploma, and so chance brought me to university. Am I better than any of those hundreds of boys, almost none of whom made it to sixth grade, none of whom got a high school diploma, none of whom entered university?
"My own case, like that of many others, I mentioned Mella, I could mention Guiteras, I could mention Trejo, who died in one of those demonstrations on September 30 in the struggle against Machado...
"Before the Revolution, there were always many noble students willing to sacrifice themselves, willing to give their lives, against Batista's tyranny. And so, when Batista's tyranny returned with full force, many students fought and many students died, and that young man from Cárdenas, Manzanita, as they called him, always smiling, always cheerful, always affectionate with everyone else, distinguished himself by his courage, his fortitude, when he descended the steps, when he confronted the fire trucks, when he confronted the police. That's how they all emerged."
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IT IS A TIME VERY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERS
"This present moment is an unprecedented moment, it is a time very different from all others, it is nothing like 1945, it is nothing like 1950 when we graduated, but already possessing all those ideas I spoke of one day, when I affirmed with love, with respect, with deep affection, that at this university, where I arrived with nothing more than a rebellious spirit and some basic ideas about justice, I became a revolutionary, I became a Marxist-Leninist, and I acquired feelings that, over the years, I have had the privilege of never feeling tempted, even in the slightest, to abandon. That is why I dare to say that I will never abandon them."
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DO NOT FORGET THE TERRORIST ACTS: DID THE EMPIRE CHANGE?
"Never forget those who for so many years were our working class, who lived through decades of sacrifice, the mercenary gangs in the mountains, invasions such as that of Girón, the thousands of acts of sabotage that cost so many lives among our sugar cane workers, sugar mill workers, industrial workers, or those in commerce, or in the merchant marine, or in fishing, who were suddenly attacked with cannons and bazookas, just because we were Cubans, just because we wanted independence, just because we wanted to improve the lot of our people; and there were the bandits doing their thing, there were the bandits recruited and trained by the CIA, there were the criminals, there were the terrorists who blew up planes in mid-flight or tried to blow them up, no matter who died, there were those who organized attacks of all kinds and acts of terrorism against our country. Has the empire changed?
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THE EMPIRE IS NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
"When I say empire, I do not mean the American people, let that be clear. The American people will save many of the ethical values, they will save many principles that have been forgotten, they will adapt to the world we live in, if this world can be saved and this world must be saved. And all of us, together and at the forefront, must fight so that this world can be saved, and our best and most invincible weapons are ideas.
"In any case, I believe that humanity and the great things it is capable of creating must be preserved while they can be preserved. A humanity that does not care about the preservation of the species would be like the young student or the leading cadre who knows that his life is very limited to a small number of years and yet is concerned only with his own life."
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RESPECT WITHOUT IMPOSITIONS
"When the USSR collapsed (...) we knew what we had to do and what we had to do, what our options were. There were other revolutionary movements in many places fighting their own battles. These were very serious revolutionary movements, and they asked us whether or not they should negotiate in that desperate situation, whether or not they should continue fighting, or whether they should negotiate with the opposing forces in search of peace, when we knew where that peace would lead.
"I told them: 'You can't ask us for our opinion, you are the ones who would go and fight, you are the ones who would go and die, not us. We know what we will do and what we are willing to do, but only you can decide that." This was the most extreme manifestation of respect for the other movements and not an attempt to impose our views based on our knowledge and experience and the enormous respect they felt for our Revolution.
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CRITICISM AND SELF-CRITICISM
"In this battle against vices, there will be no truce with anyone. Everything will be called by its name, and we will appeal to the honor of each sector. We are sure of one thing: that in every human being there is a high dose of shame. When he is alone with himself, he is not a severe judge, even though, in my opinion, the first duty of a revolutionary is to be extremely severe with himself.
"There is talk of criticism and self-criticism, yes, but our criticism tends to be limited to a small group; we never resort to broader criticism, we never resort to criticism in a theater.
Criticism and self-criticism, that's very correct, that didn't exist; but if we are going to fight the battle, we have to use larger caliber projectiles, we have to go to criticism and self-criticism in the classroom, in the nucleus and then outside the nucleus, then in the municipality and then in the country."
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A BATTLE AGAINST ALL THEFT
"We are inviting the entire population to cooperate in a great battle, which is not only the battle for fuel and electricity, but the battle against all theft, of any kind, anywhere. I repeat: against all theft, of any kind, anywhere."
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DON'T LOSE THE DIALECTICAL SENSE
"One conclusion I have drawn after many years: among the many mistakes we have all made, the most important mistake was to believe that someone knew about socialism, or that someone knew how to build socialism. It seemed like a known science, as well known as the electrical system conceived by some who considered themselves experts in electrical systems. When they said, 'This is the formula,' this is the one who knows.
"We are idiots if we believe, for example, that economics—and forgive me, the tens of thousands of economists in this country—is an exact and eternal science, and that it has existed since the time of Adam and Eve. All dialectical meaning is lost when someone believes that today's economy is the same as it was 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, or 150 years ago, or that it is the same as it was in Lenin's time, or in Karl Marx's time. Revisionism is a thousand miles from my thinking; I truly worship Marx, Engels, and Lenin."
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WITHOUT UNITY WE WILL GET NOWHERE
"In this real world, which must be changed, every revolutionary strategist and tactician has a duty to devise a strategy and tactics that will lead to the fundamental goal of changing that real world. No tactic or strategy that divides would be good.
"I had the privilege of meeting the Liberation Theology group once in Chile, when I visited Allende in 1971, and I met many priests there, or representatives of different religious denominations, and they proposed the idea of joining forces and fighting, regardless of their religious beliefs.
"The world is in desperate need of unity, and if we cannot achieve a minimum of that unity, we will get nowhere."
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THE ROLE OF ETHICS AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FAMILY
"I have thought a lot about the role of ethics. What are the ethics of a revolutionary? All revolutionary thinking begins with a little ethics, with a little bit of values instilled by parents and teachers. He was not born with those ideas; just as he was not born speaking, someone taught him to speak. The influence of the family is also very great.
"When we have studied the cases of young people who have been in prison for between 20 and 30 years, we look at their background, their parents' cultural levels, and we see that they have a decisive influence, to the extent that during the battle of ideas, we, conducting all kinds of social research of this nature, came to the conclusion that crime in Cuba was closely associated with the cultural level and social status of the parents."
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THE COUNTRY'S MOST IMPORTANT RESOURCE
"Human capital is not a non-renewable resource; it is renewable, but it is also multipliable. Every year, human capital grows and grows, receiving what in my day was called compound interest: it adds up what it is worth and receives interest on what it was worth, and what it earned on what it was worth. After five years, it is much more capital, and after 100 years, you cannot even imagine.
"Let me tell you that today, human capital is, or is rapidly advancing to become, the country's most important resource, far above almost all others combined. I am not exaggerating."
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A LIE IS NOT THE SAME AS A CONDITIONED REFLEX
"When the mass media emerged, they took over people's minds and ruled not only on the basis of lies, but also on the basis of conditioned reflexes. A lie is not the same as a conditioned reflex: a lie affects knowledge; a conditioned reflex affects the ability to think. And being misinformed is not the same as having lost the ability to think, because they have already created reflexes in you: "This is bad, this is bad; socialism is bad, socialism is bad," and all the ignorant and all the poor and all the exploited saying, "Socialism is bad." "Communism is bad," and all the poor, all the exploited, and all the illiterate repeating: "Communism is bad."
"They talk so much about brainwashing, they carve it out, they shape it, they take away the human being's ability to think; and if they were still going to take away the ability to think from someone who graduates from college and can read a book, it would be less serious.
"What can the illiterate read? How do they know they are being duped? How do they know that the biggest lie in the world is to say that this is democracy, the rotten system that prevails there and in most, if not almost all, of the countries that copied that system?"
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CAN THIS REVOLUTIONARY, SOCIALIST PROCESS COLLAPSE OR NOT?
"Are revolutions destined to collapse, or can men cause revolutions to collapse? Can men prevent revolutions from collapsing, can society prevent revolutions from collapsing? I could add another question right away. Do you believe that this revolutionary, socialist process can or cannot collapse? (Exclamations of "No!"). Have you ever thought about it? Have you thought about it deeply?
"Were you aware of all these inequalities I am talking about? Were you aware of certain widespread habits?
"(...) They are waiting for a natural and absolutely logical phenomenon, which is the death of someone. In this case, they have done me the considerable honor of thinking of me. It will be a confession of what they have not been able to do for a long time. If I were vain, I could be proud that those guys say they have to wait for me to die, and that is the moment.
"(...) I asked you a question, fellow students, which I have not forgotten, far from it, and I want you to never forget it either, but it is a question I leave there in light of the historical experiences that have been known, and I ask all of you, without exception, to reflect: Can a revolutionary process be irreversible or not? What ideas or degree of consciousness would make it impossible to reverse a revolutionary process? When those who were among the first, the veterans, begin to disappear and give way to new generations of leaders, what should be done and how should it be done? After all, we have witnessed many mistakes, and we did not even realize it.
"Today we have, in my opinion, quite clear ideas about how socialism should be built, but we need many clear ideas and many questions directed at you, who are responsible, about how socialism can be preserved or will be preserved in the future."
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DESTROYING THE ILLUSIONS OF THE EMPIRE
"We must be determined: either we defeat all these deviations and strengthen the Revolution by destroying any illusions the empire may still have, or we could say: either we radically overcome these problems or we will die. In this field, we must reiterate the slogan: Homeland or Death!
"There are millions of Cubans prepared for a war of the entire people. I said that we had achieved military invulnerability, that the empire cannot afford the cost in lives, unimaginable and perhaps as many or more than in Vietnam, if it tries to occupy us, and that American society is no longer willing to grant its rulers the credit of tens of thousands of lives for imperial adventures.
"(...) Today we have much more than seven rifles, we have an entire people who have learned to handle weapons; an entire people who, despite our mistakes, possess such a level of culture, knowledge, and consciousness that they would never allow this country to become a colony of theirs again.
"This country can destroy itself; this Revolution can be destroyed, but those who cannot destroy it today are them; we can, we can destroy it, and it would be our fault."
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IT IS WORTH BEING BORN! IT IS WORTH LIVING!
"I think that sooner rather than later that empire will disintegrate and the people of the United States will have more freedom than ever before, will be able to aspire to more justice than ever before, will be able to use science and technology for their own benefit and for the benefit of humanity, will be able to join those who are fighting for the survival of the species, will be able to join those who are fighting for an opportunity for the human species to which they belong.
"It is very fair to fight for that, and that is why we must use all our energy, all our efforts, all our time to be able to say in the voice of millions or hundreds or billions: It is worth being born! It is worth living!"
