The use of the term hooligan to criminalze dissent!!!!!!

At the last several sentencing hearings of G20 activist, one notices a pattern of the state attacking and depolitisizing the nature of peoples charges by using such words as hooligan, vandals, criminals and organized crime.

This line of argument falls into the general line of the state that Canada has no political prisoners and those who are arrested are criminals and thugs and while the state may have tried to push this line to the media, the reality of the situation is very different especially if one notes who is being targeted and how.

In their own papers they themselves talk about criminal ideology, identifying those that must be monitored as Marxists, Maoists, Anarchists and socialists. Furthermore, they themselves admit that the “acts of violence” committed by protestors were ideologically motivated and not simply crime for the sake of crime. The targets at the g20 were of political significance and whether or not you agree with the tactics, the truth of the situation was that those who were engaging in those tactics were not acting in a vacuum but rather were responding to one of the biggest political operations aimed at criminalizing dissent and brutalizing people indiscriminately simply for taking a stand against those conspiring to implement austerity at home and nation wrecking abroad.

By this very definition those arrested at the g20 regardless of different tactics are political prisoners who were engaging in politically motivated acts and as a result are in jail.

Furthermore, those targeted for infiltration and attack, who were all public organizers were not targeted because of a history of violence or crime but rather because of there ideologies and participation in open political work with those most attacked by the state, anti poverty activists, indigenous solidarity and anti colonialist movements, demonstrating that the criminalization is not based on anything other then patrolling and controlling those whose views do not fall in line with the neo liberal colonialist model pushed by the g20.

Given all this information it becomes clear that by using terms like hooligans to describe activists what the state is trying to do is to normalize the criminalization of dissent, and all their talk of democracy and the political process and rights will be exposed as meaningless unless they can shift the paradigm in public consciousness and convince people that to be political is equal to being a hooligan and a anti social element.

If one reads the propaganda of dictatorships and puppet regimes imposed by the anglo american imperialist alliance, of which Canada plays a significant role, one sees the language that the state is using here against us by the state as part of the normal discourse, and all uprisings or political dissent is referred to as hooliganism. this is the climate the state wants to create here, this is the climate that we most oppose!!!!!Silence on this issue of criminalization of political people must be oppossed, because to lose site of the political nature of this attack on activists plays into their hands and allows them to set the stage where to be political is a crime!!!!!

George Horton Sentenced to ten months while police attack activists in courtroom!!!

While the judge sentencing George Horton was describing protestors at the G20 as hooligans, the courtroom gallery witnessed some hooliganism in the courthouse as Det. Giroux attacked and threw against the wall an observer in the court gallery, and instructed officers to remove other activists from the courtroom.

Horton, photographer, artist and activist was sentenced to ten months in jail for responding to police violence against protestors at the g20 with fierce resistance and defiance.

While the court took into account the testimony of an officer who stated that they were “terrified”, the court did not take into account the fear that the victims of police violence felt, nor the fact that the police was used as a paramilitary force to attack and criminalize dissent.

If the police will be used as a political tool to promote and inflict violence on dissident they should not be surprised when there violence is met with violence from the people under attack.

Info Picket To Free Marian Price And Drop All Charges Against Paddy McDaid, Frank Quigley and Marvin Canning a success!!!!!!

On Sept 27th members of the Anti Colonial Working group held an info picket outside the British consulate in Toronto demanding that Price be freed and charges against the other three men arrested at the 32csm rally in April 2011 in Derry be dropped. Despite the presence of RCMP, Toronto Police, intelligence etc. and threats of arrest if any of us set a foot on consulate property We held our banner and handed out 450 flyers.

When our comrades showed up with Irish flags and Republican banners, Police agencies decided that they had a right to intimidate people demanding names and addresses even though all we were doing was handing out flyers!!!! We were later treated to good old British hospitality when the British consulate staff decided to show us the middle finger!!!!
All in all the Rally was a success and we will keep on raising awareness around Price and other Republican prisoners locked by the Colonialist Powers!!!!

Support Maghaberry Prisoners on Hungerstrike!!!!!!

SEP

Statement from Republican Prisoners Roe 4, Maghaberry. 26.09.12

Roe 4 Republican prisoners Maghaberry have been monitoring for some time now the case of Thomas and Desmond Hamill, Martin Mc Gilloway and Austin Creggan from Dugannan who embarked on a hunger-strike for the right to be moved onto the Republican wing in Maghaberry.
Representatives of Roe 4 Republican prisoners have had a number of meetings with the families of these 4 men and made the suggestion that Independent Councillors be asked to attend these meetings to help resolve the situation. The Independent Councillors were only to happy to attend and agreed to work alongside the families to seek a resolution.
At a very early stage the 4 men and their families were informed that Roe 4 Republican prisoners had accepted the 4 men onto the wing as Republican prisoners.
The administration of Maghaberry were told by Roe 4 prisoners to move the 4 men over to the republican wing. Within days the administration informed Roe 4 prisoners that these men would not be moved over to Roe 4 as a threat was in place against them from another group of Republican prisoners.
Thomas, Desmond, Martin and Austin were advised to end their hunger-strike to allow space to address the decision taken by the administration to deny them their right to be on a Republican wing.
These men are not under threat from any prisoner on Roe 4 and we call on the administration of Maghaberry to move these men over onto Roe 4 immediately.
Republican Prisoners, Roe 4, Maghaberry.

Jail where is thy sting?A visit with Mandy Hiscocks!!!

I hate visiting people in jail. The whole process that you have to go through is demeaning and is set up in such a way that you know who is in power and who has control. For those who have ever been in jail, the screws, checking in, metal detectors etc. reminds one where someone is and seeing someone through the glass, in uniform, talking through a phone that keeps on breaking up has less to do with security and more to do with demeaning the prisoner and creating a dissociation between the prisoner and the person outside. In fact the whole process is set up in such a way as to further criminalize the incarcerated.

The reason motives of the state to criminalize political people and put them in a cage is not just to isolate and criminalize the activist from the rest of society but also to break their spirit making it easier for the state to remold the political person in what the state feels that they should be. This not only destroys the person who is political but also works to discredit their politics to those who are not political by showing the average person that the state is all-powerful and can crush anyone no matter what there resolve is as well as to discredit peoples politics by having people recant their ideas and there by neutralizing them and their politics.

Today I went to visit Mandy Hiscocks in Vanier centre for women. After showing my id, answering their questions and going through their whole process, i was finally led to a room the size of a washroom and made to wait for her. She walked in, wearing her prison uniform led in by guards, yet despite the whole process and what they put her through, neither the lifeless walls, nor uniform could erase the smile from her face. She grabs the phone and we are having connection problems, but I start talking about my legal issues and shes talking about whats going on, and even though usually its you the visitor that cheers up the inmate, her enthusiasm is contagious and i find myself breaking out a big smile, laughing, joking and having a good time, making me forget where I was. The more and more we talked the more obvious it was to me that she is the same selfless person I have always known and even though she was the one in cuffs locked up all she wanted to know was how to assist those on the outside.

Huey Newton of the Panthers wrote a poem once called jail where is thy sting, where he talks about freedom being something that cant be regulated by guards, cops or screws. Seeing Mandy today I get to see the truth of those words which is despite whatever the system throws at a principled organizer, despite the fact that she is in chains, her spirit will never be either bound nor broken

The Real Legacy of Peter Lougheed

From TML Daily, May 11, 2012: The Myth of Alberta’s “Camelot”
Ruling Circles Proclaim Peter Lougheed
All-Time Best Salesman for the Monopolies

– Dougal MacDonald –

Huge rally at Alberta Legislature during 1980 provincial employees strike.
(Alberta Labour History Institute)
The recent outpouring of admiration for Peter Lougheed, Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, and the efforts to link current Premier Alison Redford to Lougheed and his “vision” for Alberta raises the question of what Lougheed stood for, and what is behind his promotion at this time.

With great fanfare, the monopoly media announced May 3 that a poll has concluded that “by a landslide” the “greatest” provincial premier in the history of Canada was Alberta’s Peter Lougheed. Lougheed is hailed as the person who “built modern Alberta,” totally ignoring the fact that it was the working class and people who built Alberta. The Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP)[1] conducted the poll and based it on the opinions of a panel of thirty “eminent historians, political scientists, economists, journalists and policy advisors.”[2] The panel rated the premiers on “nine leadership categories: vision for their province; ability to win elections; management of provincial finances; managing the economy; building infrastructure; communication skills; relations with fellow premiers; federal-provincial relations; and the extent of their legacy.”

Since Lougheed resigned in 1985, the monopolies have proliferated a mythology that the Lougheed Era was a time of unprecedented prosperity when all the working people in Alberta were well looked after and lived great lives, some kind of wonderful “Camelot” that everyone should now aspire to return to. This myth is pushed even though this was the same era when, for example, the Alberta Labour Act was amended (1983) to eliminate the right to strike for firefighters and hospital employees, deny university faculty their right to join a union, impose compulsory arbitration, and require arbitrators to consider government policy, the employer’s ability to pay and non-union wages. The amended Labour Act also allowed suspension of the collection of dues if employees participated in “illegal” strike action.

To further polish up the myth of the Lougheed Era, a contrast is drawn with the blatant slash and burn policies of the Klein Era, although during his time Klein was also promoted as a “man of the people.” The main trick is that instead of clarifying how each provincial regime serves the needs of the energy monopolies by implementing particular policies at particular times in history, it is suggested that somehow Lougheed was an exception who fought for the interests of working people against the foreign oil monopolies. But Lougheed was just as much the champion of the monopolies as Redford, Klein, Manning or any other Alberta premier, and this is the real reason he is now being awarded a new “honour.”

Lougheed took leadership of Alberta’s moribund Progressive Conservative (PC) party in 1965 and led the PCs to their initial victory in Alberta in 1971, winning 49 seats to defeat and later destroy the 36-year Social Credit dynasty. He remained premier until 1985, beginning an unbroken period of Tory rule to the present day, and is still dusted off when it serves the monopolies. During the April 2012 Alberta provincial election, when polls and pundits were falsely heralding a Wildrose victory over the PCs, Lougheed promoted incumbent PC Premier Alison Redford in a CTV interview: “She’s positive and she’s a positive thinker, and she has an up-to-date view of the province.” Redford will be the main speaker at Lougheed’s June 6 award dinner in Calgary.

The Lougheed government’s election in 1971 was not a victory for the people but mainly for the home-grown Alberta energy and other capitalists who wanted a larger share of the revenues from energy exploitation being siphoned off by the foreign-owned monopolies. The Manning Social Credit government heavily favoured foreign monopolies such as Exxon through state administrative structures like the Texas-inspired Alberta Oil and Gas Conservation Board which allocated exploration and development rights and regulated oil and gas production. The ideological climate of the Cold War smoothed the way for U.S. control of Alberta oil and gas, with the Manning regime invoking the “security” of the continent to justify pro-U.S. policies. One example is the special 1951 law enacted by the province, under pressure from the U.S Department of Defence, guaranteeing natural gas supplies to the Anaconda copper smelters in Butte, Montana.

Exxon/Imperial Oil’s major oil strike at Leduc #1 in 1947 was a major turning point in the Alberta economy, shifting it dramatically from a dependence on agriculture to a dependence on oil and natural gas, which accounted for over half the new jobs created in Alberta in the 1960s. Unable to influence the Manning regime as much as they desired, homegrown Alberta capitalists such as Mannix, the Southerns of ATCO,[3] Bob Blair of the Alberta Gas Trunk Line, and Calgary oilmen such as the Seamans of Bow Valley Industries, manoeuvred Lougheed into power so as to gain more control over the state machine and use it to further their own goals. At that time, the state was serving two roles: to suppress the working class and people and to sort out the contradictions among the various sections of the ruling class.

One of Lougheed’s first steps, once in power, was to replace the old Social Credit deputy ministers in the state machine with his own people. For example, he selected Alan “Chip” Collins, former president of Mannix subsidiary Manalta Coal, as his deputy treasurer. He then embarked on a major state-subsidized industrialization and diversification program, largely within the energy industry. The 1970s were years of major growth in the energy industry, which earned $18 in net income for every $100 earned in 1972 and $42 in 1980. Recorded increases in after-tax profits in 1979 and 1980 were 53.8 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively. Many fortunes were made from drilling and exploration, providing equipment and services for the oil patch, investing in start-up companies, and so on.

At the same time, Lougheed did not oppose Exxon and other foreign energy monopolies. For example, in 1974, his government established the state-owned Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA). Publicly-funded AOSTRA perfected the now widely-used in situ steam-assisted gravity drainage process (SAGD), an enhanced oil recovery technology for producing heavy oil and bitumen from the oil sands, then handed it over to Imperial Oil. Another example is the opening of Imperial Oil/Syncrude’s oil sands project on September 15, 1978. To finance Syncrude’s interests, Lougheed created the state-owned Alberta Energy Company in 1975, which paid for 80 per cent of the pipeline to ship Syncrude product from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, 50 per cent of the $100 million power facility required to fuel the Syncrude plant, and 20 per cent of the Syncrude plant itself. Alberta Energy was handed over to private interests in 2002, becoming natural gas producer Encana, which later spun off oil sands monopoly, Cenovus.

The Workers’ Collective Memory

Rally organized by United Nurses of Alberta in 1980, during a strike caused by the Lougheed government.
(Provincial Archives of Alberta)
The workers’ have a collective memory of the Lougheed years, and it is not of a “visionary” acting on behalf of all Albertans. During the Lougheed years, workers in Alberta fought tenaciously in defence of their rights against a government which had come to power to champion the interests of the Alberta-based owners of capital, particularly in the oil and gas sector. Lougheed was one of the first, if not the first premier in Canada to openly declare himself a salesman for the monopolies, declaring that the Alberta government was directly in the oil marketing business. His negotiations to secure the building of Syncrude included changes to the labour code, essentially written by the owners of capital who formed the Syncrude consortium, to champion monopoly right.

Syncrude insisted as a condition of the project that it would require a no-strike agreement with the construction unions building the plant. If a voluntary agreement could not be reached, Syncrude insisted that the government legislate amendments to the labour laws for special project status which would allow a specific site agreement with no-strike provisions. In the summer of 1974, on Syncrude’s insistence, the government changed the labour code, providing the guarantee that Syncrude demanded as a condition of the project.

Nowhere in the legislation was there any guarantee that when a project was designated for a separate agreement, that it would be a union site. The intent and effect of the legislation was to ensure the unrestricted rights of the oil and construction monopolies to “labour peace” in the oil sands. This special project status legislation was used by Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), to shut out the unions on the Horizon oil sands project site and sign an agreement with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC).

The Lougheed years saw the government preside over unprecedented union-busting.

In 1984, the Contractors’ Association locked out building trades across the province when their contracts expired. Twenty-four hours later they declared that the collective agreements were null and void, and unilaterally cut wages by 50 per cent and even more. The anti-worker labour laws to this day permit the contractors to establish as many paper companies as they like and force the unions to recertify what is really the same company over and over again. Work can simply be transferred from a unionized company to a non-union “spin-off.” Many workers still remember this bitter period, both for its hardships and the courageous battles fought in defence of the rights of all. Building trades workers organized mass demonstrations at the Legislature, and carried out actions on construction sites. They were known as a force which stood as one with workers of every sector fighting for their rights. For example, in 1986 hundreds of out-of-work construction workers stood as one with the workers at Gainers, returning day after day for the historic “Battle of 66th Street” to defend the strike and keep scab replacement workers out of the plant.

Prior to his election in 1971, Lougheed had promised full collective bargaining rights for public sector workers. But instead his years in office saw the passage of laws which criminalized health care workers and provincial government employees, making strikes illegal for hospital workers through the passage of Bill 44 in 1983 and for provincial government employees through the Public Service Employees Relations Act in 1977.

The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) were forced on strike twice during the Lougheed era. During the first strike in 1980, the government ordered the nurses back to work after three days through an order in council. The nurses stood firm and refused to return to work. The determination of the nurses and overwhelming public support for their courageous stand forced the government to back down and six days later UNA reached a negotiated settlement which met virtually all of their demands.

Button produced by the Alberta Federation of Labour during the campaign against Bill 44. (Alberta Labour History Institute).
Two years later, the Tory government tried to force the nurses to participate in a government-supervised vote to supercede the vote the union had organized according to its constitution. UNA resisted this attack on its members’ right to decide, and the government retaliated with legislation making it a criminal offence for a union to boycott a government-supervised strike vote. Nurses went on strike again in 1982 and this time the government used back-to-work legislation which included large fines, decertification of the union and banning workers from holding office in or working for a trade union in Alberta for two years for defiance.
These attacks were followed by the passage of Bill 44 in 1983 which made strikes illegal for all hospital workers. Bill 44 provided for huge fines and suspension of dues collection for up to six months for any union which upheld its members’ right to decide their wages and working conditions. Strikes of hospital workers have been illegal since that time.

The first strikes of provincial government employees also took place during the Lougheed era, beginning with the strike of the Alberta Liquor Board Employees and a two-day walkout of direct government employees angered by the government’s bad faith bargaining in 1980. The Public Service Employees Relations Act made strikes illegal and provided for compulsory arbitration in which the arbitrator had to consider government fiscal policy. Calgary teachers were also subjected to back-to-work legislation in 1980 when they walked out demanding that the government address the question of class size, a battle which teachers are still fighting to this day.

The Klein years are remembered for their brutal assaults on public sector workers and the privatization of many public services. But the mythology of the golden years of Peter Lougheed has pushed into the background the fact that between 1983 and 1984, layoffs of public sector workers had reduced the membership of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) by 10 per cent.

Workers should discuss what is behind this rewriting of history, especially the fact that it is designed to convince workers that there is no need to develop their own independent working class politics and new direction for the economy. The Lougheed era represents the old, not the new which can only flourish on the basis that the workers take up the responsibility to lead the whole society by advancing a program to resolve the problems facing society in a manner that favours the people, not the rich.

For Your Information: Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed was already part of the Alberta ruling circles when he became premier in 1971. Coming from an old Calgary family, he entered politics in the 1960s following his grooming as vice-president of Alberta’s privately-owned Mannix Corporation, one of Canada’s largest construction monopolies and a major pipeline builder. Lougheed’s mentor, owner Fred Mannix, was one of four major capitalists who in 1970 founded Alberta’s Canada West Foundation, a research centre for the home-grown western monopolies.[4] Peter Lougheed’s brother, Don, was senior vice president of Imperial Oil from 1975-81. Imperial is the Canadian subsidiary of Rockefeller’s Exxon (formerly Standard Oil of New Jersey) which struck the Leduc #1 oil well in 1946 and currently runs Syncrude, Alberta’s largest oil sands monopoly.

Exxon first invaded Alberta through Imperial’s 1920 takeover of Calgary Petroleum Products (CPC), which hit the Dingman Well in 1914, the first major oil strike in Alberta’s Turner Valley. CPC was co-founded by Peter’s grandfather, Senator James Lougheed, future Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett (Lougheed’s law partner), and rancher A. E. Cross. James Lougheed was one of Calgary’s leading capitalists. He was lawyer for the dominant CPR, Bank of Montreal and Hudson’s Bay Company, director of other major Canadian companies and an investor in numerous enterprises, including Calgary Power and the Calgary Herald and Calgary Albertan newspapers. During the creation of the province of Alberta, he led the campaign for provincial control of mineral rights.[5]

After handing over the PC premiership to Imperial Oil alumnus Don Getty in 1985, Peter Lougheed joined his grandfather’s Calgary law firm, now called Bennett Jones. He has since served as a director of many monopolies, including Royal Bank of Canada (the “oil” bank), the Bush and CIA-linked Carlyle Group, ATCO, Bechtel Canada, Burlington Resources, Canadian Hunter, CP Limited, Luscar Coal (CEO), Norcen Energy, Northern Telecom and Pacific Western Airlines. Currently, his main position is chairman of Keyera, a 1998 energy spin-off from Gulf Canada Resources. Lougheed was Co-Chair of the private sector group that tried to sell the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement to the Canadian people in 1988.

Due to his involvement in events related to the patriation of the Constitution Act (1982), Lougheed has presided over a number of Constitutional conferences, including the conference sponsored by the Business Council on National Issues (now called the Canadian Council of Chief Executives) in 1996. He is Canadian Co-Chair of the North American Forum, which annually brings together “leaders and experts from government, business and other communities to discuss the strategic challenges facing the United States, Mexico and Canada.” George Schultz, U.S. Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan and former CEO of Bechtel, is the U.S. co-chair. Lougheed is a member of the U.S. Trilateral Commission, a think tank founded by David Rockefeller in 1973 to advance the economic interests of the monopolies in U.S., Europe and Japan.

Notes

1. The IRPP, founded 1972, is Canada’s oldest public policy think tank. It purports to be non-partisan but its board of directors is rife with representatives of the Canadian ruling circles: Jim Dinning, former Alberta Minister of Education and CEO of Canada West Foundation; John Manley, CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives; Barbara McDougall, former Minister of State for Privatization and director of Stelco; Anne McClellan, former Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister; Jacques Menard, Chairman of BMO Nesbitt Burns; and Paul Tellier, who served in the Mulroney government and led the privatization of the Canadian National Railway.

2. The panel included Thomas Axworthy, former chief speech writer to Pierre Trudeau; Thomas Courchesne, neo-liberal economist; David Emerson, former minister in the Harper government; Roger Gibbins, CEO of Canada West Foundation; and Paul Tellier. For a complete list of panelists and their affiliations, follow this link.

3. In 1980, Lougheed facilitated ATCO’s purchase of U.S.-owned International Utilities’ controlling shares in Calgary Power (now Transalta) and Canadian Utilities. ATCO received a loan from the newly created state-owned Alberta Heritage Trust Fund to buy the shares. This was followed by substantial increases in utility fees through the state-owned Public Utilities Board. Lougheed became a director of ATCO after stepping down as premier.

The other founders were G. Max Bell who accumulated his considerable fortune mainly through Turner Valley oil, FP newspaper chain, Alberta Eastern Natural Gas, and the CPR; A.J.E. Child, who took over Alberta-based Burns Foods in 1986; and James Richardson, head of the Winnipeg grain merchant family.

5. Alberta did not obtain full control of its resources until 1930.

Fidel Castro, Cuba is a socialist nation!!!!!!

May Day Celebration (1961): Cuba is a Socialist Nation

Spoken: May 1, 1961
Source: Havana International Service in Spanish 0215 GMT 2 May 1961–E
Markup: Brian Baggins
Online Version: Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000

Distinguished visitors from Latin American and the entire world, combatants of the armed forces of the people, workers: We have had 14 and a half hours of parading. (Chanting) I think that only a people imbued with infinite enthusiasm is capable of enduring such tests. Nevertheless, I will try to be as brief as possible (Chanting)

We are very happy over this attitude by the people. I believe that today we should outline the course to follow, analyze a little what we have done up to now, and see at what point in our history we are, and what we have ahead. We have all had a chance to see the parade. Maybe we who are on this platform could appreciate it better than you in the square, maybe still better than those who have paraded. This May Day tells a lot, it tells a lot about what the revolution has been so far, what it has achieved so far; but maybe it does not tell us as much as it tells our visitors.

We have been witnesses, all of us Cubans, of every step taken by the revolution, so maybe we cannot realize how much we have advanced as fully as can be understood by visitors, particularly those visitors from Latin America, where today they are still living in a world very similar to the one we lived in yesterday. It is as if they were suddenly transported from the past to the present of our revolution, with all its extraordinary progress as compared to the past. We do not intend tonight to stress the merit of what we have done. We merely want to locate ourselves at the point where we are at the present.

We had a chance today to see genuine results of the revolution on this May Day, so different from the May Days of the past. Formerly that date was the occasion for each sector of labor to set forth its demands, its aspirations for improvement, to men who were deaf to the working class interests, men who could not even accede to those basic demands because they did not govern for the people, for the workers, for the peasants, or for the humble; they governed solely for the privileged, the dominant economic interests. Doing anything for the people would have meant harming the interests that they represented, and so they could not accede to any just demand from the people. The May Day parades of those days marked the complaints and protest of the workers.

How different today’s parade has been! How different even from the first parades after the revolution triumphed. Today’s parade shows us how much we have advanced. The workers (Light applause) now do not have to submit themselves to those trials; the workers now do not have to implore deaf executives; the workers now are not subject to the domination of any exploiting class; the workers no longer live in a country run by men serving exploiting interests. The workers know now that everything the revolution does, everything the government does or can do, has one goal: helping the workers, helping the people. (Applause)

Otherwise, there would be no explanation for the spontaneous sentiment of support for the Revolutionary Government, that overflowing good will that every man and woman has expressed today. (Applause)

Fruits of the revolution are seen everywhere. The first to parade today were the children of the Camilo Cienfuegos school center. We saw the Pioneers parade by with the smile of hope, confidence, and affection. We saw the young rebels parade by. We saw the women of the federation go by. We saw children from numberless schools created by the revolution parade. We saw 1,000 students from the 600 sugar-cane cooperatives who are studying artificial insemination here in the capital. We saw young people, humble people, parade with their uniforms of the school center where they are learning to be diplomatic representatives of the future.

We saw the pupils of the schools for young peasants of the Zapata swamps parade by, the swamps that the mercenaries chose for their attack. We saw thousands and thousands of peasants who are studying in the capital and who come from distant mountain areas or from cane cooperatives or from people’s farms parade. We saw the young girls studying for children’s club work. And here everyone of these groups staged scenes that are worthy of praise. And we saw also what is going into the rural areas. The volunteer teachers paraded and also representatives of the 100,000 young people on their way to the interior to wipe out illiteracy. Where does this strength come from? It comes from the people, and it is devoted to the people in return.

These young people are truly children of the people. When we saw them today writing Long Live Our Socialist Revolution with their formations we thought how hard it would have been to have all this without a revolution; how hard for any of these children from the mountains to have paraded here today, or any of these young people from the rural areas to have a chance to get to know the capital, or to study in any of these schools, or to parade with the joy and pride shown here today, or to march with the faith in the future shown today, because schools, university professions, art, culture, and honors were never for the children of poor families, in town or in the country. They were never for the peasant of the remote rural areas; they were never for the poor young fellow, black or white, or our countryside and cities.

Art, culture, university professions, opportunities, honors, elegant clothes were only the privilege of a small minority, a minority represented today with that grace and humor shown by some worker federations in their imitations of the rich. It is astounding to think that today more than 20,000 athletes paraded, if one remembers that we are just beginning. And this, without touching on the most marvelous thing we had a chance to see today, that is, this armed nation, this united people, which came to attend these ceremonies.

How would it have been possible without a revolution? How can one compare this present with the past? How can one avoid emotion on seeing endless lines of workers, athletes, and militiamen parade by? At times all went to intermingled. After all, workers, athletes, and soldiers are the same thing. Anybody could understand why our people must emerge victorious in any battle. We noted the many women in the ranks of the federations. The men were in the artillery units, mortar units, ack-ack units, or militia battalions. The women were the wives and sisters and sweethearts of the militiamen who marched by later in the battalions and those young men of the basic secondary schools, the Pioneers who paraded by were their sons.

And so one can see today the unity of the humble people who are fighting for the poor. Workers of every profession; manual laborers and intellectual workers; all were marching together, the writer, artist, actor, announcer, doctor, nurse, clinical employer. Marching together in great numbers under the flag of the national education workers union were the teachers, employees of the Education Ministry. (Applause).

Today we have had a chance to see everything worthwhile in our country, everything produced in our country. We have understood better than ever that there are two classes of citizens, or rather there were two classes of citizens; the citizens who worked, produced, and created and the citizens who lived without working or producing. These latter were parasites. (Applause)

In this young, fervent nation, who did not parade today, who could not parade here today? The parasites! Today the working people paraded, everybody who produces with his hands or his brain. I do not mean that workers who did not have a chance to parade were parasites, because they had to take care of their children, or were ill, or even just did not want to parade today. I am speaking only of those who were not represented here because they could not be represented by those who produce.

This is the people, the true people. He who lives as a parasite does not belong to the people. Only the invalid, the sick, the old, and children are entitled to live without working and are entitled to have us work for them and to care for them, and from the work of everyone they can be benefited. For the children, the old, the invalid, and the sick, we have the duty to work, all of us. (Applause) What no moral law will be able to justify ever is for the people to work for the parasites. (Applause)

Those who paraded today were the working people who will never resign themselves to work for the parasites. (Applause) In this manner our national community has understood what the revolution is, and has understood clearly what the meaning of a revolution is in which a nation gets rid of parasites from the outside and those inside. (Applause) We remember that because of the nationalization of the largest industries of the nation, and just before the U.S. factories were nationalized, some asked: Was not this factory a Cuban factory? Why should a Cuban factory be nationalized? Well, such a factory did not belong to the people, it belonged to some man. Now they belong to the nation. (Applause)

New Concept of Motherland

It was the custom to talk about the motherland; there were some who had a wrong idea of the motherland. There was the motherland of the privileged ones, of a man who has a large house, while the others live in hovels. What motherland did you have in mind, sir? A motherland where a small group lives from the work of others? A motherland of the barefoot child who is asking for alms on the street? What kind of motherland is this? A motherland which belonged to a small minority? Or the motherland of today? The motherland of today where we have won the right to direct our destiny, where we have learned to decide our destiny, a motherland which will be, now and forever–as Marti wanted it–for the well-being of everyone and not a motherland for few!

The motherland will be a place where such injustices will be eliminated, now we can have the real concept of motherland. We are willing to die for a motherland which belongs to all Cubans. (Applause) That is why the exploiting classes could not have the real concept of motherland. For them, the motherland was a privilege by which they took advantage of the work of others. That is why when a Yankee monopolist (shouts of Out!) when a leader, or a member of the U.S. ruling circles, talks about the motherland, they refer to the motherland of monopolies, of the large banking monopolies. And when they talk about the motherland, they are thinking about sending the Negroes of the South, the workers, to be killed to defend the motherland of monopolies. (Applause)

What kind of morality and what reason and what right do they have to make a Negro die to defend the monopolies, the factories, and the mines of the dominating classes? What right have they to send the Puerto Rican of Latin blood, of Latin tradition, to the battlefields to defend the policy of large capitalists and monopolies? This concept of motherland and this danger to their security to which they refer is the danger of the monopolies. You can understand what concept they have of morality, law, and rights, to send the Negroes of the South and the Puerto Ricans to the battlefields to fight for them. This is their concept of motherland. That is why the people receive the real concept of motherland only when the interests of the privileged classes are liquidated, and when a nation with its wealth becomes a nation for everyone, the wealth for everyone, and opportunity and happiness for everybody.

This happiness now belongs to those youths who paraded, and the families who know that their children can have a school, receive scholarships, and go to the best universities abroad, a privilege enjoyed only by the richest families. And today any family, regardless of how poor, has the opportunity to send its children to schools in the nation and abroad. Any family knows that thanks to the revolution its children have all the opportunities which formerly belonged only to the rich. A nation which works for itself, whether it be in defense of or in achieving wealth can achieve what the minorities cannot. (Applause)

The revolution can win the people with its fervor and enthusiasm. The revolution can utilize all intelligence and creative spirit and take everyone toward a path of well-being and progress. The people who spent 15 hours here today are the same people who formerly could not spend even one hour at a public rally, or who were paid or forced to go to a public rally. These enthusiastic people are the discouraged people of yesterday. The difference is that yesterday they worked for others and today they work for themselves. (Applause)

Fight Against Imperialism

Think of the men who died in recent battles and decide whether a single drop of blood was worth being lost to defend the past. Consider that these workers and youths, the children of workers, fell 10 or 12 days ago to defend what we have seen today. They fell to defend this enthusiasm, this hope, and this joy of today. That is why when today we saw a happy face or a smile full of hope, we though that each smile of today was a flower over the grave of the fallen hero.

It was like giving thanks to those who gave their lives in the battle against imperialism. Without them we would not have had the May Day parade. We would not have been able to see what passed in front of us today. What would have happened to our antiaircraft batteries, what would have happened to our cannons and our soldiers who marched here? What would have happened to our workers, wives, sisters, and factories? What would have happened if imperialism had established even a single beachhead on our territory? What would have happened if the imperialists succeeded in taking one part of our territory, and from there, with Yankee bombs, machineguns, and planes, would have launched an armed attack against us.

Let us not talk about what would have happened if the imperialist had won. There is no sadder picture than a defeated revolution. The uprising of slaves in Rome [Spartacus uprising] and their defeat should give us an idea of what a defeated revolution is. The Commune of Paris should give us an idea of what a defeated revolution is. History tells us that a defeated revolution must pay the victors in blood. The victors not only collect the past debts but also try to collect future debts. But under certain circumstances, it is impossible to crush a revolution.

It has never happened in history that a revolutionary people who have really taken over power have been defeated. What would have happened this May Day if imperialism had won its game? That is why we were thinking of all we owed those who fell. That is why we were thinking that every smile today was like a tribute to those who made possible this hopeful day. The blood that was shed was the blood of workers and peasants, the blood of humble sons of the people, not blood of land- owners, millionaires, thieves, criminals, or exploiters. The blood shed was the blood of the exploited of yesterday, the free men of today. The blood shed was humble, honest, working, creative blood–the blood of patriots not the blood of mercenaries. It was the blood of militiamen who voluntarily came to defend the revolution. It was spontaneously offered blood to defend an ideal.

This ideal was not the ideal with which the Yankees inclucated their mercenaries. It was not an ideal of parrots. It was not an ideal of the tongue, but of the heart. It was not an ideal of those who came to recover their lost wealth. It was not the ideal of those who always lived at the expense of others. It was not the ideal of those who sell their soul for the gold of a powerful empire.

It was the ideal of the peasant who does not want to lose his land, the Negro who does not want discrimination, the humble, those who never lived from the sweat of others, and of those who never robbed from others, an ideal that a poor man of the people can feel.

The revolution is all for him because he was mistreated and humilated. He defends the revolution because the revolution is his life. Before sacrificing this he prefers to lose his life. He knows that he may fall, but never in vain, and that the cause for which he falls will serve for millions of his brothers.

Humble, honest blood was shed by the fatherland in the struggle against the mercenaires of imperialism. But what blood, what men did imperialism send here to establish that beachhead, to bleed our revolution dry, to destroy our achievements, to burn our cane? It was to be a war of destruction.

U.S. Planned Aggression

We can tell the people right here that at the same instant that three of our airports were being bombed, the Yankee agencies were telling the world that our airports had been attacked by planes from our own airforce. They coldbloodedly bombed our nation and told the world that the bombing was done by Cuban pilots with Cuban planes. This was done with planes on which they painted our insignia.

If nothing else, this deed should be enough to demonstrate how miserable are the actions of imperialism. It should be enough for us to realize what Yankee imperialism really is and what its press and its government is. It is possible that millions have heard only the report that Cuban planes piloted by defectors had attacked our airports. This was planned, because the imperialist studied the plan to bomb and the way to deceive the entire world. This should serve to keep us alert and to understand that the imperialists are capable of the most monstrous lies to cover the most monstrous deeds.

U.S. leaders publicly confessed their participation–without any explanation which they owe the world for the statements made by Kennedy that they would never would participate in aggression–and save us the effort of finding proof. Who were those who fought against those workers and peasants? We will explain.

Privileged Class Mercenaries

Of the first mercenaries captured, we can say that, without counting ships’ crews, there were nearly 1,000 prisoners. Among that thousand we have the following: About 800 came from well-to-do families. They had a total of 27,556 caballerias of land, 9,666 houses, 70 industries, 10 sugar centrals, 2 banks, and 5 mines. So 800 out of 1,000 had all that. Moreover, many belonged to exclusive clubs and many were former soldiers for Batista.

Remember, during the prisoner interrogation that I asked who was a cane cutter and only one said that he had cut cane once. That is the social composition of the invaders.

We are sure that if we ask all those here how many owned sugar centrals, there would not be even one. If we asked the combatants who died, members of the milita or soldiers of the revolutionary army, if we compared the wealth of those who fell, surely there would be no land, no banks, no sugar centrals, or the like listed. And some of the shameless invaders said that they came to fight for ideals!

The invaders came to fight for free enterprise! Imagine, at this time for an idiot to come here to say that he fought for free enterprise! As if this people did not know what free enterprise is! It was slums, unemployment, begging. One hundred thousand families working the land to turn over 25 percent of their production to shareholders who never saw that land. How can they come to speak about free enterprise to a country where there was unemployment, illiteracy and where one had to beg to get into a hospital? The people knew that free enterprise was social clubs, and bathing in mud for the children because the beaches were fenced. The beaches were for the wealthy. One could never dream of going to Varadero, for that was for a few wealthy families. One could never dream of having a son study law. That was only for the privileged. A worker could never dream that his son might become a teacher or lawyer. Ninety percent of the sons of workers, or at least 75 percent of those who lived in places were there were no secondary schools had no chance to send their children to study. Not even in a dream could the daughters of the peasants dance here or parade here.

How can one of those who never knew labor say that he came to shed the people’s blood to defend free enterprise? (Chanting, applause) And they did not stop at their fathers’ mention of free enterprise; they included the United Fruit and the electrical company. Those were not free enterprises; they were monopolies. So when they came here they were not fighting for free enterprise; they came for the monopolies, for monopolies do not want free enterprise. They were defending the monopolistic interests of the Yankees here and abroad. How can they tell the Cuban people that they were coming to defend free enterprise?

They also say that they came to defend the 1940 constitution. How curious! That constitution was being torn into bits with the complicity of the U.S. Embassy, the reactionary church, and the politicians. So it is cynical for this group of privileged and Batista-type tyrants, criminals, and torturers to tell the people that they were coming to defend the constitution of 1940, which has been advanced by the Revolutionary Government.

Who represented you in the congress? The corrupt politicians, the rich, the big landholders. There was only a handful of workers in congress. They were always in the minority. The means of disseminating ideas were all in the hands of the rich. It was hard to learn about the horrible conditions because of that. The death of thousands of children for lack of medicine and doctors did not bother the free enterprise men. There was never an agrarian reform law because congress was in the hands of the rich. Even though the constitution said the land must be returned to the Cubans, and even though in 1959 the 1940 constitution had been in effect 19 years, no law took land from the Yankee monopolies, which had huge expanses.

Up to 200,000 hectares were held by some foreign monopolies. The constitution which said that land must be returned to the Cubans and the law setting a limit on landholdings were never enforced. There were teachers without employment, while children lacked schooling.

The Batista group took over through a coup sponsored by imperialism and the exploiting class; they needed such a man as Batista, so that the rural guard would serve the landowners against the peasants. (Applause) It did not matter to them that the nation was being plundered. The landowners did not give anybody modern weapons to fight that regime; they gave arms to that bloody regime itself, not caring about how it violated the constitution. The Yankees did not give arms to anybody to fight Batista. None of the fine little gentlemen fought, because they still had their Cadillacs; they had a regime that guaranteed their frivolous life. They cared nothing about politics, for they had a very good life. Now that their privileges have ended, they found a Yankee government willing to give them arms to come here and shed the blood of workers and peasants. (Applause)

Those gentlemen spoke of elections. What elections did they want? The ones of the corrupt politicians who bought votes? Those elections in which a poor person had to turn over his ballot in return for work? Those fake elections that were just a means for the exploiting class to stay in power? Those elections which were not a military coup? There are many pseudo-democracies in Latin America; what laws have they passed for the peasants? Where is nationalization of industry? Where is their agarian reform? (Applause)

A revolution expressing the will of the people is an election everyday, not every four years; it is a constant meeting with the people, like this meeting. The old politicians could never have gathered as many votes as there are people here tonight to support the revolution. Revolution means a thorough change.

What do they want? Elections with pictures on the posts. The revolution has changed the conception of pseudo-democracy for direct government by the people.

No Time for Elections

There had to be a period for abolition of the privileges. Do the people have time now for elections? No! What were the political parties? Just an expression of class interests. Here there is just one class, the humble; that class is in power, and so it is not interested in the ambition of an exploiting minority to get back in power. Those people would have no chance at all in an election. The revolution has no time to waste in such foolishness. There is no chance for the exploiting class to regain power. The revolution and the people know that the revolution expressed their will; the revolution does not come to power with Yankee arms. It comes to power through the will of the people fighting against arms of all kinds, Yankee arms.

The revolution keeps in power through the people. What are the people interested in? In having the revolution go ahead without losing a minute. (Applause) Can any government in America claim to have more popular support than this one? Why should democracy be the pedantic, false democracy of the others, rather than this direct expression of the will of the people? The people go to die fighting instead of going to a poll to scratch names on paper. The revolution has given every citizen a weapon, a weapon to every man who wanted to enter the militia. So some fool comes along to ask if, since we have a majority why don’t we hold elections? Because the people do not care to please fools and fine little gentlemen! The people are interested in moving forward.

They have no time to waste. The people must spend tremendous amounts of energy in preparing to meet aggression, when everybody knows we want to be building schools, houses, and factories. We are not warlike. The Yankees spend half of their budget on armaments; we are not warlike. We are obliged to spend that energy, because of the imperialists. We have no expansionist ambitions. We do not want to exploit any worker of another county. We are not interested in aggressive plans; we have been forced to have tanks, planes, machineguns, and a military force to defend ourselves.

The recent invasion shows how right we were to arm. At Playa Giron, they came to kill peasants and workers. Imperialism forced us to arm for defense. We have been forced to put energy and material and resources into that, although we would prefer to put them into more schools, so that in future parades there can be more athletes and school children. If our people were not armed, they could not crush mercenaries coming with modern equipment.

The imperialists would have hurled themselves on us long ago if we had not been armed. But we prefer to die rather than surrender the country we have now. They know that. They know they will meet resistance, and so the aggressive circles of imperialism have to stop and think.

So we are forced, by the threat of aggression to proclaim to the four corners of the world: All the peoples of American should rise in indignation after the statement that a country can intervene in another just because the first is strong. Such a policy would mean that the powerful neighbor takes the right to intervene to keep a people from governing themselves according to their own choice. It is inconceivable that there should be such miserable governments; after the aggression that killed peasants and workers, it is inconceivable that they have even begun a policy of breaking with Cuba, instead of breaking with Somoza, Guatemala, or the government in Washington that pays for planes, tanks, and arms to come her and kill peasants.

The Costa Rican government has said that, if mercenaries are executed, it will break with us. It has no reason at all for a break, so it seeks some pretext, and hits on the idea of if there are executions. That government, in insolent intervention, stated its disposal to break with us if any of the mercenaries are executed. It does not break with Kennedy who organized the expedition, or with Guatemala, or Nicaragua. We did not break with it; we merely answered the note.

Those who promote the policy of isolating Cuba at the orders of imperialism are miserable traitors to the interests and feelings of America. (Applause) These facts show us the rotten politics that prevail in many Latin American countries, and how the Cuban revolution has turned those corrupt forms upside down to establish new forms in this country.

New Socialist Constitution

To those who talk to us about the 1940 constitution, we say that the 1940 constitution is already too outdated and old for us. We have advanced too far for that short section of the 1940 constitution that was good for its time but which was never carried out. That constitution has been left behind by this revolution, which, as we have said, is a socialist revolution. We must talk of a new constitution, yes, a new constitution, but not a bourgeois constitution, not a constitution corresponding to the domination of certain classes by exploiting classes, but a constitution corresponding to a new social system without the exploitation of many by man. That new social system is called socialism, and this constitution will therefore be a socialist constitution.

Kennedy’s Protests

If Mr. Kennedy does not like socialism, well we do not like imperialism! We do not like capitalism! We have as much right to protest over the existence of an imperialist-capitalist regime 90 miles from our coast as he feels he has to protect over the existence of a socialist regime 90 miles from his coast. Now then, we would not think of protesting over that, because that is the business of the people of the United States. It would be absurd for us to try to tell the people of the United States what system of government they must have, for in that case we would be considering that the United States is not a sovereign nation and that we have rights over the domestic life of the United States.

Rights do not come from size. Right does not come from one country being bigger than another. That does not matter. We have only limited territory, a small nation, but our right is as respectable as that of any country, regardless of its size. It does not occur to us to tell the people of the United States what system of government they must have. Therefore it is absurd for Mr. Kennedy to take it into his head to tell us what kind of government he wants us to have here. That is absurd. It occurs to Mr. Kennedy to do that only because he does not have a clear concept of international law or sovereignty. Who had those notions before Kennedy? Hitler and Mussolini!

They spoke the same language of force; it is the fascist language. We heard it in the years before Germany’s attack on Czechoslovakia. Hitler split it up because it was governed by a reactionary government. The bourgeoisie, reactionary and profascist, afraid of the advance of a socialist system, preferred even domination by Hitler. We heard that language on the eve of the invasion of Denmark, Belgium, Poland, and so forth. It is the right of might. This is the only right Kennedy advances in claiming the right to interfere in our country.

This is a socialist regime, yes! Yes, this is a socialist regime. It is here, but the fault is not ours, the blame belongs to Columbus, the English colonizers, the Spanish colonizers. The people of the U.S. will someday get tired.

No Threat to U.S.

The U.S. Government says that a socialist regime here threatens U.S. security. But what threatens the security of the North American people is the aggressive policy of the warmongers of the United States. What threatens the security of the North American family and people is the violence, that aggressive policy, that policy that ignores the sovereignty and the rights of other peoples. The one who is threatening the security of the United States is Kennedy, with that aggressive policy. That aggressive policy can give rise to a world war; and that world war can cost the lives of tens of millions of North Americans. Therefore, the one who threatens the security of the United States is not the Cuban Revolutionary Government but the aggressor and aggressive government of the United States.

We do not endanger the security of a single North American. We do not endanger the life or security of a single North American family. We, making cooperatives, agrarian reform, people’s ranches, houses, schools, literacy campaigns, and sending thousands and thousands of teachers to the interior, building hospitals, sending doctors, giving scholarships, building factories, increasing the productive capacity of our country, creating public beaches, converting fortresses into schools, and give the people the right to a better future–we do not endanger a single U.S. family or a single U.S. citizen.

The ones who endangers the lives of millions of families, of tens of millions of North American are those who are playing with atomic war. It is those who, as General Cardenas said, are playing with the possibility of New York becoming a Hiroshima. The ones who are playing with atomic war, with their aggressive war, with their policy that violated the rights of people are the ones who are endangering the security of the North American nation, the security of the lives of unknown millions of North Americans.

What do the monopolists fear? Why do they say that they are not secure with the socialist revolution nearby. They are, as Khrushchev says, proving that they know their system is inferior. They do not even believe in their own system. Why don’t they leave us alone when all our government wants is peace.

U.S. Refusal to Negotiate

Recently, our government issued a statement that we were willing to negotiate. Why? Because we are afraid? No! We are convinced that they fear the revolution more than we fear them. They have a mentality that does not permit them to sleep when they know that there is a revolution nearby.

Fear? No one has fear here. The people who struggle for their liberty are never frightened. The frightened ones are the wealthy. The ones who have been wealthy. We are not interested in having imperialism commit suicide at our expense. They do not care about the death of Negroes, Puerto Ricans, or Americans. But we do care about every Cuban life. We are interested in peace.

We are ready to negotiate. They say that economic conditions can be discussed, but no communism. Well, where did they get the idea we would discuss that? We would discuss economic problems. But we are not even ready to admit that these talks so much as brush a petal of a rose here. The Cuban people are capable of establishing the regime they want there. We have never been thought of the possibility of discussing our regime. We will discuss only things that will not effect our sovereignty. We do want to negotiate on behalf of peace.

Those who do not worry about taking American people to war are being led by emotions. We have no fear. If they think so, let them get over that idea. No Cuban is afraid. If they think we will discuss internal politics, let them forget that, for one one will do that here. Let them discuss all topics they want to discuss. We discussed things with invaders, did we not? Well, we will debate with anyone. We are willing to talk. We are willing to debate. But does that mean we are aching to negotiate? Of course not. We are just taking a sensible step. Does that mean the revolution will slow down? Of course not! We will continue, picking up speed as we can.

Kill Foreign Invaders

If they want to say that that they do not care about the sovereignty of countries, let them. But we are ready to defend as well as to negotiate. We are ready to fire a million shots at the first Yankee parachutist that tries to land here. From the first moment they land on our soil they can be sure that they have begun the most difficult war they ever heard of. That war would be the beginning of the end for imperialism. With the same willingness to negotiate, we will fight. Even the Pioneers will fight. Each man, woman, and child has one duty in case of foreign attack–kill! If we were attacked by foreigners there would be no prisoners. The invading foreigners must know they must kill us all! While one lives, he has an enemy! Death struggle! There is no middle ground! It would be a war without prisoners!

If the invaders land on Cuban soil we will not want our lives. We will fight to the last man against whoever sets foot on our land. All men and women must know their duty. This duty will be fulfilled in simple and natural manner as peoples fight in a righteous war.

It is a crime that our people are not left in peace to complete our work of justice for those who once lived in humiliation and misery. It is too bad that illegitimate interests have determined to harm our country. While they tried to cut off our supplies, they were supplying mercenaries with weapons to invade our country and shed the people’s blood. And in this shameful task, who participated?

I have already told you of the social composition. Well, the priests were not missing either. Three of them came. None were Cubans, they were Spanish. You remember that when we asked them they said they came on a purely spiritual mission. They said they came on a Christian mission. But reviewing their books we find this: An appeal to the people by Ismael de Lugo: Attention Cuban Catholics: Liberating forces have landed on Cuban beaches. We come in the name of God–as if Calvino came in the name of God–justice, and democracy to reestablish trampled freedom; this must be a lie. We come because of love, not hate. We come with thousands of Cubans, all of whom are Catholics and Christians– what a lie–their spirit is the spirit of the crusades. (Editor’s Notes: Castro continues reading the message written by Father de Lugo…..)

And that gentlemen is not even a Cuban; he is a Falangist Spaniard. He could have saved all those appeals and warlike energy by fighting against the Moorish guard of Franco. Why should he come here with three other Falangist Spanish priests instead of going to Spain to fight for freedom against Franco, who has been oppressing Spanish people for 20 odd years and who has sold out to Yankee imperialism? The Yankees are not fighting for freedom in Spain, or Nicaragua, or Guatemala. They are great friends of Franco. And these Falangist priests came here, when it is in Spain they should fight for freedom for peasants and workers. That Falangist priest comes here instead to preach against workers and peasants who have thrown off exploitation. And there were three, not just one; and the fourth, in the Escambray, is a Spanish priest too.

Foreign Priests To Be Expelled

We are going to announce here to the people that in the next few days the Revolutionary Government will pass a law declaring void any permit to remain in Cuba held by any foreign priest in our country. And this law will have only one exception; do you know for whom? A foreign priest can remain with special permission, provided the government approves, if he has not been combatting the Cuban revolution; that is, if he has not displayed an attitude opposed to the revolution; that is, there will be exceptions if a priest has been honest, has not been combatting the revolution, has not been carrying out counterrevolutionary activities. He can request permission, and the government can grant it if it deems proper, because there are some foreign priests, by way of exception, that have not taken a stand against the revolution, although the general rule has been otherwise.

Of course, they will say we are impious, enemies of religion. Can they say that after a leader of the ecclesiastic service, while proclaiming that he is coming to give spiritual service, also signs a manifesto like this one–of this political nature? Can the revolution go on allowing these acts to go on with impunity?

And let these gentlemen come to bring hell here, to bring hell on earth here, with their war criminals, their Calvinos, their Soler Puigs, their big landowners, and their privileged sons, to bring hell on earth here to the peasants and workers? Can we let the Spanish Falange go on promoting bloodshed and conspiracy here through its priests? No, we are not disposed to allow it. The Falangist priests know now, they can begin packing. (Applause)

They have been waging counterrevolutionary activities in the schools, too, poisoning the minds of pupils. They have found fertile soil in schools usually attended by children of the rich. There they have been promoting counterrevolutionary poison in the minds of the young. They have been forming terrorist minds. They have been teaching hatred for the country. Why should the revolution stand for that? We would be guilty if we let that go on.

Nationalization of Private Schools

We announce here that in the next few days the Revolutionary Government will pass a law nationalizing the private schools. This law cannot be a law for one sector; it will be general. That means the private schools will be nationalized; of course, not a little school where one teacher gives classes, but private schools with several teachers.

Directors of private schools have displayed different types of conduct. Many private school directors have not been instilling counterrevolutionary poison. The revolution feels it is its duty to organize and establish the principle of free education for all citizens. The people feel they have the duty of training future generations in a spirit of love for the country, for justice, for the revolution.

What shall be done in the case of private schools that have not displayed counterrevolutionary conduce? The Revolutionary Government will indemnify those directors or owners of schools whose attitude has not been counterrevolutionary, whose attitude has been favorable to the revolution; and the revolution will not indemnify any school whose directors have been waging a counterrevolutionary campaign, who have been against the revolution. That is, there will be indemnity for those schools that have displayed a patriotic, decent attitude toward the revolution. They will be indemnified, and their directors will be invited to work with the Revolutionary Government in directing that school or another school. That is to say, these directors will be called on to help in the field of education, besides being indemnified.

The teachers and employees of all these schools, of a lay nature, will be given work. That is, the employees and teachers of these schools will have their work guaranteed. The pupils of these schools can go on attending them, the educational standards will be kept up and even improved, and furthermore they will have to pay absolutely nothing to attend these schools.

Religion Not Restricted

Villanueva is included in this nationalization, of course. They will say this impious government opposes religious instruction. No sir. What we oppose are those shameless acts they have been committing, and this crime against our country. The can teach religion, yes; in the churches they can teach religion.

Religion is one thing, politics another. If those gentlemen were not against the political interests of the people, we would not care at all about their pastorals, their discussions of religious matters. The churches can remain open; religion can be taught there. Would it not be much better if they had stuck to their religious teaching? Would it not be much better to have peace? They can have peace, within strict limits of the respect due the revolutionary people and government. But they cannot make war on the people in the service of the exploiters. That has nothing to do with religion; it has to do with blood, with gold, with material interests. They can have the consideration of the people, in the limits of that mutual respect for rights.

Christianity arose as a religion of the poor, the slaves, and the oppressed of Rome–the religion that flourished in the catacombs. It was the religion of the poor, and it obtained the respect of the laws. It coexisted with the Roman Empire. Then came feudalism. That church coexisted with feudalism, later with absolute monarchies, later with bourgeois republics. Here the bourgeois republic disappears; why should not that same church coexist with a system of social justice that is far superior to those previous forms of government? This system is much more like Christianity than Yankee imperialism or bourgeois republics, or the Roman Empire. We believe coexistence is perfectly possible. The revolution does not oppose religion. They have used religion as a pretext to combat the poor. They forget what Christ said about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.

Small Business man Protected

Those are the facts. We have spoken, as always, clearly. It means only that we are prepared to defend the revolution and continue forward, convinced of the justice of our cause.

We have spoken of our socialist revolution. It does not mean the little businessman or little industrialist need worry. Mines, fuel, banking, sugar mills, export and import trade–the bulk of the economy– is in the hands of the people. That way the people can develop our economy. The little industralist and little businessman can coesxist with the revolution. The revolution has always cared for the interests of the small owners.

Urban reform is a proof. This month all little landlords will be collecting around 105,000 pesos. Formerly if the tenant did not pay his rent the landlord did not collect; now a fund has been established to insure that the little landlord will be paid. The revolution will have some 80 million pesos a year for construction from the urban reform. And when rental is the only income of these landlords, the revolution has ruled that after the house is all paid for, the landlord will receive a pension. A socialist revolution does not mean that interests of certain sectors are eliminated without consideration. The interests of the big landholders, bankers, and industrialists were eliminated. No social interest of the lesser levels of society is to be condemned. The revolution will adhere to its word: No middle interest will be affected without due consideration.

Little businessmen industrialists have credit today. The revolution has no interest in nationalizing them. The revolution has enough to do with developing the sources of wealth it now has at its disposal. The revolution feels that there can be collaboration from the little businessman and little industrialist. It believes that their interest can coincide with those of the revolution. Counterrevolutionaries have claimed that barbershops would be nationalized, even food stands. The revolution does not aim at those. The solution of those problems will be the result of a long evolution. There are some problems; sometimes tomatoes and pineapples are sold in the city at far higher prices than in the country. There is still a small plague of middlemen. The revolution still has measures to take to do away with the middleman abuse, to improve consumption for the people. But I do not want anybody to be confused. I want everybody to know what to expect.

Call for Collaboration

Basically, the revolution has already passed its measures. Nobody need worry. Why not join in this enthusiasm, in this prowess? Why are there still Cubans bothered by this happiness? I asked myself that while watching the parade. Why are some Cubans so incapable of understanding that his happiness can also be theirs? Why do they no adapt to the revolution? Why not see their children in the schools here also? Some people cannot adopt, but the future society will be better than the old one.

This is the hour in which we, far from using the moment against those who do not understand, should ask them if the time has not come for them to join us. The revolution found it necessary to be detained. Perhaps they have. The revolution does not want to use its force against a minority. The revolution wants all Cubans to understand. We do not want all this happiness and emotion all to ourselves. It is the glory of the people.

We say this to those who have lied in the past and have not understood. We frankly say that our revolution should not be lessened by severe sanctions against all the mercenaries. It might serve as a weapon for our enemies. We say this because we tell the people all that will benefit the revolution. We have had a moral victory and it will be greater if we do not besmirch our victory.

The lives lost hurt us as much as they do others. But we must overcome that and speak for our prestige and our cause. What is before us? The risks of imperialist aggression! Big tasks! We have reached a point in which we should realize that the time has come to make the greatest effort. The coming months are very important. They will be months in which we must make greater efforts in all fields. We all have the duty to do the utmost. no one has a right to rest. With what we have seen today we must learn that with efforts and courage we can harvest wonderful fruit. And today’s fruits are nothing compared to what can be done if we apply ourselves to the maximum.

Before concluding, I want to recall what I said during the Moncada trial. Here is a paragraph: The country cannot remain on its knees imploring miracles from the golden calf. No social problem is resolved spontaneously. At that time we expressed our views. The revolution has followed the revolutionary ideas of those who had an important role in this struggle.

That is why when one million Cubans met to proclaim the Havana Declaration, the document expressed the essence of our revolution, our socialist revolution. It said that it condemned landed estates, starvation wages, illiteracy, absence of teachers, doctors, and hospitals, discrimination, exploitation of women, oligarchies that hold our countries back, governments that ignore the will of their people by obeying U.S. orders, monopoly of news by Yankee agencies, laws that prevent the masses from organizing, and imperialist monopolies which exploit our wealth. The general assembly of the people condemns exploitation of man by man. The general assembly proclaims the following: The right to work education, the dignity of man, civil rights for women, secure old age, artistic freedom, nationalization of monopolies, and the like. This is the program of our socialist revolution.

Long live the Cuban working class! Long live the Latin American sister nations! Long live the nation! Fatherland or death! We shall win!

Castro Internet Archive

g20 Sentencing Decision for George Horton Norabuena – Come out and support!

Sentencing Decision for George Horton Norabuena – Come out and support!

Friday, September 28, 2012
10:00am
Old City Hall (60 Queen St W)
When: Friday September 28th at 10am
Where: Old City Hall (60 Queen St W)

[Note: As always there is a security check, please leave time to get through the line and find the courtroom. Room updates will be posted here on facebook and on twitter via @g20mobilize]

George John Horton Norabuena is an amazing photographer and activist from Peterborough being sentenced for anti G20 protest related charges this Friday September 28th. George has been involved in Food not Bombs and a variety of other projects, besides being an animal lover and traveller.

On this court date the judge will be giving her sentencing decision and George will be taken into custody.

George was convicted on May 15th 2012 on six charges related to the anti-G20 protests on the Saturday of the G20 weekend in Toronto in 2010. He was arrested later in the fall after the G20 when an individual wrote in to Toronto Police implicating him in alleged actions during the demonstrations.

George is facing a potential 20 months in prison.

George was convicted of:
-disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence
-intimidation of a justice system participant
-assault peace officer (police)
-3 counts of mischief over $5000

If you know George or even if you have never met him before, he and his friends and loved ones would appreciate your support at his sentencing.

Check out George’s photography work here: http://cargocollective.com/JohnHortonphotographs

******Continued Support******
ABC Peterborough will be supporting George throughout his time in jail. Check out http://abcptbo.noblogs.org/ for updates on George’s mailing address, updates from George and how to help financially support him.

On the anniversary of OCCUPY, Let Us Reclaim Our Community!! Callout for Reclaiming Victoria Park in Kitchener Oct. 15th!!

On the anniversary of OCCUPY, Let Us Reclaim Our Community!! Callout for Reclaiming Victoria Park in Kitchener Oct. 15th!!

Oct 15th 5 PM
Victoria Park gazebo on The Island, Kitchener
BBQ at 5, General Assembly at 7

One year after the launch of the Occupy movement, the political problems that gave birth to this movement are still not resolved. The ruling class continues to get rich off of the backs of exploitation, the gap between the rich and poor is growing and we are still cut off from the power to determine our own destiny.

In Kitchener Waterloo poor neighborhoods are under attack to serve the interests of developers and the rich, the homeless community is under attack and more and more factories are closing and moving to countries where they can steal resources and get cheap labour, continuing the plunder of imperialism at the expense of workers here. We don’t want a robinhood tax or to sandpaper the class contradictions, WE DEMAND A SOCIETY FIT FOR HUMANS!!!

Join us on Oct. 15th to take a stand and resist this. ALL WELCOME!!!

The big gap between what is legal and what is right!!!!

In court the other day, at my preliminary hearing, one thing that became obvious to most people who were watching was the absurdity of the charges that I am facing and the huge gap between what is morally right and what the law is.

Time after time after time i put forward very good political and legal arguments that were discarded because of what the letter of the law is. This is despite the fact that the way in which this publication ban was used to silence me is absurd and goes against the spirit of what law should be.

This is not because i had an evil judge, it was plain to everyone that the judge would have loved nothing more than throwing out my charges, which i hoped to accomplish, but what got in the way was this little thing called “the law” and how it is to be enforced.

Given the fact that it was a preliminary hearing, not a trial, my main legal arguments could not be ruled on by anything other than a Superior court, and despite the fact that my arguments won most people over, and i could not hope for a more just and fair judge, due to legalism she was forced to rule against me and to allow this to proceed( its a pity she wont be the judge at my trial).

This is the problem with the argument about changing the system from within, IT DOES NOT WORK!!!!!Even if you get the most honest person, the institutions are so entrenched and power is so well guarded that at the end of the day, you have no choice but to play their game. The reality is also that to gain power in their system you are forced to make concessions, and you say you are making them for the best reason, but eventually you are forced to make so many that you have become the person you are fighting against and you try to justify your position of power and privilege by saying you are doing it for the right reasons, but at the end of the day, you have become the power, and your “pluralism” just plays into the justification of crushing those who have refused to sellout!!!