[Shadow_Group] Speech Fidel Castro at Young Communists 8th Congress

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Speech given by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of 
the Republic of Cuba, at the closing session of the Young Communists 
League 8th Congress,held in the Havana Convention Center, Havana, 5 
December 2004

Dear delegates, guests and attendees to the Young Communists League 
8th Congress:
Communists:

Some of the concepts I will touch upon today have already been 
discussed and published; some have been developed in the heat of the 
struggle; others refer to goals we have attained; others are just 
reflections. 

Today, when you have invited me to address you, I shall try to 
explain how and why this day is very special for all of us. 

Unfortunately, the responsibility I have shouldered throughout this 
intense and difficult revolutionary process and, in particular, my 
relation with the Battle of Ideas, oblige me to make reference to my 
own speeches, ideas and concepts, something which in no way pleases 
me, so I beg your indulgence in advance. 

I have never believed that ideas orbit around public figures; 
rather, it is the latter that ought to orbit around ideas. 

The fact that I dared to make so many predictions that, today, 
people are recognizing as irrefutable truths stems exclusively from 
the experience I have accumulated. I could have died young, as did 
many other Cuban revolutionaries throughout our history. Yesterday's 
and today's enemies did everything humanly possible to achieve this 
aim, but I had the privilege of having struggled for many years, 
since early 1953, when we had the idea of seizing the Santiago de 
Cuba Regiment's weapons to initiate the struggle. The credit for 
this privilege is not mine; the true credit belongs to those who 
stood by their beliefs and were willing to sacrifice even their 
lives for the aims we espoused. 
Only three days ago, when some congratulated me, reminding me of the 
48th anniversary of the Granma landing, my first reaction was one of 
surprise. How much time has gone by and how much has occurred!

Engrossed in our present duties, some of us who took part in that 
action have hardly a second to look back on the beginning of that 
long march on which we were embarking in the days of Moncada and 
Granma. I would describe it all as a long learning process; it is 
amazing how ignorant we were when we set out on that unknown road. 

Allow me to give you a concise summary, often using quotes, of the 
essentials of what I expressed on three different occasions prior to 
the Battle of Ideas, whose spirit today reigns over the 8th Congress 
of our prestigious Young Communists League. 

On October 8, 1997, in the Central Report to the Party's 5th 
Congress, I said: 

"It is obvious that we need to work more closely and intensely with 
our youth organizations, as these times and this Party need a 
continuous influx of young cadres and members. 

"Now more than ever, more than at any other juncture --this being 
the most difficult, the toughest of times-- I believe we must devote 
special efforts to our young people and their education, because 
those who come after this generation must be better. 

"We want them to be fully conscious of their role, of what they can 
do for their country, of what they can do for the Revolution, of 
what they can do for their future". 

On October 10, 1997, in my remarks about youths in the closing 
session of the Party's 5th Congress, I pointed out:

"We have the Party, we have our wonderful young people  --yes, 
that's what I said, wonderful young people--  whom we will of course 
ask to do more and more political work, political work which is not 
the same as parroting a slogan. For a long time, the Party was also, 
at times, simplistic and dogmatic, working with slogans instead of 
arguments. 

"We must work directly with the people, on a one by one basis; this 
means more than the work done through the press and television, 
through conferences or political meetings. The work of convincing 
and persuading human beings, one by one, is historic. Religions were 
created this way and have lasted thousands of years.

"We revolutionaries must do the same. Our cadres and young people 
must work like this and never consider anyone a lost cause.

"Based on the profoundest conviction that we are right and that we 
are defending what is fairest, most beautiful, most human, we must 
discuss things for as long as we need to, explain things as many 
times as necessary, we must teach and educate. Political work cannot 
be done in the abstract. We must delve more deeply into knowledge, 
into ideas, into what happens here and in the world. We must be 
frank, courageous, and truthful.

"There are 780, 000 Party members, and then there are all of the 
revolutionaries who are not Party members. It is everyone's job to 
make what is in many cases an exception the rule and our best 
experiences the norm. How could we not achieve this? What are we? 
What is our worth, if we cannot achieve it? Given everything we know 
today, and all of the possibilities open to us, we must do it. That 
would be the true victory of ideas". 

On December 10, 1998, at the YCL's 7th Congress, I said: 

"We must meet, in the heat of battle, with the leading cadres to 
discuss, analyze, expand on and draft plans and strategies, to take 
up issues and elaborate ideas, as when an army's general staff meets.

"We must use solid arguments to talk to members and non-members, to 
speak to those who may be confused or even to discuss and debate 
with those holding positions contrary to those of the Revolution or 
who are influenced by imperialist ideology in this great battle of 
ideas we have been waging for years now, precisely in order to carry 
out the heroic deed of resisting against the most politically, 
militarily, economically, technologically and culturally powerful 
empire that has ever existed. Young cadres must be well prepared for 
this task. 

"In this ideological struggle, ideas are our fundamental weapons; 
our most important ammunition are also ideas. We have to arm our 
cadres with ideas so that they, in turn, can pass these on to the 
young and to all of the people.
"This army knows the plan and the strategy; let the enemy learn what 
these are as it goes along.  I am again comparing this struggle to a 
great battle waged by a vanguard army, an elite troop of the 
Revolution. I put the Revolution and the Party first; they are, 
after all, one and the same thing.

"In a short meeting with the new National Committee, I was able to 
talk to you more freely as fewer comrades were present, and we could 
speak even more freely and take up more discussion and opinions at a 
meeting with the National Bureau.

"This 7th Congress", I said then, "has been an excellent congress, 
one where discussions covered the broadest range of topics, where 
nothing led us to shy away from any issue; on the contrary, we were 
constantly urged to take up all of the issues, no matter how thorny 
or complex, in order to make the most of this meeting, and I feel we 
have accomplished this.

"This has been possible, we must say this categorically, thanks to 
the extraordinary work that has been done over the course of a year, 
under the leadership of the YCL's National Bureau. In fact at this 
point, where thanks are usually given, we should sincerely and 
wholeheartedly acknowledge the comrades in the Bureau and the 
numerous cadres who, under Otto's leadership, have been working from 
the time the congress was called up to this very minute. 

"All of us have learned something; not only you, we have learned 
too. 

"The Congress," I added,  "shows that the YCL has become 
increasingly strong and that it is better organized, has more 
experience, greater prestige and influence than ever in key, truly 
strategic sectors of today's society and --even more so-- in 
tomorrow's society, tomorrow's Cuba. It is organized in the way 
these times, this historic moment, require!

"One of the extraordinary things about our Revolution is that, ever 
since it came into being  --and it could be said that our 
Revolution's ideas were begotten on that university hill-- the 
Revolution and our young people have been as closely bound as 
identical, one could even say Siamese, twins. I invite you to try 
and find in any other country in the world a bond as strong as it 
has existed, exists and shall always exist in this profoundly 
revolutionary process. Our Revolution is reborn each day, because 
the ideas we stand for, the justice that we defend, the cause we 
fight for, is today the cause, and there can be no cause other than 
that of the billions of people who live on this planet. 

"I say ideas because the struggle we are speaking about will not, in 
essence, be a war, but rather a battle of ideas. The world's 
problems shall not be solved through the use of nuclear weapons --
this is impossible--  nor through wars. What's more, they shall not 
be solved through isolated revolutions that, within the order 
installed by neo-liberal globalization, can be crushed within a 
matter of days, weeks at the most. 

"We cannot, however, neglect defense for even a minute, because 
given the unavoidable crises, a change of government, a fascist-like 
or far-right party in power is all it will take to return the empire 
to its adventuristic ways of old. We cannot overlook the risk of a 
military invasion. Today, the real battle is the battle of ideas.

"The Revolution was able to hold out because it sowed ideas.

"The world is rapidly being globalized; an unsustainable and 
intolerable world economic order is rapidly being established. Ideas 
are the raw material from which consciousness is forged; they are 
the raw material of ideology par excellence. I prefer to call them 
the raw material of consciousness to emphasize that it is not a 
question of strict and rigid ideology, but rather of an advanced 
consciousness, that is to say, a conviction that hundreds of 
millions and billions of people on this planet will inevitably 
arrive at, and that it will constitute, without a doubt, the best 
instrument to secure the victory of those ideas throughout the 
world. 

"Not weapons but ideas will decide this universal battle, and not 
because of some intrinsic value, but because of how closely they 
relate to the objective reality of today's world. These ideas stem 
from the conviction that, mathematically speaking, the world has no 
other way out that imperialism is unsustainable, that the system 
that has been imposed on the world leads to disaster, to an 
insurmountable crisis, and, I dare say, sooner rather than later. 

"It is based on these premises and these convictions that I evaluate 
what we have analyzed and what we are doing these days. It is not 
the only way of doing it, far from it, but it is valuable because it 
is essential. 

"This battle you are waging cannot be lost. Without the tasks you 
must complete, without the work you will carry out  --and you will 
be totally successful, I have no doubt of that-- we could not even 
speak of our dreams, not only dreams for our compatriots, but also 
for all of the people in this world.

"Never before, or anywhere else, has a people done what the people 
of Cuba are doing today. And what it is doing today with ideas, 
sowing ideas, cultivating and developing ideas; this cannot lead to 
anything but the victory of ideas, to the firm belief that this 
Revolution shall not disappear nor crumble, because it is firmly 
planted in deeply rooted and ideas that are constantly evolving.

"Just ideas are invincible. Of them, Martí said: `Trenches made of 
ideas are stronger than those made of stones' and `a just cause --
even one buried in the depths of a cave-- is mightier than an 
army'.    

"Ideas are not simply an instrument to build consciousness and lead 
people to fight. Today, they have become the main weapon in the 
struggle, not a source of inspiration, not a guide, not a directive, 
but the main weapon of the struggle. 

"We are not dogmatic nor can we be dogmatic, we are to avoid any 
sort of dogmas, as we believe in truly dialectical and flexible 
minds, which does not mean to admit even the slightest opportunism 
or pragmatism.

"We are flexible and dialectical because of our most rigid adherence 
to the principles and objectives of our revolutionary process and 
the new goals which we didn't ask anybody for, which we didn't hope 
or plan for, but which life and the history of these past decades 
have imposed on our country and our revolutionaries. And, this being 
the case, we have no other option but to fight with all our 
strength, thinking not only of ourselves but also of the well-being 
that the fruits of our struggle might bear for so many people around 
the world". 

As fate would have it, the colossal Battle of Ideas that our people 
has been waging for exactly five years today began just one year 
after those words were spoken. 

On July 5, 2000, on bestowing the "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Order" 
on Miguel González, I looked back on how I had met him a year 
before, on December 2 to be precise, and how the battle for Elián's 
return had begun. That day, I said:
"I asked him a number of questions and, although he was obviously 
hurting and sad, he answered them with persuasive arguments and 
irrefutable proof of his affectionate, faultless and steadfast 
relationship with his son. 
"At every moment, I could see in his face the features of a noble, 
sincere and serious man.
"I told him that I was convinced that the boy would never be 
returned through legal procedures. This was a case in which the U.S. 
courts had absolutely no jurisdiction, and it was the duty of the 
U.S. immigration authorities to proceed with the immediate 
repatriation of his son. But, I was well aware of the arrogant, 
arbitrary, biased and conspiratorial behavior of the U.S. 
authorities with regard to any misdeeds and crimes committed against 
our people. The return of this boy could only be accomplished 
through an intense national and international political battle of 
public opinion".
The following day --as I said at that ceremony--  I spoke with other 
Party leaders and, without wasting a minute, I got in touch with 
leaders of the Young Communists League and the University Student 
Federation. Young people and students would be in the vanguard of 
this struggle, with the full support of all revolutionary forces.
Forty-eight hours later, on a Sunday evening like today exactly five 
years ago, one thousand young people from the Youth Technical 
Brigades who were just concluding a national conference took part in 
the first protest march held outside the US Interests Section. 
Thus began the epic struggle for Elián's freedom. The battle for a 
child quickly became a battle for justice and the happiness of all 
our children and all of our people. 
Guided by the profoundest conviction, already expressed in my 
closing remarks to the 7th Youth Congress I mentioned above, that 
ideas are the most important weapon in humanity's fight for its own 
salvation, the battle we began was not only one of thoughts, 
discussion, arguments and counter-arguments, but also of concrete 
facts and actions as well. 
As part of the Battle of Ideas' work group, the Young Communists 
League has coordinated and spurred on nearly 200 revolutionary 
programs that have been created as a result of this struggle. 
In these past few years, I have devoted over seven thousand hours of 
fruitful and unforgettable labor to the tasks of exchanging ideas, 
analyzing and giving guidance to this group, the majority of whose 
members are YCL leaders and workers', students' and women's 
representatives led by our Party. 
We have worked all this time to develop a critical rather than self-
indulgent vision of our undertaking and our historical objectives. 
We have put into practice revolutionary concepts, which sweep away 
formalism and conformism and accelerate the transformation processes 
needed for our country's future. 
Some have been taken from the very notes taken by YCL cadres and by 
others who participate in our meetings. They include:
      No youth should be abandoned and no person should be left 
alone to face his fate. The YCL must work with every youth. Behind 
every category and every percentage is a man, a woman, a child or 
senior citizen. 
      There is a solution to every problem; it is a question of 
finding alternatives. 
      Any coordination work must be based on continuous analysis 
and up-to-date information so that decisions take precise account of 
the details; every action must be thought through, one must act 
quickly and never lose a minute. 
      New coordination methods and mechanisms must be found so 
that all bodies and organizations participate with the understanding 
that the nation's interests are over and above bureaucratic 
contradictions, cravings for power and institutional jealousy. 
      Secure high levels of involvement and commitment from those 
cadres and workers who participate in each and every one of the 
programs. 
      To exercise criticism and reflection wherever needed. 
      Every idea always leads to a new idea and this new idea 
leads to more and more ideas. A new idea, no matter how good it 
seems, must be previously tested and undergo thorough experiments 
under real conditions. 
      Discretion and compartmentalization are basic principles in 
program coordination and orientation. Programs shall be made public 
only after they have become realities; this way, we shall avoid 
promises that cannot be kept or that are kept and then ignored, 
forgotten or cast aside. 
      Participating companies should neither make profits nor bear 
losses. Works must be executed quickly, within the budget, with 
quality and an optimal use of resources.
      Maintenance for equipment and facilities made available to 
these programs shall be provided. Everything must always be as good 
as new. 
To this small sample of what remained in the cadres' minds, we could 
add hundreds of examples of what the cadres came up with when faced 
with the need to act swiftly and guarantee success. We had to make 
up for all the time lost in routine, simplistic thinking and other 
habits that hinder progress and frustrate the objectives that only a 
truly socialist system can achieve.
One day, literally said:
"Notwithstanding the rights and guarantees offered to all citizens 
of any race and background, the Revolution has not been as 
successful in its struggle to eradicate differences in the social 
and economic status of Cuba's black population, even though this 
sector plays an important role in many highly significant areas, 
including education and health".
These were the very words I said with no hesitation whatsoever, on 
February 7 last year, at the closing session of the International 
Pedagogy Congress 2003, which took place in the heat of the Battle 
of Ideas. This idea about the sad legacy of slavery, class society, 
capitalism and imperialism was something I had been carrying inside 
me and wanted to declare publicly. 
Nowhere has there ever existed equality of opportunities. The 
possibility of studying, obtaining higher qualifications or a 
university degree was the exclusive privilege of the more 
knowledgeable and economically powerful sectors. It was only the 
exception among the poor who was able to beat the system.
The huge strides made by socialism had created the foundations, but 
we still had to take the great leap forward. Thanks to the Battle of 
Ideas, we can today say that the lives of children, teenagers, young 
people and the Cuban family is not the same as it was five years 
ago. 
Today, a primary school teacher is responsible for only 20 pupils, 
something which allows him or her to provide better quality 
teaching, differentiated attention to each of his or her pupils and 
their families, thus, a more comprehensive education. 
They have television sets, VCRs and computer labs at their disposal. 
These are incredibly efficient instruments that, used as teaching 
tools, greatly expand our children's knowledge. Not one child in 
Cuba is without access to these modern tools. Schools with no 
electricity are equipped today with solar panels that power 
computers, televisions and VCRs. 
Computer science has begun to be taught at pre-school level. 12, 958 
teachers of basic computer science trained in intensive courses and 
assigned to teach in our classrooms and all primary school teachers 
were given specially designed courses in the subject. 
Children with special educational needs have also been taught using 
these new and modern educational tools. The first School for 
Autistic Children, a group that has been overlooked in nearly every 
country in the world, was inaugurated two years ago. 
Today, children begin to study English through audio-visual courses 
from the third grade on. They learn to play chess at school and 
receive cultural and artistic instruction from the first 3, 271 art 
instructors who graduated this past October 20. A similar or greater 
number of instructors shall graduate every year and work not only in 
the educational sector but also in cultural and social institutions 
in the community. 
We have improved meals in schools that have a school lunch program; 
these are now the immense majority of those that need this program. 
Systematic attention is accorded to all children found to have 
nutritional situations when the first program designed to weigh and 
measure all children aged 15 and under was conducted in 2001. 
Recently, a comprehensive study of the entire infant population was 
completed Aspects such as nutritional condition, schooling, family 
and living environment, which were measured in the study, are now 
being properly addressed. 
All of these transformations have allowed us to implement an 
authentic full-day study program and have made it possible for our 
children in primary school to learn 2.2 times more Mathematics and 
1.5 times more Spanish than they did four years ago. These figures 
should grow as our educational system continues to develop as 
planned. Opportunities for learning and for physical and 
intellectual development are equal for all children, regardless of 
where they live, skin color or social background. 
The extraordinary changes that are taking place in primary school 
education have been accomplished with few resources cleverly used, 
following concepts of equality and justice and, above all, with a 
view to offering the same opportunities to all children throughout 
the country. 
We shall continue to work just as intensely toward improving and 
developing the other levels of education.  
Radical transformations have also been made to junior high schools 
by implementing a different educational model for children and 
adolescents in seventh, eighth and ninth grades -which are facing a 
grave crisis in other countries.  This model breaks with previous 
educational concepts.

At this school level there is now a general all-round teacher who 
is responsible for 15 students and who teaches all subjects except 
English and Physical Education. He or she is a tutor, an educator, a 
mentor for each student; this gets rid of the excessive number of 
teachers for the various subjects under which system it was 
impossible to integrate the different branches of knowledge and the 
educational influences needed at this decisive stage of life. 

Thanks to this step, the school's relationship with the family has 
improved qualitatively which means they can cooperate more 
extensively and changes have even operated in the way many parents 
behave towards and treat their children.

Mathematics, Spanish, History, English and Physics classes are 
taught using videos whose contents have been designed by the most 
prestigious educational specialists in the country. This gives 
considerable reinforcement to the efforts made by the teachers and 
increases the quality and depth of the classes taught.

The frequency of Mathematics, Computing, Spanish and History classes 
has been raised, which means the students receive more information 
and improve their knowledge of these subjects.

The new art instructors are also working in our junior high schools, 
promoting culture and bringing the best of Cuba and the world's 
traditions to our adolescents.

There is a program to provide free school snacks or lunch to junior 
high school students. This allows them to receive the nourishment 
needed to sit through the double session of classes and means the 
students of this level are safer because they don't have to leave 
the school grounds until the end of the school day.

On December 2, 2004, 307,339 students and 38,246 workers in 591 
urban junior high schools were receiving free school snacks. The 
students of 83 junior high schools still have to join the program; 
they will be receiving the benefits from this program in the first 
three months of next year.

The Behavior School also has social workers working with the 
students. These are responsible for organizing the way society can 
act to modify the causes and conditions from which social 
disadvantage and behavioral problems arise. 

These far reaching transformations have also targeted our young 
people, from the age of 16 on.

We founded the social worker schools from which more than 21,485 
youths have already graduated. These constitute a veritable 
detachment of social support and solidarity that is now working with 
almost all of Cuba's People's Councils.  Every year another 7,000 
youths are trained using new educational concepts, and not only in 
the schools designed for that purpose but also in their own 
municipalities, in what we call Home-Schools, using television, 
videos, and computers under the guidance of experienced teachers and 
in direct contact with the social conditions in their own 
communities. When they graduate, all have direct access to many 
university degree programs related to their multifaceted activity.

We set up the secondary school upgrading courses for young people 
aged 17 to 30 who, once they had completed ninth grade, which is now 
the general level for these ages, ceased to either study or work.

This has allowed more than 150,000 youths to study in these 
secondary school upgrading programs and receive an income 
appropriate to their age and needs.

The results obtained have meant that 48,406 graduates from these 
courses have already enrolled in various university programs --
including that of medical science--  and achieved very positive 
results.

Throughout the Battle of Ideas we have made an old dream come true: 
the universalization of higher education, thus making universities 
accessible to all the young people who graduate from the 
Revolution's programs and to workers in general.

This program has given unheard of opportunities to young people and 
adults who were not previously able to attend higher education 
institutes but who now can join in the revolutionary aim of having 
all citizens, regardless of the work they do, obtain a comprehensive 
education.

The result of these programs is that the country today has the 
highest number of students registered in higher education than at 
any other time in its history: 380,000 students, of whom 233, 011 
are being educated in the 938 university chapters that already exist 
in the country's 169 municipalities.

The 65,427 teachers and tutors working in this universalization 
program, who have given a committed, determined response to this 
call of the Revolution, are part of more than 700,000 professionals 
educated by the Revolution who work in Cuba, despite the constant 
brain drain which victimizes Third World countries.

Our aspiration of having higher education centers for excellence 
resulted in the creation of the University of Information Sciences, 
the first institution of this kind to be created during the Battle 
of Ideas.

Just two years and three months after it was opened, more than 6,000 
youths from every municipality in the country study in this already 
prestigious university where novel concepts and revolutionary 
working methods are used; these have obtained significant 
achievements in teaching and productive activity in a very short 
space of time.

The spirit and concepts applied in the University of Information 
Sciences are those we must also use in those polytechnics where this 
subject is taught. They are educating almost 40,000 mid-level 
information science technicians throughout the country, thus 
securing Cuba's future development --something that is only possible 
thanks to the vast human capital created by the Revolution over more 
than four decades.

This recently approved project for Information Science Polytechnics 
is only the latest of the Battle of Ideas' programs for the 2000-
2004 period. We shall allocate the necessary material resources and 
equipment to it. The ministry of Education, the ministry of 
Information Sciences and Communication and the Young Communist 
League have already received the relevant instructions.

The Battle of Ideas has done much for the Cuban family, for the 
safety and the mental and physical development of their children, 
without exceptions.

With regards to such an important field as healthcare, these 
families benefit from the large amounts of money invested in our 444 
polyclinics, 107 of which have been completely remodeled and 34 of 
which are in the process of being remodeled. On top of this, 
reconstruction and modernization work is going on in 27 hospitals, 
as part of a program that will affect all of them equally and 217 
physiotherapy wards are being opened in the polyclinics, all of 
which will offer this service by the end of next year. 24 new 
facilities offering hemodialysis have been opened, as have 88 
offering optician services and 118 intensive therapy centers in 
those municipalities which, because they have no surgical hospitals, 
did not have this extremely valuable medical resource which has 
already saved thousands of lives to date.

The program of technical refurbishment now in full swing will bring 
benefits to all of the primary and secondary services we have and 
will have the added benefit of bringing the most important and 
highest quality medical services closer to the population's homes 
and places of residence.

In the same token, 1905 television rooms have been opened in 
isolated rural settlements having no electricity, thus providing 
access to information, recreation and to educational television 
programs to more than half a million Cubans who live in those areas 
and who were the only ones who still did not have these services.

Extending the Youth Clubs (Joven Club) to 300 facilities has allowed 
436,753 Cubans to learn about computing, that is, since the 
beginning of April 2001, when the new Youth Clubs were opened thus 
raising the number of computers allocated to 3,000. This excellent 
program is being expanded with another 100 additional clubs already 
completed, the aim being to double the existing 300 facilities.

The Book Fairs have turned into a huge festivity for the Cuban 
family. In 2002, they spread from their traditional home in Havana 
to 19 other Cuban cities and this year they will extend to 34. Nine 
and a half million people visited the last three Fairs, with more 
than 15 million books on sale. 

The Family Library made the best of Cuban and world literature 
available to our people at reasonable prices. 100,000 copies of 25 
titles were produced, and a second collection is ready to go to 
print.

Two new, modern, high capacity printers have been bought, one of 
which is working to full capacity and the other is being installed. 
Resources have been allocated to repair and modernize all the 
equipment in the National Print Works. 

The University for All, broadcast on television, which went on air 
on October 2, 2000 has become the biggest university in the country, 
the one offering the widest variety of subjects. 43 courses with 
1,721 content hours have been taught using this resource. Six 
courses are being broadcast now. 775 professors, of whom 265 are 
PhDs and 134 have Master's degrees, have taught courses.

The programs developed to turn prisons into schools have had a 
marked impact on the inmates' families by helping to strengthen the 
bonds between the young offenders and their relatives.

Studies made of people with disabilities have made it possible to 
resolve some of the crises in the care offered to them and their 
families. They have allowed us to warn the families about hereditary 
diseases and have made it possible for 6,052 mothers to devote 
themselves full-time to looking after their children with serious 
disabilities since they receive a salary for doing so.

A total of 366,864 people with physical and motor, sensory, organic 
and other disabilities, including mental disabilities were studied. 
More than 30, 000 science professionals and management and support 
staff took part in the nation-wide study.

On August 5, 2003 the New National Center for Genetic Medicine was 
established.

As a result of this huge effort to attain the highest possible level 
of justice for our people and to provide full equality of 
opportunities for all, more than 380,000 jobs have been created, the 
outcome of the Revolution's Programs, most of which basically 
benefit the youths. 

According to information received from the ministry of Labor, by the 
end of this year unemployment had fallen to less than 2%, something 
that is absolutely impossible in any industrialized capitalist 
country.

In only three years, more than 44,979 new primary and junior high 
school teachers have been trained. This is equal to eleven years 
output from the teacher training institutes' regular day courses 
between 1988 and 2000.

As I already said, we have 21,485 social workers. In 2000, when the 
Battle of Ideas began, Social Security had only 795 social workers 
in all of Cuba.

As of November 20, 5,810 building, rebuilding or expansion public 
works had been completed; 1,732 of these were for education, 1, 537 
for health, 32 for major cultural institutions, including major 
rebuilding and expansion work on the Higher Institute of Art, and 
2,508 for other of the Revolution's programs. 913 schools have 
sustained capital repairs while 32 new schools have been built. Our 
country has today 5,270 new classrooms.

Over 25 million cassettes have been produced in about a year and a 
half and another new cassette factory is under construction.

The agreements we have just signed with China mean we will be able 
to acquire 100,000 computers annually; these will be used mainly for 
the education of children, young people and adults and for 
retraining our country's growing number of university graduate 
technicians and professionals.

The day will also come when computers will be widely used to 
dialogue with the world.  When one takes into account this country's 
political education, the growing efforts to give Cubans a good 
command of English and other languages, there is no other people 
which has more things to give information about nor more training to 
be able to do so in a better way.

The first million television sets we bought from the People's 
Republic of China has meant that 827,322 families in Cuba have a top 
quality 21-inch color television which uses 20 watts less 
electricity than a LG color television and 120 watts less than a 
Soviet black and white television. This has had a profound and 
widespread impact on our people's level of culture and information 
and on its recreational opportunities. The rest of the television 
sets were given to education, health and other of the country's 
social programs; 80,000 of them were used for international 
cooperation, and we will be getting another 300,000 21-inch 
television sets from China. Several thousand 29-inch televisions, 
which are now being used in education, are not from China.

Our educational system has 109,117 television sets and 40,858 VCRs 
in the classrooms; these have become excellent teaching aids.

Two new educational channels have been established, which combined 
with Cubavision and Tele Rebelde broadcast 394 hours of educational 
programming weekly. This is 62.7% of the total hours broadcast by 
Cuban television. 247 of these hours are devoted to courses on the 
curricula.

If at the last YCL Congress we expressed our concern about the low 
output of books and other publications for our children and youths, 
we can today announce that 457, 840,862 copies of books, newsprint 
editions, pamphlets and other printed material have been produced 
for our various programs and projects.

These include:
41, 025, 778 books, newsprint editions, and pamphlets for 
educational programs.

15, 979, 198 books for the Book Fairs.

35,371,157 newsprint transcripts of Round Tables and Open Forums.

15,905,758 newsprint  study materials for University for All.

In 1999, there were only eight visual art schools in the country. 
Today this type of education has spread to all the provinces, with 
visual art schools in 17 cities.

The registration in the new National Ballet School that can take 300 
students has been extended to students from all provinces.

Today, 4,021 students from all of the capital's municipalities 
attend vocational workshops given in the National Ballet School 
twice a week. Other dance schools offer similar courses.

6,789 public and school libraries have received encyclopedias, 
dictionaries, atlases and other books with which they have renovated 
their bibliographic stock.

2,365,234 children and youths have been given a book as a prize in 
their graduation ceremonies.

About 10,900,000 Cubans have taken part in the 161 Open Forums that 
have taken place.

11, 800,000 people have joined in the 18 marches we have had.

1,030 Round Tables have been aired to date. These have become a kind 
of political university offering up-to-the-minute relevant 
information and profound and truthful analyses of the empire's crude 
lies and perfidious aggression against our people, while also 
discussing important aspects of international politics, economics, 
culture, sciences, sports and other issues of interest.

Since the Battle of Ideas is --as I once said-- "the battle of 
humanism against dehumanization, the battle of brotherhood and 
sisterhood against the most blatant form of selfishness [.] the 
battle of justice against the most brutal form of injustice, the 
battle for our people and the battle for other peoples"  we at this 
time have 23,413 doctors and health technicians working on humane 
missions of solidarity in 66 countries. A very large number of them 
are working in the poorest neighborhoods in Simón Bolívar's great 
homeland, which is at this moment in the midst of revolutionary 
changes under the leadership of an amazing new political leader, a 
follower of Bolivar and Marti, a beloved friend of Cuba, Hugo Chávez 
Frías.

The impact of the Battle of Ideas, its principles and work methods 
have not only transformed our educational system, and the lives of 
our people, but have also strengthened and increased the prestige of 
the Young Communist League, which, at the moment this Congress is 
taking place, has the highest number of YCL members in the last 
decade: 557,298, which is 104,692 more than at the 7th Congress.

Today our youth organization has 49,054 local chapters, 8,756 more 
than in 1998.

If we criticized the YCL at the last Party Congress for its 
weaknesses in grooming members for our vanguard party, we are today 
happy to see that the attention they gave to this crucial matter and 
the growing strength of the organization itself have resulted in the 
YCL supplying the Party with 63 of every 100 members who have come 
to their 30th birthday. So, in total, if we count those young 
members who are under 30 who were allowed to join under a special 
plan, the YCL has strengthened the Party with 133,283 new members. 
This is their concrete response to the fair criticisms they received.

Those chiefly responsible for these results have been the young 
cadre.  This battle has demanded that they increase their capacity 
for action and their readiness and has obliged them to make a 
qualitative change in their working methods so that they may devote 
their attention to the internal functioning and daily work of the 
YCL and may also take up the new tasks that stem from the 
Revolution's programs.

The organization's experience, perseverance and its achievements 
have meant that it has been able to provide the Party with more 
cadres. In the last two years, 215 YCL cadres have become 
professional Party workers.

What we have achieved to date is the result of our people's and our 
wonderful youths' heroic efforts. We still have a lot left to do. 
You know where the old and new problems are. 

We must ensure that the teachers working in our classrooms today 
stay working there, we must add to their reserves, jealously guard 
the young human resources we have trained over the last few years, 
paying special attention to their professionalism and up-grading. We 
must continue to analyze the inescapable changes that our technical 
professional and senior high school education must undergo; we must 
improve the way higher education is made accessible to all and we 
must make sure that all of the country's universities move forward 
from this idea towards the academic and revolutionary excellence 
that the country demands from its university students and professors.

We must do further more intensive political work with all of our 
health workers, so that the quality of the services offered to the 
public are in step with the investments in buildings and technology 
made in this sector and with the prestige that Cuban medicine has 
obtained by sending its doctors and technicians to other parts of 
the world in solidarity.

We have to continue with the task of promoting healthy, enlightened 
and useful recreational opportunities for our young people, which 
make use of all the opportunities and resources we have today thanks 
to the Revolution's programs.

We will have to continue to wage our hard-fought battle against 
corruption, social indiscipline, and any surge in drug use.

The highest possible integration of all the institutions involved in 
public broadcasting must take place. These are the institutions, 
which can and must be completely at the service of knowledge, 
culture, recreation, and the most dearly held values and interests 
of our people.

There is still a lot to repair, build and improve in our social 
institutions. We have proof that this is possible. 

As I once said, "perhaps the most useful of our modest efforts in 
the struggle for a better world will be to demonstrate how much can 
be done with so little when all of society's human and material 
resources are placed at the service of the people".

The hard currency cost of the Battle of Ideas, including, the 
buildings, materials of all kinds, the thousands of pieces of top 
quality, standardized medical, dental and optician's equipment, the 
computers and videos, including payments made for the credit to buy 
televisions for the population and for institutions and other 
similar payments is less that 2% of the country's total hard 
currency expenditure in the last five years.

To this we must add, as an example of the best use of scarce 
resources, that the
cost of the million Chinese television sets is almost completely 
offset by the saving in electricity that will be achieved in the 8 
years needed to repay the credit obtained.

When we look back on these heroic years of intense labor and not a 
few challenges, we cannot help but feel proud of our youth, of its 
values, of its caliber, of its mettle.

Men like Juan Miguel, who has discharged his duties as a father and 
a patriot in such an exemplary manner, was a member of the YCL.

Our five heroes imprisoned by the empire were members of the YCL, 
they who are the victims of vengeance and hate, who are suffering 
through cruel and unjust prison terms in American jails without 
letting anyone stain their honor, break their integrity and loyalty 
to the Revolution and to our people.

They are symbols and serve as inspiration to those who will change 
the world. We shall not rest for a second until justice be done and 
they are returned to our country. Sooner or later, with support from 
the rest of the world, we shall win that battle, too!

The information I have given in these remarks which are my reply to 
your invitation may astound many people, some might not even believe 
them, others will totally ignore them.

The empire will be furious and announce with incredible cynicism 
that Cuba must be liberated and democracy brought to this enslaved 
people and what is more, teach it to read and write, as they 
announce in their `program for the transition to capitalism'. The 
masses, still partially deceived by the hail of lies and invectives 
coming from the powerful imperialist media, will believe us more and 
more, as they begin to awaken to what is in store for them and to 
understand the huge difference between our system and the one 
advocated by the empire.

Capitalism has lost any humanist essence; it lives from waste and to 
waste; it cannot escape from that congenital, incurable disease. 
Suffice it to say that Cuba has 450 doctors in Haiti, the poorest 
country in the hemisphere; the industrialized countries cannot send 
even 50, for they have finance capital but lack human capital.

Neither aggression nor blockade, terrorist acts or the 
disintegration of the socialist block, unipolar dominion over the 
world or the extreme right's rise to power in the United States 
which we, in 1998, warned was possible and in fact likely, have been 
able to break our heroic people's spirit of struggle. 

We have known true independence and real freedom. We shall never 
resign ourselves to living without them! We are willing to pay the 
necessary price of which Martí spoke.

We shall continue to create and to struggle. No one now will ever be 
strong enough to push back into the bottle the genie of a people 
which has escaped for ever from plunder, humiliation and ignominy.

As Camilo Cienfuegos, that extraordinary fighter who is there with 
Mella and Che on the Cuban YCL badge and who was only 27 when he 
died, said in his last speech on October 26, 1959:  "We shall kneel 
down once and we shall bow our heads once, and that will be on the 
day when we reach the land that watches over 20,000 Cubans and say 
to them, `Brothers and sisters, the Revolution is complete, your 
blood was not shed in vain'".

Long ago, the Cuban people said Homeland or Death! And it will carry 
on its Battle of Ideas to its logical conclusion.

Long live the people that have faced up honorably to the most 
powerful empire ever to exist!

Eternal life to the example the Cuban youths are setting for the 
world today!

Long live socialism forever!




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/shadowgroup-l/attachments/20041213/f0e7f7a0/attachment.html>