The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.21           May 31, 1999 
 
 
`We Have Put An End To The Eviction Of The Peasants, Made Them Owners Of The Land'
Fidel Castro's June 1959 speech on implementing agrarian revolution  

BY FIDEL CASTRO
People of Villa Clara:

Today is exactly five months and twenty-one days since the triumph of the revolution. This is the third rally we have held in this province: the first was when we were crossing through the province on our way to the capital; the second was at the University of Las Villas - possibly many of those here today were present at that rally too - and this is the third. But what is striking about this third rally is that, after five months and twenty-one days of revolutionary government, this is without doubt the largest of them all. [Applause]

This demonstrates that the revolution, far from weakening in strength, is getting stronger by the day. And it gives us an idea of the magnitude of the rally we're going to hold in the capital of the republic this coming July 26.

Today's gathering is part of the preparatory work for the rally of a half million peasants we're going to bring to the capital of the republic [Applause] in support of the agrarian reform.

This coming July 26 half a million peasants will attest to the support that the Cuban revolution enjoys. They will carry machetes, if possible, [Applause] with guayabera shirts and palm-leaf hats, in the style of the mambises,(1( [Applause] with Cuban flags on the front of their hats, like some we've seen today, reminding us that this struggle is a continuation of the struggles for our independence.

Workers prepare to welcome peasants
In the capital of the republic, all the people are awaiting the peasants. Since it is virtually impossible to transport half a million peasants from all over the republic in a single day, since it is virtually impossible to find hotels to put up half a million peasants, and since the rally will be organized and paid for by the people, therefore ever since we launched the slogan of assembling half a million peasants in Havana and asked for the people's cooperation, tens of thousands of offers to house the peasants have been coming in. [Applause]

That rally will constitute the most moving event in the political and revolutionary history of our country, because the men of the city are going to open wide their doors to the men of the countryside. They're going to turn their houses over to the men of the countryside, have them be their guests, [Applause] in order to make that demonstration possible - a demonstration that will show the entire world that the Cuban revolution enjoys the invincible backing of the peasants, the workers, the students, the professionals, and all those citizens who put the interests of our homeland above petty personal interests. [Applause]

The rally on July 26 will constitute the grandest and most moving challenge that has been seen in any nation of Latin America since the republics of this continent were founded. Because for the first time in the history of the Latin American nations, a movement is taking place with the degree of popular backing that the Cuban revolutionary movement has.... [Applause]

How the agrarian reform law works
I want to explain to you how we are going to carry out the agrarian reform. I want to explain to you in detail what the agrarian reform is, so that the reactionaries, the big plantation owners, and the counterrevolutionaries can't come around trying to confuse the peasants. [Applause]

The vast majority of the cultivated land of Cuba is in the hands of less than 2 percent of the owners of land. Landowners targeted by the agrarian reform constitute less than 1 percent of those holding land in Cuba. That is, out of every 100 owners of land, only 1 percent have been adversely affected by the agrarian reform. But that 1 percent holds the majority of the cultivated land of Cuba in its hands. That is, 99 percent of those owning land - who are owners of one caballería,(2) or two, or three, or five, or less than thirty - is a greater percentage than those who have more than thirty. Those who have more than thirty caballerías are less than 1 percent. But they are the ones who have the best lands, and the largest part of the land of Cuba. It is that 1 percent who have been targeted by the agrarian reform.

Who is going to benefit? First of all, more than two hundred thousand peasant families. [Applause] Secondly, the entire people of Cuba; 99 percent of the people of Cuba. Because if the peasants have resources, if the peasants have money, they're not going to hoard that money in some bank; they're going to spend that money on shoes, on clothing, on food.

And who will that benefit? It will benefit all those who work in the cities, who will have more work and better wages when all the peasants have enough money to acquire everything they need. [Applause]

What does the agrarian reform state? The agrarian reform law states: "No one may possess more than thirty caballerías of land, unless they have the land producing at maximum yield." That is, a well-cultivated rice farm is allowed to exceed thirty caballerías, but never more than a hundred. A well-tended and well-run livestock farm may exceed thirty caballerías but never more than a hundred. [Applause] A well- run sugarcane farm, producing a high yield per caballería, may exceed thirty, but never more than a hundred.

If someone has more than thirty caballerías, but they are not well utilized, then everything in excess of thirty will be expropriated by INRA(3) and distributed among the peasants. [Applause]

If a peasant is a squatter on state lands, and has in his possession less than two caballerías of land, the state will give him title to that land free of charge. [Applause]

Land, credits, implements, and housing
We've put an end forever to the evictions of peasants. [Applause] Has any peasant been evicted since the triumph of the revolution? But we were not content with that; we have also turned those peasants into the owners of the land. [Applause] Moreover, we have given them credit at low interest - 4 percent - so that they can work. We gave them implements, because we gave them the land free of charge. The implements and the credit can be paid off in as much time as needed, and at only 4 percent. We not only give them the land, the implements, and the credits, but we are also going to build houses for them. [Applause] Not only have we put an end to the evictions, but we are going to give them the land. We are going to give them the implements and credits. We are going to guarantee them a price for their products. We are going to build houses for them. And we are also going to build schools for them. [Applause]

So, I repeat, the advantages for the peasants on state lands who have less than two caballerías are the following:

First: the land grabbers and the big plantation owners, the ones who used to evict the peasants, will disappear.

Second: the peasants will become the owners of their land, free of charge.

Third: the peasants will receive the implements they need, to be paid off in as much time as necessary, at just 4 percent interest.

Fourth: the peasants will receive credits for each year's harvest at 4 percent interest.

Fifth: the peasants will receive decently built housing, to be paid for in twenty years without interest. [Applause]

Sixth: the peasants will receive a guaranteed price for their produce, and will be assured that they can sell it, from the moment they start planting. [Applause]

Seventh: the peasants will have consumer stores, consumer cooperatives to receive food items at cost plus expenses.

Eighth: the peasants will have roads to transport their produce.

Ninth: the children of the peasants will have schools and sports fields [Applause] and medical care.

Tenth: the peasants, who until now have been the victims of the big plantation owners and the corrupt politicians, will for the first time count as an essential factor of the nation. [Applause] From now on, a peasant will be a person. From now on, a peasant will have everyone's respect and consideration. From now on, a peasant who goes to the city won't have to feel ashamed and embarrassed; on the contrary, everyone will treat him for what he is, for what he is worth, [Applause] as a good man, a noble man, a working man, a brother, and the most committed and enthusiastic defender of this revolution.

Today the peasant is respected
Now, when a peasant comes to Santa Clara or goes to Havana, nobody laughs at him. Nobody makes jokes about the peasant, because today the peasant is a hero. Everyone treats the peasant with respect. When a peasant comes to the city nowadays, nobody is going to watch to see how he walks, nobody is going to watch to see how he eats, nobody is going to watch to see how he holds his knife, nobody is going to watch to see how he shops and what color dress his wife or sister is wearing, or what his other close relatives are wearing.

Because now the peasant comes to buy whatever he wants, however he wants, and it's nobody else's business. Why? Because that feeling of hostility toward peasants, that sentiment the big plantation owners had created, that timidity that used to exist in the peasants who were always being mistreated by the Rural Guards,(4) by the big plantation owners, by the corrupt politicians, by the snitches, by the numbers racketeers, everywhere. All that has ended. If peasants come to the city now, everyone respects them. And to demonstrate that the peasants have conquered the city, on July 26 all the homes in Havana will open their doors to them. [Applause]

So that's what the agrarian reform means. In the future, no peasant's child will remain a brute as they say, without learning to read and write. And the peasants who have not had the opportunity to learn how will have the opportunity now if they want to do so. What was the peasant up to now? For whom did the peasant vote when the elections came around? Who got elected? The big plantation owner.

The big plantation owners were the ones who got elected because they came around with their money, with their political sergeants, and they carried out politics based on money. They bought votes. Since the peasant didn't have anyone to help him, the big plantation owners spent their time doing little favors, sometimes helping a person get admitted to the hospital, sometimes getting medicine for him. Sometimes they gave him nothing but a hug or a pat on the shoulder when election time came around. They gave out money, gathered everybody together, especially those people who had lots of friends, and they made them political sergeants. It's not true that the people are fooled, ladies and gentlemen. But it is true that these people were pulling everybody around by the hair, and that the peasant didn't have a chance to defend himself.

The peasant didn't have a chance to fight for agrarian reform and fight for land, because they were the ones who had the money, the propaganda, the lawyers, the power. And if the peasants assembled together, a couple of Rural Guards would be sent over to drive them away. If the peasants assembled together, the Rural Guard would be sent on horseback and they would beat up those who were protesting. Between the Rural Guards, the corrupt politicians, the numbers racketeers, the big plantation owners, the thugs, and the speculators, the peasants were being driven into the ground.

Conditions before the revolution
Where did the peasants live? In those thatched huts. Their children were without schools, often without shoes, without clothes, without medicines. And what future did the children of peasant families have? What future did they have? What types of jobs were there? They were paid piecework, and the minimum daily wage became something like six reales or seven and a half reales.(5) What could they do with such an amount? Absolutely nothing.

I am explaining these things so that it can be seen what the revolution means for the peasant, so that the reactionaries and the counterrevolutionaries don't come around and confuse the people.

I already explained to you what happened to squatters living on state lands. Let's take the case now of a squatter on private lands. What happens to someone who has less than ten caballerías and is a squatter on land belonging to a private individual? Simply put, INRA - the Agrarian Reform Institute - comes along, expropriates that land, and gives ownership of it to the peasant, who receives the same ten advantages that I just enumerated. That peasant is given title to the land, credits, implements, schools; he's given guarantees and all the advantages that I enumerated.

Let's consider the case of someone who is not a squatter, but is a small sugarcane grower and has less than two caballerías. The state expropriates that land and gives it to this farmer. In addition it gives him credits, machinery, and all the benefits that are given to squatters on state or private lands.

Suppose there is a tenant farmer who has leased a farm of less than two caballerías and is using it to grow fruits or whatever. That land is also expropriated and handed over to the peasant free of charge.

Let's consider the case of a tobacco farmer, who is also given, free of charge, title to the land on which he plants tobacco. He is also given credits, implements, fertilizers, everything he needs.

Small farm owners are compensated
If we consider the case of a small sharecropper, or a small tenant farmer, INRA will try to find a way to allow him to convert those bonds into cash immediately. For a small property owner who has no more than a little farm and who loses it, we will look for a way to pay him a satisfactory indemnity, what he needs to be able to continue living as he used to, from his rents. We will pay him in bonds, but we will try to find a way for him to be able to negotiate those bonds immediately and receive his money in cash. Now do you understand? [Applause]

We have no choice but to act against small property holders who have leased their farms, because the principle defended by the revolution is that he who cultivates the land and works there every year should be its owner, so that he might love it more, take care of it, improve it, protect the vegetation. Because when a man is working land that is not his own, he cannot love it or take care of it as he would for land he knows is his, as he would if he and his children had the certainty that this land is theirs and that nobody is going to take it away from them. [Applause]

When we act against a big plantation owner in order to carry out the agrarian reform, we pay him in bonds. But when we act against a small property holder, INRA will take responsibility for compensating him satisfactorily, and that family will not go hungry. But neither will a peasant have to be paying rent to support that family, because it isn't fair that a poor family working one caballería of land should be supporting another family as well. That's not fair. [Applause]

Now what requirements does INRA insist on for that land? The peasants are the owners of that land, and nobody will be able to seize it from them. Nobody. It can only be seized for reasons of the credits extended to them by credit agencies of the state, if they don't repay the credits because they don't want to work. But nobody can take that land away from them now. Can a peasant trade his farm for someone else's? Yes, he can. A peasant who has one caballería of land here and wants to trade it for a caballería of land in Oriente province can do so. He can sell it, yes, but I'm going to explain how. He can sell it to INRA or he can sell it to someone else, applying for INRA's authorization. Why? Because if the institute doesn't keep an eye on this, some gentleman might come along who has won the lottery and starts buying up farms, paying good prices for them, to reestablish a vast plantation, without us doing anything about it.

Peasants can dispose of that land. They can dispose of it freely - with just one condition: that they have to ask for permission from INRA to sell it. If a peasant wants to sell his farm of one or two caballerías that the state gave him, he can sell it to INRA if INRA wants to buy it. Or if he wants to sell it to a private individual he can do that, and then INRA will investigate who is going to buy it. If you're a big plantation owner, you can't. A gentleman with caballerías can't buy it. If two people want to buy it for ten thousand pesos, but one of them has three caballerías and the other doesn't have any, then the institute will sell it to the one who doesn't have any. [Applause]

The peasants have credit, but they can also sell the land, with just the one requirement that INRA give them permission to carry out the sale, in order to maintain control so that he doesn't sell the land and have it wind up back in the hands of a few people who go around buying up small farms. Do you understand now? [Shouts of "Yes!"]

Cooperatives of landless peasants
Now we'll turn to the peasants who don't have land. What are the landless peasants going to do? Well, we're going to give them land. [Applause]

How? I'll explain to you.

The enemies of the agrarian reform say that we are going to harm the economy because if we divide up a vast plantation into little pieces, then production will diminish. Because if you take a big rice farm of two hundred caballerías of good land for growing rice, and divide it into two hundred little pieces, then one peasant is going to get the best land and another is going to wind up with the worst. That's not fair. Besides, if everyone has a parcel, each one will need implements, irrigation, which is going to be awfully expensive. What do we do then?

What do we do? Imagine, a rice farm of 200 caballerías. Along comes the agrarian reform and it leaves one hundred with the person who's there and takes over the other hundred. What does it do then? There's not a single land parcel there, not one single peasant. It's not like when the peasants already have their parcels of land and when they've have been working there for some time. In that case, they'd be given the property. But where there are no peasants, the land is not parceled out. Instead those peasants - say, one hundred families, for example - will be gathered together, an administration will be formed, and the one hundred caballerías will be cultivated jointly. Everyone will work on the crops, they'll receive the proceeds of their work, they'll have their store there, and at the end of the year the harvest will be sold and the profits will be distributed among all the families that hold the land. [Applause]

So if we seize a sugarcane holding of a hundred caballerías, we don't destroy it. No, if we seize a sugarcane holding of one hundred caballerías that today produces 40,000 arrobas(6) per caballería, we won't destroy it. We will bring together the families of the agricultural workers on that farm, we will call on them, we will form a cooperative, we will found a town with schools, sporting fields, a medical dispensary, and a people's store there, so that they can buy cheaply. The landholding will be farmed cooperatively with plows, fertilizers, and irrigation if possible. And instead of 40,000 arrobas in one hundred caballerías, we will farm fifty or sixty caballerías. On fifty or sixty caballerías we will produce as much as used to be produced on one hundred. On the other forty we'll plant fruits, we'll use it for pastureland, we'll organize a dairy there and a livestock ranch for those families, and the proceeds will be divided up among the families who work there. [Applause] So instead of reducing production we'll increase it. Instead of dividing up the landholding we'll organize it as a cooperative. Everybody will have work, everybody will have credit, the land will be utilized, twice as much will be produced, and the peasants will receive the proceeds. [Applause]

Big plantation owners' lies
What do the big plantation owners say? What were they telling the peasants? I'm going to explain it to you, because peasants have to be very aware, so that nobody deceives them. The big plantation owners are telling the peasants that they will be working for the state - see how shameless they are. [Applause] I'm going to cite one example for you. Imagine one of those companies that has thousands of caballerías, that has many sugarcane holdings, that has agricultural workers who work only during the sugar harvest and a little bit during the dead season.(7) I want you to pay attention, because this is very important.

How do the peasants live on those big landholdings? They don't have houses, they don't have schools. When they go to the grocery store they sell to them on credit for twice what the merchandise is worth. They work three or four months out of the year, and receive a total of two or three hundred pesos a year, if that, and by the time the harvest begins they already owe it all to the store. Imagine, with shoes and clothing being as expensive as they are, how is a peasant who has seven children and works four months out of the year and doesn't have any land, how is he going to support that family, ladies and gentlemen?

They don't have land to plant, so how are they going to plant? Along the guardarrayas, if they're allowed to.(8) That land is Cuban, isn't it? The peasants are Cubans, aren't they? Maybe the land belongs to a foreign company or to a big plantation owner who has two thousand caballerías, but those peasants can't plant the land. Maybe along the guardarrayas, if they let them. And maybe they let them plant a little bit of corn there, some yucca, a little bit of plantain, a little bit of boniato.(9) They gather a bunch of plantains or two, which they eat boiled or roasted, putting a little bit of lard on them if they have any lard, eating them for breakfast before going to work, if they have work. Those peasants don't have the right to live off their own land, and they are dying of hunger.

Few peasants even had a book
When did those peasants ever go to the movies? They never went to the movies. The most they ever go to, perhaps, is the circus when it comes around at harvest time. When did they ever take a trip? Never. When did they go to the beach? Never. When did they go get to know their country? When did they ever buy a book? Very few peasants even have a book.

I remember that one of the most moving things for me when we were in the midst of the military campaign in the Sierra Maestra was the first times that soldiers of the dictatorship ordered the peasants there evicted. We were seeing the abandoned houses, and in some houses we came across a little book about agriculture, a little book about the land, a little book about geography, a little book about history. We didn't have any books then so when we came across a book we became very happy. And it moved me greatly to see that a peasant had obtained a book and had it in his house.

Often the soldiers of the dictatorship came and burned the books, along with a hammock, a child's cradle, and the furniture. These poor peasants would work three or four years to get together a few furnishings, a machine to grind corn, a dresser, a little clothing, some shoes, a few dresses for the women. And then those degenerates, those criminals would come along.

And without the peasant having done anything - anything more than being a peasant, anything more than living there - these criminals would come along, throw a match at that thatch-roof hut and within fifteen minutes it was up in flames. And that humble home, which had cost many years to build, was turned into ashes.

When that happened, the big plantation owners didn't hold protest meetings. When that happened they didn't wage campaigns of protest. They kept their mouths shut. They were friends of the colonel, the general, the senator, the mayor, the ministers, and the dictator. They waged no campaigns, none at all. This was when they kept their mouths shut. When they were killing peasants, they kept their mouths shut. When they were burning peasants' homes, they kept their mouths shut. Back then they didn't protest. They kept their mouths shut and made statements in support of the dictatorship. They kept their mouths shut. Those inhuman crimes, those abuses, were of no importance to them. Those outrages were of no importance to them.

But when the revolution comes to build houses for the peasants, to build schools and hospitals, to give them tractors and stores, to give land to the peasants - that's when they protest. That's when they wage campaigns. That's when they come around and say that the people are being lied to. When the revolution comes to give the peasants houses, land, medicines, everything, the easants are told they are going to be working for the state.

Work for three months
That peasant who worked three months out of the year, who lived in a house with a dirt floor, who never ate eggs, fish, meat, who never drank milk - because how many agricultural workers on the sugarcane plantations ate meat, drank milk, or consumed fresh fish? Those peasants had no hens, and they couldn't eat meat or eggs.

Now that peasant, with the advent of the revolution, which bans the system of vast plantations, takes over one of those plantations, organizes a cooperative, creates a town with a school, establishes social centers where the peasants can attend with their family, organizes a consumers' store to give him credit and sell him goods at cost, gives him work and divides up the product at the end of the year. It gives them land, so they can plant fruits there, if they want, allows them to eat eggs, because in those stores they'll sell them cheap. They'll be able to eat fish, because the stores will be prepared to handle fresh fish. And we'll organize the fishermen in cooperatives, too; we'll give them boats, ice, and refrigerated trucks to transport the fish cheaply to the peasants' stores. On those same sugar holdings we are going to set up dairies. We're going to produce the same amount of sugarcane on less land, because we'll give them special grasses to plant. We'll establish dairies there, so that the peasants of each dairy farm can have cheap milk for their children, for eight, nine, or ten cents, or whatever it costs to have it there.

So the revolution comes, finds the peasants without houses, without land, working there for three months, going hungry, without schools, without hospitals. The revolution comes along, organizes a cooperative, builds a town for them, builds schools for them, builds dispensaries for them, builds houses for them, builds sports centers for them, good houses - as good as the owner of any of those farms could have. It also provides merchandise at low prices, it educates their children, it gives them work, it gives them food, which they've never had, and it distributes the profits among them.

Part of the proceeds will be used to make the farm more profitable, and the other part, after paying the taxes that all farms have to pay, will be distributed. Doing this, they come tell us, means putting the peasants to work for the state. Who are they going to work for? Who did they used to work for? For the big plantation owners. Who are they going to work for now? For themselves. I say this so that you don't let yourselves to be fooled. Peasants can dispose freely of their small parcels of land. All farms less than two caballerías held by sharecroppers, tenant farmers, or squatters, which the state gives them free of charge, can be sold, so long as it is with the permission of INRA, so that they don't get sold to someone who already has land, but rather to someone who doesn't have land. Does this make sense? [Applause]

There will be stores and schools
Someone who doesn't have land - suppose there is a fourty- caballería farm and the owner is allowed to keep thirty, while eight or nine caballerías have to be distributed. Since it's not possible to set up a big cooperative there, because it's not a potato or tobacco farm, the land will be distributed among six or seven peasants. If it's 200 caballerías, then the land won't be distributed; it will be turned into a cooperative, because that's better. If you use the same irrigation equipment for everybody, the same implements for everybody, the same store for everybody, then it's more economical. The peasants will earn more if they all farm it together rather than giving each of them a parcel to farm on his own. It will be much more economical for them and they will earn more, and they'll live there as a family, in the town. Instead of someone living over here and someone one over there, they will come together in a town and there will be a school, so the kids won't have to walk three kilometers. [Applause]

I'm explaining to you the advantages. We're going to create cooperatives of producers of livestock, of sugarcane, of tomatoes....

With respect to inheritance, all the children can inherit. The children can continue working the farm. What we don't want is for them to divide it up, because if a one-caballería farm is divided up among seven children, then there will be less for each, and the time will come when each grandchild has one- twentieth of a caballería, which is not enough. That's what we think. Three children can continue working the farm if their father dies. If they want, they can sell it, and split the money among the three of them, or they can sell it to one of them, and that person is the one who continues farming while the others pay him for it. What we don't want is for them to divide up the little farm, because if one caballería is enough for one family to make a living today and the family has five children who divide it up among the five of them, and those five children later divide it up among their own children, then they'll have split it into twenty-five parts. If those five children divide it again among five more children, and so on, successively, then at the end of a hundred years they'll have to be dividing it into a hundred little pieces. Do you understand? [Shouts of "Yes."]

What we don't want is to have those receiving two caballerías or less free of charge to divide it up. But their children can inherit it. What they cannot do is parcel it out into many little parts, but rather work it together. Do you understand? [Voices say "Yes." Applause]

So a tenant farmer who has between five and thirty caballerías has the right to buy them. Do you understand? [Shouts of "Yes."]

Who are the ones hurt by this? A handful. Who are the ones who benefit? The vast majority of the rural population - 99 percent of the rural population. That is the agrarian reform. Do you understand now? [Shouts of "Yes." Applause.]

Production will increase with tractors
They say production is going to decrease. Yes, it's going to decrease this year, because we still don't have the land in our hands, and we can't carry out the reform in six months. But next year we'll see.

How is production going to decrease if you replace the wooden plow and yoke of oxen with a tractor? [Applause]

What can you do more work with? What can you plow more with: a wooden plow or a tractor? [Shouts of "A tractor!"] Which will get the plowing done sooner: a yoke of oxen or a tractor? [Shouts of "A tractor!"] Which requires fewer hours of labor: a yoke of oxen or a tractor? [Shouts of "A tractor!"] How do you produce better tomatoes, or better potatoes, or better avocados, or better mameys, or better fruit of any kind: using ordinary seed or special seed? [Shouts of "Special seed!"] How do you produce more: fertilizing the soil or not fertilizing it? [Shouts of "Fertilizing the soil!"] How do you produce more: irrigating the land or not irrigating it? [Shouts of "Irrigating the land!"]

If we are going to replace the wooden plow and yoke of oxen and ordinary seed and unfertilized crops and nonirrigated crops with tractors, with quality seed, with fertilization, with irrigation, and with modern methods of cultivation - then which situation will have a higher productivity: after the agrarian reform or before the agrarian reform? [Applause] If we take all those lands covered with marabú, with dense brush, with scrub, and we plant them with fruits, vegetables, garlic, onion, rice, cotton, soybeans, with all those crops - then which situation will see more produced: before the agrarian reform or after the agrarian reform? [Applause]

If we come and drain the Zapata Swamp, then instead of a marsh we will have 14,000 caballerías of fertile land, and we will put 14,000 or 15,000 families to work there. Which will see more produced: before the agrarian reform or after the agrarian reform? [Applause]

When, instead of importing 150 million pesos worth of rice, oils, fodder, and fertilizers from abroad, we produce them here, and we give work to hundreds of thousands of peasants - then which will see more produced: before the agrarian reform or after the agrarian reform? [Applause]

Guaranteed price for the crop
It's a lie and a falsehood when they say that the agrarian reform is going to bring hunger and is going to result in a decline of production. If there is hunger this year, why is it? Because the land is in the hands of the big plantation owners. If there is hunger, it's the fault of the big plantation owners who don't want to plant as revenge for the agrarian law. But within six months, when everything is organized, there won't be a single peasant out of work, not a single peasant going hungry. Then we'll see. In the first year of the agrarian reform, we won't be as well off as in the second year or the third year. We won't be as well off a year from now as we will be when we have the Zapata Swamp drained. But when we have all these houses built, all the sports fields, and all the schools, and we have the land in full production, we will be much better off each year.

Besides that, we will build roads. Projects are being carried out like never before. In the next six months 120 million pesos are going to be invested in public works. In the next six months five thousand new classrooms are going to be created. [Applause] We are going to crisscross all the fields of Cuba with highways and roads, and we are going to establish cold storage facilities. We are going to give each product a good, guaranteed price, so that when the peasants start to plant, they will already know how much they are going to receive from the price of their product. Because INRA will guarantee the peasants which crop suits them best, so that each peasant plants what is best for them on land that is most suited for it.

This is the agrarian reform. What did they do to the people before? What did they do to the peasants before? The Rural Guard was there, beating people with the side of a machete. The Rural Guard didn't respect the peasants or their families. They came to a guajiro's house, leaned a stool against a post, and considered themselves the owners of lives and homes.(10) When Christmas came around, what did the Rural Guard do? What did the Rural Guard go to the countryside looking for? They went there looking for roast pork. When September 4 came around, what did the Rural Guard come to the countryside looking for? When March 10 came around,(11) what did the Rural Guard go there looking for? A suckling pig, a chicken, a turkey.

When they didn't go looking for a pig, what did they go for? To abuse the peasants' families, their daughters, their wives. That's what they did - I don't want to pronounce the words here. Because there they shaved, they put on their revolver and their machete. There they starched their suits and put on their boots, and since they didn't have to work, they went there. The Rural Guard, in general - because there were a few good ones - in general, they were the owners of the town, the big shots, they lived off their "respects." And who was it who beat people with the side of a machete there? They received a salary from the big plantation owner, they were in the pay of the big plantation owner.

An end to evictions, abuses, disrespect
So the revolution comes along and puts an end to the evictions, the abuses, the disrespect. It is going to put an end to the plantation system. It is going to provide schools, hospitals, houses, highways. It redeems the guajiros, who have ceased being victims of the corrupt politicians, who are no longer victims of the thugs, no longer victims of the numbers racketeers.

There are no more dice, no more card games, no more numbers, lotteries, raffles, and all those things they had, that gave a cut to the sergeant and the lieutenant and the captain and a cut to the mayor. And who lost? The guajiro. And when the tickets were sold, who lost? Today, when bonds are sold, who wins? The guajiro. If he is patient, if he holds onto his bonds, at the end of five years he will be given his money back with interest, and at the end of ten years, for every peso he'll get 1.25 pesos. Before, if he didn't win the prize, he'd lose everything.

Today the peasants have the bad habit of buying - and that's not something you can break in a day, because there are those who become physically ill if they don't spend something gambling. So since we're not able to break that bad habit overnight, we let him gamble if he wants, but we return the money to him, even if he doesn't want us to. Today he's not exploited, that money doesn't go to the political sergeants or to the generals. The money is going to be returned to him, and with interest. When could we ever have imagined that in Cuba? The ticket, which used to be thrown away, today is a bond that will return the money with interest to those who don't withdraw any of it.

There are some who want the plan to be changed, so things will be as before. But no, it can't be as it was before. All those who want things to continue as they have been up to now, raise your hands. Those who used to devote themselves to gambling operations now want us to put them back as they were, so they can bring back the lotteries and the numbers racket - and that can't happen. So the revolution comes along, rescues the guajiro from beatings with machetes, from abuse, from gambling, from exploitation. It is going to give him houses, schools, it is going to give him land, a future for him and his children. It converts the peasant into one of the most beloved sectors of the population in the country. It redeems the peasant so he can walk with his head held high, without fear of anything or anybody.

That is what the revolution has done. It has united the interests of the peasants with the workers. It has brought the workers, the students, and the middle class tightly together in a great national patriotic effort. That is what the revolution has done. What did it do to the war criminals? It shot them or put them in jail.(12) What used to be done with the abusers? Nothing. When did an abuser ever go to jail? Never. Now what happened to the abusers? They went to jail, and the criminals went to the firing squad. That is what the revolution did. [Applause]

What used to happen with public funds, with the money in the treasury? They stole it. What happens now with the people's money, with public funds? They are invested in roads, highways, schools, hospitals, streets, public beaches, aqueducts, sewers, invested to drain the Zapata Swamp. We haven't done more because there aren't more resources or more time, but here all the ministers work.

Today ministers don't come around in panama hats. They come wearing guayabera shirts, because now ministers earn less than they used to. They earn a tiny salary. That is the revolution. The revolution came along to put an end to abuses, to plantations, to gambling. It came along to get rid of all the thugs, the high rents, the high prices for medicines and for the telephone. It lowered electricity rates within the republic, and it still has before it a plan for distributing sporting goods all over the republic. In five months it has distributed more baseball gloves and boxing gloves, and more equipment than had been distributed in the last fifty years. That is what it has done. We are going to build five thousand new schools. Besides that, we have raised teachers' wages. We are going to raise wages gradually for all sectors. That is what the revolution has done. And yet, what do the war criminals want? What do the counterrevolutionaries what?

[Sounds of fireworks and skyrockets are heard.]

Politicking of the past is gone
Why are you setting off fireworks? Those kinds of political rallies are over. Why so much racket with fireworks? People are living in the past. They think these are rallies like before, and they go on shooting off fireworks. There's no need to make a racket. What greater demonstration is there than this? What greater force is there than this? What more noise do you need than this, ladies and gentlemen, that we're making here? Let's save the gunpowder, in case we have to fight, let's not waste the money. Let's save the gunpowder and the dynamite to make grenades and Molotov cocktails and mines and whatever has to be made, if we have to fight here again.

What's needed now is to have the people here. And later what's needed is whatever may be necessary. So I am going to ask those compañeros, in a fraternal manner, not to set off any more fireworks, to save your gunpowder for war, if necessary, and save your money for the agrarian reform. If we take what we have spent already today on fireworks and skyrockets and use it to buy tomato seeds, we'd have enough to produce all the tomatoes that are consumed here in a day. We are in new times. These events don't at all resemble those of the past. Here the people come with a stalk of sugarcane in their hand, with a stalk of corn, with a Cuban flag, with a horse, with a flag on the front of their hat. Nobody pays them, but everybody comes. These are revolutionary events. The politicking of the past is long gone. This is the people, because only a great cause and a great ideal are capable of bringing the people together this way. [Applause]

Next time we'll organize a rally with "zero fireworks." Skyrockets? What do we need them for?

What do our enemies want to do with this revolution, with this revolution that recovers the lands that were in foreign hands, with this revolution that is going to recover for all Cubans more than fifty thousand caballerías that were in the hands of foreign companies? What do they want to do with it? What they want is to defeat it. What they want is to smash it. And why do they want to smash it? To go back to the way things were. [Applause]

What do the big plantation owners want? They want to have their plantations back. What do those gentlemen, those henchmen, want? What do they want? To once again put on a uniform, a big machete, a revolver, a big rifle, yellow khakis, to once again - [applause]

What do the numbers dealers and the numbers bankers want? To bring back the numbers racket. What do the club-wielding thugs want? To bring back their clubs. What do the graft- spongers want? To bring back graft. What do the corrupt politicians want? To bring back corrupt politicking. [Applause]

What do the thieves want, the ones who got away with money from the public treasury, those smugglers who had business dealings with the dictator? What do they want? For robbery to come back, and them along with it.

What happens if war criminals return?
What do the generals want? They want to go back to being generals, and here there are no more generals. Generals? What do we need them for? What do the war criminals want? To go back to being police chiefs, here in Santa Clara, in Santiago, in Havana. And what would happen here if the war criminals do come back? What would happen here if - I won't say that Olayón could come back, for example, I won't say that Casillas could come back, we won't say that those who have been shot could come back.(13) But the fugitives want to come back, [Applause] those associated with Trujillo and with the dictators. (14) They want to come back here. [Applause] And what will happen if those people come back here? [Applause]

If those people come back here, who will be able to live here? The guajiro who might have his house and his land? If Trujillo, along with the war criminals and the counterrevolutionaries could come back here - [Shouts of "Out with them!"] What is a thousand times preferable than permitting those criminals to come back here? [Shouts of "Never!"] Who would want to live here, if those criminals came here again? [Shouts of "Down with them!"] Who here would resign themselves to returning to the past? [Shouts of "No one!"] To live like in the old times, when you couldn't go out at night, when they would arrest and murder any peasant at any road crossing, in that time of terror and fear, when wives and children trembled in the presence of the forces of the tyranny? Who would resign themselves to living in that epoch once again? [Shouts of "No one!"] And how could they possibly come back confronted by this people, a people determined to fight? Because if before it was one part of the people, now it's everyone. If many didn't have the opportunity to fight before, now everyone has a chance to fight.

This revolutionary banner can never again be taken away from the people of Cuba. These ideals, this freedom that our people enjoy, can never be taken away from them. They will never again be able to take away from the people of Cuba these ideals, these dreams, and these realities. They will never again be able to burn peasants' houses. They will never again be able to take away peasants' land. They will never again be able to torture or murder the children of Cuban families. No one will be able to make Cubans tremble again under the boot of oppressors and criminals.

From now on, Cubans live without fear
From now on, Cubans will live without terror. The righteous, from now on, will live without fear. Never again will our people be afraid. The counterrevolutionaries will be afraid. The enemies of the people will be afraid. The enemies of the people will indeed have plenty of reasons to tremble. [Applause] The enemies of the people will indeed have plenty of reasons to tremble, because the people of Cuba will defend their revolution to the death. The people of Cuba will defend their revolution at whatever cost necessary, and the people of Cuba will adopt whatever measures necessary to defend their revolution.

Yes, let the enemies of the people tremble. Yes, let the counterrevolutionaries tremble. Yes, let the fugitive war criminals tremble, because those people will never be able to take over our homeland again. Let them tremble, [Applause] because the people of Cuba will never go back to trembling. The people of Cuba will never go back to being afraid of anything or anyone - not of the men, not of the mercenaries, not of the war criminals, not of the bombs, not of the weapons that they might use against our people. Our people will march, without trembling, without fear, to make whatever sacrifices may be necessary.

This demonstration today, and the rallies that are taking place all over the island, and the rallies that are going to take place have served to build the July 26 rally in the capital of the republic [Applause] with all the strength of the revolution. And we will tell the enemies of the people: come, try to come back if you can, dare to set foot on the soil of our homeland, where you will confront an entire people ready to die. [Applause]. Continue to buy weapons, if you want. Continue to prepare expeditions, if you want. Continue to prepare planes, if you want. But realize that here you are going to have to fight until your death throes, [Applause] because we will defend the revolution and the homeland block by block, house by house, hill by hill, river by river, trench by trench, and field by field.... [Applause]

Footnotes
1. Mambí refers to fighters in Cuba's wars of independence from Spain, many of them freed slaves or agricultural workers. These wars took place during 1868-78 and 1895-98. The term "mambí" originated in the 1840s during the fight for independence from Spain in the nearby island of Santo Domingo. After a Black Spanish officer named Juan Ethninius Mamby joined the Dominican independence fighters, Spanish forces began referring to the guerrillas by the derogatory term "mambies." Later the related term "mambises" was applied to the freedom fighters in Cuba, who adopted it as a badge of honor.

2. One caballería is approximately 33 acres, or 13.5 hectares.

3. The National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) was formed by the Agrarian Reform Law as the instrument for its implementation. Staffed by cadres of the Rebel Army and the July 26 Movement, INRA was granted sweeping powers over virtually every aspect of the economy.

4. Organized into forty-four squadrons, the Rural Guard served as the repressive force of the Batista regime in the countryside. There were more than 300 Rural Guard posts across Cuba during the years of the Batista tyranny.

5. One real is an eighth of a peso. One peso equaled one U.S. dollar.

6. Forty thousand arrobas equals 500 tons.

7. The dead season was the eight months of the year between sugar harvests. During this period tens of thousands of sugarcane workers were left without work and steady income.

8. Guardarrayas were tracts of land located between canefields or on the edge of landed estates. During the months of unemployment between sugar harvests many agricultural workers, if allowed, planted these lands trying to survive.

9. A boniato is a root vegetable similar to a sweet potato or yam.

10. Guajiro is a Cuban term for "peasant."

11. On September 4, 1933, a group of junior army officers that included Sgt. Fulgencio Batista took power in a coup designed to undercut the revolutionary upsurge that had toppled the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado earlier in the year. By early 1934, Batista had begun to suppress the anti- imperialist forces, in the process consolidating his position as Cuba's strongman. Batista held power until 1944. He seized power again in a second coup on March 10, 1952 and established a brutal dictatorship backed by Washington.

12. In the first weeks after the victory of the revolution, several hundred of the most notorious murderers and torturers of the Batista regime were executed. This measure had the overwhelming support of the Cuban people.

13. Joaquín Casillas Lumpuy was Batista's general in charge of defense of Santa Clara during the final battles of the revolutionary war. Alejandro García Olayón was a naval officer under Batista responsible for many atrocities, including the slaughter of 300 people in Cienfuegos after an uprising there in 1957.

14. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. From the first days of the Cuban revolution the Trujillo regime made open threats against it. In August 1959 Trujillo organized a military expedition that landed in Trinidad, Las Villa province. The expedition was crushed immediately by Rebel Army forces.

 
 
 
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