The event marked a milestone for the Cuban Revolution--the production of 1 billion books in the 43 years since the 1959 victory of the workers and peasants revolution. Castro said the Cuban leadership is aiming to increase production levels to 50 million books a year, the figure reached before the onset of what Cubans call the Special Period in the 1990s, when the number of books printed each year dropped to less than 10 million.

During the Special Period the Cuban people faced exceptionally harsh economic conditions as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and regimes in Eastern Europe, which ended aid and trade at preferential rates from these countries. This squeeze was compounded by Washington’s intensified economic war on Cuba. The ability to begin to increase the output of books is one sign of the relative economic recovery.

The new factory is Cuba’s most modern printing facility with printing presses and other machinery purchased from German companies. The plant will boost the country’s annual production of books to 37 million. It has the capacity to produce 150 titles with a print run of 100,000 each, or a total of 15 million volumes a year. The average print run of a new title at the country’s 123 publishing houses is 9,000.

The plant can produce books "more quickly and at less cost," said the Cuban president in his speech. During the factory’s startup he noted that it printed 73 titles and more than 4 million copies.

An article in the Cuban weekly Granma International reported that the 140 workers who work in the plant churning out the tens of thousands of books each day are mostly young--65 percent of the workforce are less than 35 years old. Women make up almost 40 percent of the workers in the factory. Workers received training in Brazil, Venezuela, and Germany, and 80 percent are mid-level technicians or have completed at least 12 years of school.

The Cuban leader explained that book prices in the country are subsidized as much as possible, but the costs of producing books must be calculated to include the cost of paper and other printing material acquired in U.S. dollars at an exchange rate of approximately 20 pesos to $1. He pointed out, however, that the highest priced books are sold at no more than 20 percent of their price on the international market.

Castro noted that production costs for titles sold at the annual Havana International Book Fair held February 7-–17 dropped by 23 percent in comparison with previous years. According to Granma, the Alejo Carpentier facility contributed significantly to this cost savings, which amounted to $514,200. The new plant produced more than 3 million of the 5 million books published for sale at the book fair, which was held in 19 different cities. Granma reports that next year the international book festival will be expanded to 30 Cuban cities.

At the April 27 ceremony, the Cuban leader also remarked about plans to use newspaper presses to produce books. This is part of the effort to expand the nation’s public library system with "popular libraries," each with 10,000 books--10 copies each of 1,000 titles--established in working-class neighborhoods and rural areas. "This just shows what you can do with very few resources," Castro added.

The expansion of Cuba’s book production and next year’s book fair deepens the revolutionary "Battle of Ideas" waged in the country to combat the contradictions and inequalities that have developed with the penetration of the capitalist world market over the last decade. This battle also involves defending the country’s socialist course in the face of the imperialist ideological drive portraying capitalism as the only future for humanity.

Castro noted that within "a year and a half, at the very latest, the million color television sets we’ve acquired will be distributed" across the country, making the University for All more accessible. In addition, the revolutionary government is pressing to finish renovation of schools in the capital before September, in addition to building 33 new schools and 2,000 classrooms.

Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, after whom the printing plant is named, won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize and donated the $40,000 award money for the purchase of paintbrushes and other art supplies.  
 
 
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