Decisions backed by millions

HAVANA — More than a million Cubans endorsed
with their cheers the decisions of the 1st Congress of
the Communist Party of Cuba, as they jammed Revo-
lution Square, Dec. 22, in a sea of waving flags. It was
the largest demonstration in Cuba’s history.

Fidel Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party,
went to the square from the closing session of the
CPC Congress, and before the monument of the revo-
lutionary hero, Jose Marti, reported the morning ses-
| sion’s main points, not yet in the newspapers, to “the.

&

people’s congress” in the square.

He heaped ridicule on U.S. President. Ford for his

comment that Cuban aid to the
Angolan people had cancelled
any hope of improved relations
between the USA and Cuba. Cas-
tro charged that there was noth-
ing left to cancel.

In the morning’s closing Con-
gress session, the prime minister
had brushed aside Washington’s
“concern.” He pointed out that

U.S. imperialism had already

blockaded everything else. Was
this, then, the blockade of
hopes”? he asked.

Throughout the Congress and
on Revolution Square, Castro
acknowledged’ the indispensable

"Tabune editor James Leech,
recently returned: from Cuba; de-
scribes the 1st Congress of the

Cuban Communist Party in these

articles.

aid. and solidarity of the Soviet
Union and the socialist commu-
nity. y

Cuba alone would not have
been able to achieve what it has,
he said, the. achievements rested
on the fact that “we are a part
of progressive and revolutionary
humanity.” He said that while
Cubans express their jubilation,
“we must express our most pro-
found feelings of recognition and
gratitude to the brother and her-
oic people. of the Soviet Union,
whose Party supports us and
teaches us in a conscious and
irrefutable manner what the

world revolutionary forces and
the proletarian internationalism
are.

Favor Peaceful Co-Existence

“Together with the Soviet
Union, the people of the social-
ist community, the progressive
movement of all the world sup-
ported us. We alone, absolutely
alone, would not have been able
to defeat the blockade, to defeat
imperialist aggression. We would
not have been able to enjoy this
victorious day today.”

Castro, who is commander-in-
chief of the Cuban armed forces,
stressed that his country’s policy
favored peaceful co-existence

- with countries with different:

systems, but that imperialism
cannot improve relations with
Cuba because imperialism is in-
capable of respecting interna-
national norms.: He said the
U.S. imperialists had taken

everything they could from Cuba, °

and their present rage represent-
ed impotence. :

Cuba’s support for Puerto Ri-
can and Angolan independence

would continue, he promised. If .

the Yankee imperialists expect
Cuba to “renounce our dutiful
support for Puerto Rico, re-
nounce our dutiful support for
the world revolutionary move-
ment,*of the international prole-
tariat,” the answer, he said, is:
“No. Never!”

Regarding aid to Angola and
other African countries preyed
upon by South African racism

“The First Congress . . . for
new victories for the country and
for socialism” reads this neon
sign in Havana.

and U.S. imperialism, it was an
internationalist duty to help
them, Castro declared. And it
was necessary to remind the
Yankees that “we not only be-
long to a Latin American coun-
try — we belong to a Latin Afri-
can country.”

He recalled that Africans had

been brought to Cuba as slaves.,
(In 1841, out of a population of -

just over a million there -were
400,000 slaves.) Discrimination
existed right up to the time of
the revolution, fostered by the
capitalist system. Blacks and
whites were segregated in many
places. ‘“‘Who can forget that at
school, they did not permit the
descendants of the Africans to
enter?” Castro demanded.

“And who are today the rep-
resentatives, the symbols of the
most hated, the most inhuman
discrimination? The fascists and.

ig yesterday we were a handful of men, today we are a whd
. .” Fidel Castro told the more thé
one million Cubans massed in Revolution Square. |

people conquering the future .

“racists of South Africa. And

Yankee imperialism, without
scruples, supports ‘mercenary
troops from South Africa to
crush Angolan independencce.”

Massive Endorsation
' Today, following the decisions
of the First Congress of the: Com-
munist Party, Cuba had a broad
road of opportunity before it,
Castro indicated.
A Party program drawn up to
guide the country along social,
political and economic lines; the

Cuba's Ist Five Year Plan implemented

HAVANA — “Socialism does
not only mean material enrich-
ment, but also the opportunity
to create an extraordinary cul-
ture, spiritual wealth in the peo-
ple, and to forge a human being
with a deep sentiment of human
solidarity, free of egoism and
pettiness with which brutalizing
capitalism afflicts people.”

With his report to the First
Congress of the Communist Par-
ty of Cuba, containing the words
above, Prime~ Minister Field
Castro, First Secretary of the
CPC, launched Cuba into its fu-
ture — a future which will affect
the future of the whole of Latin

America — indeed, all the Ame-

ricas.

Presenting the Central Report
to the Congress, Castro dealt
with the historical development
of Cuba, where it stands 17
years after the Revolution —
years of vicious blcckade and
harrassment and of Cuba’s grow-

ing relations with the world. He :

referred to the scheduled Janu-
ary visit of Prime Minister Tru-
deau to Cuba and expressed hope
that trade and friendly relations
would continue to grow.

“All the countries of the he-

misphere except Canada and
Mexico suspended trade with
Cuba during the blockade,” Cas-
tro said at one point. “The vast
majority of European countries
also tock part in it. There were
situations in which, even when
we had money, we could not ob-
tain transport and food for our
people. And on many occasions,
when we did get them, we were
charged more by suppliers who
tock advantage of the blockade.”

Despite all. problems, Castro
said, between 1961 and 1965 the
grcss national product rose by
1.9% each year, and from 1966
to 1970, it rose by 3.9%. From
1971 to 1975 it rose by more
than 10% each year.

Cuba’s first Five Year Plan
would continue the upward
trend in goods and services as
well as living standards, the
prime minister indicated. The
Revolution, he stressed, will not

_permit lower income families to

suffer from price rises. Stable
prices will be maintained.
Sugar, the country’s main
crop and important for export,
will have an increase of between
35-40% and will be held stable
by 1980 at 8 to 8.7 million tons.
Castro pointed out that this is a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 16, 1976—Page 10

mcre realistic target than those
proposed in previous years.

“Analyzing with a great deal
of realism our. possibilities,”
Castro said, “we propose to the
Congress economic development:
in the next five years which will
rise by an average rate of ap-
proximately 6% annually.” He
pointed out that although the
rate is lower than in the pre-

vious five years, the increase is»
on top of what has already been

achieved.

Castro called: for realism in
tackling the country’s many pro-
blems.

“We would be deceiving our
people if we gave them the idea
that, masters of our own des-
tiny, economically and socially;
now free of imperialist tutelage,
access to the wealth and abun-
dance of our society has no li-
mits. The first limit is established
by the natural resources them-
selves and the physical environ-

ment of the people, to which is ,

added the agricultural base from
which we begin, the cultural and
technological development reach-
ed and the subjective and
objective difficulties of the world
which we live in.”

.that Cuban

“But there is another limita-
tion which is a moral one. A
people cannot. think only of its
material well-being, forgetting
the problems, the difficulties of
other peoples in the world.”
Calling for the use of human and
material reserves “to satisfy real
and reasonable needs”, he said
society “cannot
guide itself by the concepts, ha-
bits and deviations with which
the absurd system of capitalist
production has affected the
world.”

Added to the 3,136 Congress |

delegates from all parts of Cuba,
some 500 fraternal delegates
frem 85 Communist and Work-
ers: Parties heard Castro deliver
the central report to the historic
meeting. He reviewed the stormy
history, the attack on Cuban in-
dependence and the prolonged
people’s struggle culminating in
a socialist republic. Castro ex-
pressed thanks to the Soviet
Union, Cuba’s benefactor in
times of military and economic
threat.

Canada’s. representatives at.

the Congress were: Jeannette
Walsh, William Stewart and
Party leader William Kashtan.

é . i
. University Students; Idalia’ NI

: a pr
basis of a five-yearplan of devé'S
opment; the reorganization.
the country into 14 provine x
(from 6); and ,the formalizing 4 ©’
the Organs of People’s Power f°"
come together in the Natiofl ‘
Assembly of the People’s. Pow!
in Dec. 1976, were among
revolutionary decisions take iN,

He called for endorsation ! :
the Communist Party Cen é
Committee elected at the C :
gress, and of the decisions of U_ ,
Congress, by the million-pll
people present, and got a
sounding roar of approval.

Other speakers, who precedé
Castro, were Carlos Lage,
sident of the Federation

mero, president of the Fede...
tion of Middle School Studet! m:
speaking for the children’s ty]
ganizaticn the Pioneers, ~ If St
Dominguez; Jorge Lezcano,
tional co-ordinator of the Col
mittees in Defence of the Rev
lution; Vilma Espin, president!
the Federation of Cuban Womé
Jose Ramfrez Cruz, president!) |
the National Association a
Small Farmers; Luis Orlam!
Dominguez, secretary of ?
Ccmmunist Youth Union;
Roberto Veiga, secretary-genel
cf the Cuban Workers’ Centf
Organization. = ;
The historic Ist Congr qo,
which completed its work at ire
Karl Marx Theatre earlier in ®),,
day, ratified Fidel as First Sect nr:
tary, Raul Castro as Second S®
retary, and the composition | 4
the Political Bureau of the C0;
munist Party. . br
The five new Bureau meme
are Blas Roca, Jose Ramon Mj,
chado Ventura, Carlos Raf ar
Rcdriguez, Pedro Miret and ? Fy,
naldo Milian. « . a ws
The eight former memb® ot}

he

the
Ca:
Fy;

_ Fatified beside Fidel and Raul, ® pr,

Osvaldo Dorticos, Juan Almel oy
Ramiro Valdes, Armando H@ ,
Sergio Del Valle and Guille®” ch
Garcia. ~ho
sa