[NYTr] Fidel Castro: Remembering Chibas, 100 Years after His Birth

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
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Reflections by the Commander in Chief

Remembering Chibas, 100 years after his birth

by Fidel Castro Ruz

When I read Hart's article, published by Granma in commemoration of 
Chibás' birth, and saw it quoted a paragraph of the speech I delivered 
at the Colón Cemetery on January 16, 1959, eight days after my arrival 
in Havana following the revolutionary triumph, many memories of fallen, 
heroic comrades came to me. I thought of Juan Manuel Márquez, a 
brilliant orator and follower of Marti's ideas and second chief of the 
Granma expeditionary force. I thought of Abel Santamaría, who was to 
take command of our forces were I to fall during the attack on the 
Moncada garrison; of Pedro Marrero, Ñico López, José Luis Tasende, 
Gildo Fleitas, the Gómez brothers, Ciro Redondo, Julio Díaz and 
practically all the members of the numerous contingent of young people 
from Artemisa who fell at Moncada or in the Sierra. The list is 
endless. All of them came from the rank and file of the Orthodox Party.

The first problem we faced was getting Batista out of office. Had 
Chibás been alive, Batista would not have been able to stage his coup 
d'état, because the founder of the Cuban (Orthodox) People's Party kept 
a close eye on him and called him into question publicly and 
methodically. Following Chibás' death, Batista was sure to lose the 
elections scheduled for June 1, 1952, two and a half months after the 
coup. Opinion polls were fairly reliable and Batista's unpopularity was 
constantly growing, day after day.

I was at the meeting where the new Orthodox candidate was chosen. I was 
more of a bold intruder than an invitee. I was to enter parliament, to 
struggle in the name of a radical program. No one could have prevented 
this. Then, it was rumored that I was a communist, a word which 
prompted many negative reactions inculcated by the dominant classes. To 
have spoken of Marxism-Leninism then, or even during the first years of 
the Revolution, would have been foolish and clumsy. During the speech I 
delivered before Chibás' grave, I spoke such that the people would 
understand the objective contradictions which our society faced at the 
time and which we still must face.

I spoke every day at a local radio station in the capital to deliver 
messages directly to tens of thousands of voters who had spontaneously 
joined the Orthodox Party. I also addressed the entire nation through 
the special supplements of the Alerta newspaper on several, nearly 
consecutive Mondays, publishing the proven accusations of corruption in 
the Prío government voiced between January 28 and March 4, 1952. 
Intuitively, I was able to predict and get inside Batista's intentions 
of staging a coup. I denounced these intentions before the party 
leadership and asked them permission to use Chibás' Sunday radio time 
to do so publicly. "We'll look into it", they told me. Two days later, 
they announced the following: "We have looked into the matter through 
our channels and there's no indication of that whatsoever". The coup 
could have been prevented but nothing was done. Months before, Chibás 
had already, painstakingly managed to prevent "a pact without 
ideology", as he would call it, between members of the Orthodox party 
and the former Cuban (Authentic) Revolutionary Party. Most of the 
provincial party leadership had supported the pact. The economic system 
prevailing at the time made it easy for the oligarchy and land-owners 
to take control of the party leadership in nearly all of the country's 
provinces. Only one party leadership remained loyal, the one in the 
capital, which was heavily influenced by radical intellectuals. 
Following the coup and at a time when unity was most dearly needed, 
what the oligarchy did was abandon the vast majority of the people at 
the mercy of the imperialist tempest. I continued to adhere to my 
revolutionary project, only that this time it would be an armed 
struggle, from the very beginning.

The day in which Chibás --whose body lay in state at the University of 
Havana-- was to be buried, I proposed that the leadership of the 
Orthodox Party lead the enormous funeral procession to the Presidential 
Palace and seize the premises. I had spent the entire night answering 
questions from radio reporters and inciting the people to undertake 
radical actions. No one at the university paid any attention to the 
radio broadcasts that night. We had a disorganized, panic-stricken 
government, a demoralized army that had no intention of repressing that 
procession. No one would have held it back.

One year after the death of Chibás, I wrote a proclamation titled "A 
Harsh Blow", which was mimeographed six days following Batista's 
treacherous coup. What follows is the text of this proclamation.

Not a Revolution, but a harsh blow!  Not patriots; but destroyers of 
civil liberty, usurpers, backward-minded individuals, adventurers 
thirsty for gold and power.

It was not a military uprising against the apathetic and lazy President 
Prio; it was a military uprising against the people, on the eve of an 
election whose results were a foregone conclusion.

There was no order but it was the people whose duty it was to decide 
democratically, in a civilized manner, on the men who would govern 
them, by political will and not by force.

A fortune would be spent in favor of the imposed candidate, nobody 
denies that, but that wouldn't change the result just as the result was 
not changed by a flood of funds from the Public Treasury in favor of 
the candidate imposed by Batista in 1944.

It is completely false, absurd, ridiculous and childish that Prio would 
attempt a coup d'état, a clumsy excuse; his impotence and incapacity to 
attempt such an enterprise has been irrefutably demonstrated by the 
cowardice with which power was seized.

We were suffering from bad governance, but we were also suffering from 
years of waiting for a constitutional opportunity to avert the evil, 
and you, Batista, who remained in the shadows as a coward for four 
years and futilely indulged in politicking for another three, now you 
appear with your tardy, disturbing and poisonous remedy, ripping the 
Constitution to shreds when we were only two months away from reaching 
the goal through the official channels.

Everything you allege is a lie, a cynical justification, concealed 
vanity and not patriotic decorum, ambition and not ideal, greed and not 
civil nobility.

It was correct to overthrow a government made up of embezzlers and 
murderers; we tried to do this by civic channels, supported by public 
opinion and with the help of the masses; in contrast, what right do 
they who yesterday robbed and killed indiscriminately have to replace 
it in the name of bayonets?

It is not peace, it is the seed of hatred which is being sown.  It is 
not happiness, it is mourning and sadness which the nation feels as it 
is faced with the tragic panorama it begins to discern.  There is 
nothing in this world as bitter as the spectacle of a people who go to 
sleep in liberty and awaken in slavery.

Once again the military boot; once again Columbia dictating laws that 
remove and appoint ministers; once again tanks rumbling menacingly 
through our streets; once again brute force reigning over human 
rationality.  We were becoming accustomed to living by the 
Constitution; we had twelve years without any great difficulties, even 
though there were some errors and rash actions.  Superior states of 
civic coexistence can only be attained through arduous efforts.  In a 
matter of a few hours, you, Batista, have demolished the Cuban people's 
noble illusion.

All of the ills Prío was responsible for in three years, you committed 
in the course of eleven.  Your coup is thus unjustifiable; it is not 
based on any serious moral reason, or on any social or political 
doctrine of any kind.  It finds its only reason for existence in force, 
and its justification in lies.  Your majority lies with the Army, never 
with the people.  Your ballots are guns, never free wills; with them 
you can win a military uprising, but never clean elections.  Your 
usurping against power lacks any principles to legitimize it; laugh if 
you will, but in the long run principles are more powerful than 
cannons.  Principles are what form and nourish the people, what 
embolden them for battle, what they die for.

Do not call this outrage revolution, this disquieting and untimely 
coup, this treacherous stab in the back of the Republic which you have 
just given.  Trujillo has been the first one to recognize your 
government, he knows who his friends are in the covey of tyrants who 
are battering America; that shows, more than anything else, the 
reactionary, militaristic and criminal nature of your coup.  Nobody 
even remotely believes in the governmental success of your old and 
rotten covey; the thirst for power is too great; there is no moderation 
when there is no Constitution and law other than the will of the tyrant 
and his gang.

I know beforehand that your guarantee for life will be torture and 
humiliation.  Your followers will kill even though you don't want them 
to, and you will tranquilly consent because you owe yourself completely 
to them.  Despots are masters of the people they oppress and slaves to 
the force on which they base their oppression. A torrent of lying and 
demagogic propaganda will rain down on us now, in your favor, from all 
sources, using both soft and hard methods, and your opposition will be 
deluged with vile slander; Prío did that also and it had no effect on 
the people's consciousness.  But the truth which illuminates the fate 
of Cuba and guides the steps of our people in this their difficult 
hour, that truth which you will forbid to be told, the whole world will 
know it; it will race clandestinely from mouth to mouth, down every man 
and woman, even though no one says it in public or publishes it in the 
press, and everyone will believe it and the seeds of heroic rebellion 
shall be sown in every heart; that is what guides every conscience.

I do not know what the furious pleasure of the oppressors will be, when 
their treacherous whip hits human backs like a new Cain against their 
brothers, but I do know that there is an infinite happiness in fighting 
them and raising a strong arm while saying: I don't want to be a slave!

Cubans: again we have a tyrant, but again we will have the likes of 
Mella, Trejo and Guiteras; there is oppression in our homeland but one 
day there will be freedom again.

I invite all brave Cubans, all the brave militants of the Glorious 
Party of Chibás; the time has come to make sacrifices and fight; should 
our lives be lost, nothing is lost; "to live enchained is to live in 
dishonor and outrage.  To die for the Homeland is to live."
Fidel Castro

When this irreverent article was not published --who would dare publish 
it?-- it was distributed at the Colón Cemetery by friends and 
sympathizers in the Orthodox Party on March 16, 1952.

On August 16, 1952, the clandestine newspaper El acusador published an 
article entitled "A Critical Assessment of the Cuban (Orthodox) 
People's Party", under the pseudonym of "Alejandro". As I have already 
offered a critical assessment of that party, I thought it apt to 
include the following analysis:

Above and beyond the commotion of the cowards, the mediocre and the 
fainthearted, it is necessary to voice a brief but courageous and 
constructive assessment of the Orthodox Movement, following the fall of 
its great leader Eduardo Chibás.

The formidable and sharp criticisms of the champion of the Orthodox 
Party left it such an immense profusion of popular emotion that it 
brought it right to the doors of Power.  Everything was done, and all 
that remained was to know how to hold on to the ground already gained.

The first question each honest Orthodox member must ask himself is the 
following: Have we enhanced the moral and revolutionary legacy left us 
by Chibás..., or, on the contrary, have we misappropriated part of that 
legacy...?

He who thinks that until this moment everything has been done well, 
that we have nothing to reproach ourselves for, is not sufficiently 
severe with his conscience.

Those sterile feuds that followed the death of Chibás, those colossal 
scandals, for reasons that were not exactly ideological but purely 
selfish and personal, still echo like bitter blows of the hammer on our 
conscience.

That dreadful process of going to the rostrum to clarify pointless 
disputes was a grave symptom of lack of discipline and responsibility.

March 10th came unexpectedly.  It was to be expected that such a 
serious event would rip from the roots of the Party the petty quarrels 
and the sterile personal ambitions.  Was that what actually happened...?

To the amazement and indignation of the Party masses, the clumsy 
disputes cropped up again.  The culprits were so foolish that they did 
not realize that there was narrow room in the press to attack the 
regime, but ample room to attack the Orthodox Party.  Those who have 
helped Batista in like fashion have not been few.

No one would be shocked that such a necessary recount should be made 
today, when it is the time for the great masses who, in bitter silence, 
have suffered these losses, and there is no more fitting moment than 
today to be accountable to Chibás at his tomb.

That immense mass of the Cuban People's Party is on its feet, more 
determined than ever.  It asks at this hard moment...Where are those 
who were candidates...those who wanted to be the first in the positions 
of honor at the assemblies and in the executive, those who would go on 
tours and chart tendencies, those who would claim their places on the 
platform at the large rallies and who now no longer go on tours, or 
mobilize the grass roots, or ask for the positions of honor in the 
front line of combat...?

Whoever has a traditional concept of politics could be pessimistic when 
faced with this vision of truths.  On the other hand, for those with a 
blind faith in the masses, for those who believe in the uncompromising 
force of great ideas, the indecision of the leaders will not be a 
reason for weakness or despair, because these vacancies will be 
occupied in short order by upright men who come from the rank and file.

The moment has come for revolution and not politics.  Politics is the 
consecration of the opportunism of those who have the means and the 
resources.  Revolution opens the door to true worthiness, to those who 
possess courage and sincere ideals, to those who bare their chest and 
uplift the banner.  The Revolutionary Party requires a revolutionary 
leadership, young and from the ranks of the people, in order to save 
Cuba.
Alejandro.

Later, we set up a clandestine radio station which did what Radio 
Rebelde would later do in the Sierra. In relatively little time, the 
mimeograph, broadcaster and the few things we had fell to the hands of 
the coup officers. I then learned the rigorous rules to which the 
conspiracy which culminated with the attack on the Moncada garrison had 
to adhere.

Shortly, a small volume which expounds on two fundamental ideas that 
were expressed in two of my speeches --the one I delivered at the 
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de 
Janeiro over 15 years ago and at the international conference titled 
"Dialogue among Civilizations", held two and a half years ago-- will be 
published. I ask readers to study the two documents in depth. I 
apologize for this act of self-publicity, from which I hope you, not I, 
will profit. 

Havana, August 25, 2007 6:32 pm