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Mobilising the Masses for the Invasion
The following is from a speech by Guevara to sugar
workers in Santa Clara on March 28, 1961, twenty days before
the Bay of Pigs invasion.
. . . We have to remind ourselves of this at every moment: that
we are in a war, a cold war as they call it; a war where there
is no front line, no continuous bombardment, but where the two
adversaries — this tiny champion of the Caribbean and
the immense imperialist hyena — are face to face and aware
that one of them is going to end up dead in the fight.
The North Americans are aware, they are well aware, compañeros,
that the victory of the Cuban Revolution will not be just a
simple defeat for the empire, not just one more link in the
long chain of defeats to which its policy of force and oppression
against peoples has been dragging it in recent years. The victory
of the Cuban Revolution will be a tangible demonstration before
all the Americas that peoples are capable of rising up, that
they can rise up by themselves right under the very fangs of
the monster. It will mean the beginning of the end of colonial
domination in America, that is, the definitive beginning of
the end for North American imperialism.
That is why the imperialists do not resign themselves, because
this is a struggle to the death. That is why we cannot take
one backward step. Because the first time we retreat a step
would mean the beginning of a long chain for us too, and would
end up the same way as with all the false leaders and all the
peoples who at a particular moment of history did not measure
up to the task of withstanding the drive of the empire.
That is why we must move forward, striking out tirelessly against
imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn the lessons
which events afford. Lumumba's murder should be a lesson for
all of us.
The murder of Patrice Lumumba is an example of what the empire
is capable of when the struggle against it is carried on in
a firm and sustained way. Imperialism must be struck on the
snout once, and again, and then again, in an infinite succession
of blows and counter-blows. That is the only way the people
can win their real independence.
Never a step backward, never a moment of weakness! And every
time circumstances might tempt us to think that the situation
might be better if we were not fighting against the empire,
let each one of us think of the long chain of tortures and deaths
through which the Cuban people had to pass to win their independence.
Let all of us think of the eviction of peasants, the murder
of workers, the strikes broken by the police, of all those kinds
of class oppression which have now completely disappeared from
Cuba . . . And, further, let us understand well how victory
is won by preparing the people, by enhancing their revolutionary
consciousness in establishing unity, by meeting each and every
attempt at aggression with our rifles out in front.
That is how it is won . . .
We must remember this and insist again and again upon this fact:
The victory of the Cuban people can never come solely through
outside aid, however adequate and generous, however great and
strong the solidarity of all the peoples of the world with us
may be. Because even with the ample and great solidarity of
all the people of the world with Patrice Lumumba and the Congolese
people, when conditions inside the country were lacking, when
the leaders failed to understand how to strike back mercilessly
at imperialism, when they took a step back, they lost the struggle.
And they lost it not just for a few years, but who knows for
how many years! That was a great setback for all peoples.
That is what we must be well aware of, that Cuba's victory lies
not in Soviet rockets, nor in the solidarity of the socialist
world, nor in the solidarity of the whole world. Cuba's victory
lies in the unity, the labour, and the spirit of sacrifice of
its people.
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