On 11th January 1964 Che highlights this principle while speaking at the ceremony to award communist work certificates to 170 workers who, from August to December, amassed more than 240 hours of voluntary work. He also urges these vanguard workers to succeed in passing on this spirit of work to the masses.
"And that is the spirit that you are called on to spread to all those around you: the spirit of giving everything feet, wings, whatever; the spirit of flying in production, the spirit of going forward, breaking every barrier, sweeping away everything that is on the way that keeps you from fulfilling your social duty."
On 25th February 1964 a call to carry the technical revolution forward is made by Che in a lecture on the television program Información Pública (Public Information). In his contribution, he tackles the subject of the development of industry and how it interrelates with the full use of automation and mechanization.
On 25th March 1964 Che speaks on behalf of Cuba at the World Conference of Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland. There, he denounces the danger the investment of foreign capital entails for trade and world peace, as well as the negative role some capitalist financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank, are playing on the international arena. He later gives an interview to journalists of Swiss television in which he talks about different subjects, including the blockade imposed by the United States, Cuba's economic development and the situation in Latin America. Referring to Cuba's prospects, he points out that the Revolution is fully and definitively consolidated and he remarks that socialism has come and, without doubt, will stay.
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On 17th May 1964 Che opens the Neftali Martínez spark-plug factory in Sagua la Grande, Las villas There, he praises the help lent by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and states that the revolutionary government is set on building factories with ever new technology, capable of producing more with a reduced number of workers. He also refers to the United States' new threats against Cuba and a terrorist attack counterrevolutionaries had launched against a port on the southern coast of Cuba.
"We are facing history and, clearly, we cannot be afraid. We have to maintain the same enthusiasm and the same faith that we have maintained until today. Let's build our factories with our left hand and grasp a rifle with our right hand and let us crush the worms with our two heels. This must be our attitude and our undertaking."
He likewise highlights the solidarity offered by socialist countries to foster modern industry in Cuba. He also points out that technicians from capitalist countries have also cooperated in assembling other industrial centers. In this respect, he asserts that everyone who is ready to work with the Cubans, for a time or forever, is welcomed with the same friendly spirit.
On 30th August 1964 Che speaks at the ceremony to commemorate the 6th Anniversary of the start of the invasion of the Rebel Army Antonio Maceo and Ciro Redondo columns and he chats with many of the members of both columns.
"...And so this meeting serves to meet again in these heroic days and, above all, it serves to bring us closer together and to say to the people of Cuba: Commander in Chief, at your command! Homeland or Death!"
"Among the things that I had lost was something very precious for a guerrilla: the two or three tins of canned food that each one had at that time."
On 30th November 1964 speaking at a ceremony commemorating the people's uprising in Santiago de Cuba, Che outlines the need for the new generations of young people to study and to train themselves as much as possible to carry forward the tasks of the Revolution.
On 11th December 1964 with his simple olive green uniform and with his very precise and clear language, Che speaks in Cuba's name before the United Nations General Assembly. There, he denounces the exploitation many countries are suffering, and expresses Cuba's solidarity with peoples struggling everywhere in the world to realize the rights of full sovereignty as the UN Charter proclaims. He also stresses Cuba's firmness in the face of United States aggression and thanks the solidarity offered by socialist countries, the Soviet Union in particular.
"I will not repeat the long history of US acts of economic aggression. But I will say that, despite these acts of aggression, with the fraternal help of socialist countries, of the Soviet Union above all, we have come out ahead and will continue to do so. Even when we condemn the economic blockade, it will not hold us back and, whatever happens, we will go on being a small headache when we arrive at this assembly or at any other in order to call things by their name and US representatives policemen of repression in the whole world."
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A
detailed chronology of Che's life you can find
in this book "A Brave Man" on Cuba
Directo website |
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