volume of freight hauled by rail. During this period 60 locomotives (27% of the total number) were used for the transportation of cane. In transportation by truck the main difficult es have been due to the lack of spare parts and the high level of absenteeism, which has been one of the highest in recent years

MEN ARE PLAYING A-KEY ROLE HERE
AND ESPECIALLY THE MEN IN LEADERSHIP
POSITIONS

The following were the most important difficulties caused by internal transportation problems: delays in receiving trains with cattle from Camaguey and Las Villas, which resulted in a loss of weight in the cattle, nonfulfillment of the lard distribution plan and nonfulfillment of the plan for mi k bottles to the provinces. Practically all the beer, milk and other bottles which are not imported are produced in the western part of the country; as is all the nonimported cloth; this requires shipp ng all this material east Bottles for all the beer made in Oriente are produced in the western part of the country, in Havana.

Industrial goods pile up in the provincial warehouse of the Ministry of Domestic Trade in Havana; the plan for transportation of raw materials used for soaps and detergents, as well as the finished product, was not fulfilled, the transportation of silica sand for the production of cement and bottles, the transportation of steel bars, the transportation of fodder for the animals on state farms and the transportation of bagasse for the paper factories in Las Villas were insufficient, thers was a work stoppage in the nail factory in Santiago de Cuba due to a lack in the transportation of raw materials; and the national fertilizer production plan was not met because of low extraction of the finished product. There was a 38-percent drop in the number of railroad passengers, compared with 1969 in the January-May period, caused by the transfer of locomotives to the sugar harvest and the withdrawal of coaches from circulation due to lack of spare parts. We have outlined the main difficulties in agriculture and industry. And the list, of course, is not complete.

There are also serious difficulties which have been growing worse for some time in certain services to the population, such as laundries. They are part of the limitations we have discussed here, and there are others we haven't mentioned.

This statistical outline contains only a part of the cause. We must say that inefficiency, the subjective factor, is partly to blame for these problems.

There are objective difficulties. Some of them have been pointed out. But we aren't here to discuss the objec tive difficulties. We must discuss the concrets problem arrj man must contribute what nature or our means and resources have not been able to provide. It depends on man. Men are playing a key role here and especially the men in leadership positions, (APPLAUSE)

We are going to begin, in the first place, by pointing out the responsibility which all of us, and I in particular, have for these problems. I am in no way trying to pin the blame on anyone not in the revolutionary leadership and myse f. (APPLAUSE) Unfortunately, this self. criticism cannot be accompanied by other logical solutions. It would be better to tell the people to look for somebody else. (SHOUTS OF: "NO!" It would be better, but it would be hypocritical on our part.

I believe that we, the leaders of this Revolution, have cost the people too much in our process of barning. And, unfortunately, our problem - not when it is a casc of the Revolution; the peop's can replace us whenever they wish right now if you so desirel (SHOUTS OF "NO!" AND "FÍDELI FIDEL! FIDELI") one of our most difficult problems - and we are paying for it dearly la our heritage of ignorance.

When we spoke of torates we didn't include our selvas among the literates, or even among the semiIterates. We could best be classified as imorant. And

We were ignorant almost without exception (and I of course, am not the exception) - all of us. The problem is even worse. Signs of illiteracy or semiliteracy can be found in many men in positions of responsibility and one of our most serious problems is the one we face when we go looking for the man to fit the job.

A few days ago, gathered in Céspedes Park in Santiago de Cuba, after having visited several factories one by one and having talked with thousands of people we discussed the problems of each and every one of the industries in detail.

There was a 50 000-ton drop in the production of the Titán Cement Factory because its storage areas were full, while in the city of Santiago de Cuba — as in the other cities of the countries-there was a tremendous demand for cement to repair homes.

There was a 6000-ton drop in the production of the flour mill factory which had been enlarged because the flour which had been produced wasn't removed and the factory, had to shut down, which meant that a town might be left without bread, for lack of flour. And we had the wheat to produce the flour, and the workers and machines. The harvest wasn't to b'ame; the harvest resulted in some problems, but not all, I am giving you a few examples,

With the best of intentions, a concentration of transportation was carried out which proved to be excessive. These plants had to depend on an operative base.

There were problems in the cement industry with quarry equipment. We spent hours taking with the equipment operators about a series of specifications, calling on their experience and hearing their ideas so that, given the resources which will enter the country this year and those already available... All the com plementary equipment, plus a surplus to put the factory at peak capacity is on its way to the Titan Factory. Quarries require excess capacity, since an attempt to save can result in underutilization of the investment of millions of pesos in the industry and the work of hundreds of workers.

WITH RELATIVELY MINOR INVESTMENT
THE PRODUCTION OF BEER AND MALT
BEVERAGE CAN BE INCREASED BY 50
PERCENT IN SANTIAGO DE CUBA

We reviewed the problems of the Hatuey brewery. the beer and malt beverage factory. Transportation la a serious problem there. Oriente turns out beer and malt beverage for internal consumption. The bottles come from this part of the country: there are delays in transportation and even in the return of used bottles. Since many of these products were distributed through grocery stores and not through public centers the bottles delayed longer in returning here and the problem grew worse. In Santiago de Cuba 5000 or 6000 cases werc being produced; there was a drop of 300 COO cases a month: 7 500 000 bottles of beer and malt beverage which could have been consumed by the people during these months.

We analyzed the problem and realized the need for new methods, such as distribution in tank trucks. This method is already in use in some places. These tanks have a refrigerating coil and compressor and 1⁄2 hp for storing 100 cases of beer or malt beverage that can be transported in a six-ton truck with a 3000-quart tank, and even a bit more. A Zil 130 can take the equivalent of 1000 cases on a single trip in this form.

Today we can take beer in tanks to workers' dining rooms, recreation centers and schools, saving the bottles, cases and all those other things. Although, logically enough, a certain amount must be bottled for home consumption. But production increase at that factory can be still further stepped up.

I asked comrade Risquet to go there with the comrade Minister in charge of the Food Ministry to look into expansion possibilties. We have the raw materials: the barley, malt, even the rice, which is being used in a

proportion of 30 percent in beer production with excellent results in quality. In the malts, fr. addition to the barley, rice and sugar. Beer, of course, requires hops.

With relatively few Investments the production of besr and malt beverages can be increased by 50 percent in Santiago de Cuba.

And today we don't produce for profit; we produce for the people. We produce to satisfy the needs of the people. And if this production can be increased so that more workers, students, youths and families can drink more malts and beer, with a relatively minor invest mant; if we can distribute them, why not do so?

We visited many centers. The repair shops.... Thore are problems at the Santiago Bus Terminal with the maintenance of the Skoda buses. There are 103 buses in Santiago and only 35 in service for a city with a population of almost 200 000. With the arrival of the Interprovincial Leyland buses, it will be possible to release other buses which should be in Santiago de Cuba on or about the 15tX of August.

Comrade Faure told me that they could be there by August 5, and we would have 53 instead of 40 of thesa buses available. This will help in easing the situation. Eut it will be especially eased to the extent that the repair shop improves and repairs are speeded up and adequate maintenance service be given to the buses.

IT'S CURIOUS BUT MICROINVESTMENTS ARE WHAT OUR COUNTRY NEEDS MOST AT THIS MOMENT? MICROINVESTMENTS

In many industries we detected the following problema: lack of athes, lack of work tools, lack of measuring instruments.

it's curious but microinvestments are what our country need most at this moment, microinvestments! Investments in lathes for maintenance ta industrial shops, work tools that are lacking in almost all industries, and measuring instruments.

How did we find the spirit of the workers in Santiago de Cuba? Knowing their many needs because if transportation affected distribution anywhere, it affected it in Oriente, and especially in Santiago their main concern was production. And only later in the discussion did they raise any other problems! And sometimes wa were the ones who had to bring up the other problema!

And sometimes we saw workers with torn clothes, or shoes -- we have seen this because these problema of quality... It wasn't so much the quantity as the quality of the footwear: the introduction of a new method of production which hadn't been sufficiently

such as those rubber soles which led to their And the canecutters in Oriente and other areas know very well how a sole can fall off after five or 10 days.

And when quality is affected, what is the point e? making 30 milion pairs of shoes, if it doesn't solve the problem?

The problem of footwear was seriously affected by the decime in quality.

And workers, with torn shoes and clothes were asking for lathes, machine tools and measuring instruments --- more concerned about this than with their other problems. Even in spite of the bad food supply, they were more concerned with the factory and productica than with food. (APPLAUSE) And this is really Impressive! This is a real lason for us! Tals is a living confirmation In reality of the proletariat and what if is capable of. The Industrial proletariat is the truly Revolutionary class, the most potentially revolutionary class. (APPLAUSE)

What a practical lesson in Mardım-Leninism! We began a revolutionaries not in a factory, which would have been a great help for all of us we bapa o revoluticcaries through the study of theory, to la tellectual road, the road of thought. And it would have helpad all of us if we had come from the factores and kacan more about them, because it is thure that the

really revolutionary spirit of which Marx and Loaiz spoke le to be found.

AND THE SPIRIT, THE SENSE OF DUTY THAT INSPIRES THOSE WHO GO TO WORK; AND THE SCORN THEY FEEL FOR THE LAZY, THOSE WHO ARE RESTING ON THEIR CARS

And that's the spirit of the great majority! The few lumpen elements that may still exist-most of them recent arrivals in the plant the absentees, they are of no importance. And sometimes conditions are such that the amazing thing is not that there are absentees, but rather that there are some who do come to work. And the spirit, the sense of duty that inspires those who so to work; and the acorn they feal for the lazy, those who are resting on their oara."

Go to any factory and ask the workers what should be done about the lazy ones, the ones who don't work. If you don't watch cut, they'll go so far as to demand that they be shot. If you don't watch out, they'll demand Just that! But, naturally, they will not go that far. Not that they lack the desire to do it, but they realize that the thing to do is to reeducate those people through work.

Thus, we cams face to face with these probleïns, most of which have a solution. And we must say that we ere to blame for a large part of these problems and that, elmply as a result of a lack of capacity....

W? I began to explain an idea to you were holding a conversation with some people from Santiago de Cudz in the city's park foliowing a three-day visit We were talking about these problems with them, and we asked the people there, "Do you know of someone who is efficient whom we could entrust with some of these tasks?" That is what we asked the people, because the tragic thing, one of the many tragic things in our country and this should not, by any means, constitute a reason for resigning ourselves to putting up with this tragedy is our lack of cadres, of men with a high enough level of training and intelligence who are capable of carrying out the complex tasks of production.

These tasks are apparently easy. Most of the time we make the mistake of minimizing the difficulties, of minimizing the complexity of the problems. And we have seen this happen to a number of well-trained comrader, comrades well known to us for their iron will and their desire to do a good job we've had these experiences and we has seen them, in a specific task, going through what is practically an apprenticeship that lasts one, two or even three years before they begin to do an efficient job.

If only we could solve our problems by simply replacing thesa men! We have to maks changes. There is no question about the fact that many comrades have worn themselves out, have "burned themselves out," as they say. There are some who have had to pay for the errors committed by others, because sometimes the error points to somebody who simply cannot dɔ any. thing to solve the problem.

For example, we found that, la spita of the tremendous demand for housing and for repairs to houses every. where and especially in Santiago de Cuba the comrades in the districts of the local administration and the Party don't even have a truck or a concrete mixer with wilch to face such demands.

As I said before, the cement factory there would top operating. And, while the cement plant just outside Santiago de Cuba was ahut down, Santiago was suffering from a cement shortage.

It we established that a certain paremtage of the cement production be earmarked for Santiago and, in addition, that whatever amount of cement that the state agencies due to problems in transportation cr plea deafulfilment weren't going to take away would be delivered to the city. This is sasy, for the same trucks that are used for the hauling of the raw materici from the quarries can be used to deliver the cament to Santiago. And there is one problem once the coment ls taken out of the allos and put late baga it canno remain in the bags for more than three months. Tha: Is why, when the silos are full, we can't just say, "Let's

pack the cement in bags for storage."

These comrades were shown how to solve the problem, since, for any repair work, they are dependent on an operational base of trucks which they didn't have.

You cannot hold a man responsible for anything unless he is in a position where he can decide things, or else we appoint a man from the Party, we give hin

job involving responsibility, and what we do is turn his job into a man-kliler. He becomes a wailing wall, a poor man on whose lap everybody and his brother dumps his problems.

There are lists of houses to be delivered. There are lists, yes, but no houses. There are very few of them, or a plan for house building hasn't been completed. Thus, a worker who has headed the list for a year and a half and still has no house and this has hap pened in Santiago even loses all hopes of ever getting one.

As we ta'ked with the women comrades of the beer and malt beverage brewery and the bottling plant in Santiago, we realized that nine out of ten women nine out of ten! mentioned the housing shortage as one of the most pressing problems. The women felt this more than the men did.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT

This was something similar to the problem as to whether malt beverage or bear should be served at the workers' dining room. The women, logically, said malt beverage, while the men, also logically, said beer.

WE HAVE ASKED THE COMRADE IN CHARGE
OF THIS MATTER TO ANALYZE THE
QUESTION OF RECREATION CENTERS TO
DECIDE ON WHICH DAYS THEY
SHOULD BE OPEN

In the analysis of recreation centers....What happened In Santiago? Every single bar was closed because of the cane harvest. The result was a kind of prohibition. As a result, the people started to make rotgur and mix it with other things, and they carne up with some sort

of product.

Really, we don't feel that was necessary, and it should teach us a good lesson. Because what has here beert suggested and what we have been saying since the revolutionary offensive is that it is no crime to have a beer or some other alcoholic beverage; what we were against were those dark, dingy joints where having a drink or anything was a big mystery. The Revolution is not against drinking as such.

And that was done. And it is being analyzed.

We have asked the comrade in charge of this matter to analyze the question of recreation centers to decide on which days they should to open. And the workers should be consulted in the analysis of this matter. Even there we found different, opinions: whether it should be two days or four days a week. And some workers said that their free day didn't fall on a Saturday of Sunday; It came on a Thurday or Friday or some such day. And the women had a different opinion than the men.

Once we took a poll on this question, and that's the way it turne: out. So this time I told them: "Don't rush, find out what they think and why."

I was witness to an argument, an analysis carried out among men and women. On: man, a vanguard worker whose opinion I asked, stood up and spoke. He said that a real worker, a conscientious worker, would be on time for work no matter whst .e did on his day off, even if he finished at 5:00 in the morning. He said that he had been working there at the factory and had gone to bed at 5:00 in the morning and had been back again at 8:00.

One woman had already said that the men would be absent from work.

Another woman said that there was no labor problem but that some men would leave half their salary at home and drink the other half.

Well, that was the problem. And I told them to study everything carefully so as to come up with a rational solution to the problem of the recreation centers, because the workers want them especially those workers with great work spirit, workers who have spent up to eight months cutting cane, as many workers from Havana have done.

There is something I should point out: when the canecutters from Havana were there in Oriente, the first thing they said was at they didn't war. to leave while there was any can: left; and the second thing was, with respect to the earthquake in Peru, that they were ready to go to Peru if necessary. (APPLAUSE) That is the spirit, the conscientiousness of our workers! Our workers have become much more conscientious.

Often men with no authority to make decisions are the ones who have to confront the problem..

On the other hand, some people believe that problems can be solved miraculously, that it is just a matter of replacing certain individuals.

I was saying that it has been necessary to remove sorne ministers and that it will be necessary to make some other changes. But sometimes it occurs to me with a certain sadness that there might be some confusion when the masses think that the problem can be solved simply by replacing individuals. And sometimes people say, If they take this one out and put that one in.... And there are a tremendous number of government organizers and disorganizers and soothsayers.

But, of course, politics is not a game.

IT WOULD BE A FRAUD AND WE WOULD BE GUILTY OF DEMAGOGUERY, OF UNFORGIVABLE DECEPTION OF THE PEOPLE, IF WE TRIED TO MAKE THEM BELIEVE THAT OUR PROBLEMS ARE PROBLEMS OF INDIVIDUALS

We must make changes, because, logically, there are comrades who have worn themselves out, they have

run out of energy and are no longer able to handle the responsibility they have on their shoulders. And we must make changes. But what I want to say is that it would be a fraud and we would be guilty of dema goguery, c unforgivable deception of the people, if we tried to make them believe that our problems are problems of individuals, if we tried to conceal the root of the matter, if we didn't come right out and say that it isn't a problem of an individual, group of individuals or even teams. We believe this is a problem of the whole people! And we sincerely believe that the only way we can solve the problems we have today is by all working together all of us from the men in the highest positions of responsibility in the Party and state right on down to those in the most humble ir.dustrial plant and not just these in leadership positions there.

On this trip we discussed a series of ideas with the Minister of Labor. We said that we were still somewhat underdeveloped in the field of industrial administration; we explained why a factory of the people, which belongs to all the people, doesn't even belong to its workers. A worker wouldn't gain anything by being the owner of a cement factory together with his group, absolutely nothing at all. We have never shared that opinion.

We have seen the love the workers have for their factory this is something else again and believe it would be a good idea to link the workers' everyday life -even their family problems, vacations and birthdays, lots of things to the job. The workers' affection for the factory would be strengthened if it were extended to tie in their families with their work. Some vacation plans have already been organized along these lines.

Some of the factories quite a ways out from Santiago were assigned some of the buses that are being put together here in a shop which has greatly increased its productivity. The shop is assembling about four mediumsized buses a day. We gave some of these buses to the factories so the workers would use them at certain hours of the day. If a shift at a power plant or oil refinery wirds up late at night and the workers have to try to catch a bus at a time when there are fewer buses on the streets, logically, the factory's brises could be used to take the workers to their destination. These same buses can be used when the vacation period comes around, to take the workers and their families to the beach or other recreation areas.

The problem of housing distribution can be handled through the factories, as well. And the workers should be the ones to make the decisions. They, better than anyone else, know which worker needs a home most, or if he has a home.... H3 should speak about it. This problem should never be solved through administrative channels.

In the sarne vein, we told the comrades in Santiago de Cuba whom we have assigned the cement, trucks and electric concrete mixers that we couldn't solve that problem by looking for a labor force we don't have. Urgent problems such as that of housing can only be solved with the aid of the masses!

Why? We have already explained the manpower problems we have and our problems with important industrial installations, schools, hospitals and factories.

new

WE DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEMS OF MANAGING A PLANT SHOULD FALL EXCLUSIVELY TO THE MANAGER

Among other things, over 100 jobs involving the installation of the equipment that is alreedy here must be done. We could add that the installation of plants that are already here must be completed before re bring in new ones. Before we bring in new plants, we must first have all the a sady cstablished ones operating at full capacity. Before we purchase new plaats, we must purchase lather for maintenance shops; tools; gauging equipment; an occasionally, even a motor these are what we c icro nvestments - in order to