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Che Guevara Archive
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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