[News] What the Imperialists cannot forgive - Fidel Castro's speech in advance of the Bay of Pigs invasion (April 16, 1961)

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/4207/what-the-imperialists-cannot-forgive---fidel-castros-speech-in-advance-of-the-bay-of-pigs-invasion
What
the Imperialists cannot forgive - Fidel Castro's speech in advance of the
Bay of Pigs invasion
------------------------------

*News from Cuba* | *Friday, 16 April 2021* | Click here for original article
<https://johnriddell.com/2016/11/27/fidel-castro-on-the-fight-to-defend-cubas-socialist-revolution/>

Following the attack on Cuban airfields on 15 April 1961 to prepare the way
for the Bay of Pigs invasion two days later, Fidel Castro gave a speech on
16 April to honor the seven Cubans killed during the attack. During the
speech he talked publicly for the first time of the socialist character of
the Cuban Revolution.

Read the full speech below, and register for our meeting on 22 April to
mark the 60th anniversary.
https://bit.ly/Giron60


*What the imperialists cannot forgive (April 16, 1961)*
What the imperialists cannot forgive is that we are here. What the
imperialists cannot forgive is the dignity, the firmness, the courage, the
ideological integrity, the spirit of sacrifice, and the revolutionary
spirit of the Cuban people.

This is what they cannot forgive: the fact that we are here right under
their very noses. And that we have carried out a socialist revolution right
under the nose of the United States!

And we are defending this socialist revolution with these guns! We are
defending this socialist revolution with the same courage that our
anti-aircraft artillerymen showed yesterday in riddling the attacking
planes with bullets!

We are not defending this revolution with mercenaries; we are defending
this revolution with the men and women of our nation.

Who has the weapons here? Perhaps it is the mercenaries who have the
weapons? Perhaps it is the millionaires who have the weapons? Perhaps
mercenaries and millionaires are one and the same thing. Perhaps the little
boys with rich daddies have the weapons? Perhaps the overseers have the
weapons?

Whose hands hold the weapons here? Are they the hands of playboys? Are they
the hands of the rich? Are they the hands of the exploiters? Whose hands
hold the weapons here? Are they not hands of workers and peasants? Are they
not hands that have been hardened by work? Are they not hands that create?
Are they not the hands of our humble people? And who are the majority of
our people? Millionaires or workers? Exploiters or exploited? The
priviIeged or the humble? Do the privileged have the weapons? Or do the
humble have the weapons? Aren’t the privileged a minority? Aren’t the
humble a majority? Isn’t a revolution democratic when it’s the humble who
have the weapons?

Compañero workers and peasants: This is a socialist and democratic
revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble. And for this
revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble, we are ready
to give our lives.

Workers and peasants, humble men and women of our country: Do you swear to
defend this revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble, to
the last drop of your blood?

Compañero workers and peasants of our country: Yesterday’s attack was a
prelude to a mercenary aggression. Yesterday’s attack, which cost seven
heroic lives, aimed to destroy our planes on the ground. But it failed.
They only destroyed two planes while most of the enemy planes were damaged
or shot down. Here, before the tomb of our fallen compañeros; here next to
the remains of the heroic young people, children of workers, children of
the humble, we reaffirm our resolve that just as they exposed themselves to
the bullets, just as they gave their lives, we too, all of us, proud of our
revolution, proud of defending this revolution of the humble, by the humble
and for the humbler shall not hesitate, whenever the mercenaries come, no
matter who is against us, to defend it to our last drop of blood.

Long live the working class! Long the peasants! Long live the humble! Long
live the martyrs of our country! May the martyrs of our country live
forever! Long live the socialist revolution! Long live a free Cuba!

Patria o muerte!
Venceremos!

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