this is an outake from extemporaneous remarks delivered during an event celebrating an upward revision in planning targets for agricultural production. the full speech had a duration of 3 hours, 27 minutes and was delivered from the people's podium on the plaza de la revolucion.
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progressive cyclists the world over are wiser than the complacent and corrupt bourgeoisie, they understand the laws governing the existence and development of things, they understand dialectics and they can see farther. the bourgeoisie does not welcome this basic truth because it does not want to be overthrown. as everyone knows, the racing union has passed through this first tumultuous year not in peace but amid hardships, for we had to fight enemies, both foreign and domestic, both inside and outside the glorious cause. we acknowledge our predecessors in social thought and cycling, for giving us a weapon. this weapon is not a machine gun but the glorious knowledge that the revolution is cycling and social order will put us on the shining path to a bright new future.
the russians made the october revolution and created the world's first socialist state. under the leadership of lenin, the revolutionary energy of the great proletariat and labouring people of russia, hitherto latent and unseen by foreigners, suddenly erupted like a volcano, and the chinese and all mankind began to see the russians in a new light. then, and only then, did the chinese enter an entirely new era in their thinking and their life. they found marxism leninism, the universally applicable truth, and the face of china began to change as well.
there are bourgeois republics in foreign lands, but mabra cannot have a bourgeois republic because she is an entity suffering under imperialist oppression. the only way is through a collective and cooperative, not-for-profit structure led by the working class cyclists themselves. several years have passed since mabra’s creation, and the glorious revolution, led by the racing union, has made tremendous advances both in theory and practice and has radically changed the face of riding and racing in the mid-atlantic. up to now the principal and fundamental experience the cyclists have gained is twofold:
internally, we arouse the masses of the people. that is, unite the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, form a domestic united front under the leadership of the working class, and advance from this to the establishment of a state which is a people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.
externally, we work to unite in a common struggle with those cycling and social entities of the world which treat us as equals and unite the peoples of all countries in our common cause. that is, ally ourselves with the people's democracies and with the proletariat and the broad masses of the people in all other countries, and form an international united front.
some cyclists complain that our methods and actions are too irritating. we are talking about how to deal with domestic and foreign bourgeois reactionaries, the imperialists and their running dogs, not about how to deal with anyone else. with regard to such reactionaries, the question of irritating them or not does not arise. irritated or not irritated, they will remain the same because they are reactionaries. only if we draw a clear line between reactionaries and revolutionaries, expose the intrigues and plots of the reactionaries, arouse the vigilance and attention of the revolutionary ranks, heighten our will to fight and crush the enemy's arrogance can we isolate the reactionaries, vanquish them or supersede them. we must not show the slightest timidity before this wild beast.
still others object that "we need financial help from sponsors and usa cycling." this, too, is a naive idea in these times. would the present overlords of cycling administration, who are imperialists, help a revolutionary people's state? why do these business interests and sanctioning bodies engage in commerce with us? because their capitalists want to make money and their bankers want to earn interest to extricate themselves from their own crisis-it is not a matter of helping the cyclists and citizens of the mid-atlantic region.
i have recently shut down several media outlets which claimed that our glorious cause is dictatorial in its methods. however, i take just a moment to respond to the charges. the experience that cyclists and citizens have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right. we will allow the people only to behave themselves and not to be unruly in word or deed. if they speak or act in an unruly way, they will be promptly stopped and punished. democracy is practised within the ranks of the people, who enjoy the rights of freedom of speech, assembly, association and so on. the right to vote belongs only to the people, not to the reactionaries. the combination of these two aspects, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the people's democratic dictatorship. why must things be done this way? the reason is quite clear to everybody. if things were not done this way, the revolution would fail, the people would suffer, the cause would be conquered and the vile forces of corruption and moral turpitude would have won.
people ask if we wish to abolish mabra. yes, we do, but not right now; we cannot do it yet because imperialism still exists, because domestic reaction still exists, because classes still exist among cyclists and citizens. our present task is to strengthen the people's state apparatus-mainly the internal secret security details, the people’s armed forces, the people's police and the people's courts; in order to consolidate and protect the interests of the glorious cause and shining path.
given this condition, mabra can develop steadily, under the leadership of the working class and the racing union. we can abolish classes and realize the great harmony. the current mabra apparatus, including the bar, sponsorship and the hierarchical racing apparatus, is the instrument by which one class oppresses another.
as for the members of the reactionary classes and individual reactionaries, so long as they do not rebel, sabotage or create trouble after their political power has been overthrown, land and work will be given to them as well in order to allow them to live and remould themselves through labour into new people. if they are not willing to work, the racing union will compel them to work.
such remoulding of members of the reactionary classes can be accomplished only by a state of the people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the racign union. when it is well done, mabra’s major exploiting classes will be eliminated for good. there remain the national bourgeoisie; at the present stage, we can already do a good deal of suitable educational work with many of them. when the time comes to realize true collectivism, that is, to collectivize all cycling property, we shall carry the work of educating and remoulding them a step further. the racing union has a powerful state apparatus in their hands-there is no need to fear rebellion by the cycling bourgeoisie.
the people's democratic dictatorship needs the leadership of the racing union. for it is only the racing union that is most farsighted, most selfless and most thoroughly revolutionary. the entire history of revolution proves that only through the leadership of the racing union, can revolution triumph. this is clearly proved by the fact that the many revolutions led by mabra’s petty bourgeoisie and usac splinter groups have all failed....
to sum up our experience and concentrate it into one point, it is: the people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the racing union and based upon the alliance of cycling and citizens. this dictatorship must unite as one with the international revolutionary forces. this is our formula, our principal experience, our main program. the situation both at home and abroad is in our favour. we can rely fully on the weapon of the people's democratic dictatorship, unite the people throughout the country, the reactionaries excepted, and advance steadily to our goals
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