CASTRO'S COMPROMISES

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But our system must adapt to the realities of today's world. We have to be ready to conduct necessary changes to adapt to the present world conditions-- without renouncing our ideas and without renouncing our objectives. What we are doing will continue. The commitments we make here now will be fulfilled. There is no going back.

TIME: Do you feel comfortable that some people have dollars and others do not?

Castro: We do not like it. It is not the ideal. It is a need for a specific stage in history. We don't like any foreign currency circulating, not just dollars. We introduced the dollar out of need.

The changes were not just a government decision. We discussed them with the workers and students. We discussed an increase in food prices. No, the food prices should not go up. How about a reduction in salaries? No. How about wage taxes? No. The majority told us to take harsh measures against speculators in the black market who were getting rich illegally.

They said to charge for sports events. Many people said that plastic-surgery services should be paid for. Many said we should increase the price of nonessentials, such as alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.

TIME: What about income taxes and property taxes?

Castro: The dream of every American: not to pay taxes. People here do not even pay housing taxes. One day we will have to convince Cubans they should have to pay.

TIME: So are you prepared to talk to the Cuban people about an income tax now?

Castro: If we are able to convince them, yes. [laughter]

We also have to convince workers--and there are a large number of them who are convinced--that they must make a contribution to social welfare. There is a deficit of 500 million pesos in social security every year. They are discussing whether the contribution should be 5%, 6% or 7%. It has to be established because the worker has not paid anything for social security. That mentality must be changed.

TIME: You have cut back on government, and we hear hundreds of thousands may lose their jobs this year. How do you deal with them?

Castro: There are jobs, but not in Havana. One of the things we are doing is to attract some people from the cities to the countryside. We have given land parcels to those who want to till the land. We are also trying to start up factories by means of joint ventures. We are boosting tourism as much as we can as a source of employment. We are expanding the number of free-lance workers. Free-lance working, an embryonic form of what you call private enterprise, is one of the ways by which we must find jobs for all those people who have no work.

But we do not want to cut back education and public health because we cannot destroy the system we have created. We do not want to have private medicine because we have created a health system which has rendered extraordinary results, and we do not want to destroy it. It would be a historic crime to do so.

TIME: Forty years ago, you were full of idealism. When you won, you eliminated the vices of the Batista regime, among them prostitution and crime. Today we see prostitutes back on the street with the dollar economy.