“This island will sink in the ocean before we will consent to be anybody’s slaves”
“He is clearly a strong personality and a born leader of great personal courage and conviction,” U.S. officials
noted in April 1959, and, a few months later, a National Intelligence Estimate reported, “He is inspired by a messianic sense of mission to aid his people.”
Fidel made mistakes; he would be the first to acknowledge this. And his contributions were not his alone, he was not just an individual actor but one who fought as part of a revolution made up of many people, Cubans and those who supported the Cuban revolution. Yet, if we are to be honest, in a world where war criminals get peace prizes, where capitalists running vast dungeons of sweatshops get glowing biopics and softball interviews, where the voices of hate who call for violence are "great communicators," where some days it feels like everything is upside down as in a camera obscura, who are the forces for good? Everyone is talking about crime, tell me who are the criminals. When we hear talk of peace, who calls for justice?
“The virus of revolution is not carried in submarines or ships. It is wafted instead on the ethereal waves of ideas. . . . The
power of Cuba is the power of its revolutionary ideas, the power of its example.”
Who broke up the plantations and returned them to the people? Who supported the weak campesinos against the landowners, not with gestures of solidarity, but with arms? Who provided a haven for the hunted rebels from the dictatorship's henchmen? Who sent doctors around the world? Who faced extortion and terrorism, biological and physical, by the largest superpower in world history, a mere 90 miles away, and refused to give an inch if it meant a mark against the dignity of not only their people, but oppressed people around the world? Who rose from the plantations and fought back, and then, instead of resting on the laurels of victory, took the flame and spread it forth?
Fidel Castro was probably the greatest force for good in the world in his lifetime. (In comparison, the US's closest elected candidate, Jimmy Carter, as part of negotiations to "normalize" relations with Cuba, wanted Cuba to de-escalate the Cuban mission in Angola AGAINST APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA. Let that sink in.)
From Fidel Castro's 161 Mayday speech:
"It was the custom to talk about the motherland; there were some who had a wrong idea of the motherland. There was the motherland of the privileged ones, of a man who has a large house, while the others live in hovels. What motherland did you have in mind, sir? A motherland where a small group lives from the work of others? A motherland of the barefoot child who is asking for alms on the street? What kind of motherland is this? A motherland which belonged to a small minority? Or the motherland of today? The motherland of today where we have won the right to direct our destiny, where we have learned to decide our destiny, a motherland which will be, now and forever--as Marti wanted it--for the well-being of everyone and not a motherland for few!
"The motherland will be a place where such injustices will be eliminated, now we can have the real concept of motherland. We are willing to die for a motherland which belongs to all Cubans. That is why the exploiting classes could not have the real concept of motherland. For them, the motherland was a privilege by which they took advantage of the work of others. That is why when a Yankee monopolist when a leader, or a member of the U.S. ruling circles, talks about the motherland, they refer to the motherland of monopolies, of the large banking monopolies. And when they talk about the motherland, they are thinking about sending the Negroes of the South, the workers, to be killed to defend the motherland of monopolies.
"What kind of morality and what reason and what right do they have to make a Negro die to defend the monopolies, the factories, and the mines of the dominating classes? What right have they to send the Puerto Rican of Latin blood, of Latin tradition, to the battlefields to defend the policy of large capitalists and monopolies? This concept of motherland and this danger to their security to which they refer is the danger of the monopolies. You can understand what concept they have of morality, law, and rights, to send the Negroes of the South and the Puerto Ricans to the battlefields to fight for them. This is their concept of motherland. That is why the people receive the real concept of motherland only when the interests of the privileged classes are liquidated, and when a nation with its wealth becomes a nation for everyone, the wealth for everyone, and opportunity and happiness for everybody."
He said “This island will sink in the ocean before we will consent to be anybody’s slaves," but Castro built up all fighting for liberation. He embodied the new man glimpsed on the horizon and his words, his work, and his spirit will live on. ¡Viva la revolución! ¡Viva Fidel! ¡Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz Presente!
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