Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s legacy provides many lessons to learn, according to Black Lives Matter.
After Castro’s death Friday, the loosely knit movement released an article titled, “Lessons from Fidel: Black Lives Matter and the Transition of El Comandante.”
From the article:
And there are lessons that we must revisit and heed as we pick up the mantle in changing our world, as we aspire to build a world rooted in a vision of freedom and the peace that only comes with justice. It is the lessons that we take from Fidel.
The article goes on to assert that there are many feelings that accompany the death of Castro, like fear, loss and anxiety. It is crucial, the article further maintains, to defend Castro, despite his “flaws,” against “the rhetoric of the right.”
According to the BLM version of Castro’s life, it teaches that revolution can start with a single idea within a small group of people.
From Fidel, we know that revolution is sparked by an idea, by radical imaginings, which sometimes take root first among just a few dozen people coming together in the mountains. It can be a tattered group of meager resources, like in Sierra Maestro in 1956 or St. Elmo Village in 2013.
Fidel’s death, according to the group, also demonstrates that when people are united in a collective vision, they can achieve anything.
As Fidel ascends to the realm of the ancestors, we summon his guidance, strength, and power as we recommit ourselves to the struggle for universal freedom. Fidel Vive!
Perhaps the group needs to educate itself, not the rest of us. They might learn that Castro ruthlessly suppressed those who disagreed with him politically in his 47-year reign. They might also discover that thousands of Cubans fled to the U.S. in response to Castro’s repressive dictatorship. The Cuba Archive Project estimates that the Castro regime killed over 9,200 “political dissidents.”
This report, by Amber Randall, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
