Back there in the mists of time known as 2016, Fidel Castro died. You remember Fidel? Here’s a bit of his record as the Communist dictator of Cuba, a time that began in 1959.
As detailed in The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, the 1999 international bestseller that sifted through the newly opened government files of the fallen Communist Soviet Union, Castro was typical of Communist leaders around the globe.
The book notes this of Castro:
“To control the population, the Dirección Special del Ministerio del Interior” was established. The Dirección “specializes in the elimination of opponents- which is to say they were executed. “During the repressions of the 1960s, between 7,000 and 10,000 people were killed and 30,000 people imprisoned for political reasons.”
Gays were rounded up and incarcerated. The “Military Unit of Production Assistance (MUPA) was charged with the “ ‘reeducation’ of homosexuals” They lost their jobs, with the University of Havana subjected to “anti-homosexual purges, and it was common practice to ‘judge’ homosexuals in public at their place of work. They were forced to admit their ‘vice,’ and had to vow to give it up or face dismissal and imprisonment.”
Prisoners were “forcibly conscripted” into the Cuban military. Castro set up a “forced labor program”, with prisoners kept “almost naked” while they worked and subjected to both physical and psychological torture. Concentration camps were created and filled -including specifically for women, children and adolescents.
“From 1959 through the late 1990’s more than 100,000 Cubans experienced life in one of the camps, prisons, or open-regime sites. Between 15,000 and 17,000 were shot.”
And, of course, there was Castro’s repeated attempts to spread the Communist revolution, notably becoming a “major supporter of the Marxist-Leninist regime of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola.”
So. With all of that well on the record, when Fidel Castro died in 2016 Black Lives Matter issued this statement. It was headed:
Lessons from Fidel: Black Lives Matter and the Transition of El Comandante
In which it said:
“We are feeling many things as we awaken to a world without Fidel Castro. There is an overwhelming sense of loss, complicated by fear and anxiety. Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante. 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.
…Revolution is continuous and is won first in the hearts and minds of the people and is continually shaped and reshaped by the collective. No single revolutionary ever wins or even begins the revolution. The revolution begins only when the whole is fully bought in and committed to it. And it is never over.
…A final lesson is that to be a revolutionary, you must strive to live in integrity. As a Black network committed to transformation, we are particularly grateful to Fidel for holding Mama Assata Shakur, who continues to inspire us. We are thankful that he provided a home for Brother Michael Finney Ralph Goodwin, and Charles Hill, asylum to Brother Huey P. Newton, and sanctuary for so many other Black revolutionaries who were being persecuted by the American government during the Black Power era.
…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!”
Notice the thanks that Fidel provided a home for “Brother Michael Finney Ralph Goodwin, and Charles Hill? Finney, Goodwin, and Hill shot and killed New Mexico State Police Officer Robert Rosenbloom in 1971. Then they hijacked a Trans World Airlines flight to Cuba – and stayed there, protected by Fidel.
So with all of this out there on the record? Is no one in corporate America and elsewhere paying attention?
It is totally understandable to be horrified by the murder of George Floyd. Police brutality is a legitimate issue, and the treatment of black Americans by police is something that has to be discussed, put under the spotlight – and corrected.
But to heedlessly ignore that there is more to Black Lives Matters than that is a serious mistake. Do all of these corporations who are supporting BLM understand what else is going on here? The Mayor of Washington had “Black Lives Matter” painted on a city street leading to the White House. Does she understand that BLM is on record endorsing a tyrant who had gays rounded up and incarcerated? That they are on record supporting the same tyrant who had thousands of dissenters shot?
Obviously not. Or….they do understand and simply don’t care.
Wow.
