Honoring Che: Revolutionary hero, internationalist

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.” Those are the words of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, anti-imperialist, guerrilla fighter and a leader of the Cuban revolution. This working-class hero is revered by revolutionaries and oppressed peoples worldwide. Che was born on June 14, 1928. CIA-directed Bolivian soldiers executed him on Oct. 9, 1967, in La Higuera, Bolivia.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro told his grieving country on Oct. 18, 1967: “Che died defending no other interest, no other cause than the cause of the exploited and the oppressed of this continent. Che has left a great heritage to the world. He left us his revolutionary thinking, his revolutionary virtues, his character, his will, his tenacity. He left us his example!

“Che carried to its highest expression revolutionary stoicism, the revolutionary spirit of sacrifice, revolutionary combativeness, the revolutionary’s spirit of work. Che brought the ideas of Marxism-Leninism to their freshest, purest, most revolutionary expression. No other person of our time has carried the spirit of proletarian internationalism to its highest possible level as Che did.

“We must face the future with firmness, determination and optimism. In Che’s example, we will always look for inspiration — inspiration in struggle, inspiration in tenacity, inspiration in intransigence toward the enemy, inspiration in internationalist feeling!” (tinyurl.com/y7ku4jb5)

— Report by Kathy Durkin