Aleida Guevara is right on......I despise the commercialization of Che'...just like the idea that building the new VW Beetle (at an outrageous price w/ all the bells and whistles...which is nothing like the original concept...the "peoples car") and though I love the spirit of Che' I feel it is wrong to display an image without expressing the courage to be an activist for change (in real terms).

peace

I despise the commercialism of Che, but not necessarily for the same reasons as Aleida Guevara. The left is of the notion that Che had to be okay because he opposed US agression. Che was no champion of liberty and helped Fidel impose an iron fisted rule in Cuba.

Many on the left seem to have a bias against right wing tyrants, but in favor of left wing.

They should consider a law suit against anybody that uses Che's image without authorization.
Sue the crap out of them, use the favorite Capitalist tool against them!

Ken,

Get your facts correct before typing your comments. Che was a champion of liberty for the oppressed. The Revolution was to help more than just a select few people. When you don't have resources because of such things as intentionally altering a sugar export, you do what you can do to help ALL the people in your country.

What is sad about capitalism, is the exploitation factor. The distortion/loss of meaning behind a true hero in this instance.

(Check out "Century of Self" for some helpful info...)

Most people are too young to remember what Cuba was like under Batista. I was in Havana in 1956 and the city was one big poverty stricken whorehouse , except in the mob controlled casinos and pleasure resorts.

Castro and Che cleaned out that mess. Under tremendous pressure due to embargoes intended to starve them out, Cuba has gradually become a place of human dignity. Literacy is near 100 percent, they have health care, have disaster teams ready to go to aid any area in distress. (Castro offered to send a fully equipped medical team into New Orleans at Cuba's own expense to help the people of New Orleans and the surrounding area. Bush said, no. He would rather have our people die than receive help from Cuba, and so they did.)

Canadians, who have never been blocked by their government, have said for years that Cuba was one of the greatest places to vacation. The people were friendly, the country beautiful.

The US lifted the travel embargo for a short while, but when similar comments started coming from Americans who visited, it again became illegal to visit.

Someday, the US Government is going to have to take a dose of realty, instead of overdosing on jingoism, racism, hatred, and the pursuit of profit at any price.

Meanwhile, those who threw out Batista and his minions and made Cuba a place for Cubans are dead or dying, and their memories are being exploited for profit.

Ironic, but sad.

I can understand Che's family's frustration. The crass marketing of Che (t-shirts, posters, mugs, etc.) is a bit much. To the Castro haters: Fidel is my hero for stepping up and wanting to help my beloved New Orleans in her desperate hour, only to be dicked by the Bush regime.

It's too bad about the crass comercialization of Che's image, but as long as it's in circulation as a reminder of the evil done in the name of American capitalism, there is hope.

It's too bad you Americans can't get access to Cuba--other than through Gitmo. Our old Prime Minister Trudeau counted Castro among his friends and found him to be a man of some considerable insight.

Aleida should be happy about it. You can't buy that kind of publicity.

When the democratically elected president of Chile, Allende, expanded democracy in the workplace, freedom of expression, union protection, etc., guess how the CIA used it to topple his government.

Unfortunately, other elected radical or liberal Third World governments experienced the same outcomes in Guatemala, Iran and so on.

The so-called dictatorships of the Left tended to be defensive against the US. The US-supported dictatorships of the Right tended to support US corporations and their allies in the local oligarchy.

I despise the way these guys are mislabled. Che and Hugo Chavez. These disinformative historians brand these guys as evil agressive communists. This is Bullshit. Get your facts straight, these guys are leftist revolutionary heroes. And since I believe in leftist liberal ideals I believe their motives and intentions to be pure. And to the person that posted previously that a dictator is a bad thing be it from the left or right? I think your forgetting one simple fact. Throughout history there have been beloved rulers. Rulers that were kings or presidents that were not opposed in any elections. That makes them a dictator, doesnt it. But what if the masses love that dictator and that dictator loves his people and his policies are peaceful and yield prosperity?!
That leads me to another thought. I would love to be a democrat being elected President right now, because I would use the same powers that Bush has created for our presidency that we have been screamng bloody murder about and shove it all right down their throats. With those wonderful executive orders and signing statements of his, I would eliminate the Patriot Act, Reimpose Roosevelts New Deal where anti trust laws are concerned, minimum wage would immediately be 10$ and hour, and the Iraq occupation would immediately end and on and on and on. So you see if used to the benefit of our people in the right hands dictorial powers can be a good thing.....

I agree that the commercialization of Che does nothing positive. I site another example to prove my point: when I lived in Colorado, I once did my grocery shopping wearing the Palestinian scarf I had worn to a demonstration earlier in the day. Many people stared at me in a way that made me feel suspected of being a terrorist. Here in Norway on the other hand, lots of people, especially young people, wear Palestinian scarves, not only in the traditional black and white, but in purples, reds, and greens, and every pastel you can imagine. Nobody reacts because it is simply a fashion statement, not worn in solidarity, and most young people don't even know what it means. Nice to be able to wear it without fear, but not very meaningful either.

Yes, I agree with Liberal. It is about what class you represent. You can't represent both the interest of the exploiter and the exploited. This is a conflict of interest. We are not all in this together. One big happy family. We have very clear class differences in the world.

Democracy is about people's needs being met, not maximum profit. Elections don't guarantee that we have single payer universal health care. Why do you think insurance companies fight against single payer health care? Why do oil companies fight against a nationalized energy policy? Blah, Blah, it is not in their interest.

Until the working class unites as class and then fights for their class interests, things in this country will not change.

I find categorizations of working class vs. business class (exploiter/exploited) rather simple. Like the anarchists I believe many on the Left have to start looking at the world and at least take into account a third class (managerial)and maybe more classes of material interests. The material interests of the managerial class and working classes simply don't always coincide.

To actually evaluate whether or not a nation possesses a political democracy, some political scientists analyze a nation's budget and how its allocated and compare it with how a sampling of the electorate's would like the budget allocated.

One makes this comparison over time in order to limit the effects of spikes and fluctuations in public opinion.

For example, approximately 70 % of US citizens have consistantly supported healthcare for everyone under federal auspices.

Though a majority has supported this position for many decades, have we implemented universal healthcare? If we haven't, the government is considered non-demoncratic relative to this isssue.

When an analyst compares -over the long-term- the state budget priorities of citizens (military spending is usually on the bottom of the allocation wish list) with the Federal budget allocation priorities, one can't help notice the pattern: federal budget priorities are almost the exact opposite of the average citizen's budget priorities.

This pattern demonstrates to many that the US political structure is deeply UNdemocratic.

capitalism strips the meaning out of everything and turns it into capital..

the real mind blower was the transformation of LIFE into LIFESTYLE.....which i believe just about covers everything..

Ironic. Spend your whole life fighting the forces of capitalism and end up with your image on t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc FOR SALE in capitalism.

By its very nature capitalism exploits everything. Sex love is turned into pornography. Human tragedy is turned into the nightly news. Journalism is turned into entertainment. Hospitals are turned into profit centers. I won't go on.

Maybe exploited, exploiter, and class relations are simple, but not understood. Managers don't own the computers they work with. Don't own the buildings they are working in or the products they help produce. They are selling the only thing they have to sell, and that is their ability to work. Labor is a commodity under capitalism and based on your skill level is sold to the highest bidder. Managers, so they will do the bidding of the owners, are paid more, and given some privilege's. This is done to subjectively separate them from their fellow workers, but they are still part of the working class. Class relationships are real, and thinking they are not does not make it so.

Herbalist: "Ironic. Spend your whole life fighting the forces of capitalism and end up with your image on t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc FOR SALE in capitalism."

Yeah I could see it now. Che Guevarra fought his heart out for social revolution and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

"Che was no champion of liberty and helped Fidel impose an iron fisted rule in Cuba."

No champion of liberty? Iron fisted? Please give specific examples of what you are referring to. These kinds of terms get used all the time in this country to describe Che, Fidel, Hugo -- in short, anyone and everyone that opposes the neo-liberal, capitalist monster -- but when I ask Latin American scholars and Cubans (other than - duh- those who fled when their oligarch status was diminished) exactly what is so terrible about Fidel, they don't come up with anything that I would describe as "iron fisted". I do recall during what Cuba calls the "special period" Castro offered to step down, but the people overwhelmingly wanted him to stay. Nelson Mandela calls Castro his friend and credits him highly for helping defeat apartheid.

When I was in Caracas for the World Social Forum, I went to the Cuban tent on the last night. There was this huge party with all the Cubans and everyone was dancing to the best music on earth from this hot 12-piece band. The Cubans were so fun loving and warm - even to us evil Americans. One older gentleman I was dancing with asked me when I would come to Cuba and I told him I couldn't -- it's illegal for me to go. He said to me, "No, you can do it. Lots of people do it. It's easy - all you have to do is threaten Castro." I never felt as ashamed to be an American in my whole life as when I was talking to people from Cuba and Venezuela -- people who are so proud of their beautiful participatory democracies (that we label as "dictatorships"), and their incredible sadness that the US is so intent on destroying all they have struggled for. We could embrace Fidel and Hugo tomorrow and not be the worse for it. They would gladly take us as allies if we would allow them their sovereignty to put their people before our corporate profits.

Actually, Marx described capitalism well when he stated that capitalism turns all that is solid into air.

Hey funeocons,
I was there too, but not on the last night. The night I went to the big tent, they had a dance theater which told the history of Cuba through dance. Absolutely fabulous! And yes, they were very warn towards us Norte Americanos. Now where I live, outside the USA, I can drink Havana Club rum from Cuba. Take that Bacardi!

>>the real mind blower was the transformation of LIFE into LIFESTYLE….<<

I believe we can thank the "Managerial Class" for that obscenity, along with "Human Resources" which is my nomination for one of the more repulsive terms applied to the workers at most companies these days.

The Managerial Class directly impacts the Working Class thru its philosophy of negotiating the lowest price possible for the most labor that can be extracted from any one human being. Oh, and encouraging each worker to think that somehow he can negotiate a better deal by himself then by joining with other workers in a union.

I've had a few good bosses. Damned few! but as a rule, the interests of the Working Class are seldom, if ever, served by the 'Managerial Class", which I think is just another BS term for the bourgeois bureaucracy!

so what if his image is being commercialized? i feel that if i'm wearing a che t-shirt and someone asks me who he is, thats one more person learning about his legendary, revolutionary persona; and as a possible result one more person embracing the revolutionary left. so some company that already has a multi-million dollar bankroll makes 15 bucks off of a t-shirt with his face on it, somewhat disturbing yes, but at least he's being globally advertised and people who aren't in the leftist community are being educated about him and possibly considering converting their political views. more power to us i say

forextrader---

Apologies for coming late to this blog, but undiscussed here are the implications of COPYRIGHT. I "own" an 11 by 17-inch iconic image of Che wearing his star-beret. Who "owns" the picture of his image laid out on a slab by the drug-dealing Yankee puppets in South America?

Che remains iconic because his behavior was iconic. He was true to Revolution. He died for the cause. He lived for the cause. He was a martyr while Castro was not. Long live Che. And his children!

Den
-30-

The reasons the Republicans will not lift the embargo on Cuba is that they know that as soon as they do, Cuba will become rich and prosperous and eventually socialist like in France and Germany...no longer communist like in China. The Republicans can't stand socialism cause it works, they will wait till Castro dies before they allow Cuba to succeed, though ironically in a way it already has, since it is doing rather well considering our extremely destructive embargo...the embargo means no ships will land in Cuba because if they do they can't land in the USA, they have to choose between Cuba or the USA that's why it works cause the bulk of the shipping whether for import or export is with the USA....this embargo prevents Cuba from becoming wealthy under Castro which it would obviously even if it remained communist, just like in China,...yet unlike China with a strong middle class Cuba would be free cause Castro would have been overthrown (though still admired and thanked) long ago! America is so cowardly and petty to continue this embargo we are better than this!

Its not just Che's image that the fascists have exploited. Everytime I turn on the tube or the radio or open a magazine I see images and hear sounds from John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, etc. used to sell crap to the mindless. Commercial exploitation is eveything these people stood against and to see them co-opted into the belly of the beast is obscene. First they kill them and then they steal their souls.

I observed Che's reputation in Cuba this spring. Che is the 'Face of the Revolution'. His likeness appears on walls and in parks, and there are statues of him in many cities and towns. Books about Che in English and Spanish and other languages are readily available at any book store. I bought one by his oldest daughter, Aleida, from his 2nd marriage, who was very young when he died.

Cuba has never forgotten Che and what he fought for. His efforts at teaching the peasant Revolutionaries and providing them with medical care are reflected in many of the Cuban National and International programs.

If Che is the 'Face of the Revolution' Fidel is its Voice! His likeness appears in few photos and is captured in no statue that I saw [Unlike the wonderful likeness of Che and Camillo Cienfuego on display at the Museo De Revolution in Havana.

Fidel shaped his Revolution thru direct speeches to the Cuban citizenry. He appeared live on TV and the radio addressing his public on a myriad of subjects thru out his fifty years as the head of government, and prior to that as a Revolutionary politician for the ten years prior to the Revolution.

You see far fewer books about Fidel then you see by him when you peruse the book stores. Even now, as a semi-invalid and no longer President of the country, he continues to educate and lead his people with the power of his persuasive writing.

The 'Heart' of the Revolution was Camillo Cienfuego. Camillo came from a different world then Fidel and Raul and Che. He was not a University Student and Doctor or Lawyer, but a country boy who fought to liberate Cuba from both Batista and the influence of the Capitalistic US Empire, which controlled
Cuba for sixty years thru manipulation and Puppet Governments.

Camillo died when his plane vanished on a trip from Santiago to Havana in late October, 1959. At the time of his death, Camillo's popularity was second only to Fidel's with the people of Cuba.

In Havana, this Trinity is revered by many, as the creators, and protectors, of the health and welfare of the citizenry. Their images and voices continue to help build the society that Cuban's want, not the one we think they should have.

OTOH, the CIA and Corporate Culture in the US and much of Europe has no difficulty attaching these icons to symbols of decadence - Just as Geo Bush the 1st had no difficulty in using the name of Cuba's first Revolutionary Hero, Jose Marti, for its propaganda machine emanating from South Florida.

Marti died, like Che, fighting against Spain and focusing many of his energies at preventing a take over by the US. He died in 1895, just prior to the Spanish American War, which resulted in Cuba's "Liberation".

No wonder the Cubans and Che's Family are tired of the abuse of the memories of their heroic dead!

Of course she is right, this is just another instance of how incredibly hypocritical and capitalistic the rest of the world is becoming. Hurray for the United States and its shameless pursuit of financially prosperous endeavors. And we call ourselves a "world leader." Embarressing.

Cliche Guevara....