PFLP mourns and salutes Comrade Fidel Castro, a revolutionary inspiration for the world

PFLP mourns and salutes Comrade Fidel Castro, a revolutionary inspiration for the world
Nov 26 2016
 

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The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -PFLP-extends its condolences to the Cuban people, the Palestinian people and the revolutionary movements of the world upon the loss of the former prime minister and president of Cuba and the historic international revolutionary leader, Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, on Friday, November 25, 2016.

Castro’s internationalist revolutionary commitment to fighting imperialism and capitalism – manifest in the revolutionary victory against US imperialism and its puppet Batista regime in the 1959 Cuban revolution – conistently stood with the oppressed peoples of the world in their confrontation of imperialism, Zionism, racism and capitalism. Throughout his life, Fidel was a supporter and an example of revolutionary struggle in Latin America, in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and throughout the continent. From Angola to South Africa, Palestine to Mozambique, Bolivia to El Salvador, Castro’s legacy of international revolutionary solidarity and struggle continues to serve as an example in practice that transcends borders toward revolution, democracy and socialism.

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At a time when the world is witnessing the massive domination of imperialist powers, it is particularly critical at this time to cherish and learn from the legacy and reality of the Cuban revolution and its persistent defeat of US imperialism. The victory of the Cuban revolution was one that came through armed struggle, a victory that belonged to the entire people. Fidel and his comrades mobilized workers and peasants to fight together to ensure the victory of their revolution, not only at the moment of their triumph in 1959, but over the decades to come. Despite all contradictions, the Cuban revolution has remained an example of the nationalization of production, the division of wealth, and the construction of exceptional free education and health care systems.
Throughout Castro’s life, and throughout the history of the Cuban revolution, support for the Palestinian people’s national liberation movement and the Palestinian revolution has been central to its anti-imperialist approach that centered the construction of revolutionary alliances between the progressive forces and struggling peoples of the world. The Palestinian people and the Cuban people have stood fidel22together at all levels, in confronting imperialism and its forces, from Latin America to Africa to the Arab world. In the Tricontinental alliance and the Non-Aligned Movement, Cuba stood with the Palestinian people and their liberation movement in all facets of international struggle, building a revolutionary alliance for collective movement against imperialism, colonialism and its particular manifestation in Palestine, Zionism. Zionism has been a key weapon of racist oppression, a fact recognized by Fidel Castro and the Cuban people and state. This popular unity has not faded over the years; as Zionist weaponry pounded Gaza in 2014, Castro slammed this “repugnant fascism” against the Palestinian people. Dozens of Palestinian students continue to study in Cuba today through its long-running scholarship program.

As we mark the passing of Fidel Castro, we also remember his comrades: Che Guevara, Celia Sanchez, Camilo Cienfuegos, Haydee Santamaria, and many more who fought to create a new Cuba and build a revolutionary society. This is a moment not only for mourning and for memory, but also a time to revive our revolutionary ideas, for victory for Palestine, towards democracy and socialism.

“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past,” said Fidel Castro.

Throughout his life, he fought endlesly to bring that future into being. This moment calls on us to intensify, examine, and develop our Palestinian, Arab and international revolution to defeat Zionism and imperialism and fight for a future of liberation, justice, democracy and socialism.