Vol. 81/No. 41      November 6, 2017

 

Che Guevara postage stamp issued in Ireland stirs debate

 
“It’s excruciating to see … Ireland, a capitalist democracy that should know better, fall for the myth of Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch,” grumbled an Oct. 9 editorial in the Wall Street Journal. The Irish government had just issued a postage stamp to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the murder of the Cuban revolutionary while he was helping lead efforts to build a guerrilla movement in Bolivia to overturn the military dictatorship there.

The stamp featured a well-known painting of Guevara by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, itself based on a picture taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda. Noting that Guevara, born in Argentina, in fact had Irish ancestry, the stamp contains his father’s comment, “In my son’s veins flowed the blood of Irish rebels.”

The Journal editors’ class-hatred of Guevara, and fear that his example will continue to inspire youth and working people today, is well-founded.

Che was part of the leadership team forged by Fidel Castro, the central leader of the popular revolution that overturned the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in January 1959, bringing workers and farmers to power. It provided a powerful example worldwide of the capacities of millions of working people to organize a movement in their own class interests and transform themselves.

Fitzpatrick painted the image in 1968, he said, because he was “outraged by the manner of Che Guevara’s execution.” A day after his capture by Bolivian troops and CIA advisers in 1967 Guevara was killed in cold blood. They cut off his hands to prove his fingerprints verified Che was dead.

Less well known than Guevara’s iconic image is his dedication to Marxism and communist leadership following the conquest of power in Cuba. He helped draft the land reform laws; advanced voluntary work to meet pressing social needs; served as minister of industry, reorganizing production on a new, working-class foundation; and helped to prepare the founding of the Cuban Communist Party.

The Journal’s editors weren’t the only ones to get upset over Guevara’s image. Authorities at the Miami International Airport organized an exhibit on the accomplishments of the Irish in Latin America in September. After it had been up for a few hours they found out it featured Fitzpatrick’s painting of Che. Down Che came.

The stamp’s first run in Ireland rapidly sold out and is now being reprinted.
 
 
Related articles:
Protest US economic war against Cuban Revolution!
Brigadistas learn about Cuba, organize to defend revolution
Oscar López: ‘Cuba gives us best example of resistance’
 
 
 
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