There's something about Che Guevara that convinces older European men that they will become cooler through association with his "brand." We saw that again yesterday when Mercedes-Benz Chairman Dieter Zetsche launched a new car under a banner picture of Guevara. Years ago, an equally desperate Anglican clergyman tried to stem dwindling congregations with a poster of Guevara wearing a crown of thorns. The hip slogan? "Meek and Mild? As if."
The Anglican Church continues to, ahem, have its problems attracting people to an increasingly troubled denomination. As to whether communism will help a luxury car maker sell a lavish lifestyle, well, let's say I remain agnostic. But the occasion to comment on the appropriateness of using Che Guevara to market anything cannot be passed up.
Che Guevara, not to put too fine a point on it, was a psychopath whose sadistic lust for blood was not easily quenched. He killed for pleasure.
He had, moreover, little time for youthful rebellion and none at all for individualism. Lastly, Che Guevara was a racist who specifically held blacks in contempt. I think about this often when I see deluded young African-Americans wearing a t-shirt with his likeness. But a German born a handful of years after 1945 really ought to have known better.
Much has been written about how Guevara executed men and boys in prison in the early revolutionary years in Cuba, disposing of such bourgeois niceties as trials. This little snippet from a 1966 speech by Guevara ought to have given Zetsche some pause:
Hatred is the central element of our struggle! Hatred that is intransigent...hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him violent and cold- blooded killing machine...We reject any peaceful approach. Violence is inevitable. To establish Socialism rivers of blood must flow! The imperialist enemy must feel like a hunted animal wherever he moves. Thus we'll destroy him! These hyenas are fit only for extermination. We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm! The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims!
But rebellion was something only reserved for Guevara and others in government. In an earlier speech spurning "the spirit of rebellion", in 1961, he made clear that government was in charge. "Youth must refrain from ungrateful questioning of governmental mandates," he said.
As for Guevara's views on race, he did not mince words. After the Revolution's victory in 1959, he famously said, "We're going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing."
And no, it wasn't just hard feelings over how Cuban blacks had supported the biracial dictator Fulgencio Batista. With Guevara it was more of a conviction, as we can glean from another quote. Speaking of blacks he said: "The ***** is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent."
Yes, quite a model that Che Guevara. You'd buy a car from him, wouldn't you? What will Mercedes-Benz come up with next? The Baader-Mienhof super coupe?
Update: To Mercedes-Benz's credit, it apologized 48 hours after the event. A statement said, in part,
"Daimler was not condoning the life or actions of this historical figure or the political philosophy he espoused. We sincerely apologize to those who took offense."
A spokesman also said, "It was very thoughtless not to realize that by doing that, it would offend a large number of people," adding of the PR person who thought up the use of Che Guevara's image: "It was absolutely stupid that somebody did it."
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"I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed 'an innocent'. Those persons executed by Guevara or on his orders were condemned for the usual crimes punishable by death at times of war or in its aftermath: desertion, treason or crimes such as rape, torture or murder. I should add that my research spanned five years, and included anti-Castro Cubans among the Cuban-American exile community in Miami and elsewhere."
---- Jon Lee Anderson,
author of the 800 + page 'Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life', PBS forum
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/november97/che1.html
It is actually hard to think of another historical figure who was as well rounded, intelligent, poetic, brave, sincere, audacious, and revolutionary as Che Guevara. This is why he has so much resonance over 40 years after his CIA-aided execution.
There is a Che in all of us who dream of a better World and his ghost haunts the U.$. Empire wherever they go and attempt to rape the resources of other nations. Anyone who has ever seen 3rd world poverty up close understands Che's fury and determination. Anyone who has ever seen how the top 1% live in luxury while most barely have enough to eat will sympathize with Che's struggle.
... America needs a Che Guevara of our own :o)
American right-wingers like to ignore the inconvenient fact that Che Guevara battled 3 U.S.-backed dictators on 3 separate continents (Batista/Cuba, Mobutu/Congo, & Barrientos/Bolivia).
The right-wing also likes to avoid acknowledging that Che's radicalism was spawned from living in Guatemala during the 1953 overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz by the CIA (Operation PBSUCCESS) on behalf of Secretary of State Dulles and the United Fruit Company.
As the Cuban Revolution and Che proved, when given the decision of backing a democratic government that represents the interests of the majority of a nation's citizens or a right-wing dictator who will protect the business interests of the United States = the U.S. will usually chose the latter.
"Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom? The government of the United States is not the champion of freedom, but rather the perpetrator of exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the world and against a large part of its own population."
--- CHE GUEVARA,
to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City, December 11 1964
Che Guevara
his nephew joeseph coors founded the heritage fondation...
Dieter Zetsche serves to advance this political value system.
"Che's life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom, we will always honor his memory." --- Nelson Mandela
- Denounced the racism and KKK in America in 1961
- Called out South Africa's Apartheid in 1964 at the U.N., 30 years before the West!
- Desegregated the schools in Cuba before they were in the Southern US
- Fought in Africa with an all black army against white mercenaries
- Had a black bodyguard with him at all times named “Pomboâ€
- Held the CIA-killed African leader Patrice Lumumba up as a hero