Comrade of the Revolution

By Fidel Castro Ruz. Edited by Vijay Prashad and Manolo de los Santos. Foreword by Fernando Gonzalez Llort Published by 1804 Books and Leftword Books, 2021 'You cannot kill ideas. Fidel, for the Third World, was not merely another leader. He was the mirror of its aspirations. That mirror will never be shattered.' - From the Introduction Fidel Castro's speeches were classrooms for the revolution. Through these speeches, Fidel came before the people to explain the conjuncture and problems the government faced with honesty and by putting them into historical context. Each of his speeches is a tour de force of explication, a history lesson, a sociology lesson, a political lesson, and even a lesson on literature. Fidel reached back to revolutionaries from an earlier time and dug into the data produced by the government. The traditions, experiences, and oral histories of national liberation and Marxism-Leninism articulated by Fidel came alive as he spoke to new audiences engaged in building a socialist experiment just miles away from the heart of the empire. Fidel Castro launched a battle of ideas in defense of socialist thought and the permanent mobilization of the people's consciousness. The speeches collected in this book carry forward the battle of ideas that framed the last decades of Fidel's life until he left us on 26 November 2016 at the age of ninety. FIDEL CASTRO RUZ Fidel Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 - 25 November 2016) was the leader of the Cuban Revolution. He was for many years the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic of Cuba. FERNANDO GONZALEZ LLORT Fernando Gonzalez Llort is one of the 'Cuban Five', the revolutionary heroes, unfairly imprisoned in the United States for fighting against terrorist organizations that have operated from US territory against Cuba. In 2017 he was appointed President of Cuba's Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). A graduate of International Relations, Fernando served as an internationalist combatant in southern Angola between 1987-89. MANOLO DE LOS SANTOS Manolo De Los Santos is Co-Executive Director of The People's Forum and researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He co-edited, most recently, Viviremos: Venezuela vs Hybrid War (LeftWord 2020). VIJAY PRASHAD Vijay Prashad is the Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Darker Nations: A Biography of the Short-Lived Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South and Red Star Over the Third World (from LeftWord). His most recent book is Washington Bullets (LeftWord 2021). He writes regularly for Frontline, The Hindu, Alternet and BirGun. He is Chief Editor at LeftWord Books.