There is a profound irony, no doubt influenced by President Barack Obama’s neoliberal pedigree, that comes with watching the nation’s first black president touch down in a country whose revolution was successful in part because its leaders abolished American-imposed Jim Crow racism laws overnight as part of their ascent to power. I am personally one who finds a huge level of solidarity with the Cuban revolution and look with great anxiety at what could take place in the coming years. And to encourage others to find similar solidarity, I would highly encourage they watch Steven Soderbergh’s epic two part Che film.

Released in 2008 just after capitalism had proven yet again it is a force of destruction, the pictures bombed at the box office for a few reasons. It was long, in Spanish, and there was just enough anti-Communism left in the wider American public, prior to the Occupy Wall Street movement, to hinder a potential audience. But after eight years of an abysmal neoliberal presidency that has been one disaster after another, along with the revelations from Assange, Snowden, and Manning that show the NSA behaves worse than the Stasi ever did, I think there is a fresh audience waiting to watch this picture.

Part 1, The Argentine, is a fantastic war movie that retells the story of Che Guevara’s leadership in the mountains of Cuba as they creep towards Havana, converting peasants and workers who live in poverty to their cause. As a frame narrative, Soderbergh shows in stark black and white Guevara’s visit to the United Nations several years later wherein he rebukes the NATO-aligned western imperialists to cheers from the delegates representing the Soviet Union and Africa. Watching the film gives one a tremendous amount of respect for the cause of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and Che. Watching Benicio Del Toro as Che lecture the UN about patria o muerte, one recalls the words of Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth:

Castro attending the UN in military uniform does not scandalize the underdeveloped countries. What Castro is demonstrating is how aware he is of the continuing regime of violence. What is surprisings is that he did not enter the UN with his submachine gun; but perhaps they wouldn’t have allowed that.

Indeed.

Part 2, Guerilla, is about the ill-fated effort Che led in Bolivia trying to foment revolution. Due to a series of circumstances beyond his control, including sectarianism in the Latin American Communist movement caused by the Sino-Soviet split and a lack of tactical advantage that Che has responsibility for ultimately, the operation is an ill-fated debacle. Whereas the first film was a picture made up of wide panoramas, this second one is full of tight close-ups and atmospheric shots that make the story feel more like a suspense thriller. As we watch the mission fail, it brings home for the viewer why the efforts of Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Lula, and the rest of the Bolivarian revolution was so vital for the Global South. And that is how a film that ends with the death of the protagonist can be a happy ending, for we know the future has potential.

I am of course quite disturbed by recent developments in the Global South that demonstrate the empire is on the offensive. Recent events in South Africa led one ANC official to say that a coup was being fomented by agents in the American embassy and was based around Obama’s Young African Leadership Initiative, an organization which expanded into the country shortly after the death of President Nelson Mandela. This is important to understand because Cuba is a historic ally of the ANC, having sent troops and weapons to aid them in the anti-apartheid border wars. At the same time, Argentina and Venezuela have seen American-backed electoral victories that deliver their people back into the maw of neoliberalism. Events in Bolivia and Ecuador also indicate this trend is a serious threat. Should Obama get his way, Cuba would be encircled by enemies once again while being wracked by debt that CEOs are arriving in Havana to unleash this week. Looking again to Fanon, we find these words: [T]he liquidation of the Castro regime will be quite peaceful.

For now, all we can do as Leftists is stand in solidarity against empire and war while agitating others to the cause.

First Mike Riley was telling lies about Congressman Jim Langevin in TV commercials. Now, we’re pretty certain he’s telling lies about RI Future to other reporters. Or, it’s just another example of why  Mike “McCarthyism” Riley is totally unfit to represent Rhode Island in Congress (we’ll offer more evidence of as much a little later this morning).

Read Dee DeQuattro’s post about Riley this morning and decide which you think it is.

Riley and Langevin debate, without candidate Abel Collins, on WPRI tonight at 7. The market’s leading TV news station blundered big time in not including Collins in the debate, and exacerbated the mistake by not being forthcoming with their reasoning for doing so. Journalism should err on the side of inclusion and explanation and WPRI did neither with their responsibility to host this particular congressional debate. Such decisions deserve scrutiny and ace reporters Tim White, Ted Nesi and others who work there would be demanding nothing less if the subject wasn’t their employer.

For a man who says he possesses uncommon integrity, the ProJo Politifact team sure does catch Brendan Doherty telling a lot of lies. Today, they refute his accusation that Congressman Cicilline, when mayor of Providence, “espoused a sanctuary city.” Doherty has been poltifacted six times and half of those times he wasn’t telling the truth. He was given a half-true and a mostly true and only once was he said to be telling the full truth. This from a candidate whose campaign is based around his opponent being distrustful.

Admit it, you wish you were too high-brow to pay attention to them but Dan McGowan makes great lists. Today’s list shows which RI communities have the highest rates of unemployment and it looks a lot like lists of the communities with the worst budget situations as well as public school high-stakes testing results. What does that indicate? (Hint: it isn’t the unions fault)

Thanks to Ed Fitzpatrick for joining RI Future in calling for the town of Smithfield to change the name of a local road named after a KKK leader … it seemed like a no-brainder to us, too, and we kept waiting for the rest of the state to join the call. But evidently Rhode Islanders were too busy rallying against civil liberties and looking for frightened voters in attics to care…

The mortgage crisis in Rhode Island, in case you didn’t know, is a Gordian knot – meaning untangling the mess may prove impossible without a special solution. That solution looks like it could be loan modifications.

Is True the Vote committing a criminal conspiracy by suppressing voters rights?

Disappointed with our choices for State House seats? Just be glad you don’t live in Arkansas, where candidates garner headlines like this one: Legislative Candidate Endorses Death Penalty For Rebellious Children In Book

October 9 is a pretty significant day in the history of progressive and/or radical politics:

In 1635, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

In 1940, John Lennon was born.

In 1967, Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia while trying to foment revolution there.

And in 1969, the National Guard breaks up protests related to the Chicago Eight trial. They were accused of inciting violence at the 1968 DNC Convention.