Photo by Prensa Latina
Presentation by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.
President and CEO
National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
November 25, 2019
We, the NNPA, represent about 225 African American owned newspapers in the United States. This year represents the one hundred and ninety second year of the Black Press of America. So, I bring you all greetings of solidarity.
I am honored, Ambassador, to be on this panel with you and my comrades and I will try to share briefly not only some memories of H.E. Comrade President Fidel Castro, personal memories, but also how those memories apply today in 2019 when we are witnessing a re-imposition of the U.S. unjust blockade on Cuba. In fact, let me start there, because the blockade is not only a physical blockade, a political blockade; it is a blockade in the minds of those who oppress and those who support imperialism that is so unfair to the people of Cuba.
I want to say that November 25th should be a moment that we note, but I think that if Fidel would be still alive today, he would want us not to remember just his passing, but to remember his life and his revolutionary spirit that still continues to this day. That beacon spirit calls all of us, yes to be revolutionaries, but also yes to not wait for the revolution. We have to continue to make the revolution real. The revolution not only brought liberation to the people of Cuba, but it helped to bring liberation to the people of Africa, to people of the Caribbean, and to people struggling for freedom, justice and equality here in the United States.
As some of you know I, because of my work in the 1960s and after Dr. King´s assassination in 1968, we weren´t just romantic militants, but we took seriously the quest for black power beyond the rhetoric. We had to organize and that led me to a place called Wilmington, North Carolina in 1971. Now, I´m not going to tell you the whole story for the sake of time tonight. But I spent most of the 1970s in prison as a member of the Wilmington Ten. I was 23 years-old, 8 others were only 16, 17 and 18 years-old. The ten of us were sentenced to 282 years in prison in North Carolina because we dared fight for the rights of black kids to get equal quality education and to oppose the racism in the public schools. You´d say, what does this has to do with Fidel? Part of the international movement to free the Wilmington Ten was led by our Cuban brothers and sisters in the 1970s. In fact, today there are still small billboards in Havana which call for the freedom of the Willington Ten.
When I was writing from prison in the 1970s, I was writing to Nelson Mandela, and I got a note back from him, and we both talked about the importance of the Cuban revolution not only for African people, but to the freedom of all people throughout the world. And so tonight, we come not to mourn, tonight we come to rededicate ourselves to not only what Fidel Castro’s life still means today to the people of Cuba, but also to our brothers and sisters from all over the world. I think that times like the times that we are living in, my concern is that we have to raise up a generation of young people who not only know something fleeting about Fidel Castro, but know his whole history, know his whole journey, know his all wisdom, his whole genius.
I really love that song that you played at the beginning of this evening and if you know anything about the Cuban revolution you also know that culture plays a very important part. If you know anything about the black revolution here, you know that culture plays a very important part. So it is in our writings, it is in our poems, it is in our artistic depiction of our demands for freedom, justice and equality that we also have to express international solidarity.
Now personally, when I finally got out of prison in North Carolina, I wanted to leave America. Quite frankly, I wanted to go to live and struggle for freedom in Africa. I wanted to get all my relatives in North Carolina and just leave. And I went to Angola, and my Angolans brothers and sisters taught me a lesson, they said Ben if you want to change and help Africa go back and change America because American imperialism is what holds down Africa, what holds down (audience applauses), what holds down the people all over the world. And so I joined with Angela Davis and others in establishing the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR).
And most of my work in the 1980s was trying to reengage the black church because after Dr. King´s assassination there was a fear. I´m a preacher and there was a reality of fear that was setting among many of the clergy because we saw what would happen if you dared to raise your voice, your prophetic word to try to transform and change the United States for freedom, justice and equality. And so I remember vividly I think it was in 1983 or in 1984, when we organized a visit of Christian ministers to Cuba: Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Jeremiah Wrigjt, Rev. Dr. James Conet, myself and many others went to Cuba and we were hosted by the Cuban Council of Churches.
And I believe I´m correct, for the first time since the Cuban Revolution Fidel came to church and I introduced him to the pulpit of the United Methodist Church in Havana. I was very honored. I mean I thought I was like introducing a Jesus-like leader and revolutionary. That´s how I looked upon this man, that man, that leader, that not only just as a political guy, but, also Fidel was a spiritual guy for me and the others. Fidel was a global leader in 1984.
And then we began to work because we also realized that sometimes when we make progress in America and there is a reaction to the progress. You have to always be on guard, never rest, change and let your guard down because the oppressor will always try to come back, the forces of oppression, they will come back. And so the progressive movement, the international movement, the labor movement, the civil rights movement we were coming together but President Nixon in the late 1960s and early 1970s attempted to make sure that there was not going to be an effective movement of peoples internationally against oppression and imperialism. What we see today just did not get started over the last few years.
It´s been going on for more than about 40 or 50 years, and those repressive forces are still going on today to try to divide us, keep us separated, and one of the things I want to say about whenever you go to Cuba you see the unity of the Revolution, not a splinter of parts, but you see wholeness to the Revolution that gives us inspiration at least to those of us who work in the United States to try to build operational unity among our groups across the line of races, across the line of social-economic circumstances. I know I´m going to watch the time, I´m going to wind this down, so I was honored to introduce Fidel but later, I was telling you about Angola. I went to Angola and of course when Fidel sent the Cuban troops to Angola it changed world history. It just didn´t change African history, it changed world history. While Reagan had constructive engagement with Apartheid, supporting Apartheid, here in D.C. the largest building federal building in DC is named after Reagan, the airport is named after Reagan who represented the height of imperialism. I don´t think the South African government would have let Nelson Mandela out of jail if it had not been by the Cuban presence in Angola.
And so in a sense I did not meet physically Fidel again in Angola, in Africa, but I did meet him there because I met his troops, I met his soldiers. I remember vividly after the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola in 1988, I went down into the trenches with Cuban troops, they were cooking bread in a little makeshift oven in the trenches. The South African army which was well-mechanized with tanks and airplanes was defeated resolutely, and SWAPO and the MLPLA and the ANC all working together heroically with Cuban soldiers. Now today Angola is free, Namibia is free, Zimbabwe is free, and South Africa is free because in large part due to the strategic and timely intervention of our Cuban brothers and sisters in southern Africa.
One thing is to have revolutionary rhetoric and it is another thing to put it into practice. In 1997, I went back to Havana and had dinner with comrade Fidel and comrade Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada. Oh man! I can´t remember what we ate because I was remembering every word Fidel spoke. We got into talking about the Vietnam War and I´m talking about a man who had no notes. He could tell you how many bombs were dropped on the Vietnamese, he could tell you how many planes flew, and he could tell you how many troops died, where they died, what was the victory of the Vietnamese over the American army. Fidel also spoke with passion about the Vietnamese as if Vietnam was Cuba. Again, international solidarity means we got to look sometimes beyond our own borders. International solidarity means that we have to work together.
If a victory here is a victory there, and a victory there is a victory here and we have to rise to that occasion. So I´m going to pass on to my colleges, I want to just end with this. I thank God for Fidel Castro, I thank God for this revolutionary leader whose revolutionary spirit is still alive in this room, in this Embassy and throughout the world today. We got work to do, in 2019, we got work to do in 2020. Viva Fidel Castro!