Carlos Varela Opposes Hate Rallies
HAVANA TIMES, May 5 — The popular Cuban folk-rock singer Carlos Varela said he opposes the “actos de repudio” (hate rallies) against the Ladies in White, wives and relatives of Cuban political prisoners.
Speaking in Miami while on tour in the USA, Varela said “I’ve never liked hate rallies inside or outside of Cuba. I believe they are something that should be erased from the memory of Cubans,” reported IPS.
He was referring to the organized “spontaneous” gatherings to disrupt peaceful protestors like the Ladies in White in Cuba and similar, although sometimes violent, rallies carried out in the past in Miami against visiting Cuban artists who live on the island.
It is human and normal to hate those who get in the way of our wishes; but this is a generality as stated, only — and the Devil is in the details. So, while it is OK to hate capitalist wage- (and still even chattel-) slavery, while this elite of parasites still rules over us in the West, it is quite another thing altogether for socialist forces to oppress small groups of Rightwingers inside a self-proclaimed socialist state — even if these individuals would do a lot of harm, if they could.
Fidel Castro called for the winning of the “Battle of Ideas” against imperialist forces — and that is exactly how a victorious Revolution must approach its vanquished foes. Even if this entails more work and thinking — and taking more risks: because the bottom-line about Socialism is ultimately about real, unfettered freedom. It has to start somewhere, after all the shooting.