Che-nge the record, it's just a statue

FOREIGNERS IN

The statue is a discrase to the intellect of the Irish people. If failure Che gets a statue, why not one Stalin,Ho Chi Ming, Mao Tse Tung..I am for stopping the International Fund For Ireland.Curtailing Irish visas, let Ireland have its socialist revolution, and glorify the commie heros while they starve.

Very good piece, Paddy. It's none of this woman's business.

This statue is not a good idea. Che caused too much havoc to be glorified as he has been through Fitzpatrick's image and to extend that myth for all visitors to JFK Park /Eyre Sq. does nobody any favours. Least of all the truth. Like the statue to Sean Russell in Clontarf it is devisive. You want to commerate the Cuban Revolution, I'm sure there are some better models. A couple of workers out of the sugar plantations foinstance.

Che was never "simply" an iconic freedom fighter or an insurgent. And "many innocent people" are suffering now at the hands of a few who have forgotten that deepening poverty spurs people to protest and organize. In 1952 Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, "We are defending freedom against tyranny and are trying to preserve justice against a system which has, demonically, distilled injustice and cruelty out of its original promise of a higher justice" ("Irony of Amer. Hist."). He was writing about communism, but his words "demonically distilled injustice and cruelty out of its original promise" could also describe our once-great free-market economy, and Niebuhr would feel the irony. His words also capture the tragic irony of Che's life, along with others who were caught up in the 20th century vortex of revolutions. My point is that people who are passionate about justice turn to revolution when they find peaceful, constitutional paths blocked. That's a fact of Che Guevara's life and an important lesson of history.

Simple solution: Erect the statue, but do a spelling change on the main square in Galway. Call it Eire Square. Everyone happy.

Guevera was simply an insurgent. He wasn't Simon Bolivar. The U.S., Cuba and Columbia wanted him taken out. It's as simple as that. Insurgent warfare isn't "noble". Far from it as many innocent people suffer.

Che's image also symbolizes the right of small nations to self-determination. Cubans seem determined to make socialism work for them, but Cuba is under pressure. In the USA, the GOP would block any attempts to lift the long-standing embargo on Cuban goods. And on his recent visit to Cuba, the pope, in the name of "authentic freedom," pressured the government to allow Catholic schools. The gov't is resisting his message because it seems like a move backwards for Cuba, where RC clergy once supported an oppressive regime in a cozy church-state relation. There should be skepticism whenever this pope adds the word "authentic," as he did in January when speaking of "authentic human rights" as code for "no gay rights." Cubans should figure that when he speaks of "authentic freedom," he means civil liberties limited by Catholic doctrine, as in the USA, where the bishops are pushing for "authentic" religious "freedom" to discriminate against women and gays. Post-revolutionary Cuba carried through the most successful adult literacy program ever and now has an educated population able to manage change. Catholic schools would teach anti-Socialist, pro-capitalist ideology at a time when capitalism, in worldwide disgrace, needs restraint and reform. A statue of Che Guevara would acknowledge the will of the Cuban people to control their own economic destiny, free from interference by Church or foreign powers. We do not have to approve of others' choices to support their right to choose for themselves.

I'm also ambivalent about Che, as anyone with a sense of Cuban Revolution history should be. But I'm not ambivalent about this statue: consider the times we live in and the symbolism. In the USA and Ireland, crony capitalists have dis-empowered workers and wielded political power to shrink education and social welfare budgets. They need to realize that when government diverts national wealth away from the common good and to an elite, it strengthens the potential for revolutionary change that always exists in the people. Che represents revolutionary change, not gentle, working-within-the-system change, which has not worked for us lately! We're struggling with too much organized opposition just when we need to strengthen government control over the economy, to get us past recession and towards fairer taxation. So although I have no vote in Galway, I'll be glad to see this statue at a time when we need the restraining hand of strong government to limit the effects of rampant corporate greed, to reform 'the systems' we live with. Che's image will remind us to work for economic justice, peacefully whenever possible, but boldly whenever moneyed elites block the path of justice. When you see how much antagonism and opposition-- how much real fear-- this statue has inspired in the USA, you see the power that a mere sculpted symbol can have!