Posted: 9/30/2004 6:41:51 AM EDT
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The DU gang is about to shoot thier collective wads over the soon to be released "Motorcycle Diaries" The story of a young Che Guevara riding his way throughout South America. Yes, you'll laugh, you'll cry, but most of all you'll fall in love with Che. I was "into" Che as a teenager, thank God I out grew such childish things. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2430470&mesg_id=2430470&page= Any Che fans here?  |
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"Che Crazy"? That's what happens when you publicly execute politicos - they don't really die. Liked Motorcycle Diaries. It was a funny read (like the story where he shot the "puma"). That's about it. He's just a t-shirt now. Wonder if the movie will portray him as the gun nut he really was? |
AFAIR, he wasn't pro Che, but respected him for sticking to his ideals and fight for them. Kind of respecting the enemy so to speak. |
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Here's an interesting little story about "Che" t-shirts..... CHE GUEVARA INFO All Che tshirts, posters, buttons, and mugs are temporarily unavailable. We hope to resolve this issue and have Che merchandise soon. Thanks for your patience. www.northernsun.com/cgi-bin/ns/che.html?id=LKQaZJDR The following article appeared in the August 19th, 2004 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune newpaper. Doug Grow writes about people and events in the metro area of Minneapolis/St Paul. Doug Grow: Che's image takes a twist Doug Grow, Star Tribune A photograph of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara that long has been a symbol for the socialistic left is becoming a sign of American corporate power. Scott Cramer, owner of a mail-order business on E. Lake Street in Minneapolis, Northern Sun Merchandising, got the stunning news Monday when he was told by an Atlanta company that he must immediately stop selling his line of Che T-shirts, mugs and posters. The company informed Cramer that it has owned exclusive rights to this famous Guevara image in North America for two years. "I was told that if I wanted to continue to sell T-shirts, I would have to order from them," Cramer said. After getting over the shock that a single company may own the famous image of a revolutionary icon, Cramer was in for another shock. He asked the owner of the other company where their Che T-shirts are produced. "Honduras," was the answer. This is called piling irony on top of irony. Guevara is seen as a symbol of power of the people. Most progressives believe Honduras is home to vile sweatshops where workers have no rights to organize and are paid a pittance. "I told them that if I buy T-shirts made in Honduras, my customers are going to be very unhappy," Cramer said. "I said if I would make a big enough order, could they have them made in the U.S.? They said, 'No.' " Cramer said he'd have to think about his options. He then received an e-mail from the head of the other company, outlining what the Atlanta company believes Cramer's bleak options are. If Cramer doesn't order Che T-shirts from the other company, this other company threatens to sue Cramer. It will go after his current stock of shirts, damages, legal fees and the profits Northern Sun Merchandising has made on Che shirts since Aug. 15, 2002, which is when this other company says it got rights to the famous image. Cramer said all of this could cost him "thousands of dollars." Efforts to reach executives at the other company were unsuccessful. How could an internationally famous photo end up in the hands of an outfit that appears to profit from sweatshop labor? The short answer: the other company bought rights to the photo from the estate of Cuban news photographer Alberto Korda, who took the photo in 1960. Go back to the roots of the picture, which Korda called "The Heroic Revolutionary." Korda, a professional photographer and a revolutionary insider, took the photo when Guevara was at a funeral in Havana. The photo was not used by the newspaper Korda worked for at the time. Instead, wise editors opted to use photos of Fidel Castro. In 1967, Korda gave a print of the Che photo to an Italian friend. When Guevara was killed -- pick your conspiracy theory -- a year later, the Italian started distributing the photo. It was a huge hit, particularly among college students and radicals. It began showing up on millions of T-shirts and posters all over the world. Though Korda owned the rights to the photo, he never was bothered by its international use -- until Smirnoff vodka decided to use the image in one of its ads. Korda, who never made a penny from the photo, was furious. He took Smirnoff to court in London and reached a settlement in which he was awarded $50,000. He used the money for medicine for Cuban children. "If Che was still alive, he would have done the same," Korda was quoted as saying following the settlement in 2000. With Smirnoff out of the picture, everything was back to normal. Companies such as Northern Sun continued using the image on T-shirts and other items with no objection from Korda, who said he would protest use of the photo only when it "dishonored" Che's memory. "I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world," he said. Korda died in 2001. Northern Sun has been in existence for 25 years, selling items that appeal to progressives, both at the counter, via catalog and the Internet. "For the last few years, anti-Bush stuff has been the best," Cramer said of his product line. "George Bush has been very good for us. We're looking for a substantial drop in business after Nov. 2." T-shirts with such messages as "Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History" and "If You're Not Outraged You're Not Paying Attention" supply steady business. For more than 20 years, however, there's been nothing so steadily popular as T-shirts with the Che image. Cramer wants to continue making the shirts available to his customers. But that means figuring out a way to work with this other company. (One option: Buy the T-shirts from the other company, but warn customers they're being produced by Honduran workers.) But oh, the complexities of revolution. Now the Heroic Revolutionary is in the hands of a company that uses slogans like this one: "New and improved, that's what we're about, baby." Hmmm, if you think hard about it, maybe that's kind of Che-ish in a 21st century sort of way. Doug Grow is at [email protected] |
Good old Doug Grow, he's one of the most liberal communists working for the Red Star Tribune. He uses that new doubleplus unspeak as easily as any of them. Remember "progressive" is the new term for "ultraleft wing communist." It goes right along with the "undocumented worker" terminology instead of the correct term, "illegal alien." It's pretty hard to find any sympathy for that CAPITALIST store owner profiting from his sales of COMMUNIST merchandise to poor little rich liberal kids living in Uptown. |
| Do you really think that the hippy of today gives a rats ass that thier Che shirt or poster was mad in a sweat hsop in Hondo? Go down to your local five dollar a cup coffehouse and get a good whif of the hippies there, they want people to think that they are concerned about teh people of the world, but the truth is that as long as they don't have to bath and the slaves under the counter keep making the extra frothy foam, the coffee beans could be harvested by no legged hookers being dragged behing combines. |
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I have a book and shirt with Che on it! That must be twice as bad. But, seriously, at first I did see Che as being a type of "freedom fighter" for the people of Cuba and Latin America. I don't care what anyone says, but I thought that was pretty noble cause. BUT, now that I see how things work, his attempts to give power and atuonomy to the people and to give these countries control of their natural resources would never work, becaus a lot of these countries just don't have the technology to exploit their own resources. So, where does that leave those countries? Well, they become prime targets for exploitation by the big corporations in order to cut costs. And that's just the way things are. Someone HAS to be on the bottom. I mean, I don't think things would work as well if all countries were as powerful as the U.S. If that were true, how much would all the neat stuff that you and I want to purchase cost? If there wasn't cheap labor, like what can be found in third world countries, I don't think we could afford half the stuff we buy, right? Wait a minute, let me back up and get back on track with Che. Che was so bent on sticking to his "ideals" that he totally forgot about the people. He was like a machine in HIS work ethic and dedication. But most people can't be that way. People want to be individuals and some people just want to have a lot of stuff. But that wouldn't quite work in Che's world, would it? In his world, you have to sacrifice yourself for the good of the group, at least that's what I got out of it. So, no, I don't agree with ALL of the crap that Che stood for; however, I still like the idea of helping those people that are oppressed or in giving certain countries more control over their own resources so that the people can help themselves. |
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eh, lefties at college LOVE this shit... they eat it up. Quite frankly tho, i don't see many being upset about where the shirts are actually made. They love the image, but hate following through with it. Kind of like being a vegan but drinking milk because its the only thing in the fridge. Pfffft. Wankers. - BG |
Humberto Fontova Story Needless to say, the DUmmy's don't believe it. |
