The following is a statement by a number of different organizations within the Iranian university student movement issued on the occasion of Fidel Castro’s passing.  With the still growing signatures, the statement was already signed by 30 of such organizations throughout Iran upon its release on 26 November 2016.

The statement was delivered by a big delegations of Iranian university students to the ambassador of Cuba in Iran, and the students also signed the Fidel’s memorial book at the residence of Cuban ambassador.

To follow Fidel, let’s remain revolutionary!

The Letter of a group of Iranian revolutionary youth to Cuban revolutionary youth on the occasion of passing of Fidel Castro

Dear Cuban comrades and co- fighters

With best greetings,

The geographical distance amongst us is more than 11800 kilometers, but a mutual concept and message raised from common aspirations and objectives has brought our hearts so close to each other that we can ignore the geographical distance.

Brothers & sisters!

What has tied us together despite the long distance on the geographical maps is the concept of “struggle” and the aspiration for “destruction of arrogance” which the commander Fidel is one of its greatest leaders in the contemporary world. We write in the honor of a Castro whose determination and braveness turned the “backyard” to a hell for the Yankees and his tireless fight with the prevailing forces and oppressors of the world became a source of inspiration for many of the oppressed in the global society.

Brothers & sisters!

Today’s world is more than ever thirsty for the spirit of struggle.  Let’s look around us, the people’s movement in the heart of imperialism is only a small symptom of the flight of thoughts to reach equality and fight oppression in the current world.   After the inspiring revolution of your fathers and mothers in the 1950’s, the courage to fight oppressors in Latin America became pervasive, and after the Islamic revolution of our fathers and mothers which was a new chapter of struggle in the form of a novel literature and Islamic foundations in the 1970’s, the people of Western Asia and North Africa joined the world movement of justice-seekers, or in the words of our leader “the world party of the deprived”.  And, today, the flames of awakening of nations are visible throughout the world.

Dear friends!

We are indebted to Castro for an important part of such awakening.  Because, at the height of hopelessness and in a situation that there was small chance to defeat General Batista’s dictatorship, he succeeded to keep alive the warmth of hope and to build a country – ninety miles from the center of oppressors of the world – that would represent the symbol of “revolutionary efficacy” throughout the globe.  The honors of the revolutionary state of Cuba, especially in the fields of medical technologies and sports are a matter of admiration and pride for all of us. And, the passing of such an inspiring fighter and tireless guerilla is a bitter loss for us. Castro was the symbol of success of a revolutionary in an epoch that the oppressors of the world wished to present revolutionaries as weak and impotent.

Cuban comrades!

What is more difficult than to be a revolutionary and to fight is to remain revolutionary and to continue the path of struggle.  With more than 55 years from the revolution in your country and more than 37 years since the revolution in our country, there are many vulnerabilities and challenges faced by the revolutionary youth.  Some persons, at times at high governmental levels, have little faith in the aspirations of revolutions and they look at conciliation with the enemy as their ideal path.  Such spirit, of course thanks god is not the prevailing character among the authorities in revolutionary countries, but it is nevertheless a threat to future of the revolutions.  Furthermore, the will to fight for the final objective, which is to remove the ominous shadow of oppression from the whole world, may sometimes decline among some people and that would disregard achievements of a revolution.  Such challenge is not limited only to some particular revolution; it occurs in all the states after revolutions.  In fact we could say that this is a common concern among the revolutionary youth in Cuba, Iran and all other struggling nations.  However, what makes it difficult – and yet important – to continue the road of struggle, is to fight against deviations from the ideals of revolution and to strive for remaining in the path of a combat that our fathers initiated.  Today, such mission is on our shoulders.  The divine messengers, Jesus (peace be upon him), Prophet Mohammad (prayer of God be upon him and his family and peace) and all revolutionary leaders in the history are gazing at us.  The difficult and very challenging road ahead of us is a path that would determine the future of history.  Therefore, “to remain revolutionary” and to do our utmost to fight against the deviators of revolutions, from one side, and to explain and describe to the people the achievements of our revolutions, on the other side, these are our most important strategies in continuing the road of struggle.  Likewise, attempting to overcome the weaknesses of revolutionary governments and turning them to the points of strength, with a compassionate, critical and corrective approach shall set our agenda.  We shall try to prevent forgetting the outlook and beliefs of commander Fidel, Imam Khomeini and all justice-seeking leaders of history, and through strengthening the foundation of our thoughts we should seriously follow the path to fight oppression and establish the rule of justice throughout the land.

Brothers & sisters!

We, the Iranian revolutionary and justice-seeking students, while expressing our sympathy and sorrow for the passing of Fidel Castro; brotherly extend hands of friendships to you and declare that to remain in the path of revolution and to try to spread justice in the world, we are ready to cooperate and join you, as the revolutionary children of Castro.  As our supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has said: “when we talk about struggling and confronting the world’s arrogance, bullies and looters, our audience is all the deprived of the world.”  In the hope of a day that “the world party of oppressed” would bring the final battle of history to its end and remove the sinister stand of imperialism from the earth.