Figures like Maduro, who is being vilified now by Western propaganda.
@Cowbee has a great reading list here that goes over many of these. Any anti-imperialist historical account is going to give you a better view
Here’s a few documentaries about different leaders:
- Fidel - The untold story (Cuban Revolution)
- Malcolm X - Make it Plain
- The Upright Man (Thomas Sankara)
- Grenada - Future coming Towards Us
- Paul Robeson - Here I Stand
- Lenin - old British Documentary
- The Murder of Fred Hampton
- The Revolution will not be televised (Chavez and Venezuela)
- A place called Chiapas (EZLN)
- Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul (서울의 평양 시민들)
- The Haircut - A North Korean Adventure
And I keep a study guide here.
FYI it seems about half of these have been taken down
Got memory-holed by google, not much we can do about that (apologies for the orwellism)
Note to others. The quality of the links isn’t great. And there seems to be an authoritarian communist et al. bias. Cross-reference stuff, and consider biases.
Well they did want a different light
I’m not arguing against that, just drawing attention to what kind of ‘light’ they are given. It’s not like there are only two perspectives.
You are on a site maintained and developed by communists, so there are a lot of us here. We all have biases, of course, and I’d argue that presenting an anti-western, pro-communist bias on some of the most unjustly demonized figures in the world both today and historically is exactly what OP asked for.
As for the bit on “authoritarianism,” communists support the use of the state in protecting socialism and uplifting the well-being of the vast majority of society. This is often framed as “authoritarian” by western countries, stripping property owners of their spoils and focusing on collectivized production and distribition, but we communists would argue that this creates a freer society overall.
Marx was called an “authoritarian” in his time as well, yet his work has helped lead to the liberation of billions of people. The communists who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to gain the power to feed, house, and clothe the people are the ones actually fighting for freedom, even if the west calls them authoritarian.
If you mean political leaders targeted by imperialist propaganda, most of them have written books or other writings that you can read and get accounts from their own mouth. Mao probably fits your bill (vilified by Western media) and his writing is very accessible and easy to read (he wrote largely for illiterate peasants) so that might be something to interest you.
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Based.
“They say the man with a stick and nothing to lose can win the day…”
Honestly? Bisan, Obeida and Leo are my heroes.
Well he’s vilified by western far right media, if that counts here.
