Popular revolutions are characterized by the emergence of charismatic leaders, who are persons with an exceptional capacity to understand, capable of unifying the different tendencies in the revolutionary movement and forging a coherent program.  Their discourses are formulated in the context of a practical situation, in which it becomes necessary to define a direction in order to address a political problem or to overcome a division that has emerged within the revolutionary process.  Although they are political leaders with new ideas, charismatic leaders have engaged in serious intellectual work and have studied the writings and speeches of intellectuals and revolutionary leaders who emerged before them, in their own nations and in other regions of the world.  They formulate new understandings in the name of the earlier revolutionary leaders and the national revolutionary moral and intellectual tradition.  They thus forge a further development in revolutionary theory, a development integrally tied to practice.  Study of the writings and speeches of the charismatic leaders that have been lifted up by the peoples of the world can enable us to understand the essential components of revolution and the possibilities for global popular revolution in our time.

Ho Chi Minh

Kwame Nkrumah

Julius Nyerere

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fidel Castro

Hugo Chavez

Raúl Castro

Miguel Díaz-Canel

Rafael Correa

Cristina Fernández

Evo Morales

Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations

ALBA

Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)

Group of 77

Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China

Peoples' Summit 2015