I read an article recently, by some Marxist pencil-neck, criticizing Ernesto "Che" Guevara. He said, "Che wasn't really a communist because he hadn't mastered Marxist theory."
Who was Che, anyway?
Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter-cultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht, 'Granma', with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.
Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.
Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world".
The Soviet Union and the legion of pro-Moscow communists who dominated the Castro regime saw Che as a radical Maoist who sought to stir revolutions throughout the world without the 'benefit' of party leadership.
THEORY VS PRACTICE
Of course Karl Marx was right. But he wasn't the last person who ever walked the earth. Since the 1800s there have been quite a few thinkers who also figured out the answers to a myriad of problems... It would take a book to name them all... We only recently have developed the Internet as a knowledge base, and a place to exchange ideas... But, it is plain for all to see that millions of people are thinking and coming up with new ideas everyday.
We must take advantage of the latest and best ideas and make them our own, rather than constantly rehash old ideas and ineffective solutions. Otherwise we will become obsolete. And a laughingstock among the working people of this country.
Which brings us to the arm-chair theorist: Who wastes his time worrying about what might have been. Who thinks and talks and writes - but never manages to actually do anything! He will advocate violence but never puts his 'ass in the grass'... He wants respect for his 'mind' but never does anything tangible to earn it.
What good are thoughts without action? What good is a critique of the work of others without positive solutions?
Show us how to get what we want or shut the fuck up!
My position is now and has always been that intellectuals are superfluous. Negative thinking is always a brake on human progress. It is those who are bold enough to ACT that make history and effect change. The critics usually wind up in front of a firing squad or locked away in prison for their troubles.
Practice what you preach or go back to sleep! DO IT - don't just go on and on about it!
WHY DID CHE HAVE TO DIE?
I think what happened to Che is that he decided to commit suicide... The logic is inescapable: politics is a dirty business, there is no place in it for romantics and dreamers. They are often exploited to be sure. But, in the end, it is always the bureaucrats that triumph. Someone has to 'manage' affairs; build the roads , schools and factories... Someone has to do the dirty work, to sweep and take out the trash, to clean the toilets... We can't all be noble knights on a quest to save the world... Revolution isn't about fighting - it's about building the New Society and creating the New Man!
OF WHAT VALUE IS CHE TO US?
Che represents the Spirit of Revolution. 'Saint Ernesto' is the patron saint of hopeless causes. The Indomitable Spirit of Humanity. That refuses to give way before tyranny. That resists the Enemy to the bitter end. And, in the end, triumphs over all adversity - even in death and defeat - because, after all, you cannot kill an idea! You can kill the man, and make him a martyr - thus giving the idea more power - but, you cannot stop the force of human history. You can fall under the wheels of human progress and be ground to mincemeat, if that is your choice or fate - but you can't stop what is destined to be!
And, that's the Truth!
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