CHE GUEVARA ARCHIVES at The Che Store
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Che Guevara Archives
A Neglected Interview with Che
Two Chinese Communist journalists, K'ung Mai and Ping
An, interviewed Che Guevara at his home on April 18, 1959, or,
as they put it, on "the 108th evening after the victory
of the revolution." Though Peking radio and the New China
News Agency in London gave summaries and a few direct quotations
from it, the interview was not reported in any of Peking's three
leading newspapers. It was, however, published in full in the
lesser-known journal Shih-chieh Chih-shih (World Knowledge)
of June 5, 1959. This neglected interview apparently never appeared
in Cuba, nor was it translated from the Chinese into any other
language until William E. Ratliff published a complete English
translation, thoroughly documented and annotated, in the Hispanic
American Historical Review of August, 1966.
Reporter:
Will you please tell us how Cuba achieved her revolutionary
victory?
Guevara: Certainly. Let us begin at the time
I joined the 26th of July Movement in Mexico. Before the dangerous
crossing on the Granma the views on society of the members of
this organization were very different. I remember, in a frank
discussion within our family in Mexico, I suggested we ought
to propose a revolutionary program to the Cuban people. I have
never forgotten how one of the participants in the attack on
the Moncada army camp responded at that time. He said to me:
"Our action is very simple. What we want to do is to initiate
a coup d'etat. Batista pulled off a coup and in only one morning
took over the government. We must make another coup and expel
him from power . . . Batista has made a hundred concessions
to the Americans, and we will make one hundred and one."
At that time I argued with him, saying that we had to make a
coup on the basis of principle and yet at the same time understand
clearly what we would do after taking over the government. That
was the thinking of a member of the first stage of the 26th
of July Movement. Those who held the same view and did not change
left our revolutionary movement later and adopted another path.
From that time on, the small organization that later made the
crossing on the Granma encountered repeated difficulties. Besides
the never-ending suppression by the Mexican authorities, there
was also a series of internal problems, like those people who
were adventurous in the beginning but later used this pretext
and that to break away from the military expedition. Finally
at the time of the crossing on the Granma there remained only
eighty-two men in the organization.
The adventurous thought of that time was the first and only
catastrophe encountered within the organization during the process
of starting the uprising. We suffered from the blow. But we
gathered together again in the Sierra Maestra. For many months
the manner of our life in the mountains was most irregular.
We climbed from one mountain peak to another, in a drought,
without a drop of water. Merely to survive was extremely difficult.
The peasants who had to endure the persecution of Batista's
military units gradually began to change their attitude toward
us. They fled to us for refuge to participate in our guerrilla
units. In this way our rank and file changed from city people
to peasants. At that same time, as the peasants began to participate
in the armed struggle for freedom of rights and social justice,
we put forth a correct slogan -land reform. This slogan mobilized
the oppressed Cuban masses to come forward and fight to seize
the land. From this time on the first great social plan was
determined, and it later became the banner and primary spearhead
of our movement.
It was at just this time that a tragedy occurred in Santiago
de Cuba; our Comrade Frank País was killed. This produced
a turning point in our revolutionary movement. The enraged people
of Santiago on their own poured into the streets and called
for the first politically oriented general strike. Even though
the strike did not have a leader , it paralyzed the whole of
Oriente Province. The dictatorial government suppressed the
incident. This movement, however, caused us to understand that
working class participation in the struggle to achieve freedom
was absolutely essential! We then began to carry out secret
work among the workers, in preparation for another general strike,
to help the Rebel Army seize the government.
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The victorious and bold secret activities of the Rebel Army
shook the whole country; all of the people were stirred up,
leading to the general strike on April 9 last year. But the
strike failed because of a lack of contact between the leaders
and the working masses. Experience taught the leaders of the
26th of .July Movement a valuable truth: the revolution must
not belong to this or that specific clique;, it must be the
undertaking of the whole body of the Cuban people. This conclusion
inspired the members of the movement to work their hardest,
both on the plains and in the mountains.
At this time we began to educate our forces in revolutionary
theory and doctrine. This all showed that the rebel movement
had already grown and was even beginning to achieve political
maturity. . . .
Every person in the Rebel Army remembered his basic duties in
the Sierra Maestra and other areas: to improve the status of
the peasants, to participate in the struggle to seize land,
and to build schools. Agrarian law was tried for the first time;
using revolutionary methods we confiscated the extensive possessions
of the officials of the dictatorial government and distributed
to the peasants all of the state-held land in the area. At this
time there rose up a peasant movement, closely connected to
the land, with land reform as its banner. . . .
To carry out thoroughly the law providing for the abolition
of the latifundia system will be the concern of the peasant
masses themselves. The present State Constitution provides for
mandatory monetary compensation whenever land is taken away,
and land reform under it will be both sluggish and difficult.
Now after the victory of the revolution, the peasants who have
achieved their freedom must rise up in collective action and
democratically demand the abolition of the latifundia system
and the carrying out of a true and extensive land reform.
Reporter: What problems does
the Cuban Revolution now face, and what are its current responsibilities?
Guevara: The first difficulty
is that our new actions must be engaged in on the old foundations.
Cuba's anti-people regime and army are already destroyed, but
the dictatorial social system and economic foundations have
not yet been abolished. Some of the old people are still working
within the national structure. In order to protect the fruits
of the revolutionary victory and to enable the unending development
of the revolution we need to take another step forward in our
work to rectify and strengthen the government. Second, what
the new government took over was a rundown mess. When Batista
fled he cleaned out the national treasury, leaving serious difficulties
in the national finances. . . . Third, Cuba's land system is
one in which latifundistas hold large amounts of land, while
at the same time many people are unemployed.... Fourth, there
is still racial discrimination in our society which is not beneficial
to efforts to achieve the internal unification of the people.
Fifth, our house rents are the highest in the world; a family
frequently has to pay over a third of its income for rent. To
sum up, the reform of the foundations of the economy of the
Cuban society is very difficult and will take a long time.
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In establishing the order of society and in democratising the
national life, the new government has adopted many positive
measures. We have exerted great effort to restore the national
economy. For example, the government has passed a law lowering
rents by fifty percent. Yesterday a law regulating beaches was
passed to cancel the privileges of a small number of people
who occupy the land and the seashores. . . .
Most important is the land reform law, which will soon be promulgated.
Moreover. we will found a National Land Reform Institute. Our
land reform here is not yet very penetrating; it is not as thorough
as the one in China. Yet it must be considered the most progressive
in Latin America. . . .
Reporter:
How will Cuba struggle against domestic and foreign reactionary
enemies? What are the prospects of the revolution?
Guevara: The Cuban Revolution is not
a class revolution, but a liberation movement that has overthrown
a dictatorial, tyrannical government. The people detested the
American-supported Batista dictatorial government from the bottoms
of their hearts and so rose up and overthrew it. The revolutionary
government has received the broad support of all strata of people
because its economic measures have taken care of the requirements
of all and have gradually improved the livelihood of the people.
The only enemies remaining in the country are the latifundistas
and the reactionary bourgeoisie. They oppose the land reform
that goes against their own interests. These internal reactionary
forces may get in league with the developing provocation's of
the foreign reactionary forces and attack the revolutionary
government.
The only foreign enemies who oppose the Cuban Revolution are
the people who monopolize capital and who have representatives
in the United States State Department. The victory and continuous
development of the Cuban Revolution has caused these people
to panic. They do not willingly accept defeat and are doing
everything possible to maintain their control over the Cuban
government and economy and to block the great influence of the
Cuban Revolution on the people's struggles in the other Latin
American countries. . . .
Our revolution has set an example for every other country in
Latin America. The experience and lessons of our revolution
have caused the mere talk of the coffee houses to be dispersed
like smoke. We have proved that an uprising can begin even when
there is only a small group of fearless men with a resolute
will; that it is only necessary to gain the support of the people
who can then compete with, and in the end defeat, the regular
disciplined army of the government. It is also necessary to
carry out a land reform. This is another experience that our
Latin American brothers ought to absorb. On the economic front
and in agricultural structure they are at the same stage as
we are.
The present indications are very clear that they are now preparing
to intervene in Cuba and destroy the Cuban Revolution. The evil
foreign enemies have an old method. First they begin a political
offensive, propagandising widely and saying that the Cuban people
oppose Communism. These false democratic leaders say that the
United States cannot allow a Communist country on its coastline.
At the same time they intensify their economic attack and cause
Cuba to fall into economic difficulties. Later they will look
for a pretext to create some kind of dispute and then utilize
certain international organizations they control to carry out
intervention against the Cuban people. We do not have to fear
an attack from some small neighboring dictatorial country, but
from a certain large country, using certain international organizations
and a certain kind of pretext in order to intervene and undermine
the Cuban Revolution. . . .
The Agrarian Reform,
which Guevara speaks about in the future tense, became law on
May 17, 1959, i.e., in the interval between the granting of
the interview and its publication in China.
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