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Che Guevara Archives
Politics
His Marxist-Leninist education, the communist party,
the battle against revisionism, his unyielding anti-imperialism
and the armed struggle.
· Marxist-Leninist
education
· The
communist party
· Battle
against revisionism
· Unyielding
anti-imperialism
· Armed
struggle
· Some
conclusions
· Footnotes
·
Marxist-Leninist education
As a 14-year old, Che Guevara read Freud, Jung and the short
version of Das Capital. Later, when he was 16-17 years
old he read the theories of Marx, Engels and Lenin.
 In
1954 he arrives in Guatemala and meets the young woman Hilda
Gadea Costa. Both have read many books on the Soviet-Union and
books of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Hilda, who had studied economy
at the university, brings Ernesto to a more systematic study.
She also brings to his notice some books on China: they reveal
a whole new world for him.
During a long trip through Latin-America he was confronted with
the terrible misery of the Latino's, caused by the subjection
to the imperialist (1) countries. He was also confronted by
the failure of the non-violent resistance in Guatemala to break
this subjection. It fortified the correctness of Marx' theory
in Che's mind. But above all, it was especially the concrete
experience of the Russian revolution that was the most important
school. In November 1953 he wrote in a letter from Costa Rica:
"Once more I could convince myself how terrible
the capitalist octopuses are. I swore on a picture of our old
and bewailed comrade Stalin, I swore not to rest before these
capitalist octopuses are destroyed."
"I
have travelled through entire Latin-America and I know this
continent very well. I have seen poverty, famine, diseases,
the impossibility to cure a child because of lack of medication,
the apathy and dull resignation caused by famine and continuous
oppression."
Out of his correspondence with his family and also in the works
he wrote between 1954 and 1956 one can establish how thorough
and how convincingly he dedicated himself to the systematic
study of Marxism. Especially political economics, statistics
and other related disciplines. These letters from 1956, he was
barely 27 years old, give an idea in which way the study of
Marx (Che always spoke of San Carlos) changed his medical- into
a revolutionary vocation.
"I haven't got much
to tell about my life, seeing that I spent it being physician
and reading books. I think that when I leave here, I will have
a suitcase full of questions on economics, while I'll have forgotten
how to take somebody's pulse . . . It seems that my way slowly
removes itself from clinical medicine; but yet not far enough
to erase my desire for an hospital. San Carlos (Karl Marx) has
gained a dedicated follower. I'm busy changing the order of
my studies: I used to devote myself to medical studies as best
as possible and spent my free time on the study of San Carlos,
without any real engagement. The new phase in my life demands
that I change that order: now San Carlos is the most important,
he is the pivot, and he will be for the years that the earth
will let me live on its exterior crust."
Che looks at the Cuban revolution as the prolongation of other
communist revolutions in the twentieth century:
"This
revolution is by some defined as the fundamental happening of
Latin-America. In order of importance it succeeds the trilogy
of the Russian revolution, the victory on the army of Hitler
and the following social transformations, and the triumph of
the Chinese revolution."
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· The communist party
The first three years of the Cuban revolution was characterised
by a great deal of anarchy. Che Guevara warned several time
against this anarchy.
"To avoid it there is
need of an organism that takes the lead of the revolution and
guides it. That organism is the communist party. The party is
a forefront organisation. The best workers are nominated for
membership by their comrades. They form a minority, but due
to the quality of its militants the party radiates great authority.
It is our aspiration that she becomes a mass-party, but only
when the masses reach the level of consciousness of the forefront.
Meaning: when they have been reared up to communism. That educative
work is our task. The party must be the vivid example through
her militants, an example of dedication and sacrifice. Through
their efforts they have to get the masses to rise up to their
revolutionary task in turn. It will take years of heavy combat
against the difficulties that the edification of socialism will
bring, against class-enemies, against misdeeds of the past,
against imperialism…In short "the party's mission
is to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat as soon as
possible."
Che Guevara realises that the communist party is crucial for
the edification of the socialist revolution. The 'New Human
Being' does not evolve spontaneously. The capitalist awareness
is tougher and harder to extinct than a military enemy. The
old habits and convictions are obstinate and can only be got
rid off through a large and severe process of mental transformation.
Besides that, imperialism will not neglect to batter the spirits
with propaganda. Finally, the rich West starts from a principle
called the 'demonstration-effect' (2) . Che sees the ideological
education as a fundamental task for the revolutionary leadership.
"To build up communism one has to, together with
the material basis, create the 'New Human Being'. Therefore
it is very important to choose the right instruments to mobilise
the masses. Direct education through experience is most important.
. . . It has to be organised by the educational apparatus such
as the ministry of education and the party."
 Communism
will be achieved in stages. The first stage is socialism, this
is a phase of transition to communism.
"We
are in . . . the first phase on the road to communism, or in
the phase of the construction of socialism. This phase is characterised
by a violent battle between the classes and the presence of
capitalist elements in society that turbid the exact issues
at stake."
What he means by that, he resumes very brief: "There
is no other valid definition of socialism to us, but to abolish
the exploitation of man by man."
^
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· Battle against revisionism
It is not sufficient enough to have a communist party that tries
to build up a new society, there must also be an active battle
against all kinds of ideological deviations which over a long
period can perpetrate the revolution. Already in the beginning
of the sixties, shortly after Chroetsjov took power in the Soviet-Union,
Che saw very clearly in which direction it was going over there.
Breaking up with the course of Stalin would inevitable mean
the destruction of the revolution from within.
Sure, he criticised Stalin: he blamed him for organising a personality
cultus and for neglecting the communist education of the masses.
Che called it an "historic crime". But these criticisms
were not of a kind to reject the global course of Stalin, on
the contrary. He realised that the break with Stalin's policy
and the attacks on his person opened the gate to liberal and
capitalist elements. And according to Che they were the core
of revisionism (3):
"In the so called mistakes
of Stalin lies the difference between a revolutionary attitude
and a revisionist attitude. You have to look at Stalin in the
historical context in which he moves, you don't have to look
at him as some kind of brute, but in that particular historical
context . . . I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin
and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn't read Stalin.
I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another
time. And because I'm not very bright, and a hard-headed person,
I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that
it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find
a Seri of things that are very good."
Che saw that the revisionism of Chroetsjov was not only bad
for the Soviet-Union but also for the revolutionary movements
in his continent. Except for Colombia, all guerrilla-activities
in the Latin-American countries were condemned by Moscow. When
Che started his guerrilla in Bolivia, he was betrayed by the
Bolivian CP, which lead to the isolation and the elimination
of his guerrilla force.
^
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· Unyielding anti-imperialism
Many times Che Guevara personally experienced the brutality
of imperialism. Referring to the events in Congo and the, at
that time, military interference of the Belgians he writes in
1964:
"These events learn us two things. First
the bestiality of imperialism, that is not bound to a particular
border or a particular country. Beasts where the Hitlertroops
, as the North-Americans are beasts today, or the Belgian elite
forces in Congo, or the French mercenary troops in Algiers.
Because it is in the nature of imperialism that it makes beasts
out of men, that changes them into bloodthirsty predators, willing
to slit throats and murder. . . . "
Those who think imperialism is reconcilable with peace and democracy,
or those who have confidence in the international institutions
are mistaken, according Che.
"The statue of
Lumumba reminds us that imperialism is not to be trusted, not
in the least, not at all. (...) It was under the United-Nations
flag that Lumumba was murdered in Congo. And it are the same
United-Nations that, according to the US, should inspect our
territories. The same United-Nations!"
^
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· Armed struggle
According to Che the only way to wipe out the bestiality of
imperialism and to end the unbearable misery of the peoples,
is to pick up arms.
"We can not and may not cherish
the illusion that we can obtain freedom without battle. These
battles won't be restricted to streetfights with rocks and teargas,
nor will they be peaceful general strikes, nor will it be the
battle of a furious nation that in two or three days will have
destroyed the repression apparatus of the ruling financial oligarchy.
This battle means a long war, and I repeat it once more, a cruel
war . . . "
"Hate will be an element of the
battle, a merciless hate for the enemy, that will inspire the
guerrilla-soldier to superhuman efforts of strength and changes
him into an effective, violent, selected, in cold blood killing
machine. That is how our soldiers must be; a nation without
hate can not triumph over a brute enemy."
^
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· Some conclusions
The ideas of Che Guevara are still valid today, more than ever
so. It is not because the revolutionary climate is less tangible
than thirty years ago that his ideas have become worthless.
On the contrary. Today a great majority of the people on this
planet live in miserable circumstances. The historical experience
of the twentieth century show that there are not too many different
ways to get out of it. The easy, so called "third way"
(4) is wishful thinking of many tired and burned out intellectuals
today . They dream of a non-violent, gradual way out of misery.
But it is a phantasm, a believe in the illusion of an 'imperialism
with humane feelings'. The yearly cost of imperialism is millions
of people that starve to death or die of sicknesses that could
easily be cured.
El Salvador and Guatemala show us that armed struggle as such
is no warranty for success either. Che experienced it in person
in Congo and in Bolivia. Nicaragua learns us that a military
victory does not automatic implicate a durable victory. Cuba
shows that a revolutionary communist party is the only way that
leads to a qualitative jump forward and that such party is indispensable
for the revolution to hold firm even in the most difficult of
times or situations. And it shows that Che's ideas on revolution
and socialism are no redundant theory.
 Fidel
Castro, Che and a few comrades in arms began their guerrilla
in the Sierra Maestra at a time that no one believed in victory.
But Batista had to run. Che went to Congo to fight alongside
Kabila and Mulele at a time the resistance took some devastating
blows. Their battle seemed without perspective then. Who would
have believed that the Congolese guerrilla, thirty years post-date
would triumph after all? Pessimism was unknown to Che. It's
the unyielding revolutionary optimism, averse to intellectual
doubts, as well as the radical ideas that characterises this
legendary figure. The same spirit one finds in Cuba today in
spite of the extremely difficult condition, and in spite of
all the negative propaganda. Numerous times the end of this
glorious revolution was predicted. If the Cubans had the same
fatalist mentality as we in Europe often show, the island would
already have been a North-American colony long ago. The writings
of Che and even more his way of live are a perfect anti-dote
against the post-modern doubts and actual ideological confusion
within the revolutionary movement and against the capitulation
and the revisionism within a great part of the left.
^ Back To Top
· Footnotes
1 Imperialism according to the conception
of Che: the highest form of development of capitalism, with
the purpose to conquer economical and political power world
wide. Sometimes by setting up a puppet government in a developing
country, sometimes through deals laid down by the International
Monetary Fund or the World Bank. That is the favourite way capitalist
governments subdue developing countries to open up their economies
to the interests of western multinational concerns. In case
such countries won't keep in line, the ultimate trick is to
launch a military intervention under the flag of the United
Nations to restore "democracy" or "human rights".
2 Promoting the Western way of living
and mass consumption to countries or individuals that have not
reached the same level. Radio, television, film, magazines,
tourism etc. are the media to achieve this. It calls on the
egoism within each individual, as opposed to Che's revolutionary
moral where the collective wellbeing is of greater importance.
It demands a higher level of consciousness to withstand the
enticing adverts or propaganda for such a way of living.
3 Is a tendency within the socialist movement
that breaks up with essential points of the Marxist doctrine.
For example the necessity for dictatorship of the workers against
financial monopolies, or the need of a planned economy. Only
a planned economy, controlled by the workers, can fulfil the
basic needs of the masses and avoid crises due to overproduction
of consumption goods.
4 Neither capitalism
nor socialism, but a 'social corrected free market economy'
or 'humane capitalism'. Adepts of this theory call on the 'universal
human rights' to bring the exploiting classes to insight and
subsequently to handle in the interests of 'all mankind'. They
deny the exploited classes the right to take up arms and fight
for their rights. Instead all social progression must come with
consent of the ruling classes.
^
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