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This is the fourth in the series of articles on the theme “Ideas of Rebellion and Revolution” in which the writings of such men as Herbert Marcuse,
Francis Fanon, Regis Debray and Ernesto Che Guevara are examined.

E Less than a year after his death,
™esto Che Guevara — revolution-
M J€ader, guerilla commander,
arxist thinker, doctor, economist
Writer, has become a legend.
ee Over the world,. wherever
s and women struggle against
tone alism and exploitation, his
Dla ure is carried on demonstrations,

Carded on walls and worn on
Bes and T-shirts.
illions in the farthest corners of
an 8lobe see him as a great hero of
T time.
bee as he was nicknamed by
tin Comrades, was born in Argen-
Rigen 1928, the son of an architect.
dock as a student and then as a
Ctor he travelled throughout Latin
Merica,
the oming into close contact with
dis terrible poverty, hunger and
3 fase prevailing there, he wanted
€lp its people through his medi-
i Work,

€ soon came to realize, however,
to cure these things individual
S were not enough—a political
SOcial revolution was needed.
mal 1954, when he was in Guate-
the 4, he rallied to the defence of
Whine eressive Arbenz Government,
Ch he saw attacked and over-
aon by troops trained and finan-
by the CIA.
D “© ‘was convinced that U.S. im-
pegulism was the main enemy of the
paaele of his continent, who should
sport each other in struggle
eenst it, meeting the armed vio-
ineee of the imperialists and the
al oligarchies with the armed vio-
®nce of the people.
Fiag Mexico the next year he met
Q €l Castro and joined him in De-
outer 1956 on his fateful voyage
n the old yacht Granma to liberate
% from the dictatorship of Batis-

2 Che Was one of the small band of
i Out of the original 82 who sur-
sree the first ferocious battle and
fee their way to the Sierra Maes-

and

en 'stinguishing himself by his
le Srmous bravery and qualities of
madership he was promoted to the
: n of major, the revolutionary
ne highest rank, and led a gue-
@ column which, after winning a
®cisive battle, entered Havana in
aNuary 1959.
hol Or the next’ six years he was to
tite Important positions in the revo-
Ww ‘Ona~y jeadership of Cuba, of
Ich he was made a citizen.
Ri © frequently headed delegations
that is country abroad, including
to the United Nations.
in also played an important part
of pte the basis for the formation
Whi he Cuban Communist Party,
«ch he conceived as the country’s
tha Buard group, the best among
© good.”

During this period he distinguish-
ed himself both as an able adminis-
trator and as a political leader and
thinker, as can be seen from his
speeches and writings, now made
available in “Venceremos: The
Speeches and Writings of Ernesto
Che Guevara,” edited, annotated
and with an introduction by John
Gerassi (Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
$6.60).

Whether he was discussing the
problems of Cuban industrial deve-
lopment, exposing bureaucracy, cri-
ticising the Trotskyists, giving ad-
vice to Young Communists, or speak-
ing at international conferences, he
always applied his first-rate brain
to undertaking a sober Marxist ana-
lysis of the real situation with which
he was faced.

At the same time he never lost
his fundamental humanism, his love
for people, his concern in every pos-
sible way to foster the development
of a new Communist man—“the 21st
century man,” as he called him.

For this reason, while realizing the
importance of a correct use of ma-
terial incentives in building Social-
ism, he attached special importance
to the use of moral incentives.

He developed these ideas in de-
bates in Cuba and in his essay,
“Man and Socialism in Cuba,” writ-
ten early in 1965.

He was particularly concerned
that the revolutionary leaders should
“have a large dose of humanity, a
large dose of a sense of justice and
truth, to avoid falling into dogmatic
extremes, into cold_ scholasticism,
into isolation from the masses.”

They should show an example,
he argued, eschewing any trace of
privilege for. themselves or their
children, being prepared to make
sacrifices and preserving their revo-
lutionary spirit and internationalist
outlook.

If ever a man practised what he
preached, it was Che.

In the spring of 1965, inspired by
the very qualities of which he had
written, he resigned all his official
posts, gave up Cuban citizenship and
left Cuba, first for the Congo where
Cuban volunteers were assisting in
the fight against Tshombe’s mercen-
aries, and then to various parts of
Latin America.

In the autumn of 1966 he entered
Bolivia secretly and with a few
dozen Bolivians and others, includ-
ing 17 Cubans, proceeded to estab-
lish a guerilla base.

From here he and his comrades
at first succeeded in humiliating the
vastly superior armed forces of
Bolivian. President Barrientos.

Seeing himself as a soldier of the
Latin-American revolution, Che was
bringing his great experience as a
guerilla commander to its Bolivian
sector with the same international-

ism as he, an Argentinian, had
fought in Cuba or as Byron went in
the last century to fight with the
Greeks for their' freedom.

Basing himself on the Cuban ex-
perience—he believed as he explain-
ed in his article, Guerilla Warfare:
A Method—that such small nuclei of
individuals would at first work to
establish themselves and win sup-
port from the local population.

The guerilla forces would expand
“to: the point where they finally
crystallize into a people’s army with
an army corps,” capable of annihilat-
ing the enemy.

“To attempt this type of war with-

“out the support of the populace is

a prelude to inevitable disaster,” he
wrote.

‘How can we account for the fact
that Che’s guerilla force in Bolivia
never succeeded in winning such
popular support and was to end in
defeat and the death of Che, mur-
dered after being taken prisoner, a
year after it started operations?

We do not yet have enough facts
for a full analysis.

But a major weakness seems to

have been their inability to win over
the peasants—mainly Indians speak-
ing their own language and viewing
Spanish-speaking strangers with a
mistrust that Fidel and Che never
found among the much more mili-
tant peasants of the Sierra Maestra,
where those who had fought against
the large landowners had taken re-
fuge. :
Unfortunately, it emerges from
Che’s campaign diary, a satisfactory
relationship was not established
with the Bolivian Communist Party,
which was apparently not consulted
about Che’s arrival, although from
it were to come some of the cadres
for his force.

When a meeting was arranged be-
tween Che and Mario Monje, the
general secretary of the Bolivian
Communist Party, agreement seems
to have floundered on Che’s demand
that the military and political com-
mand of the guerilla movement be
united and led by the guerilla nu-
cleus of which, with his fighting ex-
perience, he insisted on being the
military chief.

Regardless of where the respon-
sibility lies, this lack of coordina-
tion between Che’s little group and
the Bolivian Communist Party, based
on the militant miners and urban
workers, was disastrous.

It was also, I think, a weakness
in Che’s general position that he
considered that “the peasantry of
Latin America will provide the great
liberation army of the future” and
underestimated the growing impor-
tance of the industrial working class
in Latin America, the greater part
of whose population now live in
towns, including very large ones.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 27, 1968—Page 9

Placing too much reliance on the
guerilla force in the thinly popula-
ted countryside as “a catalyst of the
people’s forces” (as indeed it was
in Cuba), he seems to have given
too little weight to other forms of
struggle, both armed and peaceful,
sometimes more appropriate at other
times and in other countries.

However, he was right, I think,
in his belief that in Latin America
the fundamental way forward is by
armed struggle, a point of view shar-
ed by almost all Communist Parties
in that continent.

In the speech that he made after
Che was killed, Castro said: “If, as
a guerilla, he had his Achilles heel,
it was his excessively aggressive
quality, his absolute contempt for
danger.”

Correctly stressing the need for
unity in support of the Vietnamese
people’s struggle against U.S. im-
perialism, in his Message to the Tri-
continental, sent from his Bolivian
base early in 1967, he went on to
criticize socialist countries for hesi-
tating “to make Vietnam an invio-
lable part of the Socialist world; run-
ning, of course, the risks of a war on
a global scale—but also forcing a
decision upon imperialism.”

His call in that message for “two,
three or many Vietnams” was de-
signed to ring out the need to strike
the most damaging blows against
U.S. imperialism throughout the
world.

But at a time when progressive
people everywhere are doing all they
can to bring a settlement of the
Vietnam conflict, and prevent it
from escalating into a nuclear world
war in which the very existence of
humanity would be at stake, it is
not the most happy of formulations.

Such criticisms are not in any
way designed to detract from the
enormously and predominantly posi-
tive role played by Che, one of the
great Communists of our time.

We can only rejoice in the enor-
mous popularity that he enjoys
among young people, in particular,
in revolt against the capitalist Estab-
lishment.

Our disagreement with those who
want to apply his methods of strug-
gle, put forward in relation to Latin
America, to the very different con-
ditions prevailing in the West, does
not mean that Che has no relevance
for us. :

His abandonment of his ministe-
rial position in Cuba to face tremen-
dous hardships and eventually lose
his life fighting for the oppressed of
another country gives us a glimpse
of the qualities of a new man that,
even within the womb of the old
society, the ennobling cause of Com-
munism can begin to bring forth.

(The Morning Star)