The Legacy Of Che Guevara

The Legacy Of Che Guevara:
Internationalism Today

http://www.countercurrents.org/custers230210.htm

By Peter Custers
23 February, 2010
New Age, Dhaka

Che's legacy, as even the briefest summary of his life brings out, is
the legacy of internationalism. Quite independent from other
successes he achieved in a short and intense life of barely 39 years,
Che embodied the spirit of internationalism as it existed in his own
age. More than anybody else of his epoch, Che Guevara embodied the
ideal of solidarity with oppressed people struggling to achieve their
own emancipation worldwide, writes Dr Peter Custers in an essay
serialised in two parts

Perhaps the most authentic way to start this essay is by indicating
how it got written. Several weeks ago I was approached by two high
school students from Amsterdam, Samira and Eva, with a request for an
interview in connection with their study. The young women duly sent
me their list of questions which further drew my curiosity, since it
indicated that the central question the two women pose themselves is
this: why do so many (young) people continue to look at Che Guevara
as a popular hero? Although I am not the best judge or expert on the
motivations that drive Dutch youngsters today, I decided to respond
to the interview request. Having made an appointment on a Saturday
afternoon, I first asked the two female students, before answering
any questions, to explain why they decided to focus on Ernesto Che
Guevara for their study. The answer offered was very frank. As Samira
and Eva stated, they want to study the story behind the T-shirt with
Che's image. So many young people in the Netherlands wear shirts
bearing the well-known image of Che as martyred fighter, but do they
really know who he is? Since the young women themselves pleaded they
did not know the full story and, in fact, wondered how many Dutch
high school students of their own age do, they decided to write on
Che while preparing for their final examinations.

This commencement of the interview immediately gave me the scope to
explain two contradictory facets of Che Guevara's continuing,
worldwide popularity. On the one hand, it is true as the example of
the visiting students brings out that there are youngsters, in
particular in a consumerist society such as exists in the
Netherlands, who buy a Che Guevara T-shirt simply because they like
the person's image, and perhaps because it reminds them of Jesus
Christ. Here, Che ­ oh irony of ironies ­ draws added popularity from
the fact that Western consumers buy commodities at face value,
without knowing much about the background or material content of the
goods they purchase, and without knowing the barest facts about the
working conditions faced by the producers of the goods. On the other
hand, as I was quick to point out in the interview, it would be wrong
to think that the majority of people who show Che's image in public
do so without knowing anything about his legacy. In fact, as my own
experience of participating in globalise resistance since the 1990s
brings out, the most conscious section of today's generation of
youngsters is fully aware of the significance which Che Guevara still
holds for the ideal behind his death, i.e. internationalism.

In this essay I will pay my tribute to Che Guevara, the Argentinean
doctor who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the 1959 Cuban
Revolution, and who died in the jungle of Bolivia in the year 1967.
Che's saga has been depicted in numerous movies and biographies.
Hence, it hardly needs to be recalled in detail for a progressive
audience. After touring Latin America in his adolescent years, Che
joined the group of guerrilla fighters established under the
leadership of Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains of Cuba. He
further led one of the two guerrilla columns that took the armed
struggle westwards, in the final stages of the revolutionary war.
During the early phase of Cuba's social experiment after power had
been captured, Che served in several top functions of the new
government. He was president of the National Bank, and then became
the minister of industries. While serving in these functions, he
developed views on the building of socialism which stood out as
unique. Then, Che's life took another turn in 1965. Since he
continued to feel restless and was eager to see the process of social
change in the south advance, he stepped down from power so as to
dedicate himself once more to guerrilla struggle. Hidden from public
view, he travelled first to the east of Congo where he joined
Kabila's guerrilla band. Subsequently, after his return and a secret
sojourn in Cuba, he initiated armed struggle in the mountains of
Bolivia. Here he was murdered in 1967, at the instigation of the CIA.

Che's legacy, as even the briefest summary of his life brings out, is
the legacy of internationalism. Quite independent from other
successes he achieved in a short and intense life of barely 39 years,
Che embodied the spirit of internationalism as it existed in his own
age. Which means, as I was at pains to explain to my students from
Amsterdam, that, more than anybody else of his epoch, Che Guevara
embodied the ideal of solidarity with oppressed people struggling to
achieve their own emancipation worldwide. And he embodied this ideal
not just via actions of political support staged from a distance but
instead by personally participating in (what he saw as) the highest
form of struggle the oppressed can wage, i.e. guerrilla resistance
against the army of a colonial or neo-colonial state. It is for this
overwhelming reason that Che continues to be cherished by today's
activists. Che personally embodies internationalism. This was borne
out, for instance, by the globalised resistance waged by hundreds of
thousands of people in Genua, Italy, in 2001 (see Peter Custers,
'Globalisation from Below. The Genua Protests against the G-8. An
Eyewitness Report', the Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai, India,
August 2001). As a participant in the massive blockades staged
against the G-8 here, I was moved by the fact that numerous activists
carried banners, wore T-shirts and carried flags showing images of Che.

Che's legacy: armed struggle in the 'third world'

THE first point or lesson regarding Che is thus that his legacy of
internationalism is alive, and that many among today's generation of
activists identify with this legacy. However, let me move on to
discuss his legacy a bit systematically. To start, let me discuss
what is a somewhat controversial part of this legacy: his theory
regarding armed struggle. Like other Southern leaders of his epoch,
such as Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh and Amilcar Cabral, Che Guevara
believed that people living in countries still ruled by colonial
powers, or living in countries chained by a new form of economic,
i.e. neo-colonial exploitation, could best liberate themselves by
taking up arms (for various interpretations of the strategy of
guerilla war, see e.g. Mao Tse-Tung, 'On Protracted War', in Selected
Works of Mao Tse-Tung, Volume II, Foreign Language Press, Peking,
China,1965, p 113; Russell Stetler, ed., The Military Art of People's
War. Selected Writings of General Vo Nguyen Giap, Monthly Review
Press, New York and London, 1971; and Basil Davidson, ed., Unity and
Struggle. Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral, Monthly Review
Press, New York and London, 1979; for anthologies on the strategy of
guerilla war, see e.g. Gerard Chaliand, ed., Strategies de la
Guerilla. Anthologie Historique de la Longue Marche a Nos Jours,
Editions Marazine, Paris, 1979; and William Pomeroy ed., Guerrilla
Warfare and Marxism, International Publishers, New York, 1973).

Like other theoreticians, he too believed that armed resistance
needed to be built not by concentrating one's forces in urban
centres, but rather through accumulation of strength in mountainous
and rural regions where the enemy's presence was weak. Che's military
theory, which after the Cuban revolution he put into writing, came to
be known as the foco theory. This theory, in particular as put into
practice by Che when he formed his foco in Bolivia, has been
interpreted to mean the following. The initiation of armed struggle
by guerrilla fighters itself can generate the energy and enthusiasm
for a multifaceted people's resistance, including the mass actions
and the unity that are essential for any revolutionary victory (for
Che's writings on guerrilla warfare, see Ernesto Che Guevara,
Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, Monthly Review Press,
New York and London, 1971; and Ernesto Che Guevara, Oeuvres I. Textes
Militaires, Francois Maspero, Paris, 1976; on Che's guerrilla
experience in Bolivia, see Regis Debray, Che's Guerilla War, Penguin
Books, London,1975).

Towards an evaluation of his experience, it today is perhaps not very
important to focus on Che's theory regarding armed struggle. Rather,
from today's perspective, it is crucial to recognise that the
enduring legacy of Che Guevara's participation in armed combat lies
in the fact that during his epoch ­ the epoch of the 1950s and 1960s
­ guerrilla struggle was embraced as appropriate by people in many
countries of the 'Third World' or what's now called the Global South.
Hence, by participating in guerrilla warfare, in Cuba, in the Congo
and in Bolivia, the three countries where he fought, Che came to
embody two things at the very same time. He embodied the then widely
recognised truth that the South needs to liberate itself from
Northern dominance via armed combat. And he also embodied the spirit
of internationalism of his epoch. This latter point too needs to be
emphasised. Here it is perhaps best to recall what I experienced in
1994, when attending the Cuban World Solidarity Conference held in
Havana. What struck me most when visiting the homes of Cuban comrades
was that the spirit of internationalism Che embodies was fully alive.
So many who had served in Cuba's armed force which helped liberate
the former Portuguese colony of Angola (on Cuba's internationalist
role in Angola's liberation war, see notably Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
'The Cuban Mission to Angola', New Left Review No 101-102, London,
February-April 1977, p 123). So many who recalled their service to
the same, to Che Guevara's cause.

The best example of the fact that Che's spirit is alive is the
example of his lasting presence in Bolivia. From the moment Che
Guevara died in Bolivia, in 1967, a controversy erupted over the
validity of his Bolivian experience. Numerous were the critics who
argued that this was a failed experiment, that it was bound to fail
because of Che's limited knowledge of Bolivian realities. After all,
support from the side of Bolivia's own leftwing political parties and
groups towards Che's armed efforts had been limited. Did not this
prove that Che after all had been wrong? Yet, and here the critics'
point of view is exposed as wrong, the Bolivian people have
unhesitatingly revived the memory of Che. Witness the massive
demonstrations with images of Che, held several years ago by Bolivian
peasants and workers, by indigenous men and women, actions which
paved the way for the rise to power of Bolivia's current president,
Evo Morales. Witness the fact that Che Guevara is back in view, at a
moment when the Bolivian people, through a combination of
insurrectionary and electoral tactics, have chosen to embark on a new
political path, and have rejected the neo-liberal economic model of
the North. Does not this bring out crystal clear that Bolivian
activists recognise the validity of Che's legacy, the fact that even
in his 'failed' attempt to form a guerrilla force he embodied the
spirit of internationalism of his age?

Che's contribution to the building of Cuba's socialism

PERHAPS this is a good moment to break my story so far, and devote
some words to Che's contribution to the building of Cuban socialism.
As stated, before resigning from power to re-devote himself to armed
liberation struggles in the mid-1960s, Che had both been president of
the National Bank and served as a minister of industries. In these
capacities he worked, of course, very closely together with Fidel
Castro as head of government. How to evaluate this period in Che's
life? My willing students, Samira and Eva, did include a question on
this period in their list, when approaching me. For they asked me to
clarify the relationship between Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
Apparently, at internet sites where the young women collected their
data, various stories have been floated stating that the given
relationship turned from friendly to bitter, even hostile. It is
being insinuated for instance that Fidel was eager to see Che leave
Cuba. These stories can be confronted head on, by referring, for
instance, to the letter Che wrote to Fidel in 1965, in which he
explained why he had chosen to resign. Nevertheless, to do justice to
both great personalities, it is necessary to focus on the nature of
Che Guevara's views on the building of socialism. Here the point is
not that there have never been differences of view between the two
revolutionary leaders, but rather that Fidel Castro ultimately chose
to uphold Che's views on building socialism.

To be continued
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Peter Custers is a theoretician and campaigner based in Leiden, the
Netherlands. antimil@hotmail.com

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