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Che Guevara - 40 years on

09/10/07

October 9th marks the 40th anniversary of the death of the Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto ‘Ché’ Guevara. 

His death robbed the world of one man, as much as any who have come before or since, who truly understood in theory and in practice the lengths which need to be gone to if the task of creating a just social and international order is to be brought successfully to fruition.  While his CIA executors believed that by ending his life they had finally removed the threat he represented, El Ché in death has in fact come to provide the present and the future with an enduring image and example of the type of person that will be needed to bring about and sustain a new and better world, based as it must be upon the principles of social solidarity, cooperation and respect for all humankind. 

Heroic, single-minded, selfless and studious, a tireless worker, ruthless, romantic, and a brutal realist, Guevara was indispensable to the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.  In many respects, his legacy has been integral to the continuation of the revolutionary process in Cuba; as an internationalist revolutionary Marxist guerrilla doctor, he has come to epitomise many of the factors underpinning the longevity of the Revolution and the respect it is accorded to this day.

Guevara could have remained in Cuba and continued the vital work that he was engaged in. But no! What the world needed was ‘many Vietnams’; that is, many simultaneous revolutionary anti-imperialist conflicts. For El Ché the only way to defeat imperialism was to destroy it: “We must bear in mind that imperialism is a world system, the last stage of capitalism - and it must be defeated in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be the destruction of imperialism”. True to form, he left Cuba and set out to organise a similar guerrilla struggle in Bolivia.  In his final letter to Fidel, El Ché wrote with regard to the prospect of leaving Cuba that: “You should know that I do so with a mixture of joy and sorrow. I leave here the purest of my hopes as a builder and the dearest of those I hold dear. And I leave a people who received me as a son. That wounds a part of my spirit. I carry to new battlefronts the faith that you taught me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever it may be. This is a source of strength, and more than heals the deepest of wounds”.

That the people of Bolivia are now in the process of liberating themselves would no doubt greatly gladden his heart.

El Ché is remembered because he was an exceptional man. Speaking on learning of his death, Fidel Castro declared '”If we want the model of a human being... I say from the depths of my heart that such a model... is Ché!'” Indeed El Ché himself had written extensively on the central importance of the character of the revolutionary cadre that would be the tip of the spear in the struggle between the past and the future and, most importantly, the crucial and indispensable fact of their always being deeply connected with, and an example to, the masses.  His famous work Man and Socialism in Cuba is an eloquent exposition of the nature of social change and the effect that Socialism would have on the human condition. In this El Ché showed himself to be one of the great humanist Marxists who’s passion for and interest in the welfare of human beings was his guiding motivation always.  This centrally important consideration exudes from his writings on the desirability, logic and necessity of Socialism.  The following often-quoted excerpt from Man and Socialism in Cuba encapsulates this sentiment beautifully:

“Let me say, with the risk of appearing ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary without this quality. This is perhaps one of the great dramas of a leader; he must combine an impassioned spirit with a cold mind and make painful decisions without flinching. Our vanguard revolutionaries must idealise their love for the people, for the most hallowed causes, and make it one and indivisible”.

The example of Ernesto ‘Ché’ Guevara will endure forever.  He will be there always as a benchmark against which all of our actions shall be judged.  School-children in Cuba start their day with a declaration that “we will be like El Ché”.  All of those who claim to want to see a better world would do well to try and be more like El Ché.

Revolutionaries and imperialists alike will forever remember him.  His life and death bear enduring testament to the fact that between these two classes of enemy, there can never be a truce.  We must continue onwards to victory always.

Hasta la Victoria siempre!!