By Fidel Canelón
Central University of Venezuela
Life and death of a guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was
born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928, in the midst of a middle class
family. In 1953 he completed his medical studies at the University of Buenos
Aires. During his travels through various Latin American countries, he became
convinced that violent revolution was the only way to eradicate poverty and
achieve political union in Latin America. In 1954, in Mexico, he met the
brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, who along with other Cuban exiles were
preparing a revolutionary assault against the government of Fulgencio Batista. In
November 1956, the revolutionary group led by Fidel Castro landed in Cuba. In
the first encounter with Batista's troops, all insurgents were nearly. Castro,
Che (Guevara nickname given by his Argentine origin) and the other survivors
took refuge in the Sierra Maestra, where the revolution began. It culminated in
January 1959 with the triumphant entry into Havana. Guevara held positions of
great importance in the government and represented Cuba in international
conferences and forums. His presence was highlighted by his constant attacks on
U.S. imperialism.
Che Guevara embodied the ideals of
youth leftist 1960s. Between 1965 and 1966 he disappeared from public life. In
fall of 1966, Che began organizing revolutionary guerrillas in southern
Bolivia. On 8 October the following year his group was killed by the Bolivian
army with the help of CIA. Ernesto Guevara was wounded and captured, in the
following days he was executed
Essence of philosophy guevarista
It would be absurd to get into the propositions expressed
by Ernesto Guevara without fundamentally wander around Marxist criteria
(without forgetting the Leninist) which influenced the formation of his
thought. There is a fundamental point that gives a special touch to Guevara´s vision.
It has been the fact that the discovery of Marxism by Guevara was not for a
simple, flat, intellectual and bookish operation, but also the result of experience
of the misery and oppression of the Latin American masses, who he met along his
travels through the fields of the continent.
In Che's thought we see that he interprets Marxist
philosophy in a very peculiar, drawing to
it a humanistic touch. So, he goes beyond the economic (but not setting them
completely aside). He did this because he regarded man as the core or essential
factor of the revolution. So Che´s humanism is, above all, a revolutionary
humanism, as it is not satisfied with the mere fact of interpreting nature but
to transform it.
Of course, coupled this background, we find another
concept: the historical materialism. Here, Guevara vision breaks with the
Marxist conception about the main factors that come into play in dialectics. He
doesn´t accept history as mechanically determined by the accumulation of
economic forces, but rather, as the process in which the relations of
production are given by the objective fact that it is men who move themselves
in the historical atmosphere.
We can say then, that in Guevara was acutely aware of the
need for development of Marxism-Leninism, especially in regard to the new
challenges posed by societies in
transition. Although internal contradictions within society undoubtedly
create objective conditions necessary for a revolutionary situation. Guevara
notes that these characteristics are not the only ones nor sufficient to
implement a revolution, because it demand a conscious action of a vanguard
group (understood as the guerrilla group) and, consequently, of the masses.
Without the vanguard nor the masses a revolution cannot be made.
Conception of the New Man
The revolution is not only a
transformation of social structures, institutions of the regime, is also a
profound and radical transformation of men conscience, morals, values and
habits of their social relations. A revolution is only true when it is capable
of creating a "New Man" and this, for Guevara will be the man in the
XXI century, a complete revolutionary that works all hours of his life, and
doesn´t feel the sacrifice, since he or she devotes his/her time to the
struggle for social welfare. If this activity is what really pleases the
individual, then, immediately ceases to have the title of
"sacrifice." This should be a fundamental quality in the
Revolutionary, to feel the revolution as their own. But all is not everything
is that simple, since there is also a dark side, the hardest part of being a
revolutionary is that one should define feelings precisely.
Every revolutionary should be driven by large amounts of love coupled with a passionate spirit in order to perform
large number of actions oriented towards one goal, to achieve improvements in
the social environment. These two conditions or qualities to be revolutionary
should be supported by another major factor that must be present in the
attitude of the individual: a cold and
calculating mind that will help, no doubt, to make painful decisions. Regarding
his/her relations with family, it is a little difficult to maintain a real
family environment, unless they feel the same love and passion for the
revolution in order to understand otherwise it would be almost impossible to
sustain.
Guevara argues that the guerrillas initially develops on
two levels, the first is the mass (people) in a state of stillness, is static
(for what would later be mobilized) and, second, there is the Guerrilla itself,
the motor and generator of revolutionary consciousness and militant
enthusiasm. Yet in both there is a similarity: the key factor is the individual
and, through their attitudes, subjective conditions necessary for victory will
be created. This one is more or less a snapshot of the sequence of events that
took place in the Cuban context, when Guevara finally moved his thinking to
reality.
Furthermore, it is important
to highlight some factors that are highly relevant for Che, these are the young
people and the party. The first has a particular flare in this process, because
it is a kind of malleable clay which the New Man can be built without any of
the flaws that they inherited from previous generations. On the other hand a
young communist, should be honored to be a communist, proud to show it. Along with
that a young communist needs to have a great sensitivity to all problems,
injustices, have a maverick spirit, consider everything that is not understood,
and be open to receive new experiences, so to form the great experience of humanity.
The other important factor
is all political parties who are leading organizations, where top performers
are nominated by their peers. In this sense we speak of the New Man as a politician
(called by Guevara "cadre ") to accomplish a fundamental mission: "It's
what we call a dynamic screw or an engine; a screw regarded as a functional
piece that ensures performance, dynamic since it is not a single upward
transmitter, under slogans or demands, but a creator who help to development of
the masses and the information of the leaders ".
Creation of the New Man
When Ernesto "Che"
Guevara began touring America as a student and as a physician, he came into
close contact with poverty and disease, feeling a huge desire to help those
people with their personal effort. Thus began making notes for characterized
this revolutionary doctor. These were t the first overtones of its true
revolutionary plan. After that experience
Che thinks and ponders on the situations seen. So he ask himself important
questions: How does social welfare work? How can we relate the individual
effort with social needs? He came up with an answer: create a new human type.
Creating this new man is
needed for the construction of communism.
This creation prevents that the current dislocated and perverted
generation some influence on the new generations. The fundamental basis of the
New Man is education, and it is there where the change of ideological
consciousness will be achieved. Through educations new generations will find
the formula to perpetuate and heroic attitude even in daily life.
The guerrillas and the army
Nevertheless, the only way
to get a socialist revolution, according to Guevara, is through armed struggle,
and it must be led by the guerrillas. Following the Leninist, Guevara develops
the premise that the conditions for a revolution can be accelerated by certain
catalysts. He moves away from the expectations of certain leftist parties who
refused to act claiming the "immaturity of the conditions," Che
reacts to this with a principle that will be part of this whole theory of revolutionary
praxis. We refer to the idea of “foquism” by which the revolutionary vanguard
presses ahead the march of events. Revolution cannot be born from the mere
impulse given by the guerilla focus but also a minimum of needs that must be
present to make possible the settlement of the first guerrilla outbreak.
We formulated from the above
the following question: What is it that allows the guerrillas enabling people
deposited their trust in it? Guevara proposes a kind of handbook which develops
the characteristic a guerrilla army must have and that are the key to gaining
the support of the masses; this is the guerrilla strategy, understood as the
analysis of the objectives to be achieved,, guerrilla tactics, referring to the
practical way of carrying out the strategic objectives, the development of the
guerrilla army in both favorable and unfavorable terrain and urban, in short
the organization and combat of a guerrilla front (of course, all this is added
the desire of the great mass of the peasantry and the proletariat of owning land
and the means of production).
It is well established,
moreover, that guerrilla warfare is a phase of the war must be carried to the
last consequences (it is an existential struggle) that has no chance of success
per se, that it rather is a been early stage of the war, that it as it grows and
develops until it acquires both, quantitative and qualitative characteristics
of a regular army. This latter more regular army will give the true "final
blows to the enemy and the win. Then the victory is always the product of a
regular army, although its origins are that of a guerrilla army."
The guerrilla
In order to reach the
proletariat victory Guevara focuses in
the individual as the primary element. The individual is seen from two
perspectives: the first as a unique person and second as a member of the
community. Both are actors in the construction of socialism, the substance of
his "New Man.
Where the guerrilla emerge from?,
what is a guerrilla?, And why do they fight? Guevara simply explains that "there is a more or
less concrete grout, more or less homogeneous, than is devoted almost
exclusively to hide in the wildest and most intricate places (...). In a lucky
hit their fame grows and some farmers, (...) and other young idealists go to
join them (...) ". Although out of
this fragment is impossible to answer the questions, from Guevara writings we can
deduce that for him the important thing is not knowing where the guerrilla
fighters come from, but where they're going, and as long as his ideal match
revolutionary ambition, to see man liberated from his alienation, they can join
the ranks of the guerrillas.
He Advocates then (even at
the risk of seeming ridiculous) that "the true revolutionary is guided by
great feelings of love". He even goes on to say that "it is
impossible to think of a genuine evolutionary without that quality." It is
here, then, when Guevara breaks away from scientific objectivism, but as Engels
once wrote: “when you have a dream, you cannot be a man of science, because a
decision has been made beforehand”.
Now, going into the last two
questions Guevara defines a guerrilla fighter as a social reformer, but
primarily as an agrarian revolutionary. The guerrillas also are disciplined
soldiers, agile, physically and mentally, to fully implement the missions
entrusted to them. As to the first point raised, discipline is born from the deep
conviction of the individual and this is reinforced by the revolutionary
self-control where there is no room for an intelligence service that is dedicated
to controlling other individuals against temptations, or the need to obey the
superiors. On the contrary discipline
arises from the interdependent relationship between one and another guerrilla,
meaning that any neglect of a guerrilla is controlled by the closest
companion. Because each guerrilla
"is a unity and it is a group, an error is fatal.”
As for the moral aspect; we find a
firm position on various aspects. Among others, a guerilla must risk his life
many times as necessary to achieve the ideal that has been proposed to fulfill
and he/she must not, in any way, leave a wounded comrade on the battlefield
because it would mean certain death. Besides the moral qualities noted, a
guerilla soldier must possess a number of physical characteristics, because
they are the image of "the very life of the guerilla", is where the
experience is acquired (the weapon management, how to sleep, what to eat, what
to wear in the backpack, etc).
Brief commentary on the international character of
Guevarism
According to Guevara, “The revolutionary, the
ideological motor force of the revolution within his party, is consumed by
his/her uninterrupted activity that has no other end than death, unless the
building is achieved on a global scale. If his revolutionary zeal is blunted by
local’s tasks forgets proletariat internationalism, the revolution he leads
will cease to be a driving force and will sink into a comfortable lethargy,
exploited by our irreconcilable enemy, imperialism, to gain ground. Proletarian
internationalism is a duty but also a revolutionary necessity. ".
We cannot understand the
deep significance of Che's internationalism but in light of revolutionary
humanism, a point which we have tried to break down over this work and that, in
our view, is the most important within philosophy Guevara. Thus,
internationalism is the truest expression of humanism.
Through the works of Che is a marked
tendency to go beyond the individual and the nation as such, to make way for an
international perspective in the quest for freedom of the proletariat. Hence it
is exposes that the true internationalist is able to feel anxious when a man is
killed anywhere in the world, and likewise, feel excited when somewhere in the
world a new flag stands for freedom. Obviously, the internationalism must not
only felt, but also and mainly practiced through actual and active solidarity
between people in their struggle for liberation. It is therefore not a single
act, but a process.
Conclusion
It is understood, and after
making a brief review of Guevara thought, that communism, rather than a more
egalitarian social distribution, essentially involves a new type of society and
man. But to reach this, there are two key points to know, the practical
movement, linked to the development of consciousness, which can only be
produced if the first is able to remove work as a shredder of the human
personality and to suppress domination of all kinds. Such consciousness is not
developed as a whole in all social levels, so there is the need a revolutionary
vanguard to guide, and sets examples. Similarly, in this process the vanguard
form and prepare to carry out the revolution to its goals. Everything culminates in the union of two
concepts, those for which Guevara will give his life: revolution and humanism. They
are also found in the debate between objectivism and subjectivism. The first we
read the most thorough, perfect and even frivolous procedures to get to the
victory of the proletariat, and on the other one we hear terms such as love and compassion to others, even our enemies.
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