CHE GUEVARA'S NEW
REVOLUTIONARY MESSAGE
By Livio Maitan
The publication in Cuba of an article by Che Guevara [see full text in World Outlook April 28, p. 434] is a political event whose importance will not be overlooked by revolutionaries throughout the entire world.
In the first place, it is a definitive refutation of all the interpretations propagated since his disappearance by detractors of the Cuban Revolution, both the sectarians and the crooked operators of all‘kinds. No one can deny any longer that the Cuban-Argentinian revolutionary, who is now inscribed on the pages of history and who, we might even say, if it has any meaning from the materialist point of view, has become a revolutionary legend, actually transferred to a new field of battle.*
From this still unknown field of activity, he has again raised his passionate and intransigent voice in the cause of his Cuban comrades and all the Latin-American vanguard fighters who are more than ever before engaged in the arduous struggle to uphold a consistent revolutionary policy.
Che's article sketches an overall picture of the world situation, emphasizing the main tie linking up the pattern of development in the different countries. He expresses an absolutely correct understanding of the real nature of the period in which we find ourselves and from which we can emerge, in the last analysis, only by overthrowing imperialism on a world scale.
It is significant that Guevara does not even mention the concept of "peaceful coexistence," and that, to the contrary, he seeks to emphasize, by restating basic principles, that the last twenty years have been characterized by an uninterrupted succession of wars and by the frequently recurring danger that local conflicts would turn into a general conflagration. It is still more significant that he rejects all those interpretations, which by attributing an exaggerated importance to a supposed "détente" in some parts of the world and to acts marking progress toward "peace," arbi-
* At the time of Guevara's departure, the press of the Fourth International published an article by Joe Hansen which, in the main accepted the explanation given by Fidel Castro. (See "A New Field of Activity for Che Guevara" in World Outlook, October 15, 1965, p. 10.) trarily split up into a number of disparate situations a world situation that is, in fact, most revealingly expressed by the Vietnam war.
The perspectives laid out by Guevara are by no means inspired by a light-minded optimism. His article is a document which gives anguished emphasis to the intensely dramatic character of the world situation. But it is precisely because the situation is so highlycharged, because the enemy is still so strong and so determined to use the most barbaric means of destruction and extermination that the strategy proposed by Guevara -- which is identical to that laid out by Castro in the last year in particular -- appears not as a preferable variant in the abstract but as the only solution possible.
Che does not hide the vast difficulties, the innumerable sacrifices, even the dehumanization, which is the price the peoples of the world will inevitably have to pay (what a difference by the way between Guevara's pages and documents from other sources where the most conventional optimism is expressed in stereotyped phrases and slogans!); but it is clear to him that there is no other alternative, that they must travel this road, fighting with their utmost energy and challenging imperialism on every ground.
His message centers on the war in Vietnam because it is the epicenter of the great worldwide battle, because it affords the most illustrious example of the heroic determination and spirit of sacrifice which Che exalts; for, at the same time, he cruelly exposes the limitations of an international solidarity which willfully stops short of accepting the crucial responsibilities.
It is precisely on this subject that Che utters his most bitter words: "When we analyze the isolation of the Vietnamese, we feel anguished over its logical meaning for humanity." Here are words which match the feelings of broad masses of the countries engaged in the colonial revolution who question the meaning of a peace which threatens to be peace only for some great powers, and for how long?
_In connection with the problem of Vietnam, Guevara restates the Cuban position on the current conflict in the international Communist movement. While not minimizing the bearing and significance of the polemics and struggles in progress, he again stresses the prime
necessity as well as the possibility of forming a united front against the imperialist aggression, at the same time condemning sectarian and extremist methods.
From a rapid analysis of the situation in the different regions of the world, Guevara draws the conclusion that the most explosive conflicts will still take place in the countries involved in the colonial revolution. He does not lose sight of the contradictions existing within the advanced capitalist countries, but he correctly points out that their internal crises will ripen primarily under the blows suffered by imperialism in its wars against the peoples in revolt.
As might be expected, Latin Amer~ ica holds a special place in the article. On this subject in particular, the article has the character of a very deliberate political intervention. The basic themes of the current polemics in the Latin-American movement are flatly posed and Che's positions are very clearly expressed. On the nature of the Latin-American revolution, he affirms the socialist nature of the revolution on the agenda in Latin America several times and in absolutely explicit terms, thereby separating himself from certain attitudes adopted in this matter, even by some partisans of guerrilla warfare and the revolutionary road.
In proclaiming once again the inevitability of the armed struggle -- it is with irony that Guevara envisages the possibility that the last country to free itself may avoid such a struggle -- with the obvious object of preventing any misunderstanding or temporizing, the article cites the most well-known leaders who are in the vanguard of the anti-imperialist struggle in the present stage by name.
It is very significant, among other things, that he mentions the Guatemalan Comandante Yon Sosa and the Venezuelan leader Américo Martin alongside such men as Douglas Bravo and César Montes.
This is an additional proof that the Cuban revolutionaries judge the movements in other countries not on the basis of labels or organizational affiliations, but on the basis of the line of struggle actually carried out in practice.
The Latin-American vanguards will be encouraged moreover, by Guevara's unequivocal position on the necessity of extending and coordinating the war against imperialism on a continentwide scale and also by his suggestions on certain organizational means to be used to this end.
From a more general point of view, the revolutionists of all continents, who
are against letting ever more anachro-
nistic national frontiers stand as in-
surmountable limits to their revolution-
ary work, can only enthusiastically sub-
scribe to Che's appeal for a very differ-
ent internationalism from that practiced
by those who junket around in generally
useless delegations, who give ritual
speeches before congresses,. or who sign
documents destined immediately for the
archives.
"And let a genuine proletarian
internationalism develop; with inter-
national proletarian armies where the
panmner under which the struggle is car-
ried on is the sacred cause of benefit-
ing all humanity, so that to die under
the colors of Vietnam, Venezuela, Guate-
mala, Laos, Guinea, Colombia, Bolivia,
Brazil -- to mention only the current
scenes of armed struggle, would be equal-
ly glorious and desirable for an Ameri-
can, an Asian, an African, and even a
European."
We are certain that Guevara is
the last who would want his document to
be taken as a gospel, for all his judg-
ments and formulations to be accepted as
a revolutionary duty. This article will
stimulate many debates within the revo-
lutionary movement -- and we ourselves
will probably have occasion to come back
to it. But, aside from the convergence
of Che's positions with ours on some fun-
damental points, which ought to be
stressed again, his article must be seen
as an instrument which helps revolution-
aries arm themselves for a long, diffi-
cult, tragic struggle, which we have no
alternative but to win at any price. It
must be seen as an outstanding document
of our time, which justly enjoys all the
prestige and authority of messages from
those who do not amuse themselves by
theorizing in offices or engaging in
garrulous debates, but who can demon-
strate that every word they write bears
with it a commitment in real life. And
everyone knows what Che Guevara's com-
mitment has been and what it is now.
There will certainly be some among
those who love vague discourses and who
seek to hide their underlying opportun-
ism, or their refusal to take a position,
behind tiresome invocations of the "com-
plexity" of problems and the necessity
of grasping what is "new" in experiences,
who will condemn Guevara's analyses and
orientation as simplistic. For our part,
we say that they are simple formulations,
characterized, in fact, by a simplicity
which matches the essential simplicity of
the historical problems of our epoch, the
implacable simplicity of the vital
choices which are imposed upon us.
April 21, 1967
VENEZUELAN CP