talk i gave on che guevara

Introduction on Che Guevara



Marx always, rightly, emphasised that ’the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class’ because, not only, is this a necessary precondition of political and, most importantly, economic transformation but it is only through the unity gained in the course of a revolutionary process that people, born and bred under the alienating rule of capital, twisted and tortured by poverty can throw off ’ the muck of ages’,that is, remove from their heads the heirarchical, sexist, racist, nationalist etc ideas promoted by this system. Without the active participation of the majority in the interests of the majority all the prejudices produced by their oppression remain and the result of the revolutionary process falls short of genuine socialism.



For a certain part of the 20th century, after the defeat of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism, Marx’s statement the the class must emancipate itself was compltely sidelined with many groups on the Left declaring that the ’buffer states’, i.e. the eastern european countries occupied by Stalinist forces and the end of the Second World War, were somehow ’workers states’.

To accept this was to accept that socialist revolution could be achieved without the active participation of the workers themselves.

Right across the world though workers struggles were deflected by stalinist leadership who followed the whims and dictates of the exploitative ’state capitalist’ regime in Moscow and so, where the workers themselves did not lead the struggle against imperialism (which was the basis of Trotsky’s theory of ’permanent revolution’, that is- the struggle for national liberation if conducted by the working class in the oppressed nation would spill over into a struggle for socialism) other forces occupied the vacuum. In many third world countries the struggle was led by members of the middle classes who resented the backwardness of their own states, despised imperialism and felt that the type of industrialisation followed by the USSR was something to be imitated.



This is the world, the context, that Che Guevara grew up and was active in.





Ernesto



Che was born Ernesto Guevara in Rosario, Argentina June 14th 1928 to a left leaning middle class family. He began medical studies in 1948 but by 1951 had decided to go on a round trip motorcycle journey through south america. The final goal of this tour with his friend, Alberto Granado, was to work in the San Pablo leper colony in Peru.

Noone is born a revolutionary it takes long process of questioning and development, changing circumstances transforms the ideas with which you face new circumstances which further develop those ideas and to this process Guevara was no exception. Che’s attitudes slowly became more and more radical after his encounters with miners, workers and peasants working and struggling wherever he arrived right across the continent. Che returned a very different young man, with a lot to consider, to complete his studies in 1953. Both Che and, his friend, Alberto were transformed in the course of the journey which brought them both to the conclusion that some sort of change was needed in south america, for Che this meant a series of continent wide radical social transformations and for Alberto, it meant embarking on a career as a doctor.



In Guatemala in 1954 the nationalisation of the american United Fruit Company brought a US backed overthrow of the left wing Arbenz government, which Che witnessed, and finally cemented once and for all Che’s view of the USA as an imperialist power whose influence in the south american region would always mean attempts to overthrow left leaning governments and movements and fund reactionary forces and the Right. Che escaped the coup through the Argentinian embassy and made his way to Mexico. While there Che was introduced to Fidel Castro in june 1955 through rebel Nico Lopez. Castro spoke to Che for hours and hours at their first meeting and convinced him to sign up for the ’26th of July’ movement.

It was from this group of rebels that he earned the nick name ’Che’ which was his most often used phrase as it’s the argentinian shorthand for ’pal’.

Just 82 of them set sail for Cuba in the little ship, the ’Granma’, and after some initial fighting with the government forces upon landing were left with only 22 rebels surviving.



Cuba



Batista’s regime in Cuba was well known for it’s absolute corruption, a haven for the mafia and organised crime. US backed Batista had first come to power in a coup in 1954 and had won an election two years later, followed once more by a coup. Batista converted Havana into a gambler’s and criminal’s paradise.

The rebels fought their way across the island and took power eventually in January 1959 with Castro’s army arriving victorious in Havana.

Guerilla warfare seemed vindicated. They seemed to have achieved the impossible, a small group of determined rebels had overthrown a government.

Che though in his economic writings after the seizure of power soon began to realise though that a ’spiritual’ transformation of the masses of people had not taken place and wrote continually about the fact that he believed that ’moral’ incentives were needed to encourage communal living and to develop a ’socialist’ culture. But it’s no accident that the Cuban revolutionaries inherited people with the ’old’ attitudes bacause the majority of people hadn’t particpated in the process of their own liberation and the complete transformation that this involves. Without that vital element the masses remain nothing but spectators to the establishment of regimes that claim to act in their name.

In 1964 he travelled to New York and the UN and on Dec 17th travelled to Paris then embarked on a 3 month tour of various countries including China. When he returned to Cuba he was dissatisfied with the ever increasing reliance on, and influence of, the Soviet Bloc and eventually dissappeared from Cuban public life.



Congo, Prague and Murder



The Congo had been a place of great suffering, a country were imperial powers had intervened to destroy a left wing government. Patrice Lumumba was elected prime minister but was overthrown in a coup by Mobutu. Orders from the Belgian government are now known to have been responsible for Lumumba’s death. When Che arrived in Congo the movement had been crushed. He supported the Marxist Simba group and worked with Kabila but soon realised the entire project was doomed to fail. The objective circumstances were against them, his philosophy of ’if you are a revolutionary, make a revolution’ was being dashed against the harsh realities of the world outside his victory against Batista in Cuba.

He left, disheartened, and went to Prague were he wrote down his Congo experiences and also wrote books on philosophy and economics.

Eventually Che made his way to Bolivia with a small group of about 50 guerillas, probably believeing that he could eventually move into Argentinian territory, but completely isolated and outgunned he was murdered. He had expected support from the Bolivian Communist Party but had soon realised they were ’stupid and disloyal’. With no way to connect with the growing strike movement of the working class in the cities he was easily captured by the Bolivian military which he had wrongly assumed were less capable but were in receipt of US and CIA advice.



The Role of Revolutionaries



If the emancipation of the working class has to to be at it’s own hand then what role do revolutionaries play in this process?

Working class consciousness is shaped by the class’s lack of power, is shaped by alienation, this in turn leads workers to accept, to a greater or lesser extent, the ruling ideas in society. As Marx remarked the ’ruling ideas of an age’ are the ideas of it’s ruling class. During periods of crisis and worker’s struggles sections of the class generalise beyond the immediate experience of that particular struggle but when struggles are defeated then those realisations are lost.

If revolutionaries can unite the forward section of the class in every struggle into one fighting party that can take the lead and guide the working class as a whole forward, making conscious the line of march and constantly bringing into question the system as a whole, then this party can argue contantly with the backward section of the class, argue against faith in the state and pass on the past lessons of the class’s victories and defeats. The party then acts as the ’memory’ of the class.

But that’s not all- Trotsky described how the working class lets off ’steam’ during a crisis but if that steam isn’t focused then it dissipates with no real effect, but if the steam is focused by a piston then it can pull a freight train. The steam is still the driving force, the piston gives it focus. The revolutionary party is the piston that guides working class action. The theories of this party are nothing other than the generalised experience of the class itself. The revolutionary party is that most militant section of the working class which leads and prepares for the seizure of power by the majority of the class.



Legacy



Che Guevara, despite the tragedy of his isolation from a mass workers movement, leaves us his inspirational will to fight, the will to carry on despite the odds, it’s that absolute determination that moves people across the world to this day.

From Bolivian miners marching with his image to the capital La Paz, to children in Palestine wearing Guevara t- shirts while throwing stones at Israeli tanks, its in these places that his image still means something, places were people fight on no matter what the odds.

But with a more organic view of the role of the revolutionary, as not only a ’tribune’ of the oppressed but as the best fighters of the class who encourage the fight back of the entire class,
for it is only when the majority of people act on their own behalf that we can both physically and mentally escape from the hold of Capital, then the victory of socialism is assured.

We can win this time and i’m sure that when we do Che would have whole heartedly approved of the fact that we eventually found the path to human freedom that he had searched so hard, and paid such a high price for.

The tragedy of Che Guevara was the tragedy of a whole century, with the terrible defeats suffered by the working class at the hands of Stalinism in the 20th Century the notion that the working class would emancipate itself was silenced by the victory parades of so called ’marxists’ across Eastern Europe. The Stalinists have fallen and so now the path is clear.

world crisis

The world in crisis

The world ruling classes are in a state of complete panic with Germany’s Angela Merkel remarking that bankruptcy for entire states is now not so far fetched.
Job losses, bank collapses and manufacturing slowdowns are appearing in all major sectors of the world economy.
Obama’s stimulus package of 787 billion dollars was soon followed by the threatened collapse of insurance giant, AIG, which has now to be bailed out as they can’t let what’s described as a ’cornerstone’ of the US economy go down.
The last few months have seen the sharpest contraction in US growth since the crisis of 1973 with GDP in the last few months of 2008 declining by 6.2%. The data for 2009 seems to be much worse with figures constantly being marked down. With record lows expected in consumer spending figures the US is also facing a huge haemorrhaging of jobs – unemployment rose by 2.6 million since 2008 with 1.9million of those jobs lost in the last 4 months alone. This represents the greatest decline in employment since 1945. With 12 million now jobless, half a million a month now and increasing, more and more americans are having to subsist on foodstamps.
The world’s 2nd biggest economy, Japan, is declaring it’s worst results for 35 years. Japan’s industrial output dropping by 20% this quarter alone while exports have fallen by a shocking 40% and unemployment reaching an all time high of over 6%. The Japanese government have just signed a new freetrade agreement with other ASEAN countries but that hasn’t stopped the accusations of protectionism going back and forth between various asian countries.
Australia’s economic prospects are hugely dependent on Japan as the Japanese market is the biggest destination for Australian exports. One of Japan’s largest companies, Toyota, has announced their first operating losses since the 1930’s.
The collapse of the USA and Japan is having an effect on the Chinese economy. It’s expected that unemployment across south east asia will reach 97 million this year, which is an obscene figure. 600,000 firms closed in the last year in China. The government has responded like many others with a stimulus package totalling 586 billion. China is a net exporter but faces a 17.5% drop in demand for it’s products with figures for this quarter expected to be much worse. Indonesia has put tariffs on Chinese goods which hugely increases tensions in the region. These tensions are playing out on a wider scale too with the US and China throwing similar accusations at each other.
The 3rd largest economy in Asia is the Indian which is still, like China, declaring growth. Although the predicted 8% growth has been revised downwards to 5% by some commentators who also expect that these figures will fall even more in 2009. There are calls from sections of the Indian ruling class for measures to stimulate growth but the Indian economy is limited to mainly domestic demand.
If we take a brief look at Brazil their industry figures just released show a 12.4% drop since december alone with exports down by a massive 29%. Governments across South America, like elsewhere, are slashing interest rates massively.
In the EU and the region from the EU heart to Russia there are massive problems. The World Bank, The European Development Bank and the EU bank for reconstruction have given a 24 billion loan to Hungary and others but the Hungarian government has announced that they need at least ten times as much. Even the Russian economy which is a huge exported of Oil and Gas now believes that even a rise of Oil prices to 55 dollars a barrell won’t keep their economy out of danger.
From Ireland through the UK all the way over to the Baltic states and down to Spain, Portugal and Greece the bankruptcy of states has ruling classes in a state of absolute fear.
We can’t allow ourselves though to be overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis and give in to the fear that has infected the whole world ruling class and the majority of working class people worldwide who are fearful of losing jobs and homes. The ruling classes are getting away with cuts in places like Ireland, not because of their strength, but because of the weakness of the opposition forces. People want to fight back and their fear can easily, as we have seen here in Ireland, translate into militant actions. Socialists need to give a lead and show that we have answers to the questions people are asking, we have an alternative vision of society that everyday matches the conclusions that more and more people are reaching for.
Capitalism won’t collapse, it needs to be pushed over. The crisis is an opportunity. We have a chance to escape once and for all from this madness. The world economy is set to contract for the 1st time since 1945. The ruling class has to increase the rate of exploitation of workers in order to get profit rates up again and start the entire ridiculous process going again.
We can and must stand up give voice to the massive anger that’s out there. It’s time to say no more!