{"id":91765,"date":"2017-10-09T12:02:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T11:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=91765"},"modified":"2017-10-16T11:55:05","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T10:55:05","slug":"remembering-che-guevara-50-years-after-his-assassination-on-9-oct-1967","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/10\/remembering-che-guevara-50-years-after-his-assassination-on-9-oct-1967\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Che Guevara 50 Years after His Assassination on 9 Oct 1967"},"content":{"rendered":"

In light of a recent upsurge in denunciations of Che and the Cuban Revolution, it is important to separate fact from fiction.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Argentine communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who helped lead the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Photo: Archive<\/p><\/div>\n

2017 is the 50th anniversary of the CIA-ordered assassination of Che Guevara.<\/p>\n

In light of a recent upsurge in denunciations of Che and the Cuban Revolution, it is important to separate fact from fiction.<\/p>\n

Here are five\u00a0important points to take into account, all in historical context, drawn from countless reliable sources, especially\u00a0from the “References” section at the end of this article.<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>, there is a burgeoning school of professional Cuba bashers, including some self-proclaimed leftists, who in effect seek the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.<\/p>\n

Apparently expecting perfection, they tend to only see the failures of the Cuban Revolution and its historical leaders. In so doing, they distort the truth beyond recognition and base their arguments on such outright lies as describing Che as \u201can ardent Stalinist\u201d wedded to \u201cauthoritarian ways,\u201d or saying the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, CDRs,\u00a0are used for \u201cspying on and controlling people.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: Beyond the T-Shirt: What Che Actually Stood For<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In reality, however, the CDRs were and continue to be key institutions of the evolving and by no means perfect participatory socialist democracy the young revolutionaries set about trying to establish in 1959 in the face of ongoing U.S. aggression abetted by diehard supporters of the overthrown Batista dictatorship.<\/p>\n

And now, 58 years later, by maintenance of the economic blockade, control over Guant\u00e1namo, acts of terrorism, military threat, a sophisticated cultural offensive\u00a0and the budgeting of \u201cdissidents,” CIA agents\u00a0and NGOs inside Cuba, not to mention the mendacious slanders spewed forth by the mass media of disinformation, including some of the social media.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X6IYuvQyVcQ<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, Che understood the centrality of politics impelled by ethics where subjective factors prevail, leading to the rapid conversion of Cuban society into a giant school of reclaiming Cuban culture and ethical values.<\/p>\n

Hence, the literacy and \u201cvoluntary labor\u201d campaigns, the advances in education, medicine, people\u2019s participation, agrarian reform, housing reform, and so on that converted idealistic goals based largely on the thoughts of Mart\u00ed, Mella, Guiteras, and other revolutionaries in Cuban history into evolving on-the-ground realities that even in one\u2019s wildest dreams had never appeared possible.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>, rejecting the use of capitalist methods to fight capitalism, Che and Fidel used the methods of dialectical Marxism-Leninism to implement the maximum possible option: make a socialist revolution of national liberation that would transform institutions and social and human relations through an organized and conscious \u201cpraxis\u201d that \u2014 despite errors recognized publicly by each of them and their successors \u2014 continues today.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PqaEq21vEQ4<\/p>\n

Fourth<\/strong>, as known at the time and revealed in collections of Che\u2019s writings after his assassination ordered by the CIA in 1967, Che repeatedly warned about the dangers of not seeing the deficiencies of \u201cexisting socialism\u201d and of mechanically copying Soviet manuals and methods.<\/p>\n

He observed that the \u201cintransigent dogmatism of the Stalin era has been succeeded by an inconsistent pragmatism\u2026returning to capitalism.\u201d He saw the actions and proposals of the Cuban Revolution as \u201cclashing with what one reads in the (Soviet) textbooks\u201d and contributed insightful Marxist critiques of both capitalist and socialist societies and their theories.<\/p>\n

Fifth<\/strong>, Che, like Fidel, was profoundly committed to the cause of peace, but unfortunately had to take up arms to move the world closer to that ephemeral goal. To make a world without war possible, Che gave his life, even as Fidel did. We can learn much from their examples.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arnold August, Cuba\u2013U.S. Relations: Obama and Beyond (Canada: Fernwood Publishing, 2017)<\/p>\n

Che Guevara, Critical Notes on Political Economy (2007) and Philosophical Notebooks: Writings on Marxism and Revolutionary Humanism (Ocean Books, 2008) http:\/\/www.oceanbooks.com.au.<\/p>\n

Fernando Mart\u00ednez Heredia, \u201cEl pensamiento del Che en la Cuba actual\u201d at CubaDebate, November 25, 2013.<\/p>\n

James D. Cockcroft, Praxis (bilingual poem in homage for Fidel Castro Ruz) at \u00a0http:\/\/www.jamescockcroft.com\/ ; Forty years ago I was walking [bilingual poem in homage for Che Guevara, in Cockcroft, WHY? POR QU\u00c9? POURQUOI?, 2nd ed., Canada: \u00a0Hidden Brook Press, 2012]; Cuba and other chapters in Cockcroft, LATIN AMERICA: HISTORY, POLITICS, AND U.S. POLICY (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth\/International Thomson Publishing, Second edition, 1998), in Spanish as AM\u00c9RICA LATINA Y ESTADOS UNIDOS HISTORIA Y POL\u00cdTICA PA\u00cdS POR PA\u00cdS (M\u00e9xico & Buenos Aires: siglo veintiuno editores, 2001; con una nueva introducci\u00f3n del autor, La Habana: Instituto del Libro, Ciencias Sociales, 2004)<\/p>\n

Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith, Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away With Murder (OR Books, 2011). Read my review of Who Killed Che? in Monthly Review.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Zk9j7sFL7Uw<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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