Books of the Month
Che Guevara Talks to Young People is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. Ernesto Che Guevara was a young Argentine-born fighter who joined Fidel Castro and his Rebel Army to become an outstanding leader of the Cuban Revolution. In 1959, Castro, Guevara and others led workers and peasants to take power, opening the road to the first socialist revolution in the Americas. Their example, in continuity with the Bolshevik Revolution, inspired a new generation of revolutionary-minded youth worldwide, initiating a renewal of communism. The excerpt is from “Something New in the Americas,” Guevara’s speech to the First Latin American Youth Congress held in Havana July 28, 1960. Copyright © 2000 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
BY ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA
We would also like to extend special greetings to Jacobo Arbenz, [applause] president of the first Latin American nation [Guatemala] to fearlessly raise its voice against colonialism, and to express the cherished desires of its peasant masses through a deep-going and courageous agrarian reform. We would like to express our gratitude to him and to the democracy that fell in that country for the example it gave us, and for enabling us to make a correct appreciation of all the weaknesses that government was unable to overcome. Doing so has made it possible for us to get to the root of the matter, and to decapitate in one blow those who held power, and the henchmen serving them. …
Many of you, from diverse political tendencies, will ask yourselves, as you did yesterday and as perhaps you will also do tomorrow: What is the Cuban Revolution? What is its ideology? And immediately a question will arise, as it always does in these cases, among both adherents and adversaries: Is the Cuban Revolution communist? Some say yes, hoping the answer is yes, or that it is heading in that direction. Others, disappointed perhaps, will also think the answer is yes. There will be those disappointed people who think the answer is no, as well as those who hope the answer is no.
I might be asked whether this revolution before your eyes is a communist revolution. After the usual explanations as to what communism is (I leave aside the hackneyed accusations by imperialism and the colonial powers, who confuse everything), I would answer that if this revolution is Marxist — and listen well that I say “Marxist” — it is because it discovered, by its own methods, the road pointed out by Marx. [Applause] …
“The Cuban Revolution
discovered by its own
methods, the road
pointed out by Marx…”
The Cuban Revolution was moving forward, not worrying about labels, not checking what others said about it, but constantly scrutinizing what the Cuban people wanted of it. And it quickly found that not only had it achieved, or was on the way to achieving, the happiness of its people; it had also become the object of inquisitive looks from friend and foe alike — hopeful looks from an entire continent, and furious looks from the king of monopolies.
But all this did not come about overnight. Permit me to relate some of my own experience — an experience that can help many people in similar circumstances get an understanding of how our current revolutionary thinking arose. Because even though there is certainly continuity, the Cuban Revolution you see today is not the Cuban Revolution of yesterday, even after the victory. Much less is it the Cuban insurrection prior to the victory, at the time when those eighty-two youths made the difficult crossing of the Gulf of Mexico in a leaky boat, to reach the shores of the Sierra Maestra. Between those youths and the representatives of Cuba today there is a distance that cannot be measured in years — or at least not accurately measured in years, with twenty-four-hour days and sixty-minute hours.
All the members of the Cuban government — young in age, young in character, and young in the illusions they held — have nevertheless matured in the extraordinary school of experience; in living contact with the people, with their needs and aspirations.
The hope all of us had was to arrive one day somewhere in Cuba, and after a few shouts, a few heroic actions, a few deaths, and a few radio broadcasts, to take power and drive out the dictator Batista. History showed us it was much more difficult to overthrow a whole government backed by an army of murderers — murderers who were partners of that government and were backed by the greatest colonial power on earth.
That was how, little by little, all our ideas changed. We, the children of the cities, learned to respect the peasant. We learned to respect his sense of independence, his loyalty; to recognize his age-old yearning for the land that had been snatched from him; and to recognize his experience in the thousand paths through the hills. And from us, the peasants learned how valuable a man is when he has a rifle in his hand, and when he is prepared to fire that rifle at another man, regardless of how many rifles the other man has. The peasants taught us their know-how and we taught the peasants our sense of rebellion. And from that moment until today, and forever, the peasants of Cuba and the rebel forces of Cuba — today the Cuban revolutionary government — have marched united as one.
The revolution continued progressing, and we drove the troops of the dictatorship from the steep slopes of the Sierra Maestra. We then came face-to-face with another reality of Cuba: the worker — both agricultural and in the industrial centers. We learned from him too, while we taught him that at the right moment, a well-aimed shot fired at the right person is much more powerful and effective than the most powerful and effective peaceful demonstration. [Applause] We learned the value of organization, while again we taught the value of rebellion. And out of this, organized rebellion arose throughout the entire territory of Cuba.
