Che Guevara Talks to Young People
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Revolutionary Directorate, 13 March – Organisation formed in 1955 by José Antonio Echeverria and other leaders of the Federation of University Students in the struggle against Batista. It organised an attack on Batista’s Presidential Palace on 13 March 1957, in which a number of central leaders, including Echeverria, were killed. It organised a guerrilla column in the Escambray mountains in Las Villas in February 1958 led by Faure Chomón that fought under the command of Che Guevara in the last months of the revolutionary war. In 1961 it fused with the 26 July Movement and PSP in a process that eventually led to the founding of the Communist Party of Cuba in 1965.
Rivero, José Ignacio “Pepin” (1920-2011) – Director of the right-wing newspaper Diario de la Marina 1947-60. An opponent of the Cuban Revolution; he took asylum in Vatican offices in Cuba 10 May 1960.
Sanguily, Manuel (1848-1925) – Veteran of the Cuban independence war of 1868-78. He later served in the US-dominated Cuban government, where he opposed the Platt Amendment and other designs by Washington on Cuba.
Sierra Maestra – Located in southeastern Cuba, the Sierra Maestra is the highest mountain range in Cuba. During Cuba’s revolutionary war of 1956-58 it was the base of the Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro.
Turquino – Located in the Sierra Maestra, Turquino is the highest mountain in Cuba.
Union of Young Communists (UJC) – Born out of the Association of Rebel Youth (AJR) founded by the Rebel Army Department of Instruction in December 1959. Following a fusion of pro-revolutionary youth organisations in October 1960, the AJR encompassed youth from the 26 July Movement, 13 March Revolutionary Directorate, and the Popular Socialist Party’s Socialist Youth. It adopted the name UJC on 4 April 1962.
Ydigoras, Miguel (1895-1982) – Guatemalan president from 1958 to 1963, when he was ousted by a coup. An avowed enemy of the Cuban Revolution.
About the Book
“A revolutionary government is one that carries out an agrarian reform that transforms the system of property relations on the land – not just giving the peasants land that was not in use, but primarily giving the peasants land that was in use, land that moreover had been stolen from the peasants in past epochs.”
An international symbol of resistance to oppression, Che Guevara’s influence continues decades after his death. His life and his thoughts inspire activists world wide, including South Africa. The Cuban revolution directly influenced anti-apartheid struggles and was pivotal to South Africa’s democratic transition. In the current era, Guevara’s thoughts are as pertinent as ever to South Africa.
Che Guevara Talks to Young People brings together insights, analyses and examples from Guevara’s experience in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Addressing disaffected youth and students, this collection could not be more timely.
“Che is an example and a model of what a revolutionary is. Che was a teacher and forger of human beings like himself. Consistent in his actions, he always practised what he preached, and he always demanded more of himself than of others.” – FIDEL CASTRO
About the Author
ERNESTO “CHE” GUEVARA was born in Rosario, Argentina, on 14 June 1928. Both before and after graduating from medical school in 1953, he travelled extensively throughout Latin America. While living in Guatemala in 1954, he joined with others in opposing the CIA’s operation to overthrow the government of Jacobo Arbenz. Following the ouster of Arbenz, Guevara, like thousands of others, made his way across the border to Mexico. There, in the summer of 1955, he was introduced to Fidel Castro. He and Raúl Castro became the first two members selected by Fidel for the expeditionary force being organised by the Cuban 26 July Revolutionary Movement to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista.
In late November 1956 eighty-two combatants set sail from Tuxpan, Mexico, aboard the yacht Granma. The rebel forces landed on Cuba’s southeastern coast in Oriente province on 2 December to begin the revolutionary war from the Sierra Maestra mountains. Originally the troop doctor, Guevara was named commander of the second Rebel Army column (Column no. 4) in July 1957. At the end of August 1958 he led “Ciro Redondo” Column no. 8 towards Las Villas province in central Cuba. The Las Villas campaign culminated in the capture of Santa Clara, Cuba’s third-largest city, and sealed the fate of the dictatorship.
Following Batista’s fall on 1 January 1959, Guevara carried a number of responsibilities in the new revolutionary government, including head of the Department of Industrialisation of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), president of the National Bank, and minister of industry, while continuing his duties as an officer in the Rebel Army and then the Revolutionary Armed Forces. He frequently represented Cuba internationally, including at a meeting sponsored by the Organisation of American States in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in 1961; at the United Nations in December 1964; and in other world forums. As a leader of the 26 July Movement, he helped bring about the unification of the 26 July Movement, Popular Socialist Party, and 13 March Revolutionary Directorate in a single political organisation, a process that culminated in the founding of the Communist Party of Cuba in October 1965.
After nine years of outstanding service in the leadership of the revolution – and consistent with a long-standing agreement with Fidel Castro – in March 1965 Guevara resigned his government and party posts, including his military commission and responsibilities, and left Cuba to continue fighting imperialism “in other lands”. Along with a number of Cuban internationalist volunteers, some of whom would later join him in Bolivia, Guevara went first to the Congo to aid the movement founded by Patrice Lumumba, leader of the Congolese struggle for independence from Belgium. From November 1966 to October 1967 he led a guerrilla campaign in Bolivia against that country’s military dictatorship, seeking to link up with rising revolutionary struggles by workers and peasants throughout the region. Wounded and captured in the Yuro Ravine on 8 October 1967, by the Bolivian army in an operation organised together with the CIA, he was murdered the following day in the town of La Higuera.
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Copyright © Pathfinder Press 2000
All texts by Che Guevara, Copyright © Aleida March/Centro de Estudios Che Guevara
English translation of texts by Che Guevara © Pathfinder Press 2000
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Available in print:
First edition in 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7957-0764-3
Epub edition:
First edition in 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7957-0765-0 (epub)
Mobi edition:
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ISBN: 978-0-7957-0766-7 (mobi)