Che as i knew him

On 9 October 1967, in a little schoolroom in La Higuera, Bolivia, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was assassinated. He had been taken prisoner the day before. Thus ended the life of a revolutionary whom Jean-Paul Sartre called "the most complete human being of our era". It had led him from Argentina to Guatemala, from Cuba to the Congo, and finally to Bolivia, always inspired by an ardent hope of relieving the sufferings of the poor. President Ahmed Ben Bella met him many times in Algiers from 1962-65 when the city was a haven for anti-imperialists from all over the world.

By Ahmed Ben Bella

For thirty years the call of Che Guevara has been ringing in our ears, summoning our consciences to witness. His dying gaze has been engraved on our memories ever since the day when photographs in newspapers all over the world showed us his naked body lying in some forsaken spot in Nancahuazu, blazing with light.

"What matter where death comes upon us," he said, "as long as our battle cry is heard, other hands take up our weapons, and others arise to intone our funeral dirge".

The object of Che’s quest was humanity itself. Human dignity and freedom. He spoke and wrote of guerrilla warfare, but rather than an instruction manual he left us a code for living intended, in his own words, "to transform the love of humanity into deeds that serve as an example and stimulus to action." Fidel Castro said of him that his total disregard for danger was his Achilles’ heel. It was also his strength and his greatness.

mondediplo.com...

A perspective on Che Guevara and his life...

may his memory live forever in our hearts and minds. viva la revolucion!

You guys were a riot. The only people who could even relate tot he level of old Che in terms of sheer butchery is Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pot and the like. Pehaps you should shed a tear for his victems instead.

the only victims were the crooks who ran the casinos, the whore houses, and the drug trafficking throughout havana...
they are the same people who reside in miami, and are protected by the amer gov't even today...
and only because they were the ones who helped amerikan corporations grow rich off cuba's resources, while the majority of its people lived in grave poverty.
of course the neo-con mentality would subject them to being simply lazy?
no one shed a tear for them, which is why they took it upon themselves.
...unlike you spineless amers.

those who defy the natural processes of the permanent revolution deserve nothing less than death.

*claps for above post*

anyone seen or is going to see The Motorcycle Diaries?

Apparently the film is not very true to the original Motorcycle Diaries, and is against everything Che stood for. Hence, I am not. It also got a poor write-up.

So, im not going to see it.

Che was an odd fellow in a sense. He really cannot be considered an actual communist because so damn many of his views were Stalinist or in support of its nature. He also resorted to gorilla warfare which though was affective really isn't the manner through which the permanent revolution is to be brought about. Though he was a revolutionary who really wanted to improve everyone’s lives through his ideas. I think that Che is really something of an idol to communism more so because of his popular revolutionary spirit rather than his actual ideas. But that’s just my two cents.

My son is a fan of Che, he has more than one T-shirt around, that he wears with his famous "viva la revolution"

Occurs we Latinos get to now more about him than most, after all in my littler Island we have the party of "la independencia" and he is one of the main characters to identify themselves with.

Now FredT, Che was a character on its own, and I am proud to know his history.

After all we get to learn of people like him in our history class, to bad that the education in the US is so limited that is obscene.

I think socrepLT is right. Che is admired nowadays more for his revolutionary spirit and his willingness to fight for what he believes in, not his actual ideas.

My hope is; atleast one in ten of the "uni-bums" who purchase a T-Shirt with his face on it, actually go and read about what he actually stood for, what he actually accomplished, and what actually lead to his assassination...

After they've done that, I expect nothing less then for them to emulate and aspire to what he was driving for...

I remain 100% against people who support stalinist or facist ideals.

These people are totally counter to what the progressive movement is.

Yet your avatar's theme is Nazi like *hmmm... strokes chin*

You'd find that Che wasn't all for the Soviet Style communism... Infact he would pick holes in it, even critisising some concepts of Lenin (though not disagreeing) with them on a whole...

Do your research, that is a Cuban anti-IRaq war billboard put up across from a US embassy because the US embassy displayed anti-castro propagnda. On it are photos of the Iraqis being tortured by US bastard troops and a nazi symbol.

I am not a Nazi.

Nor do I support anyone who is for oppression and mass slaughter. I don't care how left wing they claim they are, anyone who kills anyone in promoting there politics needs killing themselves.. most of the left wing "revolutionaries" were just facists labeling themselves as "caring for our fellow man" type of deals.

It's the entire reason why most of the left-wing idealogies are hated.

We need to be realistic here and promote a "left wing" society in a real world sense that works.. not the centralized "wealth redistribution" economic systems which end up always collaping under it's own weight.

I am for progressive politics, realistic economic systems that work in the real world.

If this guy Che Guevara gained any real power, he would of centralized all the power and wealth to himself and his comrades creating another butchering Stalinist style system. Sure, capitalism is also a butchering system to a certain extent, but Stalinism is even worse as it eliminates those refusing to agree with the idealogies.

[edit on 25-3-2005 by RedOctober90]

Silly. Che Guevarra your idol? Glad the author was banned. We dont need communists around here.

Having Che Guevarra as your idol is the same as having GWB as your idol, both nothing more than "selective oppression" right-wing warmongers. Except Che posed as a "communist" which is so laughable I nearly wet myself. I never trust one man who poses as a "hero of the people" I trust the masses to decide what is best for themselves. Those claiming to be heros of the people want nothing more than total control over the people they claim to have saved.

I dont beleive Che ever called himself a hero, infact I seem to remember him working in factory lines with the people, I seem to remember him turning down a Ministers pay to keep his Commandante pay (which was considerably less)... I even remember him giving his friends gold watch to Cubas gold reserves...

What Che stood for was nothing less than a Utopia... It was all you "commie haters" out there that supported the US Government and its campaign against true communism...

Alot of the Cuban ppl ive known said they hated him. He was a butcher.

No I am not a "commie hater" I consider myself a realistic thinker and the truth is people are not going to give up all there money to the state who thinks they can spend it better.

Communism is supposed to get rid of the state, not increase it. But look what has happened to any country where there is no state, all you find is death and destruction.. there will always be those who will want more than what the state can provide, and will use violence to achieve his goals. Humans are a social animal and government seems to be a natural thing for us.

You will never have a perfect utopia, atleast not in the year 2005 anyway.

If this guy Che ever got his utopia it would be HIM as the sole dictator of it, in history those who claimed to be saviours of the worker tended to be murdering dictators.

Marxism works fine on paper but when you try to introduce it into the real world you have nothing but problems.

There is no perfect system, there is no current system in the year 2005 capable of feeding everyone in the world.

In this world trust nobody, especially those claiming to be the ones who will save you, ultimately they will gain power and kill you.







[edit on 29-3-2005 by RedOctober90]

[edit on 29-3-2005 by RedOctober90]

We has humans came from "Socialist" beginnings, thought I must admit they were on a small scale. We used to live in large family groups - where everyone did what they could, and attempted to provide as much as they could for the group... It was this system that facilitated our expansion and domination over nature...

It was the creation of Agriculture that lead to the downfall of "socialism" ... It allowed others to Accumulate wealth, by owning more crops etc, eventually these people did not have to work a day in their life to survive... While others slaved... Socialism just evens out the playing feild.



I agree, but if one were to delve into what Capitalism is, you'd soon see that Capitalism is riddled with just as many - if not more problems... eg

Capitalism:
Say you work as a Doctor, and you get paid $1000 dollars a week, now in that week - you save alot of lives etc, and you make the hospital $10000 dollars a week - but you are only getting paid $1000

That doesnt seem fair, and most of the money is just going to the rich upperclass people who have money invested into it... Either that or it goes to the government anyway... So there is no difference in that respect.

Communism:
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs...
Under a system like this - there is no accumulated wealth... It may go to the state, but under a true communist system, the state is merelt other people, other workers...



The world can be fed easily... EASILY... Do you have any idea how much food is wasted EVERYYEAR... In 2001, the US government dumped more than 100-tonnes of grain into the ocean, merely to keep profit levels up... So much food gets wasted! With that wasted food the poverty around the world could be abolished...

Did you know? If you can eat 3 meals a day, for 3 weeks, you are in the top 15% of the worlds wealthiest people...

Why accumulate wealth when you can spread it amongst less fortunate...



I agree with you entirely on this matter, you cannot trust anybody! I wont go so far as to say they will kill you, but they certainly wont do you any good...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heres a question;
What makes some people for communism/socialism and others for capitalism...

I beleive its all in our education, and the values we are taught, and brought up to beleive in... So if everyone was educated on the matter correctly there is no reason why communism could work effectively - everywhere!

[edit on 30-3-2005 by ghostsoldier]

Why is that? Do Communists not have the same rights as everyone else? I guess we should get rid of Jews, Blacks and Natives as well? Then the "New Founders of ATS" can take it over. Right?