Ernesto Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born on May 14th, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He was a doctor and saw first hand the plight of the poor due to the ruling class excesses.

He wasn't born a Marxist, but seeing how unfair the world is, he became one. He was in Guatemala when the duly elected government of Arbenz was overthrown in 1954 with the help of the CIA. He left Guatemala and traveled to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro.

Fidel was planning a revolution to overthrow the US supported regime of Battista. Battista was a real jerk to put it mildly. Che fought in Cuba to help free the Cuba people from imperialist occupation when he could have sta back and enjoyed the life as a doctor. He risked his life for the people, of course that was the kind of man he was.

He served in the Cuban government in various capacities. He represented Cuba in foreign affairs also, doing what he could to further the cause of the Revolution on the world stage.

When the revolution had progressed in Cuba, instead of sitting back and enjoying his new position in the Cuban government, he did what he could to help other oppressed people throughout the world, traveling to the Congo to train freedom fighters.

He died on October 9th, 1967 at the request of the CIA.

I urge all of you with even a passing interest in this remarkable man to read the book Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson. The book contains a pretty good account of his life.

"Today there are kings without crowns; they are the monopolies, the true masters of entire nations and at times of entire continents."

"We have taken political power. We have begun our struggle for liberation with this power firmly in the hands of the people. The people cannot even dream of sovereignty unless there is a power to defend their interests and aspirations, People's power means not only that the Council of Ministers, the police, the courts, and all other government bodies are in the hands of the people. It also means that economic bodies are being transferred to the people. Revolutionary power or political sovereignty is the instrument for the conquest of the economy and for making national sovereignty a reality in its broadest sense. In Cuban terms, it means that the revolutionary government is the instrument so that in Cuba only Cubans have power, in every sense of the word; from politics, to being able to decide what to do with the riches of our land and our industry."

"Finance, army and, as a lesser brother, the government, are the three branches on which US power rests. Government and the army represent US finance but finance does not represent the people of the US. It represents a small group of financiers, owners of enterprises, owners of the money. They exploit the people of the US."

"The struggle should be well planned; after it has begun it should be continued until the end. There can be no deals; There can be no middle terms; There can be no peace agreement that guarantee the stability of a nation halfway, victory must be complete. Thinking in this vein, our people are on a war footing. Thinking along the same line the Algerian people were on a war footing for seven long years. With that same conviction, the South Vietnamese people are today on war footing."

"The Cuban Revolution has shown that in conditions of imperialist domination such as exists in Latin America, there is no solution but armed struggle--for the people to take power out of the hands of the Yankee imperialists and the small group of national bourgeoisie who work with them."

"The monopolist and imperialist enemy will not be defeated definitively until the last one of its magnates has at least been sent to jail or to the execution block."