·Marxist-Leninist education

As a 14-year old, Che Guevara read Freud, Jung and the short version of Das Capital. Later, when he was 16-17 years old he read the theories of Marx, Engels and Lenin.

In 1954 he arrives in Guatemala and meets the young woman Hilda Gadea Costa. Both have read many books on the Soviet-Union and books of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Hilda, who had studied economy at the university, brings Ernesto to a more systematic study. She also brings to his notice some books on China: they reveal a whole new world for him.

During a long trip through Latin-America he was confronted with the terrible misery of the Latino's, caused by the subjection to the imperialist (1) countries. He was also confronted by the failure of the non-violent resistance in Guatemala to break this subjection. It fortified the correctness of Marx' theory in Che's mind. But above all, it was especially the concrete experience of the Russian revolution that was the most important school. In November 1953 he wrote in a letter from Costa Rica:

"Once more I could convince myself how terrible the capitalist octopuses are. I swore on a picture of our old and bewailed comrade Stalin, I swore not to rest before these capitalist octopuses are destroyed."

"I have travelled through entire Latin-America and I know this continent very well. I have seen poverty, famine, diseases, the impossibility to cure a child because of lack of medication, the apathy and dull resignation caused by famine and continuous oppression."

Out of his correspondence with his family and also in the works he wrote between 1954 and 1956 one can establish how thorough and how convincingly he dedicated himself to the systematic study of Marxism. Especially political economics, statistics and other related disciplines. These letters from 1956, he was barely 27 years old, give an idea in which way the study of Marx (Che always spoke of San Carlos) changed his medical- into a revolutionary vocation.

"I haven't got much to tell about my life, seeing that I spent it being physician and reading books. I think that when I leave here, I will have a suitcase full of questions on economics, while I'll have forgotten how to take somebody's pulse . . . It seems that my way slowly removes itself from clinical medicine; but yet not far enough to erase my desire for an hospital. San Carlos (Karl Marx) has gained a dedicated follower. I'm busy changing the order of my studies: I used to devote myself to medical studies as best as possible and spent my free time on the study of San Carlos, without any real engagement. The new phase in my life demands that I change that order: now San Carlos is the most important, he is the pivot, and he will be for the years that the earth will let me live on its exterior crust."

Che looks at the Cuban revolution as the prolongation of other communist revolutions in the twentieth century:

"This revolution is by some defined as the fundamental happening of Latin-America. In order of importance it succeeds the trilogy of the Russian revolution, the victory on the army of Hitler and the following social transformations, and the triumph of the Chinese revolution."

· The communist party

The first three years of the Cuban revolution was characterised by a great deal of anarchy. Che Guevara warned several time against this anarchy.

"To avoid it there is need of an organism that takes the lead of the revolution and guides it. That organism is the communist party. The party is a forefront organisation. The best workers are nominated for membership by their comrades. They form a minority, but due to the quality of its militants the party radiates great authority. It is our aspiration that she becomes a mass-party, but only when the masses reach the level of consciousness of the forefront. Meaning: when they have been reared up to communism. That educative work is our task. The party must be the vivid example through her militants, an example of dedication and sacrifice. Through their efforts they have to get the masses to rise up to their revolutionary task in turn. It will take years of heavy combat against the difficulties that the edification of socialism will bring, against class-enemies, against misdeeds of the past, against imperialism…In short "the party's mission is to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat as soon as possible."

Che Guevara realises that the communist party is crucial for the edification of the socialist revolution. The 'New Human Being' does not evolve spontaneously. The capitalist awareness is tougher and harder to extinct than a military enemy. The old habits and convictions are obstinate and can only be got rid off through a large and severe process of mental transformation. Besides that, imperialism will not neglect to batter the spirits with propaganda. Finally, the rich West starts from a principle called the 'demonstration-effect' (2) . Che sees the ideological education as a fundamental task for the revolutionary leadership.

"To build up communism one has to, together with the material basis, create the 'New Human Being'. Therefore it is very important to choose the right instruments to mobilise the masses. Direct education through experience is most important. . . . It has to be organised by the educational apparatus such as the ministry of education and the party."

Communism will be achieved in stages. The first stage is socialism, this is a phase of transition to communism.

"We are in . . . the first phase on the road to communism, or in the phase of the construction of socialism. This phase is characterised by a violent battle between the classes and the presence of capitalist elements in society that turbid the exact issues at stake."

What he means by that, he resumes very brief: "There is no other valid definition of socialism to us, but to abolish the exploitation of man by man."

· Battle against revisionism

It is not sufficient enough to have a communist party that tries to build up a new society, there must also be an active battle against all kinds of ideological deviations which over a long period can perpetrate the revolution. Already in the beginning of the sixties, shortly after Chroetsjov took power in the Soviet-Union, Che saw very clearly in which direction it was going over there. Breaking up with the course of Stalin would inevitable mean the destruction of the revolution from within.

Sure, he criticised Stalin: he blamed him for organising a personality cultus and for neglecting the communist education of the masses. Che called it an "historic crime". But these criticisms were not of a kind to reject the global course of Stalin, on the contrary. He realised that the break with Stalin's policy and the attacks on his person opened the gate to liberal and capitalist elements. And according to Che they were the core of revisionism (3):

"In the so called mistakes of Stalin lies the difference between a revolutionary attitude and a revisionist attitude. You have to look at Stalin in the historical context in which he moves, you don't have to look at him as some kind of brute, but in that particular historical context . . . I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn't read Stalin. I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another time. And because I'm not very bright, and a hard-headed person, I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find a Seri of things that are very good."

Che saw that the revisionism of Chroetsjov was not only bad for the Soviet-Union but also for the revolutionary movements in his continent. Except for Colombia, all guerrilla-activities in the Latin-American countries were condemned by Moscow. When Che started his guerrilla in Bolivia, he was betrayed by the Bolivian CP, which lead to the isolation and the elimination of his guerrilla force.

· Unyielding anti-imperialism

Many times Che Guevara personally experienced the brutality of imperialism. Referring to the events in Congo and the, at that time, military interference of the Belgians he writes in 1964:

"These events learn us two things. First the bestiality of imperialism, that is not bound to a particular border or a particular country. Beasts where the Hitlertroops , as the North-Americans are beasts today, or the Belgian elite forces in Congo, or the French mercenary troops in Algiers. Because it is in the nature of imperialism that it makes beasts out of men, that changes them into bloodthirsty predators, willing to slit throats and murder. . . . "

Those who think imperialism is reconcilable with peace and democracy, or those who have confidence in the international institutions are mistaken, according Che.

"The statue of Lumumba reminds us that imperialism is not to be trusted, not in the least, not at all. (...) It was under the United-Nations flag that Lumumba was murdered in Congo. And it are the same United-Nations that, according to the US, should inspect our territories. The same United-Nations!"

· Armed struggle

According to Che the only way to wipe out the bestiality of imperialism and to end the unbearable misery of the peoples, is to pick up arms.

"We can not and may not cherish the illusion that we can obtain freedom without battle. These battles won't be restricted to streetfights with rocks and teargas, nor will they be peaceful general strikes, nor will it be the battle of a furious nation that in two or three days will have destroyed the repression apparatus of the ruling financial oligarchy. This battle means a long war, and I repeat it once more, a cruel war . . . "

"Hate will be an element of the battle, a merciless hate for the enemy, that will inspire the guerrilla-soldier to superhuman efforts of strength and changes him into an effective, violent, selected, in cold blood killing machine. That is how our soldiers must be; a nation without hate can not triumph over a brute enemy."

· Some conclusions

The ideas of Che Guevara are still valid today, more than ever so. It is not because the revolutionary climate is less tangible than thirty years ago that his ideas have become worthless. On the contrary. Today a great majority of the people on this planet live in miserable circumstances. The historical experience of the twentieth century show that there are not too many different ways to get out of it. The easy, so called "third way" (4) is wishful thinking of many tired and burned out intellectuals today . They dream of a non-violent, gradual way out of misery. But it is a phantasm, a believe in the illusion of an 'imperialism with humane feelings'. The yearly cost of imperialism is millions of people that starve to death or die of sicknesses that could easily be cured.

El Salvador and Guatemala show us that armed struggle as such is no warranty for success either. Che experienced it in person in Congo and in Bolivia. Nicaragua learns us that a military victory does not automatic implicate a durable victory. Cuba shows that a revolutionary communist party is the only way that leads to a qualitative jump forward and that such party is indispensable for the revolution to hold firm even in the most difficult of times or situations. And it shows that Che's ideas on revolution and socialism are no redundant theory.

Fidel Castro, Che and a few comrades in arms began their guerrilla in the Sierra Maestra at a time that no one believed in victory. But Batista had to run. Che went to Congo to fight alongside Kabila and Mulele at a time the resistance took some devastating blows. Their battle seemed without perspective then. Who would have believed that the Congolese guerrilla, thirty years post-date would triumph after all? Pessimism was unknown to Che. It's the unyielding revolutionary optimism, averse to intellectual doubts, as well as the radical ideas that characterises this legendary figure. The same spirit one finds in Cuba today in spite of the extremely difficult condition, and in spite of all the negative propaganda. Numerous times the end of this glorious revolution was predicted. If the Cubans had the same fatalist mentality as we in Europe often show, the island would already have been a North-American colony long ago. The writings of Che and even more his way of live are a perfect anti-dote against the post-modern doubts and actual ideological confusion within the revolutionary movement and against the capitulation and the revisionism within a great part of the left.

· Footnotes

1 Imperialism according to the conception of Che: the highest form of development of capitalism, with the purpose to conquer economical and political power world wide. Sometimes by setting up a puppet government in a developing country, sometimes through deals laid down by the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. That is the favourite way capitalist governments subdue developing countries to open up their economies to the interests of western multinational concerns. In case such countries won't keep in line, the ultimate trick is to launch a military intervention under the flag of the United Nations to restore "democracy" or "human rights".

2 Promoting the Western way of living and mass consumption to countries or individuals that have not reached the same level. Radio, television, film, magazines, tourism etc. are the media to achieve this. It calls on the egoism within each individual, as opposed to Che's revolutionary moral where the collective wellbeing is of greater importance. It demands a higher level of consciousness to withstand the enticing adverts or propaganda for such a way of living.

3 Is a tendency within the socialist movement that breaks up with essential points of the Marxist doctrine. For example the necessity for dictatorship of the workers against financial monopolies, or the need of a planned economy. Only a planned economy, controlled by the workers, can fulfil the basic needs of the masses and avoid crises due to overproduction of consumption goods.

4 Neither capitalism nor socialism, but a 'social corrected free market economy' or 'humane capitalism'. Adepts of this theory call on the 'universal human rights' to bring the exploiting classes to insight and subsequently to handle in the interests of 'all mankind'. They deny the exploited classes the right to take up arms and fight for their rights. Instead all social progression must come with consent of the ruling classes.