Revolutionary icon, Ernesto Che Guevara would have been 83-years old-last month. Voted one of the most influential figures of the 20 century by Time magazine, his popularity in this millennium continues to surge. The film, Motorcycle Diaries, the newly released Diaries of a Combatant, and the ubiquitous monochrome beret-clad graphics of his person have fed interest in this intriguing and polarising figure.
Meanwhile academic bodies such as The Che Guevara Institute in France and the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana preserve and add material to their already expansive archives.
However, it is his seminal and perennial work, Guerrilla Warfare, that defines this doctor turn revolutionary and philosopher. Indeed, it is this existential work that inspired countless insurrections in every continent, a biblical dossier of sorts that is referenced time and time again in the Elizabeth Topp's documentary, '70: The making of a Revolution, to be released in Trinidad and Tobago in September.
First published in 1961, Guerrilla Warfare reads like a handbook on forming, expanding, and effectively engaging a better equipped and numerically superior military outfit. Che shelves the urban appeal of Bolshevism and centres on first creating the nucleus of social change through agrarian reform.
The sympathy and support of the peasantry is essential to every guerrilla movement, according to Che. As such, the guerrilla is much more than a fighter. He must be gracious in dealing with the peasant, while imparting the virtue and relevance of his revolutionary doctrine, winning him over, empowering him on every level. Che believes thata guerrilla war can create ripples of change at first, until the final blow is dealt with the effacement of the old order. But delivering the decisive blow to seize political power demands gargantuan will, prowess, and cunning. And this is where Warfare excels, rivaling Sun Tsu's classic, The Art of War, to a measured degree.
It is a manual of how best to steel the mind to realise such an undertaking. The reader is taken on a virtual journey through an inimical terrain,-the jungle-its rawness and near indomitable nature fully detailed. Warfare teaches the neophyte to confront his fears and survive under the most gruelling of circumstances. Che's writing centres on building an "iron constitution," fasting, and abstinence from drinking and gambling. He dictates with monastic fervour: "To the stoicism imposed by the difficult conditions of warfare should be added an austerity born of rigid self control that will prevent a single excess, a single slip, whatever the circumstances. The guerrilla soldier should be an ascetic."
Amid lectures on character, Che outlines tactical and strategic ploys; how best to maximise the use of small arms, the role of stealth, intelligence gathering and infiltration, and even the establishment of civil institutions in areas controlled by the insurgency. After the success of the Cuban revolution. Che'sforayinto the interior of the Congo to internationalise his guerrilla campaign, he enjoyed limited success. His assassination a few years later in the jungle of Bolivia raised questions on the universal applicability of his strategies. One also has to consider how much modern technology has stymied the effectiveness of guerrilla campaigns. Asymmetrical warfare, it seems, has proven more formidable in urban settings.
Why does Che's appeal continue to grow? The steely passion of Guerilla Warfare may well offer some clues.Undoubtedly,it is a writing of infinite daring, of absolute faith and riveting conviction, rarely, if ever encountered. In the end the reader is left suspended, betwixt fascination and perturbation.
Book Review
Dr Glenville Ashby
glenvilleashby@gmail.com
Dr Glenville Ashby
New York foreign correspondent
The Guardian Media Group
