Che Guevara - IV.3. ANALYSIS OF CUBAN SITUATION, ITS PRESENT & ITS FUTURE - Guerrilla Warfare (1961)
November 3, 2023 • 30 mins
"Guerrilla Warfare" by Ernesto "Che" Guevara is a seminal work that outlines the strategies and principles of revolutionary guerrilla warfare. Originally written in the early 1960s during Guevara's time as a key figure in the Cuban Revolution, the book provides an insightful and pragmatic guide for those seeking to wage guerrilla warfare in the pursuit of political and social change.
In this book, Che Guevara emphasizes the importance of committed and disciplined guerrilla fighters who are deeply rooted in the local population and terrain. He discusses the need for small, mobile, and well-trained units, capable of operating in rugged environments, and highlights the significance of ideology and motivation to maintain the morale of the fighters.
Guevara's "Guerrilla Warfare" delves into the complexities of urban and rural warfare, offering tactical guidance on ambushes, sabotage, and the practical aspects of sustaining a guerrilla movement. It also delves into the relationship between the guerrilla and the local population, stressing the importance of gaining their support.
While the book has been the subject of controversy, Guevara's insights into unconventional warfare and his commitment to the revolutionary cause have made it a significant resource for understanding guerrilla movements and their methods. "Guerrilla Warfare" continues to be studied by military strategists, historians, and those interested in the dynamics of insurgencies and revolutions.
CheGuevara GuerrillaWarfare RevolutionaryStrategy CubanRevolution GuerrillaTactics Insurgency PoliticalChange RevolutionaryThought WarfareManual MilitaryStrategy SocialJustice RevoluciónCubana LatinAmericanRevolution RevolutionaryIdeology GuerillaLeadership GuerrillaMovement TacticalInsights CombatManual Counterinsurgency HistoricalText
In this book, Che Guevara emphasizes the importance of committed and disciplined guerrilla fighters who are deeply rooted in the local population and terrain. He discusses the need for small, mobile, and well-trained units, capable of operating in rugged environments, and highlights the significance of ideology and motivation to maintain the morale of the fighters.
Guevara's "Guerrilla Warfare" delves into the complexities of urban and rural warfare, offering tactical guidance on ambushes, sabotage, and the practical aspects of sustaining a guerrilla movement. It also delves into the relationship between the guerrilla and the local population, stressing the importance of gaining their support.
While the book has been the subject of controversy, Guevara's insights into unconventional warfare and his commitment to the revolutionary cause have made it a significant resource for understanding guerrilla movements and their methods. "Guerrilla Warfare" continues to be studied by military strategists, historians, and those interested in the dynamics of insurgencies and revolutions.
CheGuevara GuerrillaWarfare RevolutionaryStrategy CubanRevolution GuerrillaTactics Insurgency PoliticalChange RevolutionaryThought WarfareManual MilitaryStrategy SocialJustice RevoluciónCubana LatinAmericanRevolution RevolutionaryIdeology GuerillaLeadership GuerrillaMovement TacticalInsights CombatManual Counterinsurgency HistoricalText
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ernesto che Guevara Guerrilla Warfare, nineteen sixty one, epilogue, Analysis
of the Cuban situation, its present and its future. A
year has now passed since the flight of the dictator,
the culmination of a long armed civil struggle by the
Cuban people. The achievements of the government in the social,
(00:21):
economic and political fields are enormous. Nevertheless, it is necessary
to analyze them, to evaluate each act, and to show
precisely the dimensions of our Cuban revolution. This national revolution,
fundamentally agrarian, having the enthusiastic support of workers, of people
from the middle class, and today even of owners of industry,
(00:42):
has acquired a continental and worldwide importance, enhanced by its
peculiar characteristics and by the inflexible will of the people.
It will not be possible to present a synthesis, however,
brief of all the laws passed, all of them undoubtedly
of popular benefit. It will be enough to say, elect
a few for special emphasis, and to show at the
(01:02):
same time the logical chain that carries us forward step
by step in a progressive and necessary order of concern
for the problems of the Cuban people. The first alarm
for the parasitic classes of the country is sounded in
the rent law, the reduction of electric rates, and government
intervention in a telephone company followed by a reduction in rates,
all decreed in rapid succession. Those who had thought Fidel
(01:26):
Castro and the men who made this revolution to be
nothing more than politicians of the old style, manageable simpletons
with beards their only distinction, now began to suspect that
something deeper was emerging from the bosom of the Cuban people,
and that their privileges were in danger. The word communism
began to envelop the figures of the leaders and of
the triumphant gerrilla fighters. Consequently, the word anti communism, as
(01:49):
the position dialectically opposed, began to serve as a nucleus
for all those who resented the loss of their unjust privileges.
The law on vacant lots and the law on an
installment sales aggravated this sensation of malaise among the usurious capitalists.
But these were minor skirmishes with the reactionaries. Everything was
still all right and possible. This crazy fellow, Fidel Castro,
(02:14):
could be counseled and guided to good paths to good
democratic paths by a dubois or a porter, it was
necessary to place hope in the future. The agrarian reform
law was a tremendous jolt most of those who had
been hurt now saw clearly. One of the first was
Gaston Bcuro, the voice of reaction. He had accurately interpreted
(02:36):
what was going to happen and had retired to quieter scenes.
Under the Spanish dictatorship. There were still some who thought
that the law is the law, that other governments had
already promulgated. Such laws theoretically designed to help the people.
Carrying out these laws was another thing. That brash and
complex child that had the initials inra for its familiar name,
(02:59):
was treated at the beginning with peevish and touching paternalism
within the ivory towers of learning pervaded with social doctrines
and respectable theories of public finance, to which the uncultivated
and absurd mentalities of the guerrilla fighters could not arrive,
but ironary advanced like a tractor or a war tank,
because its tractor and tank at the same time, breaking
(03:20):
down the walls of the great estates as it passed
in creating new social relations in the ownership of land.
This Cuban agrarian reform appeared with various characteristics important for America.
It was anti feudal in the sense that it eliminated
the Cuban style lat of fundia, annulled all contracts that
called for payment of rent of land and crops, and
(03:41):
liquidated the servile relations that existed, principally in coffee and
tobacco production, two important branches of our agriculture. But it
also was an agrarian reform in a capitalist medium to
destroy the pressure of monopoly on human beings isolated or
joined together, to help them work their land honorably and
to without fear of the creditor or the master. It
(04:03):
had the characteristic from the first moment of assuring to
peasants and agricultural workers. Those who give themselves to the
soil needed technical help from competent personnel, machinery, financial help
provided through credits from Inra or Para state banks, and
big help from the association of People's stores that has
developed on a large scale in orient and is in
(04:24):
process of development in other provinces. The state stores, replacing
the old usurers, provide just financing and pay a just
price for the harvest. Compared with the other three great
agrarian reforms in America Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia, the most
important distinctive characteristic is the decision to carry Cuban reform
(04:45):
all the way without concessions or exceptions of any kind.
This total agrarian reform respects no rights that are not
rights of the people, nor singles out any class or
nationality for discriminatory treatment. The force of the law falls
equally on the United Fruit Company and on the King
ranch as on the big Cuban landowners. Under these conditions,
(05:06):
land is being cleared mainly for the production of crops
which are very important to the country, rice, oil producing
grains and cotton. These are being intensively developed. But the
nation is not satisfied and is going to recover all
its stolen resources. Its rich sub soil, which has been
a field of monopolist boracity and struggle, is virtually recovered
(05:28):
by the petroleum law. This law, like the agrarian reform
and all the others promulgated by the revolution, responds to
Cuba's irresistible necessities, to urgent demands of a people that
wishes to be free, that wishes to be master of
its economy, that wishes to prosper and to reach ever
higher goals of social development. But for this very reason
(05:49):
it is an example for the continent and feared by
the oil monopolies. It is not that Cuba directly hurts
the petroleum monopoly substantially. There is no reason to believe
the country to be rich in reserves of the prized fuel,
even though there are reasonable hopes of obtaining a supply
that will satisfy its internal needs. On the other hand,
(06:10):
by its law, Cuba gives a palpable example to the
brother peoples of America, many of them foraged by these
monopolies or pushed into intersigne wars in order to satisfy
the necessities or appetites of competing trusts. At the same time,
Cuba shows the possibility of acting in America and the
exact hour when action ought to be considered. The great
(06:31):
monopolies also cast their worried look upon Cuba. Not only
has someone in the little island of the Caribbean dared
to liquidate the interests of the omnipotent United Fruit Company.
Legacy of mister Foster Dulles to his heirs, but also
the empires of mister Rockefeller and the Deutsch Group have
suffered under the lash of intervention by the popular Cuban Revolution.
(06:51):
This law, like the mining law, is the response of
the people to those who try to check them with
threats of force, with aerial incursions, with punishment of whatever type.
Some say that the mining law is as important as
the agrarian reform. We do not consider that it has
this importance for the economy of the country in general.
But it introduces another new feature, a twenty five percent
(07:14):
tax on the amount of product exported to be paid
by companies that sell our minerals abroad, leaving now something
more than a whole in our territory. This not only
contributes to our Cuban welfare, it also increases the relative
strength of the Canadian monopolies in their struggle with the
present exploiters of our nickel. Thus, the Cuban Revolution liquidates
(07:35):
the latter fundia, limits the profits of the foreign monopolies,
limits the profits of the foreign intermediaries that dedicate themselves
with parasitic capital to the commerce of importation, launches upon
the world a new policy in America dares to break
the monopolist status of the giants of mining and leaves
one of them in difficulty, to say the least. This
(07:55):
signifies a powerful new message to the neighbors of the
great stronghold of monopoly and causes repercussions throughout America. The
Cuban Revolution breaks all the barriers of the new syndicates
and diffuses its truth like a shower of dust among
the American masses anxious for a better life. Cuba is
the symbol of nationality renewed, and Fidel Castro the symbol
(08:17):
of liberation. By a simple law of gravity, the little
island of one hundred fourteen thousand square kilometers and six
and one half million inhabitants assumes the leadership in the
anti colonial struggle in America, in which serious handicaps in
other countries permit Cuba to take the heroic, glorious, and
dangerous advanced post. The economically less weak nations of colonial America,
(08:41):
the ones in which national capitalism develops haltingly in a continuous,
relentless and at times violent struggle against the foreign monopolies,
now seede their place gradually to this small new champion
of liberty. Since their governments do not have sufficient force
to carry the fight forward. This is not a simple task,
nor is it free from danger and difficulties. The backing
(09:04):
of a whole people and an enormous charge of idealism
and spirit of sacrifice are needed in the nearly solitary
conditions in which we are carrying it out in America.
Small countries have tried to maintain this post. Before. Guatemala,
the Guatemala of keetsal that dies when it is imprisoned
in a cage. The Guatemala of the Indian tecum Yumam
fell before the direct aggression of the colonialists. Bolivia, the
(09:28):
country of Morillo, the protomarter of American independence, yielded to
the terrible hardships of the struggle after setting three examples
that served as the foundation of the Cuban Revolution. The
suppression of the army, bagrarian reform, and nationalization of Mind's
maximum source of riches and at the same time maximum
source of tragedy. Cuba knows about these previous examples, knows
(09:51):
the failures and the difficulties, but it knows also that
we are at the dawning of a new era in
the world. The pillars of colonialism have been swept aside
by the power of the national and popular struggle in
Asia and Africa. Solidarity among peoples does not now come
from religion, customs, tastes, racial affinity, or its lack. It
(10:13):
arises from a similarity in economic and social conditions, and
from a similarity in desire for progress and recuperation. Asia
and Africa join hands in Bandum. Asia and Africa come
to join hands with colonial and indigenous America through Cuba
in Havana. On the other hand, the great colonial powers
(10:34):
have lost ground before the struggle of the peoples. Belgium
and Holland are two caricatures of empires. Germany and Italy
lost their colonies. France is bitterly fighting a war that
is lost. England, diplomatic and skillful, liquidates political power while
maintaining the economic connections. American capitalism replaced some of the
(10:56):
old colonial capitalisms in the countries that began therein. But
it knows that this is transitory and that there is
no real security for its financial speculations in these new territories.
The octopus cannot there apply its suckers firmly. The claw
of the imperial eagle is trimmed. Colonialism is dead or
(11:17):
is dying a natural death. In all these places, America
is something else. It has been some time since the
English lion, with its voracious appetite, departed from our America,
and the young and charming Yankee capitalists installed the democratic
version of the English clubs, imposing their sovereign domination over
every one of the twenty republics. These is the colonial
(11:40):
realm of North American monopoly, its reason for being in
last hope, the back yard of its own house. If
all the Latin American peoples should raise the flag of
dignity as Cuba has done, monopoly would tremble. It would
have to accommodate to a new political economic situation and
to substantial prunings of prophets. Monopoly does not like prophets
(12:02):
to be pruned. And the Cuban example, this bad example
of national and international dignity, is gaining strength in the
countries of America. Each time that an impudent people cries
out for liberation, Cuba is accused. And it is true
in a sense that Cuba is guilty because Cuba has
shown the way, the way of the armed popular fight
(12:23):
against armies supposed to be invincible, the way of struggle
in wild places, to wear down and destroy the enemy
far from his basis, in a word, the way of dignity.
This Cuban example is bad, a very bad example. And
monopoly cannot sleep quietly while this bad example remains at
its feet, defying danger, advancing toward the future. It must
(12:45):
be destroyed. Voices declare it is necessary to intervene in
this bastion of communism, cry the servants of monopoly disguised
as representatives in Congress. The Cuban situation is very disturbing,
say the artful defenders of the trusts. We all know
that their meaning is it must be destroyed very well.
(13:07):
What are the different possibilities of aggressive action to destroy
the bad example? One could be called the purely economic.
These begins with a restriction on credit by North American
banks and suppliers to all business men, national banks, and
even the National Bank of Cuba. Credit is thus restricted
in North America and through the medium of associates. An
(13:28):
attempt is made to have the same policy adopted in
all the countries of Western Europe, but this alone is
not sufficient. The denial of credits strikes a first strong
blow at the economy, but recovery is rapid and the
commercial balance evens out. Since the victimized country is accustomed
to living as best it can, it is necessary to
(13:49):
apply more pressure. The sugar quota is brought into the picture. Yes, no, no, yes. Hurriedly,
the calculating machines of the agents of monopoly totals up
all sorts of accounts and arrive at the final conclusion.
It is very dangerous to reduce the Cuban quota and
impossible to cancel it. Why very dangerous because, besides being
(14:11):
bad politics, it would awaken the appetite of ten or
fifteen other supplier countries, causing them tremendous discomfort because they
would all consider they had a right to something more.
It is impossible to cancel the quota because Cuba is
the largest, most efficient, and cheapest provider of sugar to
the United States, and because sixty percent of the interests
(14:33):
that profit directly from the production and commerce in sugar
are United States interests. Besides, the commercial balance is favorable
to the United States. Whoever does not sell cannot buy,
and it would set a bad example to break a
treaty Further, the supposed North American gift of paying nearly
three cents above the market price is only the result
(14:54):
of North American incapacity to produce sugar cheaply. The high
wages and the low product activity of the soil prevent
the Great Power from producing sugar at Cuban prices, and
by paying this higher price for a product, they are
able to impose burdensome treaties on all beneficiaries, not only Cuba.
Impossible to liquidate the Cuban quota. We do not consider
(15:17):
likely the possibility that monopolists are employing a variant of
the economic approach in bombarding and burning sugar cane fields,
hoping to cause a scarcity of the product. Rather, this
appears to be a measure calculated to weaken confidence in
the power of the revolutionary government. The corpse of the
North American mercenary stains more than a Cuban house with blood.
(15:38):
It also stains a policy, and what is to be
said of the gigantic explosion of arms destined for the
rebel army. Another vulnerable place where the Cuban economy can
be squeezed is the supply of raw materials such as cotton. However,
it is well known that there is an overproduction of
cotton in the world, and any difficulty of this type
(15:58):
would be transitory fuel. This is worth some attention. It
is possible to paralyze a country by depriving it of fuel,
and Cuba produces very little petroleum. It has some heavy
fuel that can be used to operate its steam driven
machinery and some alcohol that can be used in vehicles. Also,
there are large amounts of petroleum in the world. Egypt
(16:22):
can sell it, the Soviet Union can sell it. Perhaps
Iraq will be able to sell it shortly. It is
not possible to develop a purely economic strategy. As another
possibility of aggression. If to this economic variant were added
an intervention by some puppet power, the Dominican Republic, for example,
it would be somewhat more of a nuisance, but the
(16:43):
United Nations would doubtless intervene with nothing concrete having been achieved. Incidentally,
the new course taken by the Organization of American States
creates a dangerous precedent of intervention behind the shield of
the trujel pretext monopoly solaces itself by constructing a means
of aggression it is sad that the Venezuelan democracy has
(17:05):
put us in the difficult position of having to oppose
an intervention against Truhiel. What a good turn it has
done the pirates of the continent. Among the new possibilities
of aggression is physical elimination by means of an assault
on the bold fellow Fidel Castro, who has become by
now the focus of the monopolies Wrath. Naturally, measures must
(17:26):
be arranged so that the other two dangerous international agents,
Raoul Castro and the author are also eliminated. This solution
is appealing. If simultaneous assaults on all three, or at
least on the directing, had succeeded, it would be a
boon to the reaction. But do not forget the people
Messr's monopolists and agents, the omnipotent people who, in their
(17:48):
fury at such a crime, would crush and erase all
those who had anything to do directly or indirectly. With
an assault on any of the chiefs of the revolution,
it would be impossible to restrain them. Another aspect of
the Guatemalan variant is to put pressure on the suppliers
of arms in order to force Cuba to buy in
communist countries and then use this as an occasion to
(18:09):
let loose another shower of insults. This could give results.
It may be someone in our government has said that
they will attack us as communists, but they are not
going to eliminate us as imbeciles. Thus it begins to
appear as if a direct aggression on the part of
the monopolies will be necessary. Various possible forms are being
(18:29):
shuffled and studied in the IBM machines. With all processes calculated,
it occurs to us at the moment that the Spanish
variant could be used. The Spanish variant would be one
in which some initial pretext is seized upon for an
attack by exiles with the help of volunteers, volunteers who
would be mercenaries, of course, or simply the troops of
(18:50):
a foreign power, while supported by navy and air, while
enough supported, shall we say, to be successful. It could
also begin as a direct aggression by some states, such
as the Dominican Republic, which would send some of its
men are brothers and many mercenaries to die on these
beaches in order to provoke war. This would prompt the
pure intentioned monopolists to say that they do not wish
(19:13):
to intervene in this disastrous struggle between brothers. They will
merely limit and confine and freeze the war within its
present limits by maintaining vigilance over the skies and seas
of this part of America with cruisers, battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines, minesweepers,
torpedo boats, and airplanes. And it could happen that while
(19:36):
these zealous guardians of continental peace were not allowing a
single boat to pass with things for Cuba, some many
or all of the boats headed for the unhappy country
of Truhiel would escape the iron vigilance. Also, they might
intervene through some reputable inter American organ to put an
end to the foolish war that communism had unleashed in
(19:56):
our island. Or if this mechanism of the reputable Amamerican
organ did not serve, they might intervene directly, as in Korea,
using the name of the international organ in order to
restore peace and protect the interests of all nations. Perhaps
the first step in the aggression will not be against us,
but against the constitutional government of Venezuela, in order to
(20:17):
liquidate our last point of support on the continent. If
this happens, it is possible that the center of the
struggle against colonialism will move from Cuba to the great
country of Bolivar. The people of Venezuela will rise to
defend their liberties with all the enthusiasm of those who
know that they are fighting a decisive battle, that behind
defeat lies the darkest tyranny, and behind victory the certain
(20:40):
future of America. A stream of popular struggles can disturb
the peace of the monopolist cemeteries formed out of our
subjugated sister republics. Many reasons argue against the chance of
enemy victory, but there are two fundamental ones. The first
is external. This is the year nineteen sixty, the year
that will finally the voices of the millions of beings
(21:01):
who do not have the luck to be governed by
the possessors of the means of death and payment. Further,
and this is an even more powerful reason, an army
of six million Cubans will grasp weapons as a single
man in order to defend its territory and its revolution.
Cuba will be a battlefield, or the army will be
nothing other than part of the people in arms after destruction.
(21:23):
In a frontal war, hundreds of guerrilla bands under a
dynamic command and a single center of orientation will fight
the battle all over the country. In cities, the workers
will die in their factories or centers of work. And
in the country the peasants will deal out death to
the invader from behind every palm tree and from every
furrow of the new mechanically plowed field that the revolution
(21:44):
has given them. And around the world, international solidarity will
create a barrier of hundreds of millions of people protesting
against aggression. Monopoly will see how its pillars are undermined,
and how the spider web curtain of its newspaper lies
is swept away by a puff. But let us suppose
that they dare to defy the popular indignation of the world.
(22:05):
What will happen here? Within? The first thing to be noted,
given our position as an easily vulnerable island without heavy arms,
with a very weak air force and navy, is the
necessity of applying the gorilla concept to the fight for
national defense. Our ground units will fight with the fervor,
decision and enthusiasm of which the sons of the Cuban
(22:26):
Revolution are capable in these glorious years of our history.
But if the worst occurs, we are prepared to continue
fighting even after the destruction of our army organization. In
a frontal combat, in other words, confronting large concentrations of
enemy forces that succeed in destroying ours, we would change
immediately into a gorilla army with a good sense of mobility,
(22:49):
with unlimited authority in our column commanders, though with a
central command located somewhere in the country, giving the necessary
direction and fixing the general overall strategy. The mountain would
be the last line of defense of the organized armed
vanguard of the people, which is the rebel army. But
in every house of the people, on every road, in
every forest, in every piece of national territory, the struggle
(23:12):
would be fought by the great army of the rear Guard,
the entire people, trained and armed in a manner now
to be described. Since our infantry units will not have
heavy arms, they will concentrate on anti tank and anti
air defense mines in very large numbers. Bazukahs or anti
tank grenades, anti aircraft cannon of great mobility in mortar
(23:33):
batteries will be the only arms of any great power.
The veteran infantry soldier, though equipped with automatic weapons, will
know the value of ammunition. He will guard it with
loving care. Special installations for reloading shells will accompany each
unit of the army maintaining reserves of ammunition, even though precariously.
(23:54):
The air force will probably be badly hurt in the
first moments of an invasion of this type. We are
basing our calculations upon an invasion by a first class
foreign power, or by a mercenary army of some other power,
helped either openly or surreptitiously by this great power of
first magnitude. The national Air Force, as I said, will
(24:14):
be destroyed or almost destroyed. Only reconnaissance or liaison plains
will remain, especially helicopters from minor functions. The Navy will
also be organized for this mobile strategy. Small launches will
give the smallest target to the enemy and maintain maximum mobility.
The great desperation of the enemy army in this case,
(24:35):
as before, will be to find something to receive his blows. Instead,
he will find a gelatinous mass in movement, impenetrable that
retreats and never presents a solid front, though it inflicts
wounds from every side. It is not easy to overcome
an army of the people that is prepared to continue
being an army in spite of its defeat. In a
(24:56):
frontal battle. Two great masses of the people are united
around the peasants and the workers. The peasants have already
given evidence of their efficiency in detaining the small band
that was marauding in Pinar del Rio. These peasants will
be trained principally in their own regions, but the platoon
commanders and the superior officers will be trained as is
(25:17):
now already being done in our military bases. From there
they will be distributed throughout the thirty zones of agrarian
development that formed the new geographical division of the country.
This will constitute thirty more centers of peasant struggle, charged
with defending to the maximum their lands, their social conquests,
their new houses, their canals, their dams, their flowering harvests,
(25:41):
their independence, in a word, their right to live. At
the beginning, they will oppose also affirm resistance to any
enemy advance, but if this proves too strong for them,
they will disperse, each peasant becoming a peaceful cultivator of
his soil during the day, and a fearsome guerrilla fighter
at night scourge of the enemy forces. Something similar will
(26:02):
take place among the workers. The best among them will
be trained also to serve thereafter as chiefs of their companions,
teaching them principles of defense. Each social class, however, will
have different tasks. The peasant will fight a battle typical
of the guerrilla fighter. He should learn to be a
good shot, to take advantage of all the difficulties of
(26:22):
the ground, and to disappear without ever showing his face.
The workers, on the other hand, have the advantage of
being within a modern city, which is a large and
efficient fortress. At the same time, their lack of mobility
is a drawback. The worker will learn first to block
the streets with barricades of any available vehicle, furniture, or utensil,
(26:42):
to use every block as a fortress, with communications formed
by holes made in interior walls, to use that terrible
arm of defense, the Molotov cocktail, and to coordinate his
fire from the innumerable loopholes provided by the houses of
a modern city. From the worker masses assisted by them,
the national police and those armed forces charged with the
defense of the city a powerful block of the army
(27:05):
will be formed, but it must expect to suffer great losses.
The struggle in the cities in these conditions cannot achieve
the facility and flexibility of the struggle in the countryside.
Many will fall, including many leaders. In this popular struggle.
The enemy will use tanks that will be destroyed rapidly
as soon as the people learn their weaknesses and not
(27:26):
to fear them. But before that the tanks will leave
their balance of victims. There will also be other organizations
related to those of workers and peasants. First the student militias,
which will contain the flower of the student youth, directed
and coordinated by the rebel army. Organizations of youth in general,
who will participate in the same way, and organizations of
(27:47):
women who will provide an enormous encouragement by their presence,
and who will do such auxiliary tasks for their companions
in the struggle as cooking, taking care of the wounded,
giving final comfort to those who are dying, doing laundry,
in a word, showing their companions in arms that they
will never be absent in the difficult moments of the revolution.
(28:08):
All this is achieved by wide scale organization of the masses,
supplemented with patient and careful education, an education that begins
and is confirmed in knowledge acquired from their own experience.
It should concentrate on reasoned and true explanations of the
facts of the revolution. The revolutionary laws should be discussed, explained,
studied in every meeting, in every assembly wherever the leaders
(28:31):
of the revolution are present for any purpose. Also, the
speeches of the leaders, and in our case particularly of
the undisputed leader, should constantly be read, commented upon, and discussed.
People should come together in the country to listen by radio,
and where there are more advanced facilities, to watch by television.
These magnificent popular lessons that our Prime Minister gives. The
(28:55):
participation of the people in politics, that is to say,
in the expression of their own desires made into laws,
decrees and resolutions should be constant. Vigilance against any manifestations
opposed to the revolution should also be constant, and vigilance
over morale within the revolutionary masses should be stricter, if
(29:15):
this is possible, than vigilance against the non revolutionary or
the disaffected. It can never be permitted lest the revolution
take the dangerous path of opportunism that a revolutionary of
any category should be excused for grave offenses against decorum
or morality simply because he is a revolutionary. The record
of his former services may provide extenuating circumstances, and they
(29:39):
can always be considered in deciding upon the punishment, but
the act itself must always be punished. Respect for work,
above all, for collective work, and work for collective ends
ought to be cultivated. Volunteer brigades to construct roads, bridges,
docks or dams, and school cities should receive a strong impulse.
(29:59):
These served of f forger unity among persons showing their
love for the revolution with works. An army that is
linked in such ways with the people, that feels this
intimacy with the peasants and the workers from which it emerged,
that knows besides all the special techniques of its warfare,
and is psychologically prepared for the worst contingencies, is invincible,
(30:19):
and it will be even more invincible as it makes
the just phrase of our immortal Camillo a part of
the flesh of the army and the citizenry. The army
is the people in uniform. Therefore, for all these reasons,
despite the necessity that monopoly suppressed that bad example of Cuba.
Our future is brighter than ever. End of guerrilla warfare,
Ernesto che Guevara Guerrilla Warfare, nineteen sixty one, epilogue, Analysis
of the Cuban situation, its present and its future. A
year has now passed since the flight of the dictator,
the culmination of a long armed civil struggle by the
Cuban people. The achievements of the government in the social,
(00:21):
economic and political fields are enormous. Nevertheless, it is necessary
to analyze them, to evaluate each act, and to show
precisely the dimensions of our Cuban revolution. This national revolution,
fundamentally agrarian, having the enthusiastic support of workers, of people
from the middle class, and today even of owners of industry,
(00:42):
has acquired a continental and worldwide importance, enhanced by its
peculiar characteristics and by the inflexible will of the people.
It will not be possible to present a synthesis, however,
brief of all the laws passed, all of them undoubtedly
of popular benefit. It will be enough to say, elect
a few for special emphasis, and to show at the
(01:02):
same time the logical chain that carries us forward step
by step in a progressive and necessary order of concern
for the problems of the Cuban people. The first alarm
for the parasitic classes of the country is sounded in
the rent law, the reduction of electric rates, and government
intervention in a telephone company followed by a reduction in rates,
all decreed in rapid succession. Those who had thought Fidel
(01:26):
Castro and the men who made this revolution to be
nothing more than politicians of the old style, manageable simpletons
with beards their only distinction, now began to suspect that
something deeper was emerging from the bosom of the Cuban people,
and that their privileges were in danger. The word communism
began to envelop the figures of the leaders and of
the triumphant gerrilla fighters. Consequently, the word anti communism, as
(01:49):
the position dialectically opposed, began to serve as a nucleus
for all those who resented the loss of their unjust privileges.
The law on vacant lots and the law on an
installment sales aggravated this sensation of malaise among the usurious capitalists.
But these were minor skirmishes with the reactionaries. Everything was
still all right and possible. This crazy fellow, Fidel Castro,
(02:14):
could be counseled and guided to good paths to good
democratic paths by a dubois or a porter, it was
necessary to place hope in the future. The agrarian reform
law was a tremendous jolt most of those who had
been hurt now saw clearly. One of the first was
Gaston Bcuro, the voice of reaction. He had accurately interpreted
(02:36):
what was going to happen and had retired to quieter scenes.
Under the Spanish dictatorship. There were still some who thought
that the law is the law, that other governments had
already promulgated. Such laws theoretically designed to help the people.
Carrying out these laws was another thing. That brash and
complex child that had the initials inra for its familiar name,
(02:59):
was treated at the beginning with peevish and touching paternalism
within the ivory towers of learning pervaded with social doctrines
and respectable theories of public finance, to which the uncultivated
and absurd mentalities of the guerrilla fighters could not arrive,
but ironary advanced like a tractor or a war tank,
because its tractor and tank at the same time, breaking
(03:20):
down the walls of the great estates as it passed
in creating new social relations in the ownership of land.
This Cuban agrarian reform appeared with various characteristics important for America.
It was anti feudal in the sense that it eliminated
the Cuban style lat of fundia, annulled all contracts that
called for payment of rent of land and crops, and
(03:41):
liquidated the servile relations that existed, principally in coffee and
tobacco production, two important branches of our agriculture. But it
also was an agrarian reform in a capitalist medium to
destroy the pressure of monopoly on human beings isolated or
joined together, to help them work their land honorably and
to without fear of the creditor or the master. It
(04:03):
had the characteristic from the first moment of assuring to
peasants and agricultural workers. Those who give themselves to the
soil needed technical help from competent personnel, machinery, financial help
provided through credits from Inra or Para state banks, and
big help from the association of People's stores that has
developed on a large scale in orient and is in
(04:24):
process of development in other provinces. The state stores, replacing
the old usurers, provide just financing and pay a just
price for the harvest. Compared with the other three great
agrarian reforms in America Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia, the most
important distinctive characteristic is the decision to carry Cuban reform
(04:45):
all the way without concessions or exceptions of any kind.
This total agrarian reform respects no rights that are not
rights of the people, nor singles out any class or
nationality for discriminatory treatment. The force of the law falls
equally on the United Fruit Company and on the King
ranch as on the big Cuban landowners. Under these conditions,
(05:06):
land is being cleared mainly for the production of crops
which are very important to the country, rice, oil producing
grains and cotton. These are being intensively developed. But the
nation is not satisfied and is going to recover all
its stolen resources. Its rich sub soil, which has been
a field of monopolist boracity and struggle, is virtually recovered
(05:28):
by the petroleum law. This law, like the agrarian reform
and all the others promulgated by the revolution, responds to
Cuba's irresistible necessities, to urgent demands of a people that
wishes to be free, that wishes to be master of
its economy, that wishes to prosper and to reach ever
higher goals of social development. But for this very reason
(05:49):
it is an example for the continent and feared by
the oil monopolies. It is not that Cuba directly hurts
the petroleum monopoly substantially. There is no reason to believe
the country to be rich in reserves of the prized fuel,
even though there are reasonable hopes of obtaining a supply
that will satisfy its internal needs. On the other hand,
(06:10):
by its law, Cuba gives a palpable example to the
brother peoples of America, many of them foraged by these
monopolies or pushed into intersigne wars in order to satisfy
the necessities or appetites of competing trusts. At the same time,
Cuba shows the possibility of acting in America and the
exact hour when action ought to be considered. The great
(06:31):
monopolies also cast their worried look upon Cuba. Not only
has someone in the little island of the Caribbean dared
to liquidate the interests of the omnipotent United Fruit Company.
Legacy of mister Foster Dulles to his heirs, but also
the empires of mister Rockefeller and the Deutsch Group have
suffered under the lash of intervention by the popular Cuban Revolution.
(06:51):
This law, like the mining law, is the response of
the people to those who try to check them with
threats of force, with aerial incursions, with punishment of whatever type.
Some say that the mining law is as important as
the agrarian reform. We do not consider that it has
this importance for the economy of the country in general.
But it introduces another new feature, a twenty five percent
(07:14):
tax on the amount of product exported to be paid
by companies that sell our minerals abroad, leaving now something
more than a whole in our territory. This not only
contributes to our Cuban welfare, it also increases the relative
strength of the Canadian monopolies in their struggle with the
present exploiters of our nickel. Thus, the Cuban Revolution liquidates
(07:35):
the latter fundia, limits the profits of the foreign monopolies,
limits the profits of the foreign intermediaries that dedicate themselves
with parasitic capital to the commerce of importation, launches upon
the world a new policy in America dares to break
the monopolist status of the giants of mining and leaves
one of them in difficulty, to say the least. This
(07:55):
signifies a powerful new message to the neighbors of the
great stronghold of monopoly and causes repercussions throughout America. The
Cuban Revolution breaks all the barriers of the new syndicates
and diffuses its truth like a shower of dust among
the American masses anxious for a better life. Cuba is
the symbol of nationality renewed, and Fidel Castro the symbol
(08:17):
of liberation. By a simple law of gravity, the little
island of one hundred fourteen thousand square kilometers and six
and one half million inhabitants assumes the leadership in the
anti colonial struggle in America, in which serious handicaps in
other countries permit Cuba to take the heroic, glorious, and
dangerous advanced post. The economically less weak nations of colonial America,
(08:41):
the ones in which national capitalism develops haltingly in a continuous,
relentless and at times violent struggle against the foreign monopolies,
now seede their place gradually to this small new champion
of liberty. Since their governments do not have sufficient force
to carry the fight forward. This is not a simple task,
nor is it free from danger and difficulties. The backing
(09:04):
of a whole people and an enormous charge of idealism
and spirit of sacrifice are needed in the nearly solitary
conditions in which we are carrying it out in America.
Small countries have tried to maintain this post. Before. Guatemala,
the Guatemala of keetsal that dies when it is imprisoned
in a cage. The Guatemala of the Indian tecum Yumam
fell before the direct aggression of the colonialists. Bolivia, the
(09:28):
country of Morillo, the protomarter of American independence, yielded to
the terrible hardships of the struggle after setting three examples
that served as the foundation of the Cuban Revolution. The
suppression of the army, bagrarian reform, and nationalization of Mind's
maximum source of riches and at the same time maximum
source of tragedy. Cuba knows about these previous examples, knows
(09:51):
the failures and the difficulties, but it knows also that
we are at the dawning of a new era in
the world. The pillars of colonialism have been swept aside
by the power of the national and popular struggle in
Asia and Africa. Solidarity among peoples does not now come
from religion, customs, tastes, racial affinity, or its lack. It
(10:13):
arises from a similarity in economic and social conditions, and
from a similarity in desire for progress and recuperation. Asia
and Africa join hands in Bandum. Asia and Africa come
to join hands with colonial and indigenous America through Cuba
in Havana. On the other hand, the great colonial powers
(10:34):
have lost ground before the struggle of the peoples. Belgium
and Holland are two caricatures of empires. Germany and Italy
lost their colonies. France is bitterly fighting a war that
is lost. England, diplomatic and skillful, liquidates political power while
maintaining the economic connections. American capitalism replaced some of the
(10:56):
old colonial capitalisms in the countries that began therein. But
it knows that this is transitory and that there is
no real security for its financial speculations in these new territories.
The octopus cannot there apply its suckers firmly. The claw
of the imperial eagle is trimmed. Colonialism is dead or
(11:17):
is dying a natural death. In all these places, America
is something else. It has been some time since the
English lion, with its voracious appetite, departed from our America,
and the young and charming Yankee capitalists installed the democratic
version of the English clubs, imposing their sovereign domination over
every one of the twenty republics. These is the colonial
(11:40):
realm of North American monopoly, its reason for being in
last hope, the back yard of its own house. If
all the Latin American peoples should raise the flag of
dignity as Cuba has done, monopoly would tremble. It would
have to accommodate to a new political economic situation and
to substantial prunings of prophets. Monopoly does not like prophets
(12:02):
to be pruned. And the Cuban example, this bad example
of national and international dignity, is gaining strength in the
countries of America. Each time that an impudent people cries
out for liberation, Cuba is accused. And it is true
in a sense that Cuba is guilty because Cuba has
shown the way, the way of the armed popular fight
(12:23):
against armies supposed to be invincible, the way of struggle
in wild places, to wear down and destroy the enemy
far from his basis, in a word, the way of dignity.
This Cuban example is bad, a very bad example. And
monopoly cannot sleep quietly while this bad example remains at
its feet, defying danger, advancing toward the future. It must
(12:45):
be destroyed. Voices declare it is necessary to intervene in
this bastion of communism, cry the servants of monopoly disguised
as representatives in Congress. The Cuban situation is very disturbing,
say the artful defenders of the trusts. We all know
that their meaning is it must be destroyed very well.
(13:07):
What are the different possibilities of aggressive action to destroy
the bad example? One could be called the purely economic.
These begins with a restriction on credit by North American
banks and suppliers to all business men, national banks, and
even the National Bank of Cuba. Credit is thus restricted
in North America and through the medium of associates. An
(13:28):
attempt is made to have the same policy adopted in
all the countries of Western Europe, but this alone is
not sufficient. The denial of credits strikes a first strong
blow at the economy, but recovery is rapid and the
commercial balance evens out. Since the victimized country is accustomed
to living as best it can, it is necessary to
(13:49):
apply more pressure. The sugar quota is brought into the picture. Yes, no, no, yes. Hurriedly,
the calculating machines of the agents of monopoly totals up
all sorts of accounts and arrive at the final conclusion.
It is very dangerous to reduce the Cuban quota and
impossible to cancel it. Why very dangerous because, besides being
(14:11):
bad politics, it would awaken the appetite of ten or
fifteen other supplier countries, causing them tremendous discomfort because they
would all consider they had a right to something more.
It is impossible to cancel the quota because Cuba is
the largest, most efficient, and cheapest provider of sugar to
the United States, and because sixty percent of the interests
(14:33):
that profit directly from the production and commerce in sugar
are United States interests. Besides, the commercial balance is favorable
to the United States. Whoever does not sell cannot buy,
and it would set a bad example to break a
treaty Further, the supposed North American gift of paying nearly
three cents above the market price is only the result
(14:54):
of North American incapacity to produce sugar cheaply. The high
wages and the low product activity of the soil prevent
the Great Power from producing sugar at Cuban prices, and
by paying this higher price for a product, they are
able to impose burdensome treaties on all beneficiaries, not only Cuba.
Impossible to liquidate the Cuban quota. We do not consider
(15:17):
likely the possibility that monopolists are employing a variant of
the economic approach in bombarding and burning sugar cane fields,
hoping to cause a scarcity of the product. Rather, this
appears to be a measure calculated to weaken confidence in
the power of the revolutionary government. The corpse of the
North American mercenary stains more than a Cuban house with blood.
(15:38):
It also stains a policy, and what is to be
said of the gigantic explosion of arms destined for the
rebel army. Another vulnerable place where the Cuban economy can
be squeezed is the supply of raw materials such as cotton. However,
it is well known that there is an overproduction of
cotton in the world, and any difficulty of this type
(15:58):
would be transitory fuel. This is worth some attention. It
is possible to paralyze a country by depriving it of fuel,
and Cuba produces very little petroleum. It has some heavy
fuel that can be used to operate its steam driven
machinery and some alcohol that can be used in vehicles. Also,
there are large amounts of petroleum in the world. Egypt
(16:22):
can sell it, the Soviet Union can sell it. Perhaps
Iraq will be able to sell it shortly. It is
not possible to develop a purely economic strategy. As another
possibility of aggression. If to this economic variant were added
an intervention by some puppet power, the Dominican Republic, for example,
it would be somewhat more of a nuisance, but the
(16:43):
United Nations would doubtless intervene with nothing concrete having been achieved. Incidentally,
the new course taken by the Organization of American States
creates a dangerous precedent of intervention behind the shield of
the trujel pretext monopoly solaces itself by constructing a means
of aggression it is sad that the Venezuelan democracy has
(17:05):
put us in the difficult position of having to oppose
an intervention against Truhiel. What a good turn it has
done the pirates of the continent. Among the new possibilities
of aggression is physical elimination by means of an assault
on the bold fellow Fidel Castro, who has become by
now the focus of the monopolies Wrath. Naturally, measures must
(17:26):
be arranged so that the other two dangerous international agents,
Raoul Castro and the author are also eliminated. This solution
is appealing. If simultaneous assaults on all three, or at
least on the directing, had succeeded, it would be a
boon to the reaction. But do not forget the people
Messr's monopolists and agents, the omnipotent people who, in their
(17:48):
fury at such a crime, would crush and erase all
those who had anything to do directly or indirectly. With
an assault on any of the chiefs of the revolution,
it would be impossible to restrain them. Another aspect of
the Guatemalan variant is to put pressure on the suppliers
of arms in order to force Cuba to buy in
communist countries and then use this as an occasion to
(18:09):
let loose another shower of insults. This could give results.
It may be someone in our government has said that
they will attack us as communists, but they are not
going to eliminate us as imbeciles. Thus it begins to
appear as if a direct aggression on the part of
the monopolies will be necessary. Various possible forms are being
(18:29):
shuffled and studied in the IBM machines. With all processes calculated,
it occurs to us at the moment that the Spanish
variant could be used. The Spanish variant would be one
in which some initial pretext is seized upon for an
attack by exiles with the help of volunteers, volunteers who
would be mercenaries, of course, or simply the troops of
(18:50):
a foreign power, while supported by navy and air, while
enough supported, shall we say, to be successful. It could
also begin as a direct aggression by some states, such
as the Dominican Republic, which would send some of its
men are brothers and many mercenaries to die on these
beaches in order to provoke war. This would prompt the
pure intentioned monopolists to say that they do not wish
(19:13):
to intervene in this disastrous struggle between brothers. They will
merely limit and confine and freeze the war within its
present limits by maintaining vigilance over the skies and seas
of this part of America with cruisers, battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines, minesweepers,
torpedo boats, and airplanes. And it could happen that while
(19:36):
these zealous guardians of continental peace were not allowing a
single boat to pass with things for Cuba, some many
or all of the boats headed for the unhappy country
of Truhiel would escape the iron vigilance. Also, they might
intervene through some reputable inter American organ to put an
end to the foolish war that communism had unleashed in
(19:56):
our island. Or if this mechanism of the reputable Amamerican
organ did not serve, they might intervene directly, as in Korea,
using the name of the international organ in order to
restore peace and protect the interests of all nations. Perhaps
the first step in the aggression will not be against us,
but against the constitutional government of Venezuela, in order to
(20:17):
liquidate our last point of support on the continent. If
this happens, it is possible that the center of the
struggle against colonialism will move from Cuba to the great
country of Bolivar. The people of Venezuela will rise to
defend their liberties with all the enthusiasm of those who
know that they are fighting a decisive battle, that behind
defeat lies the darkest tyranny, and behind victory the certain
(20:40):
future of America. A stream of popular struggles can disturb
the peace of the monopolist cemeteries formed out of our
subjugated sister republics. Many reasons argue against the chance of
enemy victory, but there are two fundamental ones. The first
is external. This is the year nineteen sixty, the year
that will finally the voices of the millions of beings
(21:01):
who do not have the luck to be governed by
the possessors of the means of death and payment. Further,
and this is an even more powerful reason, an army
of six million Cubans will grasp weapons as a single
man in order to defend its territory and its revolution.
Cuba will be a battlefield, or the army will be
nothing other than part of the people in arms after destruction.
(21:23):
In a frontal war, hundreds of guerrilla bands under a
dynamic command and a single center of orientation will fight
the battle all over the country. In cities, the workers
will die in their factories or centers of work. And
in the country the peasants will deal out death to
the invader from behind every palm tree and from every
furrow of the new mechanically plowed field that the revolution
(21:44):
has given them. And around the world, international solidarity will
create a barrier of hundreds of millions of people protesting
against aggression. Monopoly will see how its pillars are undermined,
and how the spider web curtain of its newspaper lies
is swept away by a puff. But let us suppose
that they dare to defy the popular indignation of the world.
(22:05):
What will happen here? Within? The first thing to be noted,
given our position as an easily vulnerable island without heavy arms,
with a very weak air force and navy, is the
necessity of applying the gorilla concept to the fight for
national defense. Our ground units will fight with the fervor,
decision and enthusiasm of which the sons of the Cuban
(22:26):
Revolution are capable in these glorious years of our history.
But if the worst occurs, we are prepared to continue
fighting even after the destruction of our army organization. In
a frontal combat, in other words, confronting large concentrations of
enemy forces that succeed in destroying ours, we would change
immediately into a gorilla army with a good sense of mobility,
(22:49):
with unlimited authority in our column commanders, though with a
central command located somewhere in the country, giving the necessary
direction and fixing the general overall strategy. The mountain would
be the last line of defense of the organized armed
vanguard of the people, which is the rebel army. But
in every house of the people, on every road, in
every forest, in every piece of national territory, the struggle
(23:12):
would be fought by the great army of the rear Guard,
the entire people, trained and armed in a manner now
to be described. Since our infantry units will not have
heavy arms, they will concentrate on anti tank and anti
air defense mines in very large numbers. Bazukahs or anti
tank grenades, anti aircraft cannon of great mobility in mortar
(23:33):
batteries will be the only arms of any great power.
The veteran infantry soldier, though equipped with automatic weapons, will
know the value of ammunition. He will guard it with
loving care. Special installations for reloading shells will accompany each
unit of the army maintaining reserves of ammunition, even though precariously.
(23:54):
The air force will probably be badly hurt in the
first moments of an invasion of this type. We are
basing our calculations upon an invasion by a first class
foreign power, or by a mercenary army of some other power,
helped either openly or surreptitiously by this great power of
first magnitude. The national Air Force, as I said, will
(24:14):
be destroyed or almost destroyed. Only reconnaissance or liaison plains
will remain, especially helicopters from minor functions. The Navy will
also be organized for this mobile strategy. Small launches will
give the smallest target to the enemy and maintain maximum mobility.
The great desperation of the enemy army in this case,
(24:35):
as before, will be to find something to receive his blows. Instead,
he will find a gelatinous mass in movement, impenetrable that
retreats and never presents a solid front, though it inflicts
wounds from every side. It is not easy to overcome
an army of the people that is prepared to continue
being an army in spite of its defeat. In a
(24:56):
frontal battle. Two great masses of the people are united
around the peasants and the workers. The peasants have already
given evidence of their efficiency in detaining the small band
that was marauding in Pinar del Rio. These peasants will
be trained principally in their own regions, but the platoon
commanders and the superior officers will be trained as is
(25:17):
now already being done in our military bases. From there
they will be distributed throughout the thirty zones of agrarian
development that formed the new geographical division of the country.
This will constitute thirty more centers of peasant struggle, charged
with defending to the maximum their lands, their social conquests,
their new houses, their canals, their dams, their flowering harvests,
(25:41):
their independence, in a word, their right to live. At
the beginning, they will oppose also affirm resistance to any
enemy advance, but if this proves too strong for them,
they will disperse, each peasant becoming a peaceful cultivator of
his soil during the day, and a fearsome guerrilla fighter
at night scourge of the enemy forces. Something similar will
(26:02):
take place among the workers. The best among them will
be trained also to serve thereafter as chiefs of their companions,
teaching them principles of defense. Each social class, however, will
have different tasks. The peasant will fight a battle typical
of the guerrilla fighter. He should learn to be a
good shot, to take advantage of all the difficulties of
(26:22):
the ground, and to disappear without ever showing his face.
The workers, on the other hand, have the advantage of
being within a modern city, which is a large and
efficient fortress. At the same time, their lack of mobility
is a drawback. The worker will learn first to block
the streets with barricades of any available vehicle, furniture, or utensil,
(26:42):
to use every block as a fortress, with communications formed
by holes made in interior walls, to use that terrible
arm of defense, the Molotov cocktail, and to coordinate his
fire from the innumerable loopholes provided by the houses of
a modern city. From the worker masses assisted by them,
the national police and those armed forces charged with the
defense of the city a powerful block of the army
(27:05):
will be formed, but it must expect to suffer great losses.
The struggle in the cities in these conditions cannot achieve
the facility and flexibility of the struggle in the countryside.
Many will fall, including many leaders. In this popular struggle.
The enemy will use tanks that will be destroyed rapidly
as soon as the people learn their weaknesses and not
(27:26):
to fear them. But before that the tanks will leave
their balance of victims. There will also be other organizations
related to those of workers and peasants. First the student militias,
which will contain the flower of the student youth, directed
and coordinated by the rebel army. Organizations of youth in general,
who will participate in the same way, and organizations of
(27:47):
women who will provide an enormous encouragement by their presence,
and who will do such auxiliary tasks for their companions
in the struggle as cooking, taking care of the wounded,
giving final comfort to those who are dying, doing laundry,
in a word, showing their companions in arms that they
will never be absent in the difficult moments of the revolution.
(28:08):
All this is achieved by wide scale organization of the masses,
supplemented with patient and careful education, an education that begins
and is confirmed in knowledge acquired from their own experience.
It should concentrate on reasoned and true explanations of the
facts of the revolution. The revolutionary laws should be discussed, explained,
studied in every meeting, in every assembly wherever the leaders
(28:31):
of the revolution are present for any purpose. Also, the
speeches of the leaders, and in our case particularly of
the undisputed leader, should constantly be read, commented upon, and discussed.
People should come together in the country to listen by radio,
and where there are more advanced facilities, to watch by television.
These magnificent popular lessons that our Prime Minister gives. The
(28:55):
participation of the people in politics, that is to say,
in the expression of their own desires made into laws,
decrees and resolutions should be constant. Vigilance against any manifestations
opposed to the revolution should also be constant, and vigilance
over morale within the revolutionary masses should be stricter, if
(29:15):
this is possible, than vigilance against the non revolutionary or
the disaffected. It can never be permitted lest the revolution
take the dangerous path of opportunism that a revolutionary of
any category should be excused for grave offenses against decorum
or morality simply because he is a revolutionary. The record
of his former services may provide extenuating circumstances, and they
(29:39):
can always be considered in deciding upon the punishment, but
the act itself must always be punished. Respect for work,
above all, for collective work, and work for collective ends
ought to be cultivated. Volunteer brigades to construct roads, bridges,
docks or dams, and school cities should receive a strong impulse.
(29:59):
These served of f forger unity among persons showing their
love for the revolution with works. An army that is
linked in such ways with the people, that feels this
intimacy with the peasants and the workers from which it emerged,
that knows besides all the special techniques of its warfare,
and is psychologically prepared for the worst contingencies, is invincible,
(30:19):
and it will be even more invincible as it makes
the just phrase of our immortal Camillo a part of
the flesh of the army and the citizenry. The army
is the people in uniform. Therefore, for all these reasons,
despite the necessity that monopoly suppressed that bad example of Cuba.
Our future is brighter than ever. End of guerrilla warfare,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!