Freedom Socialist • Vol. 29, No. 1 • February-March 2008

SOAPBOX

Past the icon: what Che means to activists today

by Eduardo Martínez Zapata

Eduardo Martínez Zapata

It's such a turnoff when real people are turned into myth. As a kid, I hated how Doña Marina, Mayan translator, confidante, and lover of the conqueror Cortez, was portrayed either as a conniving betrayer (La Malinche) or a hopeless emotional victim (La Llorona).

And then there is Che Guevara, Argentinean-born hero of the Cuban revolution. On a tour about Che's life and ideas this past fall, organized by the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), I was immensely heartened to find that for many of his admirers today, Guevara is much more than an icon of cool on a million T-shirts.

In what seems a whirlwind, I visited five cities across the country to speak and get people talking about "Che Guevara: Irrepressible Revolutionary." Many participants were young people, and their passion and commitment for emulating Che in doing something about the ills of the world were energizing.

A beret-clad Latina college senior in San Francisco argued for carrying on Che's legacy by working together to organize against injustice. In New York City, a group of youthful high school history teachers from the Bronx and Harlem wanted to learn more about Guevara in order to present him to their students in a deeper light than the one reflected from red and black poster images.

And more than one person asked - about NAFTA and CAFTA, about the "war on terror," about the contemporary struggle for international socialism - "What would Che do?"

That question in particular allowed me to fess up about being neither a creative writer of fables or science fiction nor the possessor of a magic crystal ball. My predictions about what Guevara would do today were based on the political, economic, and social prescriptions that he put forward and tried to realize in his own life.

Che advocated many ideas that were also advanced in his time by Leon Trotsky, co-leader of the Russian Revolution with V.I. Lenin, and Trotsky's later co-thinkers. The historical record isn't completely clear about how familiar Guevara was with Trotsky's political philosophy. But in many key ways, the two were in accord.

Both were adamant about the necessity for successful socialist revolution to be international. Both took pains to highlight the role of radical women leaders. Both were hostile to Stalinist bureaucracy and its distortion of the best ideals and true nature of socialism.

Of course there are points of divergence. Many Trotskyists in Latin America and around the world were and are highly critical of Che's view of guerrilla warfare as the paramount strategy for making revolution, in Latin America or anywhere. With the example of Guevara's own murder in Bolivia to learn from, it is easier to see that isolated guerrillas who are not part of a larger workingclass insurgency are headed for tragedy.

Not everyone who took part in the Che forums agreed with these conclusions. But they were definite that things around the world today aren't much better, and are often worse, than when Che was alive. So the pressure to act up now is upon us!

People who spoke at the forums see themselves as part of the solution. In every city, there was unflinching support for the belief that workers and the oppressed must take on the system ourselves. Participants wanted to learn more. They signed up to return for FSP study groups on Guevara, they were inspired to teach about Che themselves, and they generously contributed to funding the tour.

Hopefully, some will also decide that joining a revolutionary organization is the way to go to finally achieve the goals to which Che dedicated his life.

As a feminist dad, an activist and a worker, at times I get praise from people I meet about my involvement in radical politics. The question is often, "How do you do it?" I respond with another question: how could it be otherwise? If I want a better world for my kids, do I leave it up to them? For me, this is the propulsion to fight against capitalism and its nasty anti-human tricks like racism, sexism, anti-youth moralism, homophobia, and war for profit.

This is not a battle that one can wage alone. And, for everyone involved, the Che tour has reaffirmed that we don't have to go solo - there are plenty of us willing to stand beside each other.

In earning his superhero status on those T-shirts and posters, Che was motivated by very similar circumstances as mine and as yours. And his revolutionary heritage is ours to continue until we realize the vision he had for our planet. ¡Adelante!

Eduardo Martínez Zapata, an educator in Portland, Oregon, can be reached at eduardomz@msn.com.