Ché Guevara & The Cuban revolution (Mike Gonzalez) 8pm Wynns Hotel

dublin | anti-capitalism | event notice Friday September 03, 2004 16:54 by Socialist Workers party - Socialist Workers party info at swp dot ie 018722682

8pm Wynns Hotel Abby St Dublin 1 Ché Guevara & The Cuban revolution (Mike Gonzalez)

8pm Wynns Hotel Abby St Dublin 1 Ché Guevara & The Cuban revolution (Mike Gonzalez)

The famous picture of Ché Guevara has once again become an icon for a new generation of
anti-capitalists and anti-imperialists.

Ernesto 'Ché' Guevara was born in 1928 in Argentina. As a young medical student he set out
on a motorcycle to travel around South America. The poverty and oppression he saw and the
impact of imperialism aroused his political awareness.

In 1954 Ché saw the US government and US multinational United Fruit Company organise an
armed coup against land reform in Guatemala.

He escaped to Mexico and met Fidel Castro, who was planning a revolution in Cuba.
In November 1956, 82 guerrillas landed in Cuba but only 18 survived.

Castro and Guevara escaped and built a guerrilla army in the Cuban mountains.
Within two years, in January 1959, the Batista regime collapsed and the columns of
revolutionaries marched down from the mountains and entered Havana.

The Cuban Revolution represented a huge blow to the US. It inspired millions with the hope
that they could fight poverty and oppression.

The US government put in place an economic blockade preventing trade with Cuba that has
lasted 40 years and has caused massive hardship.

Cuba entered a close economic relationship with Russia but it soon became clear that the USSR
saw Cuba as a pawn against the USA. Ché increasingly saw that it was necessary to spread the
revolution to the rest of Latin America and beyond if imperialism was to be broken. Ché was
sickened by the compromises of Fidel Castro and withdrew from the government.

In April 1965 Ché assembled a small group of Cuban guerrillas and went to the Congo. He
believed he could lead a revolution there. But after four months they were finally forced to
flee across Lake Tanganyika.

The last few months of his life were spent in Bolivia. Ché attempted to create a guerrilla
army, but sick and exhausted he was encircled and captured by government forces. Guevara was
murdered in the village of Camiri while CIA officers were in attendance as witnesses so they
could report to their bosses back in Washington that Ché Guevara was really dead.
Socialists honour the memory of Ché Guevara and his heroism. He has inspired generations
of socialists. But what can we learn from him? What should socialists do and how should they
organise today? Did Che's emphasis on building a small, dedicated band of guerrillas to make
a revolution work? Can a socialist revolution be organised by a minority or do we
need a mass movement? Can we today describe Cuba as socialist - a country where corruption,
prostitution and poverty once again haunt the streets of Havana? and crucially what can
his ideas teach us in the struggle against the system today?
Come to the meeting introduced by Mike Gonzalez, author of a new book on Ché Guevara called
Ché Guevara and the Cuban revolution, and discuss these and other questions about the
life and ideas of Ché Guevara (see dates overleaf).

To join the Socialist Workers Party contact us at +353 (1) 872 2682 or online at
www.swp.ie