BY MARTÍN KOPPEL AND MARY-ALICE WATERS
HAVANA - In Cuba, 1997 is the "Year of the 30th Anniversary of the Death in Combat of Ernesto Che Guevara and his Fellow Combatants in Bolivia." A range of political events, publishing projects, and other activities are taking place in Cuba this year to mark this anniversary.

A central leader of the Cuban revolution, the Argentine- born Guevara was wounded and captured in Bolivia on October 8, 1967. The following day, he was murdered in cold blood by the Bolivian military after consultation with Washington. At a time of accelerating social and economic struggle throughout Latin America, Guevara was trying to establish a revolutionary front in Bolivia that would be the nucleus of a movement of workers and peasants capable of winning the battle for land, breaking the stranglehold of U.S. imperialism, and opening the socialist revolution in South America.

In a May 1 interview here, Noel González, vice director of the department of political education and propaganda of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, explained that the party has established a national commission to oversee this year's activities honoring Che and the other combatants in the Bolivian campaign.

The commission, of which González is a member, is headed by José Ramón Machado Ventura, member of the party's Political Bureau. Its vice presidents are José Ramón Balaguer, also a Political Bureau member, and Brig. Gen. Harry Villegas, who worked and fought side by side with Guevara for a decade and commanded the group of Bolivian and Cuban combatants who fought their way out of the military encirclement after Che's death. The commission's secretary is Rolando Alfonso Borges, head of the department of political education and propaganda of the party's Central Committee.

Through the series of events that will be held throughout the year, González reported, "we are retelling the story of Che's guerrilla in Bolivia - what really happened, who the fighters were, what they did both in Cuba and in Bolivia. Our people must know that history," he said.

"Day by day, on the anniversaries of their death in combat, we will hold commemorations for the Bolivian fighters, for the Peruvians, and for the Cubans who fought with Che," said González. Special television and radio programs are being broadcast featuring the story of each one of these revolutionary fighters, including a documentary series of more than 20 segments called Hombres de la guerrilla (Men of the guerrilla). The Cuban press is also running special features.

April 25, for example, was the day that Eliseo Reyes, also known as San Luis, fell in battle 30 years ago, and numerous events marked the date. Reyes, who used the name Rolando in Bolivia, served in Guevara's column of the Rebel Army during Cuba's revolutionary war of 1956-58 to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In 1966, having been a captain in the Revolutionary Armed Forces and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Rolando joined the combatants in Bolivia, where he was a member of Guevara's general staff until his death in battle.

"We are also commemorating the anniversary of Che's death in every workplace, school, and institution in the country," González noted. "But we don't just want to celebrate the anniversary this year. The important thing is what we do every day, every year to strive to apply Che's example, by working better, more efficiently."

One of the most ambitious projects for this year's commemoration, González reported, is the publishing of a number of books, particularly a new six-volume collection of Guevara's works. "About a third of the contents of these volumes will be previously unpublished material," he said. The six volumes are scheduled to be published before the end of the year.

The aim of this effort "is the education of the new generation in our country," González said. "There are lots of books being written about Che around the world," many of which falsify his political thought and practical record. "Some of these argue that there was a divergence between Che and Fidel [Castro], that Che was wrong about Bolivia, that the Bolivian struggle was a total fiasco." González stated that while others were entitled to their own point of view, Cuba's revolutionary leadership wanted to set the record straight on such questions.

Through the new editions of the revolutionary leader's works, he noted, "we want Che himself to speak for himself."

The first volume, scheduled to be published in July, will include the field diary Guevara kept during the revolutionary struggle in the Sierra Maestra mountains of eastern Cuba that led to the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959. Guevara drew extensively on this diary -most of which has never been published -to write his series of articles entitled Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War (available in English from Pathfinder Press).

Also in the first volume will be new editions of Episodes and Guevara's Guerrilla Warfare. Both will incorporate, for the first time, editing done by Guevara in 1966 -after he led a group of Cuban internationalist fighters who joined the anti-imperialist struggle in the Congo in 1965, and prior to his departure for Bolivia. In doing this editorial work, Che drew on his experiences in central Africa.

Other volumes will include letters, speeches, articles, and interviews by Guevara.

"In addition to the book publishing, there is a project to produce a collection of musical cassettes with more than 100 songs dedicated to Che," as well as a collection of videos produced by others on his life, González added. Plans to produce a video documentary in Cuba are also under way.

Tributes to Guevara and the other combatants in Bolivia are an important feature of various political gatherings in Cuba this year, González explained. One example was the huge May Day celebration that had taken place that morning. Well over a million workers and others had marched through the Plaza of the Revolution to demonstrate their rejection of Washington's crude attempts to bribe or starve the Cuban people into submission through its economic war. Besides the sea of placards and banners with the image of Che, the lead contingents of workers carried big portraits of all the combatants who fell in Bolivia.

Other important political events in Cuba where Che's political example and legacy will be highlighted and discussed are the World Festival of Youth and Students, to be held July 27 to August 5, and a conference to be hosted by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers August 6-8, the International Workers Meeting to Confront Neoliberalism and the Global Economy.

The Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, scheduled for October 8-10, will coincide with the anniversary of Guevara's death. "The evening before the opening of the congress, October 7, will be devoted to a major public event. We hope to have leading artists perform, with songs and poetry devoted to Che," González said.

"Immediately following the Communist Party convention, there will be an international conference on Che and socialism," he explained. It will be jointly hosted by the party, the University of Havana, and the party's leadership school. González noted that leadership delegations of political parties from around the world will be invited to participate in the conference discussion on this subject.

In addition to this gathering, conferences are planned this year at numerous Cuban universities to discuss Guevara's communist views. At the University of Havana, the Ernesto Che Guevara Studies Program is hosting a conference October 1-4 on "Che: Man of the 21st Century." Similar events are projected by the Che Studies programs at the University of Holguín and elsewhere.

Among revolutionary-minded Cuban youth, there is a deep interest in better understanding Guevara's accomplishments and political contributions to the Cuban revolution. At the University of Havana, a group of students, encouraged by the Federation of University Students, have organized a regular discussion group. Every week they meet to read and discuss a selection from Guevara's writings. The students, who are from different university departments and disciplines, call themselves the Grupo Vive. Some are members of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), some are not.

On April 24, Militant reporters joined them for their seventh session, when about 25 youth met well into the evening to discuss a 1964 speech by Che to members of the UJC. In the speech, Guevara frankly takes up the political strengths and weaknesses and challenges facing the UJC.

First the students read aloud the selection for the benefit of the majority who did not have the volume of the collection in which it is published. A lively and critical discussion then ensued for an hour and a half.

Expressing a range of views, the students debated what they thought was needed to strengthen the UJC as a communist youth organization in order to provide political leadership to Cuban young people today who are searching for ways to defend and advance Cuba's socialist revolution. A number of them said this was the best homage they could pay Che Guevara.  
 
 
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