Vol. 80/No. 44      November 21, 2016

 
(Books of the Month column)

‘A ‘revolutionary’ who doesn’t behave as such is
a charlatan’

 
Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War 1956-58 by Ernesto Che Guevara is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. In this excerpt from “A Sin of the Revolution,” Guevara, a central leader of the Cuban Revolution, describes the treachery of a group that called itself the Second National Front of the Escambray. That guerrilla organization had been formed in 1957 on the initiative of the Revolutionary Directorate, which joined forces with the July 26 Movement led by Fidel Castro that was fighting to overturn the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and lead the workers and farmers of Cuba to power. The Second Front carried out bandit-type actions and was expelled from the Directorate in mid-1958. Its leaders refused to collaborate with the July 26 Movement column led by Guevara, and most of them joined the counterrevolution after the revolutionary victory in January 1959. Guevara describes the lessons learned from his experiences with this group. Copyright © 1996 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

BY ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA  
Revolutions are radical and accelerated social transformations made under specific circumstances. They rarely, if ever, emerge fully ripe, and not all their details are scientifically foreseen. They are products of passion, of improvisation by human beings in their struggle for social change, and are never perfect. Our revolution was no exception. It committed errors, and some of these cost us dearly. Today one such error has been shown to us, although its repercussions have been few. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the truth of the popular sayings: “The leopard never changes his spots” and “Birds of a feather flock together.”

When the troops of the invasion column reached the foothills of the Escambray — in great pain, their feet bloodied and lacerated by diseases caused by fungus, keeping themselves going on faith alone, after forty-five days on the march — they were greeted by an unusual letter. It was signed by Commander [Jesús] Carreras, and it stated that the column of the revolutionary army under my command was prohibited from entering the Escambray without a clear explanation of what we were doing there. Before entering I was instructed to halt right there and give them an explanation. We were to halt in the open plains, under those conditions, threatened constantly with enemy encirclement, which we could escape only through our rapid movement! That was the essence of the long and insolent letter.

We continued ahead, perplexed, sorry that we were unable to wait for those who proclaimed themselves our comrades in struggle, but determined to resolve any problem and carry out the express orders of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, who had clearly ordered us to work for the unity of all combatants.

We reached the Escambray and made camp near Del Obispo peak, which is visible from Sancti Spíritus and has a cross on its summit. There we were able to establish our first camp, and we immediately looked for a house where we were supposed to find the most precious items to a guerrilla fighter: shoes. There were no shoes; they had been taken by the forces of the Second Front of the Escambray, despite having been obtained by the July 26 Movement. A storm was brewing. Nevertheless, we succeeded in staying calm, talking to some captain, who later informed us he had murdered four combatants of the people who wanted to abandon the Second Front and join the revolutionary ranks of the July 26 Movement. We had a discussion with Commander Carreras, unfriendly but not heated. He had already drunk half a bottle of liquor, which was approximately half his daily quota. He was not as gross and aggressive in person as was his missive of a few days earlier, but we saw in him an enemy. …

After many trials and tribulations, too long to relate, where our patience was tested an infinite number of times — and where, according to the correct criticism made by Fidel, we put up with more than we should have — we reached a “truce.” They permitted us to make the agrarian reform in the entire area belonging to the Second Front, as long as we permitted them to collect taxes. Collect taxes — that was the watchword. …

From the very first days serious differences arose that sometimes culminated in violent exchanges of words. But what appeared to be revolutionary good sense on our part always prevailed, and we gave way for the sake of unity. We maintained principles. We did not permit theft, nor did we give out key positions to those we knew to be potential traitors. But we did not eliminate them; we temporized, always on behalf of some vague and poorly understood unity. This was a sin of the revolution. …

They lived off fairy tales of a struggle in which they did nothing, duping the people, looking for posts, always trying to get closer to where money was ripe for the picking, “inciting” in all the cabinet ministries. In this they were scorned by all pure revolutionaries. Yet we allowed them to function, albeit gritting our teeth. All this was an insult to our revolutionary conscience. Their presence constantly revealed to us our sin: the sin of laxness in the face of absence of revolutionary spirit; in the face of potential traitors; in the face of weakness of spirit, cowardice, thievery, and “cattle rustling.”

Our conscience has now been cleared because they have all gone, [to Miami], in little boats. Thank you so much for relieving us of the detestable presence of self-appointed commanders, of ridiculous captains, of heroes unfamiliar with the rigors of military life but not the easy seizure of peasant homes. …

People like the incurable thieves, complicit in murders against the people. People like the “cattle rustlers,” whose “great feats” were carried out against the masses of peasants they murdered in the Escambray, sowing more terror than Batista’s army itself. They are our conscience. They remind us of our sin, a sin of the revolution that must not be repeated, a lesson we must learn.

Revolutionary conduct is a mirror of revolutionary faith. When someone who calls himself a revolutionary does not behave as such, he is simply a charlatan.
 
 
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