Vol. 81/No. 25 July 10, 2017
Che Guevara Cuba brigade set for October
The brigade is “a tribute to Commander Ernesto Che Guevara on the 50th anniversary” of his fall in combat, the ICAP call says. “It will be composed of delegations from different parts of the world interested in Che’s legacy, and in reaffirming their solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.”
“I’m sure we’ll have at least as much participation from the U.S. as we had for the May Day brigade,” Steve Eckardt, brigade national coordinator, told the Militant. The U.S. contingent of 54 was the largest in the 300-strong May brigade. “I have never seen the interest in Cuba there is today. May Day brigade members are now speaking at reportback events across the country.”
Brigadistas are describing what they learned about Cuba’s socialist revolution and working to expand the fight to end Washington’s economic war against the Cuban people and for the U.S. to get out of Guantánamo, the naval base it has occupied since 1898.
In November 1956, Argentine-born Che Guevara joined Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and other Cuban revolutionaries aboard the Granma from Mexico to Cuba to begin the guerrilla struggle. Originally the troop doctor, Guevara became a commander of the Rebel Army.
Following the victory of Cuban workers and peasants on Jan. 1, 1959, Guevara became a central leader of the new revolutionary government. He served as president of the National Bank and as minister of industry, and was a leading spokesperson for the Cuban Revolution at the United Nations and in other world forums.
With Fidel Castro’s backing, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to participate directly in revolutionary struggles abroad. He initially went to the Congo and later to Bolivia, where he helped lead a guerrilla movement against that country’s military dictatorship. Wounded and captured by the Bolivian army in a CIA-organized operation on Oct. 8, 1967, he was murdered the following day.
“Many of Che’s ideas are absolutely relevant today, ideas without which I am convinced communism cannot be built,” Fidel Castro said in a 1987 speech marking the 20th anniversary of Guevara’s assassination. He urged workers and young people everywhere “to study and familiarize themselves with Che’s political and economic thought.”
Participants in the October brigade will visit many of the places where Guevara led workers and peasants in the revolutionary war against the U.S.-backed army of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
They will meet with members of Guevara’s family, as well as combatants who fought alongside him in the Rebel Army, in the Congo and Bolivia. On Oct. 8 they will join thousands of Cubans in a mobilization to mark the 50th anniversary of Guevara’s fall in combat.
Brigade members will also meet with members of the Federation of Cuban Women, the Cuban Trade Union Federation, high school and college students’ organizations and members of the Union of Young Communists. And they will volunteer for agricultural work at a farm cooperative with Cuban farmworkers.
“I encourage everyone to get their applications in before the brigade fills up,” said Eckardt. Similar brigade contingents are being organized in dozens of other countries.
Participation in the U.S. brigade — including housing, food and transportation within Cuba — costs only $650. Travel to Cuba is separate. Deadline for registration is Sept. 10.
For more information, contact the Chicago Cuba Coalition at (312) 952-2618 or ICanGoToCuba@gmail.com.
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