On The 60th Anniversary Defend The Gains Of The Cuban Revolution- *Films to While Away The Class Struggle By- Bernico Del Toro's "Che"- In Honor Of A Revolutionary Fighter

Click on the title to link to a YouTube film clip featuring Che Guevara at the United Nations In 1964. You can link to many others from this one.

Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some films that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. In the future I expect to do the same for books under a similar heading.-Markin

DVD Review

This year is the 57th Anniversary of the July 26th Movement's Moncada attack, the 51st Anniversary of the Cuban revolution and the 43rd anniversary of the death of Ernesto, “Che”, Guevara in the wilds of Bolivia. Defend The Cuban Revolution! Free The Cuban Five!

Che, starring Bernico Del Toro, 2008

The first paragraph and other portions of this review have been used in other DVD reviews of Che Guevara and fit here as well:

"On more than one occasion I have mentioned that "Che" Guevara, as icon and legend, despite his left Stalinist politics (at best) and the political gulf that separated him from those who fought, and fight, under the banner of Leon Trotsky and the Fourth International, was, and is, a justifiably appealing revolutionary militant for the world's youth to consider. A number of films have come out over the years that portray one or another aspect of the "Che" personality. Here the central thrust of the film is the creation of "Che" as a revolutionary cadre in the guerrilla warfare movement that dominated much of the radical political action of the 1960s, in the wake of the success and survival of the Cuban revolution in the face of American Yankee imperialism."

Unlike other films of Che`s exploits that have been reviewed in this space this monster, two-disc, four and one half film is strictly a homage to his skills as a revolutionary guerilla fighter out in the bush first in the hills of the Sierra Maestre in Cuba and then, tragically and fatally, in rural Bolivia. Some footage is thrown in, seemingly as relief, from interviews and an occasional speech but the heart of the film, and probably the reason that Che will long be remembered by generations of youth is that fight to turn himself from a "rich kid" doctor to a struggler against imperialism wherever he found it.

That story, whatever, the political differences we might have is appealing. What is not, in a long film, is the concentration on every military maneuver and every action in every campaign in Cuba and Bolivia. This short changes Che as a political man with definite politic views, hard views about the nature of the future communist society, that came to the fore in the period when he was a Cuban state official and responsible for helping to run the government under the guns, real and economic, of American imperial attack.

In that sense this film does not work. Moreover, in contrast to Eduardo Noriega's "Che" in which that actor in his mannerisms, his good and manly looks, and in his earnestness (no pun intended) to free the Americas of the Yankee "beast" was Che. Bernico Del Toro's seems a bit ponderous. However, the film is saved a bit when "Che" and Del Toro are reprieved in the Bolivia-centered second disc when we get a better look at his determination to end up where he started, as a guerrilla fighter extraordinaire fighting against the world's injustices.

That, my friends, today is refreshingly appealing. That said though, Che deserved a better fate that to be caught out in the bush in Bolivia. And here, as I have noted elsewhere, is where the irony (and the political differences) between us comes in. What the hell was he doing in the Bolivian bush, of all places in Bolivia when they was a working class (mainly miners) who had a history of extreme militancy and readiness to do class battles against the state (and have done so since then). Che, mainly deserves his status as icon, as a personal exemplar, but a whole generation of militants in Latin America and elsewhere got torn up to no purpose based on that wrong strategic assumption. That is the real lesson of the film.

On The 60th Anniversary -IN DEFENSE OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

In Honor of Anniversary Of The July 26^th Movement

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman (2015)

Every leftist, hell, everybody who stands on the democratic principle that each nation has the right to self-determination should cautiously rejoice at the “defrosting” of the long-time diplomatic relations between the American imperial behemoth and the island of Cuba (and the freedom of the remaining Cuban Five in the bargain). Every leftist militant should understand that each non-capitalist like Cuba going back to the establishment of the now defunct Soviet Union has had the right (maybe until we win our socialist future the duty) to make whatever advantageous agreements they can with the capitalist world. That despite whatever disagreements we have with the political regimes ruling those non-capitalist states. That is a question for us to work out not the imperialists.

For those who have defended the Cuban Revolution since its victory in 1959 under whatever political rationale (pro-socialist, right to self-determination, or some other hands off policy) watching on black and white television the rebels entering Havana this day which commemorates the heroic if unsuccessful efforts at Moncada we should affirm our continued defense of the Cuban revolution. Oh yes, and tell the American government to give back Guantanamo while we are at it.    

COMMENTARY-BOOK REVIEW (2007)

END THE U.S. BLOCKADE!-U.S. OUT OF GUANTANAMO!

THE REAL FIDEL CASTRO, LEYCHESTER COLTMAN, YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW HAVEN, 2003

This year marks the 54th anniversary of the Cuban July 26th movement, the 48th anniversary of the victory of the Cuban Revolution and the 40th anniversary of the execution of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara by the Bolivian Army after the defeat of his guerrilla forces and his capture in godforsaken rural Bolivia. I have reviewed the life of Che elsewhere in this space (see July archives, dated July 5, 2006). The Cuban Revolution stood for my generation, the Generation of 68, and, hopefully, will for later generations as a symbol of revolutionary intransigence against United States imperialism. Thus, it is fitting to review a biography of Che’s comrade and central leader of that revolution, Fidel Castro. Obviously, it is harder to evaluate the place in history of the disabled, but still living, Fidel than the iconic Che whose place is secured in the revolutionary pantheon. The choice of this biography reflected my desire to review a recent biography. As always one must accept that most Western biographers have various degrees of hostility to the Castro regime and the Cuban Revolution and one would expect that to be particularly true of one written by a former British Ambassador to Cuba (who has since died). After reading this biography I find that it gives a reasonable account of the highlights of Fidel’s life thus far and for those not familiar with the Fidel saga a good place to start.

Let us be clear about two things. First, this writer has defended the Cuban Revolution since its inception; initially under a liberal- democratic premise of the right of nations, especially applicable to small nations pressed up against the imperialist powers, to self-determination; later under the above-mentioned premise and also that it should be defended on socialist grounds, not my idea of socialism- the Bolshevik, 1917 kind- but as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist revolution nevertheless. That prospective continues to be this writer’s position today. Secondly, my conception of revolutionary strategy and thus of world politics has for a long time been far removed from Fidel Castro’s (and Che’s) strategy, which emphasized military victory by guerrilla forces in the countryside, rather than my position of mass action by the urban proletariat leading the rural masses. That said, despite those strategic political differences this militant can honor the Cuban Revolution as a symbol of a fight all anti-imperialist militants should defend.

The Ambassador obviously differs with my political prospective. Nevertheless he has interesting things to say about the highlights of Fidel’s career; the early student days struggling for political recognition; the initial fights against Batista; the famous but unsuccessful Moncada attack; the subsequent trial, imprisonment and then exile in Mexico; the return to Cuba and renewed fight under a central strategy of guerrilla warfare rather than urban insurrection; the triumph over Batista in 1959; the struggle against American imperialist intervention and the nationalizations of much of Cuba’s economy; the American sponsored Bay of Pigs in 1961; the rocky alliance with the Soviet Union and the Cuban Missile Crisis; the various ups and downs in the Cuban economy stemming from reliance on the monoculture of sugar; the various periods of Cuban international revolutionary support activity, including Angola and Nicaragua; the demise of the Soviet Union and the necessity of Cuba to go it alone along with its intendant hardships; and, various other events up until 2002. There is plenty of material to start with and much to analyze. As mentioned before Che’s place is secure and will be a legitimate symbol of rebellion for youth for a long time. Fidel, as a leader of state and a much more mainline Stalinist (although compared with various stodgy Soviet leaderships he must have seemed like their worst Trotsky nightmare) has a much less assured place. Alas, the old truism holds here - revolutionaries should not die in their beds

*Defend The Cuban Revolution- Free Ana Belen Montes!

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Cuban-American class-war prisoner Ana Belen Montes.

Markin comment:

On numerous occasions in this space I have noted that the defense of the Cuban revolution here in the United States, “the heart of the beast” in Che’s exquisite phrase, starts with the defense of the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five case involves attempts by these class-war prisoners to defend the Cuban revolution, as best they could, in concrete actions to thwart those who were (and are) interested in counter-revolution. You can Google or link from this blog to the National Committee To Defend The Cuban Five to get more information on their current status.

Today I wish to mention another case that involves the defense of the Cuban revolution, that of class-war prisoner Ana Belen Montes. I have placed a link to a Wikipedia entry for the details of her case. What I want to emphasize here in the struggle for her freedom is the question of how one, effectively, puts teeth into the question of defense of the Cuban revolution.

I have noted on other occasions that I came of political age contemporaneously with the Cuban revolution and have defended the conquests of that revolution from a liberal through to a “high communist” political prospective as my own political understandings have evolved. During the course of that defense I have, mainly, organized around various Hands Off Cuba slogans when American imperialism has tried to put the bite into that revolution. Thus my defense of the Cuban revolution has been mostly a propagandistic proposition.

Ana Belen Montes, through the fates, had an opportunity to aid the Cuban revolution in a more concrete way, and acted on that opportunity. For those efforts she is now serving much time in a U.S. federal penitentiary. In any rational, reasonable or just world she would be sitting in some place of honor, and rightly so. But for right now her fate and ours is to call for, loudly call for, her freedom. Free Ana Belen Montes Now!