The Revolution of the oppressed peoples.
Intervention of Ernesto Che Guevara during the Tricontinental Summit. (1967)


Twenty-one years have been spent since the end of the last World War and many publications, in several languages, celebrate the event, of which the Japan rout is symbol. An apparent optimism climate reigns in many sectors of the adverse fields in which world has been divided.

Twenty-one years without World Wars, in this large contrapositions time, of violent disagreements and sudden transformations, seem a lot. But, without analyzing the practical results (misery, degradation, exploitation always more intensive over huge sectors of the world), of this peace by which all of us declare ourselves disposed to fight, is necessary to ask if it is real.

It is not our intention, in these notes, to make the chronicle of the numerous local conflicts that have been happened after Japan surrender; neither it is our task to make the inventory of the civil struggles, numerous and always more intensive, happening during these years of supposed peace. It is sufficient to bring as example, against this overflowed optimism, the Korea war.

In it, after ferocious struggle years, the northern part of the country was submitted to the most terrible devastation that appears in the modern war years: thousands of pumps, bereft of factories, schools and hospitals; bereft of any kind of rooms to house ten million persons.

In that war intervened, under the misleading United Nations flag, tens of countries militarily guided by the United States, with the mass participation of United States soldiers and the use of the southkorean population, thrown as cannon fodder.

In the other field, the Korean army and people and the voluntary people of the China People's Republic counted on the supplies of the Soviet military appliance. The United States, besides, experienced every kind of destructive weapons - except the thermonuclear one, but they use the bacteriological and chemicals, thus it may have been in a reduced scale. In Vietnam they have followed the actions, almost without interruption, by the patriotic forces of this country against three imperialistic powers: Japan, whose power suffered a vertical fall after the explosion of Hiroshima and Nagasaki pumps; France, that, recovered from the defeated Japan its indochinese colonies, ignored the promises made in hard moments; anyway, the United States, in the last phase of the contest.

They were confirmed limited disagreements in all the continents, while in the American, by a long time, they were no more than attempts of struggle of liberation and military pronouncements: that is to say, until the Cuban revolution gave the alarm sign on the importance of this country, unfettering the imperialism ire, that compelled it to defend its coasts in Playa Girón, before, and during the October crisis, after. This last incident would have been able to provoke an untold proportions war if it might have been verified, about the Cuba problem, a disagreement between United States and Soviets.

Still, today the knot of contradictions is in the territories of the Indochinses peninsula and in the neighboring countries. Laos and Vietnam are civil war ruins that cease of being such hardly appears, with all the weight of its power, the United States imperialism, as soon as all the zone becomes a detonator soon to exploit.

In Vietnam the disagreement has reached characteristic of extreme sharpness. It is not however our intention to make the history of this war, we will limit ourselves to indicate some fundamental elements. In 1954, after the decisive Dien-Bien-Phu rout, they were signed the Geneva agreements that divided the country in two zones and pawned to bring out elections in the term of 18 months, to decide who would have to govern Vietnam and in which manner the country would be reunified. The United States did not subscribe this agreement and began to maneuver in order to substitute Emperor Bao-Dai, whose tragic final - that of the squeezed lemon by the imperialism - is well known.

In the following months to the agreement sign, optimism reigned between the popular forces. The fortifications of the antifrench struggle were dismantled in the south of the country and the application of the treaty was attended. But the patriots understood soon that this would not have happened if the United States might not have been felt with desire of imposing their will in the urns: an impossible thing, yet if they might have been able to use all the fraudulent methods. In the South taken up the struggle again that acquired always greater intensity until the current moment, in which the United States army is composed of almost half million of invaders, while reduces the number and especially the combativeness of the puppet government forces.

Since almost two years, the United States have started to bomb systematically the Democratic Republic of Vietnam attempting to sap South combativeness and to compel it, by force positions, to deal. In the beginning, bombardments were more or less isolated and they were justified with the reprisals pretext against supposed North provocations. Later they increased in intensity and method, until be transformed into a gigantic battle led by the United States air units, day after day, in order to destroy any civility fingerprint in the North of the country. It is an episode of the woefully famous "escalatin". The yankees material objectives have been partially reached, nevertheless the intrepid defense of the Vietnamese air units, nevertheless the one thousand and seven hundred and something demolished planes and nevertheless the warlike socialistic field supplies.

The solidarity of the progressive world towards the people of Vietnam has the same bitter flavor of irony that populace incitement had for the gladiators of the Roman circus. It is not about considering to augur the victory of the assaulted one, but sharing his luck, to go with him to the death or to the victory. When we analyze the vietnamese loneliness, invades us the anxiety for this illogical moment of the mankind.

The United States imperialism is guilty of aggressions and its crimes are immerse all over the world. We know it, sirs! But those are also guilty, at the moment of deciding, they have hesitated to make Vietnam an inviolable part of the socialistic territory: this would maybe caused the risk of a World War, but it would have also compeled the imperialistic United States to get a decision. And those who are at war with affronts and reproaches are also guilty, already begun since the time of the representatives of the two greater socialistic field powers.

We asked, to obtain a honest response: is Vietnam isolated or not, obligated to dangerous balances between the two powers in contrast? What a greatness that of this people! What stoicism and what value those of this people and what lessons this struggle constitutes for the world. Though we will not know by far time if president Johnson had indeed intentions of beginning some necessary reforms to his people, to attenuate the tops of the class contradictions that flower with explosive force and always more frequently. What is certain, is that the announced measures with the majestic title of "struggle for the great society" have fallen in the cemetery of Vietnam.

The largest imperialistic power feels in the entrails the hemorrhage provoked by a poor and marginalized country and its fabulous economy resents the warlike effort. Killing is not the best business for the monopolies.

Defense weapons, and in an insufficient number, and all that these wonderful soldiers have, in addition to the love for their fatherland, their society and an unwavering value. Imperialism is swamped in Vietnam; it does not has exit route and desperately seeks a way that lets it to leave with dignity of this dangerous front. But North's "four points" and South's "five" clench it atenazan making harder the battle. It seems that peace - this precarious peace, to which was given this name just because it has not happened any of world dimension conflagration - is yet in danger, for any irreversible and unacceptable United States step.

And for us, exploited of the world, which task waits for us? The three continents peoples observe and learn their lessons in Vietnam. Since the imperialists war threat they exercise their message to the mankind, do not fear the war is the just answer: to attack severely and uninterruptedly in every battle point, it must be the general tactics of the peoples.

But in those places where the miserable peace we tolerate may have been broken, which will be our task? To liberate us at any cost!

The world situation is Che in Congo very complex. The task of the liberation also touches the old Europe countries, enough developed to feel all the capitalism contradictions, but so weak to follow the imperialism rythm and take this street.

There contradictions will assume in the next years an explosive character; but their problems, and as consequence their solutions, are different from those of our held peoples and economically marginalized. The imperialistic exploitation is exercised specially on three marginalized continents: Latin America, Asia and Africa. Each country has own characteristics, but also continents have, in their interior, own characteristics.

Latin America constitutes a complex more or less homogeneous; in almost all its territory the United States capitalistic monopolists support the absolute predominance. The puppet governments or, at best, weak and timorous, are not in position to oppose the orders of the yankee boss. The United States are in the apex of their political and economic domination and they could not go further. Any mutation would be transformed into a return of their predominance. Their political line is, then, to support the status quo. Their action line is reduced, today, to the brutal use of force in order to prevent liberation movements of any kind. With the legend "we will not permit another Cuba", is justified the possibility of have free rein for aggressions as that perpetrated against Santo Domingo, or, before, the Panama slaughter. It's clear, the warning that yankee troops will be prompt to intervene everywhere, in America, will be altered the established order and wherever be in danger the United States interests. This policy counts on an absolute impunity: the OAS is a comfortable mask, however discredited it is. And UN has such an inefficiency that approaches the ridiculous or the tragic. All the Latin America countries armies are quickly to intervene and hunt their peoples. The international of crime and perfidy has been de facto constituted.

On the other hand, the autochthonous bourgeoisie has lost - if it ever got it - any capacity to oppose the imperialism which they remorse. There's no choice: or socialist revolution or revolution cartoon.

Asia is a continent with different characteristics. The liberation struggles against the European colonial powers have leaded the installation of relatively progressive governments, whose subsequent evolution has resulted, in some instances, in a deepening of the national liberation primary objectives; in other, in a return to pro-imperialistic positions.

From the economic point of view, the United States had little to lose and a lot to earn in Asia. Changes favor it. They fight for substituting other neocolonialist powers, to create new action fields in the economic field, sometimes directly, other through Japan. There are, however, special political conditions, specially in the Indochinese peninsula, that confer Asia characteristics of main importance and develop an important role in the United States imperialism global military strategy.

This fences China through South Korea, Japan, Formosa, South Vietnam and Thailand. This double situation, an important strategic interest in relationship to the military fence to the People's Republic of China, and the United States money aspirations to penetrate these great markets that they already dn't dominate, they make Asia into one of the most explosive zones all over the world, nevertheless the apparent stability beyond the vietnamese area.

Yet with own contradictions, Mid West geographically belongs to this continent and it's in full effervescence, without seeing where the Cold War could arrive between Israel - supported by the imperialists - and the progresist countries in the zone. It is another threating vulcano for the world.

Africa has the characteristic of being an almost virgin field for the colonialist invasions. There have been transformations that, in some ways, have compeled the neo-colonialist powers to renounce to their absolutist prerrogatives. but when processes happen without interruptions, colonialism is substituted, without violence, by neocolonialism that - as regards to the economic domination is the equivalent.

The United States had no colonies in this continent: now they fight for penetrate their partners reserves. It could be truth that, in the United States imperialism strtaegics, Africa means the long-term reserve. It current investments are considerable only in the Southafrican Union; it starts now the penetration in Congo, Nigeria and other countries, and that provokes a violent attendance (now peaceful) of other imperialist potences.

It has no, anyway, large interests to defend, except its pretext directed to intervene everywhere its monopolies reach good harvests or large raw-material reserves.

All this makes illicit the question about the possibility of the peoples liberation, at half or short-term.

Analyzing Africa, we see that the fight is with some intensity in the portuguese colonies of Guinea, Mozambique and Angola: with notable success in the first one, with alternate results in the other ones. We see that fight continues between Lumumba successors and Ciombe old accomplices in Congo, a fight that currently seems to develop in favour of these last ones who have "pacified" for his benefit a large part of the country; but war will always be latent.

In Rhodesia the problem is different: brittish imperialism has used all the mechanisms it had to grant power to a white minority that nowadays holds it unlawfully. The conflict - according to England- is not official. But this potence, with his habitual diplomatic abilities - also called "hipocrisy", in good language- shows off upset before the measures set by Jan Smith government. Its ambigous behaviour is supported by some Commonwealth countries and, by a notable part of the black Africa countries, whether they are or not obedient vassals of brittish imperialism.

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