Che and what he stood for

This entry is cross-posted at Harry's Place.

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The BBC website has a feature on 'Che today' in which we read:

Most in Latin America could probably not tell you specifically what Che stood for. They use him mainly as a symbol of hope, of independence, of freedom, of something to sing about.

Most of the 'progressives' in the West who are so addicted to Che's image probably couldn't tell you much about what Che stood for either. Take this lady with a pink Che flag at a London 'Stop the War' rally for example.

Well, here are a few things that Che stood for:

1. Hatred. Che wanted to see 'Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine'. He considered Americans to be 'hyenas ... fit only for extermination'.

2. Mass murder. Che wanted to launch a nuclear attack on New York City. He desired 'atomic extermination' of the 'hyenas' (read civilians) who lived there and in November 1962 he boasted to The London Daily Worker of the nuclear weapons, 'We would have used them against the very heart of the US, including New York City'. Even Che's sympathetic interviewer from the Daily Worker considered him to be 'crackers from the way he went on about the missiles'. It's only thanks to the intervention of Nikita Khrushchev that Che's plans came to nothing.

3. Terrorism. With the nuclear attack plans shelved, Che instead attempted to launch a terrorist campaign in New York City. Had it have worked, Macy's, Gimbels, Bloomingdales, and Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal would have been hit with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. To give some perspective, the 2004 Madrid train bombings used 100 kilos of TNT and killed and maimed almost 2,000 people.

4. Sacrificing the people of Cuba. At the First Latin American Youth Congress in July 1959, Che proudly claimed: 'These people [of Cuba] you see today tell you that even if they should disappear from the face of the earth because an atomic war is unleashed in their names ... they would feel completely happy and fulfilled'.

5. Executions without trial. Che delighted in ordering and carrying out executions and considered the need to present a legal case and to give the accused the right to defend him or herself to be 'archaic bourgeois details'. 'I don't need proof to execute a man, I only need proof that it's necessary to execute him!', Che declared in 1959.

6. Persecution of gay men. In Che's Cuba, 'effeminate behaviour' became a crime and gay men were consigned to forced labour camps with the words 'Work Will Make Men Out of You' posted over the entry gates.

7. Totalitarianism. Che demanded that 'individualism must disappear!' Perhaps his greatest support for this principle is found in his relationship with the USSR. Indeed, according to KGB official Alexander Alexiev, 'Che was practically the architect of the Soviet-Cuban relationship'.

These are a few things to bear in mind next time a 'leftist' invites you to 'Party Like It's 1959' or you see a 'liberal' comrade sporting a Che t-shirt.