Writing about the V&A exhibition of the famous Che Guevara photo in this week’s Socialist Worker Tim Sanders writes:
“The power of this image ultimately comes from the fact that Che was a genuine revolutionary, a fighter against capitalism and injustice. It is this authenticity that gives the image its force and is the one thing the image makers cannot hope to manufacture.
“It is Che’s legitimate revolutionary credentials that give this photo its iconic status. This is why Che’s image is found all over the world – especially in places where there is resistance to the neo-liberal assault.”
Of course it’s true that Guevara led a genuine revolution that overthrew the dictator Batista. But Marxists are not simply cheerleaders for revolution in general – it matters to us what the class character of a revolution is – and that capitalism is replaced with something better.
It is clear from mountains of research into Guevara that the kind of revolution he wanted was a Stalinist, bureaucratic revolution. It’s also clear that he was instrumental in establishing a Stalinist state in Cuba, a viciously anti-working class regime that allows no independent trade unions or socialists to organise. Not the sort of thing the SWP used to celebrate.
