Estamos assim
consternados
raivosos
ainda que esta morte seja
um dos absurdos previsíveis.
Dá vergonha olhar
os quadros
as poltronas
os tapetes,
pegar uma garrafa do refrigerador
digitar as três letras mundiais de teu nome
na rígida máquina
que nunca,
nunca esteve
com a fita tão pálida.
Vergonha sentir frio
e arrimar-se perto do aquecedor, como sempre.
Ter fome e comer,
essa coisa tão simple.
Abrir o toca-discos e ficar escutando em silêncio
sobre tudo se é um quarteto de Mozart.
Dá vergonha o conforto
e o asma dá vergonha
enquanto você , meu comandante, está caindo
metralhado
fabuloso
nítido.
Você é nossa consciência crivada.
Dizem que queimaram você,
mas com qué fogo
vao queimar as boas…
boas novas.
A irascivel ternura
que você tinha e levou longe
com tua tosse
com teu barro.
Dizem que incineraram
toda tua vocaçao
menos um dedo.
Basta ele pra mostrarnos o caminno
pra acusar ao monstro e seu tiçao
pra apertar de novo os gatilhos.
Estamos assim
consternados
raivosos
claro que com o tempo a plúmbica
consternação
ira passando
a raiva ficara ainda
vai se fazer mais limpa.
Você está morto
você está vivo
você está caindo
você está nuvem
você está chuva
você está estrela.
Onde você esté
se é que realmente está
se você está chegando… aproveite por fim
pra respirar tranquilo
pra cheiar do céu seus pulmões.
Onde você esté
se é que realmente está
se está chegando mesmo
vai ser uma pena que nao exista Deus.
Mas haverá outros,
com certeza que vai haver outros
dignos de te receber…
comandante.

Montevideo, outubro 1967
AO RÉS DO SONO

Aş vrea să-l salut pe scumpul nostru Preşedinte Traian Băsescu, cu tradiţionalul Buenas noches, compañero! Şi pe voi toţi cu frumoasa Muzică a celor de Buena Vista Social Club, Candela:

Aţi auzit trompetele? Recitalul de trompetă de 2:07 până la 2:30 este unic! Da, am votat cu MG, normal, aşa m-a învăţat Preşedintele şi la referendum am zis pas, adică am refuzat cu dispreţ propunerea Plebeului de atentat la Aristocraţia Parlamentaristă… aşa am învăţat de la Adrian Năstase. Je suis un legitimiste…

Şi pentru că nu vreau să-l las necolindat pe Candidat, vreau să-i dedic şi tizului MG o piesă specială. Tot de la Buena Vista Social Club, Hasta Siempre Comandante… Ecce Candidatus!

November 20 marks the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. What? Wasn’t that September 16 and all the Miguel Hidalgo business? No way Jose; Mexico has had both a war of independence and a revolution (and various conquests, a few invasions and now a war on drugs). Officially the Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and ended in 1920, although there have been and continue to be revolutionary relapses spawned by the first bloody revolution.

Throughout the revolution a series of rulers succeeded one another in Mexico, always requiring at least a  little military force to make it into, and to stay in power. Most of these figures, as with my of the prominent figures of the revolution, would be eventually assassinated by the factions of their rivals.

Two of the most beloved folk-heroes of the revolution are Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, the Centaur of the North and the Tiger (or the Attila, depending on who you talk to) of the South. Neither of them ever became top dog, but both of them were decisive generals who helped topple the other top dogs of the revolutionary period.

While Villa launched his raids and courted Hollywood, Zapata had the more definite agenda to his struggle. Villa was a career bandit who took up the banner of the revolution. Zapata was a dandy and talented horseman who took up arms slowly when it became clear there would be no other way to continue the struggle for land rights for the impoverished serfs of his region.

Eduardo Galeano (author of Open Veins of Latin America) unsurprisingly calls Zapata “purest of the revolutionaries, most loyal to the cause of the poor, most determined to right the wrongs of society”. Certainly Zapata was the most radical of the revolutionaries, and this made him utterly uncompromising. Three consecutive rulers of Mexico were comrades-in-arms to Zapata, until they came into power and did not do enough to address land reform. Ultimately there could be no place in the newly emerging Mexico for Zapata; the new order was one of compromises, of moderation, perhaps of vacillation. It was the last ally-turned-ruler, Venustiano Carranza, whose underlings deceived, ambushed and assassinated Zapata in 1919.

Zapata’s Plan de Ayala was a rambling manifesto, full of spelling errors. It helped characterise Zapata as an illiterate brigand whose movement had been co-opted by radical city intellectuals. The plan was also the most revolutionary document in Mexico at the time; it was printed in newspapers to discredit Zapata, but instead drew thousands upon thousands of disillusioned peasants to his cause. It also demanded that Zapata’s military adversaries be considered traitors and not prisoners of war, and summarily executed en masse. As was written in the Plan, Zapata was “resolved to struggle against everything and everybody”.

Zapata died at the same age as Che Guevara, and like Guevara it required his death to bring him into the mainstream. Both men found they couldn’t live with the systems they had in part established, that the results of their revolutions weren’t sufficient, and that there would be always and forever a need for more guns (even though neither men had started out with a gun in his hands). In death though Che found a place on t-shirts everywhere, the poster boy of the  left. Zapata found a place on the now out of circulation 10 peso note, and became one of the heroes of the Revolution, poster boy for a system he had rejected and died still fighting. Although times have changed in Mexico the fundamental inequality has not; the poor are still as voiceless, as trampled as ever.

Zapata has become a hero, though, and not just a hero to jungle revolutionaries or downtrodden peasants. Contemporary Mexico was born out of Carranza’s government, out of his constitution; Zapata is celebrated today by the offspring of those who arranged his murder. Perhaps he had to die for Mexico to find a way forward, perhaps there is no place for an uncompromising, die-on-our-feet-instead-of-living-on-our-knees mentality. Galeano paints a picture of the state Zapata was creating in the wake of his military victories; it is a socialistic utopia. It sounds very much like what Mexico needed and needs. But it doesn’t sound much like something that could ever be allowed to exist; such a society couldn’t be made by a dissenting faction; only the consent of everyone could build such a society and see it thrive. That or a lot of guns.

So finally Zapata is a hero to all, but only in death. In life there was no place for him and his ideas. The only safe way to deal with him was to betray and kill him, so he could be safely printed onto the lowest denomination of paper money; a fitting location for one who sought to raise the lowest common denominator in his country.

Cristina de Toro (actriz y escritora colombiana) en el Diario de Colombia “El Colombiano” el 15 de Agosto

“Señor Presidente Hugo Chávez:

Desde el día de su entrevista con la periodista Vicky Dávila, he querido comunicarme con usted para, respetuosamente (el significado de esta palabra lo puede averiguar en cualquier diccionario), hacerle algunos comentarios.

En primer lugar, quiero manifestarle que, al oirle decir con tanta propiedad, que es hijo de Simón Bolívar, recordé cuando en algunos de sus tantos viajes a Argentina dijo allá, con la misma convicción del sábado pasado, que era hijo de San Martín y del Che Guevara. También he leído que le ha achacado la paternidad entre otros a Tupac Amaru, Sandino, José Martí y Mao.
Señor Presidente Chávez, de la manera mas comedida, me permito decirle que de esa mezcolanza genética e ideológica que usted está haciendo, no puede resultar nada bueno. Lo que a usted le está pasando, es como cuando a uno le da por pintar y se pone a revolver colores sin ningún criterio. El resultado de semejante amasijo es un color sucio, algo que acaba por asemejarse más al pantano que a la pintura.
Además, ese afán que mantiene de parecerse a uno y a otro, hace que usted carezca por completo de identidad ideológica y, más bien sea un mal remedo de esos hombres que, aunque no comulgue yo con sus ideas, si le reconozco su autenticidad.

En segundo lugar, presidente Chávez, quería decirle que me gustó mucho cuando le dijo a la periodista, que usted se consideraba simplemente un soldado chiquitiiiiiiiiico. Estoy completamente de acuerdo con usted, no por lo de soldado, sino por lo de chiquitico. Si presidente Chávez, chiquitico es como lo veo cada vez que insulta a mi país y a mi presidente Álvaro Uribe. Chiquitico, por ridiculizar al vicepresidente Francisco Santos. Chiquitico, cuando con lenguaje procaz y ordinario, se refiere a los que no opinan como usted.. Chiquitico por negarse a reconocer como terroristas a la Farc, nuestro más grande flagelo. Chiquitico cuando utiliza las relaciones comerciales como instrumento de retaliación política. Chiquitico, por acostumbrase a adulterar la verdad. Chiquitico, por abusar de la libertad de expresión de la que su pueblo carece. Chiquitico, por ser un Presidente autocrático que se ampara tras el uniforme que alguna vez enlodó. Chiquitico, por engañar a los venezolanos con la ilusión de un futuro mejor, mientras enmascara los desastres que provocan su incapacidad y megalomanía. Y para terminar, quiero que sepa presidente Chávez que ser o sentirse Colombiano no es simplemente cantar el ¡OH GLORIA INMARCESIBLE! con pasión y fuego, como usted dice. Ser Colombiano es bastante más y, discúlpeme que se lo diga, pero, usted no es digno de ese honor. Y créame, con esa mezcolanza de paternidad que según usted mismo dice, que todos ellos son sus padres, no me queda más que creer que es usted un hijo de la gran puta.”

PD: “Presidente Chávez, no se le vaya a ocurrir decir que también es hijo de su compatriota Andrés Bello, le garantizo que esa si que no se la van a creer..”

Iron.  Chariots.  Bows.   Armor.   Shields.  Formations.  Guns.  Trenches.  Aircraft.   Bombs.  Whatever the age, wars are never fought the same way twice.  But whatever the war, some things never change.  Alexander the Great surrounded his enemies during battle.  Stonewall Jackson flanked and surprise attacked them.  They won their battles, often outnumbered, due to superior strategies.  They knew where the enemy was and could attack when and where they wanted.  The brutality of Hitler led others to crush him and new technology that released the power of the atom demolished the resilience of the Japanese.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.  That’s Cassius Clay but that’s also a fair description of guerilla warfare.  Guerilla warfare is how the Vietnamese made the USA retreat and how Fidel Castro and Che Guevara defeated Batista.  Sucker punch after sucker punch until theres an opening for the knockout.  Guerilla warfare thrives on conventional warfare.  Tanks are great against other tanks but they’re not so hot against some guerilla who can hear the tank coming and just run to fight another day.  The only way to defeat guerilla warfare is to remove the resources that give it power.

A sympathetic population is perhaps the strongest resource guerillas have in a war.  Not only are they potentially more troops but provide intelligence and protection.  If not outright spies, they are the very least scouts for the insurgents.  There is no way to win for a conventional army if they are fighting against Robin Hood.  Whichever side provides more of basic services to the population like food, water, housing, jobs, will automatically be asked for security aswell.  In conventional warfare boots on the ground are important, but in a guerrila war a bigger counter-insurgency effort can cause the civilian population to become uneasy.  Occupation with weapons will always lead to resentment because nobody likes to be intimidated.  Sure weapons make the people carrying them feel safe, but when someone is unarmed and surrounded by strangers carrying AK47’s or M-16’s it’s hard not to feel threatened.  Thriving communities are guerilla-proof.  People will protect themselves if they feel they have something to protect.

Even if excessive boots on the ground had no negative consequences, it still isn’t the most efficient strategy.  Just like most battles, information is the key to winning.  With advanced technolgoy like spy satellites, thermal cameras, and whatever other gadgets are out there that can track movement, combined with ground-information gained from undercover operatives and informants, there is no reason why quick-strike aircraft or some type of special forces shouldn’t be able to use guerilla warfare tactics against guerillas.  Conventional warfare is for conventional warfare and guerilla warfare is for guerilla warfare.  There’s no doubt the USA can win any old-fashioned war, but in order to win a modern war the counter-insurgency efforts must beat guerilla warriors at their own game, more mobile, more hidden, and most of all more population-friendly.

La situazione attuale che vive (o sopravvive?) l’Umanità, costretta tra la crisi economica globale provocata dagli Stati Uniti, il problema ambientale ed il cambio climatico, le epidemie e le malattie che sfidano i passi avanti della scienza e le guerre d’aggressione in pieno sviluppo, ha generato un’atmosfera di crisi, di decrescita e confusione, che si sta inclinando in forma graduale ma sostenuta, per milioni di persone nel mondo, alla ricerca di grandi filosofi che possano aiutare ad intendere e a cercare un’uscita da questo pericoloso intreccio.

Le informazioni che giungono dal mondo editoriale menzionano l’auge delle vendite d’opere filosofiche che, sino a poco tempo fa, non sembravano suscitare molto interesse ed oggi, sorprendentemente, si avvicinano ad alcuni classici e alla lista dei tanto richiesti romanzi, detti best-seller.

Karl Marx occupa un posto importante tra i pensatori più reclamati per questi studi, investigazioni, analisti o semplici lettori che cercano risposte – non ricette – ai più grandi problemi del XXI secolo e non possono tralasciare come riferimento indispensabile l’opera del “Prometeo di Treviri”, assieme al suo inseparabile e generoso compagno Federico Engels.

Marx fu, senza dubbio, la punta più alta del pensiero europeo del XIX secolo.

Nelle sue idee filosofiche e la sua teoria economica  percorse gli oscuri, già da allora, e impervi sentieri del capitalismo e mostrò che la necessità non era solo interpretare il mondo esistente, ma trasformarlo dalle fondamenta, lasciandoci il legato delle idee essenziali.

Pensavo a tutto questo mentre rileggevo la lettera che Ernesto Che Guevara m’inviò in un data tanto lontana come il 4 dicembre del 1965, dalla Tanzania, dov’era giunto dopo la campagna in Congo e dove trascorse quello che chiamò “questo lungo periodo di vacanza”.

Per quella tappa, il Che si auto-preparò un piano di studi che seguì con il rigore  che lo caratterizzava e che, come scrisse nella lettera “può essere studiato e migliorato molto, per costruire la base d’una vera scuola di pensiero.” Aggiungeva: “Abbiamo già fatto molto, ma un giorno dovremo anche pensare.”

Sapendo che io ero appena entrato a fare parte della segreteria nell’organizzazione del Partito,  espose così “alcune ideuzze sulla cultura della nostra avanguardia e del nostro popolo in generale, e per questo ho messo il naso nella filosofia, cosa che pensavo di fare da molto tempo”.

La cultura ed il talento enormi del Che gli permisero di giungere all’ elaborazione di un piano – il mio piano, scrisse– strutturato in otto capitoli o temi e nella sua lettera li dettagliava.

Erano: i classici filosofici; i grandi dialettici e materialisti; i filosofi moderni; i classici dell’economia ed i precursori; Marx e il pensiero marxista; la costruzione socialista; eterodossi e capitalisti, e un ultimo capitolo che chiamò “Polemiche”,  lo caratterizzò come “ il più polemico, ma il pensiero marxista avanzò così”.

Nel punto più caldo della costruzione socialista, il Che suggeriva d’includere “ libri che trattano problemi concreti non solo degli attuali governanti, ma anche del passato, facendo controlli seri sull’apporto dei filosofi, e soprattutto degli economisti e statisti”.

L’importanza del compito gli era ben chiara e la rifletteva in questa frase commovente: “È un lavoro gigantesco, ma Cuba lo merita, e credo che lo si possa tentare”.

La ben meritata fama del Guerrigliero Eroico quale impetuoso uomo d’azione non ha mai nascosto la profondità del suo pensiero ed i suoi contributi senza precedenti al complesso reticolato delle idee rivoluzionarie, nell’affanno di realizzare su questa base, soluzioni e passi avanti.

Per questo fu un infaticabile studioso e creatore anche nelle più difficili circostanze e sostenitore del concetto leninista che non c’è rivoluzione senza la teoria della rivoluzione.

Cuba e il mondo sono cambiati da quando fu scritta questa lettera, ma i suoi propositi fondamentali non sono variati nella necessità di cercare risposte certe ed opportune, oggi più che mai, per coloro che lottano per la trasformazione della vecchia società di sfruttamento e per far sì che dal suo seno sorga una nuova società, capace di conciliare la giustizia sociale ed il benessere materiale, con la morale di un Uomo Nuovo.

Per tutto questo il Che studiava il marxismo, e non per un semplice desiderio d’accumulare conoscenze accademiche.

Era convinto che, come aveva detto Lenin, la dottrina di Marx era molto poderosa, perchè è vera, ma che è necessario studiarla seriamente e profondamente per realizzare con successo la sua applicazione concreta alle necessità concrete.

Penso che per questo che sia opportuno fare riferimento a questa lettera ed al suo contenuto che esprime una visione del Che sull’insegnamento del marxismo – che ci trasmette con la sua abituale acutezza e sapienza – che è una sfida ancora da vincere.

Armando Hart Dávalos

Mientras me tomaba un café en el centro, encendí mi notebook y lo conecte al WiFi del lugar. Revisando mi correo electrónico, un compañero de universidad me habia enviado un artículo del portal El Mostrador, en este hablaba de la presentación de un libro del señor Heraldo Muñoz, diplomático y embajador chileno ante la ONU.

El artículo, mas en profundidad, retrataba como el señor diplomático (a proposito del libro ”La sombra del Dictador”) donde se referia al presidente Salvador Allende Gossens. Muñoz hablaba de que en los tiempos que actualmente corren, “Allende hoy habría tenido más posibilidades de aplicar un programa de cambios progresistas que ayer” aseguró el embajador chileno ante la ONU. Y dialogaba (junto a Baltazar Garzón)también de la ineptitud y deslealtad del fallecido general Augusto Pinochet.

Meditaba tantas cosas mientras leia el artículo, como ¿que sería de Chile si gobernara el compañero presidente hoy? ¿sería una segunda Cuba? ¿o una nueva Venezuela? ¿defenderia los principios reales de Bolivar o del compañero Che Guevara? ¿sería un verdadero ejemplo de probidad (no como ese chiste de Chavez)?… La verdad, no lo sé. Pero lo que si se, y analizando mas en frío las palabras de Muñoz, coincido plenamente en cada punto de su alegoría, si una alegoría al ejemplo que sería el compañero presidente para esa tropa de poco atinados que se las dan de candidatos presidenciales.

Una oportunidad que Chile feliz le daría… Sería como nuestro Obama chilensis. Una luz de esperanza para arreglar los errores del pasado dictatorial del general (infelizmente descansando) y de una Concertación que se ha percudido de los malos habitos. Una camada de verdaderos progresistas liderados por un ejemplo de presidente, que lamentablemente, la escoria fascista elimino de esta copia (poco) feliz del Edén a cambio del poder mal habido.

Pudieron haber eliminado su cuerpo… PERO NUNCA SU ESPIRITU PROGRE Y SOCIALISTA.

VIVA EL COMPAÑERO PRESIDENTE!!!!  VIVA!!!!

Tea partiers brutally beaten by pro-amnesty group
Shocking! Illegal immigration protesters attacked, pushed into traffic

Article: WorldNetDaily

Che Guevara supporters with a radical pro-amnesty coalition viciously attacked and bludgeoned tea party protesters at a Florida anti-illegal-immigration rally, including a 62-year-old man who was beaten and kicked in the face.

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC called for “Tea Parties Against Amnesty and Illegal Immigration” to form quickly across the nation on Nov. 14. In less than 30 days, protests were scheduled for more than 50 towns and cities.

But two Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tea party protesters were brutally beaten by pro-amnesty activists on the day of the nationwide rally as they attempted to film Florida’s Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition counterprotest.

You see, what “they” fail to understand is that Americans aren’t against immigration. No, not at all. What we ARE against is ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. GRANTING AMNESTY. Because, you know, majority of the illegal shitstains that enter this country have no desire to become legal citizens to begin with. Not to mention that majority of Americans don’t WANT to grant amnesty to a bunch of fuckwits who refuse to learn English, who don’t have ANY desire to take the legal steps to becoming a legitimate American citizen, and whose loyalties aren’t with America. There’s no racism about it. I don’t know what the “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition” is all about. Just a bunch of bullshit. That’s right I said it. Besides; look at the people who “represent” the illegal immigrants. Savory characters indeed. /end sarcasm

ANSWER members carried Che Guevara signs and other black and yellow placards that stated “Full rights for all immigrants.” They shouted, “Amnesty yes, racists no!”

Wouldn’t a more appropriate placard read: “Equal punishments for all criminals”? Or how about shouting “Take the legal steps to becoming an American Citizen, YES, we don’t care where your country of origin is, NO”. Yes. I think so.

As the two men attempted to film the protest, an ANSWER member in a black tanktop and blue jeans lunged after one of the cameramen and beat him with a sign, pushing him into traffic. Another ANSWER member in a white T-shirt attacked the same cameraman while the victim defended himself with what appears to be a camera tripod.

A female tea party protester began screaming as Dave Caulkett of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement and the initial ANSWER attacker fought in the middle of the street.

The following is a video of the attack released by ALIPAC:

“Supporters of President Obama’s amnesty plans attacked Tea Party Against Amnesty & Illegal Immigration demonstrators in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. One of the men attacked is 62 years old,” ALIPAC reported. “Dave Caulkett of FLIMEN is assaulted and then kicked in the face while he is down. The other cameraman from the tea party is hit with several signs.”

ALIPAC revealed that ANSWER Florida sent out an e-mail invitation urging members to join its “protest to shut down racist anti-’amnesty’ rally” in Fort Lauderdale prior to the event. ANSWER’s letter stated the following:

The ANSWER Coalition is calling on all its members, allies, and friends to join us tomorrow to confront and shut down the racist “Anti-Amnesty Tea Party” in Fort Lauderdale.

The “Anti-Amnesty” rallies being held across the country tomorrow have been initiated by fascist, white supremacist organizations that include the Minutemen and the so-called Americans for Legal Immigration.

Recent months have shown a significant rise in extreme-right activity with hate crimes and attacks on immigrants skyrocketing. White supremacist and fascist organizations have boasted rapid growth since the onset of the economic crisis. The new administration has continued the government’s anti-immigrant policies with “desktop raids” – the liberal response to the fascist like workplace raids of the Bush years.

Racism is like anything else in this world: in order to make it fall, you must smash it! That is why we are calling on all people to come out tomorrow, to organize a militant confrontation with the so-called “tea baggers.” Beating back these forces will require us to organize together, take the streets, fight the racists wherever they show their faces and drive them out of every community. …

We are building a movement that will beat back racism so that working people of all nationalities can unite and fight against our one, shared enemy: capitalism. Amnesty, full rights for ALL immigrants, is a demand that should be raised not just by the immigrant communities, but by every working class community in our struggle to solve this crisis by our own means.

Join us tomorrow, and join us in building the movement against racism and capitalist exploitation!

Sounds like someone’s pointing their fingers in the wrong direction. Who sounds like the “racists” to YOU?

As WND reported earlier, ALIPAC Chief William Gheen said his group had been calling for a “peaceful, political revolution and uprising in America.”

Shocking! Illegal immigration protesters attacked, pushed into traffic

By Chelsea Schilling

Che Guevara supporters with a radical pro-amnesty coalition viciously attacked and bludgeoned tea party protesters at a Florida anti-illegal-immigration rally, including a 62-year-old man who was beaten and kicked in the face.

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC called for “Tea Parties Against Amnesty and Illegal Immigration” to form quickly across the nation on Nov. 14. In less than 30 days, protests were scheduled for more than 50 towns and cities.

But two Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tea party protesters were brutally beaten by pro-amnesty activists on the day of the nationwide rally as they attempted to film Florida’s Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition counterprotest.

ANSWER members carried Che Guevara signs and other black and yellow placards that stated “Full rights for all immigrants.” They shouted, “Amnesty yes, racists no!”

As the two men attempted to film the protest, an ANSWER member in a black tanktop and blue jeans lunged after one of the cameramen and beat him with a sign, pushing him into traffic. Another ANSWER member in a white T-shirt attacked the same cameraman while the victim defended himself with what appears to be a camera tripod.

A female tea party protester began screaming as Dave Caulkett of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement and the initial ANSWER attacker fought in the middle of the street.

The following is a video of the attack released by ALIPAC:

“Supporters of President Obama’s amnesty plans attacked Tea Party Against Amnesty & Illegal Immigration demonstrators in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. One of the men attacked is 62 years old,” ALIPAC reported. “Dave Caulkett of FLIMEN is assaulted and then kicked in the face while he is down. The other cameraman from the tea party is hit with several signs.”

ALIPAC revealed that ANSWER Florida sent out an e-mail invitation urging members to join its “protest to shut down racist anti-’amnesty’ rally” in Fort Lauderdale prior to the event. ANSWER’s letter stated the following:

The ANSWER Coalition is calling on all its members, allies, and friends to join us tomorrow to confront and shut down the racist “Anti-Amnesty Tea Party” in Fort Lauderdale.

The “Anti-Amnesty” rallies being held across the country tomorrow have been initiated by fascist, white supremacist organizations that include the Minutemen and the so-called Americans for Legal Immigration.

Recent months have shown a significant rise in extreme-right activity with hate crimes and attacks on immigrants skyrocketing. White supremacist and fascist organizations have boasted rapid growth since the onset of the economic crisis. The new administration has continued the government’s anti-immigrant policies with “desktop raids” – the liberal response to the fascist like workplace raids of the Bush years.

Racism is like anything else in this world: in order to make it fall, you must smash it! That is why we are calling on all people to come out tomorrow, to organize a militant confrontation with the so-called “tea baggers.” Beating back these forces will require us to organize together, take the streets, fight the racists wherever they show their faces and drive them out of every community. …

We are building a movement that will beat back racism so that working people of all nationalities can unite and fight against our one, shared enemy: capitalism. Amnesty, full rights for ALL immigrants, is a demand that should be raised not just by the immigrant communities, but by every working class community in our struggle to solve this crisis by our own means.

Join us tomorrow, and join us in building the movement against racism and capitalist exploitation!

As WND reported earlier, ALIPAC Chief William Gheen said his group had been calling for a “peaceful, political revolution and uprising in America.”

I had a Pancho Villa t-shirt once and I loved it intensely. It went where I went, and occupied the designated ‘white t-shirt’ place in my pack, even after it was turning yellow and pilling uncomfortably and shrinking further and further up my midriff. Before it was retired the tee travelled with me through Europe, North America and Asia.

I bought the tee in Zacatecas, where a thundering equestrian statue of Pancho Villa overlooks the city. It (the tee) read ZACATECAS / Pancho Villa / Centauro del Norte / Mexico. Zacatecas was the site of one of Villa’s most significant victories.

Wherever I went with my Pancho Villa tee, I could be relatively sure of finding at least one Mexican who wanted to congratulate me (ok maybe not in Korea, but certainly in Europe and the US). When I started living in Spain I made sure to wear the tee in the presence of potential Mexican friends. If I couldn’t speak Spanish I could at least speak cool. Pancho Villa is definitely cool.

I’ve written before about the conundrum of wearing Che Guevara tees. These days it’s cooler to decry Che shirts as a betrayal of his revolutionary dreams than it is to wear a Che shirt. The other incendiary revolutionaries of the twentieth century haven’t quite progressed that far in popular theory yet.

Villa was, in any case, a very different kind of revolutionary. He took no stance as broad and untenable as the downfall of capitalism. He fought more or less consistently against a string of military rulers during the Revolution (some of whom had been former comrades-in-arms), but made no grand manifestos declaring his motives. Land reform was if not one of Villa’s goals, then certainly one of his methods, as he appropriated hacienda lands and pressured the wealthy into funding his campaigns with generous loans.

Villa was no communist; if anything he was closer to a rogue entrepreneur. Aside from expropriating the wealth of the upper classes, he raised money with train robberies, by printing his own money, and by signing film deals with Hollywood, which brought camera crews into his camp. He would have sold t-shirts to fund the cause if they were in vogue back then.

The Mexican Revolution was the era that forged Mexico’s international image. It was from this time that the image of the gunslinger wearing a wide sombrero and wrapped in bandoliers originates. Pancho Villa was the archetypal gunslinger of the time; there are many photos of him on horseback, haughtily posed and with ample moustache, armed and defiant. He was a capable general known for recklessness, for leaving a trail of destruction and controversy that other politicians and general were forced to clean up. He would have made a terrible president, but he made a great desert caudillo, storming fortresses, torching cities and evading capture.

The revolutionary era in Mexico took a long time to end, but as it began to dwindle away Villa and other revolutionary generals found themselves outlawed and cut off from their funds and supplies. There was really no place for Villa in the new Mexico. As successive governments slowly returned stability to the country the old firebrand generals needed to disappear so that new structures of power could emerge. Villa retired to a hacienda in the north, and as with all the figures of the revolution, was assassinated by the underlings of one of his rivals (even though his power was already broken). A late spasm of violence in the tail of the revolution.

I bought my Pancho Villa t-shirt because it looked cool. It didn’t make as strong a statement or counter-statement as a Che tee. I suppose I could say that the shirt represented the fight against oppression, but really it just represented the fact that Pancho was supremely cool, a figure that managed to make a dirty business look glamorous. Villa is known as a hero of the revolution today, I think, more because of his charisma and his eminently t-shit-worthy image than because of his politics or his methods or his results.

While Guevara and probably others sit awkwardly on their t-shirts, their revolutions betrayed to consumerism, Villa sat comfortably on my shirt and sits comfortably on others (though not all that many). The t-shirt is perhaps his proper realm; a fitting place to remember a Hollywood rogue, a revolutionary who ran out of revolution, a sly entrepreneur and a Mexican icon.

“Our youth must always be free, discussing and exchanging ideas concerned with what is happening throughout the entire world.”

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine”. As quoted in The Quotable Rebel : Political Quotations for Dangerous Times (2005)

“We should not go to the people and say, “Here we are. We come to give you the charity of our presence, to teach you our science, to show you your errors, your lack of culture, your ignorance of elementary things. We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people.”

“There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory; just as any country’s defeat is a defeat for all of us.”

“Above all, try always to be able to feel deeply any injustice committed against any person in any part of the world. It is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary.”

“Where a government has come into power through some form of popular vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted.”

“The ultimate and most important revolutionary aspiration: to see human beings liberated from their alienation”.

“We, politely referred to as “underdeveloped,” in truth are colonial, semi-colonial or dependent countries”

“The laws of capitalism, blind and invisible to the majority, act upon the individual without his thinking about it. He sees only the vastness of a seemingly infinite horizon before him. That is how it is painted by capitalist propagandists, who purport to draw a lesson from the example of Rockefeller — whether or not it is true — about the possibilities of success.”

“For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another.”

“In capitalist society individuals are controlled by a pitiless law usually beyond their comprehension. The alienated human specimen is tied to society as a whole by an invisible umbilical cord: the law of value. This law acts upon all aspects of one’s life, shaping its course and destiny.”

“Socialism cannot exist without a change in consciousness resulting in a new fraternal attitude toward humanity, both at an individual level, within the societies where socialism is being built or has been built, and on a world scale, with regard to all peoples suffering from imperialist oppression.”

“Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.”

“The merit of Marx is that he suddenly produces a qualitative change in the history of social thought. He interprets history, understands its dynamic, predicts the future, but in addition to predicting it, he expresses a revolutionary concept: the world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed.”

“I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves”. Statement in Mexico (1958); as quoted in Kaplan AP World History 2005 (2004)

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” Intercontinental Press (Vol. 3 January -April 1965

“I am not interested in dry economic socialism. We are fighting against misery, but we are also fighting against alienation. One of the fundamental objectives of Marxism is to remove interest, the factor of individual interest, and gain, from people’s psychological motivations.Marx was preoccupied both with economic factors and with their repercussions on the spirit. If communism isn’t interested in this too, it may be a method of distributing goods, but it will never be a revolutionary way of life.” As quoted in The Many Faces of Socialism Comparative Sociology and Politic

“I am not Christ or a philanthropist, old lady, I am all the contrary of a Christ…. I fight for the things I believe in, with all the weapons at my disposal and try to leave the other man dead so that I don’t get nailed to a cross or any other place.” Letter to his mother (July 15, 1956) as quoted in Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (1997)

“The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for [Eutimio], so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain, with exit orifice in the right temporal [lobe]. He gasped for a little while and was dead. Upon proceeding to remove his belongings I couldn’t get off the watch tied by a chain to his belt, and then he told me in a steady voice farther away than fear: “Yank it off, boy, what does it matter.” I did so and his possessions were now mine.” Diary entry from Sierra Maestra on the execution of Eutimio Guerra as an anti-revolutionary spy (January 1957), quoted in Che Guevara : A Revolutionary Life (1997)

About Che

Che T-shirts are among the first things you’ll see after landing at the Havana airport. But at least the Cubans know whom they’re glorifying. In the United States, Che’s life story and ambitions seem beside the point, or maybe they’ve just been reduced to caricature. The guy’s face is shorthand for “I’m against the status quo.” He’s politics’ answer to James Dean, a rebel with a very specific cause. David Segal, journalist, in “The Che Cachet” in The Washington Post (7 February 2006)

Che is a figure who can constantly be examined and re-examined. To the younger, post-cold-war generation of Latin Americans, Che stands up as the perennial Icarus, a self-immolating figure who represents the romantic tragedy of youth. Their Che is not just a potent figure of protest, but the idealistic, questioning kid who exists in every society and every time. Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (1997), in The New York Times (26 May 2004)

What has made Guevara a cultural icon is not his example for poor countries, but his capacity to provoke empathy among the spoiled youth of the affluent West. Mark Falcoff, in “He Thinks We Still Care” a review of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

We can in no way accept that my father should appear on women’s underwear or men’s underwear or that it should be on the back pocket of a pair of jeans or that they use it as a commercial image for a pair of glasses. We think that is lacking in respect and we won’t accept that. Aleida Guevara as quoted in “Guevara’s daughter has a cause, in the image of her father” in The Age (28 June 2003)

Che was not only a heroic fighter, but a revolutionary thinker, with a political and moral project and a system of ideas and values for which he fought and gave his life. The philosophy which gave his political and ideological choices their coherence, colour, and taste was a deep revolutionary humanism. For Che, the true Communist, the true revolutionary was one who felt that the great problems of all humanity were his or her personal problems, one who was capable of feeling anguish whenever someone was assassinated, no matter where it was in the world, and of feeling exultation whenever a new banner of liberty was raised somewhere else. Michael Löwy, author of The Marxism of Che Guevara,

“Che was the most complete human being of our age.” Jean-Paul Sartre, as quoted in the trailer for the film Motorcyle Diaries (2004)

To his critics, Guevara was a trigger-happy megalomaniac whose bloody example led thousands to their deaths in futile uprisings that only hardened military repression from Guatemala to Chile. Patrick J. McDonnell, journalist, “Che Guevara’s legacy looms larger than ever in Latin America” in The Los Angeles Times (8 October 2007)

Most people don’t know the real Che Guevara — the Che Guevara who wrote that he was thirsty for blood, the Che who assassinated thousands of people without any regard for any real legal process. Felix Rodriguez, CIA agent who relayed the order from Bolivian president René Barrientos and the Bolivian military high command to execute Guevara BBC

Carlos Puebla’s voice, encapsulating an entire nation’s pride, is wafting from my speakers. He sings of Che Guevara, a poster of whom is stuck on my nine-year-old son’s bedroom door – oh world, what do you do to us? Che Guevara, who reminds me of beautiful days spent with my Grade 12 students while we prepared for International Day at school; days spent in enthusiasm and excitement, in creativity and passion, culminating in a first prize. When Che prayed for victory, i wonder, did he know he would get to assassinate one day? Does any of us who wish for something, who yearn, long and pine for it, do we ever know at what price it will come to us; do we have the faintest idea what we will have to give up in order to attain it? Rethorical question. We never know what it will cost us until we obtain the desired wish, if at all.

Laroche Foucault once said “Don’t desire something until you see how much pleasure it brings to those who have it.” Pretty wise. But even that doesn’t cover it, because those who have it are not you. The price they paid is different, and you will not see it anyway. So you can watch and stare and observe and analyse and think you’ve done your homework, and yet you will still not have even scraped the surface of what you need to know.

So what is the answer to all this? Not to wish for anything? That is not human. The answer is to greet disappointment and joy with the same pinch of salt; and to know, to bask in the certitude, that neither will last, and that neither is more than just an illusion; to realise that the only certain reality to hold on to is the urgency of contentment towards both.

Juanita Castro, hermana de los dictadores Fidel y Raúl Castro, afirmó que a Ernesto Guevara “no le importaban los juicios o las acusaciones, empezó a fusilar sin conciencia” porque “era un hombre sin corazón”

A pesar del tono contrario al gobierno revolucionario, Juanita reservó algunas palabras de afecto para Raúl Castro. “Es mi hermano, la sangre pesa”, confesó. “En el orden personal, lo quiero; en el orden político, lo rechazo”, completó.

Fuente: ANSA

I feel tragic like I’m Marlon Brando. China Girl – David Bowie. The gates to the century has closed. Pray to your gods. The ice doors are closing in on you. Burn the chocolate twigs. Gather enough tic tacs. Yes, ladies and gentleman. The 21st century is here. Burger King doesn’t have enough meet for your drooling mouths and your cringing bellies. Cannabis is now legalized in Portland. Who are repainting the murals of Che Guevara.

Logistics have no boundaries. Sex with animals being tolerated. I don’t disagree with them. Why not? A mad cat in Brooklyn I had once known in the burg. That bar, Subway I think. He had to say. My name is Tony. When its spelt backwards Why not? Why not?

They had to kill the elephants in India. The triggers were too large for little boys fingers in Rio. So they devised toys and video games that spit blood in your periphery when you fuck up. Thousands of leaves fall into the garden of Eden. Work up enough courage to drink from the Ganges. What is now considered tremendous feats? Remaining silent when spoken to. Crash your car for no reason and don’t claim insurance. Talk to your cat, dogs, and whatever domesticated animals you have raised — and don’t feel weird about it. Marry your pelican if you have to. Feel free to throw a middle finger to the driver next to you and smile about it because you know it makes you feel better. Confuse the cashier at your local supermarket for no reason so you will be the last person she would think about before going to sleep.

Walk barefoot. Scream LIFE IS FUCKING GLORIOUS like you’re really mad and feel positive about it. Burn your local newspaper in the middle of the biggest highway or the longest street in your neighborhood. Wait there to be arrested. Get your parents to open a new account for bail. And transfer all your life savings to that account….then devote yourself to being an ascetic. “Like Kane in Kung Fu.” Godbless David Caradine. Get a pet monkey and name him the great PROPHET. Build a black rock so she could ascend to heaven.

Try to make Turkish Delights. Leave them in the refrigerator for fungus to feast upon. If that ever happens. I wouldn’t know. Dial up every commercial phone number and tell the operator that they are loved and give them a big wet kiss. Wear your underwear on your head, walk downtown and read the best poetry you have ever written through a loudspeaker. Dress up as the midnight cowboy and walk through the streets of Kuala Lumpur like every motherfucking day is Halloween. Concoct this list for your own personal use. Try not to be a hybrid. Be fake like fakers do and destroy yourself like you were a secret message in Mission Impossible. Try your best to die young, or live long enough to wrap your soul around the world like it was cling wrap and store it away forever in the ice box of your heart.

Tomada en La Habana durante el verano de 1962 la fotografía se volvería famosa. Recoge un instante del gran torneo de ajedrez celebrado aquel año en memoria del gran cubano, José Raúl Capablanca. Se dio cita allí buena parte de la pléyade del ajedrez mundial y de no ser por el rango de quien observaba la partida, la foto nunca hubiera tenido la importancia que cobraría con el pasar de los años. Los personajes en cuestión, cada uno a su manera, marcarían un hito y escribirían páginas memorables.

Los dos jugadores, de idéntico nombre, no volverían a medirse en el tablero aunque seguirían unidos durante más de cincuenta años por el vínculo de la amistad y por la indeclinable pasión por el ajedrez; vivirían largos años y contarían hazañas. El tercer personaje, el espectador motivo de la foto, también amaba el ajedrez y estaba llamado a protagonizar grandes gestas en otros campos pero moriría joven en una escarpada sierra boliviana, en un lance imprevisto, mientras se dedicaba a lo que fue la gran pasión de su vida, la reivindicación de los pueblos y la siembra de las ideas revolucionarias. Su nombre, Ernesto Guevara, más conocido como El Che.

De los dos jugadores, el mayor, nombrado Boris Spasski, sería pocos años más tarde campeón del mundo y protagonista de una de las contiendas más apasionantes del juego ciencia: la lucha por la corona orbital diez años después ante un jovencito norteamericano de apellido Fischer, una lucha heroica que partiría en dos la historia ajedrecística. Su contendor en la partida, Boris de Greiff, aunque en escala menor en lo que al juego se refiere, estaba predestinado durante los cincuenta años siguientes a un fructífero quehacer intelectual. Jugador activo hasta bien entrado en años, acumulará a su haber, el raro placer que brinda la compañía de los mejores; testigo de excepción, le será dado el honor de representar a su país en nueve olimpiadas como jugador activo. A su retiro, continuará su labor en campos tan diversos como el arbitraje internacional, la dirigencia deportiva, el periodismo especializado hasta ser declarado como Miembro Honorario de la Fide en el año 2002. Como escritor, castizo y elegante, posee la rara virtud de plasmar con pocas palabras la anécdota sabrosa y el análisis preciso en el arte de enfrentar el meollo de la partida de ajedrez. Su obra periodística constituye un inapreciable tesoro a la hora de adentrarse por la historia viva del noble juego.

Toda una vida de esfuerzo y dedicación, y el país nacional, otorgador de distinciones a manos llenas por labores de menor cuantía, no parece percatarse del significado de la labor de Don Boris de Greiff, gran Señor, a quien el país le está debiendo un homenaje que se ganó hace mucho tiempo. Honor y largos años.

…

Como una pequeña muestra de sus virtudes ajedrecísticas les traemos hoy una partida jugada en las Olimpiadas de Amsterdam 1954, primera participación colombiana en eventos de tacón alto.

Su contendor, el campeón suizo Bhend, a la postre segundo mejor puntaje personal del torneo, después del inolvidable Keres. Con comentarios marginales del gran maestro Yudovich, extraídos del libro Jaque al Olvido, del maestro de Greiff, se jugó así:

Blancas: Boris de Greiff – Negras: Edwin Bhend

Defensa holandesa.

1.d4 f5 2.Cf3 Cf6 3.g3 e6 4.Ag2 Ae7 5.O-O O-O 6.c4 d6 7.Cc3 De8 8.Dc2 Dh5 9.e3 Ad7?! (Un plan erróneo. Era mejor Cc6) 10.b4 Ac6 11.d5! exd5 (No se puede Ad7 debido a 12.dxe6 Axe6 13.Ce2 con ventaja blanca.) 12.cxd5 Axd5 13.Cxd5 Cxd5 14.Db3 c6 (Si Df7 15.Cg5!) 15.Cd4 Df7 16.b5 Cb6(No se puede 16…Rh8 por 17.bxc6 bxc6 18.Cxc6,las blancas recuperan el peón y conservan clara ventaja.) 17.Cxf5 Af6 18.Tb1 d5 19.Aa3 Td8 20.Tfd1 Cc4 21.e4 dxe4 22. Ae7! (No es posible 22…Txd1+23.Txd1 Axe7 24. Cxe7+Dxe725. Dxc4+Rf826. Axe4 con posición ganadora.) 22… Cd7 23.Axd8 Txd8 24.bxc6 bxc6 25.Axe4 Cdb6 26.Txd8+ Axd8 27.Td1 Ac7 28.Db4 Dh5 29.Td4 c5 30.Dxc5 Df7 31.Txc4  y las negras se rindieron.

…

Juegan las blancas y dan mate en dos.

Solución al anterior (M. Marble):

1. A4R!! (A cualquier jugada del negro, las blancas dan siete mates distintos. ¿Podrá el lector encontrarlos?)

The life of a single human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man on earth.

Che Guevara

Presumably he forgot this noble sentiment when he was putting counter-revolutuionaries against the wall…

Ernesto Che Guevara 1956

Partons, ardent prophète de l’aurore, par les sentiers cachés et abandonnés, libérer le vert crodile que tu aimes tant.

Partons, vainqueurs de ceux qui nous humilient, l’esprit rempli des étoiles insurées de Marti, jurons de triompher et de mourir.

Quand ta voix répandra aux quatre vents réforme agraire, justice, pain, liberté, à tes côtés, avec les mots, nous serons là.

Et quand viendra la fin du voyage, la salutaire opération contre le tyran, à tes côtés, espérant la dernière bataille, nous serons là.

Et si le fer vient interrompre notre voyage, nous demandons un suaire de larmes cubaines pour couvrir les os des guérilleros emmenés par le courant de l’histoire américaine.

By Justin Williams

In “Exposing the Real Che Guevara,” Humberto Fontova, who himself fled from Cuba with his family, sheds light on the “revolutionary” figure that the modern left idolizes. In each chapter, he takes common beliefs held by the left and debunks them not only with mainstream sources but using actual accounts from families who experienced it firsthand.

Fontova’s book may surprise the reader on the amount of obsession the left has and how much of an obsession the media had when Che was alive. Most people have seen the t-shirts that are donned by college students across the nation. But what many will be shocked to know is that the winner of the U.N. Global Humanitarian Award, Angelina Jolie, sports a tattoo of Che “though she won’t reveal where.”

And that just scratches the surface. There are plenty of books, necklaces, bikinis, and even a Steven Soderbergh movie glorifying the man whose mural is currently displayed on the building of the Cuban secret police.
So what may start as a curiosity about a popular t-shirt will lead the reader into a world filled with media obsession and innocent bloodshed. Fontova shows that not only was Che a mass executioner of Cubans, including women and children, but that he himself would oppose the intellectual following he receives.

In a shocking example of his “revolutionary” behavior, Che, a self-proclaimed “Marxist,” did not mind selling the blood of the sixty-six men who were executed at the going price of “fifty U.S. dollars per pint to the Republic of North Viet Nam.”

Overall, the book is very good and it is written in a way that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat the whole time. Fontova is both passionate and clear when discussing the horrific amount of mass murders that took place in his home country. But beware if the reader is apathetic or uneducated about Che, they will be a passionate protester against Che “and the useful idiots who idolize him” by the end of the book.

Rating: 4/5