revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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a tactic for people in the Third World seeking national liberation from
colonialists and imperialist powers .
The Cubans, though economically aligned with the Soviet Union, maintained
an independent line from it . Che Guevara emerged as the major
theoretician of successful socialist revolution . He saw the Cuban model
as an example for the rest of Latin America . Che Guevara considered the
Cuban Revolution made three fundamental contributions to the revolutionary
movement in the Americas . They are :
1 . people's forces can win a war against an established
army ;
2 . revolutionaries did not have to always wait for all the
revolutionary conditions to be present ;
3 . in underdeveloped parts of America, the battle-ground
for armed struggle should in the main be countryside .
Such are the contributions to the development of the revolutionary
struggle in America, and they can be applied to any of
the countries on our continent where guerrilla warfare may be
developed .
Communists and
leftist groups formed throughout Latin America breaking off
from the traditional 'Moscow' oriented Marxist-Leninist parties . These
groups, called 'fidelistos', sent cadres to Cuba for guerrilla training .
Between 1960 and 1965, rural guerrilla armies developed in Columbia,
Venezuela, Guatemala and Peru .
Leftist critics of the Cuban strategy
emerged in Latin America, however . The most notable is Abraham Guillen .
Che Guevara states, "guerrillas are the fighting vanguard of the people" 8
stationed in a
certain area, armed to carry out a series of warlike actions
for the strategic seizure of power . They must have the support of the
7Ernesto Che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare : A Method (Peking : Foreign
Language Press, 1964), p . 3 .
8 1bid ., p . 2 .