• ISBN13: 9789562915717

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The definitive, authorised version of Che's manifesto on revolution, including his final revisions, completed just before his death. It is both an incisive handbook and an invaluable historical source. 'Home will be the open sky!each guerrilla fighter is ready to die not just to defend an idea, but to make that idea a reality.' Ernesto 'Che' Guevara remains one of the world's most iconic political and revolutionary figures. Fascinating to admirers and adversaries alike, he captured the minds of millions with his leadership and his belief in guerrilla warfare as the only effective agent to achieve political change. Here, in his own classic text on revolution, Che draws on his first-hand experience of the Cuban campaign to document all aspects of guerrilla warfare, from its aims to its organisation and training. He analyses how in Cuba, against all odds, a small band of dedicated fighters grew in strength with the support of the people to defeat a dictator's army.

This is not, as Guevara put it, a guerilla warfare bible; it is a guide or outline that's meant to be improved on. He covers topics from the basics of guerilla strategy, proper guerilla conduct to what equipment to bring the field.

Guevara's book is very, very fascinating. You don't have to be a military strategist, a communist or guerilla fighter to enjoy this book. He wrote it in a very clear and consice manner that's easy to read. I think people of all backgrounds will find this book engrossing.

Again, "Guerilla Warfare" is an excellent read and fleshes out even more the man on every disgruntled anarchist's t-shirt.

24 of 29 found the following review helpful:


Principles of guerrilla warfare  Aug 17, 2001 By TheIrrationalMan
Part theoretical treatise, part manual for guerilla tactics and strategy, Che Guevara, in his thesis, attempts to provide a formula for the creation and of a small, armed and disciplined guerrilla band which, he believes, would be capable of overthrowing a large organised army. The book is animated by an impassioned desire to whip up a hemispheric socialist revolution in the aftermath of his succesful invasion of Cuba in 1956, in which he, along with Fidel Castro, among others, set the stage for the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship. Guevara discusses the qualities needed by the successful guerrilla warrior, the organisation of the guerrilla band, the methods of indoctrination and training and the tactics that should be employed to guarantee the defeat of large disciplined forces. He stresses the mobility of the guerrilla band, which is a major geographical advantage over large government armies, who are limited to a relatively stationary position due to their bulk. While the enemy loses weapons, the guerrillas retrieve them, thus gaining strength by virtue of the enemy's weakness. He draws attention to the fact that, owing to their increased mobility and flexibility, the guerrillas can remain hidden, while the enemy has no option but to remain exposed. These are precepts of solid value, culled out from Guevara's own experience as organiser of a guerrilla force. His boldest theoretical claim, however, which may be called Marxist-Leninist in its orientation, is the belief that a socialist society can be realised by the peasants, Indians and rural proletariat of Latin America without any of the economic conditions that, as orthodox Marxists insist, are essential for a successful revolution against capitalism. The guerrilla forces, as such, become the vanguard of the revolution. His emphasis on the will, instincts, popular support (and, in a way that was ahead of his time, ethnic consciousness) as the key factors in causing a revolution goes against the tenor of previous Latin American brands of communism, which were more gradualist in character, in seeing that a sufficient economic and industrial base must be in place for any revolution to succeed. The defeatism of various Marxist theoreticians of the time leads Guevara to become increasingly virulent, not only against them, but against American imperialism. In his "Address to the Tricontinental" he condemns American imperialism and insists on causing "two, three, or many Vietnams" in the hope of driving a stake through the heart of American imperialism. However, Che Guevara's voluntarist practice and his theory of internationalist revolution have come to be seen as hopelessly outdated. His "foco" theory of guerrilla warfare has been overtaken by events, after it had disastrously failed to be applied in several Latin American countries. Guevara himself lost his life in 1967, after a failed guerrilla uprising in Bolivia, in which he attempted to put his theory into practice. Another weakness was that Guevara had generalised a very unique experience, -- the invasion of Cuba, -- into a normative standard for any successful insurrection. To many in the present generation, the idea of revolution has itself come to be seen as a dead-end or, at worst, a joke. Nevertheless, Che's life, a shining spark in the era of protest, violence, idealism and revolution, serves as a lesson in when to revolt, in how to refuse to be treated as an outcast and a servant, and in how dedicated a man can be in his struggle against the unjust social order that tyrannically oppresses its most disadvantaged members. It was not Cohn-Bendit, but Che Guevara whom Jean-Paul Sartre called "the most complete man of his time" in his selfless dedication, his courage, his vision and in the Christ-like sacrifice of his own life for the poor and downtrodden in whom he believed.

66 of 86 found the following review helpful:


For the Hardcore Only  Jul 19, 2001 By Leif A. Torkelsen
I'd recommend this book to only two types of readers. The first is the serious student of Che Guevera. His prose is poor, and his logic is constrained by the shibboleths of Marxism-Leninism, but it nonetheless provides a window into Che's own thoughts on the practicalities of revolution. The second group for whom this book would be of value is the student of guerrilla warfare. Now, Che's book is probably the last I'd recommend to anyone in that area (there are too many other books that are much better), but it is not without some merit.

The bottom line of this book is that Che has some very interesting toughts on revolution and guerrilla warfare. However, for the student of guerrilla warfare, Che's words must ultimately be taken with a big grain of salt. The corruption and incompetentence of the Batista regime and its rag-tag army made Che's war in Cuba a little too easy. When he encountered tougher foes in the Congo and Bolivia, he accomplished little but his own martyrdom. This is simply not the work of one of the great military leaders in his field, merely one of the most publicized.

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