Cliff's Notes for Che's Guerrilla Warfare (pt 1)

I'm half way through creating my condensed version of Guerrilla Warfare. I did this with Aristotle's Poetics with a twist in 2005 while writing the screenplay, Lucky Dog (holy crap, there's a book written in 2002 that did the same thing).

I'm excited by the idea of having a condensed overview of Guerrilla Warfare. Plus this is helping me to understand clearly the concepts and to apply them to el Cliquero at each turn. The issues that arise give me new directions for el Cliq. It's fascinating.

Here are my notes to date.

INTRODUCTION and DEDICATION

Jose Carlos Mariategui
Hilda Gadea Peru, met in MX. Introduced many of these ideas to Che.

Jacobo Arbenz Guatemala. mistakes in US-backed coup

Jan 1, 1959 Cuban Revolution
Jan 1, 1994 EZLN Revolution

Cuba Che
- heads Cuban National Bank
- Minister of industry
- Ambassador of Cuba

Fought in Congo.

Ospaaal (last speech of Che)
- hemisphere wide rev
- launch in Bolivia
- strategic location
- isolated eastern jungle
- La Higuera, St Ernesto de

Oct 8, 1967

MX army shoots 300 in plaza of the three cultures in DF.

Guerrilla Warfare
1) people can org into small guerrilla army & overthrow large powerful, established regime
2) popular movements do not have to wait for proper economic cond, before organizing revolutionary war, it can create them
3) latin american struggles should be based in rural peasant population

To spur revolution, a dedicated cadre must engage in political education of masses.

"The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution."
--Castro

Che broke w/ tradition thought regarding the peasantry. He wanted to use them.

Foco Theory
Hector Bejar defeat in Peru (65)
Che in Bolivia (67)

Saw Machu Pichu ruins on moto trip

Zapata "Tierra y libertad"

Camilo Cienfuegos
Died: flight from Camaguey to Havana oct 28, 1959

Danto: audacity, audacity, and more audacity (re:revolutionary movements)

For Camilo, loyalty was like a religion.
He did not measure danger, but used it for diversion, mocked it, lured it, toyed with it, played with it.

Camilo is a monument of the people.

ESSENCE OF GUERRILLA WARFARE

3 fundamentals lessons contributed by Cuban Revolution
1) popular forces can win war against army
2) not necessary to wait until ALL conditions for making revolution exist; the insurrection can create them
3) in underdeveloped America the countryside is basic area for armed fighting

You can do what was previously thought impossible (by defeatist attitude).

War responds to a series of scientific laws, to ignore them means certain defeat.

Guerrilla Warfare is a war of the masses, war of the people.

Local help important. Indispensable condition.

Why does the Guerrilla fight? The Guerrilla is a social reformer.

Know the land. (agrarian revolutionary--but isn't it something a bit different? While the agrarian is the true beneficiary of the revolution, the Guerrilla is a social revolutionary)

What do peasants want? The Guerrilla interprets the desires of the great peasant mass to be owners (land, means of prod, animals, etc) [what do peasants really want? what does el Cliquero believe?]

El Cinco de Mao - China: breakout of worker groups in south, defeated and nearly annihilated. After establishing itself it begins to advance after a long march to Yenan where it makes its base in rural territories and makes ag reform fundamental goal.

Fight no battle without assurance of success. "The Guerrilla fighter is the Jesuit of warfare." [interpret what this means]

It is always possible to carry out Guerrilla attacks in such a way as to assure surprise; and it is the Guerrilla fighter's duty to do so.

Guerrilla War is only a phase. [As a singleton, what phase is el Cliquero?] "[I]t is clear that Guerrilla Warfare is a phase that does not afford in itself opportunities to arrive at complete victory. It is one of the initial phases of warfare and will develop continuously until the Guerrilla army in its steady growth acquires the characteristics of a regular army."

The enemy provides. "The value of a tank, of an airplane in a fight of this type must be weighed. The arms of the enemy, his ammunition, his habits must be considered; because the principal source of provision for the Guerrilla force is precisely in enemy armaments."

Essential task: don't be destroyed.

Continuous blows. "At every moment the impression ought to be created that he is surrounded by a complete circle. In wooded and broken areas this effort should be maintained both day and night; in open zones that are easily penetrated by enemy patrols, at night only."

Work intensively with masses to explain revolution. "[S]pread the incontrovertible truth that victory of the enemy against the people is impossible."

Secure secrecy. Work with the people is first aimed at securing secrecy.

Huelga. The most important factor in civil war. Conditions are necessary.

Sabotage. One of the terrible arms of the Guerrilla band. Using it reduces "the morale of the enemy, the morale of the enemy combatant units."

- paralyze entire armies,
- suspend industrial life in zone,
- leave inhabitants without factories,
- without light,
- without water,
- without communications,
- without being able to risk travel except at certain hours.

Bees to a new hive. "When a Guerrilla band has reached a respectable power in arms and in number of combatants, it out to proceed to the formation of new columns. This is an act similar to that of the beehive when at a given moment it releases a new queen, who goes to another region with a part of the swarm. The mother hive with the most notable Guerrilla chief will stay in the less dangerous places, while the new columns will penetrate other enemy territories following the cycle already described."

A war of positions. Formal, regular armies fighting each other with traditional means for position.

GUERRILLA TACTICS

Match the enemy. Adjust Guerrilla action to the action of the enemy.

Mobility. The fundamental characteristic of a Guerrilla band.

Encirclement. The enemy's only way to force the band into a decisive fight that could be unfavorable.

The Minuet. "The Guerrilla bands encircle an enemy position, an advancing column, for example; they encircle it completely from the four points of the compass, with five or six men in each place, far enough away to avoid being encircled themselves; the fight is started at any one of the four points, and the army moves toward it; the Guerrilla band then retreats, always maintaining visual contact, and initiates its attach from another point. The army will repeat its action and the Guerrilla band the same. Thus, successively, it is possible to keep an enemy column immobilized, forcing it to expend large quantities of ammunition and weakening the morale of its troops without incurring great dangers.

Night moves. The Minuet at night is much more difficult to counter. Guerrilla band can become more aggressive.

Take ammo from the dead. "A dead soldier of the Guerrillas ought never to be left with his arms and his ammunition."

Diff of Guerrilla v. enemy? Their use of ammo. Listen.

Flexibility. "[A]dapt ...to all circumstances and convert to his service all the accidents of the action... [I]nvent tactics at every minute of the flight and constantly surprise the enemy."

Choose well. "Choose well the moment of attack and the place for defending a position without retreat."

Attacks can change. "Starting with surprise and fury, irresistable, it suddenly converts itself into total passivity. The surviving enemy, resting, believes that the attacker has departed; he begins to relax, to return to the routine life of the camp or of the fortress, when with the same characteristics, while the main body of the Guerrilla band lies in wait to intercept reinforcements... The fundamental thing is surprise and rapidity of attack."

Sabotage v. Terrorism. "Terrorism makes victims of innocent people and destroys a large number of lives that would be valuable to the revolution. [It can be] considered a valuable tactic when it is used to put to death some noted leader of the oppressing forces well known for his cruelty, his efficiency in repression, or other quality that makes his elimination useful. [Beware, ] the killing of persons of small importance is never advisable, since it brings on an increase of reprisals, including deaths."

Transportation: a weak point of the enemy. "It is virtually impossible to maintain a vigil yard by yard over a transport line, a road, or a railroad."

Doubly effective: make sure vehicles are on the bridges destroyed.

Secret labs within the Guerrilla zone. Manufacture explosives.

Tele-explosive mines: exploded by radio. Used against the French in Algeria.

Use mines to gain ammo from those cut down.

7 Tactics
1) perfect knowledge of ground
2) surveillance and foresight as to lines of escape
3) vigilance over all secondary roads for enemy attack support
4) intimacy with people in zone (support through supplies, transport, temporary hiding places)
5) superiority at chosen point of action
6) total mobility
7) count on reserves from enemy

Treat people properly.
1) absolute inflexibility at time of attack
2) absolute inflexibility toward all despicable elements leading to informing and assassination
3) clemency as absolute as possible toward enemy soldiers who go into fight with belief they perform a military duty
4) take no prisoners, set survivors free
5) care for wounded with all possible resources at time of action
6) practice respect for rules and traditions of people in zone
7) demonstrate effectively with deeds the moral superiority of the Guerrilla fighter over the oppressing soldier
8) execution of justice? criminal should be given a chance to clear himself first.

WARFARE ON FAVORABLE GROUND

The Guerrilla band must move from its refuge to meet army and once survival is assured it should fight.

Maintain a close watch on points of access to region of fighting.

Favorable ground allows Guerrilla to dig in sooner "to form a Guerrilla base capable of engaging in a war of positions, where small industries may be installed as they are needed, as well as hospitals, centers for education and training, storage facilities, organs of propaganda, etc. adequately protected from aviation or from long-range artillery."

Typical model band. Ideally, 10-15 single shot rifles, 10 automatic arms (Garands, hand machine guns, including light/easily portable MG like Browning, Belgian FAL, M-14 auto rifles). Best are 9mm.

Weapons: simpler is better. Standard parts allow for replacement and maintenance based on others captured from enemy.

Mule is best supply animal in rough country. Adequate pasture req'd. Hills, no problem. (Men can carry 25KG each)

Run your own telephone lines.

The Struggle, TEXT

For those of you who don't connect with my microblog via Twitter, I barely made it out of Cafe Mediterraneum with one page last night. And the text was squirrely. Okay, here it is. I'll include a paragraph before and one after to show where the text fits.//


In a drawer he had found a gigantic pair of chrome scissors and a thin paperback in a box. It had been the only book in the cabinets in English. "From Sun to Sound". The box contained bits of wire, several diodes, a small black plate, and a twisted wire earphone the color of artificial limbs. The book contained a course in the concept of electricity. It hadn't required a soldering gun, though he wished it had. And after he read the instruction book it took only an hour to finish the kit. It was much later that he heard the sounds of the sun.

The Boy had never had a grandfather, but el Patroncito was not his grandfather.

"If I were, you wouldn't be in this situation."

He had no one. El Patroncito was the only human who had treated him kindly since that day. When he arrived at the house, el Patron had patted his shoulder.

"You've been through a lot. Put your bags away and we'll eat something that Rosalia has cooked us. It won't be good, but I don't think you'll care. In your state."

Rosalia had hurried him up the iron railed staircase, past the cabinet of books, to his dark room then returned to her tasks. He opened the heavy door to his room to find split logs crackling white in the small fireplace. The wooden bed shifted with his weight. He left his bags on the flat blanket. How badly he had wanted to sleep or cry. El Patroncito yelled to him loudly from the front of the house. Why had he not come back immediately? Why had he not listened? Newness and fear overtook his loneliness.

From that first day forward, he felt that el Patroncito wanted to be rid of him. Had he ruined everything from the start by not listening? But he had been tired! Surely the old man hadn't expected him to run back down the stairs? He would never know. When he arrived at the thick wooden table, el Patroncito's eyes had not met his. Rosalia laughed in her cocina. They ate stringy pork and the cold tortillas in silence, except for the old man's knife cutting into his wooden plate. They didn't speak again until late next day.

During the next months, the Boy felt that he had been wrong and that el Patroncito had begun to enjoy his company. The old man seemed to like teaching him. They went on walks, short walks around the square, by the sleeping Indians and their textiles and wrapped wood dolls. He told the Boy what the city used to look like when he was young. He told the Boy about how los indios used to have respect for ladinos who owned land like him.

"Where is your land, Patroncito?"

"Not so far in an automobile."

"Why don't you live there, Patroncito?"

"Don't call me that. Not in front of los indios."

"Yes, sir."

The Indians gave their 'buenas tardes' to the old man, but they kept their black eyes on the Boy. He couldn't tell if they were smiling or if they hated him. Maybe in this place, no one could tell the difference.

When they got in the car at the house in San Cristobál, they both pretended that they were just going for another ride. Rosalia pretended too as she quietly packed his things and put them into the car's gaping trunk and just as quietly closed the trunk. All three of them pretended that they were going to see each other in the morning like always. They would be at the table in the morning. But then Rosalia lied. She said tomorrow she would make him enchiladas with mole rojo and a fried egg on top. She said he would have chocolate and el Patroncito would drink his jugo de toronja perfectado. Tasajo, Rosalia would grill tasajo on the charcoal of the comal. She knew he loved meat that tasted like bacon. Rosalia smiled weakly at el Patroncito who laughed at her womanly weaknesses as he pulled away.

As they passed things in the old car he listened to the names el Patroncito gave them. Milpas were little backyard cornfields where people could get food. He could see them through the thinning jungle as the old man wound around the dizzy roads. Altares, though it sounded like the name of a star, were roadside collections of things with crosses and dolls. A regalito was the word for a thing. It was a general word. The old man called anything he gave to the Boy un regalito. It meant he could keep it. Everything was either a regalito or a mio, and after a short time living with the old man he could tell one from the other without asking or being told.

TEXT: The Boy (somewhere earlier than the previous text post from Section 1)

The Boy
There once was a boy who had gone to live in the south of Mexico after his parents had died. There he lived in a large, walled house with a muchacha and an old man people called "el Patroncito". The same people thought the old man was the boy's grandfather.

During his first year at the Academy in the small city in which el Patroncito lived, the boy struggled. He had played futbol in chain-linked fields outside Washington DC and Chicago, but didn't like it much. He spoke some Spanish, but with an accent that made his classmates laugh. And he hated punching, so he was beaten every day. Once, until he urinated in his uniform shorts and socks.

He hadn't been able to bring anything with him from either of his old houses or rooms. That's not the truth. He had brought his cell phone, but the battery had died a long time ago and he hadn't been able to get it to work in Mexico anyway. In his new room in el Patroncito's dark house, he tried to occupy himself with learning new things.

Some of the new things he had discovered in el Patroncito's house were quite old. There was a deep red cabinet of books that stretched the entire length of the upper hall. It was lit from inside by flickering orange lamps that showed the dust on the windows and warmed the little worms that coated the book tops and made their homes in the yellowing pages. All of the blood red leather books looked alike, from their swirled green-gold insides, their flimsy transparent pages covering pictures, the thick black and white drawings, and the edges cut even and covered in gold. They must be first editions, he had thought.

In a drawer beneath the books he had found a gigantic pair of chrome scissors and a large book-shaped box. It had been the only writing in English he had seen in the cabinets:

Experiment No. 1
An Experiment in Electronics Demonstrating the Conversion of Solar Energy to Sound.
Made Available by Your Telephone Company.

It was half book and half kit. The box contained a bag of brass connectors, copper clamps, some small screws, "the transistor" and "the solar cell". And one twisted wire earphone the color of artificial limbs.

He had found the box months ago. It hadn't required a soldering gun, though he wished it had. After he read the book, the experiment took only an hour and a half to construct. It took much longer for him to hear the sounds of the Sun.