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Title: Myths and Legends Author: Anarchist Communist Federation Date: 1998 Language: en Topics: myths, Organise!, Mohandas Gandhi, Ernesto Che Guevara, Haile Selassie, Eva Peron Source: Retrieved on May 13, 2013 from https://web.archive.org/web/20130514100846/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue46/myth.html][web.archive.org]], [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130514045000/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue47/che.html][web.archive.org]], [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130514000238/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue48/haile.html][web.archive.org]] and [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130514024550/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue49/evita.html Notes: Published in Organise! Issue 46 â Summer 1997, Issue 47 â Winter 1997/1998, Issue 48 â Spring 1998, and Issue 49 â Summer-Autumn 1998.
Organise! is starting a new series, Myths and Legends, which will take a
look at various âSacred Cowsâ, diagnose BSE and recommend culling.
We kick off with a look at the âsaintâ of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi.
Mahatma Gandhi is often cited by pacifists as the shining example of how
non-violent civil disobedience works successfully. Unfortunately, these
paeans of praise leave out a close study of Gandhiâs role in the Indian
struggle for âindependenceâ, and just as importantly, who were his class
allies in that struggle.
By 1919 the Indian capitalist class had decided they wanted independence
from the British rulers. However, as can be imagined, the British were
reluctant to agree to this and a propaganda campaign for withdrawal had
no effect. Indian workers and peasants also resented the yoke of British
domination. In response to a mass rally at Amritsar in the Punjab,
General Dyer ordered the machine-gunning of the crowd, resulting in over
300 dead and many thousands wounded.
The Indian capitalist class came to the conclusion that after the
failure of the propaganda campaign, mass action was necessary to gain
independence. However, they were haunted by the spectre of the Russian
revolution, which had progressed from democratic demands to outright
social revolution. They received the answer to their prayers in Gandhi,
who had already led several campaigns of civil disobedience in South
Africa against the racist laws there. He thus had a certain credibility,
and was also not hindered by any identification with any particular
region of the sub-continent.
His theories of civil disobedience were rooted in Hindu theology. He
preached the unity of classes among Indians, the rich to be âtrusteesâ
to the poor. This message of class unity was vital if he was to create
an alliance between the industrialists and the rich peasants. Indian
capitalists enthusiastically welcomed these ideas, and he was financed
by some of the leading industrialists in West India, the Sarabhais,
textile magnates in the Gujarat, and the Birlas, second largest
industrialist group in all of India. Millions of rupees were given to
him over a period of 25 years. The rich peasants and shopkeepers also
provided a pool of activists for his Congress Party. Gandhi, due to his
simplicity of life style, was able to mobilise peasants and workers
behind him in the cause of nationalism, where the Indian politicians in
top hats and morning suits would have found it very difficult. He
facilitated a cross-cross alliance for nationalism.
Gandhi had advocated his doctrines of non-violence from early on. This
did not stop him from supporting the British in 1899 in the Boer War,
volunteering to help them and organising an ambulance corps. As he said,
âAs long as the subjects owe allegiance to a state, it is their clear
duty generally to accommodate themselves, and to accord their support,
to the acts of the stateâ. When Gandhi was organising a mass march in
South Africa in 1913, to obtain rights for Indians there, the white
railway workers went on strike over pay and conditions. Gandhi
immediately cancelled his march, saying that civil resisters should not
take advantage of a governmentâs difficulty .On the outbreak of the
First World War, Gandhi actively recruited for the British war effort,
despite his âpacifismâ. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he
publicly pledged not to embarrass the British, and would lend moral
support to the Allies.
Each of Gandhiâs mass campaigns of civil disobedience (1920â1922,
1930â1933,1942) took place when British capitalism was in trouble. Each
crisis broke a few more links with Britain. They also strengthened the
Indian capitalists. Fair enough, one can argue, it was good tactics to
attack British imperialism when it was in difficulties. What Gandhi
failed to do was tie the second campaign to a massive working class
upsurge, in conjunction with a mass campaign against a British
Parliamentary Commission touring India (both in 1928). Instead he waited
till 1930 to launch the campaign. He rejected the idea of teaming
workers struggles with a campaign for British withdrawal because he was
an advocate of peace between the different classes of India.
Gandhi never questioned the concept of âlegalityâ either. He told his
supporters to obey the law and he always insisted that the British had a
âlegal rightâ to arrest them. Once arrested, the campaigners were told
to cut themselves off from everything outside and passively await their
release.
When in April 1946 Indian sailors mutinied in Bombay and Indian soldiers
refused to fire on them, Gandhiâs Congress Party refused to support
them, which effectively broke the mutiny. Workers demonstrated their
support in mass strikes, and the thought of workers and rank-and-file
soldiers combining in action must have been troubling to Gandhi.
Gandhiâs use of the Hindu religion as justification for civil
disobedience was disastrous. Not only did it alienate the members of
other religions in India, principally the Muslims, but it legitimised
the caste system. Gandhi opposed one caste oppressing another, but he
never came out in favour of the abolition of the caste system itself.
Many âuntouchablesâ were alienated in this way. The massacres that took
place after independence were at least partly due to Gandhiâs reluctance
to include the Muslims within his Congress Party.
Although Gandhi admitted that he had read certain libertarian thinkers,
principally Kropotkin, he had very little in common with their ideas.
While Kropotkin was committed to the end of class society, Gandhi never
repudiated either the class or the caste system, and never tried to
reach out to the working class, in India or internationally. For that
matter, his Puritanism, his dislike of sexuality, his cult of martyrdom,
have very little to do with militant anarchism.
In the second of our series we look at the life and ideas of Ernesto Che
Guevara. Che has been in the news a lot lately, with his remains being
dug up in Bolivia and reburied in Cuba, the publication of hitherto
unknown photos of his Bolivian campaign and two new biographies. The
heroic cult that has developed around him has taken on new life. Whilst
his image â on T-shirts, posters, and beer labels- continues to make
money for capitalists, there seems to be a revival among the young in
the idea of Che as idealistic hero and fighter for freedom. This hero
cult seems to have infected many young radicals, some of whom regard
themselves as anarchists.
The truth may be unpalatable to many. After all, the Che cult is still
used to obscure the real nature of Castroâs Cuba, one of the final
bastions of Stalinism. As jaded Stalinists and fellow-travelling
Trotskyists celebrate Cheâs anniversary we take a look at the real man
behind the legend.
Born in Argentina to a Cuban aristocratic family who had fallen on hard
times but who still had much wealth, Guevara had a comfortable
upbringing. When Juan and Eva Peron started on their rise to power,
using populism and appeals to workers and peasants to install a regime
that had many fascist characteristics (1944â1952) Guevara was still a
youth. At this period he seemed remarkably disinterested in politics and
failed to offer any opinions for or against the Peron regime.
Events in Guatemala were to change this. Arbenz, a leftist army officer,
was elected as President. In 1952 he nationalised the property of the
United Fruit Company, a major US company which owned much land and had
great economic and political influence. He also began to nationalise the
land of the local big ranchers and farmers. Guevara was caught up in
enthusiasm for this experiment in âsocialismâ which infected middle
class Latin American youth. Just before a trip to Guatemala he wrote: â
I have sworn before a picture of the old and mourned comrade Stalin that
I wonât rest until I see these capitalist octopuses annihilatedâ.
Guevara was in Guatemala when a US backed invasion force smashed the
Arbenz regime. He was able to flee to Mexico. Here he joined up with the
Cubans around Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. In November 1956, Che
and 80 other members of the July 26 Movement (J26M) founded by Fidel had
landed in Cuba to carry on a guerrilla campaign against the US backed
dictator Batista. Here Che proved to be the most authoritarian and
brutal of the guerrilla leaders. In fact Che went about turning
volunteer bands of guerrillas into a classic Army, with strict
discipline and hierarchy. As he himself wrote: âDue to the lack of
discipline among the new men... it was necessary to establish a rigid
discipline, organise a high command and set up a Staffâ. He demanded the
death penalty for âinformers, insubordinates, malingerers and
desertersâ. He himself personally carried out executions. Indeed the
first execution carried out against an informer by the Castroists was
undertaken by Che. He wrote: âI ended the problem giving him a shot with
a .32 pistol in the right side of the brainâ. On another occasion he
planned on shooting a group of guerrillas who had gone on hunger strike
because of bad food. Fidel intervened to stop him. Another guerrilla who
dared to question Che was ordered into battle without a weapon!
Apart from the drive towards militarisation in the guerrilla groups, Che
also had another important duty. He acted as the main spreader of
Stalinism within J26M. He secretly worked towards an alliance with the
Popular Socialist Party (the Cuban Communist Party). Up to then there
were very few Stalinists within J26M and other anti-Batista groups like
the Directorate and the anarchists were staunchly anti-Stalinist. The
communists were highly unpopular among the anti-Batista forces. They had
been junior partners of the regime and had openly condemned Castroâs
previous attacks on Batista in 1953. They belatedly joined the guerrilla
war.
With the Castroite victory in 1959, Che, along with his Stalinist buddy
Raul Castro, was put in charge of building up state control. He purged
the army, carried out re-education classes within it, and was supreme
prosecutor in the executions of Batista supporters, 550 being shot in
the first few months. He was seen as extremely ruthless by those who saw
him at work. These killings against supporters of the old regime, some
of whom had been implicated in torture and murder, was extended in 1960
to those in the working class movement who criticised the Castro regime.
The anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists had their press closed down and
many militants were thrown in prison. Che was directly implicated in
this. This was followed in 1962 with the banning of the Trotskyists and
the imprisonment of their militants. Che said: âYou cannot be for the
revolution and be against the Cuban Communist Partyâ. He repeated the
old lies against the Trots that they were agents of imperialism and
provocateurs. He helped set up a secret police, the C-2 and had a key
role in creating the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, which
were locally and regionally based bodies for spying on and controlling
the mass of the population.
Che was the main link, indeed the architect, of the increasingly closer
relation between Cuba and the Soviet Union. The nuclear missile deal
which almost resulted in a nuclear war in 1962 was engineered at the
Cuban end by Che. When the Russians backed down in the face of US
threats, Che was furious and said that if he had been in charge of the
missiles, he would have fired them off!
By 1963, Che had realised that Russian Stalinism was a shambles after a
visit to Russia where he saw the conditions of the majority of the
people, this after âSoviet-style planningâ in the Cuban economy had been
pushed through by him. Instead of coming to some libertarian critique of
Stalinism, he embraced Chinese Stalinism. He denounced the Soviet
Unionâs policy of peaceful co-existence, which acknowledged that Latin
America was the USAâs backyard, and gave little or no support to any
movement against American control. Fidel was now obsessed with saving
the Cuban economy, himself arguing for appeasement. Against this Che
talked about spreading armed struggle through Latin America, if
necessary using nuclear war to help this come about!
It was on this basis that Che left Cuba never to return. He went to the
Congo, where he worked with the Congolese Liberation Army, supported by
the Chinese Stalinists. This was a shambles of a campaign, and Che ended
up isolated with many of his band dead. Despite this, Che still believed
in guerrilla struggle waged by a tiny armed minority. His final, fatal,
campaign was in Bolivia.
This also was a fiasco. Basing himself once more on old Castroist
strategies, he failed to relate to the industrial working class. The
Bolivian working class, and especially the tin miners, had a recent
record of militancy and class consciousness. The peasants, on the other
hand, among whom Che hoped to create an armed insurrection, had been
demobilised by the land reforms of 1952. So, Che was unable to relate to
either workers or peasants. The local Communist Party failed to support
him. Robbed of support, Che was surrounded in the Andean foothills,
captured and executed.
Yes, Che was very brave physically. Yes, he was single-mindedly devoted
to what he saw as the revolution and socialism. Yes, he refused the
privilege and luxury granted to other leaders of Castroist Cuba, taking
an average wage and working hard in his various government jobs. But
many militarists, fascists and religious fanatics share these
characteristics of bravery and self-sacrifice. Cheâs good looks and
âmartyrâsâ death turned him into an icon, an icon duly exploited by all
those wanting to turn a fast buck selling ârevolutionaryâ chic.
But good looks and bravery camouflage what Che really was. A ruthless
authoritarian and Stalinist, who expressed admiration for the Peronista
authoritarian nationalists, Che acted as a willing tool of the Soviet
bloc in spreading their influence. Even when he fell out with the USSR
about the possibility of guerrilla war in Latin America, he still
remained a convinced Stalinist with admiration for China and North
Korea. He had no disagreements with the Soviets about what sort of
society he wanted -a bureaucratic authoritarian state-capitalist set up
with contempt for the masses.
Che may look like the archetypal romantic revolutionary. In reality he
was a tool of the Stalinist power blocs and a partisan of nuclear war.
His attitudes and actions reveal him to be no friend of the working
masses, whether they be workers or peasants.
Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia has almost universally been
remembered as a kindly benefactor, yet the evidence suggesting otherwise
is overwhelming. It is argued that he implemented many reforms in his
country and Rastafarians believe him to be God incarnate (as prophesied
by Marcus Garvey, who surely deserves his own Myths and Legends page?)
but how justified are these suggestions?
If we take as starting point Fascist Italyâs invasion of Ethiopia we
find Selassie fleeing to Britain in a brave attempt to rally support for
his country. He remained in Bath for the duration of the war, but on
returning to take his place on the throne he became paranoid about the
partisans who had stayed and fought the Italians, fearing their bravery
and preferring obsequiousness. Thus, they were gradually removed from
positions of authority and replaced with those who had collaborated with
the Italians as he knew they could be easily kept in line and would be
open to the methods Selassie used to control his dignitaries. Selassieâs
methods of asserting and achieving and maintaining power involved
breeding an atmosphere of distrust and corruption, where government
officials would inform on each other in a constant vying for power, each
wanting to be noticed and promoted by the Emperor, as the financial
rewards could be great.
Ethiopia had much in common with any other capitalist society. For
instance, starving peasants felt themselves privileged to even see a
rich person in the flesh (shades of the homeless in Britain grieving
over a recently deceased Princess). To achieve this state of affairs,
Selassie would throw crumbs to the poor and bribe the rich. An example
of this was his practice of throwing coppers to the poor to celebrate
his birthday each year.
Always Selassie had to exercise absolute control, punishing those who
undermined his authority, two examples being Prince Imru and Tekele
Wolda Hawariat. Prince Imru gave some of his lands to the peasantry
without the Emperors permission and as a result he was exiled form
Ethiopia for twenty years for âdisloyaltyâ. Tekele Hawariat, a
celebrated war hero, refused bribes and special privileges and so was
imprisoned and finally executed by decapitation. If Selassie couldnât
have someone in the palm of his hand then he would get rid of them.
The image Selassie liked to project to the West was always one of being
somehow progressive. To this end many youngsters were sent abroad to be
educated, though when they returned Selassieâs megalomania and greed
meant that this education could never be employed to initiate any
reforms in the country. Yet, as we have said, Selassie is remembered by
many as a great reformer. Rather than being interested in reform,
Selassie was interested in âdevelopmentâ. This allowed him to appeal for
funds to help this process. To this end hospitals, bridges, factories
etc. were built, all bearing the name of the emperor. But as the money
poured into Ethiopia much of it was misappropriated by Selassie and
hundreds of millions of dollars found their way into his personal bank
accounts. The West, however, continued to back Selassie, who they
regarded as a bulwark against âcommunismâ in Africa.
In the sixties, when Selassie had begun to lose his grip following an
attempted coup dâetat, he found it necessary to pay Army officers and
his Police obscene amounts of money to maintain loyalty and order. Thus,
in a country of 30 million farmers and 100,000 police and military
personnel, 1% of the state budget was allocated to the farmers and 40%
to the army and the cops.
Selassie bred corruption in Ethiopia, he maintained a backward and
inhuman system in which millions of his subject lived In degrading
poverty, oppressive misery and ignorance. Nowhere in the world was the
gulf between rich and poor greater. In 1973 Jonathan Dimbleby visited
northern Ethiopia and made the film which was to signal the end for
Selassie. The film for the first time showed that people were starving
to death in their multitudes, despite the money for âdevelopmentâ which
was being pumped into the country. At the Palace the splendour and
riches seemed to know no bounds. The juxtapositioning of the two
contrasting images in the film was striking; the pigs with their
sumptuous banquets were growing fatter on the backs of walking
skeletons. Of course this hunger suited Selassie as people could hardly
rebel when they were starving to death. There was in fact, however,
plenty of grain in Ethiopia. But landowners took the harvest from the
peasants, grain prices doubled and the farmers who grew the grain could
not afford to buy it.
As the dying continued, western journalists were no longer allowed into
Northern Ethiopia. Selassie preferred to show off his great
âdevelopmentsâ to the world press. The suffering could not be hidden
indefinitely so, as the situation became a bigger and bigger
embarrassment to the Emperor, the Police began to kill off the starving
en masse.
It is ironic that Selassie liked to project an image of himself to the
world of a kind, tolerant and benevolent soul, yet those in his country
who detracted from this image were usually executed. Supporters of
Selassie could argue that it was his underlings and not he that were
responsible for the atrocities and corruption, the Emperor being kept in
total ignorance of the situation. A look at the facts shows this to be
impossible. Selassie knew what he was doing when he stuffed the money
stolen from his subjects under his mattress and encouraged others in his
employ to do likewise. Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski wrote of
Selassie: âthe Emperor himself amassed his great riches. The older he
grew, the greater became his greed, his pitiable cupidity...he and his
people took millions from the state treasurer and left cemeteries full
of people who had died of hunger, cemeteries visible from the windows of
the royal palaceâ (The Emperor (1984) Picador p.160).
Haile Selassie was not God or a great reformer; but a callous, greedy,
thieving autocrat, who should be remembered for the murdering leach that
he was.
Organise! continues its series Myths and Legends with a look at Eva
Peron. Turned into a Latin American saint, worshipped by thousands of
Argentinians, the subject of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and more
recently a film starring Madonna, âEvitaâ has been the subject of much
attention over the years. Part of this cult is due to her working class
background, her ability to become a âworking girl makes goodâ which
appealed to a Tory like Lloyd Webber tuning into the Thatcherite yuppie
boom where some people from a working class upbringing were able to make
large sums of money. Also superficially appealing are her apparent
championing of the poor and her welfare reforms which appeals to a
Labourite like Alan Parker, director of the film and supporter of old
Labour.
Eva Duarte was born in a village 150 miles to the west of Buenos Aires.
The facts of her early life are obscure, not least because of her
efforts in later life to make out that she was younger and had come from
a poorer background than was true. When her father died at seven, the
financial position of her family took a plunge. By 1934, however, Evaâs
mother had increased her wealth by her running of a boarding-house.
Eva Duarte moved to Buenos Aires, where she became an actress. She was a
successful radio performer in 1943 when the Army overthrew the Castillo
government. Realising that the Army were the important people to know
now, Eva Duarte became the lover of Colonel Imbert, Minister of Posts
and Telegraphs. But her aims were higher. She deliberately sought out
Colonel Juan Peron, seen as the strong man among the colonels. Peron, an
ardent admirer of Hitler, had been a driving force in the Group of
United Officers that had engineered the coup.
Peron realised the regime could not survive for long without the help of
other sectors of Argentinian society outside the military. He looked for
the active support of the working class. He was put in charge of the
ministry of Labour as a first step in this manoeuvre. Peron first met
Eva Duarte at a concert given for survivors of an earthquake in January
1944. The charity work she did there was to become a large part of her
future career. The publicity given from the charity work put her in the
spotlight, helping her in her showbusiness career. Peron was also using
the earthquake tragedy to put himself forward as a champion of the poor,
indeed Eva Duarte sang his praises on the radio before she had met him.
At the concert Eva jettisoned Imbert, and became Peronâs lover.
As a result Eva Duarte began to get leading roles in radio plays, as
well as starting to appear in movies. Now
Peron became Minister of War, an important position. At the same time he
had been building up his control of the trade unions. The union leaders
were coming together in an alliance to force a reformist project on
Argentinian society. This coincided with Peronâs populist plans, based
on the tactics of Mussolini, to bind the unions to him. He encouraged a
rank and file leader, Cipriano Reyes, to set up a meat-packers union in
opposition to the one controlled by the Communists. In return for a
no-strike pledge Peron engineered a small wage rise and better
conditions. This tactic of corporatism, fully integrating the unions
into the State apparatus and thus controlling the working class, was met
with hostility by sections of the ruling class, the aristocracy, the
landowners and big ranchers, who were wedded to the old ideas of
outright repression. Peron did this too with the metalworkers, where a
union led by a Trotskyist, was set up in opposition to the Communists!
Where he could not control, outright repression was used, as with the
building workers. Those who objected to Peronâs politics were imprisoned
and tortured.
Eva became a key player in this strategy. By now Peron had become
Vice-President. He increasingly used nationalist rhetoric against
British foreign investment and interests in Argentina (British companies
owned most of the infrastructure- Argentina was virtually a British
colony). The landowners and industrialists forced Peron to resign in
1945, after a wave of protests and strikes to defend the reforms put
through by Peron. When Peron was arrested, Eva threw herself into
frenetic activity to build up support among the unions. It is rumoured
that the large amounts of cash used during this campaign was from that
she had embezzled from the earthquake fund. In alliance with Cipriano
Reyes, she visited many factories, docks and union HQs, singing the
praises of Peron as the workersâ friend. This culminated in a mass
demonstration on October 17^(th), when 50,000 workers demonstrated in
the capital.
It was Eva who had shown remarkable resolve when Peron was wavering and
preparing to go into exile. It was she who was a chief architect in
mobilising the masses in a populist show of support for Peron.
The following year Peron swept to power in a landslide election victory.
In the next 3 years Eva, now officially married to Peron, would show how
valuable she was to Peronism in enchanting the masses, tying them
enthusiastically to the regime and thwarting any independent
organisation of the working class. She began to deliver dramatic
addresses to mass meetings and over the radio waves, bringing up her
working class credentials, calling on the working class to back her and
Peron. In the meantime she continued to do what she had been doing
before Peron became President. She moved her relatives into positions of
power. Her brother became Peronâs private secretary. Husbands and lovers
of her sister and mother were given influential positions. This nepotism
benefited her family â it also allowed her access to provincial
government, the Senate, the judiciary, communications, and her husbandâs
daily schedule. At the same time she spent a fortune on jewellery, hats
and clothes and an extravagant lifestyle- a long way from the lives of
the people she made her impassioned speeches to.
Then there was the Eva Peron Foundation. She had set this up when she
had been refused the Presidency of a national establishment charity
sponsored by upper class women, shortly after Peron became President.
From a show of egotism, the Foundation developed into a kind of welfare
state, which built hospitals, schools, orphanages and old peoplesâ
homes, distributing food, medicine and money. But each act of the
Foundation was used as a publicity stunt to show how benevolent Eva
Peron was. At the same time many gimmicks were used as grist for the
publicity mill. Very poor children were housed and fed for a few days
and then flung back into poverty, peso notes were flung at random into
the crowd. At the same time money was raised by the Foundation by a
compulsory levy on union members (3 days pay) a national lottery and
enforced contributions from the industrialists. The Foundation gained
publicity for Peronism for its good deeds, it bolstered popular support
through its âgood deedsâ- and Eva was able to divert up to $700 million
into overseas accounts!
The years 1946â9 saw workers wages go up by a third. But in February
1949 the stock market collapsed and after this Peronism became more
openly anti-working class, with austerity measures being introduced.
Spending was cut by 20% and real wages fell by 32% between 1949 and
1953. In 1950 Eva Peron attempted to stop a railworkers strike. When the
strike action spread the following year, the Peronists declared military
rule, sacked 3,000 workers and jailed 300. She began to be associated
with the brutal methods of the regime.
Her early death in 1951 meant that the reputation she had built up was
not too damaged by the increasing attacks of Peronism on the working
class. In death she was transformed into a Virgin Mary style icon, a
Saint of the Poor, easily managed in a predominantly Catholic country.
In reality she was a corrupt and power-mad manipulator of the masses,
helping bring about, in Juan Peronâs own words :âA fascism that is
careful to avoid all the errors of Mussoliniâ.