Pakistan Progressive Youth Front (PYF) organized a seminar to commemorate Che

Karachi ( Pakistan ) : A seminar was organized by the Progressive Youth Front (PYF) to commemorate the 83rd birth anniversary of South American Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara here on Sunday.

Speakers at the seminar stressed on the struggle of Che and discussed what lessons can be drawn from his short but eventful life, and how they can be implemented in a Third World country like Pakistan.

Shaqfat Qadri, a lecturer of English literature at Sindh University, came all the way from Jamshoro to attend the seminar. He began his talk with a famous quote by the revolutionary, ‘Create two, three, many Vietnams’ and explained what Che Guevara meant by those words. Shafqat said that Vietnam was a poor country but it had the will to “kill thousands of American soldiers” and shot down fancy fighter jets so the country succeeded.

“In today’s world one can beg for freedom only to be disillusioned, or can snatch it from the hands of the oppressors to enjoy real freedom. The people of Vietnam did just that and Che Guevara wanted the oppressed people all over the world to follow that example. His words are as relevant today as they were some fifty years ago,” added Shafqat.

Azizullah Bohyou, an Islamic scholar and author of at least 50 books on Islam, shed some light on Che Guevara’s struggle in the light of the Holy Quran. In his short speech, Bohyou, who is also the chairman of the Sindh Sanger Party, quoted Surah Nisa that encourages people to fight for the right of the poor and said Che Guevara’s life was based of this very premise — to help the oppressed and to fight for them.

Speakers encouraged the youth to look up to Che Guevara as a role model and inculcate in them his true revolutionary spirit which, they believe, is the most important need of the hour.

Nasir Mansoor, an executive member of the Labour Party Pakistan, Sajjad Zaheer, a senior member of the Progressive Youth Front (PYF), Abdul Nabi Soho, a Sindhi author and Marxist intellectual, also spoke on the occasion.

The Progressive Youth Front is a youth group established in 2004. It organises regular study circles on revolutionary politics and promotes activism in Karachi and beyond. They have previously organized seminars and talks on birth anniversaries of Karl Marx, Bhagat Singh, Nisar Abbasi Shaheed, Comrade Hasan Nasir and Dr Najeeb. 

Source : http://www.thenews.com.pk

The Argentinian revolutionary is publishing a set of diaries of Che , 44 years after his death

Age: 83 years (39 of them alive).
Appearance: Bloody everywhere.
Not him again. Yes, him again. Argentinian rugby player, doctor, writer, soldier, politician, freelance revolutionary, beret model and father of five, Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The coolest man ever to not quite grow a beard.
You forgot "self-starter". Thanks. Anyway, he's got a new book out.
Recipes for busy parents? Sadly, no. It's an unpublished set of diaries.
Oh well, I suppose writing anything is impressive from a dead person. How did he manage it? Well, the actual writing part he did while he was still alive.
Clever. And his widow's been sitting on it since his execution in 1967. The book was released on Tuesday in Havana, she said, "to show his work, his thoughts, his life, so that the Cuban people and the entire world get to know him and don't distort things any more".
Very wise. If you want to put a stop to tittle-tattle, you really need to get your story out within the first 44 years. What are these diaries about? Revolution.
You don't say. I do. Guevara started writing them in 1956 shortly after landing in Cuba, with Castro, on board the yacht Granma. They describe the following two years, which he spent travelling around the island's mountainous interior, conducting a guerrilla war to overthrow the Batista regime.
In a jeep called Grandad? That seems unlikely. You'll have to read the book.
Any chance of a precis? Did some war . . . Read Sartre to campesinos . . . Smoked pipe, thinking about US imperialism . . . Did a bit more war . . . Executed traitor . . . War's going well today . . . Adjusted beret . . .
I can't bear the tension. Don't worry. He wins in the end.
Do say: "'Che' is an Argentinian slang term, roughly equivalent in use to the way that some English speakers place 'man' at the beginning or end of sentences. Guevara used the word so frequently during his time in Guatemala that he acquired it as a nickname.
Don't say: "If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine, man."

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Che timeline

1928 June 14, Ernesto Guevara was born in the city of Rosario, Argentina and in 1932 Guevara's family moved to Alta Gracia, province of Cordoba, Argentina

1948 Ernesto Guevara traveled around the Argentinian provinces.

1951 December; he left for Chile and Peru with his friend Granado. Guevara lived for a short time in the leper colony of Huambo. Then he continued his journey to Bogata and later to Caracas.

1953 Back in Buenos Aires, he finished his studies in medicines. After that, he left for Bolivia with another friend, Ferrer. They planned to go to Venezuela, passing through Peru and staying for some time in Guayaquil, Ecuador. They met others Argentinians and decided to go to Central America. They travelled through Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala. There, Guevara met Hilda Gadea, whom he would marry with later, in Mexico. Guevara got in touch with Peruvian exiles.

1954 June; invasion of Guatemala against Arbenz's goverment. Guevara had to escape to Mexico, where he met Cuban exiles.

1955 July; he met Fidel Castro who told him about his plans to invade Cuba. He joined the group and started his military training.

1956 December 2; disembarked on Cuba's south coast. December 18, the 12 survivors started the first guerrilla in the Sierra Maestra.

1957 June; Che was named commander. By the end of the year, the war in Cuba entered the decisive stage. Guevara was requested to make the journal Cuba Libre in the mountain range.

1958 December 29; Che's column fought its final battle and overtook Santa Clara. December 31, president Fulgencio Batista escaped to Santo Domingo.

1959 January 2; triumphal entrance of Che and Camilo Cienfuegos in La Habana. February; Che is declared Cuban born. On June 2, he married Aleida March. From june till august, Che travelled through Africa, Asia and Yugoslavia. On October 7, Fidel Castro named him head of the Industry Department in the Agrarian Reform's National Institute. On November 26, he is named president of the National Bank.

Che with his daughter, Hildita (1960)

1960 Che finished his book "Guerra de guerrillas"("Guerrilla warefare"), published under the responsibilty of the Rebel Department's Instruction Deparment. Its first edition is censored all over Latin America. On July 26, during the First Latin America Youth Congress, Che defined the Cuban revolution as a marxist one. In October, he wrote "Nota para el estudio de la revolucion cubana" ("Notes for the studies about Cuba's revolution"), in which he reviewed the revolution's stages. From October 21 to Febrary 1961, he traveled to the socialist countries (in particular, to China, Czechoslovakia and the USSR) as part of a commercial delegation.

1961 On February 23, he was named Minister for Industry and he quit the National Bank's presidency. In April, he wrote "Cuba, caso excepcional o vanguardia en la lucha contra el imperialismo" ("Cuba exceptional case or avantgarde in struggle against imperialism"). On april 17, Playa Giron was invaded. Che was the commander of the military regions. August; Che represented Cuba in the CIES meeting in Punta del Este (Uruguay). He made a short trip to Buenos Aires and had a secret meeting with the Argentinian president, Arturo Frondizi. Then he traveled to Brasilia, where he was decorated by Brazil's president, J. Cuadros, with the Cruz del Sur order.

Speaking to the CTC  - (1962)

1962 October; The Russian rocket crisis obligates him to take his military place in Pinar del Rio.          

1963 June; Che sent Masetti and a group of Cubans to organize a guerrilla in the northern region of Argentina. He wrote "Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria" (Revolutionary war passages"). In December, he spoke in front of United Nations' Assembly and he refered to the armed struggle as the only way to realize socialism. He travelled to Mali, Guinea, Ghana, Dahomey and Tazania.

1964 March; he went to Peking. On march 25, he made a speech in Ginebra in the Global Conference of Commerce and Development. He continued traveling to Paris and Algeria, where he got in touch with Ben Bella. On November, he visited Moscow for the third time, On december 11, he made a speech and replied to the United Nations' General Assembly. On December 17, he left New York for Algeria via Canada. He met Ben Bella again, and on december 25, he travelled to Mali.

1965 January; he moved to Brazzaville, Congo, where he discussed the anti-imperialistic struggle in Africa with president Alphonse Massemba Debat. Then he went through Guinea, Ghana, Dahomey, Algiers and Paris, where he received the news about Masetti failure. In Febrary he travelled to Tanzania and he took part in the Second Afroasiatic Solidarity Economic Seminary, in Algiers. On march 3, he got in touch with Congo's rebels again. He made a secret trip to Peking. On march 12, "El socialismo y el hombre en Cuba" ("Socialism and man in Cuba") was published, in this book Che exposed his new man's theory. On march 14, he went back to La Habana. In april he gave up all his official positions and his Cuban nationality in front of Fidel Castro. In July, he secretly travelled to Congo through Cairo. On october 3, Fidel Castro showed the letter where Guevara had given up his nationality and his charges of Minister and Commander.

1966 March, he had to leave Congo and went back to Cuba. From March to June he travelled through Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia.
         

1967 On March 23, the guerrilla defeated the Bolivian army in their first unexpected battle. On april 10, the guerrilla triunfed again. Regis Debray and the Argentinian Ciro Bustos left the camp. They were caught by the army on april 20 and so was the journalist George Roth. On May 14, the Bolivian forces took the Nancahuazú guerrilleros' camp which, just before,had been evacuated. On October 8, the battle in Quebrada de Yuro took place. The following day, the Bolivian goverment announced that Che had been executed. On October 15, Fidel Castro officially accepted Ernesto Che Guevara's death.