This month marks the 51
st anniversary of the death of a murderous thug whose face has sold millions of t-shirts and posters.
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara inflicted innumerable atrocities on the people
of Cuba and yet many still proudly hold him up as a symbol of resistance
and a hero for the poor and downtrodden. In reality, he was a brutal
murderer and torturer who, established Cuba’s concentration camp system,
and earned the nickname, ‘The Butcher of La Cabana.’
Those who defend Guevara and other communist thugs often say that it
wasn’t ‘real’ communism — an absurd remark that we can examine another
day.
But there is another, more sinister reason why some defend murderous,
communist dictators. Communists believe in a utopian vision of the
world. They believe a new world order — where wealth is distributed
equally, and poverty does not exist — can and should be attained.
And when you believe in utopia you can easily justify the suffering
and deaths of millions… if the ends are grand enough, some feel they can
justify any means.
The late British historian Eric Hobsbawm,
when asked
if the 15 or 20 million people who died during Stalin’s terror would
have been worthwhile if it heralded a new world order, answered in the
affirmative.
Meanwhile, a sign at the Soviet Union’s first concentration camp in
the Solovetzky Islands chillingly read: “With an Iron Fist, We Will Lead
Humanity to Happiness.”
For communists, there is no amount of death or suffering that is too
much in pursuit of their aims. On the contrary, they believe it is their
duty to impose their will onto humanity — their actions cannot be seen
as unjust because they are the Marxist vanguard who will impose the next
stage of history.
As Trotsky said of Stalin: “Under all conditions, well-organized violence seems to him the shortest distance between two points.”
[This reflects the sentiments of a young Trotskyite socialist at Sydney Uni who said that she would murder someone who stood in the way of her ideas.]
