Che Guevara: A flame that continues to burn

Abstract

In his theses on the concept of history, Walter Benjamin taught us that the memory of the past – the tradition of the oppressed – constitutes an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the revolutionary struggles of the present, concentrated in the “now time”. There is no fight for the future without memory of the past. Well then: this is precisely one of the main reasons for the importance and vitality of the most recent book by Michael Löwy (written in company with Olivier Besancenot, one of the main leaders of the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste, in France), dedicated to the complex task of rescue “Ernesto Che Guevara’s contribution to 21st century socialism” (p.8), this “vanquished of history” who, after his capture and death by the Bolivian dictatorship (supported by the CIA) in 1967, became a of the main political and moral references of the revolutionary left in Latin America.