[Marxism] And another comment on Peronism

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

Wasn't Guevara not much than a social democrat with
radical sympatheties when he was in Guatemala (not that his Blanquism was
ever particularly Marxist)? When he was in Argentina in his youth he did not
support Peron (but told some of his families' workers that it would be in
their class interests to support him).  His radicalization at any rate came
from his opposition to imperialist actions in Latin America and didn't come
from any involvement or roots he had in the working class.
Maybe some of the affinity for Peron's capitalism on this list comes from
the fact that he too tried to suppress independent working class
organization and incorporate it into his government, something that happened
in Cuba, but at least alongside a socialization of production.  This is not
to say that the Cuban Revolution wasn't to a degree a triumph, or that I
don't admire the figure of Guevara, but I just don't believe that he was a *
Marxist*.  He followed a quasi-"Lenin*ist"* tradition that had some
popularity in the underdeveloped world, but it wasn't certainly didn't have
a huge amount in common with the Marxism of the (pre-WW1) 2nd international
(Lenin, Luxemberg, Kautsky).

Tell me that Engels' appraisal of Blanqui doesn't at least kind of fit Che
Guevara (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1874/06/26.htm):

Blanqui is essentially a political revolutionist. He is a socialist only
through sentiment, through his sympathy with the sufferings of the people.
 In his political activity he was mainly a "man of action", believing that a
small and well organized minority, who would attempt a political stroke of
force at the opportune moment, could carry the mass of the people with them
by a few successes at the start and thus make a victorious revolution.

***

Peronism has some parallels with fascism and certainly maintained the
support of segments of the Argentine industrial bourgeoisie that benefited
from import-substitution (Peron himself lauded Mussolini and didn't he spend
his exile in Franco's Spain?)

I conceed that your point here though is fundamentally correct:* "**Guevara
did not share the hatred of the Guevaristas (left wing sepoys, indeed) for
Perón."*
*
*
It's been a while since I read Anderson's biography of *Che.*