By Mike Fuller
Havana, Jul 21 (Prensa Latina) Over 80 local and world academics attended this month at a cultural research center in Havana a workshop called Power and Project, the Life of Ernest Guevara 80 Years Later.
It was sponsored by the Antonio Gramsci School of the Ministry of Culture's Juan Marinello Institute of Cultural Investigation, which filled the lecture hall with black and white photos of the iconic guerrilla fighter, born June 14, 1928.
The rich legacy left by Che in his union of theory and practice, his ability to distinguish contradictions in revolutionary society, his challenge to US hegemony and belief that individual freedom begins with liberation of others were served up at the opening panel on Che in 1968 by Hiram Hernandez, editor of Temas magazine.
Havana University and art school professors, philosophers, medical faculty, local publishers and others came together with guests from Spain, Peru, Chile, Colombia and more for two days of panels, music, videos and discourse shared on bulletin boards.
The director of Temas, Rafael Hernandez said Che has often been used as an example of a hard liner, which is part of the myth, and reminded how Cuban revolutionary praxis in the late 1960's was influenced by manuals imported from the Soviet Union.
Former diplomat and director of Prensa Latina Manuel Yepe contextualized Che's thinking at that time with other world hot spots like France and Prague and bemoaned the existence of dogmatic marxism anywhere.
The Brecht Forum in New York held a similar forum last October on the anniversary of Guevara's murder in Bolivia, which it reminded was backed by the CIA.
After being informed about the Havana encounter, Raissa Ange-Gaelle A. Dally from that group responded to Prensa Latina that their investigation sought to "get behind the iconic figure, and examine the multi-faceted man."
Disamis Arcia of the Che Guevara Studies Center here commented on the strength of the symbol, but said Cubans have always considered his thinking profound as well.
The depth of Marxist thought in Cuba is accompanied by the breadth of those who have interpreted it, and Marta Nunez of the University of Havana recalled enormous debates in the 1960's with her colleagues over less traditional thinkers like Lukacs, Marcuse and Althusser.
But they weren't the only ones concerned with the course of Cuban politics.
After almost 50 years of interference by his predecessors, US President George Bush said in 2007 that Cuba needs a "transition from a shattered society to a free country," but Nunez claimed academics here started that idea long before his plan and theirs will be a transition to socialism.
Olga Perez Soto of Havana University said on the Political Economy panel that "economy is not a neutral science," and that Che's idea of voluntary work was a challenge to alienated labor.
She said market fetishism was difficult to fight, but mentioned as viable alternatives the current process of Latin American integration, the indigenous as classic carriers of change and a desire to critique prevailing forms of alienation.
Another UH economist, Rafael Sorhegui, said that "by deconstructing politics and economy, we increase our understanding of political economy," which he illustrated with a triangular figure.
The Gramsci School organizers Fernando Martinez and Julio Cesar Guanche were careful to keep the discussion on task and on the second day there were small group sessions.
These later pronounced on Che's paradigm of honesty, his commitment to participation and ability to mobilize, his views on government, economy and socialism as a common front in this region.
Che Guevara served as Cuban Minister of Industry in the early 1960's, and an audio of thunderous applause was played as workers of that ministry gave him a diploma of appreciation.
Author Luis Suarez Salazar of the Che in Latin America panel said that over the last 500 years a multiplicity of contradictions has arisen, including deepening social crises and greater dependence on imperialism.
He said there has been disarticulation of blocks of change and even the "socialism of the 21st century" has been affected.
A Peruvian visitor said it seems like in her country people "either die from hunger or a bullet."
Ramiro Abreu, the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee Representative for Central America, said the current landscape of Latin America has little to do with that of Che and that no single country can take on bourgeois society.
He said that the struggle against capitalism means leaving behind dogma, but being well aware of "the sensitive aggression of our enemies."
Professor Julio Fernandez Estrada spoke of revolutionary Latin American constitutionalism, how the State cannot monopolize the law, and a growing respect for new plurality.
He mentioned how Bolivia is creating a new social subject, and individual rights there are less important than those of the collective.
Ariel Dacal of the Martin Luther King Center spoke of two major social movements in Latin America today, the post NAFTA anti-neoliberals and excluded groups seeking to articulate the power of their diversity.
"Power and how it is appropriated and expropriated is the issue," said Hiram Hernandez in a closing comment, referring to the iconographic influence of the famous Alberto Korda photo of Che Guevara.
That strength was evidenced in a collection of 40 children's paintings of Che hung in the halls from a local art project called Coloring My Neighborhood, done by memory as explained to Prensa Latina by their organizer Jorge Jorge Gonzalez.
In a studio of a peripheral Havana neighborhood, where he says there are virtually no spaces for cultural practice, this university professor combines the visual creation with history lessons and explained that "the children usually know more about Che Guevara than visiting adults."
Havana, Jul 21 (Prensa Latina) Over 80 local and world academics attended this month at a cultural research center in Havana a workshop called Power and Project, the Life of Ernest Guevara 80 Years Later.
It was sponsored by the Antonio Gramsci School of the Ministry of Culture's Juan Marinello Institute of Cultural Investigation, which filled the lecture hall with black and white photos of the iconic guerrilla fighter, born June 14, 1928.
The rich legacy left by Che in his union of theory and practice, his ability to distinguish contradictions in revolutionary society, his challenge to US hegemony and belief that individual freedom begins with liberation of others were served up at the opening panel on Che in 1968 by Hiram Hernandez, editor of Temas magazine.
Havana University and art school professors, philosophers, medical faculty, local publishers and others came together with guests from Spain, Peru, Chile, Colombia and more for two days of panels, music, videos and discourse shared on bulletin boards.
The director of Temas, Rafael Hernandez said Che has often been used as an example of a hard liner, which is part of the myth, and reminded how Cuban revolutionary praxis in the late 1960's was influenced by manuals imported from the Soviet Union.
Former diplomat and director of Prensa Latina Manuel Yepe contextualized Che's thinking at that time with other world hot spots like France and Prague and bemoaned the existence of dogmatic marxism anywhere.
The Brecht Forum in New York held a similar forum last October on the anniversary of Guevara's murder in Bolivia, which it reminded was backed by the CIA.
After being informed about the Havana encounter, Raissa Ange-Gaelle A. Dally from that group responded to Prensa Latina that their investigation sought to "get behind the iconic figure, and examine the multi-faceted man."
Disamis Arcia of the Che Guevara Studies Center here commented on the strength of the symbol, but said Cubans have always considered his thinking profound as well.
The depth of Marxist thought in Cuba is accompanied by the breadth of those who have interpreted it, and Marta Nunez of the University of Havana recalled enormous debates in the 1960's with her colleagues over less traditional thinkers like Lukacs, Marcuse and Althusser.
But they weren't the only ones concerned with the course of Cuban politics.
After almost 50 years of interference by his predecessors, US President George Bush said in 2007 that Cuba needs a "transition from a shattered society to a free country," but Nunez claimed academics here started that idea long before his plan and theirs will be a transition to socialism.
Olga Perez Soto of Havana University said on the Political Economy panel that "economy is not a neutral science," and that Che's idea of voluntary work was a challenge to alienated labor.
She said market fetishism was difficult to fight, but mentioned as viable alternatives the current process of Latin American integration, the indigenous as classic carriers of change and a desire to critique prevailing forms of alienation.
Another UH economist, Rafael Sorhegui, said that "by deconstructing politics and economy, we increase our understanding of political economy," which he illustrated with a triangular figure.
The Gramsci School organizers Fernando Martinez and Julio Cesar Guanche were careful to keep the discussion on task and on the second day there were small group sessions.
These later pronounced on Che's paradigm of honesty, his commitment to participation and ability to mobilize, his views on government, economy and socialism as a common front in this region.
Che Guevara served as Cuban Minister of Industry in the early 1960's, and an audio of thunderous applause was played as workers of that ministry gave him a diploma of appreciation.
Author Luis Suarez Salazar of the Che in Latin America panel said that over the last 500 years a multiplicity of contradictions has arisen, including deepening social crises and greater dependence on imperialism.
He said there has been disarticulation of blocks of change and even the "socialism of the 21st century" has been affected.
A Peruvian visitor said it seems like in her country people "either die from hunger or a bullet."
Ramiro Abreu, the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee Representative for Central America, said the current landscape of Latin America has little to do with that of Che and that no single country can take on bourgeois society.
He said that the struggle against capitalism means leaving behind dogma, but being well aware of "the sensitive aggression of our enemies."
Professor Julio Fernandez Estrada spoke of revolutionary Latin American constitutionalism, how the State cannot monopolize the law, and a growing respect for new plurality.
He mentioned how Bolivia is creating a new social subject, and individual rights there are less important than those of the collective.
Ariel Dacal of the Martin Luther King Center spoke of two major social movements in Latin America today, the post NAFTA anti-neoliberals and excluded groups seeking to articulate the power of their diversity.
"Power and how it is appropriated and expropriated is the issue," said Hiram Hernandez in a closing comment, referring to the iconographic influence of the famous Alberto Korda photo of Che Guevara.
That strength was evidenced in a collection of 40 children's paintings of Che hung in the halls from a local art project called Coloring My Neighborhood, done by memory as explained to Prensa Latina by their organizer Jorge Jorge Gonzalez.
In a studio of a peripheral Havana neighborhood, where he says there are virtually no spaces for cultural practice, this university professor combines the visual creation with history lessons and explained that "the children usually know more about Che Guevara than visiting adults."
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