MIA: Subjects: Guerrilla War:

Female YPG fighters on the outskirts of the deserts and mountains of Northern Syria.
Female YPG fighters on the outskirts of the deserts and mountains of Northern Syria. Photo by BijiKurdistan. Released under CC BY 2.0 Generic license.

Guerrilla War and Marxist Revolution

The anti-capitalist underdogs who were supported by the people, survived by blending into harsh environments, and who could overthrow entire empires.
"The enemy must not know where I intend to give battle, for it he does not know where I intend to give battle, he must prepare in a great many places. And when he prepares in a great many places, those I have to fight in any one place will be few... And when he prepares everywhere he will be weak everywhere." — Sun Tzu, 500 BCE
"We always know where the soldiers are, but they never know where we are. We can come and go as we like, moving through their lines, but they can never find us unless we wish them to, and then it is only on our terms." — Fidel Castro, 1957

Quotes from: "The War of the Flea," by Robert Taber, 1965.

See the definition of Guerilla Warfare in the M.I.A. Encyclopedia.

Lake Samji, North Korea
Guerrilla Statue, Lake Samji, North Korea. Photo by Mark Fahey from Sydney, Australia. Released under CC BY 2.0 Generic license.

Table of Contents

  1. The Beginning of Socialist Theory about Guerrilla Warfare
  2. Guerrilla Warfare in the Russian Revolution
  3. Friends in Hills and Forests: The Socialist Guerrilla Experience in World War 2
  4. Maoist Contributions to Guerrilla Warfare in China
  5. Revolution in the Caribbean: The Cuban, Guerrilla Experience
  6. Socialist Guerrilla Revolutionaries in the Middle East
  7. Anti-Stalinist and Anti-Maoist Guerrillas Fight
  8. African Socialist Guerrillas Shake Things Up
  9. Guerrillas raise the Banner of Socialist Revolution in Asia and Latin America
  10. Urban Guerrillas Attack the Capitalist System
  11. Counter-Revolutionary and Conservative Guerrillas: The Bad Apples
  12. The Future is Anarchist? — Ultra-Leftist Guerrillas in the Modern Era and Their Libertarian Leanings

Guerrilla warfare is the norm. At an age of 200,000 to 300,000 years old, the majority of humanity's conflicts had sticks and rocks as weapons. The soldiers were part-time warriors, drawn away from their communities where they were farmers, hunters, or gatherers for most of the time, supported with food, logistics, and intelligence by their home villages. For 99.9% of humanity's existence, there were no prisons for locking up masses, no torture chambers for extracting confessions, no carpet-bombing or nuclear-powered submarines.

Interstate warfare is the exception.

Exposition La Commune de Paris à l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris (18 mars - 28 mai 2011) - Barricade au Passage Raoul aujourd'hui rue Bréguet (coté Richard-Lenoir) - Musée Carnavalet, 1871
Exposition La Commune de Paris à l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris (18 mars - 28 mai 2011) - Barricade au Passage Raoul aujourd'hui rue Bréguet (coté Richard-Lenoir) - Musée Carnavalet, 1871. Released under Public Domain license.

The Beginning of Socialist Theory about Guerrilla Warfare

Guerrillas differ from "regular" soldiers in the following manner:

Ancient China

Marx and Engels

The Paris Commune

Modern, Marxist Theory on Guerrillas

Marxist Anti-Guerrillas

Guerrilla Warfare in the Russian Revolution

Vladimir Lenin, July 1920
Vladimir Lenin, July 1920. Released under Public Domain license.

Lenin

Trotsky's Military Writings

"To the question about whether we need guerrillas we must answer: yes, we do need guerrillas, they are necessary for our purpose – but only real guerrillas, really brave men, warriors without fear and without reproach, for whom nothing is impossible." — Leon Trotsky, 1919

From Volume 2 of Leon Trotsky's Military Writings (1919):

Red Army History

Members of the Maquis in La Trésorerie (a hamlet part of Wimille, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France).
Members of the Maquis in La Trésorerie (a hamlet part of Wimille, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France). Photo by Donald I. Grant, Department of National Defence. Released under Public Domain license.

Shamrocks and Sabotage: The Guerrilla Warfare Legacy in Ireland

Friends in Hills and Forests: The Socialist Guerrilla Experience in World War 2

The guerrilla fighter cannot starve his captured prisoners-of-war -- as the guerrilla fighter himself is starving. The guerrilla fighter cannot lock up the masses in mass camps -- the mobile nature of guerrilla fighting prevents any permanent location. The guerrilla fighter cannot launch indiscriminate weapons of destruction against unarmed populations -- they are too poorly armed for that.

Socialist, Anti-Fascist Resistance among the French Maquis

Left-Wing Guerrillas in Spain

Guerrilla members of the exemplary group-platoon of the 2nd Division of ELAS. Parnitha Second from the right is Salvatore Bakolas, last is Giorgos Doussis.
Guerrilla members of the exemplary group-platoon of the 2nd Division of ELAS. Parnitha Second from the right is Salvatore Bakolas, last is Giorgos Doussis. Photo by Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών. Released under CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Greek Communist Guerrillas

The Greek Communist guerrillas are a complex story. Greek Communists were famous in resisting Fascism, smuggling food into areas cordoned off by both Axis and Allies, and making notable protests on behalf of food rights of Greeks. But at the end of the war, Churchill and Stalin made a "Percentages Agreement" to guarantee Greece as a non-Communist state, forcing the Greek Communist movement into the brutalities of underground existence. In desperation, the Greek Communists committed human rights atrocities when extracting materials and supplies from local villagers, alienating them from the Greek people. Finally, a spate between Tito in Yugoslavia and Stalin in Russia concluded with the closure of the Greek-Yugoslav border, preventing the Stalin-alligned, Russian-supplied, Greek guerrillas from escaping oncoming state forces, and being utterly annihilated in the final battles. Rarely before in history has such a tiny splinter group interacted with most of the major, political personalities of its time.

Yugoslavian Guerrillas and Titoist Guerrillas

Soviet Guerrillas Fighting Fascists

The Guerrillas of the Korean Peninsula

Maoist Contributions to Guerrilla Warfare in China

Mao Zedong

Photo of Mao Zedong wearing a cap; published in Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.
Photo of Mao Zedong wearing a cap; published in "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung." Released under Public Domain license.

Chinese Communist Party

Wang Fanxi (Wang Fan-hsi)

Lin Biao

Pao-An

Peng Shuzi

Revolution in the Caribbean: The Cuban, Guerrilla Experience

Popularized cropped version of Guerrillero Heroico - Che Guevara at the funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion.
Popularized cropped version of Guerrillero Heroico - Che Guevara at the funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion. Photo by Alberto Korda. Released under Public Domain license.

The nationalist guerrillas of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara would eventually adopt Marxism after organizing their guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra mountains in Cuba.

By Che Guevara

About Che Guevara

Others

Socialist Guerrilla Revolutionaries in the Middle East

Abd al-Kadir al-Husayni (1907-1948) is the prominent military leader of Palestinian fighters during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Abd al-Kadir al-Husayni (1907-1948) is the prominent military leader of Palestinian fighters during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Unknown photographer. Released under Public Domain license.

Palestine

Iran

Find more about guerrilla movements in Iran at the Guerrilla Movements in Iran.

Anti-Stalinist and Anti-Maoist Guerrillas Fight

Anti-Soviet and Anti-Mao Guerrillas

Soviet instructors with SWAPO insurgents in Angola.
Soviet instructors with SWAPO insurgents in Angola. Unknown photographer. Released under Public Domain license.

African Socialist Guerrillas Shake Things Up

Angola and Namibia

Eritrea

Kenya (Mau Mau)

Leaders of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon.
Leaders of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon. Photo uploaded by Samhorry. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Cameroon

From Wikipedia: The Cameroon War (also known as the Hidden War, or the Cameroonian War of Independence) is the name of the independence struggle between Cameroon's nationalist movement and France. The movement was spearheaded by the Cameroonian Peoples Union (UPC). Even after independence, the rebellion continued, shaping contemporary politics. The war began with riots in 1955 and continued after Cameroon gained independence in 1960. Following independence, the first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo requested continued French military intervention to fight the UPC rebels. The UPC rebellion was largely crushed by the Cameroonian Armed Forces and French Army by 1964.

Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Western Sahara

Mozambique

PAIGC, Guerrilla at School, Guinea-Bissau.
PAIGC, Guerrilla at School, Guinea-Bissau. Photo by Roel Coutinho (1946–). Released under CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Guinea & Cape Verde

Zimbabwe

South Africa

Guerrillas raise the Banner of Socialist Revolution in Asia and Latin America

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents. Photo by Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS.). Public Domain.

India (Naxalites)

Bengal

Philippines

Female Vietcong Guerrilla.
Female Vietcong Guerrilla. Photo by Bộ Quốc phòng. Released under Public Domain license.

Vietnam

For many readers here, the Vietnam War may be the first situation in which they heard about guerrilla warfare, as it was a war which popularized this tactic. But here, like many other places, we have a complicated situation. The French conquered Vietnam, at the behest of a religious missionary, in the middle of the 1800's. Resistance was almost immediate. When the United States "took over" for the French Foreign Legion, they did so for the exact same reason as the French: to maintain their empire. Every year of the Vietnamese War, the Communists and Ho Chi Minh offered to end the war immediately -- as long as there were democratic elections, which the US kept refusing. But the Vietnamese Communists weren't saints, either: there were some token suppression and executions of Trotskyists to appease Moscow and there were executions of the leaders of hostile, religious orders to consolidate power.

Cambodia

Cambodia is an interesting yet tragic situation. One cannot tell the story of Cambodia without telling the story of Vietnam. Geographically, Vietnam has traditionally been called a bamboo pole holding two bags of rice on each end -- it is two massive, grain-growing regions connected by a very thin valley that allowed culture (and armies) to ebb and flow between the two for thousands of years. Along this whole western frontier of Vietnam, one has Cambodia. During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese socialists used Cambodia as a corridor for logistics and supplies to South Vietnamese guerrillas; this gave importance to the Cambodian Communist Party. Eventually, Pol Pot, a leading Cambodian Communist aided and helped by the CIA, seized power and control over the party, purging it of any and all moderating, Vietnamese influence. A famous film about Pol Pot's rule is called The Killing Fields, a depiction of Pol Pot's Communists (the Khmer Rouge) and their mass genocide of one third of the country. The Vietnamese Army invaded Cambodia, against all international opinion (Soviet and US), and abolished the rule and policy of the Khmer Rouge. To the surprise of international observers, Vietnamese Communists restored the previous popular policies of Cambodia, including those oriented in favor of the market and (so-called "Capitalist") private property. The Vietnamese Communist Party intervening against the Cambodian Communist Party was one of the most important human rights interventions of the century, and one that has been derided and abused by both the Left and the Right.

Malaysia

Nicaragua

Guatemala

El Salvador

Urban Guerrillas Attack the Capitalist System

Pipe bombs used by Núcleos Antagónicos de la Nueva Guerrilla Urbana.
Pipe bombs used by Núcleos Antagónicos de la Nueva Guerrilla Urbana. Photo by Tetsou TheIronman. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0 License.

Urban guerrillas are a modern variant of the guerrilla tactic, beginning in the 1960's and 1970's in Latin American countries, but also including some European groups, such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a group that collaborated in kidnappings with Palestinian revolutionary groups. These guerrillas, by operating in urban areas, tend to have a higher rate of civilian casualties, which often costs them public support and can lead to their downfall. In a sense, the urban guerrilla is the guerrilla closest to pure, domestic terrorism, but the difference is that the urban guerrillas are organized into deeply-knit, well-entrenched cells that irregularly work together. A terrorist differs from the guerrilla in this way: the guerrilla wants to maximize public support, the terrorist wants to maximize the number of deaths in the struggle. The difference is very clear.

Argentina

Brazil

Bolivia

Venezuela

Electoral propaganda of the Venezuelan political party Tupamaro.
Electoral propaganda of the Venezuelan political party Tupamaro. Uploaded by Tomatejc. Released under CC BY-SA 2.5 license.

Uruguay

From Wikipedia: Revolutionary Movement Tupamaro (Spanish: Movimiento Revolucionario Tupamaro, MRT), often shortened to Tupamaro, is a far-left Marxist-Leninist communist party and one of the most prominent colectivos in Venezuela. Several Tupamaros participate in peaceful movements while some believe in the "idea of armed struggle as a means to gain power." The group supports the National Liberation Army (ELN) and allegedly had ties with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Colombia

From Wikipedia: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964.

Logo of the 1970's German underground terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) - a red star (similar to that of the Red Army of the Soviet Union) and a submachine gun Heckler & Koch MP5.
Logo of the 1970's German underground terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) - a red star (similar to that of the Red Army of the Soviet Union) and a submachine gun Heckler & Koch MP5. (Source: Wikipedia.) Created by Ratatosk, released under Public Domain.

Germany

From Wikipedia: The Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term "faction" when they wrote in English.

Mexico

Québec, North America

The Front de Libération du Québec is a socialist, nationalist guerrilla movement active in the liberation of Québec. From Wikipedia: The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) was a militant Quebec separatist group which aimed to establish an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means. It was considered a terrorist group by the Canadian government. Founded sometime in the early 1960s, the FLQ conducted a number of attacks between 1963 and 1970.

Algeria

From Wikipedia: The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) was a major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.

Turkey

From Wikipedia: Mahir Çayan (15 March 1946 – 30 March 1972) was a Turkish communist revolutionary and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi). He was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary leader. On 30 March 1972, he was killed in an ambush by Turkish Military Forces with nine of the other members of THKP-C and THKO in Kızıldere village.

USA

Counter-Revolutionary and Conservative Guerrillas: The Bad Apples

Vendée guerrillas rise up against the French Revolution in defense of the Catholic Church.
Vendée guerrillas rise up against the French Revolution in defense of the Catholic Church. Painting by Evariste Carpentier, released under Public Domain. (Please note how well-dressed these "capitalist guerrillas" are.)

There is generally one kind of good guerrilla: a devoted partisan fighting for social justice and their people. But there is every type of evil guerrilla: extremist religious guerrillas (the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Catholic Vendee in France and Spain, Protestant confederate soldiers in the US South), or state-sponsored guerrillas (anti-Sandinista Guerrillas in Guatemala, anti-Castro guerrillas in Cuban mountains, virtually any type of guerrilla labeled "anti-Communist guerrilla").

One must remember that guerrilla war is a war of privation. It is a war of living off of berries, sleeping under tents, and only getting a shower when you're near a river or when it rains. Professional soldiers simply can't hold up under these conditions -- although governments have obviously coveted this type of military unit and created their own version, "the commando" (or Green Beret). For the overwhelming majority of counterrevolutionary fighters, religion is their ideology; one must have extreme conviction to live as a guerrilla and be willing to spend a lifetime as a guerrilla. Social Revolution obviously fits that mold, but so does extremist, conservative religion.

Iraq

Against a nearly unananimous, global opposition to the war, George W. Bush invaded Iraq. This created the precedent of a massive empire destroying a small, tiny nation with a campaign of lies to justify the war. Without the Iraq War, the Ukraine War would have been impossible. Vladimir Putin's steps are foot-by-foot in line with those of American Imperialism. Today Iraq is a breeding ground for religious fanaticism, such as ISIS; the fake threat of "weapons of mass destruction" has been replaced with the very real danger of extremist Islamism.

a photo of two men armed with Soviet-made, medium machine guns.
A Marine holds a photo of two men armed with Soviet-made, medium machine guns, found inside of an abandonded compound in the city of Marjah, Afghanistan, Feb. 14, 2010. Photo by Lance Cpl. James Clark, released under Public Domain.

Afghanistan

The case of Afghanistan is difficult. In the 1980's, the United States presidency of Ronald Reagan spent more than $660,000,000 to extremist, Islamic terrorists, including, most famously, Osama bin Laden. This was all to help fight the USSR and Soviet expansionism. The USSR was supporting an urban-based, Communist regime. The problems with this government were numerous: in line with Russian-Marxist thinking, the countryside was ignored and the focus was on the capital and major cities; in addition, the regime was insensitive to local feelings of the masses, to the point of committing some human rights abuses. That being said, Conservative Afghans were polygamous in the tradition of Islam, treating women (whatever age) as their property (for any use, and to be accumulated in any amount), and the homelife of the majority was under extremely brutal, patriarchical rule. Ironically, Pashtuns (indigenous Afghans) have a council-system in their villages that establish a basic, democratic-socialist organization (the jurga, جرګه) of the type typified of Rousseau's "noble savage." Instead of appealing to this indigenous communitarianism, the USSR focused on its modern, Atheistic Communism, completely alienating the locals and driving them into the arms of extremist, radical sheikhs. And these sheikhs had decades of education experience in their madrassas, which gave them credibility in the eyes of their followers.

The Future is Anarchist? — Ultra-Leftist Guerrillas in the Modern Era and Their Libertarian Leanings

The era of Marxist guerrilla has reached a twilight; and extremist, religious terrorists have been wholly discredited globally, both by their enemies and by their own people. Guerrilla warfare almost saw its own demise. But this ancient tactic was resurrected and brought into meaning once again, with the resurgence of Anarchist guerrilla activity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Many of these Anarchist revolutionaries, though, are often influenced by Marxism.

Subcomandante Marcos
Subcomandante Marcos, EZLN. Photo by tj scenes / cesar bojorquez (flickr), released under CC BY 2.0 License.

Chiapas

The Zapatistas (officially: The EZLN, Zapatista Army of National Liberation) are the first, well-known group of Anarchist guerrillas in the modern era. This Left-Libertarian group has its base in the Chiapas, Mexico. Their "leader" is known as a "subcomander," with "sub" implying his subordination to the local areas with Anarchist administration. These areas are under control by their own indigenous peoples, the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, Ch’ol, and many, many others. These guerrillas champion many causes: they fight for workers, environmentalism, LGBT, the indigenous, sex workers, and transgendered peoples. Numerous Zapatista publications and speeches discuss befriending "the other", the ones considered untouchable by society. These guerrillas have controlled their own territory since their uprising in 1994, although they always mention that their struggle is actually 500 years old.

Rojava

Rojava (officially: AANES, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) is a new, Anarchist-influenced administration operating in Northern Syria (the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij, and Deir Ez-Zor) since 2012. This is effectively the social and political organization of the ethnic Kurds in the region, whose homeland ("Kurdistan") spans Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, but have been left out of border drawings done by European powers. In the 1980's and earlier, the Kurdish leftist revolutionaries expressed their yearnings through the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), a Marxist organization, but with the coming of the 1990's, this organization and its various associate groups, have veered more and more in an Anarchist direction.

Regions of the AANES.
Regions of the AANES in northern Syria. Graphic by AntonSamuel, released under CC BY-SA 4.0 License.

Their philosophy is articulated by the Kurdish revolutionary Abdullah Öcalan, who has been inspired by the New York Anarchist, Murray Bookchin. Öcalan is famous for having been possibly the last person sentenced to death by Turkey (rescinded as a condition of Turkey joining the EU) and being the only person to be imprisoned alone on a fortress island in the Mediterranean. Generally, the Kurds avoid the phrase "anarchism" and tend to use more Bookchinian phrases, like "autonomous" or "municipal." The three pillars of the Rojava Charter (its constitution) are radical democracy, feminism, and environmentalism. Many Kurds are Alevis, a form of Islam strongly influenced by local Kurdish traditions focused on worshipping and protecting nature, rivers, and mountains. (Many practitioners of Islam outside certain extremist, Middle East regions are actually like this, in terms of moderating Islamic strictness with local fairytales.) There is a particular combination of political, social, economic, and even religious factors that partake in making the modern, Kurdish guerrilla fighters.

Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN).
Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN). Photo by Julian Stallabrass. Released under CC BY 2.0 license.

Chiapas and Rojava: Similarities

There are a number of similarities between the Anarchist-inclined revolutionaries of indigenous Mexico and northern Syria:

Comments to Andy Carloff | Subject Archive | M.I.A. Home Page