Policleto Ramires describes how armed and organised resistance against a colonising power can spark rebellion right across the world, and spur the resistance on to victory.
The Vietnam War was not simply a victory of arms. It was a victory of support. Many of the weapons used by the winning side were precarious. “Every kind of stick or stone must be turned into weapons or traps!” Against the American arsenal, sticks and stones would never bring victory in a war. The Americans had bomber planes! So what else explains the Vietnamese victory? Simple: protests all over the world. The war became unsustainable.
It was the outbreak of an armed and organised resistance that made it possible for the war to cross borders — in the form of protests all over the world — and all this together (the guerrilla warfare, the inclement territory of tropical jungle with insects and scorching heat, the costs of war, soldiers returning in coffins, and protests all over the world) caused the desperate helicopters to leave Saigon in a hurried and haphazard manner. That event symbolised the definitive victory and freedom of the People of Vietnam. Within the United States itself protestors mobilised the greates of forces to oppose the United States government: the American People.
A rebellion, once it breaks out, awakens rebellions in many other places where people desire to scream against what oppresses them. Even in a richer country, people suffer in their daily lives even though they have enough to eat and sleep, because life is not just about bread. “Man does not live by bread alone.” We have spiritual, existential needs and we are moved by what we see happening in the world. Hence a rebellion in a poorer country can spark a huge rebellion in a rich country. The gunpowder from the guerrilla’s rifle, metaphorically, sets off the first spark that explodes crowds around the world.
This is what is happening today with Palestine. Protests bring people together who — in one way or another — think alike. Paradoxically, conflict is the best circumstance for us to discover who we can count on or not, and who is on our side or not who we didn’t know before. Human beings recognise themselves in those with whom they are most similar in expression of feeling. This mutual identification goes beyond languages.
The mass demonstrations are declarations from a metaphorical planet: “We do not belong to this planet! We are from a much better place! A planet that does not yet exist! But we want to build it, transforming this one!” The most sublime manifestation of socialism is when people in confraternity fight together through suffering. “The pain you feel, I feel it too, even if I don’t even know your name.” When the parameters are actions, and not theoretical concepts or intellectual discourse, we have better results in our attempts and protests.
They say that politics is “just like football: it can’t be discussed”. In fact it is what should be discussed most. Politics is a key that opens doors, a map through which someone can find previously undiscovered paths on their journey: their best friendships, their chance at love, the realisation of their dreams, a reason that gives them meaning in life. All of these things can come from the political universe that you decide to navigate through your actions.
Every rebel can launch the first spark for events. Reading books is indispensable, and without reading we can’t do that much; but, despite reading, we should not become endless debaters of theories. We do not read to keep studying books and more books; books should make us, not readers, but apprentices of the barricades. By knowing more, we can contribute more.
It may seem paradoxical. How can it be that the elixir for healing the soul is the open conflict of the crowds against repression? Because it is the path to Freedom! It’s like Plato’s fable of the cave. The cave-dweller breaks the chains and finally leaves the cave and finds the light. If he knows the Light, he becomes more revolted by the Darkness under which he lived before and knows his colleagues still live. He returns to reveal his discovery, and then is harshly repressed. This final repression in the Cave is what — fortunately — is possible to overcome, and find a different ending. That’s our secret. We can overcome the challenges of our peers, and their disbelief.
But how is it possible to win a war even if you are the weaker one? This is the secret of victory: we need to have weapons, but not just armed resistance (however important). The main thing is popular support. So, if in Palestine aerial bombings take the lives of thousands of people, but, far away from there, crowds and crowds take to the streets in London or Edinburgh, paradoxically, this shows that the Palestinians are winning. It may be hard to believe, but they are!Life is short, and the red petals of even the most beautiful rose will fall to the ground, Every time in life when we stop fighting, the revolutionary withers inside in the face of cowardice. There is only one certainty in life: it is death. This is a sine qua non: whether we fight or not fight, we will die. But the fight for socialism is above the fear of dying. The revolution, for the press, is a manifestation of riot. For the indignant, it is a manifestation of revolt. For the artists, it is the manifestation of beauty. Against an unjust society, which depresses us and imprisons us internally within ourselves, a cry of rebellion against that same society is more than an act of survival: it is the most beautiful act of life. We will win!
Policleto Ramires is a graduate of the Federal University of Pernambuco, and likes poetry and football.