For the purpose of this article, we will present some examples of young combatants, dissecting their spirit and cause. From this platform, we will explain why the Revolutionary Student Union (RSU) emphasizes the positivity and optimism of our movement, drawing from the experiences of these young combatants. Lastly, we shall explain how the spirit of the young combatant and its positivity must lead to action and opposition against nihilistic trends among the youth, which are antithetical to the spirit of the young combatant.
The Day of the Young Combatant is a holiday commemorating the lives of the Toledo Brothers: Rafael and Eduardo Vergara, two Chilean students who dared to oppose the fascist regime of Pinochet. They were murdered by the regime’s police on March 29th, 1985. The Toledo brothers, aged 18 and 20, were from a working class neighborhood located within Chile’s capital and largest city: Santiago. Their family was consistently harassed by the fascist police during the leadup to the brother’s assassination.
Toledo Brothers
Every year in Chile on March 29th, the workers and youth of the country take to the streets in confrontational protests to honor the Toledo brother’s martyrdom. The Chilean state dropped the mask of fascism in the 1990s but their fascist repression tactics continue and the criminals who tortured, raped and murdered scores of Chilean people during the Pinochet regime (1973-1990) remain unpunished. Chilean enemies of the people decry the day of the Young Combatant as the day of the “Young Delinquent” but we echo Martin Luther King Jr’s words that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” The masses know that it is right to rebel against the old capitalist government.
Reactionary violence (violence against the exploited masses conducted by the old capitalist state) and repression to various degrees are inherent to capitalism and its servants. When looking at the spirit of the young combatant here in our own country, we can look no further than the shining example of Bobby Hutton. Bobby Hutton was one of the original members of the Black Panther Party. He was immortalized at the age of 17 while surrendering to police in a confrontation. We will draw from his legacy to understand what the spirit of the young combatant truly is, and the lessons we can learn from it.
According to Huey Newton, the founder of the Black Panther Party:
“Bobby was a serious revolutionary, but there was nothing grim about him. He had an infectious smile and a disarming quality that made people love him. He died courageously, the first Black Panther to make the supreme sacrifice for the people. We all attempt to carry on the work he began.”1
What can we learn from this? Firstly, we must be serious about the work that we do. Carelessness, apathy, and passiveness have no place in our movement and all form a body of attitudes that must be combatted. Secondly, that our cause is an optimistic one, and to smile! We serve the people because we love the people, and Bobby’s attitude “made people love him”. Lastly, we must heed Huey’s call to carry on the work he began. We must adopt the spirit of the young combatant in our work and be fearless in the face of reaction!
Let us also take the example of Aaron Bushnell, who recently engaged in an extreme act of protest, who expressed the concern of many with our own government’s complicity in the genocidal offensive against the Palestinian people. To not fear death in the hopes of inspiring change is the attitude Aaron embodied, and represents the lessons of the spirit of the young combatant.
Why must we focus on the smile of Bobby, or more generally emphasizing the positive aspect of a contradiction? Why must we try to understand why Aaron Bushnell, while his life slipped away from him, engulfed in flames, still bravely decided to shout “FREE PALESTINE”?
Poetically, the foot soldiers of capital, the police, merely watched dumbfounded, confused how a person can be imbued a burning positive attitude despite his apparent suffering. It is incomprehensible to them that the revolutionaries of today will endanger themselves for the cause, to go against individual needs, to sacrifice for others, to serve the people. We say this to emphasize the selfless nature of the spirit of the young combatant.
The great Afghan revolutionary Akram Yari expresses this concept when he wrote:
“It crucial for a better existence and for a better life, to give sacrifice, because, it is only in this from work, in the frame work of sacrificing for the sake of class, being fully pledged in favor of the class, and neglecting one’s own interest, and being in favor of the class that leads to a better life. It is then possible for an individual to wage a struggle for guaranteeing his/her real eternity.”2
Grasping this is instrumental for all aspiring young revolutionaries. Let us not allow these young heroes lives and sacrifices be in vain.
When analyzing the lives of these heroes, we come to the conclusion of necessity of optimism. Let us explain our theoretical reasoning for such.
When analyzing two sides of a problem, it’s always correct for us to emphasize the positive. Let us take life and death. Death only has meaning because of life, thus, life is the main aspect among them. It is for this reason we honor the lives of the revolutionaries who struggled. They conquered death and achieved immortality despite death. Bobby Hutton is immortal because he struggled, all of the martyrs and young combatants are. They fought for life, and live in us, the young revolutionaries of today!
Our cause is an overwhelmingly optimistic one. Marx famously declared that “we have a world to win”.3 Such an attitude is totally antithetical to pessimism and depression regarding the movement. Wallowing over supposed defeat and futility is pathetic when we have a cause to serve, masses clamoring against reaction, and students to be organized.
The young combatants that have laid down their lives in the name of the struggle must be honored by revolutionary youth. They have transcended the individual and we elevate them to something much more eternal, servants of progress and revolutionary change! By subordinating one’s will and personal interests to progress and the masses, immortality is achieved.
Day of the Young Combatant celebrations in NYC, 2024
To understand this concept of immortality, and life despite death, we will draw from the great German revolutionary Karl Liebknecht’s eulogy of Marx in 1883 at length:
“It is a heavy blow that has fallen on us. But we do not mourn. The deceased is not dead. He lives in the heart, he lives in the head of the proletariat. His memory will not perish, his doctrine will be effective in ever broader circles.
Instead of mourning, let us act in the spirit of the great man who has died and strive with all our strength so that the doctrine which he taught and for which he fought will be put into practice as soon as possible. That is the best way to honor his memory!
Deceased, living friend, we shall follow to the final aim you showed us. We swear it on your grave!”4
There are many lessons to be drawn from this. Firstly, that the death of a comrade, or a young combatant shouldn’t be cause for mourning, but rather an impetus for action. There is a reason they chose fearlessness, because they knew others will continue the work to which they were committed. When we think of the fate of the young combatants, we must adopt the same attitude, of striving to “put into practice as soon as possible” the doctrine and cause they fought for. Secondly, we must note how despite Marx is materially deceased, he is described as Living. We cannot reiterate the importance of this enough. Bobby Hutton is living, Aaron Bushnell is living, because their cause is alive in us, the hearts and minds of all revolutionaries today.
Let us remember though, words and theory only become a material force when “gripped by the masses”.5 Thus, sitting around and merely ruminating over these lives and sacrifices is not an option! It is for this reason that Engels described Marx “as before all else a revolutionist”. What can we, the young revolutionaries of today, learn from this? This knowledge must translate into desire and action, serving the people in the spirit of the young combatant.
However, among the youth, depression is rampant, and attitudes of nihilism and apathy are all too common. What are some ways we can combat this? By engaging the youth in the struggle, and taking part in practical work, we can begin to understand that we are merely a parcel of a larger movement to change the world. A lack of understanding of the world, the root of which is apathy and absence of practice, can easily lead to pessimism and overemphasizing the negative aspects of a problem. The effects of our struggle, however, should be nothing but a positive one. Life to us goes beyond mere individual preservation. Sacrificing individual preservation for the sake of the larger cause is a necessary initiative for the development of human society as a whole. Standing in direct opposition to this truth is apathy, individualism and pessimism. Fight these trends, show others the overwhelmingly beautiful aspect of our fight. Young revolutionaries, be fearless in the face of reaction because we know our cause is a beautiful one, one destined to win. This is the essence of the Spirit of the Young Combatant.
To serve the people is a beautiful thing, and that is why Bobby smiled.
1. Revolutionary Suicide – Huey P. Newton
3. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch04.htm
4. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1883/death/dersoz1.htm
5. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/df-jahrbucher/law-abs.htm
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