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The Different Revolutionary Tactics

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Revolutionary Tactics Focoism is a revolutionary strategy that was originally popularized by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentinian physician-turned-revolutionary who was instrumental in the success of the Cuban Revolution in the late 1950's. The strategy contends that revolutionaries need not spend great amounts of time trying to build a following or urging people to join their cause, and that a small, relatively unplanned band of dedicated revolutionaries can readily incite people to support its cause. If such a band attacks and makes its name known simply by taking action, focosim posits that such action will inevitably galvanize the masses of people to similarly follow suit. As such, there is little emphasis in this theory placed on preparing conditions for a revolution; focosim contends that no matter how unplanned or how disparate the seemingly random attacks of a revolutionary band is, the mere presence of such attacks will eventually be reflected in the masses of the people and soon enough incite them to revolt as well. The actions of the small band of roving revolutionaries, the so called revolutionary elite, are believed to serve as the focal point for the impending involvement of the other citizens. Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse-tung had a number of theories about how to successfully wage organized revolt or what is termed "revolutionary war" (Shy and Collier 1986, 815), certain facets of which were decidedly at variance with elements of focoism. One of the

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