the need for popular support - as advocated by che guevara

[kylie]

che claimed that successful revolution had to have popular support among the people of the country in question, and that this was one of the most important things for successful revolution. since then it seems to have been adopted by most as fact.
but the 1917 revolution didnt have this majority support, in fact most didnt even understand what they were. yet despite this, the revolution was successful, and continued to be successful(in that they stayed in power and made progress towards socialism) for the 7 years they were in power. yet throughout their time in power again the majority never supported them.
what they did have was popular opposition to the current regime. a successful revolution now could use this too, instead of having all these various little parties, pushing themselves, focusing on opposition to the current capitalist system. though well, with the majority of them having alternate agendas, this is unlikely.

[Pete]

I have a quote to support you. Damn I am too lazy to search for you. It is from his "Notes on the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution" and sounds like: Only a fool doesn't gain the support of the people.

[TXsocialist]

I think popular support is important, but not pivotal to the success of a revolution.

I would think very few revolutions that required military conflict were supported by the majority, as it is said the American revolution only had about a 5th of the population backing it.

Same with Lenin's revolution - the majority were not Communist-leaning.

Does this mean that they are not "mass movements" or movements for the mass?

No.

This simply means that threre's a lot more work to be done in the way of bourgeois suppression(bourgeois parties etc...)...