Fidel Castro and Mengistu Hailemariam

Today marks the 90th birthday of Fidel Castro, undisputed leader of the Cuban revolution that triumphed in 1959. An analysis of the Cuban revolution is certainly outside the scope of this blog, but Cuba played a central role in the consolidation of Mengistu's power in 1977 and 1978, so I felt it would not be out of place to note this historical milestone here. 

To be completely honest I am deeply conflicted about Fidel. I celebrate the achievements of Castro's Cuba, a bastion of world revolution separated by only a few short miles of water from the most deadly imperialist power the world has known. Certainly Cuba under Castro's leadership made some great achievements, along with a few mistakes. Castro's “Declarations of Havana” speeches from the early 1960s are absolutely canonical examples of brilliant anti-imperialist oratory. But it must be said that Castro's version of Marxism-Leninism is a deeply revisionist one, and Cuba's revolutionary praxis has always been tarred by these distortions and especially by its relationship with the Soviet Union. Is Castroism actually a path to socialism? One suspects the diplomatic rapprochement with the United States and the coming inevitable passing of power to a younger generation of Cubans will determine quite a lot on that score.

To be sure, Soviet aid was probably a key factor in the survival of the Cuban revolution; though it came at quite a cost. Cuba became an instrument of Soviet foreign policy. In the instance of Angola, Cuban forces helped defeat the armies of apartheid in the field. But in Ethiopia, Cuba's stated goal was the defense of a revolution against the foreign, imperialist-backed threat of Somali invasion while the result was not only the defeat of Somalia but the betrayal of the Eritrean independence struggle and the consolidation of a ruthlessly repressive regime. Castro's rallying to the defense of Mengistu came at the exact moment when Mengistu's “Red Terror” against his domestic left-wing opponents was at full-swing. The bullet-riddled bodies of young leftists were being left in the streets, and the prisons were full of torture and blood. Among those leftists were those who had been deeply inspired by the Cuban revolution and especially its leading member, the heroic guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara. To me, Castro's involvement with Mengistu is the bitter stain, frankly, of betrayal.

Here are some excerpts from a fascinating document. The Wilson Center maintains a website of declassified diplomatic documents from the Soviet bloc. Among them is an extensive collection of documents relating to the Ethiopia-Somalia conflict. In part these documents reveal furious efforts behind the scenes to forestall the war between two nominally socialist nations. In the Spring of 1977 Castro himself engaged in shuttle diplomacy, visiting both Mengistu and Somali leader Mohammed Siad Barre. These excerpts are from a transcript of a conversation between Castro and East German  leader Erich Honecker that took place in Berlin in April of 1977 reporting on his visit to East Africa. I thought Castro's appreciation of the events of February where Mengistu eliminated PMAC leader Teferi Benti was absolutely fascinating and revealing. Also, I did not expect to hear Castro explicitly renounce the longstanding Cuban support of the Eritrean struggle, but he pretty much does just that. These words are Fidel Castro's:

“The next day I flew on to Ethiopia. We had earlier agreed that there would be no great reception for me, since at the time they were still fighting the civil war. Shots constantly rang out. Mengistu took me to the old Imperial Palace and the negotiations began on the spot. I found the information that I already had to be confirmed. We continued our negotiations on the following day. Naturally we had to take extensive security precautions. The Ethiopians had come up with a division, and I had brought a company of Cuban soldiers with me. The day of my arrival there were rumors of a coup. It did not happen....

Mengistu strikes me as a quiet, serious, and sincere leader who is aware of the power of the masses. He is an intellectual personality who showed his wisdom on 3 February. The rightists wanted to do away with the leftists on 3 February. The prelude to this was an exuberant speech by the Ethiopian president in favor of nationalism. Mengistu preempted this coup. He called the meeting of the Revolutionary Council one hour early and had the rightist leaders arrested and shot. A very consequential decision was taken on 3 February in Ethiopia. The political landscape of the country changed, which has enabled them to take steps that were impossible before then. Before it was only possible to support the leftist forces indirectly, now we can do so without any constraints....
 
Above all we must do something for Mengistu. Already we are collecting old weapons in Cuba for Ethiopia, principally French, Belgian and Czech hand-held weapons. About 45,000 men must be supplied with weapons. We are going to send military advisers to train the Ethiopian militia in weapons-use. There are many people in Ethiopia who are qualified for the army. We are supporting the training of the militia. Meanwhile the situation in Eritrea is difficult. There are also progressive people in the liberation movement, but, objectively,they are playing a reactionary role. The Eritrean separatist movement is being supported by the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Ethiopia has good soldiers and a good military tradition, but they need time to organize their army. Mengistu asked us for 100 trainers for the militia, now he is also asking us for military advisers to build up regular units. Our military advisory group is active at the staff level. The Ethiopians have economic means and the personnel necessary to build up their army. Rumors have been spread lately that the reactionaries will conquer Asmara in two months. The revolution in Ethiopia is of great significance.”

A Pivotal Moment: The Executions of 1976

The PMAC in the mid-1970s: at center are Mengistu, Teferi, Atnafu.

Continuing a series of reprints from the EPRP’s press of the 1970s, I'm happy to present two related unsigned articles from an issue of Abyot, originally published in August of 1976. These articles deal with the increasing repression by Ethiopia's military regime, foreshadowing the most violent period when the EPRP’s armed urban wing began a series of targeted counter-assassinations only to be met by the massive organized extermination campaign that came to be called the “Red Terror.” 

I have retyped this from the published manuscript, and with a couple minor exceptions, not attempted to add any of my own editing or corrections; some of the writing in these articles is a little awkward.

Following the original text, reproduced here in full, I will add some reference notes on unfamiliar terms and names, and offer a few thoughts of my own analysis, and some correlating details. —ish
 
From Abyot, Vol. 1 No. 6, August 1976:

THE TOTTERING REGIME OF THE DERG

THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLES REVOLUTIONARY PARTY has consistently affirmed that the regime of the Derg is terribly isolated, fascistic and inherently anti-democratic. For all those who had the common sense and the conviction to see through the regime's demogogy and the apologist press, it was/is clear that the Derg is wobbling on its feet and is clinging to power only due to the backing of US imperialism and the use of brute force against the popular masses. Events since May Day have proven the EPRP's affirmation and pointed out that the popular demand for the establishment of a popular provisional government is the only solution to get the country out of chaos by giving power to the masses.

The Derg's problem, which started the day it took over power and even first when it constituted itself and moved objectively to perpetuate the exploitative system, are insoluble and immense. Its demagogy, its radical rhetorics, its blind repression have not succeeded to arrest the mass struggle. In the cities and the rural areas, the class struggle rages on. It has put out fascistic laws curtailing all democratic liberties, it has outlawed strikes (punishable by death “in serious cases”), made contact with the EPRP a fatal “crime,” arrested and executed countless militants. But the defiant struggle of the proletariat and poor peasantry, as well as that of the democratic petty-bourgeoisie, continued unabated. The EPRP is getting stronger more and more. The forms of combat of the masses are diversifying and deepening. The contradictions within the Derg itself are exploding violently and manifesting themselves in bloody purges. The democratic movement of soldiers is gaining strength.

The Derg has led Ethiopia into a political and economic chaos that has never been seen before. It had crowned terror as its demagogy, which was supposed to have been improved by the Haile Fida group of pro-fascist intellectuals, fails miserably to confuse the masses. Within the present context of developing, rich, complex and difficult revolutionary process in which the EPRP is assuming the vanguard role, the neo-colonial regime of the Derg is doomed.

THE REASONS FOR THE EXECUTIONS OF “19” PERSONS

On July 13, the military regime announced that it has executed “19” persons. Among the executed figured Major Sisaye Derg member and chief of the Political and Foreign Affairs commission, General Getachew Nadew, military governor of Eritrea, seven individuals accused of “economic sabotage”, seven others accused of “leading the country into a bloodbath” (actually a junta monopoly!), two of taking “bribes” and one for “selling state secrets.”

To begin with all evidence points out that the number of executed goes up to 75–81 of whom many were arrested workers, students, etc. Secondly one is obliged to go deep into the reasons for these executions as the junta is a known liar and as it has a habit of mixing leftists and rightists and executing them together under the label of “counter revolutionaries.”

Meison leader Haile Fida, left;
with Negede Gobeze,
in Europe in the early 1970s.

The execution of Sisaye manifests the instability that grips the Derg at such a high level of its power-holders. Though Sisaye, a well-known rightist, was rumored many times to be in the process of preparing a coup d'etat, it seems unlikely that he actually attempted one as the Derg wants to make us believe. Sisay's fate was sealed when he came out in open (in a latest Derg meeting) and uncompromising opposition to the alliance between Major Mengistu (chief of the Derg) and the Haile Fida led intellectuals grouped around the “All-Ethiopian Socialist Movement”, a reformist outfit. Thanks to the backing of Major Mengistu, the Haile Fida clique not only started a purge within the military and the bureaucracy but was filling these vacant posts with its own loyal people. As ministers, political commissars, directors, executives of the powerful “Peoples' Organizing Office”, the Haile Fidas were becoming a threat to Sisay and his group. Their Peoples' Organizing Office was making his political commission powerless. They were sending his elements within the Derg to foreign countries on the flimsy pretext of “political education courses” (Sisaye's assistant, lieutenant Bewketu Kassa, refused to go to Moscow for such an education and is now in hiding). Major Kiros member of the Derg and reactionary head of the “zemetcha” (Campaign of students to teach in the rural areas), was also opposed to the Haile Fida group.

There is no doubt that Major Sisaye was a trusted man of the Americans. When Kissinger visited Kenya, Sisaye talked to him for three hours in the Nairobi Continental Hotel. No doubt they must have discussed the chronic instability of the Derg. America, which plays a double game of fully supporting the Derg and also trying to stabilise it via a coup from within it was no doubt symphatetic to the Major. All in all then, Sisaye's elimination is a victory for the Haile Fida group who have utilised the occasion to continue the purge of all the elements opposed to them. Within the Derg itself, the contradictions sharpen and become concretised between the colonel Atnafu and Major Mengistu groups.

In fact, it is reported that the seven civil servants executed under the charge of leading the country into a bloodbath are pro-Atnafu elements. All are Gojjame Amharas, and Atnafu (who is from Gojjam himself) have been known to use regionalist sentiments to find backing for himself. Reports of other pro-Atnafu elements are also coming in.

The death of General Getachew Nadew seems to have been precipitated by his support to the demand of soldiers in Eritrea who refused to fight and called on the Derg to find a peaceful solution. In fact, the general had brought such a message to Addis Abeba prior to his execution. Though politically a rightist, he was claiming to support the soldiers' demands. As to the other seven who were executed on charges of economic sabotage (for having kilos of red pepper) were added to the list of execution for colour. Some of them were mere guards of stores, one was an old man who rented a store to a merchant, one other was the son of a merchant who had escaped. These people, whom the Derg presented as rich traders were so rich that a collection of funds has been initiated at the Mosque in the market area for their bereaved and destitute families! The person executed for “selling state secrets” was an unemployed who had earlier been demoted (from Major) and expelled from the Army by the Haile Sellasie regime for no other reason than for having sold secrets if the state to a foreign country!

Considering the frequent executions that the Derg carries out from time to time (openly and in secrets), it may seem justified to think that it consults a witchdoctor who advices it to engage in such a practice to exorcise all problems! However, these executions are dramatic affirmations of the intense problems that the Derg faces. It is gripped with a developing mass struggle that in turn fuels and accentuates the internal contradictions of the Derg itself. Sisaye's execution may give space to Major Mengistu but is a poisoned atmosphere. The latitude of manoeuver is restricted by the masses who have entered the political scene with conviction and unity since February 1974 and are NOT at all disposed to assume secondary roles. The mounting repression against the masses show that the Derg's so-called programme has failed, it means that its alliance with the traitorous intellectuals led by Haile Fida has not brought it any solace. It means that we shall witness more executions in the near future as a result of the internal power struggle of the Derg.

Unlike the reformists, we do not have worries or nightmares speculating as to whether it will be the body of Major Mengistu or that of colonel Atnafu that will be riddled with bullets. We shall continue the struggle against the whole fascist batch and imperialism. If we have anything to add to this it is to caution the progressive world about the practice of the junta of killing known reactionaries together with revolutionaries and labelling the whole of them as “counter revolutionaries.” In november 1974 (when it executed feudalists along with more than six democratic soldiers and officers) when it executed Tadesse Birru and student leader Melese Tekle, recently in Agare when it killed militant Zematch student along with feudalists, the junta has shown its sly manoeuvre to cover up its anti-revolutionary actions and dupe the international progressive forces. Such forces, who should expose and attack the repressive junta, need to remain vigilant.

— End of original articles —

NOTES:

Sisaye or Sisay is Major Sisaye Habte, who was referred to in a previous post.

Haile Fida was the leader of the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement, or Meison, which we have discussed here at great length. Long active in the Ethiopian Student Movement in Europe, he returned to Ethiopia after the 1974 revolution, opened a left book shop, and began to act as a political adviser to left-leaning members of the Derg; he was a renowned Oromo linguist. Meison joined the Derg's POMOA, and became instrumental in guiding the repression of EPRP. When Meison fell out of official favor in 1977, Haile Fida went underground. He was captured and executed by the Derg in 1978.

Colonel Atnafu Abate was Vice Chairman of the ruling junta, the PMAC, with Mengistu Hailemariam. He has been briefly discussed in previous posts. At this juncture, 1976, the PMAC was led by non Derg-member General Teferi Bente. Teferi was to be killed in early 1977 when Mengistu seized control of the government. As predicted here, Atnafu and Mengistu eventually came to blows: Atnafu was killed by Mengistu later in 1977.

Tadesse Birru was an Oromo nationalist, a General in the Ethiopian Army under Haile Selassie. He was imprisoned by both the Emperor and the Derg for his activities, and executed in 1975.

SOME THOUGHTS FROM ISH:

One of the major revisionist narratives of post-revolutionary Ethiopian history is that the EPRP initiated the violence that ultimately consumed its urban strength and leadership, and therefore bears the brunt of responsibility for the massive bloodletting that was shortly to follow. It's been pretty clear to me from the course of my research that while EPRP may be accused of escalating the violence, or of unwisely pursuing an unwinnable urban guerrilla strategy, the EPRP was absolutely responding to the Derg's consistent use of brute force to inflict its will. These articles, published in advance of the EPRP's decisions to commence military action against the Derg and to violently retaliate against the pro-Derg civilian leftists like Haile Fida's Meison — who seemed, by the way, to have been more than instrumental in picking out targets for government repression — clearly document an already extant pattern of lethal force...by the Derg, not the EPRP.

The political assassinations had actually commenced in November of 1974 when the Derg executed dozens of officials from the previous governments and the ranks of the nobility, adding in a few of its own members for good measure. Setting aside the ongoing military conflicts in Eritrea and the various localized peasant and national minority uprisings that continued to background the first few years of the revolution, the military regime showed an understanding of the utility of violence. The EPRP members executed along with the others in July 1976 were not the first EPRP members to be killed by the Derg, and they certainly wouldn't be the last.

What these articles also document, is that the military government was itself riven with internal conflict, and violence was a way of resolving those internal contradictions with a certain finality. Ironically it was to be a war with external enemies, the Ogaden war of 1977–78, that would ultimately swing the balance of popular support in the Derg's favor, and suppress for at least a while internal dissent within the regime.

Ethiopian red peppers..the motive
force of revolution?

Here's a fascinating sidebar to the story that Abyot reports. (Well, fascinating to me anyway because I am the world's biggest fan of hot pepper!) In researching the events described in these articles, I came across an article from the New York Times which reported on the execution of General Getachew and went on to describe the role of red pepper, alluded to by Abyot, in the Derg's summer 1976 repression. The article was written by Michael T. Kaufman, and entitled “Ethiopian Regime Puts 18 to Death, Charges Plotting.” It was published on July 14, 1976. Here's an excerpt:

“The refugees, mostly university students who fled what they described as harassment and repression by the military, rulers, say that the execution of some persons charged with the hoarding of red pepper underscores the council's inability to arrange effective food distribution to the urban centers despite one of the most bountiful crops in Ethiopian history.

Peasants in such fiercely independent regions as Gojam are reportedly refusing to harvest fields except for their own needs as a way of protest against what they view as Government interference with traditional cultural and religious practices.

The refugees say that in the last three months an underground group, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party has managed through unions and commercial organizations to get control over the sale and distribution of red pepper, a key ingredient in the preparation of the Ethiopian national dish, watandnjeri, a spicy, curry‐like stew.

The refugees say that the clandestine party had organized the distribution of pepper to villages but had withheld it from the army. They believe that the announced executions of the hoarders was a council attempt to quash the protest.”

The Abyot articles mention the Derg's relationship with the United States. I also checked in with Wikileaks for how these events were seen from the viewpoint of the US Embassy. An Embassy cable from July 23, 1976 reads in part:

“CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING EXECUTIONS ARE STILL UNCLEAR (AND MAY WELL REMAIN SO) INCLUDING REASONS WHY DIRG CHOSE EXECUTION ROUTE RATHER THAN LESS DRASTIC MEASURES. MOVE OCCURRED AGAINST BACKDROP OF FRUSTRATION OVER INTERNAL POLICY FAILURES INCLUDING DISASTROUS OUTCOME OF "OPERATION RAZA" (PEASANT MARCH), PROBLEMS WITHIN AIR FORCE AND AIRBORNE, REPORTED DEMANDS BY SECOND AND THIRD DIVISIONS FOR A RETURN TO CIVILIAN RULE AND PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF ERITREA PROBLEM, LACK OF PROGRESS ON ERITREAN NEGOTIATIONS, SEVERE INFLATION AND SHORTAGE OF SOME IMPORTANT FOOD COMMODITIES IN URBAN MARKETS, AND INCREASED DOMESTIC OPPOSITION FROM THE CLANDESTINE MARXIST GROUP, THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY PARTY (EPRP)….SEVERAL SOURCES HAVE TOLD US THAT THE SEVEN WHO WERE EXEUCTED FOR "PLOTTING AGAINST THE REVOLUTION" (REF B) WERE MEMBERS OF THE CLANDESTINE, ANTI-DIRG ETHIOPIAN'S PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY PARTY. ALL OF THEM APPEARED TO BE NORTHERNERS, WHICH IS CONSISTENT WITH WHAT WE ARE TOLD IS THE ETHNIC SOMPOSITION OF THAT MARXIST GROUP. TWO OF THE SEVEN, THE ASNAKE BROTHERS, WERE EDUCATED IN VETERINARY MEDICINE, ONE IN THE US, THE OTHER IN EASTERN EUROPE.”
 
The embassy cables go on to speculate at great length about ethnic conflict within the Derg.

There was clearly some massive mutual ambivalence between US imperialism and the Derg. Nominally, relations were good: some time around this period the US and the Derg agreed to a massive arms deal, which in the event conveniently failed to be consummated before the Derg's 1977 turn to the USSR. Oddly I think the US embassy's general observations bely the EPRP's suggestion that the Derg was a “neo-colonial” regime. While the US embassy was obviously always looking for evidence of communist meddling, their attitude to the military regime is pretty clearly advanced apprehension: they don't talk about the Derg like it was some American creature, a suggestion that historical evidence certainly doesn't validate. Anyway the cables continue to be fascinating reading.

The Ethiopian revolution was about to take a drastic turn. Popular support for EPRP was certainly at a high watermark. Unfortunately, Abyot's predictions about future violence was to be more accurately prescient than its revolutionary optimism about the instability of the Derg and its faltering popular support.

From EPRP’s Democracia: “A Revolution Is Not A Straight Line”

Clandestine printshop in revolutionary Ethiopia.

The following is an English translation of a special issue of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party’s underground newspaper, “Democracia.” Archives of much of “Democracia” are available on the web, but very little of its content has been translated into English. This one issue makes me hungry for more. I found this translation at the website Ya Tewlid, The Generation, an excellent repository of information mostly in Amharinya on the EPRP and the years of the “Red Terror.” It was retrieved from the US Library of Congress’s Thomas L. Kane collection, and is probably one of Kane’s own translations. He seems to have been an American diplomat with a keen interest in Ethiopia. This is described as the “Special Issue” from Feb. or Mar. 1976, presumably the Ethiopian month of Megabit. I have retyped the document from PDF.

The subject of this document is largely the national question. It’s safe to say that the 25 years since the Derg’s fall have borne the truth to Democracia’s predictions, as the national question continues to bubble over in today's reorganized Ethiopia. 

THE FASCIST DECLARATION—

TO MASSACRE THE PEOPLE

A revolution is not a straight line — it is zigzag. Although it will be late, the victory will belong to the people. The aim of the fascists and reactionaries to confuse the people by creating temporary problems will not save them from the destiny of history.

When the government of the "elite" is pressured by peoples struggle, it concedes and makes certain proclamations. But, wen the peoples struggle cools, the government tries to sabotage the struggle anew. It has massacred those people who have promoted the revolution. Many people have been massacred in Eritrea, Gojjam, Afar, Gujji, Wollo and Kaffa. In Awash the Government has killed many workers. Whenever the Government finds any threat to its power, it begins killing people. It is not enough for them to take weapons, which should have been used against anti-revolutionaries, and use them against revolutionaries. It is not enough for them to massacre the people. They are now trying to make the people cut their fingers by the fingers, in other words; in other words, they are trying to turn the people against the people.

An issue of Democracia from
about the time of this article.

The government of the “elite military officers” secretly gathered peasants from Begemdir, Tigre, Wollo and Gojjam. For example three people from each woreda, 84 in all, were called and stayed at “Kottebe” from Begemdir. While the peasants of Begemdir and Tigre were sent back, others stayed here. This was in the beginning of Megabit. Later in Megabit an emergency decree was issued in Begemdir and Tigre. This decree was to encourage and empowerof the people of Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia to kill. The fascist action will create a great danger to the Ethiopian revolution and is a sign of revisionism. It did this because its previous fascist actions did not succeed.

One of the main issues of the Ethiopian revolution is the question of nationalities, i.e. the right of nations for self-determination. But, instead of solving the Eritrean problem, it tried to crush the movement by force. It spread a false national feeling through the mass media, but this propaganda was not accepted by the people.

There are no principal contradictions between people of different nations. Therefore, Ethiopian people will not go and fight the Eritrean people. The enemies of the people are feudalism, imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism; and the fascist government that is the puppet of the above three in practice.

The prominent fascist leader, Hitler, during the Second World War, said that the enemies of the Germans are Jews. He then proceeded to have millions of Jews massacred. The American imperialists in Cambodia, Vietnam, etc. tried to make the people of one nation fight each other, but their attempts were in vain.

In our country, too, Menelik did the same thing, when he was expanding his reign southward. The notorious feudal Dejazmatch Gebre Huywot, did the same thing with the Tigre rebellions and caused much damage. The present fascist government is trying to do the same thing.

What will be the effect of the proclamation? It will create civil war. The ongoing revolution will be reversed. Instead of class struggle, the people will be concentrating on a secondary question. This will weaken the peasants associations and strengthen the reactionary elements. It will improve the situation for those reactionaries, like Nega Tegegne and his followers, who are trying to revise the revolution. It will widen the gap between nations. The previous government used national chauvinism in order to stay in power. In all gathering places, it instigated tribal disputes. But the present government has taken an even worse step which will make people of different national groups fight each other and fight those who are residing in cities.

— The manpower and finances that could have been used to promote revolutionary progress is tobe used for revising the revolution.

— It encourages feudalism, which has been outlawed, at least on a proclamation basis.

— It encourages looting which was prevalent during the reign of Nobility.

— When the peasants are busy fighting, the danger of starvation will be intensified.

PEOPLE OF NORTHERN ETHIOPIA! To hinder the revolution, they have tried to weaken your associations. They have forced the Zemacha to desert you. They have opposed your attempts to disarm by sending troops to kill you. They are training an army called “Nebelbal” by Israelis. All these steps are still not enough. They are even instigating you to fight your own Eritrean brothers. Take care and do not be deceived by the fascists. As they had you fight the Eritrean people, they will send others to fight you when you proceed with your revolution. They will make Christians fight Moslems, Northerners fight Southerners, etc. You must realize that “Tomorrow it will be me”.

Proletariats, Students, Zemechas, Teachers, and Progressives — wherever you are. Expose the attempts of the fascists to revise the revolution. The differences between the Eritrean and the Ethiopian people is not primary. The solution to the Eritrean problem is Democracy.

“DOWN WITH FASCISM. THE PEOPLE WILL WIN.”

___

Notes: Zemecha refers to the national development campaign launched at the end of 1974 when thousands of students and teachers were sent to the countryside. The campaign backfired on the Derg, as the mobilized and empowered young people proved to be a fruitful site of recruitment for the EPRP. 

By “fascists” Democracia is referring to the ruling military junta or Derg.—ish

Propaganda War

“Ethiopia In Revolution,” Ethiopian Revolution Information Center, 1977

More pamphlets from various publishing arms of the Derg: some of these were also scanned during my NYU Tamiment Library visits already reported on, others I’ve collected elsewhere. These all represent Derg attempts for making its case, largely, one may presume, to the international left. By 1978, the focus of these pamphlets becomes increasingly more focused on the military conflicts with Somalia and Eritrean secessionists. Since the world left, including the Soviet bloc, had a tradition of supporting the Eritrean national liberation movements, the Derg was compelled to persuade that left that such struggles were now somehow “pro-imperialist.”

I scanned the insides of many of these, and will occasionally present worthy excerpts in the future.

“The Ethiopian Revolution and the Problem in Eritrea,” Ethiopian Revolution Information Center, 1977

”Revolutionary Ethiopia Fact Sheet,” ERIC, 1978

“Ethiopia: Women In Revolution,” 1984

“Programme of the National Democratic Revolution”

“Victory Day”

“Fourth Anniversary of the Ethiopian Revolution,” Speech by Mengistu, 1978

“The National Revolutionary War in the North,” 1978

“PMAC Chairman And The World Press” Speech by Mengistu, 1978

“Ethiopia’s Development Campaign,” Central Planning Supreme Council, 1980

“Support the Just Cause of the Ethiopian Peoples,” 1978

Ideological Combat

EPRP demonstration, ca. 1975 or 1976

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party mobilized, a rare photo. I’m told the signs translate as follows: “We will not go to war with Eritreans” and “Hang Haile Fida, Senay Likke and Their Dogs.” Haile Fida was the leader of Meison, and Senay Likke was the leader of Woz League. Both were allies and ideologues of the Derg; neither survived the 1970s. Note the hammer and sickle banner lower left.

(Photo courtesy of the facebook group "Historical photos from the Horn of Africa")

8 Study Questions on the Ethiopian Revolution

Popular demonstration during the February 1974 Ethiopian Revolution; photo from the Italian Communist newspaper L'Unita

I have finally immersed myself in enough readings to start identifying issues and asking questions. I thought it would be useful to organize my thoughts into the following “questions,” identifying themes and patterns for further reading, thought, analysis, and ultimately, writing. I am neither a trained historian nor academic, but as someone who has been a leftist activist for a large portion of my adult life I find a surprising depth of relevance in the story of the Ethiopian revolution to themes which continue to confront any movement for revolutionary change.

It's extraordinary to find this exciting, heartbreaking, fascinating history told not a century after the fact but with the immediacy of eyewitness observation from participants in living memory. And in a leftist culture dominated by Eurocentrism and the increasingly arcane minutiae of early 20th-century Europe, it's refreshing to find this relevance and inspiration hiding in plain sight in the relatively recent history of sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of these questions are intended to be provocative. As I have written before, I do not consider myself an impartial observer but a partisan of actual liberatory socialist revolution. After my initial research I find my initial loyalties to the EPRP “side” fundamentally unchallenged, but I think there are some hard issues that shouldn't be ignored. My investigation has definitely revealed some sad chapters and difficult questions that I think it would be dishonest not to address. Some of these questions I obviously have preliminary opinions on.

Read my original statement of intent about this blog here.
Follow my reading list here (A work in progress).
(A short key to abbreviations for the unfamiliar appears at the end of this document)

***

1. Ethiopia before and during its 1970s revolution bore a stark resemblance to a telescoped version of Tsarist Russia and the Russian revolution. Unlike the rest of Africa, the failure of colonialism to subjugate most of Ethiopia for an extended period left a highly organized indigenous feudal empire intact, containing the growing seeds of capitalist development in a starkly evident class society where both an urban proletariat and a rural peasantry were suddenly becoming self-aware. The revolution snowballed during the lives of one young generation, forcing that generation to invent political praxis for itself in a country with very little political tradition. Suddenly exposure to the global Marxist-Leninist left and the civil rights/Black power movements in the US blossomed into the need to make life-or-death strategical decisions. The EPRP, organized clandestinely and abroad in 1972 and formally revealed in 1975 is said to be Ethiopia's first political party of any sort. Ethiopian revolutionaries reached out to China, to the Palestinian resistance, to the socialist countries of the Soviet bloc, and to Arab nationalist regimes for assistance, receiving guns, training, books...and heavy introduction to the internal contradictions of the world's socialist movements. But in the Ethiopian February revolution, it was as though Kerensky himself remained at the helm, simultaneously hijacking and repressing the revolution to prevent an Ethiopian October. What does the ultimate failure of the revolution teach us about the application of lessons of classical Bolshevism and other communist trends? Was this the last possible revolution of this classical type?

2. The Western left’s not-yet-successful reliance on strategies for socialism involving the development of mass, essentially reformist workers parties has been historically counterposed in practice variously by those influenced by Maoism (in favor of people’s war and rural armed struggle); by those in a Soviet orbit (in favor of military bonapartism and ex post facto development of mass organizations); and by anarchists/autonomists (in favor of urban insurrection or autonomous parallel development). The EPRP —attacked as “anarchists” by their enemies, though adhering to Marxism-Leninism — found success as a mass, clandestine urban party, yet sought unsuccessfully to become a guerrilla movement. The EPRP deeply influenced mass organizations like trade unions (CELU, teachers), the Zemacha campaign (mass literacy movement), student groups (especially in the diaspora); organized clandestine fractions in the military (Oppressed Soldiers Organization), inside the Derg, inside Kebeles (formal community centers), inside the police, an underground revolutionary trade union (ELAMA), an underground youth organization (EPRYL), and urban and rural military units. It published several regular underground journals with mass national distribution and readership and participated where possible in public discussions in the legally sanctioned press. What does the EPRP’s experience of organizational models and strategies teach us?

3. Thousands and thousands of young revolutionaries died at the hands of the Derg regime and its leftist allies, and targeted assassinations by the EPRP took many lives. Did the EPRP's insistence on armed struggle provoke the “Red Terror” or was it the correct response to particularly vicious repression? The EPRP vacillated between calling the Derg and its civilian leftist allies “fascists” and pondering overtures of unity with those forces. Was there ever a basis for unity? Was the Derg “fascist”?  What is the verdict on the lethal sectarianism of the Ethiopian left: EPRP vs. Meison/POMOA, EPRP vs. anja (factions). What are the historical verdicts on the cases of Fikre Merid, Getachew Maru and Berhanemeskel Reda; Senay Likke and Haile Fida; Tesfaye Debessay?

4. The competitive EPRP and Meison originated organically in the Ethiopian left/student movement, especially in the diaspora, and found favor in segments of the urban proletariat and petit-bourgeoisie. Yet both were outflanked by Colonel Mengistu, who seems to have had no history on the left before the February 1974 revolution. Mass action drove the revolution while political power was confined to a relatively small collection of players inside the government and later the military. The relationships between (and inside) the Derg, the government, the military, and the civilian left were far more complex than revealed at first glance. How did the Derg successfully coopt the revolution and check the civilian left? Where did Mengistu's ideology come from? Mengistu seems to have followed scripts first from Meison/POMOA and later the Soviet bloc, launching legitimate (if incomplete) revolutionary reforms like literacy and land redistribution, while consolidating his personal power through repeated purges and coups inside the ruling body. LeFort says his mobilization of the lumpen and declassed peasantry was the key to his social base outside the military. The one reform he resisted, and what might be considered the primary demand of the EPRP, was popular democracy. In a country where most of the competitors for power claimed to be for socialism, what does this battle over democracy suggest? Here the Maoist doctrine of “New Democracy” found itself in direct contradiction to “National Democratic Revolution.” How was EPRP's call for revolutionary popular democracy against what it saw as the repeating phenomenon of the African military dictator different than counterrevolutionary democracy movements in other socialist countries? In an ongoing revolutionary situation, who or what is the State? How did the class struggle actually combine and unfold in the revolution? (Peasantry, Proletariat, Urban Petit-bourgeoisie, Rural landowning class, Feudal class/Royalty/Comprador Bourgeoisie, Lumpen Proletariat, National Bourgeoisie). (Side note: ponder Nicaragua where an assortment of civilian left groups maintained shifting levels of opposition and critical support to the post-revolutionary Sandinista regime in the 1980s).

5. If politics were underdeveloped in Ethiopia, nationalism was not. Ethiopia resisted Italian invasion twice, losing its self rule only for the period of 1936-1942. Ethiopia’s revolution was deeply connected to the struggles of national minorities. Like Russia, Ethiopia is a country of diverse national identities historically dominated by a single ethnic group. Rene LeFort calls Eritrea (and the relationship of Eritrea to Ethiopia is up for discussion) the “crucible” of the Ethiopian revolution, citing a more developed political tradition in colonial Eritrea and noting the dominance of ethnic Eritreans in the general Ethiopian radical milieu. Wallelign Mekonnen’s groundbreaking paper on the national question is virtually the founding document of the Ethiopian civilian left (and Wallelign's death in a 1972 airplane hijacking is a portent of future tragedy). EPRP attempted to negotiate this minefield, and yet ultimately found itself at odds with TPLF and EPLF, despite endorsing Eritrean independence. Today’s Ethiopian federalism, widely seen as the oppression of the whole nation by the Tigrayan minority ethnic group, makes nobody happy: unrest involving national minorities like the Oromo people is today again dominating headlines. Upon the overthrow of the Derg, newly independent Eritrea promptly found itself at war with its long-term allies in the former TPLF. What are the lessons here regarding self determination, multi-ethnic states, and the relationship of political to ethnic conflicts? Is there any conflict between the consciousness of national liberation and the consciousness of socialism?

6. Ironically, the avowedly socialist Derg remained military supplied by the United States for its first two years in power. After it eliminated the civilian left, the Derg thoroughly coopted socialism in a statist model a la Eastern Europe, only to abandon socialism as the Soviet Union floundered, on the eve of itself being displaced, in the very late 1980s. The Derg was overthrown by the TPLF, the core of which was the cadre of MLLT, which upon assuming power in turn abandoned Marxism-Leninism and allied with the United States. Though some argue little continuity with the classic EPRP suppressed by the Derg remains, today's EPRP factions have officially renounced socialism. EPLF-ruled independent Eritrea is ranked (at least by its enemies) as among the most repressive states on the planet. The “People's Republic” of China is developing a massively predatory relationship with Ethiopian industry and agriculture. What are the legacy and prospects of three failed attempts at socialist power for the liberatory project promised by socialism to the future of Ethiopia? By 1978, the two main wings of the civilian left now both in opposition to the Derg (as well as to each other), and the ruling Derg itself, all used the iconic hammer and sickle as their symbol. Addis Ababa's massive Lenin statue, built by a regime that arguably had little in common with Lenin's actual ideology, was pulled down by crowds in 1991 celebrating legitimate liberation from tyranny. Is the well poisoned?

7. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that imperialism has wreaked havoc on the Horn of Africa for well over a century. Did Italian imperialism import class consciousness and post-feudal political consciousness via Eritrea? The Ethiopian royalty earned respect for its resistance to Italian imperialism in both the 1890s and the 1930s, and used that reputation to attempt to outflank “African socialism” as a pro-American pole in continental politics during the independence wave of the 1950s and 1960s. The royalty's domestic reputation began to fail only in the late 1960s, collapsing in the wake of famine in the early 1970s. US imperialism and the Soviet Union abruptly swapped sides between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1976-1977; and then the US switched sides again after the fall of both the Ethiopian and Somali regimes in the early 1990s, turning Somalia into a collection of failed states, ethnic enclaves, and bases for reactionary Islamic fundamentalists, and turning Ethiopia into a proxy for regional US military power. Chinese capital (imperialism?) appears a significant motor force in Ethiopia today. Cuba’s intervention in Ethiopia against Somali invasion was decisive, yet not extended to the Eritrean front, eventually resulting in Eritrean secession. Leftist opposition groups in Ethiopia in the 1970s found themselves in the middle of a hot battle in the Cold War, ideologically challenged by being targeted by both imperialism and the Soviet bloc. What are the prospects for independent national struggle in a world dominated by neocolonialism, imperialism, social imperialism, and neoliberalism?

8. Many people, unfortunately, in my opinion, including far too many leftists, view history as the progression of actions of great (or terrible) men. To look at the Ethiopian Revolution as merely the story of Mengistu Hailemariam is I think to make a serious misjudgment of how history happens, of how, in this case, the Ethiopian revolution unfolded. He was a key figure, for sure, and certainly for a moment triumphant, and more than a little villainous. But what Marxism teaches us about the people being the motor force of history, this is actually true: What the focus on Mengistu reveals to me, at least, are all the ideological weaknesses of what I would call revisionism (and let me say here clearly that I reject out of hand the term “Stalinist”): the post-war Soviet top-down method of socialism by directive, military force, and the willful wishful thinking of too small a political minority. This unfolded repeatedly (and ultimately unsuccessfully and often tragically) in the third world: South Yemen, Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, etc. It's true that 20th-century socialism was ultimately politically outgunned by Western imperialism, but I think that the broadly-defined pro-Soviet project of state socialism also collapsed worldwide under the weight of its own contradictions. (Ironically given what, in my opinion, is socialist Cuba's problematic role in Ethiopia, I think the survival of Cuban socialism into the 21st century is in fact a positive counter example of how important mass popular support for a revolution actually is). It seems that EPRP's leaders were too busy living their moment of history in a fiery flash to deliver ideological or theoretical innovation at their high watermark, at least from the perspective of my initial investigations, and without knowledge of Amharic. Few survived to have the benefit of hindsight. Survivors writing today have focused on righting the historical record, or apologizing for their actions, or preserving the memory of what was lost: most seem pretty adamant in their ideological renunciation of the old EPRP's values. So the final questions are left to us, observers from a geographic and historical distance: Is there an overarching lesson from the Ethiopian revolution for the revolutionary project as a whole? What would actual revolutionary democracy look like? How, next time, do the good guys win?

I would be interested to exchange ideas with anyone who has studied this revolution.

Notes:
EPRP: Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party
Meison: All-Ethiopian Socialist Movement
POMOA: Provisional Office of Mass Organization Affairs
TPLF: Tigray People's Liberation Front
EPLF: Eritrean People's Liberation Front
MLLT: Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray
CELU: Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions
Derg: Amharic for “committee,” a group of military officers who seized power in 1974

Women's History Month: Martha Mebrahtu

Martha Mebrahtu was an Ethiopian/Eritrean student revolutionary who was killed during a failed hijacking attempt in 1972. This was when airplane hijackings were propaganda actions not designed to take innocent life. On the eve of the attempt, she wrote a manifesto of the beliefs behind her action:

‘We, women of Ethiopia and Eritrea, have made our life ready to participate in a struggle and we would like to explain the nature of our struggle to our sisters and brothers all over the world.
‘Our struggle demands a bitter sacrifice in order to liberate our oppressed and exploited people from the yokes of feudalism and imperialism. In this struggle we have to be bold and merciless. Our enemies can only understand such a language.
‘We, women of Ethiopia and Eritrea, are not only exploited as members of the working classes and peasants, we are also victims of gender inequality, treated as second class citizens. Therefore, our participation in this struggle must double the efforts of other oppressed groups; we must fight harder, we must be at the forefront.
‘We must equally participate in the struggle for economic and social justice that our brothers have waged. We have a responsibility to become a formidable force in the revolutionary army.
‘The rights for freedom and equality are not manna from heaven. We, women, have to be organised and have to make ourselves ready for any armed struggle. This fight will need financial, material and moral support of progressive international women's associations. We reach out to our sisters in other parts of the world so you can help us achieve this goal; we hope your support will reach us as we need it.
‘We affirm our full support for the oppressed people of the world who are struggling to free themselves from imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism and racism! We stand by the freedom fighters in Vietnam, Palestine, Guinea-Bissau and in other African and Latin American countries; we also support the civil rights leaders in North America.
‘Victory to the popular struggle of the people! May the people's movement for freedom in both Ethiopia and Eritrea live forever! My sisters and my brothers, let's keep on fighting!’


This manifesto, and some biographical notes on Martha Mebrahtu, appeared in Pambazuka News in 2011.