d ‘ing down of the children of Soweto. Never the
h\r and continued hunger of the millions of our

en.
#\ fight for International Children’s Year to place

a» said —and I want you to remember this, for you

_}>bbers give back what they robbed every year

i}. Ah, the story is so well known — the trans- _

oe a

Although Cuban military involvement in Africa’s liberation move-

ments has attracted much publicity, very little has been said about the
. army of Cuban civilian aides who have for years been contributing to

Africa’s development efforts. This article by the Tribune's special cor-
respondent B. Tafesse looks at the 20 years since the Cuban revolution
which enabled that country to aid African countries struggling for their

freedom.

By B. TAFESSE

January .1, 1979 marked the
20th anniversary of the victory of
the Cuban Revolution and this
great occasion was warmly celeb-
rated in many parts of the world.

For Cuba’s friends in Ethiopia
and Angola, it was a time to ex-
press gratitude to the selfless as-
sistance socialist Cuba continues
to give these emergent revolu-
tionary countries. in Africa,
among the revolutionary forces,
Cuba is one of the closest to the
hearts of many. It is a country
whose sons and daughters cros-
sed the Atlantic to give a hand, a
decisive hand, in the struggles of
the Ethiopian and Angolan

peoples.

The victories which Ethiopia
and Angola won are a great com-
ponent of the celebration of Cu-
ba’s 20th revolutionary anniver-

sary. Both the Ethiopian and An-
golan peoples celebrated Cuba’s
anniversary with such a strong
feeling that exhibited the fact that
these three countries are march-
ing shoulder to shoulder along the
road of socialism and proletarian
internationalism.

" Cuba’s internationalism

The last 20 years of the Cuban
revolution were years of high
level socialist economic construc-
tion. They were years of broad

achievements in':the:-fields «of:

medicine, education, national de-
fence, and agriculture. For Cuba
and its people they were years of
witnessing the internationalist ef-
forts of the Soviet Union and the

.Test of the socialist community to

help the country’s all-round
developments.

They were years of the
enhancement of humanist values
and anti-imperialist dedication on
the part of the Cuban people.
Even in the early years of its re-
volution, Cuba had made signi-
ficant contributions for the libera-
tion of Algeria from French col-
onialism. Cuba supported Patrice
Lumumba. Cuban re-
volutionaries fought in Guinea
Bissau for the triumph of the Gui-
nean revolution against Por-
tuguese colonialism. Cubans
have given all kinds of assistance
to the Democratic Republic of
Guinea, to Mozambique, to Tan-
zania, to Benin, to Libya, to the
People’s Republic of the Congo.

Many Cubans have sacrificed
their lives so that the peoples of
Africa shall be free from im-
perialist oppression and exploita-
tion. This is even truer in Ethiopia
and Angola.

How is it then that Cuba, a
small country with a small popu-

lation — and a developing society’

at that — could exert itself so
much and be a reputable part of
liberation struggles? -

The answer to this question
cannot be an accidental assertion
or speculative conclusion. The
Cubans are not ‘‘mercenaries’’,
as the shameful Chinese leaders
accuse them of being to the-satis-
faction of U.S. imperialism. The
Cubans are not that rich either.

How, then, do the Cubans
manage to render so much valu-
able assistance to révolutionaries
who .deserve it? The primary

‘source of Cuba’s determination is

its great anti-colonialist and anti-
imperialist history in which the
Cuban national character was
moulded. The Cuban people have
ahistory of great anti-slavery bat-
tles. Their history teaches them
that other revolutionaries fought
and died for Cuba’s liberation.

In essence the history of Cuba
has been a history of resistance
and solidarity. One could not be
wrong in saying that the Cubans
alone, after so much sacrifice in

the struggle against U.S. im-.

perialism managed to “‘hold the
fort’’ and finally establish a
socialist republic in the Western
Hemisphere. They are not a *‘un-
ique’’ people; they are a people
whose history has so much for a
galvanizing force — a force that
impels them to go forward — for-

ward along the road of socialism in ms : S : ;

deeds and internationalism in
deeds.
History of Struggle

They have been doing this
since the days Cuban volunteers
fought and died with other inter-
national brigades in the Spanish
Republican struggle against Fran-

p acct

Cuban premier.Fide!l Castro and Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of |

Ethiopia at the opening ceremonies far the Ethiopia Conference Against
Imperialism and Reaction held in Addis Ababa last September.

Ethiopia and Angola is a continu-
ation of this great tradition of the
Cuban people. By their historic

co's fascist forces. Cuba's role it Operation Carlota — the code

J ae

Is kever again shall there be the burning of the

I like. :
‘Slike many of you, had the great honor and
jege of knowing and meeting Salvador Allende.

Le the song of Nazim Hikmet, I thought of what -

again shall there be Hiroshima, never again
sre be the burning of a seven-year-old girl, and

en of Vietnam with napalm, never again the

the world what we want. We want a world in
every child shall at least know what a sweet

a member of the World Peace Council. And as
ed to Say.

\ it well — he said: I want every child in Chile to
glass of milk every day. And I can get that! And
children have not had it, ever! Can you imagine? |

‘an get that if — the wealth of my land is not
¥. And so, he said, because the people of Chile
that: Let my children have a glass of milk; andlet — all of us.
Ss. :
at was the meaning of what was called ‘‘taking
»? or the nationalization of riches of the people of

al corporations, the CIA, the president of the
States, the secretary of state of the United
— all involved! In a conspiracy for what? For
*‘democracy’’. For saving the profits of those.
ies which keep them in power, and for taking
ss of milk out of the hands of the children of

*t think that children everywhere are tortured.
ak of the hunger of the children of many
httries, I speak of it because I want to say that it is
Mble to change it. I went to Vietnam ... at the
ning of 1978 and-I saw a palace — an old palace

} Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, a palace used
We old puppet regime for their lords. But nowit’s a
e for children. And there were so many charts to
what children had done, what children had suf-

> overwhelming majority of them in the old
f'n were used for drug peddling, used for prostitu-

tion, so many of them suffering from every possible
disease, and yet, children who fought in the liberation
front, children who acted with the liberation forces,
who acted for Vietnam, heroes and heroines who

_ died. And now, with the victory, here were the chil-
dren of Vietnam, no longer hiding, or fearing to look
up at the sky because every time they looked there
would be the-B-52 bombers.

- Here were children who could look up at the sky
and who could laugh and dance and play. So victory
had come. Now again they would try to take the
smiles off the faces of the children of Vietnam, but
they will not succeed.

_ _ I think of the children in the Soviet Union. I think of
the great children’s congress a year-and-a-half ago,
where children came, and stood in a socialist country,
laughed and played and talked together. Well, I want
that the children of my country should, like the chil-
dren of all countries, laugh and play, dance, but if not
that yet, at least that every child should have what I
call half a handful of rice . . . It’s a small demand, but it
‘can be done. But it can be done only by the strength of

Children can be assured the kind of life we want for
them and has been realized in countries which have
won their freedom, countries where no one exploits
and no one lives on the hunger of others.

H

Romesh Chandra, president World Peace Council

mbes SRO PT ee I

name for their aid to Angola —
and Operation Baragua Protest —
the code name for their aid to
Ethiopia, the Cubans have estab-
lished a ‘‘Stakhanovite’’. model
for internationalism — a powerful
example for the Ethiopians-and
Angolans to learn from.

In fact it is the force of this
Cuban example which led the
Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile
Mariam to say, during the celeb-
ration of the Fourth Anniversary
of the Ethiopian Revolution, that
Ethiopian revolutionaries are
readying themselves to contribute
their share in the liberation strug-
gles of the peoples. Fidel himself,
who was present at the Ethiopian
Anniversary, said that Ethiopian
fighters told him that they were
ready to engage in the inter-
national freedom struggle.

This is as it should be. It is also
the lesson of the inspiring Cuban
example — the example of pro-
letarian internationalism which
opportunists and imperialism
have tried and continue to this
day to tarnish and undermine. But
every day facts prove, and the

evidence is piling up, that the role
of Maoism and Euro-communism
is inimicalto the national libera-

tion struggles as it attacks existing -

socialism and negates proletarian
internationalism. a “

By their actions and deeds the
Maoists and Euro-communists
undercut the historic advances
the peoples are making under the
banner of internationalism and
socialist anti-imperialism. In this
struggle also, Ethiopian and An-
golan revolutionaries are learning
the appropriate lessons. They
know their real friends and those
who bolster their enemies.

Cuban fighters have left an in-
delible mark in the annals of Afri-
can liberation struggles which no
amount of Maoist and Euro-
communist slander could tarnish.
History has absolved - Fidel.
Those who prosecuted him on
behalf of Batista shall never ‘be
absolved. Those who slander
Cuba have no good ‘end either.
Ethiopia and Angola will never
forget it and will never pardon it!

This is how the Ethiopians and
Angolans felt as they held meet-
ings in celebration of the 20th An-
niversary of the Cuban Revolu-
tion.

Urge aid for Vietnam

BERLIN — The Women’s In-
ternational Democratic Federa-
tion (WIDF) has sent out an ap-
peal urging support for the Viet-

namese people in their struggle —

against imperialist aggression.

It lists the attacks against Viet-
nam provoked by the Chinese
leadership against the country’s
borders, **The acts of sabotage
inspired by them inside the coun-
try, their slander against Vietnam
and efforts to undermine the tradi-
tional friendship between Viet-

~ nam and its neighboring states.”

The WIDF also speaks of the
disasterous floods which have hit
the country which, added to the

aggressions against Vietnam, are
hindering the heroic efforts being

made to reconstruct the war-torn —

country.
The organization pledges its

. full and continuing support and is’

playing a leading role in the cam-
paign to gather food, medical
supplies and fabrics to be sent to
Vietnam.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 26, 1979—Page 5

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