Se ee A

y Attended by v4

million people.

The NAIMSAL executive secretary €mphasized that ‘‘the Ethiopian revolu- tion is not something that came out of a Small group of people in an army bar- racks. It began in February 1974, witha Protest by taxi drivers angered over a

» 8as price rise. And from then on, it

steadily gained momentum: teachers, Students went on strike, then a general peaks was declared, and this mass re- llion against Emperor Haile Selas- ri S regime was joined by the army. By ‘arch, it had become a generalized up- Tising involving millions, including the peasants. __ ‘In this situation,” Monteiro said, 4 coordinating committee of the

_ armed forces was formed. It contained

Many progressive and radical ele- Ments, but also others. In the March- September 1974 period, this group

tecnn to act as a coordinating commit-

for the mass.movement as a whole. A kind of ‘dual power’ situation arose,

Organized children participating In Mey Day

- Ethiopia,

with the emperor on one side and the coordinating committee on the other.

“<The important thing to keep in —

mind,” Monteiro et, ‘tis ode

inating committee was not acting peat it mae propelled from the base, by the masses. The emperor was de- posed on September 12 as the result of the anger of the masses, who had finally. learned the truth about the Wollo famine. More than two million people demonstrated in the streets to back up the removal of the emperor. A few days later, the Provisional Military Adminis- trative Council (PMAC) or ‘“‘Derg”’ was formed as the new government. But this group of 120 middle-ranking officers contained those who wanted to join with

the mass struggle, and those who -

wanted to retard it. The big question at that time was land reform, the destruc- tion of feudalism, land to the tillers.

“The land reform came, in March 1975, but not without a struggle within

the PMAC,” Monteiro said. ‘This has

been the most sweeping land reform in history outside of Russia. It abolished feudalism, the feudal ruling class, overnight. It won to the side of the re- volution the broad masses of Ethiopian peasants, who are the bulk of the popu- lation.

“Banks and most_industries were nationalized in February 1975,’’ the NAIMSAL executive secretary said. “Urban land was nationalized in July 1975, with the provision that no one could own more than one dwelling- place, thus eliminating urban land-

lords. In April 1976, the Program of the:

National Democra(:c Revolution was published, clearly defining the course of

the revolution. and. establishing

socialism as its ultimate goal. _ “But all of these responses at the PMAC level were responses to the level of intensifying class struggle in the country as a whole,” Monteiro said. ‘‘In there had been no inter- mediary between the masses and the emperor, no bourgeoisie capable of as- suming power, no short-cuts. Things that might otherwise have retarded the revolution didn’t exist, one reason why it took on such an immediate radical character.” Monteiro pointed out: ‘For exam- ple, there was nothing between the

‘peasants and the landlords. If the land- | * Jords were abolished, the only alterna-

| tive was to nationalize the land, and this

was done.” Because the Ethiopian re- volution was so far reaching, the im- perialist nations, especially the U.S.,

- viewed the revolution as a major threat

to the status quo in the horn of Africa. In fact, Ethiopia was viewed as the Angola of northern Africa. — ,

‘Still,’ Monteiro continued, “‘there were people within the PMAC who were not prepared to go so far or move so fast, people subject to imperialist influence. The final battle was fought out in the PMAC in the early February 1977, bet- ween these people and the genuine Marxist-Leninist forces, and that is when Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam emerged as the representative of the latter.

“In January 1977, a new revolutio- nary All-Ethiopian Trade Union Con- federation (AETU) had been formed,”’ Monteiro said. ‘‘Then in April, U.S. and NATO bases were closed down.and U.S. military missions booted out. It was at this time that the people’s militia was established, to defend revolutionary gains, and it was also at this time that an intense imperialist counter-attack was directed at Ethiopia, using terrorist counter-revolutionary groups like the so-called ‘Ethiopian People’s Re- volutionary Party’ (EPRP) to assassi-

“‘Because the Ethiopian revolution was so far reaching, the imperialist nations, especially the U.S., viewed

the revolution

as a major threat to the status quo

in the horn

of Africa.”’

Tony Monteiro (left) greete Lt. Col. Mengletu Halle Mariam.

“This has been the most sweeping

land reform in

history outside of Russia.”

nate over 300 trade union, peasant and kebele (district) leaders.”

Monteiro said: “‘This was a ‘White Terror,’ aimed at dismantling the re- volutionary institutions of people’s power in Ethiopia. It was joined by the dispossessed landlords and by the Erit- rean secessionists, and finally, in the

summer of 1977, by the Somali invaders.

The Somali invasion was a cold-blooded attempt to destroy the Ethiopian re- volution, backed by Saudi Arabia,

‘Egypt, the U.S. imperialists and NATO.

“The counter-revolutionary offen- sive was defeated,’ Monteiro stressed, “not by the old Ethiopian Army, but by the new people’s militia, by the arming: of the entire trade union movement of 300,000 men and women, by the arming

of 500,000 peasants from the new peas- ant cooperatives, by the arming of the urban people’s power bodies, the kebeles. It was the armed workers and peasants of Ethiopia that smashed this assault.

“‘ As for Eritrea,’’ Monteiro said, ‘‘it is a region, not a nation, and has always been part of Ethiopia except when under Italian and British colonial rule. Since the middle of 1976, the PMAC has offered regional autonomy to Eritrea, an area in which eight different lan- guages are spoken. The secessionists have rejected the offer and have opted for military confrontation. Today, the influence.of Arab reactionary and U.S. imperialist power is very strong on the Eritrean leadership, and they are try- ing to shield the Eritrean masses from the influence of the Ethiopian reyolu- tion, the land reform in particular. But they will not succeed.”

PAGIFIC TRIBUNE—July 7, 1978—Page 5