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First ELF Congress
Document:
An Important Reading in
Eritrean History
By
ELF-RC Office for Information and Culture
We usually say that there is a
serious lack of adequate reading on the prolonged struggle of our people
for national liberation. That could, more or less, be true. However,
there are important documents that do tell how things were and how our
fighters thought in those difficult years of the liberation struggle.
One of such documents is what is entitled the “Programmatic Declaration”
of the Eritrean Revolution (not of the ELF) that was adopted at the
First National Congress of the Eritrean revolution in October-November
1971. One can bet that it is only a tiny minority of living Eritreans
who read that historic document that stands important for all living
Eritreans of today – be they young students, aspiring historians,
general knowledge seekers or even ambitious politicians who assume that
they know enough of past Eritrean struggle.
As the ELF-RC moves towards holding
its 6th National Congress this summer, it invites readers of
all generations of Eritreans to review the past history of their
struggle so that they may learn from it. The 45-year old document is
produced below for this purpose.
Before introducing the objectives of
the ELF as organization, the document, read at the First Congress and
then widely distributed to Eritreans and foreigners, tells in great
length how Eritrea evolved as a separate historical entity in the
region, how the colonial masters subjected it to continued subjugation,
and how it became a “special colony” under Ethiopian rule.
The document then deals with the
objectives of the revolution which were: building a democratic
liberation front (ELF), and after liberation of the country, building a
democratic state of Eritrea.
On the section of building a
democratic front, it states, inter alia, as follows:
- The ELF considers the
national unity of the Eritrean people as central objective.
- All national
groups are equal, any move to build a dominant national group shall
be considered anti-nationalist.
- All national
groups of Eritrea have the right to develop their languages in a way
which encourages the development of a new revolutionary Eritrean
culture.
- The two official
languages of Eritrea, Tigrinya and Arabic, shall be employed in all
activities of the ELF.
- The ELF shall
guarantee freedom of religious worship conscience, thought, speech
and opinion…..
- Mass
organizations shall be organized… The mass-movements shall have the
right to evolve their independent programmes by holding congresses
of their own.
- …its educational
and social policies shall have one objective: to raise a generation
of Eritreans equipped with a scientific outlook and with love for
humanity. Under Section B, the programme does not hide that the
state will be based on the “revolutionary ideology” of the day. Yet,
the programme promised that the Eritrean state “shall ensure the
fullest liberty of speech, though, press, free association,
religious worship and conscience”. Reprinted below for your
reading and keeping in record is the 1971 political programme of the
ELF whose mainstream continuation today readies itself to hold the 6th
congress in July 2006. Good reading.
***
The Eritrean struggle, one of the most highly developed armed
struggles in Africa, is also one of the least known struggles of its
kind. Eighty years of continuous resistance against Italian
colonization, British military occupation, and Ethiopian annexation
backed by American imperialism, has transformed the Eritrean people
into a steeled revolutionary people. Eritrea is today the centre of
gravity and revolution in the Horn of Africa. Our country lies
between the Red Sea to the east, the Sudan to the north and west,
and the Ethiopian Empire to the south. Eritrea which has 600 miles
of sea-coast along one of the most important international waterways
is only a stone’s throw from Suez Canal and the Bab-el-Mandeb – the
gate to the Indian Ocean. Eritrea’s immense strategic importance,
and, in a sense its colonial history, flows from its unique position
and in recent times its close proximity to the petroleum producing
areas of the Middle East.
Ethiopia’s
Claims: Historically, present Eritrean territories neighboring
to Ethiopia were [variously] known as Medri Geez (the Land of the
Free), Medri-Bahri (the Land of the Sea), and Mareb-Milash (from
Mareb upwards, i.e. beyond the river that demarcated the territory
from Abyssinia). The separate political and territorial sovereignty
of Eritrea was recognized by Ethiopian Emperors. Emperor David III
(1507 – 11400) informed Portuguese missionaries who visited his
court that beyond Tigrai there is a country called Medri Bahri.
Bruce, the great traveler and explorer, confirmed that the river
Belesa made the boundary between Ethiopia and Medri Bahri (Eritrea).
Contrary, to falsifications and annexationist claims of the
Ethiopian Emperor as well as the ruling classes and their
satellites, Eritrea never constituted part or Abyssinia. Ethiopia’s
ridiculous historical claim on Eritrea and Somalia was formulated in
an official memorandum to the United Nations (which partly read as
follows): “Prior to the race of European
Powers to divide up the continent of Africa, Ethiopia included an
extensive coast line along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It was
only in the last 15 years of the 19th century that
Ethiopia had been deprived of access to the sea by the loss of
Somaliland and
Eritrea.”
Despite the groundless claims of Ethiopia, the Four Powers (USA,
USSR, Great Britain and France) took it upon themselves to dictate
to the United Nations that they were prepared to accept the
recommendations of the General Assembly only if the “rights and
claims of Ethiopia based on geographical, historical, ethnic or
economic reasons including in particular Ethiopia’s legitimate need
for adequate access to the sea, were taken into
consideration”.
Since Ethiopia’s historical claims, Resolution 390 A (v) (the basis
of the federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia), and the so called
right of access to the sea, were based on the groundless Ethiopian
government memorandum to the United Nations, we are duty bound to
burst the bubble of mythology and historical falsification and
replace it instead by historical
facts.
Not only is the mythical presentation of Ethiopian history blatantly
annexionist, but it is also politically dangerous. It is politically
dangerous because it justifies the nationalism of the Ethiopian
feudal-bourgeoisie, and condemns the Eritrean masses into the
ideological latches of the ruling classes of which the Eritrean
bourgeoisie is an integral
part.
Margary Perham, in her book, “The Government of Ethiopia”,
dismissed the memorandum of the Ethiopian government as
follows:- “The
claim is based, in the official document, upon some rather
indefinite references to early history and migrations, almost every
sentence of which cries out for comment or correction.” The
term ‘Ethiopia’ itself needs clarification: “The word Ethiopia – the
land of the people of the burnt faces - was applied, with the
vagueness of geographical ignorance to the region immediately beyond
the Egyptian frontiers which was for long the frontiers of
civilization”. Ancient historians and geographers applied the name
not to Axum but to Nubia. Diodaur, Piny and Strabo, like Heroduts,
all applied the name Ethiopia to Nubia. They do not seem to have
known the high tableland where Axum had been founded. The first
inscription of the Axumites, as we shall see, shows that they
themselves applied the word Ethiopia to the territory of the middle
Nile. During this period, therefore the word Ethiopia, was neither
applied to Axum, nor did the Axumites describe themselves as
Ethiopians.
“This region about the middle of the Nile, the Egyptian Cush became the
Ethiopia of the classical world. This brings us at once to a confusion
of terminology which it will be better to clear up at this point, which
almost carry us far beyond the beginnings of Axum. It will allow us
follow up the fate of Axum’s neighbors, the true ancient Ethiopia: to
distinguish it from Axum and to show how later they took the name.
“The successors of the kingdom of Axum, after their conversion to
Christianity, and after observing that the bible contained references to
Ethiopia begun to apply the word Ethiopia to themselves.
“It was easy for the successors of Axum, to whose country it was already
sometimes applied, to appropriate exclusively for themselves the word
which they had begun to use sometimes after their conversion. It was
probably the immigrant Syrian monks, who translated the Bible from Greek
into Geez, who first applied Ethiopia to Axum. The rulers and their
clerks were naturally quick to seize upon such references to Ethiopia as
they could find in ancient and holy writings which knew nothing of Axum
or Habashat, and their appropriations were duly entered the cannons and
chronicles which they begun to write about in the fourteenth century”.
This myth was formalized as official “ideology” of the new Abyssinian
dynasty in the 14th century the tradition of approximating
the history of others.
“We may note that there has in recent years appeared in Ethiopia a
tendency to extend the historical larceny of the medieval clerks into
endeavors to exalt the country by appropriating the new historical and
archeological knowledge of Nubia Ethiopia as they appropriated the
Biblical references.”
As can be seen, therefore, Eritrea’s right to self-determination was
deformed from the outset. The fate of ex-Italian territories was taken
over by the Big Four (who signed a Peace Treaty with Italy). Having
failed to “dispose” Eritrea, as they called it, they passed over the
Eritrean question to the United Nations. But in doing so they stipulated
three conditions:
That the interests of “peace and security” of the area, the views of
interested governments and “Ethiopia’s legitimate need for adequate
access to the sea” must be taken into consideration. Thus, resolution
390 – A – (v) was the product of a maneuvering by the USA to stake a
permanent foothold in one of the most strategically prominent areas of
the world.
The Eritrean case is unique in post-colonial history. In no case during
the entire decolonization period, have historical, geographical, ethnic
and economic arguments been applied to deform the right of national
self-determination, except in Eritrea. Even Somalia (which was claimed
along with Eritrea as an integral part of Ethiopia) is today an
independent republic.
Thus Eritrea was treated as a no-man’s land, and not as the homeland of
our million Eritreans, which could be claimed, colonized and its
colonization be justified on the basis of mythology presented as
history. There are quite a few African countries which are land-locked,
but none of these compromised the independence of their more fortunate
neighbors by claiming the right of access to the sea. Since the unique
“principle” of the “right of access to the sea” seems to emanate from
historical, geographical, economic and ethnic arguments, territorial
claims based on these requires the redrawing of the boundaries of most
African countries. Africa would, consequently, be thrown into political
convulsion, and international peace would thereby be threatened. That is
why Eritrea is a test case of whether the sovereignty of African
countries, and international relations should be based on the
territories drawn by colonial powers and accepted by today’s independent
African countries.
A Territorially Defined Ethiopia Did Not Exist Before the Colonial
Period
The territorially defined state is the product of capitalist
development. As such, before the epoch of European colonialism, there
was no territorially defined state, Ethiopia and Eritrea
notwithstanding. The concept of nationhood, and the emergence of nations
into economic-political-cultural units is directly tied up with the use
and development of capitalism, societies were politically organized into
kingdoms, principalities, empires, and the like; the nation sate,
however, emerged in Europe in the 19th century during the
rise of capitalism. The struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism
was in a sense, a struggle or the sell-determination of capitalist
production. Capitalist production required unified market, and a unified
market could be brought into existence only when all feudalist
institutions were demolished. The struggle for a unified market,
therefore, meant a struggle for an economic territory where the
inhabitants of that territory could be unified politically and
culturally. The struggle against feudalism was accompanied by the two
related political currents: one was the concept of the nation where a
people was unified within a given territory (by language, history,
culture, religion and other uniting features); the other current
ushered new political institutions and new political ideas. During this
period the demands for a republican state and the agitation for
democracy constituted the centerpiece of bourgeoisie political
philosophy.
The bourgeois lasses declared that the people are sovereign and that
governments should be contractual, they declared the “general-will” of
the people sovereign, and attributed to the ideals of liberty, equality,
and fraternity, the aura of eternal dignity.
When the European continent was sizzling with the history making March
of capitalist production, the other continents were hibernating. In the
African continent as in all parts of the world, where capitalist
development did not make headway, the concept of the nation was
artificially and foibly injected into its tired veins. The genesis of
the colonization and territorial dissection of the African continent is
today textbook knowledge. The point is colonialist imperialism
demolished the n seedy patterns of production and exchanged of the
continent much like a bull-dozer over sand; over it a new form of
super-structure (the colonial state) was stamped. Henceforth, the basis
of a people, a country, and ultimately, a nation became the territory
that was carved out by a given European colonial country.
In summary, both the:”European “and “colonial” types of nations were
created by the same force, that is the e force of capitalism. The
difference between these two types of nations lies in the important fact
that nations of Europe were historically formed, while the African
nations were forcibly created or brought into existence by the energy of
victorious capitalism. In Africa, however, both the historically
forming forces and capitalist accumulation were either disfigured into
feebleness or entirely eroded by a long history of exploitation.
During the introduction of capitalism in Africa in its colonialist form,
these “tribes” and federations of linguistic-ethnic groups came to be
minuscule nations. The first type (historically evolved) and the second
created by colonialist imperialism) co-exist uncomfortably in Africa. In
fact, some of Africa’s problems can be traced to the tension that exists
between the two forms of nations.
Contrary to myth and well-manipulated propaganda, there was\ no
territorially defined Ethiopia before the advent of Italian, British and
Franc colonialism in the horn of Africa. What existed was a fragile
feudal association between Tgrai and the Amhara regions. The point is,
present Ethiopia, and Eritrea were created into territorially defined
and internationally recognized states, by the same force that reshaped
Africa-European capitalism in its colonialist phase.
Eritrea: A Special Colony
The formal colonial history of our country started in 1980. Italian
colonialism was ended in 1941 only to be replaced by British colonialism
which lasted for ten years. The United States, the author of Resolution
390 – A- (v) concealed its interests in Eritrea with characteristic
perfidy while it appeared to promote the interests of the Ethiopian
Empire in Eritrea. Let us now bring into open the well concealed
interests of the United States at the time. After the expulsion of Italy
from Eritrea in 1941, the British colonial administration quietly
granted to the US the right to use and expand the Radio Marina, the
forerunner of what later was to be known is the collect Kagnew station.
The Kagnew Station is the collective name for a series of huge military
bases among one of whose attributes is the site for the largest
telecommunications-centre outside the US. In effect, therefore, the
United States was defending by devious its continuous presence in
Eritrea. The United States as an interested party struck a bargain with
Haile Selassie. The bargain was for Ethiopia to allow the Americans to
continue their military presence by a formal treaty (this treaty was
signed in 1953 between the government of the United States and Ethiopia
for a period of 25 years), while the Americans promised Haile Selasie
the delivery of Eritrea in a federal form structured in m such a way
that it eventually led to annexation.
The strategy of the United States for maintaining its bases in Eritrea
was divided into three stages:-
1.
To stipulate that “disposal” of Eritrea was accepted only if
Ethiopia’s right of access to the sea was accepted by the General
Assembly of the United Nations.
2.
To use its diplomatic weight in blackmailing the Eitrean people
into accepting the federal devise as a compromise formula.
3.
To structure the federal machinery in such a way that it
ultimately led to the annexation of Eritrea. The basic weakness of the
federation between Ethiopia and Eritrea rested on a deliberate omission:
a federal constitution with the clear intention of regulating the
leadership of these two independent states was not drawn. Failure to do
so inevitably led to the piece-meal annexation of Eritrea, as it was
intended, and ultimately it led to the complete
colonialization of Eritrea. Despite the distortion of the principle of
national self-determination the United Nations at least recognized the
independence of Eritrea as a territorial-political unit separate from
Ethiopia and the government of Eritrea, separate from the government of
Ethiopia. The federation was based on two principles:-
1-
the federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and
2. A democratic constitution and government for Eritrea.
These two principles were deemed irrevocable by the United
Nations. The American-maintained Haile Seaside’s regime, however, was
not to be hindered by resolutions of the International community – much
is the style of South Africa, he went ahead and gobbled up our homeland
in 1962.
Why is Eritrea a special colony?
Nationalist movements in colonized African countries were directed
against this or the other colonial powers. By virtue of Italy’s defeat,
Eritrean anti-colonial nationalism could not be directed against Italian
colonialists, because Italy was a defeated power with no colonial
jurisdiction over Eritrea. It could not be directed against British
colonialism because the British presence was not technically colonial,
but rather a temporary military administration brought about by the
British victory over a Second World War foe. So, Eritrea was neither an
Italian colony nor juristically speaking a British colony. It was a
colony of an invisible hand- the hand of American imperialism. It is
this hand that pushed Eritrea into the pitfalls of the United Nations;
from there to a forced federation with Ethiopia; from that federation to
annexation, and now this hand is footing the bill of Ethiopia’s
colonialism giant our country.
Without the fruits of American industrialism such as sophisticated
weaponry, finance, and America’s diplomatic weight, Eritrea would never
have been forced into a loose federation with Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia.
Similarly, Ethiopia whose primitive economy is a by-word would not have
been able to colonize Eritrea and be able to maintain a colonial war
against the Eritrean people. Eritrea therefore is a special colony
because its colonization is the product of a collusion of American and
Ethiopian interests in the unique matter described above. The United
States needs its bases in Asmara and the Red Seaports of Eritrea: and
land-locked Ethiopia’s access to the Red Sea. America provides the
weapons, finance, diplomat and propaganda muscle; and Ethiopia provides
a legal presence to American imperialism. The US News and World Report,
“Trouble in north-East Africa”, June 19, 1967, is worth quoting “The
importance of the Kagnew Station goes a good way towards
explaining the heavy commitment of the US toward maintaining the
military strength of Ethiopia, our aid, plainly and simply pays the rent
on Kagnew Station.
“Ethiopia receives more than half of all US military aid to nations on
the African continent. The cost of the programme now has limbed over one
hundred million dollars. And the US military Assistance Advisory Group
of some one hundred and ten officers and men in Ethiopia is the biggest
in economic assistance. The US plainly considers Ethiopia a force for
stability not only in the Horn of Africa, but all the countries of black
Africa. In addition to its interests in Kagnew Station, the US is
clearly putting its money on the Ethiopia of Haile Silasie, and whoever
his successors may be, as a base from which to maintain its influence in
the Red Sea basin”.
The Historical Economic Development of Eritrea
Italian colonial capitalism radically transformed the existing property
relations and mode of production of Eritrea. Italian colonial policy
(until the venture collapsed flat on its face by the late 1920s) was a
set-to settle a large Italian population in Eritrea. This meant that
large tracts of land were confiscated or in the case of uncultivated
lands, huge areas were reserved for Italian settlement. Around 1930,
Italian colonial policy was essentially geared towards war. Billions of
Italian lires were infused into Eritrea with the express purpose of
transforming it into a base for their projected military adventure
against Ethiopia. This left Eritrea with a fairly developed industrial
bases, a number of extremely modern cities (including the two ports of
the Red Sea, Assab and Massawa), a skilled working class and the
beginnings o a technological culture.
Seventy years of colonialist and imperialist exploitation of the
resources of Eritrea is the major cause of Eritrea’s underdevelopment.
Eritrea is still in an early capitalist stage of development.
Agriculture constitutes the main form of economic activity: consequently
the dominant social and economic relationship in Eritrea is largely
agrarian. The distorted and uneven economic development of Eritrea on
the one hand, the severe and multiple class exploitation on the other
hand, arises out of the several form of land ownership. The greatest
landowner is the colonial government confiscated huge area of land for
Italian settlement; with certain negligible exceptions, the lowlands
were declared government property. In the highlands the most fertile
pieces of cultivatable land were handed over to the Italian settlers.
The Ethiopian government found this form of ownership economically
rewarding. Thus the land which should have been returned back to the
people is being sold to Italian and other foreign plantation owners,
capitalist farmers, bureaucrat-capitalists and Eritrean collaborators.
Italian plantation and Eritrean bureaucratic –military capitalists form
the second largest group of landowners. When the Italians left, they
sold their farms to those who could afford to buy them, namely, to the
various strands of capitalist classes.
The basic form of ownership in the highlands is the DESSA (village
communal ownership). On the surface, the collective nature of this form
of ownership does not appear unequal, but in fact, in addition to the
Medri Worki (land bought with gold), there is an unequal distribution of
land even in the Dessa system. The inhabitants of a village are divided
into the late comers who have to be content with an interior quality and
quantity of the village land, and the real inhabitants. The
underdevelopment of Eritrean agriculture, however, can not be exploited
wholly by the abnormal form of ownership we outlined above; an accusing
finger must be pointed at the predatory and avaricious nature of
successive colonial powers which have sucked and are sucking, the fruits
of Eritrean soil. Only an intensive programme of a forestation,
fertilization mechanization and a scientific form of ownership adopted
for maximum production can streamline Eritrean agriculture. The
Ethiopian colonial government, as all colonial governments, develops
only those sectors which pay quick dividends. Evidently, the Eritrean
collaborators, and the American Imperialists, before the immense task of
developing Eritrea can be tackled. American and Zionist presence in
Eritrea is particularly relevant to the land question, because thousands
of acres have been allocated to the American military bases in Eritrea
and the Israeli Companies. Most of the domestic capital in the Ethiopian
Empire is invested in Eritrea 90% of which is likely to be owned by
Italians.
Further, 80 -90% of the import and export business is in the hands of
foreign communities. About 85% of big commerce is in the hands of
Italians, Jews etc. From this brief picture we can see that the means of
production and exchange are in the hands of foreign capitalists.
The colonial government has taken over the ports, the transportation
system, municipal lands and all the buildings left by the Italians
has declared all mineral resources a colonial government monopoly;
in short, Ethiopia has completed the economic strangulation of
Eritrea. Having monopolized the mineral resources of Eritrea, the
colonial government felt free to open up Eritrea for plunder by
foreign capital, mainly American.
The colonial government has led and is leading a new class of
bureaucrat- capitalists. Although the Eritrean capitalists and
bureaucrat capitalists are poor when compared to the foreign
capitalists, they form with the comprador classes the main pillars
of the colonial government. It is not only from colonial capitalist
exploitation that Eritrean workers suffer; in addition the Eritrean
people suffer from a distorted form capitalism. Let us explain: the
foreign capitalists who virtually monopolize industry and commerce
and the means of production and exchange, export every dollar they
make to their countries of origin. The Ethiopian colonial government
is plundering the fruit of Eritrean soil and toil. The Eritrean
capitalists, comprador classes, and bureaucrat-capitalists, because
of the acute insecurity of their class, are likewise exporting every
quick cent they make to foreign banks. The huge foreign capital, led
by American capital is oriented towards a quick profit. The net
consequence of all this is that while the resources of Eritrea are
wide open to foreign and national capitalist exploitation (starting
from the mineral resource of Eritrea including the exploitation of
all the abundance of fish in the Red Sea) none of this capital is
organized for the development of Eritrea.
The Social Classes of Eritrea and the Struggle for National
Independence
In outlining the historical and economic development of Eritrea, we
have given a brief indication of the classes which control the means
of production and exchange greatest landowner, absolute monopolist
of mineral resources of Eritrea and its infrastructure, is the
Ethiopian colonial government. But the Ethiopian colonial government
is not an abstract; it is merely a representative of a class or,
more precisely, an alliance of classes. The entire of this alliance
is formed by the Shoan Royal House, the imperial family, the Shoan
military bureaucracy, and the Shoan capitalists.
The Eritrean bourgeoisie has now become an integral part of the
Ethiopian ruling classes. The Eritrean bourgeoisie is composed of
comprador capitalists, and bureaucrat-military-capitalists. Any
analysis of the classes of Eritrea can be complete unless the
economic position of the foreign communities is studied carefully.
The foreign capitalists own 90% of all invested domestic capital.
The foreign capitalists do not have a direct political significance.
Their political power lies in the indirect use of economic power
they posses. The Eritrean bourgeois lasses are not limited to
territorial Eritrea; there are hundreds of Eritreans who have deep
roots in Ethiopia and who have carved out a bourgeois existence at
all levels of Ethiopian state and society. These two strands of the
Eritrean bourgeoisie are developing into a powerful, coherent,
class; allied to the bourgeoisie of other nationalities inn the
Grand Alliance of the Bourgeoisie. Strictly speaking, therefore,
there is no Eritrean national bourgeoisie; the Eritrean bourgeoisie
has in fact become part of the Ethiopian bourgeois. The Eritrean
bourgeois lasses, therefore, are hostile to the idea of Eritrean
national independence. The foreign capitalists had never had it so
good. They have security for their parsons and property, and a
greater opportunity to a mass fortunes in an expand de Ethiopian
market. The Italian capitalists in 1971, unlike the pre-1952 years
are opposed to the materialization of the republic of Eritrea.
The workers, the most advanced and most democratic segment of the
population, are dispersed in several countries. The workers, who,
with the revolutionary intelligentsia, should have been the most
politically conscious, have been demoralized by successive acts of
repression, by the need to find a secure and decent livelihood, and
by a lack of a firm and clear leadership on the part of the E.L.F.
The peasant classes do not know which way to run because they have
recognized that politics has brought little change to the quality of
their lives. Nor has the E.L.F. as in the case of the working
classes, worked out a programme suited to the class interests of the
peasantry. As it has been explained, a large section of the Eritrean
population has been condemned to eternal nomadic because successive
colonial governments expropriated their land. At the present moment
the dominant ideology remains that of the dominant classes. For the
Eritrean Revolution to achieve its goals in short space of time, it
is imperative to extricate the revolutionary classes from the
influence of the exploiting lasses, and to provide them with a
revolutionary ideology adapted to their needs.
Our Objectives
A long chapter of Eritrean history has been a history of resisting
foreign aggressors. Resistance against invaders and the tradition of
remembering our great heroes constitutes an important opponent of
Eritrean culture.
Never in our long colonial history has the Eritrean people been
brutalized as they are being brutalized by the Ethiopian predator.
As soon as the Eritrean masses realized Ethiopian colonial
intentions, they started organizing themselves secretly. By 1957, a
police state was established under the secret police dictatorship of
Tedla Ogbit. The Eritrean people reached by organizing the Eritrean
Revolutionary Movement. As the machinery of colonial oppression
became more grinding, our people concluded that the only road to
liberation lay in organized armed struggle. The Eritrean Liberation
Front was consequently organized in 1961 with the aim of liberating
Eritrea by the armed energy of our masses.
SECTION A
Build a Democratic Eritrean Liberation Front
1- The Eritrean Revolution is a national democratic revolution; its
enemies are Ethiopian colonialism, world imperialism led by US
imperialists, international Zionism, foreign capitalists and
Eritrean collaborating classes.
2- The Eritrean Liberation Front considers the national unity of the
Eritrean people as central objective.
- All national groups are equal, any move to build a
dominant national group shall be considered anti-nationalist.
- All national groups of Eritrea have the right to develop
their languages in a way which encourages the development of a new
revolutionary Eritrean culture.
- The Eritrean Liberation Front and all its organs shall
be reorganized in such a way that Eritreans of all national groups
who accept the programme, political line and regulations of E.L.F.
have the right to participate in the leading organs of the Eritrean
Revolution.
3- The two official languages of Eritrea, Tigrinya and Arabic, shall
be employed in all activities of the E.L.F.
4- The E.L.F. shall guarantee freedom of religious worship
conscience, thought, speech and opinion.
5- The E.L.F. shall establish an equitable and scientific tax-system
in the (…) country.
- The collection of money from the major towns
and enterprises shall be organized.
- The revolutionary army shall engage in
economic production and shall educate the peasant masses in methods
of farming, cattle breeding and marketing.
- The E.L.F. shall promote trade in the liberated areas.
6- Mass organizations shall be organized. Workers, peasants, women
and students movements shall be organized. Although, these
democratic mass-movements are answerable to the leadership of the
E.L.F. they have the right to evolve their independent programmes by
holding congresses of their own.
7- The E.L.F. shall combat illiteracy among the masses and in the
liberation army. Its educational and social policies shall have one
objective: to raise a generation of Eritreans equipped with a
scientific outlook and with love for humanity.
8- The E.L.F. shall establish institutions for the orphans,
families of the martyrs and the war-wounded of the Eritrean
Revolution.
9- The E.L.F. shall endeavor to secure the various material
requirements of the Eritrean refugees by mobilizing the support of
international humanitarian organizations.
10- The foreign policy of the E.L.F. is one of national
independence.
- It shall strengthen its relations with all
national liberation movements.
- It shall reinforce its ties with all
democratic, socialist and anti-imperialist countries and
organizations.
- It shall forge closer ties with progressive
Arab and African countries which are at the vanguard in the struggle
against Zionism and imperialism.
- It shall struggle side by side with the
people of the world for peace, independence and social progress.
- It supports the people of Africa, Asia and
Latin America in their just struggle against imperialism.
- It supports the heroic Palestinian people in
their just struggle to regain their cherished homeland.
- It supports the struggle of the oppressed
nationalities of the Ethiopian Empire in their struggle against the
dominant Amhara military- bureaucratic-aristocracy.
- The E.L.F. likewise supports the Ethiopian
revolutionary movement which is struggling against Haile Selassie’s
regime and imperialism.
SECTION B
Build a new democratic Eritrea
State and Government
1- The revolutionary government shall abolish the reactionary
government structure. The revolutionary government shall raze to the
ground all colonial institutions wishes were established for the
sole purpose of exploiting the Eritrean people. In their place, new,
democratic institutions which will not b allow the exploitation of
man by man shall be established. All institutions not based on
prosperity and other democratic qualifications shall be abolished.
2- Only those ideas, institutions, which have been carefully
experimented and natured by the Eritrean Revolution, shall be
legitimate. The anti-revolutionary ideologies of the feudal,
colonial Ethiopian government; those of the imperialists, foreign
capitalists, Eritrean collaborators shall be vigilantly rooted out.
Only the revolutionary government and those who participated in the
victory of the revolution shall be the exponents of the new economy
and culture.
3- New territorial administrative regions, with full local and
municipal authority shall be established. The territorial
administrative regions and municipalities shall not be allowed to
deviate from the new forms of the revolutionary state.
4- The revolutionary army, in addition to safe-guarding the security
of the state, shall work hand in hand with the people in developing
Eritrea.
5- The revolutionary state shall ensure the fullest liberty of
speech, though, press, free association, religious worship and
conscience.
ECONOMIC POLICY:-
1- The wealth of Eritrea, the fruits of its soil and the labor of
its agricultural workers has been exploited by Italian settlers,
large plantation owners and Eritrean capitalist-farmers. The wealth
that was created by Eritrean labor, from Eritrean soil, has been and
is still being exported to foreign banks. This historical injustice
shall be redressed by confiscation without compensation of all the
land which is in the hands of the enumerated.
2- All the so-called government land which is being sold left and
right to foreign capitalists and Eritrean collaborators shall be
restored to the people from whom it was taken away.
3- All the land which is owned by absentee landlords and other
parasites shall be wrenched away from their hands and restored to
the people who live and work on the land.
4- Land ownership in the Dessa, Risty etc... Areas shall be
democratized and organized for large-scale production. Towards this
end advanced scientific agricultural methods and techniques shall be
introduced.
The revolutionary government shall patiently demonstrate to the
peasantry the advantages of co-operative and collective ownership.
Advanced scientific agricultural methods and techniques shall be
introduced. Similarly, agricultural research centers shall be
established all over the countryside in order to help farmers in
greater production.
5- The revolutionary state shall settle those sections of the
Eritrean population who have been condemned to a life-time of
nomadism. The state shall mechanize and electrify farming
operations, launch water conservation schemes, large-scale
irrigation schemes, encourage scientific livestock-breeding and the
diversification of crops. The gap between the countryside and cities
that has been created by successive colonial governments shall be
remedied. The goal of the revolutionary state shall be to develop a
prosperous and progressive agricultural community.
6- Mobile and fixed properties which have been confiscated by the
Ethiopian colonialists during the liberation war shall be restored
to the people from whom it was taken away.
I NDUSTRY
1- All industrial, commercial and banking enterprises which are in
the hands of foreign capitalists shall be confiscated without
compensation.
2- In order to ensure Eritrea’s speedy industrial development and to
remove the exploitation of Eritrean workers by a handful of
capitalists, the key section of the economy shall be run by the
state.
3- Internal and external trade which is in the hands of foreign
capitalists shall be the interests of Eritrean businessmen where
this is not incompatible with public interest.
4- All exploited and unexploited mineral resources will be
nationalized and will be invested for the benefit of the entire
people.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL POLICIES
1- The revolutionary state shall give unrestricted rights to workers
to form trade unions. The workers who are the most advanced and
democratic section of the population shall participate fully in the
construction of the new society.
2- The revolutionary state shall protect the rights of women
workers. It shall remove all historical prejudice against women and
will fight of state, social and private life. Women shall have a
revolutionary place in revolutionary Eritrea; any manifestation of
discrimination against women shall be severely punished.
3- The state shall elaborate a scheme of holidays with pay for the
wokers and a pension-scheme for retired wokers.
4- The first priority in housing shall be given to workers and their
families. In revolutionary Eritrea workers shall not live in slums;
they shall enjoy the fruits of their labor.
5- All education shall be free and of the same standard for all. The
education of Eritrean children shall be the responsibility of the
state. The school system, therefore, shall be under the control of
the state; private educational establishments shall not contradict
the state educational system.
6- The state shall provide medical services for all the people,
especially the poor classes.
7- The state shall guarantee the right to work to all able-bodied
Eritreans; it shall likewise discourage any habit that may promote
an anti-work culture.
8- The state shall establish an institution of the orphan’s families
of the martyrs, he war wounded and fighters of the liberation Army.
FOREIGN MILITARY BASES:-
To nsure the freedom of the country, and to protect the revolution
and peace in our country and the neighboring countries the state
shall liquidate all American and Israeli bases in Eritrea.
AMENDMENT
The National Congresses are the only authority which has the right
to amend or remove paragraphs from this programme or the entire
programme.
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