Written: October 31, 1983
Published: November 1, 1983
Source: The Ethiopian Herald, November 1, 1983
Digitalisation: East View
Proof-reading: Vishnu Bachani
HTML: Vishnu Bachani
Dear Representatives of the Working People of Ethiopia,
Esteemed Guests and Comrades,
We all know that there can be nothing more of an affront and trauma to the conscience in the world today than being the victim of human rights violations. Grenada has been one since last week. This small island nation of the Caribbean has, since the beginning of last week, become the victim of aggressive acts perpetrated against it by the United States Government along with six other accomplices of the Caribbean area. The human rights of the Grenadians, their ultimate human possession, has been violated in their own country and in their own homes. Quite a number of their beloved sons and daughters have already been killed. The children of the people of Cuba, the genuine friend of the people of Grenada, who were on the island to render internationalist assistance to the national reconstruction endeavour, also fell while fighting heroically in the same trench.
Comrades,
Always fresh is the memory of the sufferings of peoples in the past under the oppressive yokes of tyranny, arrogant expansionism and colonialism. No people today aspires for a return to the past, indeed, theirs is a struggle to completely free themselves from the fetters of the past nor does the irreversible course of history allow the replay of the past.
Nevertheless, in utter negation of this fact and in futile attempt to reverse the inexorable course of history, imperialists and their reactionary allies are steering stubbornly along a course leading to a universal holocaust. The strategy of this ghastly objective consists of erasing socialism from the face of the earth and the perpetration of a host of shameful acts designed to nip in the bud the struggle of peoples to shape their own lives by themselves.
In implementing the first strategy, they have embarked on a course of escalating tension in the world, but they are by and large in no relaxed mood now to claim success on that score. The second strategy which brings them in direct contact with peoples aspiring for or pursuing a progressive course of social progress consists of a sheer crackdown. No people with a revolutionary course of progress is known to have been spared of being the target of such onslaughts, The act now being perpetrated in Grenada is a fresh and glaring confirmation of this trend.
Grenada is never known to have constituted a threat to any country, and least of all to the security of the United States. On the contrary, it is a country which has fully addressed itself to the task of freeing itself from the burdens of underdevelopment, namely, hunger, disease and poverty. By the decision to invade a nation of 120,000 peaceful and unarmed citizens by its incommensurably modern and heavily armed regular forces, the United States Government has committed a flagrant violation of the norms of international law and the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. This is by all standards a shameful act and one which history can never pardon.
In an attempt to justify the move which was condemned even by many of its allies, the United States Government claimed to have been "invited by East Caribbean nations to restore democracy in Grenada", indirectly admitting what it never dared to do, namely, that the people of Greneda did not approve the invasion. There is little doubt that the aggression is designed not for the "restoration of democracy" but rather for the destruction of it. The claim that the move was in response to the invitation by East Caribbean states to restore democracy is unacceptable and an outright lie as it purports to justify the premeditated aggression, preparation for which were evidenced by the ban of credit and assistance which had been imposed on Grenada.
The premeditated aggression on Grenada by the Reagan administration and its contempt to the indignation and condemnation of the peoples of the world as well as the contempt to the call that it withdrew its forces immediately is not an unexpected and isolated incident. Indeed, a number of neighbouring Central American states with independent and progressive paths of development have been subjected, and rather intensely of late, to U.S. interference, though the degree and manner in which this is done may naturally vary. As in the days of colonialism the United States regards the entire Western World as its sphere of influence and claims as its inalienable right the duty to forcefully establish its unquestionable primacy on the Western Hemisphere.
The most surprising thing in this juncture is its insensitiveness towards the underdevelopment and squalor in Central America and the sustained plot and crackdown on the forces of progress and national liberation committed precisely to the task of overcoming the legacies of underdevelopment. In this regard the plot to strangulate socialist Cuba, regarded by many countries in the world as an exemplary pattern for emulation, is particularly lamentable. Similarly, the U.S. trained and armed counterrevolutionary pressure on Nicaragua almost immediately on its freedom from the Somoza fascist grip, the support to the sanguinary act to deter the Salvadoran people's struggle for freedom and lastly this fresh act of intervention against Grenada are among the most dangerous, shameful and shocking aspects of anti-peace, anti-people and anti-democratic onslaughts.
Comrades,
Although world attention is currently focused on Grenada, tensions are on no lower degree elsewhere in the world. The henious acts against many areas of the world, as spearheaded by the U.S. and endorsed by other imperialist forces, is unabatedly in progress, assuming an increasingly menacing dangerous proportion. In spite of unprecedented popular opposition both in Western Europe and the United States itself, the United States Government has given no signal that it is ready to refrain from the stationing of its lethal missiles in Europe. There is no indication that the destructive war and tension in the Persian Gulf area is to be curbed in the near future.
The situation of Africans under the oppression of apartheid, especially the future of Namibia's independence still remains unresolved. The lamentation of Chileans languishing under fascism is making itself increasingly felt.
Furthermore, the U.S. imperialism which after World War II spilled the blood of the Korean, Vietnamese and other peoples committed to peace and democracy, the first to have produced, stockpiled and dropped thermonuclear weapons, has, as if those destructive acts were not enough, not only embarked anew on networking the world with its military bases but also has, in encouraging and collaborating with forces of reaction, stepped up military exercises with the view to further escalating tension. In describing any area of its choice as an area of "basic interest", it is now hovering over the entire world raising high the banner of destruction. There can be no place in the Caribbean, Central America, the rest of Latin America, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean area where there is no U.S. military base or a lethal weapons depot or a base where military exercises are not staged. That even outer space is now perverted to bellicose ends is a well known fact. This ghastly, dangerous, anti-peace, anti-democratic and anti-people policy is nurtured as an act of greatness and civilization.
The main preoccupation of the peoples of the world today is to see the present state of affairs changed and lasting peace guaranteed. The struggle against the possession by any group of weapons of mass destruction has become a cardinal international issue of the day. The peoples of the world wish to see progress in the protracted Soviet-United States talks for the limitation of nuclear arms and finally a sage of guaranteed peace.
Comrades,
The call for peace, equality, social progress and prosperity was, is and will continue to be voiced by the peoples of the world. Instability, inequality and absence of progress have never been in the interest of peoples. To refrain from opposing one country in the name of another is the attribute of a country's greatness. In this regard, the U.S. Administration could have been said to have done well if it had avoided any act which could smear the hands of the people of the United States with the blood of innocent people.
The people of the U.S. do not stand to gain from the atrocities which the Administration perpetrates adventurously. Looking back at Vietnam, one may ask, what did the people of the United States gain from that war except, on the contrary, sustaining the loss of their dear sons and be the target of the criticism and condemnation by world public opinion?
There is no denying the fact that in the bid to amass arms the monopolies of the military-industrial complexes have pocketed huge sums for the mass-destructive arms they deliver. The war-course of the present U.S. Administration brings nothing to the people of the United States, indeed it will mean the sacrifice of human and material resources as well as a crisis of conscience over the wanton damage done to others. How much will the people of the United States have to pay to atone for the aggression perpetrated in their name against a small country as Grenada whose people had no other interest than to work for a better life? We leave the answer and the verdict to history.
Dear Representatives of the Working People of Revolutionary Ethiopia,
Esteemed Guests,
Comrades,
All peace-loving forces in the world have condemned the invasion of Grenada as a sad, shocking and unprecedented act of our time. All indications are that the invasion is the first of a series. It is such an unprecedented act of felony and terror that the security of many countries may well be said to be thereby jeopardized.
Therefore, reiterating the position of Socialist Ethiopia as stated in notes to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, we demand once again from the height of the podium of this solidarity gathering that the invasion forces withdraw from Grenada and that the rights and independence of the people be respected. To this end we call for the unreserved support of the member countries of the Organization of African Unity, the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations, as well as for a vigorous effort on the part of the people of the United States.
Thank you.
[1] Given that the original scan is available, minor typos have been corrected without using [sic].