Comrades and friends:
On behalf of the Secretariat of the World-Wide Federation of Ethiopian Students, I would like, first of all, to express our deep and comradely appreciation for having been given the opportunity to attend, as invited guests, this Fifth Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). We, in the World-Wide Federation of Ethiopian Students,hold very high regard for, and value greatly our close and fraternal relations with the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). This is so, not merely because of the consistent and intensive solidarity and support that the Party has given to the struggle of our peoples, but also because of the fact that this support and solidarity is made on a principled basis, on the basis of genuine Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Thanks to the extensive coverage given in the Party’s press, the Canadian proletariat and the working masses have been kept abreast of the developments in the struggle of our peoples. And this, coupled with the ever intensifying struggle that the Canadian proletariat and working masses are carrying out against U.S. imperialist domination and the Canadian bourgeoisie, is what we consider genuine proletarian internationalism. For it is only when the proletariat and the working masses resolutely carry out their struggle against their own ruling classes, and when in this process, the highest possible support, through propaganda, sympathy and material aid is rendered to each other, that genuine proletarian internationalism triumphs. The most essential condition that this will be most effectively achieved, is of course, that in each country the leading role of the proletariat is realized through its Marxist-Leninist party. Such is the proletarian internationalism that Marxist-Leninist theory teaches and such is the proletarian internationalism that we recognize and struggle for. It is with this revolutionary spirit and sentiment that we hail this Fifth Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)! So comrades and friends, we say here, Hail the Fifth Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)! Long Live the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)! (applause)
Comrades and friends, recognition of this proletarian internationalist principle and strict adherence to it, is of the utmost importance. It is fundamental because the world revolutionary movement has, in its long history, been repeatedly polluted by pseudo-theories about the road and the process of social and national liberation of peoples. It is fundamental because we believe and follow the immortal Marxist-Leninist teachings, that the liberation of peoples, the road to socialism is not a figment of the imagination, but is rather, and first and foremost, a law-governed process, whose laws cannot be altered by the sinister and clever manoeuvres of this or that revisionist.
Comrades and friends, one such ideological bankruptcy, one such pseudo-theory which has direct bearing on the struggle of our peoples and which has been totally repudiated thanks to the Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party in Ethiopia is the so-called non-capitalist road to socialism concocted by the Khrushchovite revisionists. These modern revisionists, after having reversed beyond recognition the earth-shattering achievements of the Great October Socialist Revolution and of Lenin and Stalin in all fields, have consistently engaged in shameful and blatant distortion, subversion and negation of the social and national liberation of the peoples throughout the world. According to this theory, for example, these modern revisionists, hiding behind all sorts of pragmatist premises, such as “there is a new world situation”, “a new balance of forces”, etc. etc., claim that national liberation fronts can transform themselves into communist parties. And that through the process of what they call “closer approximation” such fronts as national trade unions can gradually adhere to the teachings of scientific socialism; that state capitalism presumably built by mere nationalization of some of the means of production, by this or that dictator, can grow into socialism; that reforms can culminate in revolution etc., etc. This of course is nothing but the most vulgar revisionism. It is completely at variance with the Marxist-Leninist teachings on the necessity of the leading role of the proletariat through its communist party, which in turn has its own process of creation, development and operation. This revisionist trash cleverly negates the necessity of establishing the people’s democratic dictatorship in semi-feudal and semi-colonial countries, which again can only be achieved under the leadership of the proletarian party and through a people’s war of liberation. This serves as a necessary precondition and guarantee of developing, in an uninterrupted manner, the national liberation revolution through to socialist revolutionary construction.
Comrades and friends, for their part the multinational proletariat and working masses of Ethiopia, organized on their part and led by the communist EPRP, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party, are currently engaged in fulfilling this glorious task. And I will not dwell too much on the situation in our revolution, for thanks again to your Party’s press, you have continuously been kept abreast of its developments. I will therefore limit myself to briefly providing a few of the highlights.
The new democratic revolution in Ethiopia, ushered in through the new revolutionary upsurge in February 1974, has since then entered the decisive course, the course of the armed revolution, led by the armed wing of the party of the Ethiopian proletariat, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Army, the army that guides our revolution in developing by leaps and bounds. The torch of liberation that has been lit in the mountainsof Assimba,some three years ago, is now engulfing large areas of Ethiopian territory. So far, the People’s Army has liberated large areas in three adjacent provinces such as Tigrai, and in several other areas, guerrilla activities are being intensified.
The People’s Democratic United Front, another necessary precondition for carrying out the new democratic revolution, is in the process of formation. The EPRP has recently issued a draft programme for such a front which, after a nationwide struggle and discussion will bring together all anti-feudal, anti-imperialist and anti-bureaucrat-capitalist classes and strata of the multinational Ethiopian masses under a common political programme.
On the side of the enemy’s camp, the perpetual crisis within the Fida ruling military clique, its revisionist and imperialist sustainers and all the other reactionary groups continues unabated. U.S. imperialism, operating through its reactionary puppet regimes in the Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as its internal social base, that is the feudalists, bureaucrats, and aristocrats grouped under the arch-reactionary Ethiopian Democratic Union, continues to lodge sinister desires at retaining its neo-colonial domination of Ethiopia in particular and the region in general. The Soviet revisionists, on their part, have thrown their full weight behind the fascist regime, oppressing directly and through their errand boys in Cuba and the Ethiopian revisionist chieftains, committing every imaginable act of aggression and subversion, in order to remain the neo-colonial masters in Ethiopia. Thus, we find these two deadly enemies of the oppressed peoples and nations of the world, the two superpowers, currently undertaking their fierce contention in the whole of Africa, as part and parcel of their ever growing hunger for world hegemony. And as such the struggle of our peoples cannot but be directed against both superpowers, and their internal social base, the fascist junta. As EPRP recently pointed out: “The regime of fascists and social-fascists, the regime of the social-fascists and the fascist clique with the help it receives from Soviet social-imperialism and U.S. imperialism, including mercenary military troops and military hardware, is launching an unprecedented inhuman injustice on the masses.”
One direct result of the fascist policies of the military regime relates to the wars of genocide repeatedly unleashed against oppressed nationalities, especially that in Eritrea. Since it seized state power three years ago, several attempts have been made to militarily crush the 16-year-old just and heroic struggle of the Eritrean masses against national oppression and for the right to national self-determination and independence. As a result of the embarrassing military defeats the fascist regime repeatedly suffered at the hands of the heroic combattants of the two liberation fronts in Eritrea, the EPLF and the ELF, both superpowers together with their respective reactionary allies in the region are intensifying their sinister manoeuvres to subvert this struggle. With this year, U.S. imperialism’s current arms trader, the self-proclaimed champion of “human rights”, Carter, expressing his “deep concern” for what is happening in Eritrea, recently said: “We’re trying to understand their situation”. The logic of this imperialist whitewash cannot of course escape anyone with the slightest anti-imperialist sentiment. In the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, another war front has opened. Although the war is presently being fought in the name of the oppressed Somali nationality in Ethiopia, it has nothing to do with their real and genuine aspirations. In fact, it is a very reactionary war, instigated by the social-chauvinist policies and fascistic repression of the fascist Ethiopian junta on the one hand, and the expansionist and interventionist policies of the reactionary Somalian ruling classes. Again, the two superpowers, directly and indirectly, are the greatest merchants of death in this war. And in fact, the war has been fought on their behalf by their respective proxies.
Comrades and friends, the Ethiopian communists, organized under the Marxist-Leninist EPRP, have taken up the task of leading the Ethiopian masses towards their national and social liberation, and as such are proving themselves as one detachment of the International Marxist-Leninist Movement, which has taken up this glorious task in its respective country as its immediate task. Because of the correct and revolutionary leadership of the EPRP and the advances that the new democratic revolution in Ethiopia has made in such a short span of three years, an anti-communist hysteria is hounding the fascist regime and other reactionary groups in Ethiopia as well as the ruling circles in the neighbouring countries. Tens of thousands of revolutionaries and democrats have shed their blood as a result of the fascist repression directly or indirectly aided by the two superpowers. A world-wide propaganda of distortion, vilification and counter-revolutionary opinion formation has been carried out by the imperialist and revisionist media alike. But this is not strange for us, for we could not have expected otherwise. Such attacks on genuine revolutionary forces have always been an acknowledged feature of the propaganda of all enemies of the people the world over. As Lenin once said: “That the bourgeoisie hates us so passionately is one of the most striking proofs that we are showing the people the right ways and means of overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie. They do us honour by venting all of their hatred on us. It would be strange and offensive if they were to praise us.”
In closing, we would like to take this opportunity to convey our people’s militant solidarity with, and unequivocal support to the struggles of the peoples of Chile, Zimbabwe, India, Trinago and Eritrea, through the comrades whom this conference has helped bring together. It was of great revolutionary interest to us to have met comrades from various countries representing organizations leading the actual national and social liberation struggles of these peoples. It has given us an excellent opportunity to understand their situation further and to exchange views with some of them. We strongly believe that Internationalist rallies like this one play a significant role in further developing and consolidating militant and genuine anti-imperialist solidarity among all struggling peoples.
Comrades and friends:
HAIL THE FIFTH CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE OF CPC(M-L)!
LONG LIVE CPC(M-L)!
LONG LIVE PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM!
LONG LIVE THE MILITANT FRIENDSHIP AND UNITY OF THE CANADIAN AND ETHIOPIAN PEOPLES!
WORKERS AND OPPRESSED NATIONS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!