First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 29, November 22, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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True to their fighting spirit, however, the Angolan people have not succumbed. A new wave of struggle has unfolded over the last year seeking to free Angola from occupation by the Soviet Union and its Cuban puppet troops.
Angola provides one of the most graphic instances in the world today of how the Soviet wolf tries to get in the back door of a country while the people are mobilizing to fight the U.S. tiger at the front door. While the people were fighting Portugal and Western imperialism, the Soviet Union was passing itself off as the “friend” of the Angolan liberation struggle.
The USSR, however, had no other intention than gaining control of the liberation movement. It used the tactics of supporting one Angolan liberation organization (the MPLA) while stirring up a civil war against the other two (UNITA and FNLA). It became one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of social-imperialism’s evil deeds.
More than 150,000 Angolans died as a result of the Russian-inspired civil war, whose only purpose was to ensure the Soviet Union’s domination in this southern African country. Angola is of great strategic importance to the contention between the U.S. and the USSR. It is also a source of natural wealth, including coffee, diamonds, and oil.
The Soviet Union, along with its Cuban puppet troops, had a great deal of trouble justifying its massive intervention in Angola’s internal affairs. Like U.S. imperialism in Vietnam, the Soviet-Cuban troops also kept promising to leave Angola. Cuban Premier Fidel Castro promised several months ago that he would withdraw “200 troops a week” from Angola.
But no troops have been withdrawn. Latest estimates point to the presence of about 20,000 Cuban troops still remaining in Angola, along with 1,200 Soviet “technical advisors” and 3,000 East German and Bulgarian “agricultural experts.”
The “technical advisers” and “agricultural experts” are not-very-well-disguised civilian representatives of Soviet interests who oversee military operations, the internal affairs and the economic life of the country.
What is a country of only six million people doing with so many foreign troops and advisers? The Soviet-Cuban forces continue to repeat the lie about remaining there in order to oppose “foreign aggression.” But their real purpose is to ensure that Angola stays firmly under Soviet domination.
Right now, that domination is very much under fire from a variety of forces. Guerrilla fighters from UNITA are continuing their operations. An October speech by UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi indicated that more than 20 zones of guerrilla operation had been re-established, especially in the southern part of the country. Reacting to this, Soviet-Cuban forces began their wholesale massacre and mop-up campaign early in November aimed at southern Angola.
Perhaps one of the most significant developments in the resistance of the Angolan people has been the formation of the Communist Organization of Angola (OCA), a Marxist-Leninist group which was founded in 1975. Many of its members include longtime activists from MPLA, which now rules Angola. They broke with MPLA because they refused to see their country’s interests sold out to a new brand of imperialism.
Recent documents from the OCA indicate that hundreds of political prisoners are still being held in Angola and threatened with execution as a result of their outspoken opposition to Soviet-Cuban domination. Newspapers such as Angola, 4th of February, Popular Power and others have been shut down for their favorable articles about China, among other things.
Well-known revolutionary leaders of the Angolan people, like Rui Ramos, former editor of MPLA’s central organ, and Pinto continued opposition to Soviet-Cuban rule.
Although the OCA has been one of the main targets of repression inside the country, it has still managed to function underground and carry out its propaganda work. OCA literature in the last few months has exposed that the main Angolan coffee lands are now being completely run by Cuban administrators, while huge shipments of coffee are being made to the USSR at 38% of the world market price. Other sectors of the economy are being run by members of the Portuguese revisionist party, brought to Angola by the Russians.
Another OCA exposure pointed out that Kurancy Tudor, chief Russian “military advisor” in Angola is actually in full control of the armed forces and that MPLA leadership is frequently ignored in carrying out military maneuvers.
Still another OCA document showed that the Soviet fishing fleet now had unlimited access to Angola’s coastal waters. This is especially noteworthy because the Soviet “fishing fleet” is actually a code word for Soviet espionage ships.
Summing up the present situation and the need to continue the struggle for Angolan liberation, an April statement of the OCA pointed out, “People’s war teaches that people cannot fight one imperialism by relying on another. A people that struggles to be free must depend fundamentally on its own forces.”
The statement continued: “The best sons and daughters of the Angolan people should stand against those who call themselves defenders of national independence but who allow themselves to be subjected to the pressure and manipulation of Soviet and U.S. imperialism. The correct path to follow is to march fearlessly and victoriously towards true liberty and national independence; in the path of popular democracy and socialism.”