EUROPEAN ATTENTION has been focused recently on Ethiopia for the first time in many years. The appalling drought brought a whole spate of articles in the press.
Quick to apportion blame, few of them have attempted to analyse the developments within the country over the past few decades, and how this has contributed to the present situation.
HIGHFIELD looks at the situation in Ethiopia.
ETHIOPIA, WITH A tion of about million, bordered by Sudan to the west, the Red Sea to the east, to the south-east, the south. In the north Eritrea, presently Ethiopia but fighting a 23 year war of independence. 'vince is also at war for the same reason.
Ethiopia is the third poorest country in the world, with an income last year of only $111 per head. In 1930 Haile Selassie was crowned emperor, and ruled until his overthrow in 1974.
Little changed during that long period, even with the Italian occupation of 1935-41. which was deteated by the Ethiopian resistance movement and the British (Selassie himself ran to exile in London).
Despite British encouragement, Selassie did little Ethiopia - - a country dominated by pre-capitalist forms of and a feudal monarchy which gave him absolute power. Nevertheless, his power in the provinces was weak. and different ethnic groups tionalities were always treated. The Christians were domialla the minority language was imposed on others, even though Muslim groups made up 35-40 per cent of the population.
the 1970s, the transition to capitalism was still scarcely apparent, and overseas trade was virtually nonexistent. Sixty per cent of Ethiopia's tiny export earnings for 1965-75 came trom one product: cortee. Ihere were only 50,000 cars and trucks in the whole country, when three-quarters of all farms were more than a halfday's walk from the nearest road.
Subsistence The vast majority of the rural population lived in subsistence conditions, with primitive health care and 80 per cent plus illiteracy. The peasan- over 90 per cent of the population - had to pay rent or tribute to the local nobility and church. Outside their local communities, these people were not a cohesive body. Different language, religion, tribe or clan were all-important.
Selassie thus failed to build a nation-state which towards capitalism with bourgeoisie and, inevitably, a major working class.
The exception to this situation was Eritrea. A long-time Italian colony, Eritrea had been developing capitalist agriculture and commoally produc tion since the 1880s. significant urban working class. Haile Selassie ruthlessly suppressed opposition within Eritrea despite tervention aimed at securing a tederal settlement between the government and the Eritrean people.
Within Ethiopia itself land was confiscated to pay for favours, the Oromo people of the south (about 40 per cent of the population) had their language banned and were forced to pay between 50 and 75 per cent of their crops in dues — a far higher.".
has PAUL populaSomalia and Kenya to lies of Figray protrans orl agriculture naunevenly the north.
Amharic Led forces dis Abbaba. widespread position Tigreans, tionalities.
The absence population tion power.
armed forces, develop mittee: the Derg.
native programme was confused, Uprising.)
the Derg had It possessed a Military (PMAC), was UN inEthiopian of a return to civilian rule.
Despite federation of plan People's "" ty (EPRP) demanded proportion than Christian peasants in It may be surprising then that the 1974 revolution occured from within the country and not from outside. The reasons are complex. Very important was the dissension from the armslowly expanding state structure, significant proportion of whom were highly educated and — crucially centrally organised in the capital, Ad- the Of course. there waN but uncoordinated opthe Eritreans, Oromo other naof an Ethiopian try. capitalist class of any size, and the fact that such a minute proportion of direct v benefitted Selassie's regime, meant there was little resistance when a combinaof the provincial nobility, the middle ranks of the armed forces, the 1977. tiny urban layer, and students seized In 1974, a new body took power - the coordinating committee of the the police and ly by the Amharinya word for comThe Derg's official but certainly not socialist. (Given that not one single work by Marx, Lenin, or Trotsky had ever been translated into Amharic, this is perhaps scarcely surWhat was surprising though, after sel un a Provisiona Administrative Council the shooting of its spokesperson General Aman Andom the by a military faction within the Derg, opposed to his attempts to achieve a negotiated settlement in Eritrea. Soon more executions without trial occurrea signaling lne end or the last nope repression, the ConEthiopian Unions (CELU) and the illegal Ethioacuu nary Paran elected assembly and a peoples' democratic republic. To this end, the CELU held a general strike offensive in autumn 1975. The refusal of the Derg to agree to these demands led to a civil war.
The EPRP liquidated hundreds of PMAC supporters, responded by launching a 'red terror campaign in 1977. Tens of thousands were snol witnoul Iral.
All this occurred in a period when Derg had allegedly embraced socialism. Colonel Mengiste was then at its head, and has remained there ever since. No elections have ever taken place, but the military junta maintains a fragile hold on the counThe response of world powers to these developments was complex flaucure by the wall Somalia over Ogaden, a desert region in the south of Ethiopia bordering Somalia, which the latter invaded in The United States provided large scale support to the Somalis looking to overthrow the Derg and inLa mole openly pro-capitalist regime.
They were backed in this by the conservative Arab states, who feared the spread of anti Muslim governments and saw the Sudan as the possible next victim. The old proIsrael Selassie regime was preferable.
After years of courting Selassie the USSR hedged, mistrusting the er ratic nature of the Derg The turning point was November 1977, when the Somalis expelled all Soviet and Cuban advisers their country. USSR had never backed their claim to Ogaden.
Had it not been for the support of several thousand Cuban troops, plus massive Soviet military aid, the Derg could well have fallen. At the same time, the Eritreans had been making major advances in the north. qualms the Cubans had about Ethiopian repression were eventually overcome, Castro referred to Mengistu as a 'revolutionary leader' by 1978.
Since that Libya has become a big supplier of arms, to further Qadaffi's battle against the conservative Arab states.
the Derg has introduced to Ethiopia is now fully supported by the USSR. A Derg 'workers th, at celebrations which cost the equivalent of several billion pounds Ordinary workers and peasants won't be getting much for this squandering of funds though workers' democracy whatsoever, and is strictly a 'cadre' maintain the backing of the expanding bureaucracy.
reform, developing state with cash crops for export. drastically reduced the amount food for internal Hence the appearance of Ethiopian melons in Britain last month.
tion sectors have been extremely slow, as has development of industry or even an adequate transport structure for the country. External economic or project aid either from the Eastern bloc or the West has been pathetic.
The Morning November editorial guerilla activity in the northern provinces in many responsible for the acuteness of the famine problem This is a gross distortion. The truth is that the Derg spends one third of its entire budget on defence The termed war the fragile economy.
Tens of thousands of have been conscripted into the army, leaving entire areas short of people to plant seeds and harvest crops. Further, large amounts of food are re quisitioned for the armed forces from areas that need it themselves.
peasantry in all areas. It maintains huge cumbersome whose lifestyle is comparable to that also .. of Western diplomats; with immense privileges.
the its backers.
implementing cultural redistribution, the Derg.
Thatcher, closer The model of 'socialism' which prays that helped party was set up last Inol amined gigantic The has no internal organisation designed to score On the crucial question of land all resources have gone to farms producing This has consumption.
Advances in the health and educaarticle directly Star its says that 'the ther, ways directly • regions.
knowing better - fantastically distorting peasants bodies The Derg has totally alienated the were to The Derg stubbornly refuses even to consider the demand ot the Eritreans Tigreans, alone the opposition movements in south, of which the Oromo Liberation Front is the largest The drought has obviously mad the current crisis far worse, but after the imperialists, the chief responsibility for the famine in the country lies with the Ethiopian government and Much of the suffering would have been avoidable if the Derg had pur sued even a remotely socialist path meaningful agrireform based on land and recognising the rights of the various nationalities and ethnic groups. It is this refusal which has led the Tigrean People's Libera tion Front to nine years of war with Alternative Needless to say, the British government has pursued a typically devious path over the past few years before prescul wave publicity, Malcolm Rifkind, Ministe: of State for the Foreign Office, wen to Ethiopia and had extensive discus sions with Mengistu. It seems tha Thatcher was reconciling herself to stable Ethiopian regime — even if it i allegedly anti-capitalist and afford une soviet umon major suralegic po. facilities in the Red Sea The alternative (which the Wes has given support to in theory but no in practice) is more unpalatable i prospect that is, of revolutionar socialist regimes in Eritrea and Tigra! province, with complete control ove those areas, plus a socialist advance it the rest of Ethiopia as the oppositio movements gain ground This is tricky ground indeed. Th stakes are very high. Just across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, which ner the Soviet Cubans will leave. Saudi Arabia also Farm the Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF), but this is complicated issue which must be e anothe Lil. It does no follow from this though as th Morning Star claims — that the EPLI itself is reactionary.
In the meantime, the West seeks t propaganda points ove drought relief aid. This will lose valu as the USSR steps up its own aid pro gramme in a big way. The Britis! public has shown itself to be far mor generous than Thatcher. It is a grea pity therefore, , thanks to Fleet Stres and the Morning Star, they are no being given the true story of politica events in Ethiopia.
One final point. It is incorrect t argue (as Jude Woodward did in he Socialist Action) socialists should be demanding conditional aid be sent to the Ethio pian government without also deman ding that the British government deal with the Eritreans Tigreans — who control around 8.
the Eritrea Reflief Association and Christian Ai are the only British aid agencies deal ing on such a basis. All the rest hav been sending aid to Addis Abbab full well that it has bee diverted to the Ethiopian army.
War on Want and the Eritrea Relief Association are also the on concerned with long ter development aid projects, rather tha short term food distribution It is a colossal tragedy that many have died in the three year o famine and in the wars. It would be a equal tragedy if socialists in Britai be denied the facts systematically miseducated West, but also by th • USSR, Cuba; and the Morning Stai
Socialist Action 23 November 1984
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per cent of their respective areas. Fur War on Want,