[As the Eritrean revolutionaries continue to hold the…]
Socialist Press1978 1978-05-31Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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As the Eritrean revolutionaries continue to hold the Ethiopian forces beseiged in Asmara, the Derg in Addis Ababa has been able to vent its frustration in other directions.
Ethiopian radio last week announced the dismissal of the entire executive committee of the All-Ethiopia Trades Union charged with "corruption, political sabotage and abuses of authority"
Another charge was that the • Executive had been infiltrated by the Meison political movement, which the military regime has been at pains to stamp out.
This same political grouping seems to have been used by Cuban diplomats in an unavailing attempt to pressure the Derg into ending military rule and holding back on the war in The two senior members of the Cuban embassy have reportedly left Ethiopia after failing to persuade Derg leader Mengistu to establish a dialogue with exiled Meison leader Dr. Negede Gozeze.
Little desire
Such reports reveal the extent of the problem created for international Stalinism and its allies by the war in Eritrea.
The Stalinist bureaucracies themselves have very little desire to be seen so openly engaged in physically massacring a revolutionary struggle as the demands of Mengistu for the liquidation of the Eritrean guerrillas would force them to do.
The Eritrean Popular Liberation Front 'has appealed to the Cubans and South Yemenis to join forces with them against the repressive and bloody regime in Addis Ababa (see their statement, reprinted in Socialist Press 97).
Despite his fulsome praise for Mengistu, Castro has undoubtedly attempted to arrange negotiations between the EPLF, the Eritrean Liberation Front and the Ethiopian dictatorship.
Another coup?
These have so far come to nothing through the violent opposition of Mengistu.
It would come as no surprise to learn that the Soviet and Cuban bureaucracies have been working to engineer another coup within the Ethiopian counter-revolution-a coup that would bring to power a regime sufficiently grateful to Stalinism that it would negotiate a settlement with the Eritreans, and thus save the bureaucracies considerable embarrassment in their efforts to maintain defensive interests in this region of Africa.