[Eritrean youth: EPLF has wiped out illiteracy within…]

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Eritrean youth: EPLF has wiped out illiteracy within Bomb damage in Eritrean capital Asmara cratic elements in the ELF escalated at the end of 1969.

It was physically impossible to conduct the struggle within the ELF and so the EPLF was formed in 1970.

And in June 1970 the first congress, if we can call it a congress-the first meeting of the EPLF was held.

What today are the main political differences between the ELF and the EPLF?

Historically it is related to the development of the struggle, the nature of the leadership which was composed elements from the national bourgeoisie who didn't have any nalvsis of the Eritrean situatiol and failed in the mobilisation o and estimating the level of consciousness of the masses.

Instead they divided the Eritrean people and the leadership was using sheer violence against all elements who tried to correct this line.

You have a military and limited political alliance with the ELF today. But how do you characterise it politically?

The ELF is in a phase of Amdemicael Kahasai evolution because new elements are joining the ELF-elements opposed to the reactionary line of the ELF.

And certain lines and theories of the ELF are being repeatedly exposed. For instance, their economic programme and their political line which maintains that the petty bourgeoisie is the most conscious force in third world countries like Eritrea, that the working class is weak and it is only the petty bourgeoisie that can lead the revolution. This theory is being exposed.

They openly maintain that we are in a phase of national liberation struggle and you shouldn't conduct social revolution at this phase of the We maintain that we must carry on social revolution along with the liberation struggle.

Their programme on land seizure and so on is a reformist one.

They say land tenure in Eritrea should be democratised but do not advocate that there should be a fundamental change in the relations of production.

It's still in a phase of evolution. The leadership is very much dominated by elements who want the establishment of a bourgeois nationalist stage in And vou oppose this!

For us there is no sense in getting rid of one exploiting system to create another exploiting system.

We maintain that we must create a new order in which peasants and workers along with other oppressed sections of our society would assume power and that all the benefits of the economy should go to this majority.

So in the creation of certain services like hospitals and so on one can see the difference. What are the main practical changes in the liberated areas under EPLF control?

From the day of its creation the EPLF has mainly concentrated its efforts in the mobilisation, organisation and politicisation and arming of the masses and laying the basis for people's democratic power in Eritrea.

In this effort it has been able to wipe out illiteracy 100% from within its own ranks, done quite a lot of literacy work within the masses.

It has conducted systematic political education within the armed and unarmed masses and has brought about fundamental changes in the economy where the EPLF strives to change the feudal relations of production in the Eritrean countryside. Could you say more in detail about these changes, about the struggle against feudalism?

In Eritrea more than 80% of the people depend on agriculture and so the main effort has been concentrated to change this.

We have different types of land tenure in Eritrea, types of feudal tenure. The effort of the EPLF was to create cells in every village. These cells are composed of the poor and middle peasants.

Through them we conducted political education. We have armed the most conscious elements out of this and through this and the creation of people's assemblies in villages we have brought about land refrom and we are encouraging the creation of cooperatives in the liberated villages.

Now various cooperative shops-people's shops-have been created. In the politicai field we have seen a big participation as well as the people's militia.

The power lies Mou hands of the poor and middle peasants.

For the first time in the history of the Eritrean people women are actively participating in the people's assemblies and the people's militia.

The equality of women is PHOTO:

its own ranks. not only guaranteed in the programme of the EPLF but they are actively participating in all fields of the struggle-in production in the political and military work.

What is the relationship between the role of the peasantry and that of the working class in the liberation movement?

Of course, the working class in Eritrea had a very militant role in the struggle, starting in 1941.

During the federation (195262) the dock workers in alliance with the petty bourgeoisie and students and so on played a major role.

The role of the peasants, due to the low level of political consciousness was very minimai in the first stages of the struggle -this also due to the negligence on the part of the ELF in mobilising and raising their level of political consciousness.

Now the EPLF has been able to mobilise the peasants in the national liberation struggle and a very close alliance of the workers and the peasants has been created.

We have set up a cadre school within the EPLF and over 80% of those who participate in this cadre school are of peasant and worker origin.

Within the , EPLF at the different levels there is this alliance which is dominating the central committee itself. Finally, what support for your struggle do you look for from the working class movement in Britain and Western Europe?

The EPLF identifies its struggle as an integral, inseparable part of the world-wide revolutionary movement. It is the duty of all in this struggle to help each other. For us the best form of solidarity to the Eritrean people is that the workers in the capitalist countries should intensify the class struggle in their respective countires.

But also we need political support to the Eritrean struggle, propaganda work to extend knowledge of the struggle and whatever material, humanitarian support possible like medicines and clothes.

Our arms are mostly captured from the Ethiopian colonialists.

In general we work on the basis of self-reliance but we do not minimise the role of outside

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age tiga 'ednesday 28 June