Victims of Moscow's Cynical Diplomacy

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The forced incorporation of Eritrea into Ethiopia, which the Soviet Union opposed in the United Nations after the war, was never accepted by the Eritrean masses.

National liberation organisations were set up and in the days of Haile Selassie's despotism got moral Castro support from Moscow and even some material support from Cuba where some Eritrean guerilla fighters were trained.

As long as the imperialistbacked Emperor hung on to power the position of the Stalinist bureaucracy was Clear-strong support for the Somalian junta and token help to Eritrean national liberation.

But in 1974 Haile Sclassie along with his feudal aristocracy was overthrown.

At the beginning of 1974 the tensions of decades exploded throughout Ethiopia.

Workers, peasants and students staged hundreds of demor strations, strikes and other actio is which brought the autocracy to its knees.

For months Haile Selassie manoeuvred to find some basis of political support but found none.

As power seemed to be passing altogether out of the hands of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie a group of military officers known as the Military Coordinating Committee came to the rescue.

Mouthing "revolutionary" words the MCC ruthlessly imposed its power not only against the collapsing feudal aristocracy but also against the independent mobilisations of workers, peasants and students.

In September 1974 Haile Selassic was formally deposed and the MCC formed a provisional military government which was known as the Derg (mcaning Armed Forces Coordinating Committee).

The Derg soon declared itsclf "socialist" What "socialism" seemed to mean was a land reforni, some nationalisations but the reserving of some areas of the economy for capitalism including investments from the imperialist countries.....

Salar involved the ruthless supression of all independent parties and organisations, attempts to prevent all strikes, the total suppression of the trade union movement and so on-not unlike the policies of other "socialist" military dictatorships like those of Libya, Algeria, Peru and even Somalia.

But as time went by the repressive actions of the Derg in some ways went even further than similar regimes.

Both the "left" tone and the repressive brutality of the regime intensified after Colonel Mengistu literally shot his way to power in a meeting of the Derg in February of this year.

The instability within the junta released a new round of mobilisations led by left wing forces such as the Ethi opian Popular Revolutionary Party.

All these were put down with almost genocidal fury by the MURDERED Many thousands were murdered in the first months of 1977. The regime in fact raised money by selling the bodies of the massacre victims back to their families at £100 a time.

If the relatives would not buy them the bodies were thrown to the hyenas.

In the last few weeks Mengistu is reported to have ruthlessly suppressed the petty-bourgeois Maoist Meison group which until recently supported the Derg.

Last week Mengistu announced the establishment of a single legal government party, the Ethiopian Workers Party.

This, then, is the regime chosen by the Soviet Union as its new close ally in the Florn of Africa.

The Soviet bureaucracy's plan has never been simply to shift its allegiance from Somalia to Ethiopia.

Its 'aim is to reconcile these differences and become the dominant force in the whole CONCEDE What it has argued for is that Ethiopia should concede territory in Ogaden to Somalia and that some form of autonomy should be granted to Eritrea after which everyone would live happily ever after under Soviet tutelage.

But the Kremlin bureaucracy s attempts at compromise have so far failed because it is dealing not with its obedient servants but with opportunists such as the Derg and the Somalian junta who have their own particular and conflicting interests.

It is also dealing with the masses demand for national independence in Fritrea which they will not tone down just because it suits the Soviet bureaucrats.

Ot course, it is still possible that under pressure the split national liberation movement will be forced into a compromise with the Derg.

Both the main liberation movements, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and the Eritrean Popular Liberation Front (EPLF) have been involved in bitter battles with each other in the past, though recently they have moved closer together at least on tactical questions of the fight against the Derg's arniy and its recently mobilised popular militia.

CONSISTENT

The EPLF has a much more "left' image than the ELF but the tWo political strategies are consistent with cach other since the EPLF does not in its immediate programme go beyond the "national democratic revolution".

Roth fronte have received material aid from a variety of sources including imperialist and right wing Arab governments.

The ELF however, has tried to create political links with organisations further to the left.

For instance at the congress of the EPLF a few months ago, there were delegations from the People's Forces Republic of Yemen, from Gadaffi in Libya, from the Popular Front and the Democratic Front in Palestine, from the People's Front for the Liberation of Oman, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party and the Italian Communist UNRELIABLE The problem with these friends has been that either they are not materially powerful or not reliable or sometimes, neither.

Gadaffi, for instance, who is in a position to aid the Eritrean liberation struggle, has now sent help to Mengistu-though not too much since it is hard for him as fundamentalist Moslem to justify aiding a predominantly Christian country against a Moslem one.

The opportunism and treachery of Stalinism and its world allies in supporting the Derg, theretore, 1s creating a new opening tor imperialism and the most reactionary Arab governments in the whole area.

It is well known that in the last few months the Stalinists of Moscow have found themselves not, as they would wish, creating a kind of Pax Sovietica in the Horn of Africa but, instead, taking sides with the increasingly war-torn Derg.

And unless there is a very sharp change of fortunes the Derg faces defeat on at least two fronts.

It does not deny that the Somalia-backed West Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) now controls 80% of the area of the eastern provinces including Ogaden; only three towns remain in Ethiopian Brezhnei hands and they have all recently been the scenes of major battles.