Written: January 1, 1979
Published: January 2, 1979
Source: The Ethiopian Herald, January 2, 1979
Digitalisation: East View
Proof-reading: Vishnu Bachani
HTML: Vishnu Bachani
Down with imperialism, the enemy of workers and oppressed peoples of the world, and its accomplices—anti-people and anti-peace reactionary forces.
You graduating officers who are the gains of the Ethiopian Revolution and embryo of the red army,
Distinguished guests and comrades,
We feel great pleasure not only to be in the midst of the 37th graduating class of officers who have been tested during the four years of our bitter struggle, particularly during the armed struggle when we were wallowing in blood and who have been selected for greater responsibility and public trust, but also to award the diplomas of commissioning which attest to the results of your efforts.
We always feel special reminiscence and special pride when we are present at this front in particular, the front on which the broad masses of Ethiopia withstood the plot directed against their revolution, their unity and the very existence of their country and repulsed and crushed the open and arrogant invasion, thus demonstrating that victory belongs to them.
The ground we are standing on and the land farther away, in general each and every plot of land and the tracts of soil strewn with the bones and stained with the blood of our forebears and we their children, belong to the Ethiopian people. We ourselves should tread on this land and soil with high respect and care when crisscrossing it, let alone entertain the idea that our enemies will again see it.
What is awaiting you comrades, who are today commissioned as army officers on this land left fallow by the blood and bones of heroes and ready to embark on the field of struggle, is to raise the banner of your revolutionary compatriots and carry on the struggle to the final victory by making all the sacrifices expected of you.
We reiterate our readiness for the historic call of the Motherland.
We all renew on this occasion the pledge w have made for our Revolutionary Motherland.
No one will dare violate the integrity of our Revolutionary Motherland which will be defended to the last rifle and the last revolutionary.
Comrades:
Those of you who are graduating today must realize that in view of the present stage our revolutionary struggle has reached, great sacrifices and responsibility await all of you.
Comrades: You have been selected from the army on the basis of your leadership qualities and your consciousness to participate in this course at a time when the revolutionary process has reached a decisive stage. We congratulate you for having successfully surmounted and come out through trials of the battlefield and revolutionary struggle. On you has been reposed the hope and confidence that you would prove to be the nucleus and driving force of the red army. Therefore, you should be fully conscious of the fact that you have been called upon to overcome the special task ahead of you with revolutionary valour and discipline, determination and sacrifice. The struggle before you is of double or twofold character. This makes the tasks entrusted upon you by the masses or the call you have been asked to accomplish difficult and of special significance.
It is not armed struggle alone through which your leadership talents are to be tested in the future. It is equally in the struggle against hunger, poverty, disease and ignorance as well as in the goal of building a prosperous Revolutionary Ethiopia which is entirely free from neo-colonialism, whatever may be its form or direction. Our Revolutionary Army has to be at the forefront rather than being a spectator of the second phase of the production campaign now being carried out by the Ethiopian people. It is incumbent to translate into deeds from one corner of the country to the other our motto of struggling while producing and producing while struggling.
When we observe the stage in which our country finds itself in the armed struggle, the situation is not so perfectly reliable as to enable a revolutionary people to stand at ease and disarmed. Nevertheless, the victories scored one after the other provide a source of immense pride. In addition to the victory achieved previously in the East and the South, Ethiopia has won the laurel of a similar victory in the Northern Front.
The Second Revolutionary Liberation Army has wrested from the jaws of the treacherous secessionists the strategic town of Keren which had temporarily been their stronghold. The reactionary Siad Barre army indulged in a vainglorious bravado over a temporary and cheap victory only to be soon routed and compelled to flee by the counteroffensive taken by our Revolutionary Liberation Army.
At that time the Shah of Iran, who presently is in the grip of panic and tension, asserted his allegiance to his imperialist supporters and his fear of and aversion to the Ethiopian Revolution by declaring that Iran would not observe in silence if the Ethiopian army crosses the border to Somalia. Today also one of the members of the neighbouring reactionary ruling class has voiced a similar bravado when it saw that the treacherous reactionary group on which it has counted upon to divide Ethiopia and weaken the revolution was crumbling down under the weight of the Second Revolutionary Liberation Army. It has reacted boastfully with the statement that it has the right to defend itself in the face of the spread and expansion of communism in the region.
What we want to make clear to this reactionary who does not understand that no force can deny the wishes of the oppressed masses and arrest the course of history is that the Ethiopian Revolution, which is part of the struggle of workers and oppressed peoples of the world, has the responsibility of fighting against the continuation and expansion of oppression and exploitation in the region.
Although it may seem that the war on the Eastern and Southern fronts has ended and been finalized, the trouble is being resuscitated and the situation is becoming grave due to the enemy continuing to create friction and waging its war through infiltrators in the belief that it is providing support to the Northern Front.
Not satisfied with the arrogant and unlawful invasion it launched yesterday and not learning from the shame and humiliation which its arrogance brought it, the reactionary ruling class in Mogadishu is taxing our patience.
Revolutionary Ethiopia has spared no effort to repeatedly explain to its allies and enemies alike as well as demonstrate in practice its principled stand and strong desire to live in peace with its neighbours.
What we say is, let us not by spreading unscientific contradictions and hatred set against each other in war brotherly peoples linked by history and geography and belonging to the same class.
What we say is, let us by eschewing vain pretensions of greatness and ambitions of expansionism and instead build through respecting internationally recognized frontiers good neighbourliness based on mutual respect and mutual concern.
What we say is, let us declare a joint war against the common enemies of hunger, disease, and generally economic backwardness which have affected the oppressed people of Somalia even longer than they have affected our people.
Our yearning for peace and the unlimited efforts we are making in that direction have not been heeded and correctly interpreted by the ruling classes in Mogadishu.
In fact, the answer to our call for peace and good intentions has been destruction, aggression and invasion and this is growing worse and more grave from time to time.
We have reached a stage where this can no longer be tolerated at all.
Since expression of our good intentions is like clapping with one hand as long as our call for peace is not reciprocated by the Mogadishu ruling class and since the latter fails to desist from destruction and invasion, our message today may well be the last.
Comrades:
As we have pointed out repeatedly in the past, the broad Ethiopian masses and their revolution are not alone.
The socialist countries and other progressive forces who are allies in our struggle are fully on our side and ready to partake in our struggle and die our death.
Those who had sacrificed themselves over and above providing decisive material and moral support in the struggle so far waged are not few in number. As a result of the recent visit to the socialist countries, our firmly pledged supporters, and the exchanges of views held with the revolutionary leaders, we have also been able to learn and feel all the more proud that we will not be alone in the just struggle for justice, equality, peace and the welfare and prosperity of mankind, which we will be waging in the future as well.
As you all very well realise, for an oppressed and exploited people who had been chained under the feudo-bourgeois order of the imperialist era wishing to advance to a socialist way of life, immense struggle and great sacrifices for a determined goal and the traversing of an arduous path will be called for on its part. In this regard, apart from the history of struggle of the oppressed masses hitherto carried out in the world, the four years which the Ethiopian people have just gone through have taught us quite a lot.
For this reason, the dual task awaiting you officers graduating today is no easy one. It is a heavy responsibility that will put your revolutionary zeal to the test. What is being expected of you to carry this out satisfactorily is revolutionary zeal and determination, resolute commitment to the desired goal, a continued process of self-education and the application of this learning and what is gained from experience in struggle to the building of socialism.
Finally, I again congratulate you on your successful passing out and wish to express thanks to the Commander of the Eastern Command, the Political Commissar of the Eastern Command and to all other participants in the effort and task of enabling you to attain this stage.
— Revolutionary army, forward always;
— The great victory won on the battlefield will be repeated by the production campaign;
— Economic justice will reign in Ethiopia;
— The political organization which is the guarantee of workers will be established through our struggle;
— A politicized, armed and organized people will triumph;
— The world will belong to the proletariat.
[1] Given that the original scan is available, minor typos have been corrected without using [sic].