We have for a long time been making an effort to publicize our revolutionary stand and our views on the political conditions of our country. We do realize, however, that our statements have not been reaching all appropriate audiences due to the shortage of funds and other means necessary for the task.
We are thus taking advantage of the favourable conditions and the convenient time at our disposal to present this historical exposition entitled “Our Struggle And Its Goals.” Whereas what we have to say is most directly concerned with our country, Eritrea, and our Eritrean people, it is of utmost importance to our supporters in particular and the people of the world in general. We would like to firmly remind all concerned not to take this position paper lightly, since it goes beyond an exposition of our revolutionary struggle; we assure the genuinely interested that our country Eritrea, its people and their struggle can be explained clearly and adequately.
We, who are expressing our views through this exposition, are Eritrean liberation fighters who separated from the administration of the -“Kiada el Ama”, “General Command”, in March 1969. It is true that almost all of us or a majority of us are Christians by birth, cultural and historical background. Those who view our makeup superficially may regard our struggle as religiously motivated, an assessment that we do not desire to overlook even if it may be the result of a lack of insight into our objectives. Instead, we urge anyone who seeks to understand our position and ideology to read all our publications.
Further, we hereby state our readiness to meet with and openly clarify our stand to those who might entertain doubts as to what the nature of our struggle is. Although we deeply understand the complexity of the reasons which caused us to take our stand, that is, to separate, we are fully cognizant of the fact that some of those who look at us with interest or concern ask themselves questions such as: “Why did the Christian elements separate? How did they separate? When did they separate? What is their goal? What do they seek? Are they religiously or nationally motivated? Are they revolutionary fighters or Christian crusaders? Are they reactionary or progressive? Etc…”. We also know that they may not find satisfactory answers within themselves. On the contrary, they may get distorted information and blame or even oppose us.
Thus, it is not only questions that are asked about us, opinions are also voiced. Many have pretended to be on our side and have been known to applaud our supposed “separation from Muslims”. Others may similarly applaud our separation on the ground that it “has been long overdue”. Others still merely declare that we are “religiously” inclined, and so on. All such opinions are illusory. It seems that there are more opinions addressed to us for the purposes of deception, praise, threat, defamation, criticism, bribery and the giving of different goals to our struggle than we can constructively use.
We fully recognize the fact that it is our duty and ours alone to give a satisfactory answer to those who seek to know, to discourage those who seek to deceive us, to thank those who praise us, to assure those that are bent on bribing us that we do not compromise our aims to accept comradely constructive criticism and to remind those who attempt to buy us that we are neither commodities nor animals. The nature of our struggle and its objectives are better known to us than anyone else, especially the news-shoppers and gossip-mongers. Based on this awareness and hoping that our position will be clearly stated, we have embarked upon this exposition.
Brief Description of Our Country Eritrea and Its People
It is a matter of common knowledge that we Eritreans are the nationals of a country with a distinct boundary economy, political evolution, history, culture and traditions. It is equally well known that, for the past several decades we have been subjugated by foreign conquerors and pro-imperialist African expansionists. These oppressors have erased our boundary lines, confiscated our economic wealth, and arrested the high level of political awareness our society had reached, distorted our history, obscured our languages, replaced our culture and traditions with alien ones and totally robbed us of our human rights and dignity.
Our present struggle against Ethiopian oppressors is nothing more than an extension of our militant Eritrean struggle against foreign oppression. We are sacrificing our lives to free our people from the shackles of Haile Selassie and his masters, to attain independence for our country and to realize the self-reliant progress of the Eritrean people.
Oppression does not come from foreigners alone. Neither should it be associated with foreigners alone. There is also oppression and struggle within a society. The rich versus the poor, the master versus the slave, the powerful versus the weak, the chief versus the village, and the old versus the new …etc., are types of political and economic oppression found within class societies. But in time, oppression is invariably met with resistance. The impoverished and the workers rise against the rich, as do the slaves against the masters. The village militates against the chief, the weak unite against the powerful and the new erupts over the old. This is a historical truth. It is evident that when contradictions in society reach a breaking point, the forces of the oppressed rise up to destroy the various forms of oppression. Thus, so long as freedom is not equally and universally extended to all members of society, i.e., so long as there is oppression, there is a struggle.
The above holds true for Eritrea. Inasmuch as we constitute a society, we have various contradictory characteristics. This is so in spite of the fact that Eritreans as a whole share a common history, economy, political tradition, culture, and similar or related languages or folklore. One may erroneously see the religious differences as the major contradiction in Eritrean society.
For example, our separation may be understood as having been based on religious differences. Similarly, one may be tempted to look at Eritrean society primarily in terms of division between Muslims and Christians. In any event, let us first carefully investigate and analyze the nature of Eritrean society and its people.
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