Oliver Tambo: A Future Free of Exploitation

Oliver Tambo: A Future Free of Exploitation

(Extracts from ANC President Oliver Tambo’s address to the First Congress of the MPLA – Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola – which took place in Luanda, December 1977)

“The heroic anti-colonial struggles of the peoples of Africa for national independence … culminated in the epoch-making collapse of Portuguese colonialism in Africa. The earth-shaking victories of FRELIMO and MPLA brought southern Africa to the crossroads. But the revolutionary experience accumulated during the liberation wars ensured that the people’s advance towards social emancipation would not be halted.”

“The historic significance of the first Congress of MPLA is precisely that, for southern Africa, like the FRELIMO Congress, it blazes a new trail out of the crossroads towards the conquest of a socialist future for the peoples – a future free of exploitation. Our esteemed Leader, Friend and Comrade President Agostinho Neto, expressed a key and important truth when he said in one of his statements that the victory of the Angolan people was ‘a victory of the peoples advancing towards progress’.”

“This first Congress of MPLA is a victory of the Angolan people. It is also a victory of all the peoples, including the peoples of South Africa, who are pledged to fight for the creation of new socio-economic systems which will be characterised by the abolition of exploitation of man by man through ownership of productive wealth by the people themselves …”

“But of major importance for us in understanding the nature of this confrontation is the fact that the victories of the MPLA and FRELIMO have become a key factor in the politics of the racist regime within its own ranks and generally inside the boundaries of racist South Africa. These victories have helped to deepen the general crisis of the apartheid colonial system: they have in the actuality of South African politics helped to strengthen the forces of progress and severely weaken the forces of reaction.”

“… The humiliating defeat of Vorster’s army was at the same time defeat for the social system for which that army had been created, trained and armed to defend. The myth of the invincibility of the racist army was destroyed for ever.”

“The African National Congress therefore continues to find confirmation of the correctness of its positions from the historical experience of the MPLA. One of these positions is that the victorious revolution cannot be defended successfully without arms. This condition is imposed on all revolutions by the fact that the forces of reaction never hesitate to attempt to reverse the historical process by force of arms. In building up our own popular army we aim therefore not only at the overthrow of the fascist regime, we aim also at building up a politically conscious and revolutionary army, conscious of its popular origin, unwavering in its democratic functions and guided by our revolutionary orientation.”

“As revolutionaries it is our duty to deny these counter-revolutionary forces the possibility of victory. Part of that denial consists in our ensuring that no elements of the enemy’s fascist State machinery including his armed forces, remain as organised units within the new society.”

“The history of the MPLA therefore constitutes almost an encyclopaedia of the strategy and tactics of the counter-revolution against the revolutionary forces of southern Africa. We have seen attempts to cut the MPLA off from contact with the masses of the people of Angola. We have seen also attempts to drive wedges within the MPLA, to foment internal strife and discord through the exploitation of tribal differences, the use of racism, the encouragement of a rabid chauvinistic nationalism, the fertilisation of blind personal ambition and the vilification of the best representatives of the Angolan people.”

“We have seen the instigation of extreme leftist elements who, while posing as the true defenders of the interests of the people within the MPLA, were in fact involved in plots to starve the people into a state of disaffection and rebellion against the people’s own fundamental interests.”

“The ANC places on record its profound appreciation of the consistent all-round support given by the MPLA with a willingness which fully confirms the fact that MPLA, the Government and people of Angola, regard as their own the revolutionary struggles of peoples for national and social liberation. In giving this support, Angola is being faithful to the highest aspirations of Africa, to the basic policy of the OAU, to the principles of proletarian internationalism.”

Source:
Oliver Tambo, “A Future Free of Exploitation”, Sechaba, Vol. 12, Second Quarter, 1978, pp. 9 – 16.

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