Ethiopia Against Imperialism
Edited by John
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a fledgling multinational union forged in the fires of anti-imperialism by indigenous Africans. From kicking fascists out of Africa to overthrowing feudalism, Ethiopia has long been a bright symbol of African resistance for many people around the world. In the age of such readily available information, neoliberal noise muddles the masses’s view of Ethiopia keeping westerners in the imperial core uninformed. With a proper analysis rooted in dialectical materialism, the purpose of this article is to cut through the noise and portray how Ethiopia fits in our constantly changing, globally connected world.
A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people; formed on the basis of common territory, linguistics, economic life, and psychological make-up; manifested in a common culture. [1]
As with most indigenous nations, geographic borders are blurred; and cultural manifestations such as farming methods, tribal identity, and religion are woven into complex multinational networks developed over many generations. No one nationality has a majority in Ethiopia. The largest plurality is the Oromo people at 34.4%, followed by the Amhara people at 26.6%. The next two largest pluralities are Somali at 6.2% and Tigrinya at 6.1%; and they constitute the majority in neighboring countries of Somalia and Eritrea, respectively. [2]
Orominya and Somali are Cushitic languages, while Amharic and Tigrinya are Semitic languages; and they are all part of the Afroasiatic language family.[3] The Solomon Dynasty that ruled over feudal Ethiopia for centuries was ethnically Amharic. Under the rule of the Emperor, Orominya was officially banned despite being the native language of the largest plurality. Thus, Amharic is spoken as the main language by 40% of the population and the Ge’ez script is used by a majority of the population when accounting for Tigrinya. Limited intelligibility between related languages make them easier for native speakers to learn. Most Ethiopians are multilingual, speaking their ancestral language as well as the working language of their area. [3] English remains the most commonly spoken foreign language, and is the lingua franca for international trade and higher education. [4]
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As of January 1974, Ethiopia was still under the totalitarian grip of medieval feudalism. Millions of agrarian peasants subsisted on small farms owned by feudal landlords. Emperor Haile Selassie I joined the resistance against fascist Italy, securing his leadership of post-war Ethiopia via feudal levies armed with new American weapons. [5] Thus, Emperor Salisie I was firmly under the influence of the US during the cold war, even participating as a co-belligerent in the capitalist intervention in Korea. [6] Deteriorating material conditions in one of the Emperor’s own military outposts led to a revolt of low-ranking officers, quickly spreading into Ethiopia’s major cities. Mass demonstrations against the Emperor were organized by students, teachers, workers, faith leaders, and low ranking officers from peasant levies. By September of 1974, several high ranking military officers “took control of the situation”, forming a military council (Derg) to depose the Emperor, claiming to be Marxist-Leninists in order to secure weapons from the Soviet Union. It was this revolution against feudalism that led to the formation of the various groups who maintain power in Ethiopia to this day. [7]
Getachew Yosef, ‘Revolutionary Motherland or Death’, 1979/1980. National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Courtesy Kate Cowcher.
Among the student demonstrations against the Emperor, the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON) was organized by a coalition of radical revolutionaries. They allied with the Derg, along with ethnic militias of many nationalities throughout Ethiopia, to construct a revolutionary path away from feudalism towards socialism. MEISON was the Marxist-Leninist organization who developed the socialist programs for the formation of armed peasant associations, economic nationalization, and revolutionary land reform [8] The impact of transferring land from feudal lords to millions of peasants, without compensation, is still felt today. Sadly, a few years after the Derg seized state power from the Emperor, comrades in MEISON were murdered along with many other communists who threatened Derg control. Purging the radical revolutionaries removed the revolution’s ideological teeth, and the underlying contradictions of Ethiopian society were allowed to remain unresolved.
The Derg embezzled state companies and condoned Amharic chauvinism to maintain power, mirroring the same ethnic tensions which divided and conquered Ethiopia for centuries. [9] Rich peasants used their wealth from centuries of feudal accumulation to dominate local peasant associations. [10]
Traditional pastoral herders; such as the Afar people; developed into their own nations over the centuries. The Derg excluded pastoralists from the setup of collective farms, so they saw Ethiopian nationalization of historic grazing land as a threat to their livelihood. The contradiction between herders and farmers is not unique to Ethiopia, and the formation of armed groups to fight against peasant associations; such as the Afar Liberation Front; is just one example of ethnic tensions spilling over into counter-revolution. [11]
Amidst the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the Derg lost its main security partner just as US hegemony set its sights on global domination. The USA found the perfect puppet to prop up in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, an armed ethnic militia springing from the 1974 revolution. From 1991 to 2018, the TPLF was the dominant political party in Ethiopia’s ruling coalition. [12]
From the very beginning, the TPLF were left-opportunists, their founding manifesto rife with phrase-mongering and vulgar marxism which sought to stoke ethnic tensions rather than class-consciousness. [13] Under the TPLF, Ethiopia remained a top security partner of the US. Between 2000 and 2020, the US provided at least $152.7 million in security aid to Ethiopia and trained at least 4,000 of the country’s troops.14, much of which went to “counterterrorism” efforts in Somalia. In the 2010s, Ethiopia was one of the highest recipients of US developmental aid, coming in fifth behind Israel, Afghanistan, Jordan and Egypt. [14]
Ultimately, in 2018, the TPLF lost control of the government to the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), itself a coalition of four Ethiopian political parties. As a result, the TPLF was removed from power and Abiy Ahmed was elected prime minister of Ethiopia.
In November 2020, soldiers of the TPLF laid siege to a Sero military base near the border with Eritrea, killing non-Tigrayan soldiers and looting weapons and food.15 In official statements, the TPLF compared their attack on Sero to Israel’s “preemptive” attack on Arabs in 1967. [22] In response, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive.16 For the next two years, the federal forces of Ethiopia and Eritrea were engaged in bitter conflict with the TPLF. Initially limited to the Tigray region, it soon involved neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara. The civil war affected more than 20 million people17, with a UN commission accusing the Ethiopian government, Eritrean forces, and Tigrayan forces of crimes against humanity, using starvation as a method of war, and other war crimes. [15]
In November 2022, on the eve of the second anniversary of the civil war, the Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF agreed to a “permanent cessation of hostilities,”17 involving overall disarmament of the TPLF, restoration of the federal government in Tigray, flow of humanitarian aid into the Tigray region as well as protection of citizens affected by the conflict. [18]
Captured weapons from the TPLF by Ethiopian Federal Troops; the distinct style of wood/perforated steel handguards indicating FALs of Israeli origin.
During the 2020-2022 Ethiopian-Tigray conflict, the Ethiopian federal government empowered various Amharan militias; such as the Fano; to fight against the TPLF.19 The coalition fell apart after the 2022 peace deal and by November 2023, Amharan militants continually clashed with federal forces. [20]
As of January 2024, the federal government of Ethiopia has faced challenges from Amhara and Oromo militant groups, and rising tensions with Eritrea; all unhappy with the peace deal signed with the TPLF. [21]
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Resulting from millions of peasants seizing their landlords' estates in the 70s, Ethiopia’s economy remains heavily agrarian.[8] The largest export is coffee, and this is the most industrialized sector of the economy; many small holders sport advanced pulping machines, concrete rebar fermentation tanks, industrial harvesters, and drying racks. [23][24] The next biggest industry is gold-ore mining for Swiss refineries [25] The third biggest industry is transportation infrastructure to ship all these raw materials out of Ethiopia to the imperial core, following the global pattern of unequal exchange. [25]
In Ethiopia, only 9% of the workforce is unionized. [26] However, the largest Union is The Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU) at over 700,000 members. [27] The CETU receives government support, and is allied with the class struggle oriented World Federation of Trade Unions. [27][28] Current union membership has more than doubled since the reign of the DERG and TPLF, growing alongside the national development programs of the Ethiopian government. [27][28][29]
In order to reverse the pattern of unequal exchange, the Ethiopian government has developed multiple state-led economic development plans. While portions of state companies are indeed being sold off on a newly created stock market, the government still maintains majority shares in all state assets. [30] State owned corporations are developed in key areas in order to provide a robust infrastructure for economic development in poor areas. This shift away from US puppetry towards economic self-reliance has drawn the ire of US warhawks, who fearmonger about Ethiopia’s growing ties with China. The US strongly opposed the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, while China provided $1billion for it. [31] While the US dumps cheap wheat into Ethiopia as “food aid” [32], China is providing the materials required to set up a robust domestic industrial base [33]. The future for Ethiopia is challenging, but is on track towards peace and prosperity.
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