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VISITORS FREE MOZAMBIQUE 7$J : ' Journalist Iain Christie on the march with FRELIMO Christie with our President in Cabo Delgado Frelimo's victories are our victories To the Editor, Mozambique Revolution: You have asked me if 1 would contribute an article describing my impressions of the FRELIMO zone which I visited in the last two weeks of October. With respect, I would suggest that Mozambique Revolution has published so many articles by visiting journalists that my own contribution would only duplicate those reports. Instead, I would like to tell you something I wanted to say to the people of Cabo Delgado when I was mere, but didn't, perhaps because I felt that they were rather too busy building a nation to listen to my opinions. I would have told them this: Your President, Comrade Samora Machel, has told you that I am a Scottish journalist, living in Dar es Salaam and working for the Tanzanian Government; that I have been reporting on the struggle in Mozambique, from the point of view of a supporter of FRELIMO, for several years; that I have been involved in other activities to assist your struggle. Therefore he says, I come as a friend, as a comrade. This is true. But perhaps the emphasis is too much on what I and other anti- imperialist elements from the West are doing for you. The truth is that what we are doing for you is nothing compared to what you are doing for us. You are fighting and dying to free your country from Portuguese colonialism. This is the priority. But it is clear to me from the people I have met in Cabo Delgado, from the schools I have visited, that FRELIMO is taking on an even bigger challenge. That is to ensure that the Mozambican people, once independent, do not suffer the same fate as many other former colonies: exploitation by indigenous parasites and international imperialism operating through its neo-colonial machinery. Your struggle may last for many more years but victory is certain and, when it comes, you will have significantly eroded the power of imperialism in this continent - and in the world at large. Even today every victory you score is a victory against imperialism, and therefore a victory for us. The forces in the West which support FRELIMO are not doing you a favour. Imperialism will be weakened by the liberation of Mozambique, just as it has already been weakened by losing its economic control of countries like China and Cuba. And one day the great liberation movement of the world's colonised and neo-colonised peoples will have weakened imperialism to the extent that it no longer has the strength to resist the anti- imperialist struggle in the West itself. This is so because international capitalism depends for its very existence on you and peoples like you. And when control of oil, coffee, gold, diamonds, cotton, tungsten and cocoa fall out of imperialism's hands and into the hands of the workers and peasants who produce them, imperialism's greatest crisis will begin. Then, at least the objective conditions for struggle will exist in the West. So someday, perhaps, my children or grandchildren will be able to repay your hospitality to me by inviting someone from the Republic of Mozambique to come and witness our struggle. If this ever happens it will be due in no small part to the courage and determination of the people of Mozambique. IAIN CHRISTIE 16
Object Description
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Title | CENPA-343~18 |
Filename | CENPA-343~18.tiff |
Full text | VISITORS FREE MOZAMBIQUE 7$J : ' Journalist Iain Christie on the march with FRELIMO Christie with our President in Cabo Delgado Frelimo's victories are our victories To the Editor, Mozambique Revolution: You have asked me if 1 would contribute an article describing my impressions of the FRELIMO zone which I visited in the last two weeks of October. With respect, I would suggest that Mozambique Revolution has published so many articles by visiting journalists that my own contribution would only duplicate those reports. Instead, I would like to tell you something I wanted to say to the people of Cabo Delgado when I was mere, but didn't, perhaps because I felt that they were rather too busy building a nation to listen to my opinions. I would have told them this: Your President, Comrade Samora Machel, has told you that I am a Scottish journalist, living in Dar es Salaam and working for the Tanzanian Government; that I have been reporting on the struggle in Mozambique, from the point of view of a supporter of FRELIMO, for several years; that I have been involved in other activities to assist your struggle. Therefore he says, I come as a friend, as a comrade. This is true. But perhaps the emphasis is too much on what I and other anti- imperialist elements from the West are doing for you. The truth is that what we are doing for you is nothing compared to what you are doing for us. You are fighting and dying to free your country from Portuguese colonialism. This is the priority. But it is clear to me from the people I have met in Cabo Delgado, from the schools I have visited, that FRELIMO is taking on an even bigger challenge. That is to ensure that the Mozambican people, once independent, do not suffer the same fate as many other former colonies: exploitation by indigenous parasites and international imperialism operating through its neo-colonial machinery. Your struggle may last for many more years but victory is certain and, when it comes, you will have significantly eroded the power of imperialism in this continent - and in the world at large. Even today every victory you score is a victory against imperialism, and therefore a victory for us. The forces in the West which support FRELIMO are not doing you a favour. Imperialism will be weakened by the liberation of Mozambique, just as it has already been weakened by losing its economic control of countries like China and Cuba. And one day the great liberation movement of the world's colonised and neo-colonised peoples will have weakened imperialism to the extent that it no longer has the strength to resist the anti- imperialist struggle in the West itself. This is so because international capitalism depends for its very existence on you and peoples like you. And when control of oil, coffee, gold, diamonds, cotton, tungsten and cocoa fall out of imperialism's hands and into the hands of the workers and peasants who produce them, imperialism's greatest crisis will begin. Then, at least the objective conditions for struggle will exist in the West. So someday, perhaps, my children or grandchildren will be able to repay your hospitality to me by inviting someone from the Republic of Mozambique to come and witness our struggle. If this ever happens it will be due in no small part to the courage and determination of the people of Mozambique. IAIN CHRISTIE 16 |
Archival file | Volume21/CENPA-343~18.tiff |