cretely to the national liberation movements of Angola, Mozambique and Guine-
Bissau, the General Assembly of the U.N.
reaffirmed that they are the authentic representatives of the true aspirations
of the respective peoples. A new note in
the Resolution of the General Assembly
was a statement on the need for negotiations; «The General Assembly deems
it imperative that negotiations should be
initiated at an early date between the
government of Portugal and the national
liberation movements)) with a view to the
speedy independence of the peoples of
Mozambique, Angola and Guine-Bissau.
This organ recommended also that in the
event of the non-compliance by the government of Portugal with its recommendations, the Security Council should urgently consider taking all affective steps
with a view to forcing Portugal to recognise the right of the peoples of the colonies to independence.
In fact, as Portugal then declared a few
days later that it would not renounce its
colonial policy and would not recognise
the liberation movements, the Security
Council met following the instructions >f
the General Assembly. The Security
Council again confirmed the right of the
peoples of Angola, Guine-Bissau and Mozambique to self-determination and independence, and the legitimacy of the
struggle they are waging to achieve that
right. Addressing itself to the government of Portugal, the Security Council
called upon it «to cease forthwith its
military operations and all acts of repression against the peoples of Angola,
Mozambique and Guine-Bissau; and to
enter into negotiations with the parties
concerned with a view to achieving a
solution to the armed confrontation that
exists in the territories of Angola, Mozambique and Guine-Bissau and permitting
the peoples of these territories to exercise
their right to self-determination and in-
pendence.».
Portugal isolated
We can see that this formulation of the
Security Council is weaker and less clear
and direct than the one from the General
Assembly. Thus, Portugal is not told to
enter into negotiations with the liberation
movements, but with the «parties concerned)) without specifying who those
parties are. This was a concession that
the progressive forces in the Security
Council made to the imperialist powers,
who still try at any cost to avoid the
complete collapse of Portuguese colonialism. However, a very important aspect was that even those countries traditionally allied with Portugal like the USA,
France and Great Britain, voted against
colonialism in favour of negotiations for
the independence of our people. This is
one of the reasons why the decisions of
the U.N. this year represent a great defeat
for Portuguese colonialism.
Comrades,
We must make sure that those victories
at the UN are properly understood. In
fact, it is possible that certain comrades
among us get the idea that the end of the
struggle in in sight, that within a short
time negotiations between the Portuguese Government and our Movement will
take place under the auspices of the U.N.
and thus shortly we shall be independent.
And, what is more serious, those comrades may start to think of a change of
strategy for FRELIMO. They may say:
since the U.N. has espoused our cause,
we must stop or at least relent our armed
struggle and concentrate our efforts at
the U.N. : many African countries have
won their independence without armed
struggle, with the help of the U.N.
We must be aware that this is not an imaginary danger, but something likely to
happen in a protracted struggle like ours.
What must be then our attitude?
It is evident that only complete ignorance
of the nature of Portuguese colonialism
and of the relationship of the world
forces can explain that position. Other
colonial powers such as Great Britain and
France could give independence to most
of their colonies because being economically developed and having solid bases
in those territories, they hoped to continue exploitation even after independence. Portugal cannot have the same
hope because being herself extremely
underdeveloped, the independence of the
colonies represents for her a certainty of
losing all our riches. This is the reason
why Portugal is so obstinately opposed to
our independence, in contrast with the
attitude of other colonial powers.
On the other hand the imperialist countries which today support Portugal do so
not so much out of friendship or solidarity with the regime of Caetano, but
because through the Portuguese government they have access to the exploitation of the labour of our people and
of the riches of our country. Proof of
this is their recent change of attitude at
the U.N.; as they see our struggle advancing, as they see Portugal progressively losing control of Mozambique,
Angola and Guine, those countries, to a
certain extent, abandon Portugal and declare their support for our cause, in the
hope that we shall respect their interests
after independence.
The armed struggle must go on
These two consideration are enough to
show those who could think of changing strategy that they are wrong. The
successes we are achieving at the U.N.
are the fruits of the progress of our
armed struggle. Our victories in the
political and military fields and in national reconstruction in Mozambique are
the basis of the action of our African
and socialist allies who in the U.N. launched the offensive against colonialism.
The preambles of the U.N. resolutions
demonstrate this when in order to justify
the resolutions they state for example,
«noting with satisfaction the progress towards national independence and freedom
made by the national liberation movements in the colonial territories of Southern Africa and Guine-Bissau, both
through their struggle and their reconstruction programmes, the General Assembly decides. . .» To stop the struggle
would be an irreparable retrogression as
it would enable Portugal to reestablish
its military force and in the long term
its   political   position   in   the   colonies.
We must understand the international
arena within the context of our present
strategy, which the Central Committee
which has just met declared to be still
absolutely valid. Our strategy is: on the
internal plane to spread the struggle to
the whole country in order to gradually
increase our forces and reduce those of
the enemy. On the international plane,
to isolate Portuguese colonialism and to
win support for our struggle. These two
sides of our strategy are complementary,
they cannot be realised independently one
from the other.
Thus, whilst congratulating ourselves for
the successes we have just achieved at the
U.N. to which the action of our African
brothers and socialist comrades there
also contributed a great deal, we must be
aware that they do not represent any
spectacular change in the process of our
struggle, nor do they justify any hopes of
a quick independence. Our independence
is being built step by step. It is the
sum of an attack against one post, an
ambush, the opening of a new school or
a new shamba, the adherence of the population of one village more, the stronger
support of one and another country, a
more favourable resolution at the U.N.
All these small victories summed up will
constitute the great victory which will be
our independence. This is the way we
must go.
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