NEWS AND NOTES #8 -3-
FRELIMO is building in Free Mozambique.  "Individual production...
which encourages the profit mentality" is being destroyed; in its
place production is being organized cooperatively and produce is
distributed equitably to satisfy the basic needs of the people.
Political as well as economic institutions are being set up to meet
the needs of the people.  Through local committees and mass meetings
the people participate in making decisions which affect their lives.
Political commissars, linking the masses with the party leadership
and with the army, ensure that decisions are always made in the
interests of the people.
We learned that FRELIMO's humanism extends to its view of
Portuguese soldiers.  FRELIMO recognizes that they too, are "sons
of the people" and that they are conscripted and forced to fight
for a colonialist regime.  Portuguese soldiers who surrender or
desert are seen as "natural allies" and even those who are taken
prisoner are treated with a policy of clemency.
"WE IN FRELIMO SAY THAT THERE IS NOT ONE FRONT WHICH IS
MORE IMPORTANT AND ANOTHER WHICH IS LESS.  EACH OF THE
FRONTS IS IMPORTANT; ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO
ARE ENGAGED IN THE SPECIFIC TASKS OF EACH FRONT ARE
AWARE...OF THE WORK THEY ARE DOING, AND ESPECIALLY WHEN
THEY HAVE VERY CLEAR OBJECTIVES ABOUT THEIR TASKS AND
THEIR MISSION."
Just as Samora seemed to combine many aspects of a revolutionary leader, so he views revolution as a combination of many
aspects of struggle.  He sees the different tasks of revolutionary
struggle as organically related to each other, and all are equally
important.  He explained how the different tasks combine to build
a revolution: some people engage directly in the armed struggle
against the invaders while others engage in production.  Those who
destroy the enemy enable the producers to produce food for the
people.  The producers also "perform a very important task, so that
those who are engaged in the direct struggle will not suffer hunger,"
Other people transport materials for war, for education, and for health,
while others care for invalids and orphans.  Students engage in the
long term and difficult struggle against ignorance.
"WHEN IN MOZAMBIQUE IMPERIALISM LOSES ONE ARM, AND THEN IN
ANGOLA IT LOSES ONE LEG, AND IN ANOTHER PLACE IT LOSES AN
EAR, IN THAT WAY IT IS DESTROYED."
Samora sees the Mozambican war itself as a part of a larger
revolution -- the struggle for the "liberation of the peoples of