Combatente -14 -       October 31, 1967<
view of plotting to murder the patriots in these respective countries
fighting for national independence.
- 00O00 -
THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN AFRICA FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
  '■ •■-•     "« '■' """ '■■'■" »■ I.■ ■■'— .  li....»! .11.1.1,  .....i  i i.
Although armed struggle was not and could not have been the
only general and universal means for freedom throughout the African
Continent, it proved decisive in a number of countries in Africa.
In some of the African countries under foreign domination,the
national liberation movements had to resort to armed struggle for the
restoration of their land to the indigenous inhabitants of their respective countries and for self-determination*
Such conditions arose and still exist in the so-called Portuguese colonies and the racist countries of Rhodesia and South Africa*
Portugal declared its colonies in Africa as integral parts of its national territory. It has replied the oppressed peoples and world public's every demand by intensifying barbaric repression in the colonies
and categorically refusing to revise its statute.
In reply to this Portuguese repression the patriotic forces of
Mozambique, Angola and Guinea (Bissau), unreservedly and determinedly
are waging armed struggle against 'the diabolical rule of Portuguese
colonialism.
The liberation is spreading in Mozambique, where the patriotic
forces are solidly united under the Mozambique Reovlutionary Committee
(COREMO) organisation, into guerrila groups capable of eradicating small
enemy units in particular, and Portuguese domination in general.
As the armed struggle is spreading through all the Portuguese
colonies, it creates fresh difficulties for Lisbon*  The Portuguese re-
« gime is forced to hold more than 100,000 to 120,000 troops and an expenditure of more than 100 million dollars annually on punitive expeditions
in its Overseas territories.  Even the bourgeois press admits that it
has become a burden to Salazar.
The racist white minority regime of Premier Ian Smith in Rhode»
sia, and the inhuman policy of apartheid of Vorster in South Africa have
created a very serious political crisis in Southern Africa. Apparently
the only solution for the African population in these countries to get
rid of the racist regimes is to wage an armed struggle.
The progressive forces in Africa justly pointed out that this
form of struggle is not only justified but necessary under the South
African Republic and Rhodesian conditions,  x - ~: —