Workers World goes to Addis

"Eyewitness Ethiopia: The Continuing Revolution" is a pamphlet published by the U.S. Workers' World Party. The WWP supported the Soviet-backed military regime of Ethiopia, the Derg or Dergue, headed by Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam. A reporter from the Workers World newspaper, Deidre Griswold, visited Ethiopia in 1978, writing glowingly about the nation's revolution.

Not being a scholarly expert on Ethiopia, I can't really write an informed comment on her articles. Let's just say I heard a very different version from Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees in Sweden...

Even apart from this, "Eyewitness Ethiopia" sounds like a typical propaganda tract, with all the usual ingredients. Poor peasant women empowered by the revolution, happy workers in nationalized industrial plants, a lot of female militia soldiers armed to their teeth, revolutionary placards with texts in English (!), and faceless counter-revolutionaries who have killed hundreds of people. The WWP doesn't deny that the "White Terror" has been met with "Red Terror".

On one item, the WWP scores a point. Ethiopia had been invaded by Somalia, an invasion tacitly backed by the United States and the conservative Arab regimes. The Somalis denied having invaded anyone, claiming that the Ethiopians were challenged by native Somali guerrillas in the Ogaden province. The large number of captured Somali tanks, fighter planes and cannons - which the Derg showed Western reporters - made the Somali denials look pretty silly. Yes, "Eyewitness Ethiopia" shows some of this military hardware. Must have been a bunch of really well-equipped guerrillas, LOL!

"Eyewitness Ethiopia" might be of some interest for those studying the foreign-directed propaganda of the Mengistu regime, but I can't say its particularly informative overall.