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Who are the enemies of the people?
Оглавление(At mass rally in Ouagadougou, 26 March 1983)
Speaking as prime minister of the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP), Sankara delivered this speech to a rally of several thousand in the country’s capital city. The text appeared in the 1 April 1983 issue of the weekly Carrefour africain, published in Ouagadougou.
Thank you for having gathered here at 3 January Square. I salute you for answering the call of the Council of Popular Salvation. By doing so you are showing that the people of Upper Volta are coming of age.4
When the people stand up, imperialism trembles. As it watches us, imperialism is worried. It is trembling. Imperialism is wondering how to break the bond that exists between the CSP and the people. Imperialism trembles. It is trembling because it is afraid. It is trembling because right here in Ouagadougou we are going to bury it.
I also salute you for coming to show that all our detractors, who are both inside and outside the country, are wrong. They have misjudged us. They thought they could stop the CSP’s march toward the people with their manoeuvre of propaganda and intimidation. By coming here, you have shown that the opposite is true. Imperialism is trembling and will keep trembling.
People of Upper Volta, represented here by the inhabitants of the city of Ouagadougou, thank you. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to provide you with truthful information, information that comes up from the ranks.
What is our purpose here? Our purpose is to tell you exactly what our enemies want, what the CSP wants, and what the people have a right to. The people love liberty and they love democracy. Consequently, the people will take on all enemies of liberty and democracy.
But who are the enemies of the people?
The enemies of the people are both inside and outside the country. Right now they are trembling, but you must expose them. You must combat them even holed up in their burrows. The enemies of the people inside the country are all those who have taken advantage of their social position, of their bureaucratic position, to enrich themselves illicitly. In this way, through manoeuvres, through graft, and through forged documents, they find themselves corporate shareholders, they find themselves financing some company, they find themselves seeking approval for this or that company. They claim they are serving Upper Volta. These are enemies of the people. They must be exposed. They must be combated. We will combat them together with you.
Who are the enemies of the people? The enemies of the people are also that section of the bourgeoisie that enriches itself dishonestly through fraud and bribery, through the corruption of state officials, so they can bring into Upper Volta all kinds of products, whose prices have been multiplied tenfold. These are the enemies of the people. This section of the bourgeoisie must be combated, and we will combat it.
Who are the enemies of the people? The enemies of the people are also the politicians who travel throughout the countryside only at election time. The politicians who are convinced that only they can make Upper Volta work. However, we, the CSP, are convinced that Upper Volta’s seven million people represent seven million politicians capable of running this country. Those are the enemies of the people, who we must expose and combat. And we will combat them together with you.
The enemies of the people are also the forces of obscurantism who, under spiritual cover, under cover of tradition, are exploiting the people instead of genuinely serving their moral interests, instead of genuinely serving their social interests. They must be combated, and we will combat them.
Let me ask you a question: Do you like these enemies of the people, yes or no?
[Shouts of “No!”]
Do you like them?
[Shouts of “No!”]
So we must combat them.
Will you combat them inside the country?
On with the fight!
The enemies of the people are also outside our borders. They base themselves on unpatriotic people here in our midst at every level of society – civilians as well as in the army; men as well as women; young as well as old; in the town as well as the country. The enemies of the people are there. The enemies outside the country are there: these enemies are neo-colonialism; they are imperialism.
So, basing itself on these unpatriotic people, on those who have rejected their homeland, those who have rejected Upper Volta – who have, in fact, rejected the people of Upper Volta – the enemy outside the country is organising a series of attacks. Attacks in two phases: the nonviolent phase and the violent phase.
Currently we are in the nonviolent phase. The enemy outside the country – that is, imperialism; that is, neo-colonialism – is attempting to sow confusion among the Voltaic people. Thus, through their newspapers, their radios, and their television they would make us believe that Upper Volta is being laid waste by armed conflict.
But you are here, people of Upper Volta, and your presence proves that imperialism is wrong, and that its lies won’t stick. You are present, you are standing up, and it is imperialism that is trembling today.
A foreign journalist in a faraway country, sitting in his swivel chair, in his air-conditioned office, dared to report that the CSP’s informational tours are a failure. Are they failures? You are here, answer me.
[Shouts of “No!”]
Are they failures?
[Shouts of “No!”]
I would like imperialism to be here, so it can hear you say no. Repeat: are they failures?
[Shouts of “No!”]
You see, imperialism is wrong. But imperialism is a bad student. When it’s been defeated, when it’s been sent out of the classroom, it goes back in again. It’s a bad student. It never learns the lessons of its failures, it never draws the lessons from its failures. It’s over there in South Africa cutting African throats, just because those Africans are thinking about freedom, as you are today. Imperialism is over there in the Middle East crushing the Arab peoples. That’s Zionism.
Imperialism is everywhere. Through the culture that it spreads, through its misinformation, it gets us to think like it does, it gets us to submit to it, and to go along with all its manoeuvres. For goodness’ sake, we must stand in imperialism’s way.
As I’ve already told you, it will move on to a violent phase. It is imperialism that has organised troop landings in certain countries that we know. It is imperialism that has armed those who are killing our brothers in South Africa. It is imperialism that assassinated the Lumumbas, the Cabrals, and the Kwame Nkrumahs.
But I’m telling you and I’m promising you – because I have confidence in you and you have confidence in the CSP, because we are part of the people – when imperialism comes here, we will bury it. We will bury imperialism here. Ouagadougou will be the bolibana of imperialism, that is, the end of its road. Through very sophisticated methods, imperialism has tried to sow division within the CSP itself. It has created anxiety and hysteria among the Voltaic people themselves. But we are not afraid.
For the first time, something fundamental is happening in Upper Volta, something completely new. The people have never had the power to establish a political democracy here. The army has always had the possibility of taking power, but it never wanted democracy. For the first time, we see an army that wants power, that wants democracy, and that genuinely wants to link up with the people. For the first time, too, we see the people coming forward in massive numbers to stretch out their hands to the army. That’s why we believe that this army, which is taking control of the destiny of Upper Volta, is the people’s army. That is why I also salute those placards that speak of the people’s army.
In order to do us harm, our enemies within as well as without rely on a certain number of factors. I’ll mention some and will let you complete the list. They are trying to make us believe that the CSP is going to halt the normal functioning of the state apparatus as a result of taking decisions against high-level government employees.5 We have taken these decisions simply because we feel that there are those who, at this stage of our struggle, cannot keep pace. There are civil servants who don’t come to the office until 9:00 a.m. and who leave again at 10:30 a.m. to go to their orchards and watch over their houses. Is that normal? When we want to get rid of this kind of civil servant, our enemies say the CSP wants to bring the state apparatus to a standstill. But who is afraid of whom?
We are with the people. They are against the people. So we will take decisions that will be against the enemies of the people, because these decisions will be in favour of the people – the militant people of Upper Volta. Are you in favour of us keeping corrupt civil servants in our administration?
[Shouts of “No!”]
So we must get rid of them. We will get rid of them.
Are you in favour of us keeping corrupt soldiers in our army?
[Shouts of “No!”]
So we must get rid of them. We will get rid of them.
Perhaps this will cost us our life, but we are here to take risks. We are here to dare. And you are here to continue the struggle at all costs.
Our enemies say that the CSP is preparing to nationalise, that the CSP is preparing to confiscate their property. Who is afraid of whom?
When you go around Ouagadougou and you make a list of all the houses there are, you’ll see that these houses belong to only a minority. How many of you, consigned to Ouagadougou from the farthest corners of the country, have had to move every night because of being thrown out of the house you had rented? Every day the owner raised the price a little more. For those who acquired their houses normally, there’s no problem, there’s no need to worry. However, for those who acquired their land and their houses through corruption, we say to them: start trembling. If you have stolen, tremble! Because we are going to come after you. Not only is the CSP going to come after you, but the people will take care of you. Yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
Honest citizens, even if you own 1,000 houses, have no fear! Dishonest citizens, however, even if you own only a half square, an entrée-coucher6 without sanitation, start trembling, the CSP is coming! We did not come this far only to stop after such a promising start. We are not here to sell out, we are not here to betray the people.
They say we want to nationalise. The CSP does not understand and will never understand – just as you too will never understand – how someone can come and get set up in Upper Volta, start a company in Upper Volta, succeed in obtaining favours – all kinds of tax exemptions – on the pretext of wanting to create jobs, of wanting to contribute to economic development, and then, after a certain number of years of brazen exploitation, announce cuts in personnel.
On what condition were you granted these favours? On the condition that you create jobs for Voltaics. Today, when you’ve squeezed the lemon dry, you want to throw the lemon out. No! That is what we say no to!
Our enemies say that the CSP proclaimed freedom of expression and of the press, but that the CSP is beginning to restrict this freedom. Comrade Jean-Baptiste Lingani said earlier, and later Comrade Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo will say it better than I can: we do not want to put an end to freedom. We say only that the freedom to criticise also brings with it the freedom to protest. And freedom for sincere men should not mean freedom for dishonest men.
We will take away the freedom of those who use the freedom created by the CSP to attack the CSP, in fact, to attack the Voltaic people. We are taking away their freedom to do harm, and we are giving them the freedom to serve the people. We cannot grant the freedom to lie, to brainwash the collective Voltaic consciousness. That would be to work against the popular masses of Upper Volta.
It is also said that some of the CSP’s members, such as Captain Thomas Sankara, have been to Libya and North Korea, and that this is dangerous for Upper Volta. People of Upper Volta, one question: Libya has never done anything to us. Korea has never exploited Upper Volta. Libya has never attacked Upper Volta. Yet we know countries that have attacked Upper Volta that put our parents in prison. Our grandparents died on the battlefield for these countries. When we cooperate with them, no one complains.
Sangoulé [Lamizana] went to Libya. Saye Zerbo has been to Libya and Korea. Why didn’t anyone complain? There’s something crooked here. Yesterday, preparations were made for an official visit by Saye Zerbo to [Libyan head of state Muammar al-] Qaddafi in Qaddafi’s plane, and this was publicised. Today when we go to Libya, there are complaints.
But we went to Libya in a responsible and an intelligent manner! We went to Libya after Colonel Qaddafi had sent us emissaries three times. We told the Libyan leaders that we had nothing against Libya, but that we have positions of our own. When it comes to ideology, we’re not virgins. We are ready to collaborate with Libya, but we are also ready to tell them, in a responsible manner, whatever we might criticise. It was after being approached three times that we decided to go, and we laid down concrete conditions, in accordance with the interests of the Voltaic people.
When the cement starts to arrive from Tripoli and we sell it at a cheap price, will the people be pleased, yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
Why is Qaddafi’s cement desirable while negotiating with Qaddafi is undesirable? When we negotiate deals with certain countries worth 2 million, 3 million CFA francs,7 it’s talked about on the radio. With Qaddafi, we negotiated a deal worth 3.5 billion. And so, are the people pleased, yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
The people like cooperation between states that respect their peoples. The people of Upper Volta don’t want to be told what road to take. We say no to housebroken Voltaic diplomacy! We say no to bossed-around Voltaic diplomacy! We are free to go wherever we wish. And I’ll tell you something, a secret. Don’t tell this to the imperialists. Those who criticise us for having been to Libya took Qaddafi’s dollars to develop their countries. Do they think they’re smarter than we are? They go deal with Qaddafi. Why? Who is smarter than whom?
We will go wherever the interests of the Voltaic masses are to be found. We saw social achievements in Libya – hospitals, schools, houses, and all of it available for free. How has Libya managed to carry out these social investments? Thanks to oil. This oil existed under the former regime of King Idriss. But this oil was exploited by the imperialists and for the benefit of the king. The people drew absolutely no benefit from it. Today, Libyans have free houses and paved roads. If we could transform Upper Volta tomorrow the way Qaddafi has transformed Libya, would you be pleased, yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
So in our relations with other states, when we take their good aspects, we’re simply carrying out a policy of diplomatic independence and applying one of the CSP’s rules: to work for the people. There is no shame in getting on one’s knees when it is in the interests of the people.
As we speak to you, we know that in this crowd are people who would very much like to shoot us right now. Those are the risks we take, convinced that it is in the interests of the people. We say to them: “Shoot!” When you shoot, your bullets will turn around and hit you. That is what is called the victory of the people over the enemies of the people. Today we speak with the strength of the people, and not our own.
The enemies of the CSP say that certain factions of the CSP look favourably on this or that country, this or that camp, or the pro-Western camp, and so on. We say that we are not against any camp. We are for all the camps. We repeated this in New Delhi at the summit of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries:8 we are for all the camps. We say too that he who loves his own people loves the other peoples. We love the Voltaic people, and we love the peoples of Nicaragua, Algeria, Libya, Ghana, Mali, and all the other peoples.
Those who do not love their own people do not love the Voltaic people. Those who are worried today by the transformations occurring in Upper Volta do not love their own peoples. They impose their will through dictatorship and through police operations against their peoples. We are not of that type.
We are told that the CSP has a certain admiration for Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Rawlings is a man. Every man must have friends and enemies. If Rawlings has admirers in Upper Volta, whose fault is that? It’s imperialism’s fault. It’s because a situation was created in Ghana in which the new authorities were compelled to fight for the interests of the Ghanaian people. When Ghana was prosperous, we Voltaics took full advantage of it! Today, when Ghana is experiencing difficulties, why should we forget Ghana?
No, we are sincere. The people keep their attachments. Men perhaps may betray, but peoples do not betray each other. The Ghanaian people need the Voltaic people, just as the Voltaic people need the Ghanaian people.
When Flight Lieutenant Rawlings closed his borders, there were protests.9 You don’t like Rawlings. Yet when he closes his borders in order to stay at home, you protest!
Ghana cannot impose anything on us. Nor can we impose anything on Ghana. Rawlings can’t give us lessons. But neither can we give lessons to Rawlings. However, when Rawlings says, “No way for kalabule!” – that is, stop the corruption – he says this in the interests of the Ghanaian people. But in fact it is in the interest of all peoples, because the Voltaic people too are against corruption.
The enemies of the CSP also say that we are “reds”, communists. That pleases us! Because it proves that our enemies are in disarray. They are lost. They no longer know what has to be done, what has to be said. We have done nothing communist here, we have simply talked about improving living conditions, about social justice, liberty, and democracy.
When we took the decision to revoke the decree issued by the Military Committee for Redressment and National Progress prohibiting the opening of bars at certain hours, we heard people say: These folks in the CSP, whether they’re red or green, communists or not – we have our interests and we prefer them. That’s what’s called being close to the popular masses. It’s not the labels that count.
They call us communists in order to frighten the people. They accuse us of being communists, and they tell the people that communism is bad. We have no intention of telling you that communism is good, nor of telling you the opposite. We intend only to tell you that we will take actions with you and for you. The label that will be pinned on these actions matters little.
The enemies of the people also say that we are going after foreigners. No. We love all foreigners – those who are here today and those who will come. We love them because we assume they love the Voltaic people. We don’t believe they are foreigners who want to exploit us.
The CSP intends to create, together with you, the conditions for mobilisation and work. We want the people to get organised for work, for the battle we are going to wage. For example, we know that certain regions of Upper Volta, such as Orodara, have been very successful in growing fruits and vegetables. But we know too that in these regions the fruits and vegetables rot for lack of means to get them out of the area. We say that the people should be mobilised in Orodara to build landing strips so planes will land there. The mangoes will come to Ouagadougou, will go to Dori, and that will be good for the people of Upper Volta.
This is the kind of work we’re talking about. Every day now – because we are going to begin big construction projects – we want you to come out in massive numbers to build. We are going to build a monument and a people’s theatre in Ouagadougou. We’ll build the same things in all the administrative regions, and it will be done with the youth. You are going to build in order to prove that you’re capable of transforming your existence and transforming the concrete conditions in which you live. You don’t need us to go looking for foreign financial backers, you only need us to give the people their freedom and their rights. That will be done.
The CSP also intends to put a stop to certain practices. When you go to a hospital with a haemorrhage or a fracture, even if you’re about to pass out, they’d rather ignore you and take care of the cold of some president, prime minister, or minister, simply because you’re a common man, a worker. We should denounce that every day. We will put a stop to it. Have confidence. We are going to put a stop to speculation, to the misappropriation of funds, and to illicit enrichment. That is why we are locking up – and we will continue to lock up – all those who steal the people’s money.
We tell the people to be ready to fight, to be ready to take up arms, to resist whenever it’s necessary. Have no fear, nothing will happen. The enemy knows that the Voltaic people are now mature.
That’s why, when we’re told that two years is too short a time for returning to normal constitutional life, we say it’s quite sufficient. Because when you let the people speak in complete freedom and complete democracy, the people will tell you in thirty minutes what they want. We don’t need two years.
The CSP thanks you because you are mobilised. We were right to have confidence in you, and we were right to side with you in the fight against the enemies of the people – imperialism. That’s why we should shout together:
Down with imperialism, down with imperialism, down with imperialism!
Down with the enemies of the people!
Down with the embezzlers of public funds!
Down with the fakers in Upper Volta!
Fakery is over!
Down with those who hide behind the diplomas paid for by the people’s sweat, and who, because of their diplomas, think they have the right to speak in the name of the people, but are incapable of serving in the name of the people!
Down with those who are against the bonds between the army and the people!
Down with those who hide in various clothes – white or black – against the people!
Imperialism will be buried in Upper Volta! Its lackeys will be buried in Upper Volta!
Long live Upper Volta!
Long live democracy!
Long live liberty!
Thank you, and see you very soon!