The Hitherto Inclusive Cooperations, Which Could Make a Difference in Ethiopia
In liberation struggle against the oppressive Abyssinian empire’s system, we had passed through different phases and we had formed different alliances. The struggle has almost always been done by two ideologically opposite political camps, i.e. by unionists, who want to liberate oppressed nations in the empire and build, where possible, union of free peoples, and by unitarists, who do disregard autonomy of nations, but want to liberate individual citizens from any sort of oppression. In other words, it has been the struggle by those emphasizing group (national) liberty and by those stressing individual (citizens’) freedom. Despite their similarity in socialist ideology, one of the major differences between Me’ison and Ihapa was their tendency towards being unionist and unitarist, respectively. Me’ison, being dominated and led by Oromo intellectuals, had been for self-determination of nations in a sense of having their own national autonomy within Ethiopian union, whereas Ihapa, being dominated and led by Tigrean intellectuals, had been for self-determination of nations in a sense of exercising their cultures within unitary Ethiopia without national autonomy.
In a further process, politicians in both Me’ison and Ihapa, after being brutally beaten by the Ethiofascist Derg, opted to join their kins in OLF and TPLF, respectively. Then, Ihapa with its unitarist view had taken power in form of TPLF, and unionist Me’ison in form of OLF is still the main opposition/rebel group against this Ihapa-dominated regime. Simply put, the struggle between unionist Me’ison and unitarist Ihapa is still going on indirectly. After coming to power, unitarist TPLF was compelled to accept and respect certain elements of unionist OLF, so that it signed the 1991 Charter, which formally accepted right of all nations and nationalities to have their own self-rule within Ethiopia. But in practice, TPLF has chosen to implement more unitarist or centralist elements of its own, neglecting that of unionists. That is why TPLF:s Ethiopia was de jure union, but de facto unitary state. Leaving pre-1974-revolution history for historians and just looking at the alliances forged by polity in the empire since then, we can notice rise and fall of the following ten alliances:
IMALEDIH: after inability of Me’ison and Ihapa to forge alliance against the military dictator, first attempt of building an alliance was between the legally operating unionists at that time (Me’ison and Ici’at) with the contemporary unitarist forces (Seded, Wezlig and Malerid). Later, the two unionists were pushed out of the alliance and persecuted by unitarists who had power, so that the two unionists left the alliance. Soon after they left the alliance, the two unionists were considered illegal, which was followed by persecution of their activists who lastly joined OLF in battlefield against Derg.
IHADEG: was an asymmetrical alliance between the powerful TPLF and its subordinates (EPDM, later called ANDM and OPDO, being followed by formation of SEPDM). Simply put, this alliance of the four unequal parties is a mask for TPLF in order to get a legitimacy to rule over the whole Ethiopia, instead of only “liberating” Tigrai. As long as the TPLFites are in power, the other three ‘PDOs will serve them as slaves. By the way, TPLF has never been a liberation front, but an economic front which tries to overcome economical crisis in Tigrai, and now it has achieved to control almost all sectors in Ethiopia and to help Tigrai be free from destitute life.
COEDF: was an alliance formed in April 1991 at a meeting held in Washington by the unitarist Ihapa, the unionist Me’ison and other two parties, including some civic groups, human rights and community organizations and associations. This alliance couldn’t take part in fostering charter of the transitional Ethiopian government in 1991. It then lost its importance and was then disband and dismantled.
CAFPDE: was an alliance set up in aftermath of the opposition conference held in Finfinne in December 1993. The conference was headed by president of the unionist Hadiya National Democratic Organization, and the alliance included unitarist parties like EDU. This alliance failed mainly for it didn’t include major unionists from Oromo nation.
ULFO: was an exclusive alliance of only Oromo unionists in order to forge a strong Oromo liberation force against the fascist and hegemonist de facto unitarist TPLF regime, which still denies true self-rule of nations and nationalities. This alliance didn’t dare to approach unitarists and current merger form of the alliance still abhor any sort of alliance with unitarists. That is why TPLF cadres nowadays poise as if they support ULFO (as if they prefer Oromia’s independence) and curse Amhara unitarists just to hinder a possible alliance of Oromo unionists with Amhara unitarists against their hegemonist regime.
UEDF: an alliance composed of both unionists and unitarists, but excluded the main unionist liberation forces like the OLF and ONLF, so that it was ineffective and couldn’t live long. It was also weakened for two major unitarist parties (AEUP and EDP) left the alliance within few months after its formation.
CUD: an alliance of only die-hard unitarist forces, which tried their best to reverse the move of nations and nationalities towards a genuine autonomy in a form of a true killil-federation. One of the reasons for demise of UEDF was that the two main unitarist parties left the alliance with contemporary unionists and formed their own alliance of pure unitarists in the form of CUD. But this move at last led to demise of CUD itself, because of the opposition it faced from almost all unionists.
AFD: the first alliance, which included the seemingly diametrically opposite major unionist forces like OLF and main unitarist forces like CUD. It was the hitherto best alliance which made TPLF tremble for the first time. That is why it was not surprising when we did observe that TPLF cadres made a campaign against the AFD being camouflaged as unitarist Amhara cursing unionist Oromo, and vice versa, so that AFD couldn’t survive this polarizing action.
MEDREK: the still existing, but not yet effective alliance, which seems to be a continuation of AFD in a legal form, also included the unionists like the OFC and the unitarists like the UDJ. Here also, TPLF polarized Oromo unionists vs Amhara unitarists and at last UDJ left the alliance. The current move of this alliance towards forming a front, instead of continuing as only a coalition, needs a meticulous scrutiny. Otherwise, the call made by this alliance for preparation of the upcoming future “elections” under the TPLF is like “ye moony zefen/leqsoo melliso melaalso”. This fixation on only election as a method of struggle is a program for quick death of this alliance.
AGER-ADIN: the once suggested all-inclusive AFD-like alliance of both unionists like the OLF and unitarists like AG7, which are now moving underground in Ethiopia and which are active as rebels in battlefield as well as in exile, ended in forging this alliance of only unitarists. In last years, after the start of cooperation between one OLF faction and Ginbot-7, we surprisingly did read different articles and heard in different media opinions which are trying to polarize Oromo unionists and Amhara unitarists. TPLF cadres are again busy acting like Amhara unitarist patriots and cry for unitary Ethiopia in order to curse Oromo unionists. On vice versa, they are hyperactive to camouflage as Oromo unionists and sing about Oromia’s independence without possibility for union, just to insult Amhara unitarists. Their main mission is to hinder any sort of strong AFD-like alliance against their own fascist regime.
PAFD: is formed as alliance of only unionist liberation fronts and it can not be similar to the ex-AFD, which was inclusive of both Oromo unionists and Amara unitarists.
ENM: the lately fostered alliance (Ethiopian National Movement) is a bit inclusive of both unionists and unitarists, but exclusive of pro-independence forces like the OLF and ONLF, thus can’t be considered as inclusive as the ex-AFD.
The question yet to be answered is: could both the camp of unionists and camp of unitarists overcome the divisive move of TPLF and forge an all-inclusive alliance in order to consolidate the power taken from TPLF? Can we Foster similar inclusive cooperations against the currently ruling fascist Biltsiginà? I think, it would be better if both camps first consolidate their respective bloc by building coalition of -territorial integrity such as ENM and by forging unity of unionists like PAFD. Then, secondarily these two blocs can have an effective alliance against the fascist Biltsiginà. What is necessary here is that democratic unitarists need to distance themselves from the colonial position of both Amara dictators (who want to bring back the French-style colonization, i.e. assimilation of the subjugated nations into Amarinya speakers) and from Tigrai hegemonists (who want to keep their British-type colonization, allowing subjugated nations to dance their cultures and use their languages at lower level, but compel them live further under the domination of Tigrean elites).
At the time these democratic unitarists distance themselves from the past oriented nostalgic colonialist Amara dictators and join the future oriented unionists and start to fight against the myopic (only present oriented) fascist Biltsiginà, both camps of the opposition are not far from forging common ground for the necessary stable alliance. With such stable alliance, it is possible to resist an attempt of Biltsiginà in using controversial personalities, controversial issues like right of nations up to secession, and controversial topics like right on usage of Nile water in order to polarize opposition camps of democratic unionists and democratic unitarists. The hitherto and current cry of Biltsiginà cadres in media accusing unionists as gooxenya and cursing unitarists as nefxenya will then be a futile exercise. Common ground for the two camps can only be to agree on the two-phase struggle against the Biltsigina: liberation phase and democratization phase.
Liberation from fascism and tyranny is with no doubt a common ground for both unionists and unitarists. I think, we have already achieved this phase. Then establishing democratic institutions, promoting democratization process and living according to public verdict are what the democrats in both unionists’ and unitarists’ camps should accept and respect now. The future common political community in Oropia (Oromummà led Ethiopia) will be union of free peoples. This suggests that they all should try to struggle for both national autonomy of each nationality and regional union of free peoples to keep territorial integrity of Ethiopia, despite the move of unitarists against any sort of national autonomy. Coming to such agreement by the two opposition/rebel camps means taking away the worst instrument used by Biltsigina, i.e its notorious divide-and-rule method.
After agreeing on the common purpose or common ground, then taking appropriate route to the goal is what the new inclusive cooperation needs to have. I think “election” under the Biltsigina is a road with dead end. Preaching about only non-violent methods and moralizing/cursing any sort of cooperation with Eritrea, for example, are not expected from genuine opposition/rebel groups, but they are part and parcel of “good” rhetoric from Biltsigina cadres camouflaged as unitarist or unionist opposition. I personally believe that a coordinated civil disobedience, armed struggle and public uprising is the best route. It is only if the two opposition/rebel camps (unionists and unitarists) have such common purpose and common route that the suggested inclusive cooperation can be different and can make a difference.
For all partakers of the alliance to accept the future public verdict during democratization phase, they must be now bold enough to take risk of losing to their opponent in a true democratic way during public decision. Only this boldness towards such risk can help the seemingly diametrically opposite democratic unionists (Ethnofederalists) and democratic unitarists (Ethiofederalists) to forge an alliance against the fascists. Particularly, democratic unitarists who tend to disregard right of nations to self-determination should come to their sense and face the fact that without liberation or self-determination of Oromo people from the hitherto domination, the realization of peace and prosperity they are longing for will never happen. Also they should by now have registered that any alliance of only unitarists, excluding major unionist forces like the OLF, will never lead them to victory over the fascist Biltsigina.
On the other hand, unionist forces in general, and Oromo unionists in particular should be able to broaden their view and struggle for liberation of all nations and nationalities in Ethiopia from any sort of domination. Such view includes liberation of the two Habesha nations, despite domination/colonization of other nations by their elites. Such move from the unionists will help democratic unitarists (let’s forget the dictatorial die-hard unitarists) to move towards forging the very necessary inclusive alliance. This is the only mechanism to help the apparently impossible alliance between the seemingly diametrically opposite unionists and unitarists be possible.
That is why I dare to say that we should still suggest an inclusive alliance based on such matured understandings from both democratic unionists and unitarists, which can be different and will make a difference. So, specially, Amara democratic unitarists and Oromo democratic unionists should try to help the impossible be possible and forge an inclusive alliance to get rid of Biltsiginà fascists; otherwise, we should be ready to be ruled for the coming at least one century and see our Amaraland and Oromoland being sold by the Tigrean hegemonists to foreign capitalists, so that the two big nations, will live under slavery and leave this slavery further to our coming generation. I hope we do have rational and reasonable minds to choose the first option of alliance against fascists, which can lead us to consolidate our liberation and implement democratization, not prefer the second option of our subjugation for a century. To move in the direction of liberation together, may Waaqa give us knowledge, understanding and wisdom to help this suggested inclusive alliance (cooperation) be different and make a difference!
Galatôma!
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