anti-imperialists

"As for Burkina Faso, for the past eight years we have been fighting the most barbaric and cruel form of colonialism and imperialism, which are forcing a modern form of slavery on us. We have learned one thing very well: a slave who cannot protest deserves nothing more than pity, and his future is miserable. We did not wait for anybody to take care of us. We decided to fight the terrorists who are preventing our development."

"Even when it comes dressed in a tailored suit, carrying diplomatic credentials and smiling through its sins, Your Holiness the world stands at a precipice and Africa this battered and beautiful continent is not merely watching from below we are climbing. We are bleeding, we are rising, and we are daring to ask questions that echo louder than canon law. Where was the church when our presidents were overthrown by foreign-backed mercenaries? Where was the church when our youth were abducted and indoctrinated into wars funded by nations that pretend to be peacekeepers. Where was the church when our currencies collapsed? When the IMF choked our economies? When our leaders were punished for choosing sovereignty over submission? Do not tell us to forgive while the whip is still in the hand of the abuser."

"Traoré has rejected financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, insisting the country can develop without the West’s loans and conditionalities. For some, this is a demonstration of Africans handling their own affairs. For the youth, Traoré’s regime is a chance to show what young people can achieve. But for most ordinary Burkinabé, the priority is simply improving their daily living conditions. At a time of increasing global uncertainty and a decline in international aid, Africa must strive for self-reliance and control of its resources. Like many African countries, Burkina Faso is blessed with natural resources that, if properly managed, could transform citizens’ lives."

"The problem is not when people decide to take up arms. The problem is that the leaders of African countries do not bring anything to people fighting imperialism, calling us armed groups or criminals. We do not agree with this approach. We, the heads of African states, must stop acting as puppets ready to act whenever the imperialists pull the strings."

"I lead a nation that was tossed aside by the world until we refused to be silent. We were told we were too poor to be independent, too weak to be sovereign, too unstable to resist. But I tell you this with the thunder of ancestors in my voice. We are done asking for permission to exist."

"We believe that the terrorism we are witnessing today comes from imperialism, and we are fighting it. If we put an end to this war, if we have a strong army, we will be able to engage in developing our homeland. That is what we see as the purpose of our struggle. This is why it is utterly important to build and train staff."

"Despite the effort to present Traoré as a bold reformer and saviour, the political, security and economic ramifications from his junta rule will reverberate through Burkina Faso for decades to come."

"I cannot understand why Africa, with its huge mineral resources, water and sun, is the poorest continent where hunger abounds, and why we have to ask for help. We ask these questions, but we are not getting any answers."

"Your Holiness, I speak now only for Burkina Faso, but for a continent too long patronized. Africa is not a continent of pity, we are a continent of prophets. Prophets who were jailed, exiled and murdered for daring to challenge the empire."

"I am almost out of time, but I would like to say that we must pay tribute to our nations who fight and struggle. Glory to our nations! Dignity and respect for our nations! Victory to our nations! Thank you, comrades. Homeland or death!"

"But we also know another truth, one that too many preferred to bury, that the church at times walked beside colonizers, that while missionaries prayed for our souls, soldiers littered our lands, that while you predecessors spoke of heaven, our ancestors were chained on earth."

"Your Holiness, we Africans know the power of the cross. We know the hymns, the prayers, the litanies. We have built churches with calloused hands and defended our faith with our blood."

"In this struggle, our courageous people decided to take up arms against terrorism. We were surprised to learn that imperialists refer to them as armed groups or militarized groups, while calling people in Europe who take up arms to defend their homeland patriots. Our forefathers were deported to save Europe, and this happened against their will. But when they came back and tried to assert their basic rights, they faced cruel repression."

"Will you be the Pope who sees Africa not as a periphery, but as the prophetic center? Will you be the Pope who does not only visit slums for photo opportunities, but who dares to speak with rage against the forces that make those slums permanent?"

"What we need is a Pope who will name the modern-day Herod who will thunder against economic empires just as boldly as the Church once thundered against communism."

"A charismatic 37-year-old, Burkina Faso's military ruler Capt Ibrahim Traoré has skilfully built the persona of a pan-Africanist leader determined to free his nation from what he regards as the clutches of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism.[..] Traoré's popularity comes despite the fact that he has failed to fulfil his pledge to quell a 10-year Islamist insurgency that has fuelled ethnic divisions and has now spread to once-peaceful neighbours like Benin."

"I would also like to apologize to the elders. Please, forgive me if I have wronged you in any way. My generation is asking many questions without getting any answers, but we feel at home, in our family here."

"The role of Africa and Russia in combating Nazism has been mostly forgotten. We have come together today because we need to talk about our countries’ future. What will happen tomorrow in this new, free world which we are striving for, a world without interference in our internal affairs? We have the same prospects."

"We are a people of the crossroads of prophecy and politics, and Africa’s time is no longer coming. It is here. We are rewriting the narrative, reshaping the future, reclaiming the dignity denied to us by centuries of foreign domination and spiritual manipulation. And the church must decide where it stands, with the powers that be here, with the people who bleed. I do not write this letter to condemn. I write it to invite you, Your Holiness, into a deeper solidarity, to a solidarity that walks barefoot with the poor, that dares to speak truth in Rome as boldly as it does in Rwanda, that names the Saints not just by miracles, but by their commitment to justice. We await your voices, not from balconies, but from trenches and from favelas. From refugee camps, from behind the bars of political prisons where truth is incarcerated."

"The Mandarin language lessons taught included such messages as cultivating self-confidence and valuing time. I was one of the trainees, and in less than two years made some progress in language study. Talks were also given on the dismemberment of China by the foreign powers and on building China as a prosperous nation with a mighty army."

"I was deeply influenced by my grand-uncle who had been a member of the Taiping Army. He often told me stories about the Taiping forces. The Taipings, he used to say, had food for everybody, the women unbound their feet, and the land was shared out among the tillers. This instilled in me the idea of taking the landlords’ riches to relieve the poor, of wiping out the landlords and finding a way out for the poor."

"When soldiers become conscious of what they are doing and are organized, they constitute a mighty force."

"I reached the age of 23 in 1921. Having been a cowherd, a child labourer, a dyke worker and a soldier, I had been through extreme poverty and experienced the hard life of workers, peasants and soldiers. In the process, I cultivated some simple class feelings for the oppressed."

"Old Peng is always an old man whom I respect very much. His spirit will always be the precious spiritual wealth and an important part of our Chinese Communist Party. We must use his spirit to inspire the majority of party members, especially leading cadres, to do their own thing well, to build our country better for the party and the people."

"I was prepared to destroy myself, but I would never do anything to harm the people’s army led by the Party."

"Comrade Peng Dehuai is an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a respected older generation of proletarian revolutionaries, politicians, military strategists, and outstanding leaders of the party, country and army. From the period of the new-democratic revolution to the period of socialist construction, he devoted himself to the cause of the party and the people, dedicated all his wisdom and strength, and established an immortal feat that will shine in the annals of history."

"The U.S. occupation of Korea, separated from China by only a river, would threaten Northeast China. Its control of Taiwan posed a threat to Shanghai and East China. The U.S. could find a pretext at any time to launch a war of aggression against China. The tiger wanted to eat human beings; when it would do so would depend on its appetite. No concession could stop it. If the U.S. wanted to invade China, we had to resist its aggression. Without going into a test of strength with U.S. imperialism to see who was stronger, it would be difficult for us to build socialism. If the U.S. was bent on warring against China, it would want a war of quick decision, while we would wage a protracted war; it would fight regular warfare, and we would employ the kind of warfare we had used against the Japanese invaders."

"I was born into a lower-middle peasant family on the 10th day of the 9th moon on the lunar calendar in 1898. All my family had at that time were a few thatched huts on eight or nine mu (hectre) of fallow and hilly land. We planted sweet potatoes and cotton on the fallow land and palms, tea, China fir and bamboo on the hill. Working hard and living frugally, the eight of us — my granduncle, grandmother, my parents and four boys barely managed to make ends meet."

"The appalling poverty I experienced in my childhood and youth tempered me. In later years, I often recalled the plight of my childhood with a view to preventing myself from becoming corrupt and forgetting the hard life of the poor. That is why I can still vividly remember the ordeals I went through as a child."

"As World War I was then going on, the European and American imperialists had slowed down their aggression against China, and China’s industry was growing at a relatively high speed. This gave rise to such deceptive bourgeois patriotic ideas as “a prosperous nation with a mighty army” and “save the nation through industrial development”. They had an influence on me. But my chief motive in joining the army was to earn money to help provide for my poor family."

"After making a thorough analysis and appraisal of each man, we switched over to combat training, during which “officers teach soldiers, soldiers teach officers, and soldiers teach each other.” Officers and soldiers taught and learned from one another in earnest."

"Signing the armistice, I thought that the war had set a precedent for many years to come — something the people would rejoice at. It was a pity, however, that having established our battlefield deployment, we were unable to deal greater blows against the enemy."

"Comrade Peng Dehuai loves the party, loves the people, and is loyal to the great cause of the proletarian revolution. He fought bravely, was upright, honest, strict with himself, cared about the masses, and never considered personal gains and losses. He is not afraid of difficulties, bravely shoulders heavy responsibilities, is diligent and extremely responsible for revolutionary work."

"Born at a time when human history was moving forward by leaps and bounds, I was unable to keep pace with the tempo of this great epoch. The Communist Party of China was founded in 1921, but at that time I had not got in touch with Marxism and did not know the following fundamentals: the scientific laws of social development, analysing problems from the standpoint of class struggle, and revolution as the conscious action of the organized masses."

"The companies of my battalion had undergone training in the winter, and there were now members of the Save-the-Poor Committee in every company. After going through the discussions on the current situation conducted from the first to the third moon, the men and officers in my battalion had a better understanding of the Northern Expedition. They no longer feared it now, but were pleased to see it happen."

"Don’t believe the good words of a man uttered in ordinary times; his action in an emergency will tell what sort of a man he is."

"History is always moving ahead in a wavelike fashion, and the people of today outpace those of yesterday in their continuous forward advance."

"China could only resist foreign aggression and develop its industry by instituting democracy and unifying the country."

"I hold that the Hundred Regiments Campaign was a military success. Especially after the Anti-Friction Battle, we had to organize such an anti-Japanese campaign to show that we had to oppose frictions for the sake of resisting Japanese aggression. Only thus could we win over large numbers of middle-of-the-roaders. At that time only by seizing the advantage of a weakly defended enemy rear to launch a vigorous surprise attack could we deal blows at the enemy and restore vast expanses of anti-Japanese base areas. It was not easy to organize such a campaign in a unified and planned way under the condition of dense networks of enemy blockhouses. Our victory helped expose the deceptive propaganda of the Japanese invaders and Chiang Kai-shek. It was also necessary for the accumulation of revolutionary strength."

"Most of the officers and men in the PLA had their own histories of blood and tears. Since everybody had kept his bitter experience to himself, the soldiers’ common hatred for the enemy did not turn into a common class feeling."

"As a command officer, I had one good point — I was never satisfied with the victories already won. But I was overanxious to win more victories, so the good point became a shortcoming. Although I reminded myself again and again to guard against impatience, I found it difficult to overcome it."

"Impatience for success means subjectivism in ideology and adventurism in action. This tendency often emerged in me after a series of major victories. This was arrogance. But it won the support of some soldiers at the time."

"On the Korean battlefield, the Chinese People’s Volunteers and the Korean People’s Army fought shoulder to shoulder to help each other like brothers. Fighting together for three years, the Chinese People's Volunteers and the Korean people and the Korean People’s Army built up a militant friendship sealed in blood. The feeling of internationalism between our two peoples became even more profound."

"There was a certain degree of lopsidedness in the development of the iron and steel industry. People stressed the construction and development of processing and material industries but neglected the raw material industry to some extent. The raw material industry provided the foundation for the material and processing industries. If the foundation were unstable, the development of the processing industry would be impeded."

"High mountains, dangerous passes, deep ravines, The enemy cavalry sweep the length and breadth at will; Who dares stop them, astride a horse, gun at the ready? Only our General Peng Dehuai."

"He was a man who struck terror into the hearts of the enemy. He was loyal to the Party and politically incorruptible. He led a simple life and maintained a down-to-earth style of work. These qualities which have won him our lasting respect also set an example for our future generations. It goes without saying that he had his weaknesses, too. For example, being very strict and forthright, he at times gave way to rashness. But he was bold enough to admit his mistakes and correct them."

"It’s like a tiger after a flock of sheep; Under a blanket of smoke and fire Our army surges forward; The cries of battle reach the sky, The earth and mountains shake, My malaria disappears; The enemy runs helter-skelter, Kicking up dust to the sky; Our brother army has not come, And so you live another day."

"Ironclad evidence had proved that China's Anti-Japanese National United Front could only be led by the proletarian Communist Party, and not by a so-called joint leadership. It was impossible for the Kuomintang of the feudal landlords and comprador bourgeoisie to lead the front, to set up the anti-Japanese democratic coalition government with the “three thirds system”, to transform the reactionary agencies of its party, government and army, and to implement the policy of reducing land rent and interest on loans and developing a national economy."

"Our goal was illegal (revolution), and legality was but a means of achieving that goal. Otherwise we would have been using legality for the sake of legality and would have become the will."

"The experience I gained taught me that one must be good at making use of contradictions of all kinds to legalize the illegal such as the rules of the soldiers’ committees which, through our work, were adopted as the objectives of the division school."