Introduction
Revolutionary Greetings and salutes!
We sincerely thank the organizers of this historic conference. The only way that we can pay you back is by taking the resolutions and putting them into practice among our People at all levels, but especially at the Base where our People live and struggle in the villages, cities and communities.
Please give a round of applause for the organizers and interpreters! They are the workers who made it possible for us to be here today.
We are grateful for the Worldwide Anti-imperialist Platform, the DUP and the Local Organizing Committee/Senegal.
We are especially enthusiastic to be in Senegal, during this historic year, 2024, where the masses of People rose up and uprooted the neo-colonial puppet and democratically elected DIOMAYE FAYE and OUSMANE SANKO as President and Prime Minister, respectively!
JËRE JËF BOU BOUF SENEGAAL!
We are sure that the imperialists and their neo-colonial agents will do everything to discourage activists from working in unity with determination to win the Legislative Elections on 17 November 2024.
We have faith that the revolutionaries and progressive forces will unite and give determined support for the PASTEF so that it wins the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY and takes democratic control of the Senegal National Assembly!
The difficulties and distortions during candidacies are secondary contradictions that must be overcome to concretely resolve the main contradiction: to win the majority that our sovereign Government needs to move from the current transition to the break with neocolonialism and the systemic transformation for the People and by the People. The major challenge of the Legislative Elections for the 15th legislature is therefore to provide the new sovereign power with a majority of sovereign deputies!
VIVA PASTEF!
“Now is the time for actions; not words” (Amílcar Cabral)
Free free Palestine!
Free free Palestine!
From the river to the Sea, Palestine will be free!
From the river to the Sea, Palestine will be free!
Down with capitalism!
Down with neocolonialism!
Down with confusion―the number one enemy of the People!
Long Live socialism!
Long Live Revolutionary Pan-Africanism!
Long Live Amílcar Cabral Thought!
Amílcar Cabral teaches us that is not only shouts that will defeat imperialism or capitalism or neo-colonialism.
“Now is the time for actions; not words” (Amílcar Cabral)
Actions must be led by thought and these actions must be done by organizing at all levels from the Base to the intermediate, central and international levels, but with emphasis on the Bases!
Relevance Of Cabral Thought To Guinea-Bissau, Africa And Worldwide Anti-Imperialist Struggle
The faithful adherence to Amílcar Cabral Thought will result in the destruction and burial of imperialism in all its evil manifestations of colonialism, settler colonialism, zionism, neo-colonialism, patriarchy, and all forms of exploitation. It will result in a unified liberated socialist Africa where the modes of production are in the hands of the People without any foreign or domestic domination! It will result in a socialist world.
The PAIGC Sincerely Thanks Every Organization That Has Commemorated The Amílcar Cabral Centenary!
The commemorations continue! They didn’t stop on 12 September. Commemorations continue throughout 2024 and application of Amílcar CABRAL THOUGHT will continue beyond 2025!
We also thank the Worldwide Anti-imperialist Platform and the People’s Democratic Party for your sacrifices to participate in the International Symposium held in Bafata, Guinea-Bissau, the place where Amílcar Cabral was born, 12 September 1924.
Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Amílcar Cabral Considered the 2nd Greatest Leader of Humanity
In 2020, BBC World Histories Magazine asked historians to nominate the ‘greatest leader’―someone who exercised power and had a positive impact on humanity―and to explore their achievements and legacy. More than 5,000 readers voted, and in second place, with 25 per cent of the vote is Amílcar Cabral.
Paigc Is A Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Socialist Mass Party Guided By Amílcar Cabral Thought
The African Party of Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the revolutionary Pan-Africanist Mass Party guided by Amílcar Cabral Thought is a socialist Party that is honored to be together with other socialist and communist Parties to learn from each other and intensify coordination against imperialism in all its forms of settler colonialism, zionism, neo-colonialism.
Shouting Insults Against Imperialism Will Not Defeat It
At the first Tricontinental Conference held in Cuba in January 1966―that brought together more than 260 Delegates from more than 70 revolutionary organizations of Africa, Asia and Latin America―our Immortal Brother and Comrade Amílcar Cabral, Secretary General of the African Party of Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and speaking on behalf of CONCP (Conference of National Organizations in the Portuguese Colonies that included the MPLA of Angola, FRELIMO of Mozambique, MLSTP of São Tome e Principe) said that; “…the objective of national liberation, is to reclaim the right, usurped by imperialist domination, namely: the liberation of the process of development of national productive forces…”
“…We are not going to use this platform to rail against imperialism. An African saying very common in our country says: ‘When your house is burning, it’s no use beating the tom-toms.’ On a Tricontinental level, this means that we are not going to eliminate imperialism by shouting insults against it. For us, the best or worst shout against imperialism, whatever its form, is to take up arms and fight. This is what we are doing, and this is what we will go on doing until all foreign domination of our African homelands has been totally eliminated…”
Ideals And Correct Lines
Revolutionary work must be guided by theory: ideals and correct lines to reinforce the struggle against imperialism; theory put into practice.
Amílcar Cabral reminds us that “…every practice produces a theory, and that if it is true that a revolution can fail even though it be based on perfectly conceived theories, nobody has yet made a successful revolution without a revolutionary theory…”
Those who absorb revolutionary theories and put them into honest practice among our People are transformed into self-conscious revolutionaries. Logically self-conscious revolutionaries become attracted to each other by magnetic energy, as we are today in this conference.
Amílcar Cabral on Palestine
Amílcar Cabral said: “…We are with the refugees, the martyred refugees from Palestine, who have been reviled, expelled from their homeland by the maneuvers of imperialism. We stand with the refugees of Palestine and we support with all the strength of our hearts everything that the children of Palestine are doing to liberate their country, and we support with all our strength the Arab countries and African countries in general to help the Palestinian people regain their dignity, their independence and their right to life…”
History Is A Guide
History is a guide. Properly analyzing from a historical materialist perspective allows us to not repeat the same mistakes that have already happened. For example, after the physical disappearance of the great eternal revolutionary Karl Marx, his close comrade Friedrich Engels wrote a letter on 21 September 1891 to a young student named J.Bloch:
“…According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. More than this neither Marx nor I have ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase….”
CONSCIOUSNESS leads practice. Revolutionary theory leads revolution and serves as a strong determining element in production and reproduction of real life.
What should Liberation Movements and Social Movements learn from Amílcar Cabral about “Culture and Liberation” and apply in practice?
Priority of ideals and correct lines to reinforce the revolutionary front against imperialism is emphasized by Amílcar Cabral and the PAIGC.
“…we must recognize that we ourselves and the other liberation movements in general (referring here above all to the African experience) have not managed to pay sufficient attention to the important problem of ideology in our common struggle.
The ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, within the national liberation movements―which is basically due to ignorance of the historical reality which these movements claim to transform―constitutes one of the greatest weaknesses of our struggle against imperialism, if not the greatest weakness of all. We believe, however, that a sufficient number of different experiences have already been accumulated to enable us to define a general line of thought and action with the aim of eliminating this deficiency. A full discussion of this subject could be useful, and would enable this conference to make a valuable contribution towards strengthening the present and future actions of the national liberation movements. This would be a concrete way of helping these movements, and in our opinion no less important than political support or financial assistance for arms and suchlike…“
Fight Against Patriarchy: Lessons From Amílcar Cabral’s Thought In Practice
Amílcar Cabral Thought uses a historical materialist analysis of the transition from socioeconomic mode of production from primitive communism (communalism) to private ownership of land and production services to show the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy; the first defeat of women’s emancipation.
When children were selected from PAIGC Schools in Liberated Zones to go to the PAIGC Pilot School in Conakry, Guinea, positive discrimination was given to girls, who were selected in the 3rd Level, while boys were selected at the 5th Level. At the PAIGC Pilot School they were taught about the emancipation of women and shared the same work. Boys and girls would fetch water together, cook together, wash and sew clothes together.
Our Revolutionary Party Is The Political Manifestation of Our People’s Culture
As our Eternal leader Amílcar Cabral reminds us, “…our challenge is to not merely shout against imperialism, but rather to struggle to defeat it…” Many of our organizations have taken up arms. In our case, it was a People’s War with armed militants led by a revolutionary Pan-Africanist Party that used the Liberated Zones as a nucleus of the new State; ideologically and politically training socialist new women and men, while building socialism, giving concrete support to Angola, Palestine, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, et al.
In short, our revolutionary party is the political manifestation of our People’s culture.
We have been part of political coordination, sometimes more intensely and other times less. Our challenge is to transform the less to more and intensify our political coordination. Amílcar Cabral instructs us to “…struggle against our own weaknesses…Tell no lies, claim no easy victories, hide nothing from the People…”
This is significant for our challenges today. The organized People of a small country defeated NATO. Guinea-Bissau doesn’t manufacture weapons such as war planes, missiles, submarines or any other types. Its main weapons are the culture of the masses of People organized politically.
The majority of the People in the Homeland of Amílcar Cabral, and all faithful Militants, Responsibles and leaders of his Party PAIGC continue to struggle against imperialism in all its rotten manifestations. Our Party is the politically organized manifestation of our People’s culture.
Anti-imperialist struggle and Culture
“…The liberation movement, as representative and defender of the culture of the people, must be conscious of the fact that, whatever may be the material conditions of the society it represents, the society is the bearer and creator of culture. The liberation movement must furthermore embody the mass character, the popular character of the culture―which is not and never could be the privilege of one or of some sectors of the society…
…In the thorough analysis of social structure which every liberation movement should be capable of making in relation to the imperatives of the struggle, the cultural characteristics of each group in society have a place of prime importance. For, while the culture has a mass character, it is not uniform, it is not equally developed in all sectors of society. The attitude of each social group toward the liberation struggle is dictated by its economic interests, but it is also influenced profoundly by its culture. It may even be admitted that these differences in cultural levels explain differences in behaviour toward the liberation movement on the part of individuals who belong to the same socio-economic group. It is at this point that culture reaches its full significance for each individual: understanding and integration into their environment, identification with fundamental problems and aspirations of the society, acceptance of the possibility of change in the direction of progress…
…In the specific conditions of our country―and we would say, of Africa―the horizontal and vertical distribution of levels of culture is somewhat complex. In fact, from villages to towns, from one ethnic group to another, from one age group to another, from the peasant to the workman or to the indigenous intellectual who is more or less assimilated, and, as we have said, even from individual to individual within the same social group, the quantitative and qualitative level of culture varies significantly. It is of prime importance for the liberation movement to take these facts into consideration…
…Whatever may be the ideological or idealistic characteristics of cultural expression, culture is an essential element of the history of a people. Culture is, perhaps, the product of this history just as the flower is the product of a plant. Like history, or because it is history, culture has as its material base the level of the productive forces and the mode of production. Culture plunges its roots into the physical reality of the environmental humus in which it develops, and it reflects the organic nature of the society, which may be more or less influenced by external factors. History allows us to know the nature and extent of the imbalances and conflicts (economic, political and social) which characterize the evolution of a society; culture allows us to know the dynamic synthesis which have been developed and established by social conscience to resolve these conflicts at each stage of its evolution, in the search for survival and progress…”
Traitors
We suffered from imperialists attacks that used their strongest weapon: traitors.
Consequences of betrayal manifested in the weakening on all fronts. Yet despite the infiltration of neo-liberal policies; despite the dismembering of the PAIGC Party-State, taking a lot of the PAIGC patrimony and giving them to the State – which some used against the PAIGC, even still our culture continued to grow and revolutionaries reproduced themselves at the Base; in the Villages and Urban Neighborhoods.
Current Anti-imperialist Struggles in Guinea-Bissau
There aren’t any foreign military bases in Guinea-Bissau and there have never been. The revolutionary Constitution that was approved by the National People’s Assembly on 23 September 1973 , (the day before it unilaterally Proclaimed Independence on 24 September 1973), prohibits foreign military bases. But since 2020 we have an imposed neo-colonial puppet in the Presidential Palace and since 2022 we do have an imposed armed contingent of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose presence wasn’t approved by the National People’s Assembly.
As we speak, the neo-colonialist puppets in the person of Umaro Sissoco Embalo has unconstitutionally blocked the National People’s Assembly, violently invaded the Supreme Court of Justice and forced its president to resign under duress; maintained an expired incomplete National Electoral Council, an illegal unconstitutional so-called “government of presidential initiative”, with a corrupt Attorney General who serves as his puppet. He usurped the People’s choice of a PAIGC (PAI Terra Ranka Coalition) led Government. He is attempting to unconstitutionally extend the presidential mandate from five (5) to six (6) years and to commit voter fraud in the elections.
The democratic forces who oppose these measures are attacked by armed mercenaries sent like attack dogs from the Presidential Palace. These same attack dogs abuse democratic patriotic peaceful manifestations, arrest and torture unarmed protesters.
The National Union of Guinean Workers (UNTG) headquarters has been seized.
Necessity for Intensified Political Coordination
Concrete measures to achieve revolutionary Pan-Africanism, according to the Thought of Amílcar Cabral
Guinea-Bissau is an integral part of West Africa, Africa and Humanity. The culture of our People is rising as is our revolutionary consciousness. We still lack the coordination with worldwide anti-imperialist forces and integration of our revolutionary and progressive forces to bring our inevitable defeat of imperialism in all its ugly forms.
We shall defeat them, via our culture, just like we defeated Portuguese colonialism supported by NATO!
The PAIGC has been involved with various international and regional coordinating organizations and serves as a co-founder of the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) that emanated from the First Tricontinental Conference of 1966 in Cuba. Through political military coordination of OSPAAAL, many victories have been won against imperialism. Likewise, we remain enthusiastic to intimately coordinate with all serious anti-imperialist platforms.
We are co-founders of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) and co-founders of the West Africa People’s Organisation (WAPO).
While there is some political coordination, it is not enough. This conference provides a platform to increase it. As Cabral said at the 1st Tricontinental, “more than asking for weapons or materials, we should take advantage of our accumulated experiences to trace general lines of thought and action…”
We must intensify our outreach to other anti-imperialist organizations.
Coordinate and Intensify Anti-Imperialists Information and Propaganda News
One of the main weaknesses is the source of (mis)information on the part of millions by the imperialist zionist disinformation service. We must coordinate and share the anti-imperialists news sources from the Worldwide Anti-imperialist Platform, from the Spark of the West Africa People’s Organisation (WAPO), such as TeleSur TV, Cuba TV, and reproduce and increase them and make them become the primary source of information for the Masses throughout the world.
Coordinate Our Ideological Training Processes
We must coordinate our ideological training processes without dogma, and have systematic political ideological exchanges.
Amílcar Cabral reminds us that; “…People are sacrificing for better schools, access to health care, better lives and not of ideas in other people’s heads…” This doesn’t mean that we minimize ideological struggle. Practice has shown us that like Karl Marx said; “…Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it…“
Emulate The Example of Amílcar Cabral: Serve As Examples of Complete Human Beings
The centenary of Lenin’s death coincides with the centenary of Amílcar Cabral’s birth.
Amílcar Cabral said that Vladimir Lenin was a “…fruitful light that illuminates the path of the struggle…” We use the words to say the same about Amílcar Cabral. He is a faithful light that illuminates the path of the struggle.
Amílcar Cabral eternally serve as examples of complete human beings, in the way that Amílcar Cabral described Vladimir Lenin. As we mentioned in our speech last year at the Athens 5th International Conference In November 2023 HTTPS://WAP21.ORG/?P=4640 “…a complete human being, he knew how to love and hate. Love the cause of man’s liberation from any kind of oppression, the wonderful adventure that is human life, everything that is beautiful and constructive on the planet. Hating the enemies of man’s progress and happiness, the class enemy, the opportunists, cowardice, lies, all the factors that debase man’s social and moral conscience…” “…an example of fidelity to principles. He knew how to make concessions on the form of demands, of axés, but never on principles…” “…Lenin always demonstrated unlimited confidence in the abilities of the masses…any liberation movement needs a strategy…”
“…When developing this strategy it is necessary to be able to distinguish the essential from the secondary, the permanent from the temporary. Without ever confusing strategy and tactics, action must be based on a scientific conception of reality, regardless of the influence of subjective factors that must be faced…”
Comrades, let us go forward onward to victory as complete human beings!
Amílcar Cabral’s Thought Practiced Daily
Amílcar Cabral Thought is not the cult of a personality. Amílcar Cabral was a simple African who was honest, courageous and faithful to the culture and aspirations of African People and Humanity. He gave a great example to be emulated whose works and ideas exist to be studied more widely and critically to continue to energize the generations of revolutionaries and the upcoming generations of youth to make the Party stronger. As we said, repeat and reiterate, THE PARTY IS THE GUARANTEE of the Revolution!
For the Centenary and onwards, let us apply Amílcar THOUGHT in practice!
Everywhere there is an agent of imperialism, zionism or neo-colonialism, let us go forward with tidal waves to crush them!
A luta continua!
Victoria é Certa!
Onward to Final Victory!
READY FOR THE REVOLUTION!
