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
