a new, free, independent, and prosperous Voltaic society; a new society rid of social injustice and of the age-old domination and exploitation by international imperialism.
At the end of the short road travelled thus far, I invite you to take a look back with me, to draw the lessons necessary for accurately assessing the revolutionary tasks that are posed presently and for the near future. By equipping ourselves with a clear view of unfolding events, we strengthen ourselves all the more in our struggle against imperialism and reactionary social forces.
To sum up: Where have we come from? And where are we going? Those are the questions of the moment that demand a clear, resolute, and unequivocal answer from us, if we wish to march boldly forward to greater and more resounding victories.
THE AUGUST REVOLUTION IS THE SUCCESSFUL RESULT OF THE VOLTAIC PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE
The triumph of the August revolution is due not only to the revolutionary takeover against the sacrosanct reactionary alliance of 17 May 1983. It is the result of the Voltaic people’s struggle against their long-standing enemies. It is a victory over international imperialism and its national allies. A victory over backward, obscurantist, and sinister forces. A victory over all the enemies of the people who have plotted and schemed behind their backs.
The August revolution is the culmination of the popular insurrection launched following the imperialist plot of 17 May 1983, which aimed to stem the rising tide of this country’s democratic and revolutionary forces.
This insurrection was symbolised not only by the courageous and heroic stance of the commandos of the city of Pô, who were able to put up fierce resistance to the pro-imperialist and anti-popular regime of Commander Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and Colonel Somé Yoryan, but also by the courage of the popular, democratic, and revolutionary forces, who were able to put up exemplary resistance in alliance with the patriotic soldiers and officers.
The insurrection of 4 August 1983, the victory of the revolution, and the rise of the National Council of the Revolution thus unquestionably represent the culmination and logical outcome of the Voltaic people’s struggles against neo-colonial domination and exploitation, against the subjugation of our country, and for the independence, freedom, dignity, and progress of our people. On this point, simplistic and superficial analyses, limited to reproducing predetermined patterns, cannot change the facts of reality in any way.
The August revolution thus triumphed by presenting itself both as heir to and as a deepening of the popular uprising of 3 January 1966. It is both the continuation, and the development at a qualitatively higher level, of all the great popular struggles, whose number has increased in recent years. They have all shown the systematic refusal of the Voltaic people – in particular the working class and toilers – to let themselves be governed as before. The most notable and significant milestones of these great popular struggles are December 1975, May 1979, October and November 1980, April 1982, and May 1983.
It is a well-established fact that the great movement of popular resistance immediately following the reactionary and pro-imperialist provocation of 17 May 1983, created favourable conditions for the events of 4 August 1983. Indeed, the imperialist plot of 17 May precipitated a large-scale regroupment of the democratic and revolutionary forces and organisations, which mobilised during this period, taking initiatives and carrying out unprecedented and audacious actions. During this time, the sacrosanct alliance of reactionary forces around the moribund regime laboured under its inability to block the breakthrough of the revolutionary forces, which were mounting an increasingly open attack on the anti-popular and antidemocratic forces in power.
The popular demonstrations of 20, 21, and 22 May met with a broad national response essentially due to their great political significance. They provided concrete proof that an entire people, especially the youth, subscribed openly to the revolutionary ideals defended by the men who the forces of reaction had treacherously moved against. These demonstrations were of great practical significance, since they expressed the determination of an entire people and all its youth, who stood up to confront concretely the forces of imperialist domination and exploitation. This was the most obvious illustration of the truth that when the people stand up, imperialism and the social forces allied with it tremble.
History and the process by which the popular masses develop political consciousness follow a dialectical progression that defies reactionary logic. That is why the May 1983 events greatly contributed to accelerating the process of political clarification in our country, reaching a level whereby the popular masses as a whole made an important, qualitative leap in their understanding of the situation. The 17 May events greatly contributed to opening the eyes of the Voltaic people. In a cruel and brutal flash, imperialism was revealed to them as a system of oppression and exploitation.
There are days that hold lessons incomparably richer than those of an entire decade. During such days, the people learn with such incredible speed and so profoundly that a thousand days of study are nothing in comparison.
The events of May 1983 allowed the Voltaic people to get to know its enemies better. Henceforth in Upper Volta, everyone knows who’s who; who is with whom and against whom; who does what and why.
This kind of situation, which constituted a prelude to great upheavals, helped lay bare the sharpening class contradictions of Voltaic society. The August revolution thus came as the solution to social contradictions that could no longer be suppressed by compromise solutions.
The enthusiastic adherence of the broad popular masses to the August revolution is the concrete expression of the immense hopes that the Voltaic people place in the rise of the CNR. They hope that their deep-going aspirations might finally be achieved – aspirations for democracy, liberty, independence, genuine progress, and the restoration of the dignity and grandeur of our homeland, which twenty-three years of neo-colonial rule have treated with singular contempt.
THE LEGACY OF TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF NEO-COLONIALISM
The formation of the CNR on 4 August 1983, and the subsequent establishment of a revolutionary government in Upper Volta opened a glorious page in the annals of the history of our people and our country. However, the legacy bequeathed to us by twenty-three years of imperialist exploitation and domination is weighty and burdensome. Our task of building a new society cleansed of all the ills keeping our country in a state of poverty and economic and cultural backwardness will be hard and arduous.
In 1960 French colonialism – hounded on all sides, defeated at Dien Bien Phu, and grappling with tremendous difficulties in Algeria13 – drew the lessons of those defeats and was compelled to grant our country its national sovereignty and territorial integrity. This was greeted positively by our people, who had not remained impassive, but rather had been developing appropriate struggles of resistance. This move by French colonial imperialism constituted a victory for the people over the forces of foreign oppression and exploitation. From the popular masses’ point of view, it was a democratic reform, whereas from imperialism’s point of view, it was merely a transformation of the forms of its domination and exploitation of our people.
This transformation nevertheless resulted in a realignment of classes and social layers and the formation of new classes. In alliance with the backward forces of traditional society, the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia of the time – with total contempt for the great masses, who they had used as a springboard to power – set about laying the political and economic foundations for the new forms of imperialist domination and exploitation. Fear that the struggle of the popular masses might radicalise and lead to a genuinely revolutionary solution had been the basis for the choice made by imperialism: From that point on, it would maintain its stranglehold over our country and perpetuate the exploitation of our people through the use of Voltaic intermediaries. Voltaic nationals were to take over as agents of foreign domination and exploitation. The entire organisation of neo-colonial society would be nothing more than a simple operation
