BY TEKLEBIRHAN GEBREMICHAEL
Col. Mengistu Hailemariam grew up around the Emperor’s Palace. He therefore had the chance to observe closely the sparkling beauty, arrogance, extravagance and intrigue of the dynastic royal family. The tall and handsome generals and the well-educated civilian minister forming the larger entourage of the Emperor in their resplendent uniform and imposing morning coats must have created a sense of envy and therefore inferiority in him.
Col. Mengistu, as I know him from a distance, was a dynamic person of volcanic temperament. Those who underestimated him suffered the consequences of their misjudgment. His sense of envy and inferiority prompted him to identify himself with the suffering masses of peasant farmers and the urban poor, which helped him to espouse Marxism–Leninism quite easily. Contrary to those who thought him to be rather slow on the uptake, he mastered those aspects of Marxism-Leninism which helped him rise to power and consolidate it. He killed his tutor Haile Fida who was one of the leading Ethiopian Marxists. He did the same to Berhanemeskel Reda, the other prominent Ethiopian leftist of the time. Mengistu further consolidated his power by putting out one of the most radical land proclamations in the world.
On the other hand, Brook was a brilliant political science university student who was significantly skeptical about the underlying principle of socialism, the so-called transitional phase to communism. One day over lunch he said to his friend Girma: “I am not quite convinced of the Marxist theory of economic exploitation under capitalism. It is profit that is supposed to be the source of economic exploitation as it is wrongly equated with the unpaid portion of labour. If the capitalist pays the labourer the market wage rate which is determined by supply and demand on the free labour market, how can there be unpaid labour and how can the latter be the source of profit?”
Before Girma had the chance to respond to Brook’s insightful comment, another student who overheard Brook’s viewpoint interfered to bark out: “You’d better shut up, you revisionist capitalist roader!”
“Sorry, I am speaking to my friend, not you,” Brook said.
“It does not matter who you are speaking to. What matters is what you say and that is definitely anti-socialism and you know what the punishment for that is!” the unwelcome intruder said. His name was Adefres.
“I know you are grown-up enough to realize that interfering in other people’s conversation is rude,” Girma, Brook’s friend said.
“And who are you, may I ask, who are trying to teach me etiquette? I don’t mind learning a thing or two about it, but make sure it is about socialist etiquette!” Adefers said.
“You haven’t even heard fully what my friend said and I doubt if you can understand it even if you have heard it,” Girma said.
“How dare you insinuate that I cannot tell a true Marxist from a blood–sucking capitalist–roader?” Adefers queried sarcastically.
“O.K. tell me what Marxists say on the origin of profit?” Girma asked.
“Profit is blood and sweat sucked from workers by the capitalist. They get unhealthily fat on it as workers become emaciated from undernutrition or bloated from junk food. The strange thing is that they both end up being unhealthy,” Adefers said.
“But what more can the capitalist do than pay the worker the market wage rate? Brook asked.
“There is no such thing as a market wage rate because the market is rigged and cornered,” Adefers replied.
“How do you mean?” Brook asked.
“That’s for the great Karl Marx to explain. Of course, he’s been dead for a long time now, but his Das Kapital (Capital) lives on. By the way, it is forbidden for individuals to criticize Karl Marx. Only well- recognized and accredited research institutes are allowed to do so,” Adefers said.
“That’s a bit harsh. I know Marx was a genius, but so is my friend Brook,” Girma said.
“That’s the problem with little minds. Just because they understand a few strands of Marxist philosophy and economics, they think they understand the unfathomable depths of the ocean of knowledge of Marxist thought,” Adefers said.
“That is heroworship,” Girma said.
“Let it be so if it is the ultimate knowledge and wisdom there is on planet earth,” Adeferes retorted.
“Well, I don’t see the economic exploitation if the capitalist pays the worker the market wage rate,” Brook said.
“I told you there is no free-market rate because the market is rigged. A reserve army of unemployed people is deliberately created to keep the wage rate permanently low,” Adeferes said.
“You have a point there. I think everybody should have the right of access to quality education so that we are all equally productive, but we should at the same time realize that there would still be people who are exceptionally gifted and talented,” Brook said.
“In that case, there would generally be no blood and sweat to suck and capitalism would not survive without its lifeblood, which is, of course, economic exploitation of the working class,” Adefers said.
“That would be the case only if you assume that the origin of profit is the unpaid portion of labour (unpaid labour). In my opinion, that’s the major source of our confusion on the matter. Relative scarcity of the commodity or services it in question is the source of profit,” Brook tried to explain.
“There you go again, revisionist capitalist–roader. There is no cure for addiction to economic exploitation other than the Stalinist scourge, which, as you know, is code for red terror”, Adefers said with he expresses purpose of striking terror into Brook’s heart.
“That is what you diehard, obstinate and benighted Marxist firebrands say when you clearly lose the battle of ideas”, Girma said exasperated by what Adefres said and turned to his friend Brook and said: “Let’s go somewhere safer. This place is infested with Mengistu’s spies.”
“Good idea”, Brook said and the two started walking away from Adefers who shouted out: “Death to capitalist – rollers’! Death to revisionists!
Adefrs meant what he said. He was indeed one of Mengistu’s spies who could have anybody, suspected of the slightest trace of anti–Marxist ideology, killed by the President’s secret hit squads deployed in strategic places all over Addis Ababa and elsewhere. So, Brook and his friend Girma were rightfully scared of the fallout from their being labeled as “revisionists and capitalist–roaders,” and Adefers was bound to be their relentless tormentor or even their eventual executioner. What to do?
Brook and Girma started discussing the clear and present threat from Adefers seriously. Their options were quite self-evident: Get out of the country; kill Adefers without being traced; and kill the President and get rid of the “more-Catholic-than-the Pope” Ethiopian Marxist Leader and die in the process. Realistically, they agreed on an enhanced version of the first option, i.e. to get out of the country and open an anti-socialism TV station abroad. Quickly, Brook and Girma sought and obtained funding from a foreign–based NGO in Addis Ababa for a study tour in Nairobi. As they were about to board EAL flight to Nairobi, their tormentor, who else but Adefers, appeared on the scene with two plainclothesmen. The security agents told the EAL officials that both men were wanted by the police.
“How are you, Brook and Girma? You can’t possibly run away from the heaven–on-earth our beloved leader Mengistu Hailemariam is constructing. If it had not been for the satanic wars Weyane and Shabia are waging on our Great Leader, we would definitely have had milk on tap in our own individual houses!” Adefers said sardonically.
“My father told me that UCAA students, including himself, did have milk on tap from a huge aluminum barrel during the time of the Great King of Kings Haile Selassie,” Brook said.
“Well, that is one of the most fantastical fair–tales told by monarchists to glorify Emperor Haile Selassie who killed Tilahun Gizaw. Now, let’s get cracking. I am taking you directly to our beloved President Mengist Hailemariam, Adefers said.
Brook and Girma almost jumped for joy as such an august audience could give them a chance to vent their rightful misgivings about socialism. All four men boarded a sedan with a private plate number and the driver headed out of the airport toward the Grand Palace. The silence in the car was only being broken by the noise of the motor of the car.
At the Grand Palace where the Marxist Mengistu lived, things looked eerie. Except for a few armed soldiers, the compound appeared deserted. Adefers led Brook and Girma to the President’s office. Graciously, Mengistu rose to greet the incoming guests, smiling broadly and showing his snow- white teeth untainted by years of smoking. The President’s teeth appeared more white than they really were against his ebony- black complexion.
“Ato Brook and Ato Girma, I want you to do me a favour. I will send you both to Moscow with an urgent message to President Gorbachev. You will depart for Moscow tomorrow,” the President said. Brook and Girma looked at each other in complete befuddlement.
“That will be all. I wish you success. Good day,” said the President and saw the group off to the door. After about a 10-hour flight to Moscow, Brook and Girma found themselves in front of the President of a superpower. They presented the written message to President Gorbachev. President Gorbachev scribbled something on a piece of paper, sealed it in an envelope and gave it to Brook.
Brook and Girma flew back to Addis and presented the return message to President Mengistu. President Mengistu was flabbergasted at what he saw. It read: “The ultimatum of the federation proposal has elapsed. Shabia and Weyane are now surrounding Addis Ababa. Good luck!”
The Ethiopian herald January 13/2021
