Eritrea stands up to imperialism


A country standing up to imperialism is Eritrea, which some 10 years ago adopted a self-reliance programme that has enabled it to introduce free health and education services. With a meagre budget, but by means of mobilising the masses, Eritrea scores as high, and often higher, than neighbouring countries, including Ethiopia and Kenya on a variety of UN health indicators, including life expectancy, immunisations and malaria prevention. Eritrea is now rejecting foreign aid on the principle that “

Fifty years and billions in post-colonial international aid have done little to lift Africa from chronic poverty”.

Eritrea’s independent stance is not endearing it to US imperialism which is proposing to add it to its list of

“state sponsors of terrorism”,

with a view to doing everything possible to damage its economy, including encouraging Ethiopia, ever the willing puppet of America, to restart the Ethiopia/Eritrea war that cost some 70,000 lives between 1998 and 2000. Eritrea’s alleged sponsorship of ‘terrorism’ includes supporting the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia and the Ogaden Liberation Front in Ethiopia (the Ogaden being Ethiopians of Somali ethnicity).