On Sankara

Comrades, there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence. I hear the roar of women’s silence. I sense the rumble of their storm and feel the fury of their revolt.

(see: On Feminism)

Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail . We are fighting this system that allows a handful of men on Earth to rule all of humanity.

(see: On Lenin)

Our revolution is not a public-speaking tournament. Our revolution is not a battle of fine phrases. Our revolution is not simply for spouting slogans that are no more than signals used by manipulators trying to use them as catchwords, as codewords, as a foil for their own display. Our revolution is, and should continue to be, the collective effort of revolutionaries to transform reality, to improve the concrete situation of the masses of our country.

We must dare to invent the future.

As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say we are tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We know that when the people understand, they cannot help but follow us.

Thomas Sankara

First seen in On Africa

TODO: intro/bio

TODO: guitar

TODO: more tags, figure out convention for this article, che, etc.

For now, I'll link some works (in a logical order) and post some of my own notes for quick takeaways:

• Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle (1990)
• A United Front Against Debt (1987)

Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle (1990) notes

Speech: The revolution cannot triumph without the emancipation of women.

Given: March 08, 1987

• Posing the question of women in Burkinabe society today means posing the abolition of the system of slavery to which they have been subjected for millennia. The first step is to try to understand how this system works, to grasp its real nature in all its subtlety, in order then to work out a line of action that can lead to women's total emancipation.
• The women of Burkina were able to ascertain after several years of this ministry's existence that nothing had changed for them. And it could not be otherwise, given that the approach to the question of women's liberation that led to the creation of this pseudoministry refused to recognize, show, and take into account the real cause of women's subjugation and exploitation. So we should not be surprised that, despite the existence of this ministry, prostitution grew, women's access to education and jobs did not improve, their civil and political rights were ignored, and the general conditions of their lives in town and countryside alike improved not one iota.
• There can be no clearer way to conceptualize and explain the question of women and the liberation struggle ahead of us. "The genuine emancipation of women is that which entrusts responsibilities to them and involves them in productive activity and in the different struggles the people face. Women's genuine emancipation is one that exacts men's respect and consideration."
• What is clearly indicated here, sister comrades, is that the struggle to liberate women is above all your struggle to deepen our democratic and popular revolution, a revolution that grants you from this moment on the right to speak and act in building a new society of justice and equality, in which men and women have the same rights and responsibilities. The democratic and popular revolution has created the conditions for such a liberating struggle. It now falls to you to act with the greatest sense of responsibility in breaking through all the shackles and obstacles that enslave women in backward societies like ours and to assume your share of the responsibilities in the political fight to build a new society at the service of Africa and all humanity.
• So what tasks does our democratic and popular revolution have in respect to women's emancipation? What acquisitions do we have, and what obstacles still remain? One of the main acquisitions of the revolution with regard to women's emancipation was, without any doubt, the establishment of the Women's Union of Burkina (UFB). This is a major acquisition because it has provided the women of our country with a framework and a solid mechanism with which to wage a successful fight. Establishing the UFB represents a big victory in that it allows for the mobilization of all politically active women around well-defined and just objectives, under the leadership of the National Council of the Revolution. The UFB is an organization of militant and serious women who are determined to change things, to fight until they win, to fall and fall again, but to get back on their feet and go forward without retreating. This is the new consciousness that has taken root among the women of Burkina, and we should all be proud of it. Comrades, the Women's Union of Burkina is your combat weapon. It belongs to you. Sharpen it again and again so that its blade will cut more deeply, bringing you ever-greater victories.
• Another sure source of the problem is the feudal, reactionary, and passive attitude of many men who by their behavior continue to hold things back. They have absolutely no intention of jeopardizing the total control they have over women, either at home or in society in general. In the struggle to build a new society, which is a revolutionary struggle, these men place themselves on the side of reaction and counterrevolution by their conduct. For the revolution cannot triumph without the genuine emancipation of women.
• We are not pleading for anyone to condescendingly do women a favor. We are demanding, in the name of the revolution-whose purpose is to give, not to take-that justice be done to women
• Comrades, sisters and brothers, experience shows us more and more that in changing the classical order of things only the organized people are capable of wielding power democratically. Justice and equality are the basic principles that allow women to show that societies are wrong not to have confidence in them on the political and economic level. The woman, wielding the power she has gained among the people, is in a position to rehabilitate all women condemned by history. In undertaking to profoundly and qualitatively transform our society, the changes wrought by our revolution must include the aspirations of the Burkinabe woman.
• Comrades, the future demands that women be freed, and the future, everywhere, brings revolutions. If we lose the fight to liberate women we will have lost all right to hope for a positive transformation of our society into something superior. Our revolution will then have no meaning. It is to wage this noble struggle that all of us, men and women, are summoned.
• Comrades, there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence. I hear the roar of women's silence. I sense the rumble of their storm and feel the fury of their revolt. I await and hope for the fertile eruption of the revolution through which they will transmit the power and the rigorous justice issued from their oppressed wombs

Speech: Women's role in the democratic and popular revolution

Given: October 02, 1983

• The genuine emancipation of women is that which entrusts responsibilities to them and involves them in productive activity and in the different struggles the people face. Women's genuine emancipation is one that exacts men's respect and consideration. Emancipation, like freedom, is not granted but conquered. It is for women themselves to put forward their demands and mobilize to win them.

A United Front Against Debt (1987) notes

• Debt is neo-colonialism, in which colonizers have transformed themselves into “technical assistants.” We should rather say “technical assassins.” They present us with financing, with financial backers. As if someone’s backing could create development. We have been advised to go to these lenders. We have been offered nice financial arrangements. We have been indebted for 50, 60 years and even longer. That means we have been forced to compromise our people for over 50 years.
• We cannot accept to be told about the merit of those who repay and the mistrust toward those who do not. On the contrary, we must recognize today that it is normal for the wealthiest to be the greatest thieves. When a poor man steals it is merely a theft, a petty crime -- it is solely about survival and necessity. The rich are the ones who steal from the treasury, customs duties, and who exploit the people.
• Notes support from Fidel Castro, François Mitterrand, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Félix Houphouët-Boigny for not paying debt
• Notes that weapons are used against other Africans and that peace must be attained. The weapons bought do not reach the oppressors.
• Advocates for removing dependence on external nations, advocates to produce what they need and consume what they produce within Africa in a united front against debt.

index tags: Communists, Africa, Burkina Faso, Reading List, Reading Notes, Thomas Sankara, Sankara, A United Front Against Debt, Neo-Colonialism, Debt, Fidel Castro, François Mitterrand, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Guitar, Women's Liberation, Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle, Feminism, Vladimir Lenin

category tags: Famous Communists