Samora Machel Quotes
For the oppressed peoples and classes, for the peoples and workers who have taken control of their destiny, Marxism is a shining path, a sun of hope and certainty that never sets, a sun that is always at its zenith.
Machel, Samora. "The Centenary of Karl Marx." Samora Machel, An African Revolutionary: Selected Speeches and Writings, edited by Barry Munslow, Zed Books, 1985.
The word “smashing” is a literal translation from the Khmer language. It is not used in the metaphorical sense as we are used to. To save money, arms, bullets and resources the Khmer Rouge method of execution was to “smash” the victim’s head in with a shovel or other implement. This slogan told people literally to murder their political enemies in this brutal way.
The occasion for the speech was the 60th birthday of Russian Premier, Joseph Stalin.
And as the leader of the exploited, after his revolution he became a dictator himself, albeit a very popular one amongst most Cubans.
Comintern was upset by the American Socialist Party because the party had rejected the 21 Conditions for Affiliation and withdrew their intent to join the Third International. To Comintern, the Socialist Party was a party of “bourgeois socialism.”
Socialist International Anthem. Also adopted by the Communists
There were massive strikes in Italy. These strikes began in the engineering factories and soon spread to railways, road transport, and other industries. The strikers, however, did more than just occupy their workplaces, they seized them for themselves. Soon 500,000 strikers were at work, producing for themselves. See {616351} for a description. The question was what next. Malatesta and others recommended that they go on and take over the government and not just try and have better labor conditions and factory operations. He warned that the capitalists and middle class bourgeoisie had been so frightened by the successful national strike that they would even ally with the Fascists who they did not like either. That is how Mussolini and his Fascists came to power.
The slogan was made famous by James Larkin, 1875–1947, Irish trade union leader who used it frequently and whose memorial statue in Dublin contains the quotation in French, English and Irish.
Despite his speeches like this one, he was a ruthless dictator who then before his death in 2000 handed power to his son.
The Cuban dissidents and the CIA had assured President Kennedy and the Joint Chief’s of Staff that as soon as the CIA organized troops landed there would be uprisings throughout Cuba and the invaders would be supported by the Cuban people, happy to overthrow Castro. After the landing, there was not a single uprising nor was there any assistance provided to the invaders who were easily captured by Castro’s men. Castro was very popular. The CIA and Cuban dissidents were guilty of wishful thinking.
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975. Machel died in office in 1986 when his presidential aircraft crashed near the Mozambican-South African border.
