Absence of Ideology

When the African people say, in their plain language, that ‘no matter how hot the water from the well, it will not cook your rice’, they express with staggering simplicity a basic principle not only of physics but also of political science. We know in fact that the unfolding behaviour (development) of a phenomenon-in-motion, whatever its external conditioning, depends mainly on its internal characteristics. We also know that on the political level—however fine and attractive the reality of others may be—we can only truly transform our own reality, on the basis of detailed knowledge of it and our own efforts and sacrifices.

It is worth recalling in this tricontinental gathering,This Speech, "Presuppositions and objectives of national liberation in relation to social structure," was delivered on behalf of the peoples and nationalist organisations of the Portuguese colonies to the First Solidarity Conference of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (Havana, January 3-12, 1966) in the plenary session on January 6th. so rich in experiences and examples, that however great the similarity between our cases and however identical our enemies, unfortunately or fortunately, national liberation and social revolution are not exportable commodities. They are (and increasingly so every day) a local, national, product—more or less influenced by (favorable and unfavorable) external factors, but essentially determined and conditioned by the historical reality of each people. Victory is only achieved by the adequate resolution of the various internal contradictions characterizing this reality. The success of the Cuban Revolution, taking place only ninety miles from the biggest imperialist and anti-socialist power of all time, seems to us, in the form and content of its evolution, a practical and conclusive illustration of validity of this stated principle.

We must however recognize that we ourselves and the other liberation movements in general (we are referring here above all to the African experience) have not been able to pay sufficient attention to this significant question of our common struggle.

The ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, on the part of the national liberation movements—which is basically explained by ignorance of the historical reality which these movements aspire to transform—constitutes one of the greatest weaknesses, if not the greatest weakness, of our struggle against imperialism. We nevertheless believe that a sufficient number of varied experiences have already been accumulated to enable us to de ne a general line of thought and action in order to eliminate this deficiency. A full discussion of this matter could therefore be useful, and would enable this conference to make a valuable contribution towards improving the present and future action of the national liberation movements. This would be a practical way of helping these movements and, in our opinion, no less important than political support and assistance with money, weapons and other material.

It is with the intention of contributing, although modestly, to this discussion, that we present here our view on presuppositions and objectives of national liberation in relation to social structure. This view is shaped by our own experience of struggle and by a critical appreciation of the experiences of others. To those who see this view as being theoretical, we would recall that every practice gives birth to a theory. If it is true that a revolution can fail, even though it be nurtured on perfectly conceived theories, nobody has yet successfully practiced revolution without a revolutionary theory.

The Class Struggle

Those who assert—and in our view rightly—that the motive force of history is the class struggle, would certainly agree to re-examining this assertion to make it more precise and give it even wider application, if they had a deeper knowledge of the essential characteristics of some of the colonized peoples (dominated by imperialism). In fact, in the general evolution of mankind and of each of the peoples in the human groups of which it is composed, classes appear neither as a generalized and simultaneous phenomenon throughout all these groups, nor as a finished, perfect, uniform and spontaneous whole. The formation of classes within one or more human groups is basically the result of progressive development of the productive forces and the way in which the wealth produced by this group—or usurped by other groups—is distributed. This means: the socio-economic phenomenon class arises and develops as a function of at least two essential and interdependent variables: the level of productive forces and the system of ownership of the means of production. This development takes place slowly, unevenly and gradually, by generally imperceptible quantitative increases in the essential variables. Once a certain point has been reached in the process of accumulation, it then leads to qualitative changes which are shown by the appearance of class, classes and class conflict.

Factors external to a given dynamic socio-economic whole can have a more or less significant bearing on the process of development of classes, speeding it up, slowing it down or even causing regressions in it. When, for whatever reason, the influence of these factors ceases, the process recovers its independence, and its rhythm is then determined not only by the specific internal characteristics of the whole, but also by the resultants of the temporary action of the external factors. On a strictly internal level, the rhythm of the process may vary, but it remains continuous and progressive. Abrupt advances are only possible as a function of abrupt rises or alteration—mutations—in the level of productive forces or in the system of ownership. These abrupt transformations carried out within the process of development of classes, as a result of mutations in the level of productive forces or in the system of ownership, are, in the convention of economic and political language, called revolutions.

Clearly, however, the possibilities for external factors, especially the interaction of human groups, to have a significant bearing on this process was considerably increased by the advance in means of transport and communications. This advance has made one world and mankind, by eliminating the isolation of human groups within one area, of areas within one continent and of continents. The advance, characteristic of a long historical period which began with the invention of the first means of transport, was already more evident with the voyages of the Carthaginians and Greek colonisation, and was accentuated by maritime discoveries, the invention of the steam engine and the discovery of electricity. In our own times with the progressive harnessing of atomic energy, it is possible to promise, if not to sow man across the stars, at least to humanize the universe.

What has been said enables us to pose the following question: does history begin only from the moment of the launching of the phenomenon of class and, consequently, of class struggle? To reply in the affirmative would be to place outside history the whole period of life of human groups from the discovery of hunting, and later of nomadic and sedentary agriculture, to cattle raising and to the private appropriation of land. It would also be to consider—and this we refuse to accept—that various human groups in Africa, Asia and Latin America were living without history or outside history at the moment when they were subjected to the yoke of imperialism. It would be to consider that the populations of our countries, such as the Balanta of Guiné, the Cuanhama of Angola and the Makonde of Mozambique, are still living today—if we abstract the very slight influence of colonialism to which they have been subjected—outside history, or that they have no history.

Our refusal, based as it is on detailed knowledge of the socio-economic reality of our countries and on analysis of the process of development of the phenomenon of class as we saw earlier, leads us to conclude that if class struggle is the motive force of history, it is so in a specific historical period. This means that before the class struggle (and, necessarily, after the class struggle, since in this world there is no before without an after) some factor (or several factors) was and will be the motive force of history. We have no hesitation in saying that this factor in the history of each human group is the mode of production (the level of productive forces and the system of ownership) characteristic of that group. But, as we have seen, the definition of class and class struggle are themselves the result of the development of productive forces in conjunction with the system of ownership of the means of production. It therefore seems permissible to conclude that the level of productive forces, the essential determinant of the content and form of class struggle, is the true and permanent motive force of history.

If we accept this conclusion, then the doubts in our minds are cleared away. Because if on the one hand we can see that the existence of history before the class struggle is safeguarded, and we thus avoid for some human groups in our countries (and perhaps in our continents) the sad position of being peoples without history, then on the other hand we can see that history has continuity even after the disappearance of class struggle or of classes. And as it was not we who, on scientific bases, postulated the disappearance of classes as a historical inevitability, we can feel content with this conclusion. To a certain extent it re-establishes coherence and at the same time gives to those peoples who, like the people of Cuba, are building socialism the agreeable certainty that they will not cease to have a history when they complete the process of elimination of the phenomenon of class and class struggle within their socio-economic whole. Eternity is not of this world, but man will outlive classes and will continue to produce and to make history, since he can never free himself from the burden of his needs, of hand and brain, which are the basis of the development of productive forces.