Socialism Works Until It Doesn't

Common Sense Commentary: Socialistic Communism works until it doesn't, which is when it runs out of other people's money and has to function on its own merits as a bad experiment. It always fights hysterically to stay in power, then, ultimately fails after it has destroyed a nation's foundation. RB

Communism is often viewed as a European and Asian phenomenon, but in the 20th century, it made a strong push into Africa as well.

Ethiopia’s struggle with communism emerged just as things were potentially looking up for the young nation.

After Haile Selassie died in prison in 1975, the Marxist faction of the revolution rose swiftly to power through the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), popularly known as the Derg, Led by the Marxist Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Derg reigned with Mengistu as leader for seventeen years, 1974-1991.

The Derg killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians during their reign from 1975-1987. The Red Terror of 1976-78, where they brutally cracked down on external and internal opposition through three waves of purging, became the lasting legacy of the communist junta’s rule. Two groups of student-led movements, the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON) and Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP), vied for power in the wake of the Emperor’s death, with both groups believing they could make a real change. Seeing an opportunity to add legitimacy to their rule, Mengistu and the Derg allied with MEISON, successfully creating a one-party Marxist/Leninist system. In addition to their ideological differences, MEISON and the EPRP were divided among ethnic lines – MEISON being primarily the majority-group Oromo while EPRP was made up of the smaller Amhara group – which led to the Derg/MEISON coalition labeling anyone associated with the EPRP or their members as counter-revolutionaries subject to imprisonment and even execution.

The ethnic divide made the suppression of the opposition even stronger and the crackdown more brutal, embodied in the chilling Derg slogan: “for every revolutionary killed, a thousand counter-revolutionaries executed.” More frightening than the promise on its face is how close the Derg may have come to actually accomplishing this during Mengistu’s reign. The struggle of the Ethiopian people against the Marxist regime mirrored the original Red Terror in Soviet Russia that occurred after the Bolsheviks seized power – conservative estimates place the number of Ethiopians killed under Mengistu’s rule at 500,000, with higher estimates up to 2,000,000.

My Common Sense Comment:
With all the ups and downs of Socialism, revolutions, overthrown governments, famine, drought, and lawlessness in general, Ethiopia is a hysterical basket case constantly in need of Russian aid, European aid and United Nations, aid. It is basically unable to take care of itself anymore and the stress is obvious upon the people of Ethiopia.  Beware of U.S. Socialists. They are wolves in sheeps' clothing. RB