freedom. We say only that the freedom to criticise also brings with it the freedom to protest. And freedom for sincere men should not mean freedom for dishonest men.
We will take away the freedom of those who use the freedom created by the CSP to attack the CSP, in fact, to attack the Voltaic people. We are taking away their freedom to do harm, and we are giving them the freedom to serve the people. We cannot grant the freedom to lie, to brainwash the collective Voltaic consciousness. That would be to work against the popular masses of Upper Volta.
It is also said that some of the CSP’s members, such as Captain Thomas Sankara, have been to Libya and North Korea, and that this is dangerous for Upper Volta. People of Upper Volta, one question: Libya has never done anything to us. Korea has never exploited Upper Volta. Libya has never attacked Upper Volta. Yet we know countries that have attacked Upper Volta that put our parents in prison. Our grandparents died on the battlefield for these countries. When we cooperate with them, no one complains.
Sangoulé [Lamizana] went to Libya. Saye Zerbo has been to Libya and Korea. Why didn’t anyone complain? There’s something crooked here. Yesterday, preparations were made for an official visit by Saye Zerbo to [Libyan head of state Muammar al-] Qaddafi in Qaddafi’s plane, and this was publicised. Today when we go to Libya, there are complaints.
But we went to Libya in a responsible and an intelligent manner! We went to Libya after Colonel Qaddafi had sent us emissaries three times. We told the Libyan leaders that we had nothing against Libya, but that we have positions of our own. When it comes to ideology, we’re not virgins. We are ready to collaborate with Libya, but we are also ready to tell them, in a responsible manner, whatever we might criticise. It was after being approached three times that we decided to go, and we laid down concrete conditions, in accordance with the interests of the Voltaic people.
When the cement starts to arrive from Tripoli and we sell it at a cheap price, will the people be pleased, yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
Why is Qaddafi’s cement desirable while negotiating with Qaddafi is undesirable? When we negotiate deals with certain countries worth 2 million, 3 million CFA francs,7 it’s talked about on the radio. With Qaddafi, we negotiated a deal worth 3.5 billion. And so, are the people pleased, yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
The people like cooperation between states that respect their peoples. The people of Upper Volta don’t want to be told what road to take. We say no to housebroken Voltaic diplomacy! We say no to bossed-around Voltaic diplomacy! We are free to go wherever we wish. And I’ll tell you something, a secret. Don’t tell this to the imperialists. Those who criticise us for having been to Libya took Qaddafi’s dollars to develop their countries. Do they think they’re smarter than we are? They go deal with Qaddafi. Why? Who is smarter than whom?
We will go wherever the interests of the Voltaic masses are to be found. We saw social achievements in Libya – hospitals, schools, houses, and all of it available for free. How has Libya managed to carry out these social investments? Thanks to oil. This oil existed under the former regime of King Idriss. But this oil was exploited by the imperialists and for the benefit of the king. The people drew absolutely no benefit from it. Today, Libyans have free houses and paved roads. If we could transform Upper Volta tomorrow the way Qaddafi has transformed Libya, would you be pleased, yes or no?
[Shouts of “Yes!”]
So in our relations with other states, when we take their good aspects, we’re simply carrying out a policy of diplomatic independence and applying one of the CSP’s rules: to work for the people. There is no shame in getting on one’s knees when it is in the interests of the people.
As we speak to you, we know that in this crowd are people who would very much like to shoot us right now. Those are the risks we take, convinced that it is in the interests of the people. We say to them: “Shoot!” When you shoot, your bullets will turn around and hit you. That is what is called the victory of the people over the enemies of the people. Today we speak with the strength of the people, and not our own.
The enemies of the CSP say that certain factions of the CSP look favourably on this or that country, this or that camp, or the pro-Western camp, and so on. We say that we are not against any camp. We are for all the camps. We repeated this in New Delhi at the summit of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries:8 we are for all the camps. We say too that he who loves his own people loves the other peoples. We love the Voltaic people, and we love the peoples of Nicaragua, Algeria, Libya, Ghana, Mali, and all the other peoples.
Those who do not love their own people do not love the Voltaic people. Those who are worried today by the transformations occurring in Upper Volta do not love their own peoples. They impose their will through dictatorship and through police operations against their peoples. We are not of that type.
We are told that the CSP has a certain admiration for Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Rawlings is a man. Every man must have friends and enemies. If Rawlings has admirers in Upper Volta, whose fault is that? It’s imperialism’s fault. It’s because a situation was created in Ghana in which the new authorities were compelled to fight for the interests of the Ghanaian people. When Ghana was prosperous, we Voltaics took full advantage of it! Today, when Ghana is experiencing difficulties, why should we forget Ghana?
No, we are sincere. The people keep their attachments. Men perhaps may betray, but peoples do not betray each other. The Ghanaian people need the Voltaic people, just as the Voltaic people need the Ghanaian people.
When Flight Lieutenant Rawlings closed his borders, there were protests.9 You don’t like Rawlings. Yet when he closes his borders in order to stay at home, you protest!
Ghana cannot impose anything on us. Nor can we impose anything on Ghana. Rawlings can’t give us lessons. But neither can we give lessons to Rawlings. However, when Rawlings says, “No way for kalabule!” – that is, stop the corruption – he says this in the interests of the Ghanaian people. But in fact it is in the interest of all peoples, because the Voltaic people too are against corruption.
The enemies of the CSP also say that we are “reds”, communists. That pleases us! Because it proves that our enemies are in disarray. They are lost. They no longer know what has to be done, what has to be said. We have done nothing communist here, we have simply talked about improving living conditions, about social justice, liberty, and democracy.
When we took the decision to revoke the decree issued by the Military Committee for Redressment and National Progress prohibiting the opening of bars at certain hours, we heard people say: These folks in the CSP, whether they’re red or green, communists or not – we have our interests and we prefer them. That’s what’s called being close to the popular masses. It’s not the labels that count.
They call us communists in order to frighten the people. They accuse us of being communists, and they tell the people that communism is bad. We have no intention of telling you that communism is good, nor of telling you the opposite. We intend only to tell you that we will take actions with you and for you. The label that will be pinned on these actions matters little.
The enemies of the people also say that we are going after foreigners. No. We love all foreigners – those who are here today and those who will come. We love them because we assume they love the Voltaic people. We don’t believe they are foreigners who want to exploit us.
The CSP intends to create, together with you, the conditions for mobilisation and work. We want the people to get organised for work, for the battle we are going to wage. For example, we know that certain regions of Upper Volta, such as Orodara, have been very successful in growing fruits and vegetables. But we know too that in these regions the fruits and vegetables rot for lack of means to get them out of the area. We say that the people should be mobilised in Orodara to build landing strips so planes will land there. The mangoes will come to Ouagadougou, will go to Dori, and that will be good for the people of Upper Volta.
This is the kind of work we’re talking about. Every day now – because we are going to begin big construction projects – we want you to come out in massive numbers to build. We are going to build a monument and