Articles by A K Essack


silt-choked locations in the upper reaches of the Ganga are cleared, a water-transport service can be operated between Allahabad and Calcutta and as far as down to the Bay, Some northern states are already running such services on navigable stretches. A Patna-Banaras service, for example, is highly popular. This is proposed to be extended upto Etawa after silted spots en rotite are cleared. The CIWTChas also a proposal to run a Haldia-Allahabad steamer service.

September 8, 1973 The PAIGC Holds Its Second Congress A K Essack IT was on January 21, 1973 that Amilcar Cabral fell to the bullets of assassins. He joined the illustrious band and heroes and martyrs like Patrice Lumumba and Mondlane who have been murdered by the colonialists. Knowing the ruthless nature of the colonialists he will not be the last to be assassinated. The colonialists really believe that by these dastardly crimes they can liquidate liberation movements. After Cabral's assassination the Portuguese launched a massive propaganda campaign to sow confusion in the PAIGC (the Guinea-Bissau liberation movement) and used the most foul methods of racialism to try and divide its leadership and demoralise its rank and file.

West Asia's Only Socialist State FOR Salim AH Robayyi, Chairman of the Presidential Council of the Democratic Republic of Yemen (formerly the British colony and protectorate of Aden), Ali Nasser, its Prime Minister, and Abdul Fattar Ismail, Secretary-General of the National Liberation Front (NLF), a revolution begins to rot once it is taken over by bureaucrats. A revolution in order to retain its momentum and vitality must go on uninterruptedly from phase to phase. For its own health it has to be a permanent revolution.

January 8, 1972 "What will you do for currency?" a reporter asked him. Panni had a ready reply; "We will use Pakistani currency, superimposed with the stamp of the Bangla Desh Government.'' "What will the economy of Bangla Desh be like?" "Don't you know that Bangla Desh Is very rich? Did you not read The Economist, which said the only way the Bangla Desh economy could go was 'Up, and Up" I was tempted to ask what he proposed to do about the millions of landless labourers, the millions of unemploy ed and the millions of starving people in that fabulously rich country? Pakistan had devised a system of robbing them and was Bangla Desh going to use that same economic system? But I did not embarrass him.

October 9, 1971 DAR-ES-SALAAM The Struggle in Mozambique A K Essack IT was on September 25, 1984, that FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front) militants launched their armed struggle by simultaneously attacking Portuguese strongholds all over Mozambique, and guerilla warfare took root. Samora Machel, President of FRELIMO, in his commemorative message celebrating the seventh year of the struggle has said, "A year is ending when our struggle has been consolidated and expanded. With the seventh year our certainty of victory grew and with it the confidence of our political line". And revealing the successes, as well as the tasks and problems ahead he continued, "Three provinces are at war but six others are not. More than a million Mozambicans are living in freedom but another seven million are enslaved. About a quarter of the territory is free but three-quarters has still to be liberated. The schools, the cooperatives, the hospitals, everything which has been created and growing in our country was because of the 25th September .... but there are many unresolved problems in the liberated area. The medical care is not sufficient; the number of schools is far from meeting our needs and production still falls short. We feel that there are shortcomings in our political work".