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FREEDOMWAYS    THIRD QUARTER 1972

an effective and exemplary liberation movement. For us this is a great responsibility as a party, as individuals and as fighters for the liberation of our African people. We shall do our best to be worthy of it.

On the internal level, the main and immediate aims of our party are: to make our Armed Forces more efficient; to intensify the attacks against urban centers; to develop struggle in the Cape Verde Islands; to develop the political, administrative, economic, social and cultural bases in the liberated zones. On the external level, we must have closer relations with the independent African States; develop relations of friendship, solidarity and cooperation with the socialist States and Sweden; build up relations with the democratic and anti- colonialist organizations in the capitalistic countries; spread information and mobilize anti-colonialist opinion in the Western countries and the world, with a view to isolating the Portuguese government from its allies and to neutralize or eliminate these countries support for the Portuguese colonial war.

Before our party was founded, our people lived in slavery and in dignity, and today, under our party’s flag, they are living in freedom and dignity regained in strife. Thanks to the struggle, the situation in our country has changed to the benefit of the popular masses. Our struggle has been so very successful because we were able to organize and lead our people; we have consolidated our moral and political unity aimed at establishing a new life and raising our civil and political consciousness at the same time as we are fighting in order to implement the program of our party, whose fundamental objective is the promotion of political, economic, social and cultural progress. A new consciousness and a new man are being created in this struggle: people who are aware of their rights and their duties, of being human and African, and who are also keen on implementing fully the objectives of our party. The new consciousness is a mighty means at our disposal in the fight against Portuguese colonialists, who will be made to realize that we have the capacity to build in our independent motherland a life in peace, justice and progress. As an indication of the new consciousness we can mention sixty children of the liberated area schools, who were born and brought up in the bush, who acted as ambassadors of the aspiration of our people and our party when they visited the independent neighboring countries where they took part in performances based on our struggle.

We are developing and intensifying our political and military activity on all fronts. Political struggle is being developed parallel to the armed struggle. We are promoting our party’s clandestine work

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GUINEA-BISSAU'S LIBERATION STRUGGLE      PINTO

in the urban centers and other not yet liberated zones of Guinea and the Isles of Cape Verde; we have also consolidated the foundations of our State which is in the course of formation. In order to develop and strengthen the sovereignty of our people and open up new prospects for the evolution of our struggle, we are now holding elections for regional councils and this year we will hold the elections for the first people's National Assembly of Guinea. We have improved our activity in the production, education, sanitation and trade of the people. We have raised our activity both in the political sphere and in national reconstruction.

Our armed forces have attacked enemy positions in the principal urban centers of Bissau, Mansoa, Bafata, Bolama, Farim, and Catio. Military detachments have been destroyed and a large amount of military materiel and other war equipment captured in an operation called “Saphira Solitaria” launched on the free sector of Mores, located 50 kilometers from Bissau.

The enemy's activity consists of aerial bombing and terrorist landings directed against the populations of the liberated zones. They burn our harvest in order to starve the population and stop our fighting, they kill our cattle and set fire to villages. Portuguese colonialists used and their criminal aggression, toxic agents, napalm and defoliants supplied by the USA for the purpose of transforming into a desert extensive territories of Africa’s continent. They are using arms supplied by NATO; for instance Fals FN30 rifles made in Belgium, American G3 machine guns, Italian Breda machine guns, American bazookas, “Alouette” helicopters made in France, Italian “Puma” helicopters, “Sabre” fighters supplied by Federal Germany and “Douglas” B26 bombers.

The development of our National Liberation struggle depends on internal factors, namely, the moral, political and material support which we can receive within the framework of African and international solidarity. Our people expect the fraternal assistance of independent African people and help from socialist countries, as well as the anti-imperialist forces aimed at liquidating completely the Portuguese colonial domination in Guinea and the Isle of Cape Verde. The Liberation Committee of the OAU is trying to develop its aid to our party. After the historical Rome Conference, the anti-colonialist forces of Europe, Asia and Africa have increased their aid and their support for our party and our people. The Vatican and religious institutions have expressed their solidarity with our struggle.

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