Page 136 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Comparing the African American and Oromo Movements
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such as churches, schools, self-help associations, and fraternities. These indigenous
institutions and organizations later provided organizational infrastructure from
which the African American movement developed during the first half of the twen-
108
tieth century.
But Oromos were not allowed to develop autonomous institutions under
Ethiopian colonial rule. The Ethiopian colonial government has imposed absolute
control on both Oromo nationalists and the Oromo masses. It allowed Oromo elites
to establish a self-help association only in 1963, and banned it in 1967, when this as-
sociation tried to provide educational and health services to Oromo society.The in-
digenous Oromo institutions and organizations have been suppressed and denied
freedom of development; as a result, Oromo society still lacks organizational infra-
structure. Explaining the condition of the African American movement, McAdam,
McCarthy, and Zald comment that “the strength and breadth of indigenous organiza-
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tions was the crucial factor in the rapid spread of the movement.”
State violence
and tight control have disabled Oromo society by maintaining what McCarthy calls
110
“infrastructure deficits.”
As African American classical nationalists and White aboli-
tionists were prevented from having access to the slave population, Oromo activists
have been prevented from educating and helping the Oromo masses. But while the
Black classical nationalists had the right to organize themselves,Oromo nationalists are
still denied the right to openly organize themselves. Since Oromo society has been
penetrated by Ethiopian agents and spies, their informal groups or associational net-
works, which McCarthy claims “serve as the basic building blocks of social move-
ments,” 111 have been tightly controlled. The Oromo national movement has been
struggling under this dangerous condition.
Despite the fact that the American Constitution was racist and endorsed racial
slavery, it had provided limited political opportunities to freed Blacks. During the
1950s and the 1960s, African American leaders and activists used effectively this
Constitution to obtain some rights for the Black people. Further, a few White re-
formers and radicals supported the struggle to abolish slavery and later to disman-
tle racial segregation. The African American movement received support from
some White foundations, clergy, and student volunteers. According to J. C. Jenkins
and M. Eckert,“The Kennedy administration’s interventions on behalf of the Civil
Rights movement were rooted in at least two concerns: controlling volatile
protests, and securing black votes. . . . Jewish support for the civil rights movement
reflected both universalistic concerns about civil liberties and particularistic con-
cerns about racial discrimination. . . . The United Auto Worker Union sponsored
civil rights activists. . . . the National Organization for Women out of the staff’s
ideological commitments as well as a political stake in the left - labor political
coalition.” 112 Of course,White reformers mainly supported the reformist wing of
Black nationalism. But almost all Ethiopians are against the Oromo national move-
ment. Even the Ethiopian left opposes Oromo nationalism. Oromo nationalists
have been facing a very different condition from that of African Americans. Oro-
mos still live under political slavery since they are denied both individual and group
rights.The Ethiopian state is racist and absolutist, and it has only a limited space for
an Ethiopianized Oromo intermediate class.
The Ethiopian state operates above the rule of its own laws, and it has liquidated
most Oromo nationalists and other activists without any hesitation.The international
community has rarely blamed this state for this misconduct.That is why the Oromo