Page 155 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

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Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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the African American struggle and organize Oromos on international level by linking
them to the Oromo national movement in Oromia. Oromo liberation organizations
in Oromia and abroad can understand the significance of combining various move-
ment centers and taking collective political action by looking at the experience of the
African American struggle.
Oromo activists, leaders, and organizations are faced with overcoming the legacy of
Ethiopian political slavery by any means necessary in order to unify different Oromo
movement centers, institutions, and organizations in order to develop a united move-
ment.The participation of all sectors of Oromo society in the Oromo movement is
true to the Oromo democratic tradition. It is also appropriate in the new global era
for the Oromo in the diaspora to play a key role because they are beyond the rigid
political limitations of the Ethiopian system.Western political culture, despite its racist,
elitist, and sexist values, permits the development of this participatory approach. Broad
participation also forces Oromo leaders and intellectuals not only to teach, but also to
learn from their fellow citizens in order to change their outlook and approaches. In a
revolutionary movement, all participants need to change together to facilitate a fun-
damental social transformation.
Despite the fact that there has been expanding political opportunities in the 1990s,
Oromo nationalists and liberation organizations have not yet effectively utilized them.
At the same time, thousands of Oromos have been sacrificing their lives to maintain
the ongoing Oromo revolution. Oromo organizational and infrastructure shortcom-
ings have exposed these revolutionaries to Ethiopian state terrorism. During the
1990s, Oromo liberation organizations could have changed their organizational con-
dition, particularly in the diaspora, because of the changing circumstances of Oromos
and the revolution in communication technologies. Several Oromo political leaders
could have freely interacted with Oromos in the diaspora.They have rarely tried to
openly and frankly discuss with Oromos in the diaspora what should be done. Simi-
larly, most Oromos in the diaspora have been less interested in building mechanisms
that will help them to take concrete action. Most Oromo intellectuals, in particular,
are passive in these areas. Open and frank discussion, persuasion, consensus building,
examining competing views and approaches, and accepting the best views and ap-
proaches have yet to be practiced by Oromo in the diaspora.
Oromo leaders and intellectuals in the diaspora have more opportunities than Oro-
mos in Oromia to build Oromo organizational readiness, to increase the level of
Oromo political consciousness, and to expand the structure of political opportunities
for the Oromo struggle. Oromo leaders, intellectuals, and all nationalists must be able
to build a more enduring organizational structure that can assume the centralized di-
rection of the Oromo national struggle. This organizational structure must develop
mechanisms that can deal with Oromo issues on three levels: macro-, meso-, and
micro levels. On the macro level, flexible goals and tactics must be formulated and im-
plemented. On the meso level, this structure needs to build a formal body that can
build a consensus among all Oromos and existing organizations.The enduring orga-
nizational structure must link all formal organizations and small, informally organized
groups, churches, mosques, civic organizations, and friendship networks both hori-
zontally and vertically to facilitate the process of micro mobilization for collective ac-
tion. This micro mobilization includes increasing cognitive liberation, contributing
money for the Oromo cause, creating a lobbyist group, campaigning for Oromo
human rights, and creating political and intellectual fora, seminars, workshops, and