The Derg and Economic/political Policies

Wedu Ketema

September 23,2016

The Derg an authoritarian military government ruled Ethiopia from 1974-1991. In discussions of the success and failures of the Derg’s economic and political policies, one controversial issue was the policies related to land and migration. According to Ofcansky’s perspective the resettlement policy in the mid 1980’s was both a success and a failure. On the other hand the majority of the Ethiopian people deemed the policy to be a total disaster. Regarding the nationalization of rural land, most of us will readily agree that the policy was a success in suppressing economic issues pertaining to the majority of the population; farmers. Where this agreement usually ends however, is on the question of whether or not the Derg nationalized the land to achieve total authoritarian control. Whereas some are convinced that the policy was truly to better the lives of the lower class, others maintain that it was merely a form of absolute control. My own view is that, although the aims of the policies were successful from the perspective of the government, the impacts are subject to debate.

The Derg’s policy to nationalize rural land during March of 1975 is a controversial topic in defining policy success/failure. The Derg passed Proclamation 31; which nationalized rural land and provided everyday farmers up to 10 hectares of land. This was successful in both the perspective of the government and the people. The government implemented this policy in order to take away power from land lords and fulfill the revolutions leading motto “Land to the Tiller.” In addition, the government used the law to quell opposition. According to historian Marcus “the government expedited the plan using high school and university students to implement the program known as “The Zamacha”. This was a great success in the perspective of both the peasant farmers and the government. The farmers were able to gain quick and easy access to land and the government was able to quell student opposition by splitting them up and forcing them to work in implementing these plans, demonstrating that they were a capable revolutionary government. Civilian opposition was also silenced because of this policy implementation that heavily impacted the majority of Ethiopians and therefore gained support of many citizens. While the Derg’s perspective on the land reform policy was a total success, the civilian’s perspective was considerably different after a period of time. Soon many people viewed the land reform as a way for the government to achieve authoritarian control. Citing facts such as the Red March, in which the government promised civilians land in exchange for fighting insurgencies in Eritrea which caused many losses of lives because of ill equipment. After, the population protested that the government was using land to control the actions of farmers the majority of Ethiopians.