EPRP Rises Again: A Legacy of Martyrdom, A Future of Struggle

Mengistu Musie (Dr.) mmusie2@gmail.com

I had the privilege of witnessing the 11th Congress of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) from beginning to end. In the days leading up to the Congress, there was a palpable sense of concern—intense debates, quiet tensions, and unspoken anxieties surrounded the gathering in the diaspora support teams and the leadership back in Addis Ababa. However, once the delegates convened at Hawas Hall, much of that apprehension began to fade. The atmosphere gradually shifted, and what followed was a remarkably smooth and constructive meeting.

As the Congress progressed, the party stood at a pivotal crossroads. It was grappling with the challenge of moving beyond its old frameworks while striving to embrace the future, energized by a new generation of young and committed members eager to carry the torch forward.

Among the participants were thoughtful and sincere members who advocated for extending the Congress beyond its planned duration. They believed that giving more space for open dialogue was crucial to resolving lingering disagreements and fostering a stronger sense of unity. Their intentions were selfless, motivated not by personal interests but by a genuine commitment to the party’s renewal and cohesion.

The debates leading up to the 11th Congress, particularly among diaspora supporters and executive members, were passionate and, at times, intense. Some individuals in specific areas made mistakes, but these missteps stemmed from a genuine desire to achieve positive outcomes. The intensity of the discussions reflected the members’ deep concern for the party’s future and their commitment to finding constructive solutions.

Both long-serving militants and newer members engaged in honest and, at times, challenging conversations. They confronted the differences in the way to go forward and tackled practical issues that the organization faces. Despite the emotional tone of some exchanges, all participants and the backbone of the diaspora support group shared a common dedication to the party’s founding principles and its long-standing mission.

In the end, this collective willingness to address complex questions and to listen to a diversity of perspectives laid a solid foundation for progress. The extended debates, though exhausting, were essential in clarifying misunderstandings, refining positions, and building consensus on key issues.

The 11th Congress was not merely an administrative gathering—it was a defining moment of reflection, renewal, and strategic reorientation. Witnessing this journey from start to finish was a profound experience, revealing a movement determined to adapt and persevere in the face of evolving challenges.

In the end, after much debate between the diaspora support committee and the executive body of the organization at home, it was finally agreed that the Congress must take place. It had to be held to open a new chapter in the party’s long and arduous journey. Despite many challenges and the doubts of critics, the Congress successfully opened in the city of Hawassa, welcoming around 700 representatives from across Ethiopia. These were not just numbers; these were individuals who had endured, struggled, and stayed committed to the cause over decades.

Emotion and pride were evident at the opening ceremony. I was immensely proud to see the younger generation of new militants, such as the MISTRESELASIE, the new chair (president), emerging and promising to overcome national operations by the ethnic dictatorial regime. Moreover, listening to guests such as Dr. Rahel Bafe’s testimony was an uplifting moment in my life. One by one, invited speakers took the stage, delivering powerful speeches that reflected on the EPRP’s long and painful struggle. Each guest, regardless of their background, expressed deep respect and admiration for the EPRP’s resilience. They praised the party’s determination to keep fighting for justice and freedom, even when faced with overwhelming obstacles, repression, and loss. Their words carried the weight of history — messages built over years of hardship, sacrifice, and unwavering hope.

The atmosphere in the congress hall was not just about politics; it was about a living legacy.

Every spoken word deeply conveyed the sacrifices of martyrs and the dreams of those who had suffered and died for Ethiopia’s freedom. This was more than a meeting; it was a moment that touched the very soul of the nation.

After more than fifty years of continuous struggle—through brutal oppression, exile, and the loss of countless brave men and women—the EPRP had risen once again. Its voice remained strong and clear, calling upon Ethiopians to continue the fight for democracy, human rights, equality, and national unity.

The announcement of the Congress’s success was made shortly after its conclusion. It was not just a political statement; it was a message of revival. The Congress had brought together surviving EPRP fighters, seasoned veterans, and a new generation of activists from every corner of Ethiopia and even from the diaspora. These were not just political delegates; they were carriers of a mission that spanned generations. They were the torchbearers of a movement built on sacrifice and unwavering belief in a just cause.

This gathering was more than a typical party meeting. It was a resurrection, maybe you may say it was the reincarnation of the old in the body of the new generation. It was a bold statement to the world that the struggle the EPRP started fifty years ago—to fight against dictatorship, to uphold democracy, human rights, and the dignity of the Ethiopian people—was still alive. It was a reminder that this mission was far from finished.

EPRP: The Unfinished Revolution

To understand the gravity of this moment, one must trace the EPRP’s journey. Born from the seething discontent of a nation crushed under feudal monarchy, then brutalized by military dictatorship, EPRP was not just a political organization—it was a movement, a spirit, a conviction.

In the 1960s, the Ethiopian student movement had begun to question the centuries-old chains of feudalism and imperial rule. Among the slogans that echoed through Addis Ababa University and across campuses abroad was the rallying cry: “Land to the Tiller!” It was a radical yet straightforward demand that encapsulated the anger of a peasantry starved and oppressed for generations.

Out of this defiant wave, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party emerged. By the early 1970s, EPRP had consolidated as a Marxist-Leninist force, deeply rooted in the urban intelligentsia and the rural poor alike. But unlike others, it wasn’t content with rhetoric. It sought a genuine people’s revolution, built on democracy, justice, and national self-determination.

Yet history was not kind.

The EPRP’s vision collided head-on with the military junta known as the Derg, which seized power in 1974. At first, there was cautious optimism that the Derg would heed the people’s demands. But Mengistu Hailemariam’s rise to domination of the junta swiftly crushed any illusions of democratic reform.

The Derg’s fascistic campaign against the EPRP—infamously branded the “Red Terror”— unleashed an orgy of bloodshed, terror, and repression. The fascist campaign arrested, tortured, and executed thousands of EPRP members, supporters, and sympathizers. Young revolutionaries, barely out of university, were hunted down in Addis Ababa’s back alleys and summarily shot.

Their bodies were left on the streets as grotesque warnings to others.

But the Derg’s declaration that the EPRP would be “wiped out forever” was premature.

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party’s (EPRP) odyssey from the remote, craggy mountains of Assimba to the bustling streets of Addis Ababa is a saga etched in both legend and sacrifice. Assimba, a rugged natural fortress in northern Ethiopia, became more than just a hideout; it was a crucible where idealistic students and young revolutionaries were molded into disciplined, battle-hardened cadres. Within its rocky encampments, they did not seek war for its own sake. Instead, they took up arms with heavy hearts, driven to violence not by choice but by the iron fist of a regime that met peaceful protest with bullets, imprisonment, and statesanctioned terror.

In the shadowy web of clandestine cells and the harsh mountain camps, a generation of EPRP fighters—often referred to as “EPRPiets”—forged a revolutionary commitment that transcended mere opposition to the military dictatorship. Their struggle was not simply aimed at toppling a junta; it was a direct assault on an entrenched system of feudal oppression, a centuries-old architecture of exploitation that thrived on the ignorance, poverty, and ethnic divisions deliberately maintained by successive regimes to secure their rule.

The movement from Assimba to Addis Ababa was far more than a physical journey across Ethiopia’s rugged terrain. It symbolized the EPRP’s broader revolutionary strategy: to seamlessly connect the armed struggle in the countryside with the political mobilization in urban centers. For the EPRP, the revolution was not to be waged from the periphery; it had to strike at the nerve centers of power—at the heart of the Ethiopian state. The march towards Addis was a declaration that the revolution would not remain hidden in the mountains; it would confront power in its strongholds.

History is not written with ink alone—it is often inscribed in blood

The Derg regime’s infamous Red Terror campaign sought to annihilate the EPRP, unleashing a wave of state-orchestrated massacres that devoured an entire generation of young

revolutionaries. Streets once filled with slogans of freedom and democracy were stained with the blood of martyrs. Yet, despite the slaughter, the EPRP did not vanish. It survived in exile, in underground cells, in the whispered stories of survivors, and in the faded portraits of fallen comrades hanging in the homes of Ethiopians scattered across the diaspora.

However, the EPRP’s adversaries were not limited to the military junta alone. The struggle was further complicated by forces that, under the banner of “liberation,” sought not the unity and democratization of Ethiopia, but its dismemberment. Within the walls of Addis Ababa

University, radical nationalist factions such as the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) emerged, denouncing Ethiopia itself as an imperialist construct. Their vision was not of a democratic, united Ethiopia, but of carving out ethnonationalist enclaves from its remains. In their rhetoric, dismantling the Ethiopian state was seen as a liberation.

In this volatile landscape, the EPRP stood nearly alone as a bulwark defending the principles of democracy, equality, and national unity. The TPLF, advancing from the north, launched armed offensives against the EPRP’s forces, eventually pushing the EPRP out of Tigray through a brutal campaign of ambushes and attrition. Simultaneously, the Haile Fida-led faction, aligned with ethno-nationalist movements and supported by the military junta, along with elements of the OLF, played a significant role in exacerbating the Red Terror. These groups, though ideologically disparate, found a temporary alignment in their shared interest to crush the EPRP, whether by bullet or betrayal.

Thus, the gallant generation of EPRP revolutionaries found themselves besieged on multiple fronts—not just by a ruthless military dictatorship, but by emerging separatist movements that rejected the very idea of Ethiopian unity and the inclusive, democratic ideals for which the EPRP stood. It was a lonely, tragic resistance, yet one that etched the EPRP’s name into the annals of Ethiopian history as a symbol of uncompromising commitment to a vision of a free, united, and democratic Ethiopia.

A Heavy Martyrdom and the Weight of Memory

The price paid by the EPRP is a burden too heavy for any single generation to carry or unload. People passed on the stories of the martyred—students, workers, peasants, women, and men who faced death with courage—not as folklore, but as an obligation—an obligation to continue the fight they were denied the chance to finish.

Today, when the EPRP calls upon its former members and militants, it does so stepping on the graves of its enemies—not out of spite, but as a declaration that those graves did not bury the ideals they sought to annihilate. The Derg’s attempt to erase the EPRP from Ethiopia’s future has, ironically, immortalized it.

Those who once faced the Derg’s firing squads, those who watched their comrades fall, and those who carried the party’s banner into exile are now in the twilight of their years. Many are in retirement, their hair gray, their bodies weary. Yet, the call issued at the 11th Congress was not merely a political statement; it was a moral imperative.

“Reclaim the unfinished revolution,” they were told. “Fulfill the promise made to a nation that still cries for justice.”

The 11th Congress: A Rebirth Forged in Unity

The 11th Congress of the EPRP was not just a procedural gathering; it was a rebirth. Delegates came from all parts of Ethiopia—veterans from Tigray, Oromia, Amhara, Southern regions, and afar—alongside diaspora activists who had nurtured the embers of the revolution in exile. What distinguished this Congress was its conscious effort to reconcile past divisions and align the party’s historic mission with the realities of contemporary Ethiopia.

As Megabi Beluy Abreham, the party’s vice-chair, took the stage, he acknowledged the immense sacrifices borne by the party’s members across generations. His speech was not laced with empty nostalgia but charged with a clear message: “The EPRP’s struggle is not a chapter to be closed; it is a promise yet to be fulfilled.”

The Congress also saw the presence of former chairpersons, whose symbolic handshake on stage underscored a message of unity and continuity. These leaders were not relics of a bygone era; they were torchbearers, passing the flame to a new generation eager to reclaim the party’s rightful place in Ethiopian politics.

A New Chapter in a New Ethiopia

The Ethiopia into which EPRP re-emerges differs vastly from the one it confronted in the 1970s. The monarchy has fallen; the Derg is long gone. Yet, the core challenges of democracy, human rights, national sovereignty, and socio-economic justice remain as pressing as ever.

Ethnic federalism, economic disparity, political repression, and the marginalization of the youth have all contributed to a volatile political landscape. It is within this context that the EPRP’s resurgence holds profound significance.

The call to Ethiopians was not limited to party loyalists. It was a national call—addressed to every citizen who believes in a democratic Ethiopia, free from ethnic chauvinism, corruption, and authoritarianism. It was a plea to the youth, who, though disconnected from the direct experience of the Red Terror, live in a nation still haunted by its unhealed wounds.

EPRP’s renewed strategy emphasizes grassroots mobilization, peaceful civic resistance, and unwavering advocacy for human rights. Yet, it remains vigilant. History has taught the party that despots do not relinquish power willingly.

The EPRPiets: The Custodians of Memory and Future

The call goes out to the EPRP veterans—those who first carried the torch of the Ethiopian

People’s Revolutionary Party from the rugged hills of Assimba to the heart of Addis Ababa.

These pioneers, once young revolutionaries, have now grown into elders. Yet, they remain the custodians of a legacy that is neither mournful nor locked in the past. Their stories, once whispered in exile and confined to underground networks, are now finding new life—echoed in public forums, shared on digital platforms, and cherished in the hearts of a rising generation eager to shape the next chapter of the struggle.

These veteran leaders understand a profound truth: revolutions are not linear journeys. They are relentless battles of endurance, marked by setbacks, sacrifices, and small but meaningful victories. The graves of their fallen comrades do not signify defeat; instead, they stand as milestones on a journey that has yet to be completed. Every martyr’s name is a reminder that the fight for democracy, justice, and national dignity continues.

At this critical moment, I appeal to all veteran leaders and long-standing militants: set aside personal grievances and minor differences. The cause demands unity. The emerging young fighters—brave, determined, and visionary—need guidance, experience, and moral support. Time waits for no one. Before the inevitable passage of life claims the brave souls who carried this torch for decades, there is still a chance to pass on their wisdom, to inspire, and to strengthen the hands of the new generation.

The legacy of the EPRP is not a relic of the past—it is a living, evolving struggle. Together, we can revitalize the dream of a democratic Ethiopia and bring it closer to reality through solidarity and intergenerational cooperation.

The People’s Struggle: From Martyrdom to Victory

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party’s (EPRP) 50-year journey stands as a powerful testament to the resilience of an idea. It is the idea that democracy is not a foreign concept imported from the West, but an inherent birthright of every Ethiopian. It is the unwavering belief that human dignity is non-negotiable, even when confronted with the brutal machinery of state terror.

As the EPRP re-enters Ethiopia’s political arena, it does so not as a relic of a bygone era, but as a force determined to address unfinished business. Its resurgence is not an exercise in nostalgia, nor is it a retreat into historical sentimentality. Instead, it is a forward march into the uncharted but urgent terrain of Ethiopia’s democratic aspirations—aspirations first ignited by the courageous generation of the 1960s.

The party’s call to its former militants, many of whom are now in retirement, is not a sentimental plea for one final act. Instead, it is a strategic recognition of the invaluable assets these veterans possess: institutional memory, ideological clarity, and an unshakable reservoir of courage. In a fractured and volatile political landscape, such attributes are not luxuries—they are necessities.

For the EPRP, the struggle has never been merely political; it has always been existential. It is a fight to ensure that the blood spilled on Addis Ababa’s streets during the Red Terror was not in vain. It is a pledge to honor the sacrifices of students, peasants, and workers who perished in the Derg’s torture chambers. Their dreams of a democratic and united Ethiopia remain unfulfilled— but not forgotten.

Today, as the baton is passed to a new generation, the EPRP’s mission continues. The struggle lives on, as does the hope for a free and dignified Ethiopia.

A New Generation’s Mandate

The EPRP’s rebirth depends mainly on its ability to bridge the generational divide that has long challenged revolutionary movements. While the veterans bring a wealth of experience, historical legitimacy, and a reservoir of hard-earned wisdom, it is the youth who must carry the vision forward and translate ideals into action. The success of this intergenerational alliance will determine whether the party remains a historical footnote or becomes a transformative force in Ethiopia’s future.

The 11th Congress marked a significant and deliberate shift in this direction. One of its most important outcomes was the conscious effort to integrate young activists into leadership positions, not as token representatives, but as active shapers of the party’s strategies and priorities. The EPRP recognizes that clinging to nostalgia will not build a future. Instead, the dynamism, creativity, and fresh perspectives of the new generation must serve as the engine of its revitalization.

The EPRP’s renewed platform is built upon foundational pillars: national unity, social justice, democratic governance, economic equity, and the unwavering defense of human rights. However, the party also understands that slogans and declarations alone are insufficient. In a political climate marred by state repression and deepening ethnic polarization, it aims to cultivate a grassroots movement that is capable of pushing back against forces of division and authoritarianism.

This grassroots strategy involves community-level organizing, inclusive dialogues, and the patient work of rebuilding trust among a populace weary of empty promises. The EPRP’s commitment is not just to win political power but to foster a civic culture where democracy is practiced from the ground up.

In its rebirth, the EPRP seeks to become not just a party of opposition, but a catalyst for national healing, democratic renewal, and a unifying vision that transcends ethnic and generational divides.

The Road Ahead: A Call to All Ethiopians

As the EPRP calls upon all Ethiopians—its former members, the families of martyrs, the youth, and those who once believed the struggle had ended—it does so with a solemn pledge: this time, no one will betray, divert, or silence the revolution. This is not a call to arms, but a call to conscience. It is a call that declares the ideals for which so many Ethiopians perished are not outdated slogans but urgent, living demands.

To stand with the legacy of heroes like Tesfaye Debessay, Abebe Debteraw, and to honor the still-living voices of Mersha Yosef, Eyasu Alemayehu, Tsehaye Reda, Fasika Belete, Solomon G/Selasie, Mohamed Jamil, Dr. Mulugeta, and others, is to reaffirm a commitment to democracy, justice, and human dignity.

Ultimately, the story of EPRP’s rebirth is inseparable from Ethiopia’s struggle to reclaim its democratic destiny. This is not just a party’s journey—it is a people’s story, a national quest for a future built on freedom, equality, and unity.

As the final session of the 11th Congress came to a close, a chant began—soft at first, then rising in strength:

“Democracy! Justice! Human Rights! EPRP for the People!” Once again, the torch was passed. The struggle continues.