Transcribing the Past

        Declaration    By the Central Board of the Bulgarian Esperantist Association.   Bulgarian Esperantists have just learnt of the invasion by the Chinese army into the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with great anger and indigination.  This insidious attack by fascist means shook all honest people throughout the world and has only brought joy to reactionaries. There is no evidence of any provocation by the Vietnamese people against Chinese territory. But there are other facts. They speak of China's relentless pressure on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This pressure began immediately after the total failue of US aggression in Vietnam. This pressure is exerted because of the ambitions of the Chinese party and state leadership to impose hegemony. China wishes to be supreme in South East Asia, and because of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's allegiance to its socialist ideals, the socialist community, and the Sov...

  Ethiopia’s Red Terror In the 1970s the political situation in Ethiopia was very chaotic, a military council called the Dergue replaced the Emperor Haile Selassie, meanwhile student movements, unions and political parties were making their presence felt. The Dergue soon felt threatened by these movements outside of its control and in response to rising violence declared a Red Terror and began imprisoning, torturing and murdering thousands of Ethiopians. The Dergue made no secret of this, its leader Colonel Mengistu talked openly about it in speeches in the radio and in the press, and Dergue agents often left the bodies of victims on display in the streets of Addis Ababa. Curiously the main targets for the brutal repression were those who arguably were its fellow travellers. The Dergue publicly supported Communist revolution of the Marxist-Leninist variety and developed close links to the Soviet Union and Cuba. Meanwhile it try to exterminate a rival Marxist-Lenini...

  Link  https://youtu.be/72-mBdZEfjs In late December 1979, the world held its breath as thousands of Soviet troops were sent into Afghanistan. Moscow said the troops would be there six months, to help bring peace to the country. In fact the Soviet army stayed almost ten years, and Afghanistan came to be seen as the Soviet Union's Vietnam. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to journalist Andrei Ostalski and former soldier Vyacheslav Ismailov about that time. Transcript Louise Hidalgo: Hello and welcome to the Witness podcast here on the BBC World Service with me Louise Hidalgo, and today I’m taking you back to late December 1979, when the world held its breath as the Soviet Union sent its army into Afghanistan to prop up the Communist led government. Moscow said the troops would stay six months, in the end they stayed nearly ten years. And Afghanistan will become the Soviet Union’s Vietnam. Vyacheslav Ismailov who served in Afghanistan as a soldier and journal...

  Video link  https://youtu.be/onWZ1SE-5Ok In 1976 South Asian women workers who had made Britain their home, led a strike against poor working conditions in a British factory. Lakshmi Patel was one of the South Asian women who picketed the Grunwick film-processing factory in north London for two years, defying the stereotype of submissive South Asian women. They gained the support of tens of thousands of trade unionists along the way. Lakshmi talks to Farhana Haider about how the strike was a defining moment for race relations in the UK in the 1970s. Transcript Program Producer Max Pierson: But we begin with an example of hard-won workers’ rights in Britain. And if that phrase conjures up images of beefy miners or dockers confronting their bosses you might be in for a bit of a surprise. Because we’re going back to 1976 when a group of South Asian women led a strike over poor working conditions. These were strikers in Saris, they took the lead but event...

  Video link  https://youtu.be/Yvc852TztSs Bugged telephone conversation from Victoria Barracks, Derry on Bloody Sunday 1972.                 Bloody Sunday Leaked calls by the British Army First call, between two officers. First Officer (Alan): Bombadier Phillips is here, what does he want? Second Officer: I don’t know, what does he want? First Officer: Emm… look it’s presented to have been a hell of a sort out. The whole thing’s in chaos. Second Officer: Yeah, obviously. First Officer: I think it’s gone badly wrong in the Rossvilles… the doctor’s just been up the hospital and they’re pulling stiffs out there as fast as they can get them out. Second Officer: There’s nothing wrong with that Alan. First Officer: Well, there is because they’re the wrong people. There’s about nine, between nine and fifteen killed by the paratroopers in th...