Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

37 / 85
3. Values and principles
physical capacity and preclude them attending school. Since they are also forced to marry early, they
become pregnant too early, they have pregnancies too close together, with not only a risk of death
during delivery but also a risk of death for children.
For Awra Amba, “children’s rights are not respected in the Ethiopian society as they should be. Too
often, children are made to do jobs that take no account of what they can really do" (Habtamu, 2009).
In the community, the children respect their elders and the elders do the same to the children; there is
no discrimination based on age, but only based on capacity (Yi07/53).
3.2.3. Equality of humans
According to Ya08/26 & 38-41, in Ethiopia, in the past, many groups like smiths, tanners, potters,
woodworkers or weavers have been despised and ostracized, being denied access to land and
livestock and restricted to their craft activities. At the same time, in some cases they are feared and
considered to have links with evil forces, especially the smiths. They can therefore be considered to
have a dual status: economically oppressed, and ritually powerful. To describe them as castes is
therefore quite simplistic.
It is important to remember that the traditional Ethiopian society tends to isolate given groups, which
are not well considered, not according to their behaviour or their personal value, but according to
their trade.
On the contrary, an essential value of Awra Amba is equality, which obliges to respect the
differences of religion, colour, race, ethnic group, job specification, physical or intellectual capacity,
etc, each human being member of humanity (Ya08/68). The usual hierarchy, which leads to aspire to
move up the social ladder, is replaced by aspiring to social equality through social cooperation and
gender equality (At05/49; Ya08/73). There is no polarization on the community members into those
who command and those who obey (At05/53), since the social recognition is not linked to the social
position or to the job, but to the daily respect of the community values. Then, in order to prevent any
attempt of some ones to seize power over all – any subordination, all committees should be held for a
maximum of 2 or 3 years (see section 4.1) (At05/56).
This value of humanity and brotherhood is extended to universal brotherhood. Black or white, all are
equal. When Zumra is asked about ethnic affiliations, he simply says, “we belong to every ethnic
group, not one or the other" (Habtamu, 2009). For this reason, foreign visitors pay the same rates as
their Ethiopian counterparts, which is rarely the case in Ethiopia (Jo10b/6).
3.3. Solidarity
"In Ethiopian society, the less fortunate and the old do not have anyone to take care of them. They
may not even have anything to eat or anywhere to live. But the young and the stronger ones have a
good time and don’t have time to look after the less fortunate ones", said Zumra (Habtamu, 2009).
On the contrary, solidarity is claimed in Awra Amba. "From each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs" is its practical translation (At05/53). This principle is in opposition on the
one hand to the capitalist notion and on the other hand to the socialist notion that prevailed in
Ethiopia under the former Derg regime, both pushing to the individual performance, while Awra
Amba pushes to the collective performance through the respect of the common values.
The ownership of the means of production and of the production right-fully belongs to the entire
cooperative, except household properties and activities. The government through its land
redistribution policy allocates the land. But in practice, neither individuals, nor families enjoy it
individually, because enjoyment is collective: the community members work collectively on the land
and they equally share the produce from the land, although they do not contribute to it equally for
capacity reasons. It allows those who are landless to live and reinforces solidarity (At05/51 & 53)