Colonel Mengistu Watches Army & Militia | May Day Celebration | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | May 1978

Monday, May 1st 1978.

Footage of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Ethiopian Head of State and Chairman of the Derg, presiding over the celebration of International Workers Day in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

Reuters Text from 1978:

"In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's fourth May Day parade was held in style. It was held in style. It was dominated by militant slogans and placards urging further consolidation and strengthening of ties of the Marxist-Leninist organisations in Ethiopia.

The country's leader, Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, watched from a vantage point as thousands of youths and students marched past in red attire, most of them wearing hammer and sickle shirts and carrying red flags.

Colonel Mengistu tod the large crowd that formed at Revolution Square that the Ethiopian revolution is part and parcel of the international revolutionary movement and reaffirmed and solidarity of the Ethiopian people with the world-wide freedom struggle of oppressed peoples in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Both the regular army and militia forces marched in a move which the Ethiopian News Agency described as a "demonstration of their alliance with the working classes". Despite drizzle early in the day the agency said the celebrations surpassed in enthusiasm all the three previous parades.

Colonel Mengistu had invited revolutionary leaders from other African and Middle Eastern countries to the May Day rally. The Ethiopian news agency said he was fully satisfied with the way the celebrations went off."

Source: Reuters News Archive.