ERITREA Mass Mobilisation and Land Reforms: Cornerstones of EPLF's Success Peter Custers "WE absolutely have to assure that the Village Assembly 'belongs to the poor peasants! We have permitted a few middle peasants and rich' peasants to participate in the new village council, but we carefully screen everybody's class origin." These words are the explanation provided by a local peasant leader in Eritrea to a visiting foreign journalist of the EPLF's method of land reform. In recent years the EPLF, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, has achieved resounding successes in its armed struggle for national independence" These successes cannot be understood separately from the 'social choice' which this liberation movement has made; The EPLF is firmly integrated with the most oppressed sections of Eritrean society, in particular the poor peasants, the women and the workers, The manner in which the Front ton- ducts its independence struggle is directly linked to its social base. The organisation and politicalisation of the people and the combining of armed struggle with simultaneous struggle for the transformation of Eritrean society are two consistent themes in the EPLFs practice.
