ABSTRACT
The insignificant size and disorganized state of the Mozambican working class and the shortage of trained cadres to staff both a vanguard party and the state apparatus would also hamper the transition from colonial-capitalism to socialism. The flow of white emigrants and of a small number of mulattoes and blacks who had either collaborated with the colonial regime or who feared that Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) long-term socialist goals jeopardized their relatively privileged social position increased. The inextricably intertwined goals of forging national unity and mobilizing the masses were at the center of the government’s postindependence political strategy, especially in those regions where the populace had not experienced life in the liberated zones. In an angry public speech, broadcast on national radio, President Samora Machel acknowledged that armed forces had been “infiltrated by elements who violate the constitution, the principles of the FRELIMO party, and the law of the land through arbitrary imprisonment, beatings and torture.”
