UN General Assembly
1983

104. Throughout its long history Ethiopia has successfully preserved its independence and territorial integrity against repeated attempts by foreign Powers. However, the archaic feudal system and the capitalist production relations which were, at a later stage, grafted on this system, had kept the country in a backward state, depriving it of any meaningful social and economic development. During those years of bitter existence, a handful of feudal lords, having appropriated to themselves almost all the resources of the country, had subjected the broad masses of Ethiopia to cruel and barbaric exploitation, forcing them to live in utter misery and wretchedness, denied of their human dignity and fundamental freedoms. It is to this inhuman system that the social revolution of the Ethiopian people has dealt a mortal blow, and it is today striving to build in its stead an order based on freedom, equality and social justice.