Who was Thomas Sankara? What did he stand for? Why is the political course he fought for relevant to working people in Africa and the US?    

Thomas Sankara – president of Burkina Faso, 1983-1987 –  spoke on behalf of the oppressed and exploited of the world reaching out to all those who refused to accept the economic bondage and dog-eat-dog mentality of a class-divided society and its consequences. Under Sankara’s leadership, the revolutionary government of Burkina Faso in West Africa set an electrifying example. Peasants, workers, women, and youth mobilized to carry out literacy and immunization drives; to sink wells, plant trees, build dams, erect housing; to combat the oppression of women and transform exploitative relations on the land; to free themselves from the imperialist yoke and solidarize with others engaged in that fight internationally.

Listen a speech by Thomas Sankara here.