Page:Plunder (Perlman).djvu/23

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

17

MOKSA

When we cannot express ourselves in our work, we become dry inside. I had many things within me, but today they are only a memory of something that was real once, and tomorrow not even the memory will remain.

BURUMBA

Only two courses are open to us. We can do what Servus Neriana wants: continue as we are and crawl along our bellies for the rewards they may drop us. Or we can start resisting, an armed resistance, and change the situation ourselves.

(Loud talk)

NERIANA

I had doubts about coming to this meeting. Moksa said there would be no talk of violence. But I knew this would not be so. We must peacefully accept our condition and work within it to improve ourselves. If you listen to Burumba, everything will be destroyed.

MOKSA

Violence itself cannot accomplish anything, it cannot change the situation. With violence you exchange one set of rulers for another, but for the rest of us the situation is the same. It is the situation that must be changed.

NERIANA

That is my position also. If we want to improve our conditions, then each of us must work well and he will be recognized and promoted to better conditions. There is no other way.

BURUMBA

We are all familiar with your position, Servus Neriana. It is given by your name. But I do not understand what Moksa is saying. Are we to accept the European laws of violence, are we to watch