Africa and US imperialism
Post-colonial crises and the imperatives of the African revolution
Abayomi Azikiwe
2013-05-26, Issue <
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/631> 631
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http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87495>
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87495
A reflection on five decades since the formation of the Organization of
African Unity (OAU), while the Pentagon and NATO escalate their war drive on
the continent
NOTE: This lecture was delivered at the Africa & U.S. Imperialism Conference
held in Detroit on May 18, 2013. The event was sponsored by the Michigan
Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) and also featured
presentations by Atty. Jeff Edison of the National Conference of Black
Lawyers, Dr. Rita Kiki Edozie, Director of African American and African
Studies at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Cheick Oumar and
Moussa Rimau, two graduate students at MSU from Mali, Tachae J. Davis of
Workers World Youth Fraction and a student at Macomb Community College. A
special address was delivered by the Venezuelan Consulate in Chicago Jesus
Rodriguez Espinoza. To watch the video of the address delivered by the
Venezuelan diplomat just click on the website below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSPXRV5YIHE
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSPXRV5YIHE&feature=youtu.be>
&feature=youtu.be (Part 1)
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97Yu_3aot4&feature=youtu.be>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97Yu_3aot4&feature=youtu.be (Part 2)
May 25, 2013 represents the 50th anniversary of the founding of the
Organization of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the present African
Union, which was formed in 2002. This conference today is taking place at a
critical time within the history of Africa and the Diaspora.
Even though there has been tremendous progress in Africa and throughout the
African world since 1963, the imperialists have devised mechanisms to
continue and expand the exploitation and consequent oppression of African
people on the continent and indeed throughout Europe, North America and
Latin America. This conference sends congratulatory messages to the AU in
the midst of this anniversary.
We are following the situation surrounding the summit/, which begins on May
19 and extends through May 27. The meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is being
held under the theme of 'Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance,' in an
attempt to return the continental organization back to its political origins
born in the ferment of the African revolutionary struggle of the 1960s.
According to the description on the African Union website publicizing the
21st Summit of the AU, it says that 'The year 2013 marks the 50th
anniversary celebration of the formation of the Organization of African
Unity (OAU). It will also be a little more than a decade since the formation
of the African Union, which seeks to promote 'an integrated, prosperous and
peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force
in global arena.' Consequently, the Heads of State declared 2013 the Year of
Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance.'
This same synopsis goes on to say that 'The anniversary is expected to
facilitate and celebrate African narratives of past, present and future that
will enthuse and energize the African population and use their constructive
energy to accelerate a forward looking agenda of Pan-Africanism and
renaissance in the 21st century. It provides a unique opportunity, and comes
at a moment when Africa is on the rise, and must therefore build its
confidence in its future. The 50th Anniversary commemorations will be
anchored by the Theme Pan Africanism and the African Renaissance.' (AU
website)
The peoples of Africa scattered throughout the globe are intensely awaiting
the outcome of the summit in order to gain clearer insight into the
character of the thinking and actions being advanced by the heads-of-state
and other leading organs of this esteemed institution.
Nonetheless, our purpose here today is to reflect on the significance of the
history of Africa and the African liberation struggles that have evolved
over the last five decades. Where have we been and where are we going into
the successive decades of the 21st century must be the questions that are
paramount in our minds.
THE POST WORLD WAR II POLITICAL SITUATION
It has been acknowledged by leading progressive and revolutionary African
historians that the advent of the Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism
shaped the character of African societies throughout the world. Beginning in
the 15th century, Africa engaged Europe coming out of the so-called 'Dark
Ages', a society and culture desperately seeking to advance its own internal
development at the expense of other peoples around the globe.
Between the 15th and 19th centuries, millions of Africans were subjected to
super-exploitation through slavery and colonialism. This period in the
history of the continent spawned the conquering by Europe of the Western
hemisphere and the building of an industrial empire which intensified the
exploitation of both the indigenous people of the West as well as those of
the African continent, Asia and the South Pacific.
Africans and other oppressed peoples of course resisted the onslaught of
slavery and colonialism with vigour. History today is revealing even more
detailed accounts of the heroic role that Africans played in the struggle
against imperialism in its infancy and continuing into its maturity and
consequent devolution under the present system of neo-colonialism.
All exploitative and oppressive systems meet resistance from within, leading
to the organization and mobilization of the forces which are victimized by
the ruling interests within society. These internal struggles along with
challenges from the outside result in the transformation of the system into
something different that could be an advance or a step backward in the
development of humanity.
Although imperialism attempted to create a system of exploitation and
oppression that was insulated from internal and external attacks, these
efforts proved to be futile. By the conclusion of World War I, national
liberation movements and communist tendencies were well in evidence in the
struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and colonialism.
Rebellions and revolutionary uprisings spread throughout North America,
Europe, Africa and Asia beginning in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution, the
first total overthrow of capitalism and the replacement of this exploitative
system with socialism which is based upon empowering the working class and
the oppressed.
The 1920s saw additional uprising and attempts to build a worldwide alliance
between national liberation movements and socialist parties. By the
conclusion of the 1920s, the capitalist world would fall into its worst
economic crisis which lasted for over twelve years until the entry of the
United States into World War II in 1941.
This collapse of the capitalist system during the 1930s would also lead to
the spreading of fascism in Europe and Japan. However, the fight against
fascism in the 1930s and 1940s brought to the fore the communist and
national liberation organizations which served as the decisive factor in the
outcome of the war in 1945.
Beginning in 1945 the communist and national liberation movements
accelerated their efforts aimed at the overthrow of capitalism and
colonialism leading to decisive victories in Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe
and eventually China. By 1949, India had gained its independence from
British imperialism and the African continent had begun popular uprising
aimed at breaking the yolk of colonial rule.
The aftermath of World War II resulted in the dominance of the U.S. ruling
class throughout the capitalist world. Britain, France, Germany, Italy,
Spain and Japan had experienced extensive fighting within its borders during
the 1930s and 1940s leaving the U.S. unscathed by the military impact of the
war.
The Soviet Union which had experienced some of the most intense fighting
during 1942 and 1943 at the 'Battle of Stalingrad' emerged from World War II
as a major power internationally only second in military might and political
strength to U.S. imperialism. Socialism spread throughout Eastern Europe
during this period and the people of Yugoslavia had largely liberated
themselves through their resistance to fascism where they later would
establish a socialist system.
Despite the devastation of World War II and the founding of the United
Nations in 1945 whose objective in part was to avoid another international
conflagration, war erupted on the Korean Peninsula in 1950 after the
establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948. The DPRK
and the people of China under Mao Tse-Tung fought to preserve their national
sovereignty and socialism in Asia.
By 1954, the people of Vietnam defeated French imperialism forcing the U.S.
to take total responsibility for the continued occupation of the south of
that Southeast Asian nation. That same year, the Algerian National
Liberation Front (FLN) began its armed struggle against French imperialism
in North Africa, where it had occupied the country since 1830.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of the Ghana independence struggle through the
Convention People's Party (CPP), founded on June 12, 1949, and the chief
strategist and tactician of the African Revolution between the late 1940s
and the time of his death in 1972, pointed out that the movements led by
Africans against colonialism and imperialism were not isolated but very much
connected with the global struggle for freedom, justice and
self-determination. Nkrumah placed the rising tide of the African liberation
movements and the struggle for socialism on the continent within the context
of the worldwide efforts against all forms of exploitation and oppression.
Nkrumah wrote that 'A number of external factors affect the African
situation, and if our liberation struggle is to be placed in correct
perspective and we are to KNOW THE ENEMY, the impact of these factors must
be fully grasped. First among them is imperialism, for it is mainly against
exploitation and poverty that our peoples revolt.' (Handbook of
Revolutionary Warfare, p. 1, 1968)
This Pan-Africanist revolutionary leader continues by pointing out that 'It
is therefore of paramount importance to set out the strategy of imperialism
in clear terms: the means used by the enemy to ensure the continued economic
exploitation of our territories and the nature of the attempts made to
destroy the liberation movement. Once the components of the enemy's strategy
are determined, we will be in a position to outline the correct strategy for
our own struggle in terms of our actual situation and in accordance with our
objectives.' (Nkrumah, p. 2)
With specific reference to the period after World War II, Nkrumah observes
that 'after the war, serious economic, social and political tensions arose
in both spheres' being the colonial territories and the industrialized
capitalist states in Europe and North America. He notes that 'Inside the
capitalist-imperialist states, workers' organizations had become
comparatively strong and experienced, and the claims of the working class
for a more substantial share of the wealth produced by the capitalist
economy could no longer be ignored. The necessity to concede had become all
the more imperative since the European capitalist system had been seriously
shaken up by the near-holocaust which marked the experience of imperialist
wars.'
During the same time period, he continues that 'While the capitalist system
of exploitation was coming to grips with its internal crisis, the world's
colonized areas were astir with the upsurge of strong liberation movements.
Here again, demands could no longer be cast aside or ignored especially when
they were channeled through irresistible mass movements, like the
Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA), the Parti Democratique de Guinee
(PDG) and the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) in Ghana. In certain areas,
for example in Vietnam, Kenya and Algeria, direct confrontation demonstrated
the readiness of the oppressed peoples to implement their claims with blood
and fire.'
Nkrumah stresses that 'Both in the colonial territories and in the
metropolitan states, the struggle was being waged against the same enemy:
international finance capital under its external and internal forms of
exploitation, imperialism and capitalism. Threatened with disintegration by
the double-fisted attack of the working class movement and the liberation
movement, capitalism had to launch a series of reforms in order to build a
protective armor around the inner workings of its system.'
Within the U.S. during the late 1940s through the 1970s, a deliberate
division was institutionalized between the white working class and middle
classes and the African American people, most of whom were working class
with a shrinking number of farmers and agricultural proletarians in the
rural areas. The advent of the mass Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1950s
served to crack open the cloak of McCarthyism and bring broader sections of
the oppressed into the struggle against racism and national discrimination.
By 1960, the student sector of the African American people would take the
lead as the most militant force in the struggle against legalized
segregation. These efforts by the youth led by the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and others awakened a generation of young
people within the Latino, Native and Asian communities along with their
counterparts inside the white community. A culture of resistance and
protracted programmatic struggle was born which was able to challenge U.S.
imperialist militarism in Southeast Asia and in other parts of the world.
There developed during this period a movement against the status-quo which
had not been experienced since the height of the Great Depression of
1929-1941. The role of the Left in building resistance to capitalist
exploitation and racism created the conditions for the general strikes of
1934 and the subsequent formation of the Committee on Industrial
Organizations (CIO) and the United Autoworkers Union (UAW).
The period of struggle between the Great Depression--interrupted with the
force of the state during the McCarthy era of the late 1940s and early
1950s--and the burgeoning mass movements of the late 1950s leading into the
early 1970s, opened up new avenues of struggle which threatened the ruling
class and its system of exploitation. In response the system embarked upon a
period of major restructuring by the mid-to-late 1970s which was
specifically designed to preserve and enhance the world capitalist system.
Of this period, Nkrumah wrote that 'To avoid an internal breakdown of the
system under the pressure of the workers' protest movement, the governments
of capitalist countries granted their workers certain concessions which did
not endanger the basic nature of the capitalist system of exploitation. They
gave them social security, higher wages, better working conditions,
professional training facilities, and other improvements.' (Nkrumah, p. 4)
Nkrumah points out that 'These reforms helped to blur fundamental
contradictions, and to remove some of the more glaring injustices while at
the same time ensuring the continued exploitation of the workers. The myth
was established of an affluent capitalist society promising abundance and a
better life for all. The basic aim, however, was the establishment of a
'welfare state' as the only safeguard against the threat of fascism or
communism.'
Nevertheless, the objective was to maintain the system of ever-increasing
profits for the banks and other multi-national corporations. Even with the
establishment of the so-called 'Welfare State' in Western Europe and North
America in the aftermath of World War II extending through the early 1970s,
the system of exploitation and oppression remained intact.
The world capitalist and imperialist system extended reforms not only inside
the industrialized states but also within the oppressed nations outside its
borders. The system began to depend to greater degrees on the extraction of
strategic resources from Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as the
exploitation of labor in these geo-political regions.
In assessing this strategy by imperialism, Nkrumah said that 'The urgent
need for such reforms was made clear by the powerful growth and expansion of
the liberation forces in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where revolutionary
movements had not only seized power but were actually consolidating their
gains. Developments in the USSR, China, Cuba, North Vietnam, North Korea,
and in Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Algeria and other parts of Africa, showed
that not only was the world balance of forces shifting, but that the
capitalist-imperialist states were confronted with a real danger of
encirclement.' (p. 5)
SOME CONCRETE EXAMPLES IN THE NATIONAL LIBERATION REVOLUTION
The imperialist states utilized its extensive resources and networks of
global finance and political intrigue to undermine the independent African
states as well as the Civil Rights, Black Power, Anti-War, Women and Left
movements inside the U.S. and Western Europe. In this section we want to
briefly review some of these developments which occurred between the 1950s
and the 1990s in Africa and throughout the Diaspora.
These events can in no way be separated from trends within the world
capitalist system. Africa is still very much integrated into the networks of
finance capital making the continent dependent upon mineral extraction and
the extension of credit from Western financial institutions for survival.
GHANA: THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF PAN-AFRICANISM
Kwame Nkrumah studied in the US during 1935-1945 when he went to Britain to
work with George Padmore in the organization of the Fifth Pan-African
Congress in October of 1945. The outcome of the Fifth Pan-African Congress
which was chaired by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, led to the mass mobilization of the
workers, farmers and youth of Africa for the national independence movement.
The Gold Coast in 1951 established a transitional government after Nkrumah
was released from prison in order to move toward national independence in
1957. Nkrumah placed tremendous emphasis on state spending for education,
social services, healthcare, economic plans for industrialization and
unconditional support for the national liberation movements in other parts
of Africa and the Diaspora along with a stated aim of building socialism in
Ghana and throughout the continent.
The First Conference of Independent African States was held in Accra in
April 1958 bringing together the peoples of Africa both north and south of
the Sahara. In December of that same year, the First All-African People's
Conference was also held in Accra, bringing revolutionary Pan-African
deliberations to the continent itself.
By 1960, when Ghana became a republic, Nkrumah and the CPP had committed to
building a socialist state where the formation of a United States of Africa
was the principle foreign policy objective of the government. These actions
were met with tremendous opposition by imperialism led by the US in league
with internal reactionaries who succeeded in overthrowing the Ghana state on
February 24, 1966 through a military and police coup.
Nkrumah took refuge in Guinea where he had made an alliance with the ruling
Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG) in 1958 at the time of independence under
President Ahmed Sekou Toure. Nkrumah was made Co-President of the country
and continued to write and organize for the realization of Pan-Africanism
and Scientific Socialism in Africa.
Guinea followed similar policies as Ghana through state control of the
economy and an anti-imperialist foreign policy. Like Ghana under Nkrumah,
Guinea under Sekou Toure gave maximum support to the national liberation
movements and progressive states on the continent.
Guinea played a key role in the liberation of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau
which waged an armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism and NATO during
the period of 1961 to 1973. Nkrumah after the coup placed more emphasis on
the class struggle taking place throughout Africa as is reflected in his
writing published after 1966.
ALGERIA AND THE ARMED PHASE OF THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION
The FLN triumphed in its national campaign to win independence in 1962. What
is often overlooked is the support given to Ben Bella and the Algerian
revolutionaries by the All-African People's Conference and in particular the
independent government of Mali under President Modibo Keita.
The opening of a southern front in Algeria after 1960 ensured the success of
the revolutionaries. Dr. Frantz Fanon, an African born in the Caribbean,
Martinique, played a critical role in the foreign policy of the FLN during
the late 1950s to 1961 when he died of cancer.
Algeria provided the first military training to the African National
Congress military leaders known as Um Khonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)
co-founded by Nelson Mandela. In fact when Mandela was arrested in 1962 he
was charged with leaving the country to undergo military training in
Algeria.
Algeria is rich in natural gas and oil and is strategically located in North
Africa. The split within the FLN in 1965 leading to the coup against Ben
Bella, although tragic, did not result in lessening the country's commitment
to the African Revolution.
Algeria played a key role in apprehending and liquidating the CIA-backed
neo-colonialist agent Moise Tshombe of Congo. In 1967 Tshombe was captured
and later died in an Algerian prison two years later.
In 1969, Algeria hosted the Pan-African Cultural Festival which re-ignited
the international struggle of Black people in the aftermath of the coup
against Nkrumah three years earlier. That same year, Algeria would grant
political asylum to the Black Panther Party, then under vicious attack by
the U.S. government through its counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO).
The Black Panther Party set up an international section in Algiers and
remained there until 1972. Algeria continued to support the national
liberation movements in the still-colonized regions of the continent.
THE CONGO CRISIS AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF NEO-COLONIALISM IN AFRICA
Patrice Lumumba, the first elected Prime Minister of the former Belgian
Congo made his international debut at the All-African People's Conference in
Accra, Ghana held during December 1958. Lumumba would win the support of the
majority of people within Congo in his efforts to build revolutionary
Pan-Africanism and a United States of Africa.
The imperialists saw developments in Congo in 1959-1960 as a threat to its
neo-colonial designs for post-independence Africa. Lumumba was soon deposed,
kidnapped, tortured and executed at the aegis of the CIA and other Western
states.
For over three decades Congo remained within the orbit of imperialism
serving as a vast reservoir for exploitation of its natural resources by the
multi-national mining firms and international finance capital. Under Mobutu
it also served as a rear base for the imperialists in their efforts to
stifle and defeat the genuine liberation movements fighting for the total
liberation of Southern Africa which was not realized until 1994 with the
coming to power of the African National Congress in South Africa under
Nelson Mandela.
Today, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains a bastion of Western
intrigue and exploitation. Whole sections of the large country are still not
under the control of the central government in Kinshasa.
Since 1996, it has been estimated that as many as six million people have
been killed in the DRC through civil wars that are largely the result of
imperialist intervention. This pattern of mass killings has its origins in
Belgian colonialism where under King Leopold II, anywhere between 8-10
million were slaughtered between 1876 and 1908.
THE OAU COMPROMISE OF 1963
With the efforts of the imperialist states to sabotage the African
Revolution there developed to major political blocs on the continent after
the Congo crisis of 1960-61. The Casablanca Group was composed of the
anti-imperialist states committed to Pan-Africanism and the Monrovia Group,
which encompassed the moderate and conservative forces still wedded
politically to the former colonial powers and the now dominate U.S.
government.
Nkrumah described the new situation in Africa as 'collective imperialism.'
He wrote that 'The modifications introduced by imperialism in its strategy
were expressed through the disappearance of the numerous old-fashioned
'colonies' owing exclusive allegiance to a single metropolitan country
through the replacement of 'national' imperialisms by a 'collective'
imperialism in which the USA occupies the leading position.' (Handbook, p.
5)
He later goes on to highlight that 'The militarization of the US economy,
based on the political pretext of the threatening rise of the USSR and later
of the People's Republic of China as socialist powers, enabled the US to
postpone its internal crisis, first during the 'hot' war (1939-1945) and
then the during the 'cold' war (since 1945).' (p. 6)
Nkrumah says that 'Militarization served two main purposes, it absorbed, and
continues to absorb, an excess of unorganized energy into the intense
armaments drive which supports imperialist aggression and many blocs and
alliances formed by imperialist powers over the last twenty years. It also
made possible an expensive policy of paternalistic corruption of the poor
and oppressed people of the world.' (p. 7)
The formation of the OAU brought together both the majority of moderate and
conservative states with the smaller number of anti-imperialist governments
led by Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Tanzania and Algeria. Such a compromise
would limit the capacity of the continental organization to take a firm
position against imperialism and neo-colonialism, the major enemy of the
African Revolution.
Despite these limitations Nkrumah continued to call for the formation of a
United States of Africa. In 1963 at the founding summit of the OAU, Nkrumah
distributed his newly-completed book entitled 'Africa Must Unite' in an
effort to wage ideological struggle against imperialism and its agents
operating within various states on the continent.
In a chapter entitled 'Towards African Unity' it states that 'There are
those who maintain that Africa cannot unite because we lack the three
necessary ingredients for unity, a common race, culture and language. It is
true that we have for centuries been divided. The territorial boundaries
dividing us were fixed long ago, often quite arbitrarily, by the colonial
powers.'(Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite, p. 132)
Yet Nkrumah goes on to stress that 'All this is inevitable due to our
historical background. Yet in spite of this I am convinced that the forces
making for unity far outweigh those which divide us. In meeting fellow
Africans from all parts of the continent I am constantly impressed by how
much we have in common. It is not just our colonial past, or the fact that
we have aims in common, it is something which goes far deeper. I can best
describe it as a sense of one-ness in that we are Africans.'
In this book a strong emphasis is placed on the successes of the Soviet
Union and China in regard to economic development. Nkrumah attributes these
advances in the socialist states to national unity, state planning and the
empowerment of the working class and the peasantry.
He rightfully observes that the development of Western Europe and the United
States was based upon centuries of enslavement and colonization of Africa
and other regions of the world. The fact that Africa needs to develop
rapidly and on an egalitarian basis rooted in collective planning, there is
a chapter dedicated to Ghana's commitment to socialist construction.
Also in 1964 and 1965, Nkrumah called for the formation of a United States
of Africa at the OAU summits in Egypt and Accra respectively. This same
theme was later taken up by Libya under Muammar Gaddafi through the Sirte
Declaration of 1999 and the opening summit of the African Union in 2002 in
South Africa.
OAU LIBERATION COMMITTEE: A SUCCESS AMID CHALLENGES
Perhaps the most successful aspect of the OAU's history between 1963 and the
early 1990s was the Liberation Committee which coordinated continental and
international assistance to the national liberation movements. The
decolonization process would reach a watershed in 1975-76 with the attempted
sabotage of the national independence of Angola by imperialism.
The divisions between the three liberation groups provided an opening for
the US in alliance with the-then racist apartheid regime based in South
Africa and Namibia to intervene in coordination with the CIA to impose a
reactionary leadership over the state. The appeal by Dr. Agostinho Neto,
leader of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), to the
Cuban government under President Fidel Castro resulted in the deployment of
55,000 Cuban internationalist forces.
These forces in cooperation with anti-imperialist states in Africa such as
Guinea-Conakry resulted in the first military defeat of the racist South
African Defense Forces in early 1976. Cuban internationalists remained in
Angola until 1989 when a comprehensive agreement for the withdrawal of South
African Defense Forces from the country and the liberation of Namibia along
with the release of political prisoners in South Africa and the beginning of
negotiations to end the apartheid system was assured.
Earlier in Zimbabwe, the armed revolutionary forces of the Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriot Front and the Zimbabwe African People's
Union-Patriotic Front led to the national independence of the country
formerly known as Rhodesia in April 1980. Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique,
Zambia, Tanzania and Lesotho all served as rear bases for the ANC military
and political forces which fought for the liberation of South Africa.
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS (SAP) REVEAL THE ECONOMIC FACE OF
NEO-COLONIALISM
After the overthrow of the CPP in Ghana in 1966, the country no longer took
a progressive stand in regard to building socialism and Pan-Africanism on
the continent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
virtually took over the management of the state leading to the abandonment
of state enterprises and the emphasis on industrialization and a progressive
foreign policy.
By the 1980s this method of restructuring post-independence African states
began to spread throughout the continent. In Ghana, the so-called Economic
Recovery Program (ERP) was instituted in 1983 under military leader
Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings who had come to power for a second time in
a military coup on January 31, 1981.
The ERP would later be named the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) and
these methods were managed by the IMF and the World Bank in various African
states. Uganda, after the coming to power of National Resistance Army leader
Yoweri Museveni, the East African state moved in the same direction as
Ghana.
Both Ghana and Uganda had been at the forefront of the Pan-African states
attempting to advance continental unity and socialism during the 1960s.
Ghana under Nkrumah was closely allied with Uganda under President Milton
Obote who was overthrown by Gen. Idi Amin in a Western-backed coup in 1971.
Today there are many reports that would suggest that Africa is undergoing
and economic revival. Nonetheless, there is still a heavy reliance on
foreign exchange earnings from exports and unemployment and poverty remain
high although there has been a reduction in poverty in several states.
During the so-called 'Arab Spring' of late 2010 and early 2011, the
underlying causes of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria
were related to the failure of these governments to provide employment to
youth and workers in general. The governments of Tunisia and Egypt were
forced to resign in January and February 2011 respectively where Algeria was
able to weather the demonstrations which seemed to be related to the
country's long term positions that were independent of the West.
In Libya, even though the imperialists and the corporate press attempted to
link the western-backed rebellion which erupted in February of 2011 to
developments in Tunisia and Egypt, the character of these demonstrations
quickly proved to be of a totally different character politically. When the
Libyan rebellion took up arms against the Jamahiriya, the revolt was
suppressed by the Gaddafi government.
Utilizing the successful military and political defense of the Jamahiriya as
a pretext, the imperialist states rapidly went to the United Nations
Security Council to pass two resolutions, 1970, placing an arms embargo on
the Gaddafi government but not the CIA-trained rebels and defectors and
1973, which imposed a so-called 'no-fly zone' over Libya which was a code
name for a massive bombing operation that lasted for seven straights months
and was carried out by the U.S. and NATO. In addition to an arms embargo and
blanket bombing of Libya, the country foreign assets were frozen and the CIA
was sent into the country to identify targets for aerial bombardment.
Several attempts were made on the lives of Gaddafi and his family during the
course of the war. His family members were killed in airstrikes and
eventually on October 20, 2011 Gaddafi's convoy was struck by bombs in
Sirte. He was later captured, brutally beaten, tortured and shot to death by
an alleged militia group that was supported by the Pentagon, the CIA and
NATO.
Since the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya, the oil-rich North African state
has sunk into chaos. Four US CIA officers were killed in Benghazi last
September 11 posing as Washington diplomats. The New York Times reported
that the killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three
Americans was the greatest blow to the CIA in three decades.
AFRICOM-NATO AND THE MILITARIZATION OF AFRICA
The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) was formed officially in early 2008 with its
headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Attempts to place the AFRICOM
headquarters in Africa was met with substantial resistance from individual
states and the African Union. However, the U.S. does have a military base in
the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti.
In addition to this base, there are drone stations, CIA stations and other
joint operations between the US and various African states in Somalia,
Ethiopia, Seychelles, South Sudan, Uganda, Central African Republic, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana and other states. Obama announced
in December of 2012 that his administration was dispatching 3,500 Special
Forces and military trainers to 35 African states in purported efforts to
assist in the fight against 'terrorism.'
Yet the horrendous war crimes carried out by the US under Obama gets
relatively no opposition within the US Congress even among the Congressional
Black Caucus. In Libya some two million people were displaced and anywhere
between 50,000-100,000 people were killed by the US-NATO war of aggression
and regime-change.
Thousands of Africans remain in post-Gaddafi Libyan jails that are run by
militias who are given free reign by the US-NATO backed General National
Congress (GNC). An International Criminal Court (ICC) delegation which
visited Libya during 2012 to investigate the conditions surrounding the
detention of Seif al-Islam, the oldest son of Gaddafi and his heir apparent,
was detained by the Zintan militia holding this political prisoner.
The ICC, commonly referred to as the 'African Criminal Court' due to its
sole preoccupation with African statesmen and rebel leaders, had indicted
Gaddafi and members of his government during the imperialist war against
Libya in 2011. These leaders were indicted on false charges related to the
efforts to defend the country against the western-led rebels who had
terrorized the country for months but have escaped the scrutiny of the ICC
based in The Hague.
The United Nations and other international bodies have remained largely
silent on the crimes against humanity being committed in
counter-revolutionary Libya. This also holds true of developments in
Somalia, where the CIA and the Pentagon has carried out drone and airstrikes
that have resulted in the murder of thousands of people.
Africans have continued to resist the onslaught of AFRICOM and its
surrogates on the continent. It was reported in May 2013 that at least 3,000
AMISOM troops have been killed in Somalia in efforts to attempt to suppress
the resistance by Al Shabaab to imperialist-backed interference in this Horn
of Africa state.
The wars in Libya and Somalia have spilled over into neighboring Mali, Niger
and Kenya respectively. Kenya has 2,000-3,000 troops occupying southern
Somalia at the aegis of the US.
The military intervention by the Pentagon, the CIA and NATO countries will
escalate in the short term due to the growing strategic role Africa is
playing within the world capitalist system. Throughout East and Central
Africa there have been large finding of oil, natural gas and other strategic
resources. At present at least 25 percent of the oil that is imported into
the United States is coming from the African continent, which now exceeds
the amount of petroleum that is exported to the US from the entire Arabian
Peninsula.
THE WAY FORWARD FOR AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA
In order for Africa and its people to develop there must be decisive a break
with the imperialist system of finance capital. With the deepening crisis of
the world capitalism, the economic system is providing no real solutions to
the problems of Africa, nor for its own peoples in Europe and North America.
Europe remains in deep recession with the countries of the South facing
astronomical unemployment rates that exceed 25 percent. Even in France,
Britain and Germany, the economic crisis has drained the national reserves
compelling the central banks to bailout the financial institutions in order
to stave off a total collapse.
In the U.S. the rates of poverty and unemployment in real terms are
staggering. Nearly half of the people in the U.S. consider themselves to be
living in poverty or near poverty.
This economic crisis has become a political one since the White House,
Congress, Downing Street, Brussels and Paris are providing no alternative
ideas on how to extricate the capitalist system from the economic malaise
impacting hundreds of millions of workers, farmers and youth. The only
proposals coming out of the halls of the ruling class and their surrogates
in government call for greater austerity measures and mechanism to limit any
semblance of democratic debate, discussion and collective action.
Our task relates to political education, mobilization and organization of
the masses of people to work towards the solutions of these challenges. The
crisis in Africa and the Diaspora is by no means isolated from the broader
struggle of the peoples of the world.
In Africa there has been a tremendous degree of movement towards alliances
with other states on the continent and throughout the so-called Global
South. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has held five summits
since 2000 resulting in an escalation of both economic and political
cooperation between the two regions. Africa is now the largest trading
partner with the People's Republic of China.
In Zimbabwe the ZANU-PF government in 2000 took decisive action by seizing
the land which the people fought long years for during the armed
revolutionary struggle. The government of President Robert Mugabe was
vilified by the West and its allies where today research has shown that the
land seizures have improved both productivity and income for the African
agricultural workers and farmers.
This experience in Zimbabwe is being looked at by other African states in
the Southern Africa region and other areas. In South Africa and Namibia the
masses of workers, youth and farmers long for the full realization of the
objectives of the national democratic revolutions.
South Africa has the largest and most organized working class on the
continent. The unrest in the mining industry and the agricultural sector is
pushing the country towards looking at nationalization and seizure of the
land and the means of production.
The African Union must take action to remove the U.S., France, Britain,
Germany, Israel and other imperialist states and their partners from the
continent. The ongoing problems of Africa can be traced back to the
dominance of the imperialist system throughout the continent.
With reference to the African Diaspora in North America and Europe, the
struggle against racism and national oppression takes on critical
significance. The forces of the African Diaspora, motivated by Pan-African
ideals has and can continue to play a decisive role in the overall
consolidation of the African independence movement and the move towards
Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance.
Nkrumah in Africa Must Unite wrote that 'The expression 'Pan-Africanism' did
not come into use until the beginning of the twentieth century when Henry
Sylvester Williams of Trinidad, and William Edward Burghhardt Du Bois of the
United States of America, both of African descent, used it at several
Pan-African Congresses which were mainly attended by scholars of African
descent. A notable contribution to African nationalism and Pan-Africanism
was the 'Back to Africa' movement of Marcus Garvey.' (p. 133)
Since 1963, the African American and Caribbean African people have played a
pivotal role in the struggle to popularize the concept of African
liberation. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Southern African
solidarity struggle influenced by African Americans brought into existence
the first legislative and administrative actions against the apartheid
regime.
With the advent of the Obama administration the need to emphasize a class
character to the Pan-African struggle is essential. Africa is not the
backyard of U.S. imperialism and must be given the opportunity to exercise
full and genuine independence and sovereignty.
In the U.S. the cities in which African Americans reside are facing
monumental economic crisis and the evisceration of political power won
through the popular struggles of the post-World War II period. Principled
alliances with progressive African states and mass organizations will
provide avenues for the struggle to eradicate underdevelopment and
neo-colonialism from the continent and among the oppressed nations held
captive by the West.
Therefore as Nkrumah stressed in the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare
'African unity implies that imperialism and foreign oppression should be
eradicated in all their forms. That neo-colonialism should be recognized and
eliminated and that the new African nation must develop within a continental
framework.' (p. 27)
Nkrumah goes on to say that 'At the core of the concept of African unity
lies socialism and the socialist definition of the new African society.
Socialism and African unity are organically complementary. There is only one
true socialism and that is scientific socialism, the principles of which are
abiding and universal. "(p. 29)
Short of revolutionary Pan-Africanism based on scientific socialism,
Africans and their allies throughout the world must work toward defining and
exercising the maximum degree of organization and mobilization aimed at the
transformation of capitalist society and the world imperialist system. These
are the lessons of the last five decades and they must be assessed in order
to move forward with the total liberation of Africa and its people.
*Abayomi Azikiwe is Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Received on Sun May 26 2013 - 22:25:30 EDT
