Niger and its environs: rebellious Africa, the West on the corner
Once again a rallying cry heard around the world comes from Africa – this time from “black” West Africa.
This cry of struggle is in no way comparable, in terms of power, extension, protagonism of the exploited, to the upheavals of 2011-2012 which swept the length and breadth of the entire Arab world like a single seismic wave, in North Africa and in Middle East. Then millions of workers, exploited, disinherited, young people without a future, women without rights, reopened the process of democratic and anti-imperialist revolution in the squares in a strategic region of the globe, giving a formidable jolt to the stability of global capitalism under Western hegemony already at grappled with the greatest financial crisis in history – before being defeated by the reaction of the local bourgeoisie in cahoots with the great powers. Nor is it even remotely comparable, in terms of direct proletarian protagonism and class content, to the powerful struggles of the miners in South Africa, with their epicenter in Marikana, who in 2012 gave way to a two-year period of “wild” strikes in agriculture, engineering, transport, construction, highlighting the web of interests that binds and subordinates the black-white “post-apartheid” regime of Pretoria to the multinationals of the old colonial powers, and deepening the gap between this bourgeois regime and the sole force which will be able to complete the liberation of Africa from the burden of the old and new colonialists: its young proletariat – and it is not just the young South African proletariat: as of 2017 among the top thirty countries in the world for levels of trade union activity, twelve were African countries. Nor would it make sense to confuse the events of recent days in Niger and West Africa with the vast popular upheavals of the years 2018-2020 in Algeria and Sudan, both shipwrecked due to their inconsequences, and yet capable of putting the central political motto of the Great Arab Intifada of 2011-2012: “the people want to overthrow the regime”…
These great uprisings have broken the grip of fear that for decades has forced the working classes of Africa, starting with the industrial working class, into political and trade union inactivity. And they decreed that “the time of fear and humiliation in Africa is over, and it matters little how long the path of liberation of the oppressed will last (certainly not a little)” – this is what we wrote a decade ago for a book-denunciation of the massacre of miners in Marikana, and we repeated in n. 3 of the review Cuneo rosso denouncing, almost alone in the bleak panorama of the so-called “class left”, the new neo-colonial assault on Africa.
The events taking place in Niger, and before that in Mali and Burkina Faso, the youth and popular protests of the past months in Senegal, are in the wake of the major events just mentioned. The thread that connects them is the rebellion against French colonialism, as arrogant as it is decrepit, and against Western colonialism in general, including Italian colonialism – never forget that first with Draghi and then with Meloni, Italy’s cowardly profiteer of all time is trying to sneaking into the spaces temporarily vacated by the decline of the knife cousins of Paris.
We will certainly not be questioning the democratic or anti-democratic nature of the “coups” that brought military juntas to power in these countries. And with whom, then, should we do it? With the architects of the most infamous and bloody coups in recent history, which, to limit ourselves to central-southern America, involved Venezuela, Paraguay, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Haiti, Honduras? Do we want to talk about Congo 1960, when Lumumba was assassinated? or of Algeria 1990-’92 when the result of the elections won by the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) was overthrown with violence? or Egypt-2013 and how, and with what help and complicity, Sisi came to power? And wasn’t the CIA behind the assassination of Sankara, together with the French secret services?
Let’s just observe that in the history of Africa it is not the first time that at least potentially anti-colonial turning points see the military as protagonists – Nasser, Gaddafi, Sankara to name a few, but be careful not to put these three men on the same level, it would be an insult to Thomas Sankara. In all these cases, unlike the stars and stripes coups, popular support, more or less active, was almost never lacking. In today’s Niger it is certainly active, not only in the capital. And the defenestration of Bazoum took place, after all, in a very… democratic way, if it is true that he even had the opportunity, for days, to talk to his godfathers in Washington and Paris on the phone. So, let’s close the question here.
What gives special international significance to the current events in Niger is that Africa is today at the center of a furious clash of influences between the declining Western powers and China. In its overwhelming ride, China has now become the undisputed record holder for investments in the continent; has taken root in many countries with the network of its companies operating in all fields, from the manufacturing sector to railway and digital infrastructures, from commerce to land grabbing. Russia is obviously also in the game, which is conquering slices of the market and political-diplomatic terrain with its agricultural, nuclear (civil nuclear) and military supplies (it is the leading exporter of arms in Africa for a decade – to Algeria and Egypt the lion’s share), aiming like its competitors, with its multinationals and the willing, and far from disinterested, help of Wagner, on privileged access to the immense mineral resources of the continent: oil, gold, gas, uranium, coltan, silicon, diamonds and everything in between. And there is Italy too, of course, which claims special rights to the exploitation of Africa in the name of its geographical proximity: “Italy is the closest country to Africa, which is not a poor continent but is full of resources, half of the world’s”, said Meloni at the last FAO conference.
Africa, therefore, is more than ever a honeypot for these contenders and for the affluent Arab petro-monarchies. It is so for the incalculable treasures of its subsoil, still largely unexplored, and as a very rich, inexhaustible pool of young hands-minds for the world market. A young and increasingly educated workforce, despite the fatal blows inflicted by the IMF on African schools and universities, which is coveted by European and global capital. After all, this is the goose that lays the golden egg for capital, isn’t it? “Africa – writes the Italian Confindustria newspaper – is not only an open-air reservoir, but is rich in human resources, young people, who are also demographic resources. We need to look not only at the resources of African land, but also at Africans as a resource. It is an immaterial value [?!?] that matters. There are many young people”. And so useful for Italian companies that Meloni, instead of carrying out a naval blockade to prevent a single African in number from arriving in Italy as she had sworn, launched the most extensive decree-flows of the last ten years! “By 2040 – notes the McKinsey Global Institute – in Africa there will be a fifth of the young people of the entire globe and the largest population of working age in the world. Global business executives and global investors cannot afford to ignore the immense potential of this continent. A long-term strategy for Africa must be part of their long-term planning. Today, in fact, the rate of profit from foreign investment in Africa is higher than in any other developing area”. Looking further ahead, ISPI (the Institute for International Political Studies, which operates under the supervision of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) is licking his chops, perhaps prematurely, observing that “by 2050, sub-Saharan Africa will account for approximately 57% of global population growth, and approximately 23% of the world population will be sub-Saharan, from around 15% today and 10% in 1990. By comparison, the European Union’s share of the global population is around 6% today and will fall to an estimated 4% by 2050. In 30 years, around 2.3 billion people will live in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 1.1 billion today. High fertility rates and improved life expectancies are supporting the extraordinary pace of population growth, which will produce a dramatic increase in the demand for public services.” Although it has been stripped and martyred for centuries and still today, Africa remains alive and promising.
What the master language calls the “demographic dividend” (with an unconscious acknowledgment of the Marxian theory of value) is in turn linked to an overall process of capitalist development in Africa, extremely irregular, unstable, unequal, dependent, patchy leopard, and yetreal, especially in the countries with the greatest demographic consistency. And it makes a continent very attractive as an outlet market which, still producing few finished products and having infrastructures that are deficient in every aspect, needs machines to produce, and all types of technologies, railways, roads, ports, airports, communication systems, and in its dynamic of delayed development it dreams of being able to free itself from the position it currently occupies in the international division of labour. At the recent Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, a head of state such as the Ugandan Museveni, not exactly an “anti-imperialist”, taking coffee production as an example, went so far as to affirm: “a problem that has slowed the growth of Africa” is that the added value for finished products is created and forfeited “outside the African territory”. He is not the only African ruler who feels the ground burning under his feet, and who is being pushed to move away from his old British acquaintances to try to use the growing tensions between the camp of Western imperialism and the camp of the ascendant capitalist powers to try to make his country “going up the chain of value production”. Even the Nigerien officials of the National Council for the Protection of the Homeland are trying to move in this direction. The paradox – very amusing for us – is that they are soldiers trained at US cadre schools…
What do the EU and the United States have to offer to this ascendant capitalist movement in Africa, and in particular to the exploited classes of this continent which have emerged for more than a decade from the lethargy produced by the failure of Arab and African nationalisms? This was clearly seen in the response they gave to the Arab Intifada of 2011-2012: the restoration or propping up of regimes thrown into crisis by the uprisings (Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain); devastating wars (Libya, Yemen, Syria); strengthening of the direct military presence under the demagogic cover of the “war on Islamic terrorism” (in Niger there are thousands of US, French and Italian soldiers); multiplication of pressures to grab fertile or fertilizable land on the cheap. Spectacular, in comparison, is the competitive and image advantage of China and other Asian countries that do not foment wars (at least openly), do not meddle in social conflicts (at least openly), and instead stand out for the supply of means of production and infrastructure costing 30-40% less than the European average, not to mention the US ones. An activity that also due to its speed of realization, is perceived as a “development aid” for Africa, where Western states and companies are unable to withstand the new competition either on prices or on the efficiency of carrying out the works entrusted to them (although for 15 years the episodes of struggle and revolt against the Chinese exploiters have been gradually intensifying, even with executions on the work place).
The overall result of all this, especially if one considers the incessant usurious action of the IMF and the World Bank among the liabilities of the West, is the mass sowing of a growing, active anti-Western hatred that demands the expulsion from all corners of Africa of former colonial powers who do not want to let go of their neo-colonial grip. In the wake of this popular sentiment and resentment, the officials who have taken power, or at least the government, in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, taking the place of a still too fragile autochtonous bourgeoisie, intend to affirm the right of their countries to choose their international economic and political interlocutors. But we strongly doubt that they will agree to arm the exploited masses who support them to fight a possible “war of independence” – we well remember the behavior that the intrepid Saddam held in the face of the request that arose from many parts of the Arab world to form an international brigade to fought the western armies: more alarmed than flattered, he did not move a single finger to favor its birth. On the contrary.
Macron’s arrogant France threatens havoc if a hair is harmed to its militia and French interests are affected. But in the meantime, clown of a Macron, they attacked your embassy, hoisted the Russian flag over it, deposed one of your lackeys, and you were unable to do anything. You have thousands of soldiers in Niger: why didn’t you deploy them? Why do you insist that it is Ecowas (the Economic Community of West African States) to attack Niamey with its proxies? This show of verbal arrogance and real impotence is the unmistakable sign of France’s and, in general, the West’s difficulty to maintain their dominance manu militari, and the confirmation of how the great powers prefer proxy wars to open warfare, less expensive and dangerous. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Senate rejects President Tinubu’s warmongering, and discordant or doubtful voices about military intervention by proxy are gaining strength within Ecowas. The strong northern neighbor, Algeria, is decidedly against it. There is evidence of cooperation between the armies of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. It’s looking bad for western gangsters at the moment. Hurray! It would get even worse if, having failed the Ecowas charter, they were to launch their own troops to attack the National Council chaired by Tchiani. They could also momentarily rout his troops, at the price, however, of creating a new Vietnam or a new Afghanistan in the heart of Africa. It is no coincidence that the double agent Meloni government, with Crosetto (the Ministry of Defence), declares himself against the military solution, and with Tajani (the vice-president) makes it known that the Nigerien generals are not hostile to Italy. Better, therefore, intrigues, blackmail, behind-the-scenes corruption, who knows that Italy won’t be able to profit from it. What if these maneuvers fail? In any case, it’s not looking good for Western gangsters. Hurray!
But, unlike other petty people, we certainly don’t get excited by the waving of Russian flags, taken by the demonstrators as a symbol of a state that dares to challenge Western imperialisms, and from which they expect military aid and solidarity. However, Putin, the shrewd and farsighted strategist of the carefully cultivated partnership with the African bourgeoisie, has shown himself to be extremely prudent, in favor, like China, of maintaining the status quo. He was careful not to flirt with Nigerien and African squares in general, leaving, if anything, the task of having relations with the rebel military to the reckless Prigozhin. He knows very well that a general social fire in West Africa and, especially, in the whole of Africa, would hit like a hurricane not only on the regimes enfeoffed to the Western imperialists, but also on those in dialogue with Russia. The prospect of a multipolar capitalism supported by Moscow and Beijing does not include parties for the exploited! The sooner our African class brothers understand this, the sooner they put aside their current illusions, the better it will be for them and for us.
As for us revolutionary internationalists, we can only reiterate what we said a few weeks ago in Venice to our Senegalese class brothers at a common initiative: in this rekindling of the struggle for the liberation of Africa from colonialism, the leading role of the exploited will be decisive, who must take hands their fate. And they can do it only by taking the field in an even more massive way, by mobilizing, by organizing themselves into their own organizations autonomous from the other social classes. Can there be a Senegal, a Niger, a Mali free from colonialism, dependence, poverty, corruption, only within a general resumption of the struggle to liberate the whole of Africa from neo-colonialism and enslaved regimes – from French colonialism as well as from the colonialism of all the European countries which seek, just like Italy, to profit from the crisis of French colonialism, without being enchanted by the flattery of China and Russia both interested in a new division of Africa, certainly not in its liberation.
As for the immediate and prospective struggle claims against our governments, Italy and Europe, here are ours:
1. immediate withdrawal from Niger and Africa of Italian, European, Western state and private troops, advisers and military and police instructors, and of UN;
2. definitively cancel the foreign debt of African countries, contracted by their bourgeois governments, and which is made to pay by poor proletarians and peasants;
3. return the land raided with land grabbing;
4. stop flooding Africa with European subsidized agricultural products that destroy local agriculture;
5. stop appropriating the fish of the African seas;
6. re-discuss ongoing trade on an equal and mutually beneficial basis;
7. start a process of returning the centuries-old stolen goods.
And first of all, to break the silence on the workers’ and popular struggles, on the resistance to neocolonialism underway in Africa, supporting by all means this second half of a democratic, anti-imperialist revolution that has remained incomplete. Looking ahead, the fight against colonialism and capitalism in Africa and in the dominated countries will have to join the fight against capitalism and colonialism in the dominant countries, where the dictatorship of the exploiters is ever more evident and hard to bear: only then will the two threads of the anti-capitalist revolution will come to reunite. Saying it today sounds visionary. But it will cease to be so when the Western proletariat will finally be awakened from the torpor that still grips it today and makes it an accomplice to the brutality of its masters.
August 7th