Africa

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Thu Jun 16, 2022 2:27 pm

A Quarter Century of a Western-Backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese People
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 15, 2022
Maurice Carney

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A Quarter Century of a Western-backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese PeopleUganda president Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda president Paul Kagame (Photo: REUTERS/Noor Khamis)

Rwanda and Uganda have carried out attacks against the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past 25 years. Their aggressions are carried out with the backing of the U.S. and European nations who aid their theft of Congo’s resources.


The recent outbreak of military confrontation on May 22nd between the Congolese military and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group represents the latest episode in Paul Kagame’s 25-year war of aggression and pillage against the Congolese people. The Congolese military in coordination with a United Nations authorized international force made up of South African, Malawian and Tanzanian soldiers defeated the Rwanda-backed M23 in 2013. A lot of the leadership fled back into Rwanda and Uganda where they evidently have been incubated and reconstituted to launch yet another attack on the Congolese people. The stark reality is that there is no M23 without Rwanda. The Congolese military captured two Rwandan soldiers among the M23 rebels in the latest incursions. Tensions have risen between the two nations and is escalating. According to the Congolese military, Rwanda has recently dispatched 500 soldiers in the east of Congo alongside the M23 rebels.

Paul Kagame’s Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni’s Uganda have both invaded the Congo (1996 & 1998), occupied large swaths of the country, and backed and sponsored militia groups such as the M23 in order to sew mayhem and destruction as both nations profit from Congo’s riches. In a 2001 report , the United Nations noted “Presidents Kagame and Museveni are on the verge of becoming the godfathers of the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the continuation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

Both leaders are able to have their way in the Congo in large part due to the backing they receive from the United States, Great Britain and a number of other Western states. They are authoritarian figures who have been in power for decades – over two decades for Kagame and over three decades for Museveni. They have benefited from U.S. tax payer dollars to the tune of billions in donor aid, military equipment, intelligence, training, etc. In addition, they take full advantage of the diplomatic and political cover provided by the United States in particular, in order to skirt international justice for the mass crimes they have committed in the Great Lakes region of Africa. They are part of a collective of African neo-colonial agents that date back to Bill Clinton’s administration of the 1990s. Madeleine Albright then Secretary of State, Susan Rice then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Bill Clinton dubbed this new group of proxies “Renaissance Leaders” or the “New Breed” of African leaders. The Clinton Administration put its stamp of approval on these leaders which provided them cover for the crimes that they have committed against their fellow Africans. Some of these leaders included Meles Zenawi of Ethiopian and Kagame and Museveni of Rwanda and Uganda respectively. The policy was enshrined in the so-called Entebbe principles , which enrolled these leaders in advancing U.S. security, strategic interests and neoliberal economic policies in Africa.

Paul Kagame has apparently risen to be the chief beneficiary of Washington’s protection. The cover and protection that Rwanda has experienced has its origins in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda where the United States shielded Paul Kagame and his military from prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity that they committed during the Rwandan genocide. The crimes that both Kagame and Museveni have committed in the region have resulted in what the United Nations has called the deadliest conflict in the world since WWII and the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st Century. An estimated six million Congolese perished between 1996 – 2007 due to the conflict and conflict related causes. The United Nations stated in its 2010 Mapping Exercise Report that if the acts committed by Kagame’s military in the Congo were to be “proven before a competent court, could be characterized as crimes of genocide.” The Congolese have had minimal success in holding Museveni to account. The International Court of Justice found the Ugandan government culpable for war crimes and plunder in the Congo and order it to pay $325 million in reparations to the Congo. Rwanda would have likely befallen the same fate if not worse but it is not party to the International Court of Justice and hence outside of its jurisdiction .

Because of the impunity, lack of accountability, and lack of justice combined with the tacit endorsement of Western powers of the criminal actions by Paul Kagame, he has been able to sew murder and mayhem not only in the Congo but in different parts of Africa. He has dispatched assassins in several countries (Kenya, South Africa, Belgium, Netherlands, and England to name a few) in order to silence or assassinate dissidents. South Africa responded forcefully in 2014 by expelling three Rwandan diplomats as a result of Kagame sending his henchmen to assassinate former Rwandan colonel and dissident, Patrick Karegeya. Even today, Kagame recently kidnapped a Belgian Citizen and US resident, Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life hero of the movie Hotel Rwanda. Don Cheadle who played Rusesabagina is a part of a campaign to free the hero who courageously saved lives during the Rwandan genocide. Rusesabagina’s family has filed a law suit against the Rwandan government for Kidnapping their patriarch.

In spite of Paul Kagame’s well documented crimes, he and his government have been rewarded with leadership in institutions like the British Commonwealth and the Francophonie. The red carpet is rolled out for him in Ivy League universities in the United States. Sports associations like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and teams like the Arsenal Football Club of London fully embrace him and he is often found at the World Economic Forum in Davos as a feted guest . The cover that the Western governments and institutions have provided to Kagame has enabled him to fight while denying is military’s presence in the East of the Congo and his government’s sponsorship of militia groups like the M23. In a tweet that he later had to walk back, rationalizing the latest incursion by the Rwanda-backed M23 in eastern Congo, former U.S. Ambassador/Special Envoy for the Sahel & Great Lakes Regions of Africa, Dr Peter Pham is yet another example of how Kagame has been given cover.

The DR Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi stated emphatically “The resurgence of this armed movement, which was defeated in 2013 with the confiscation of its military arsenal, can only be due to Rwanda. This is no longer a secret.” Tshisekedi goes further by calling for justice for the victims of the Rwandan government’s crimes in the Congo through the implementation of the UN Mapping Exercise Report and the installation of an international criminal tribunal on the crimes in the Congo. This is a cause that the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr. Denis Mukwege has long championed . However, they are no match for Kagame’s connections in the West, particularly the United States. The recent visit by AFRICOM head, General Stephen Townsend in the midst of Kagame’s latest aggression against the Congo is case in point. As long as Paul Kagame continues to carry out his duties as a key agent of Western interests in Africa , neither he nor his partners in crime will likely face justice. A case in point, the Spanish Courts had an international arrest warrant out for 40 of Rwanda’s top officials under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction (the same principle that ensnared former Chilean agent of U.S. Imperialism, Augusto Pinochet). One of Rwanda’s top official, General Karenzi Karake was apprehended on the Spanish courts warrant for “war crimes against civilians.” In order to resist extradition to Spain Karenzi hired Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie Blair to defend him. Karenzi was later released on a technicality and was able to return to Rwanda.

The Chair of the African Union, Senegalese president Maky Sall said he has spoken to both Paul Kagame and Felix Tshisekedi. He has called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Regional efforts to deescalate the conflict are also being led by Angolan President João Lourenço as head of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

The U.S. government’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has called for dialogue , which is for all intents and purposes reasserting the status quo of the past quarter century whereby Paul Kagame backs militia groups in the Congo while skirting accountability. As the U.S. government calls for dialogue, the Congolese people are demanding justice and an end to the carte-blanche given to Paul Kagame by the U.S. government while he sponsors atrocities in the Congo. It is this deep contradiction that leads many Congolese at the grassroots level to question U.S. attempts to pressure African governments to fall in line and support its stance against Russia in Ukraine. Congolese have been the victims of a U.S.-backed regime that has waged war against them for a quarter century. Yet, the Western media barely makes note of it and when they do the conflict is often cast in tribal, atavistic terms devoid of the geo-political underpinning that keeps the hart of the African continent in perpetual conflict and instability.

U.S., UK and EU citizens can play a key role in demanding that their governments cease the military and financial support they lavish on Paul Kagame. Citizens can help put an end to the diplomatic and political cover their governments have provided the Rwandan strongman for past quarter century of criminal wars of aggression Kagame has waged against the people of the DR Congo.

For its part, the Congolese government may have to consider following the path of former President Laurent Desire Kabila when he came under a withering attack from U.S. backed Rwandan and Uganda forces in 1998. He reached out to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), of which Congo is a member state, for Pan African military support. Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia in particular responded and beat back the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries preventing a regime change in Kinshasa.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... se-people/

“Countering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa” Act a Pretext for More U.S. Intervention in Africa
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 14, 2022
Richard S. Dunn

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Map of selected Russian projects in AfricaMap warns of growing Russian influence in Africa—shades of the Cold War. [Source: vifindia.org]

During the Cold War, the U.S. government invoked the pretext of Russian interference to justify a range of crimes, including the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, the overthrow of Pan-Africanist hero Kwame Nkrumah, the arrest of Nelson Mandela and intervention in the Angolan civil war.

Just when we thought that that era had passed, the House of Representatives on April 27 passed the “Countering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa” Act by a 415-9 vote.

The bill in part would direct the U.S. Secretary of State, using “detailed intelligence,” to identify in Africa “local actors complicit in Russian activities.”

The U.S. in turn may very well seek to punish those actors through economic sanctions or even regime change. “Russian aggression” is generally being invoked to justify greater U.S. intervention in Africa, including the expansion of the Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. military base network across the continent.
Anti-war activists raise alarm over United States' fast-growing military presence across Africa - Tehran Times[Source: tehrantimes.com]

Exceptional Show of Bipartisan Support

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The Nay votes for the “Countering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa” Act all came from Republicans. Supposed progressive stalwarts like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna and members of the “Squad” all voted Yea.

The main sponsor of the bill, Gregory Meeks (D-NY), is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

After passage of the bill, he voiced his pride in the “exceptional show of bipartisan support,” which he said “demonstrated how Putin’s war in Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s corrupt and illicit activities in Africa to fund war and other exploits have worked to unify Congress and the international community.”

Meeks continued: “As we continue to apply pressure on Putin and his agents for carrying out war crimes throughout this unjustifiable war of aggression, we cannot forget that the Russian Federation will continue to seek avenues through which it can pilfer, manipulate, and exploit resources in parts of Africa to evade sanctions and undermine U.S. interests.”

“The United States not only stands with the people of Ukraine, but with all innocent people who have been victimized by Putin’s mercenaries and agents credibly accused of gross violations of human rights in Africa, including in the Central African Republic and Mali. This bill enlists the resources of the State Department and other federal agencies to examine the Russian Federation’s malign activities in Africa and hold those complicit in these activities to account. The United States will not sit by and watch Putin’s war machine attempt to gain strength to the detriment of fragile states in Africa and elsewhere.”

While the Russians have been involved in some shady operations, many African countries have had long-standing positive ties to Russia and benefitted from its support for African liberation movements during the Cold War—in contrast to the U.S.—including in South Africa.

Meeks’s comments mostly offer a form of projection in that they accuse Russia of trying to exploit Africa’s resources when this is clearly something that the U.S. has done far more extensively and for a much longer period than Russia.

AFRICOM founder Vice Admiral Robert Moeller admitted that one of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)’s guiding principles was “protecting the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market.”

The “Countering Malign Russian Influence Activities in Africa” Act will be used to justify flagrant infringements on the sovereignty of African countries. It attempts to use the Russian bogeyman—like in the Cold War era—as a pretext for neocolonial expansion.

The rhetoric surrounding the bill fits with the larger demonization of Vladimir Putin and Russia, which is a desperate ploy by the U.S. ruling elite to try to mobilize the public against a foreign enemy at a time of growing economic crisis and threatening civil discontent.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... in-africa/

'Red' added.

Libya in the Throes of a Serious Political Crisis
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 14, 2022
Viktor Mikhin

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After Mohamed al-Menfi, president of the Libyan Presidential Council, met with UN General Secretary António Guterres, he spoke highly of the work done by the UN’s mission in Libya “to support the people in reaching a peaceful solution to restore security, stability and peace to the country.” However, in reality he was probably just being polite and diplomatic, and the current situation in the country, in spite of the efforts of international forums at the very highest level, is very far from hopeful.

Day by day it is looking less and less likely that the so-called Road Map will lead to the successful parliamentary and presidential elections that the 2.8 million strong electorate have been waiting for for so long. The main political forces in the country have still not reached a consensus on certain key questions related to the electoral process. And the regional and international powers, as well as the UN also disagree about the best way to resolve the Libyan crisis, but that has not prevented them meddling in the most reckless manner in the affairs of the country once united by the concept of Jamahiriya. Perhaps all the parties with an interest in resolving the Libyan problem should reconsider their positions and try to reach an alternative agreement – one which has a chance of succeeding where all previous attempts over the last ten years have failed.

In the current highly complex situation Stephanie T. Williams, Special Adviser on Libya to the United Nations Secretary-General is taking advantage of her position to achieve ends of her own, in doing so fanning the flames of the Libyan crisis. Ignoring all the problems afflicting the country, the fundamental flaws in the UN-brokered process and the stalemate into which the opposing Libyan groups have been forced by the West’s policies, she insists on forcing her – and the West’s – point of view on the Libyans. She is still hoping that her friends back in the US will help her out in Libya, and is using the promise of financial assistance to push through her Road Map which is entirely geared towards promoting US interests. It was she who drew up and promoted this document in a meeting with the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) held in Tunis in November 2020. She is continuing to call for elections and for the restoration of political institutions – but only those that are loyal to the West.

It should be remembered that Stephanie Williams is a skilled diplomatic provocateur – not for nothing did she study at the National War College, from which she graduated in 2008 to then join the Department of State. Even after she joined the UN and started a new career as an international civil servant, she shamelessly continued to promote the interests of the United States. In 2010-2013, she served as deputy head of the US mission in Bahrain, and for part of this time was the senior US diplomat in the country, acting as chargé d’affaires. It was she who, in 2011, instructed Saudi troops to occupy the emirate and suppress the Shia-led Bahrain uprising (despite the fact that Shiites make up 85% of Bahrain’s population). Quite naturally, as UN Special Adviser to Libya, a very senior post, she is trying to impose solutions to Libya’s political, economical and social problems, despite the fact that these solutions take no account of the interests of the Libyans themselves.

Ms Williams’ plan, supported and actively promoted by the main Western powers, is highly dependent on the ability of the existing Libyan institutions, especially the Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives and the High Council of State to reach a consensus on various issues. However, both these bodies then withdrew from their obligations and objected to the entry into effect of the old Road Map, which they considered was not in their interests. She then derailed the Libyan political process by trying to command these two bodies to do her bidding.

In recent months there have been parallel negotiations between representatives of different Libyan groups in Egypt and Switzerland. Despite objections by Stephanie Williams, Cairo hosted the second round of dialogues on the constitution, which included members of the Libyan House of Representatives and the High Council of State. The declared goal of the talks was to agree on a constitutional framework for the elections. And in Montreux, Switzerland, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, an NGO which is working with the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to organize and hold talks, invited a number of Libyan political leaders and officers from the security services and armed forces to discuss the political process and ways to preserve the ceasefire which was concluded in Geneva on October 23, 2020.

However, the main problem is that the House of Representatives is still intent on observing the new Road Map. Adopted in February 2022, this document calls for the adoption of constitutional amendments and their approval by referendum before the general elections are held. The High Council of State, in turn, is against the proposed amendments. To further complicate matters, the Constitution Drafting Assembly, a national electoral body, has opposed the creation of a new drafting assembly as proposed by the Road Map approved in February 2022. Finally, Libya’s Supreme Court ruled that the Libyan people “have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to accept the current draft.” This means that any amendments to the current draft constitution may end up complicating things further rather than solving the problems.

The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue hosted talks on the political process in Libya, which took place on May 12, and were attended by representatives of the main militant groups in both Eastern and Western Libya, together with a large number of political figures. According to reports in the Libyan press, the participants agreed to work on preserving civil order in Libya and preventing a relapse into war. They also agreed to hold a further round of talks in Morocco.

Meanwhile, a number of Libyan journalists have claimed that the speakers of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State have reached agreement on the formation of a new cabinet – although no such agreement has been published yet. It appears that the agreement is an attempt to resolve the stand-off concerning the government formed by the new Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha, appointed and backed by the House of Representatives.

The actions of this new Prime Minister, who travelled to the capital in secret early in the morning of May 17, accompanied by his Health and Foreign Ministers, serve to underline the political chaos in Libya and the helplessness of the newly founded supreme bodies. Fathi Bashagha’s appearance provoked clashes between his supporters and those loyal to his rival, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads the Government of National Accord, and who categorically refused to step down. Fathi Bashagha was therefore forced to leave the capital just a few hours after his arrival. The unexpected outbreak of violence in the capital, in which one person was killed and five wounded, caused a great deal of concern among the diplomatic community. There were urgent calls from politicians across the spectrum for the parties to stay calm, prevent any outbreaks of violence, and participate in the political process.

Quite naturally, both Fathi Bashagha and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah blamed each other for the violence, and each reiterated their claim to power. As readers will remember, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah was appointed as interim Prime Minister by the United Nations in a deal approved at the end of 2020. He was supposed to remain in office until the holding of elections on December 24, 2021, but these did not take place. Fathi Bashagha, in turn, has insisted that his government will continue to operate from Sirte until circumstances permit it to relocate to Tripoli without provoking more bloodshed. His journey to Tripoli came as a complete surprise, as he had previously announced that he would remain in Sirte in view of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s refusal to step down in favor of anyone except for a duly elected successor. It is unclear whether Fathi Bashagha was pressurized into making the trip by his supporters – who clearly wanted to see his government recognized in the capital – but in any event in view of the situation there that option is definitely off the cards for the time being.

In they eyes of many experts his ill-fated attempt to prove to his supporters and allies – both in Libya and abroad – that he can shift the balance of power in the capital has merely served to shorten his term of office. A number of factors are making things difficult for Fathi Bashagha: the determination of the UN and Western powers not to let Libya, with its considerable oil reserves, escape from their zone of influence, the unwillingness of his allies to move to Sirte, the difficulty of governing from Benghazi, and the need to reduce political tensions in the country. Together, these difficulties may have the effect of pushing him to leave the political stage. And then Libya will be left with a single Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who was appointed by the UN and is actively supported by Stephanie Williams.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... al-crisis/

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Why does the United States have a military base in Ghana?
An interview with Kwesi Pratt Jr., a journalist and leader of the Socialist Movement of Ghana

June 15, 2022 by Vijay Prashad

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US soldiers train for “jungle warfare” in Ghana

In April 2018, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said that Ghana has “not offered a military base, and will not offer a military base to the United States of America.” His comments came after Ghana’s parliament had ratified a new defense cooperation agreement with the United States on March 28, 2018, which was finally signed in May 2018. During a televised discussion, soon after the agreement was formalized in March 2018, Ghana’s Minister of Defense Dominic Nitiwul told Kwesi Pratt Jr., a journalist and leader of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, that Ghana had not entered into a military agreement with the United States. Pratt, however, said that the military agreement was a “source of worry” and was “a surrender of our [Ghanaian] sovereignty.”

In 2021, the research institute of Pratt’s Socialist Movement produced—along with the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research—a dossier on the French and US military presence in Africa. That dossier—“Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Unity”—noted that the United States has now established the West Africa Logistics Network (WALN) at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, the capital of Ghana. In 2019, then-US Brigadier General Leonard Kosinski said that a weekly US flight from Germany to Accra was “basically a bus route.” The WALN is a cooperative security location, which is another name for a US military base.

Now, four years later after the signing of the defense cooperation agreement, I spoke with Kwesi Pratt and asked him about the state of this deal and the consequences of the presence of the US base on Ghanaian soil. The WALN, Pratt told me, has now taken over one of the three terminals at the airport in Accra, and at this terminal, “hundreds of US soldiers have been seen arriving and leaving. It is suspected that they may be involved in some operational activities in other West African countries and generally across the Sahel.”

US soldiers don’t need passports

A glance at the US–Ghana defense agreement raises many questions. Article 12 of the agreement states that the US military can use the Accra airport without any regulations or checks, with US military aircraft being “free from boarding and inspection” and the Ghanaian government providing “unimpeded access to and use of [a]greed facilities and areas to United States forces.” Pratt told me that this agreement allows US soldiers “far more privileges than those prescribed in the Vienna Convention for diplomats. They do not need passports to enter Ghana. All they need is their US Army identity cards. They don’t even require visas to enter Ghana. They are not subject to customs or any other inspection.”

Ghana has allowed the United States armed forces “to use Ghanaian radio frequencies for free,” Pratt said. But the most stunning fact about this arrangement is that, he said, “If US soldiers kill Ghanaians and destroy their properties, the US soldiers cannot be tried in Ghana. Ghanaians cannot sue US soldiers or the US government for compensation if and when their relatives are killed, or their properties are destroyed by the US Army or soldiers.”

Why would Ghana allow this?

The US–Ghana agreement permits this disregard for Ghana’s sovereignty. Pratt told me that the political ideology of the Ghanaian government that is in power now has been to adhere to a long history of appeasement toward the demands made by colonial and Western states, beginning with Britain—which was the colonial power that ruled over the Gold Coast (the former name for Ghana) until 1957—and leading up to providing “unimpeded access” to the United States troops under the defense deal.

The current president of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, comes from the political ideology that the former prime minister of Ghana (1969-1972) Kofi Abrefa Busia also conformed to. In the early 1950s, Pratt told me, those following this ideology “dispatched a delegation to the United Kingdom to persuade the authorities that it was too early to grant independence to the Gold Coast.” This led to a coup in Ghana, where those supporting this ideology “collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow the [then-President of Ghana] Kwame Nkrumah government on February 24, 1966, and resisted [imposing] sanctions against the South African apartheid regime in 1969,” Pratt said. The current government, Pratt added, will do anything to please the United States government and its allies.

Why is the United States interested in Ghana?

The United States claims that its military presence on the African continent has to do with its counterterrorism campaign and aims to prevent the entry of China into this region. “There is no Chinese military presence in Ghana,” Pratt told me, and indeed the idea of Chinese presence is being used by the United States to deepen its military control over the continent for more prosaic reasons.

In 2001, then-US Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy Development Group published the National Energy Policy. The contents of this report show, Pratt told me, that the United States understood that it could “no longer rely on the Middle East for its energy supplies. A shift to West Africa for [meeting the] US energy needs is imperative.” Apart from West Africa’s energy resources, Ghana “has huge national resources. It is currently the largest producer of gold in Africa and… [is among the top 10 producers] of gold in the world. It is the second-largest producer of cocoa in the world. It has iron, diamond, manganese, bauxite, oil and gas, lithium, and abundant water resources, including the largest man-made lake in the world.” Apart from these resources, Ghana’s location on the equator makes it valuable for agricultural development, and its large bank of highly educated English-speaking professionals makes it valuable for meeting the demands of the West’s service sector.

Apart from these economic issues, Pratt said, the United States government has intervened in Ghana—including in the coup of 1966—to prevent it from having a leadership role in the decolonization process in Africa. More recently, the United States has found Ghana to be a reliable ally in its various military and commercial projects across the continent. It is toward those projects, and not the national interest of the Ghanaian people, Pratt said, that the United States has now built its base in a part of Accra’s civilian airport.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/15/ ... -in-ghana/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri Jun 24, 2022 2:43 pm

Mass actions against President Kais Saied’s rule intensify in Tunisia

Tunisia witnessed numerous protests on Sunday, June 19. The country’s largest trade union UGTT observed a national strike last week, while judges have decided to extend their strike for a third consecutive week

June 20, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch


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(Photo: TAP)
Thousands of people took to the streets in different parts of Tunisia on Sunday, June 19, protesting the July 25 referendum proposed by President Kais Saied. Protesters carrying the national flag raised slogans against President Saied’s “coup” against the constitution and called for a boycott of the proposed national referendum.

The main protests were organized by the Ennahda party-led National Salvation Front (NSF) in capital Tunis and the Workers’ Party-led National Campaign in Nabeul city. The NSF led by the opposition Ennahda marched across Tunis city till the Habib Bourguiba avenue, TAP reported.


The protest at Nabeul was addressed by Hamma Hammami, President of the Workers’ Party, and Ghazi Chaouachi, Secretary General of Democratic Current. A number of members of Ettakatol, the Republican Party, and the Alqotb party also participated in the protest.

During his address, Hammami asked the people to boycott the referendum, saying that its results are immaterial as only Saied‘s supporters will participate and that the entire process of framing a new constitution for the county is fabricated.

The campaign also claimed that it will organize further protests in the future in coordination with the Civil Front, led by the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), and other national organizations.

UGTT, Tunisia’s largest trade union, held a national strike on June 16, demanding a hike in wages and against the government’s plans for privatization and spending cuts. It had earlier also boycotted the national dialogue held by Saied’s government to prepare a new constitution.

Meanwhile, Tunisian judges have decided to extend their ongoing strike for yet another week. Judges have been on strike since June 4 following the sacking of 57 of their colleagues by President Saied on June 1 after he accused them of corruption and sheltering “terrorists”.


Judges’ unions in Tunisia have accused President Saied of interfering in the judiciary in his attempts to control and misuse it for his own political purposes after he dissolved the country’s Supreme Judicial Council in February and took over powers to appoint and dismiss judges.

Saied has been accused by various political groups and human rights organizations of plotting a coup after he dismissed the Prime Minister in July last year, accusing the country’s politicians of corruption and inefficiency. He has since dissolved the parliament and sidelined various other institutions including the anti-corruption body and the election authority. He has also initiated a national dialogue to frame a new constitution, suspending the 2014 constitution which was the result of the popular uprising against the long term authoritarian rule of Zine Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/20/ ... n-tunisia/

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Eritrean Martyrs' Day
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 22 Jun 2022

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Eritrea emerged as an independent nation after decades of struggle. It celebrates Martyrs' Day in honor of those who paid the ultimate price.

On June 20th, Eritrea celebrates Martyrs' Day, in honor of those who fell in the 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia, from 1961-1991, and those who have fallen in the ensuing off-and-on war with Ethiopia’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

A former Italian colony, Eritrea aspired to independence after the Italians suffered defeat in World War II, but it was instead drawn into the Cold War politics that dominated the Horn of Africa—and most of the world—once it was over. To reward Ethiopia for its service during the war, the United States pressured the United Nations to give Eritrea to Emperor Haile Selassie to administer and then to annex in 1962. In 1961, a group of students, professionals, and college professors founded the Eritrean Liberation Front and began the longest war for independence in Africa, in which ten percent of Eritrea’s population are thought to have died.

The United States supported Ethiopia from the end of World War II until 1974, when Emperor Selassie fell to the socialist revolution led by Mengistu Haile Mariam. In 1991, Mengistu’s government in turn fell to the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which was led and dominated by the TPLF. Shortly thereafter, the EPLF renamed itself the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), and declared its independence from Ethiopia, which was formalized by a referendum in 1993.

The TPLF, through EPRDF, then deployed and exacerbated ethnic division to rule Ethiopia autocratically, behind a thin coalition veneer, from 1991 until 2018, when they were ousted by widespread protest that brought Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to power on April 2 that year. The new prime minister quickly arranged a peace summit with Eritrea, just three months later, on July 8-9, 2018, and it became clear that Ethiopia’s war with Eritrea had in fact been a war between Eritrea and the TPLF, whose expansionist ambitions included seizing a large swathe of Eritrea, including its Red Sea ports, and parts of Ethiopia’s Amhara and Afar Regions, to create a “Greater Tigray .”

On November 3, 2020, TPLF troops within the Ethiopian army attacked the army’s command base and began a battle to reclaim power in Addis Ababa or, short of that, to secede and fulfill its territorial “Greater Tigray” ambitions by annexing the northwest corner of Ethiopia, including a piece of its Sudan border, and most of Eritrea’s Red Sea coast.

However, though it’s holding on in Tigray Region, the TPLF has made no territorial gains. It has in fact lost Ethiopia’s northwest corner, including the traditionally Amhara districts of Welkait, Tsegede, Humera, and Tselemst i, which it annexed after 1991.

It has gained no territorial ground in Eritrea and it’s all but impossible to imagine that it will, given that Eritreans sustained a 30-year war of independence, and have already fought off another two decades of TPLF aggression.

Eritrea’s long struggle is told in “Eritrean Journey ,” a gorgeous text and photo history by Robert Papstein, with a preface by anthropologist Asmarom Legesse. I recommend it to anyone interested in Eritrea and the Horn of Africa, or in black-and-white photography.

On its cover is a photograph of an AK-47 hung on a tree branch by an independence fighter joining civilians, young and old, to learn to read and write. The journey documented in the book is not only that of a war but also that of development, beginning with the basics: literacy, education, health, multiculturalism, and empowering women.

In the introduction, Papstein writes, “I first went to photograph the so-called ‘Ethiopian famine,’ which in Eritrea, was largely man-made by the Ethiopian government in order to starve the Eritreans into accepting Ethiopian domination.”

Later in the same introduction, he writes, “Ironically, in the midst of war and famine, Eritrea was actually a positive story showing how people’s lives could be substantially improved with extremely limited resources, when concepts of social justice and self reliance motivated action. The Eritreans refused to consider themselves victims, so common in other former colonies at the time, choosing self–confidence instead.”

That’s a good summary of my own experience of Eritrea, during the week I had the good fortune to spend there in April. The development strategy I saw and discussed in “Notes from Eritrea” and “Notes from Eritrea Part II” are quintessentially expressed in the Agriculture Ministry’s commitment that, “Not one drop of water shall fail to irrigate the soil, and not one drop shall erode the soil.” One of the loveliest things about Eritrea’s capital, Asmara—whose central city is so lovely that it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site—is all the gardens and urban farms.
Eritrea is very arid, and was, for many years, largely populated by pastoralists. The finance minister told me that people had asked him incredulously, “You are going to farm this land?” He said yes, they were, and indeed they are, one irrigation dam at a time.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/eritrean-martyrs-day

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The West Unsuccessfully Tries to Play the Algerian Card
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 18, 2022
Vladimir Odintsov

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It is now clear to all that the gas war the US and Europe unleashed against Russia, has been lost by the “collective West”. Moscow managed to push “gas for rubles”, forcing the EU to “reverse gear” by agreeing to Russia’s terms. European companies can now pay for Russian gas in rubles, which would not be considered a violation of sanctions, according to a European Commission document sent to EU member states.

The fact that the EU embargo on Russian gas is no longer under discussion was confirmed not only by French President Macron, notably in a series of interviews with French and Italian media. German Chancellor Scholz also acknowledged that a gas embargo against Russia was unacceptable because it would not end the Russian special operation in Ukraine, but would have “significant consequences” for Germany and Europe in general.

Even Borrel, who swapped his diplomatic suit for a military uniform in his belligerent threats against Russia and wished for the military defeat of Moscow in Ukraine, was forced to admit failure in the gas war. This confirmed that there is no unanimity amongst the current outspoken Russophobes in the EU political elite on the issue of abandoning Russian energy resources.

Meanwhile, as a result of the blatantly failed policies of the European Union, which wished to please its suzerain, the US, European politicians did punish EU citizens and condemned them to considerable financial expenditure due to the consequent rise in energy prices and the recent fall in energy receipts from Russia. For example, as a result of Western sanctions policy, gas transported from Russia via Nord Stream is running at the limit of infrastructure capacity, gas exports through the Ukrainian gas transport system have halved (from over 100 million cubic meters per day to just over 40 million cubic meters), gas transport through the Yamal-Europe pipeline is extremely low with exports being five times (sic!) below the average for the last 5 years. At the same time, volume for Turkish Stream dropped by 25%. As a result, physical gas exports for Europe have already fallen by 30% as compared with 2021 and a dramatic transformation of the global energy system has accelerated.

The energy crisis provoked by the West as a result of its anti-Russian sanctions policy could be the worst in half a century. Many analysts have already drawn parallels with the oil crises of the 1970s, when the six OPEC member countries of the Persian Gulf cut production and imposed an oil embargo on the United States and other countries that had supported Israel during the 1973 Doomsday War.

In addition, the gas situation could become more acute in Europe as early as the summer, when it may need more Russian gas. And this is because according to European scientists, hot and dry summers are expected in Europe, Asia and the USA. As a result of such expectations, not only European but also Asian consumers will start to replenish their stocks for next winter. Therefore, for EU countries, there may no longer be as much free LNG as they were getting in the spring.

Under these circumstances, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi made an emergency trip to Israel on June 13 in an ongoing effort to find “alternatives” to gas supplies from Russia. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), both European politicians are counting on Israel, which in recent years has transformed itself from a buyer of natural gas into an exporter of the strategic energy source following the discovery of large offshore fields. Since there is no pipeline linking Israel’s offshore fields with Europe, one option would be to transport the natural gas to Egypt, where it could be liquefied for further export by sea to the European continent. Another option could be the construction of a pipeline to Turkey, and in this respect Europe’s hopes are linked to the gradual improvement of Israel’s relations with Ankara after more than a decade of diplomatic breakdown, and Turkey’s desire for joint energy projects with Tel Aviv. Another option could be the Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline (EastMed) between Israel, Cyprus and Greece, but due to the recent deterioration in relations between Ankara and Athens the viability of this project is still questionable. There are also other problems regarding Europe’s possible use of Israeli gas, notably the long-standing dispute between Israel and Lebanon over the sea border and the very difficult relations between the two countries of late.

Against this backdrop, Europe has once again set its sights on Algeria. However, the shortsighted nature of EU sanctions policy and Brussels’ position on the Algerian-Spanish conflict make it hard to hope that the EU will quickly play the Algerian card in the gas war with Russia.

It should be recalled that relations between Algeria and Spain have deteriorated sharply in recent months because of the conflict over Western Sahara, and Algeria severed diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Morocco on August 24, 2021 for the same reason. In June 2022, Algeria terminated all trade relations with Spain, and before that suspended its friendship treaty with Madrid. In April, Algeria threatened to terminate Madrid’s gas supply contract if it defaulted on its obligations and started reversing the fuel to the North African kingdom. Moreover, as an apparent admonition of Madrid, Algeria has concluded a 9 bcm contract with Italy, diverting virtually all of the gas, which Algeria had deemed “freed up” from supplying to Spain because the Maghreb-Europe pipeline was shut down last autumn, to supply Rome. But this change of recipients of Algerian gas has already provoked a new split in the EU amid a gas war not only with Russia, but also over the receipt of gas, which once again demonstrated the lack of unity within the European alliance. Therefore, not only does further confrontation threaten the Old World with a worsening energy crisis and rising energy prices, including those of Russian deliveries, but also with the ultimate failure of European sanctions policy if Algerian gas supplies to Spain are cut off. As for Spain, its current crisis with Algeria threatens more than $3 billion worth of Spanish exports, El Pais reported. And this will be very painful for the Spanish economy and the social situation there.

Paris has also recently attempted to play the Algerian card and achieve a rapprochement with that country. French Ambassador to Algeria François Gouyette said the other day that “French President Emmanuel Macron is keen to remove any obstacles to rapprochement between the two countries,” the Al-Yaoum Al-Sabiou news agency reported on June 13. However, the actions of Paris, and Macron in particular, are viewed with great caution in Algeria, especially after the French President’s statements in early October 2021, when he was highly critical of Algeria’s history and political system, describing the North African state as governed by a “political and military system”. It was in response to these words that Algeria then recalled its ambassador from Paris “for consultations” and forbade French military aircraft to cross its airspace.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... rian-card/

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Thousands of workers on strike at South Africa’s Impala Platinum mines

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) went on strike at the Impala Platinum mines in Rustenburg this week. Among the key demands raised by the workers is an end to exploitation by labor contractors

June 24, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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Over 4,000 contract workers launched an indefinite strike on Monday, June 20, at the Impala Platinum mines in Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West province. The action was organized by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Strike notices were issued to three companies contracted to provide services to Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) – Reagetswe Mining Group, Triple M Mining, and Newrak Mining.


One of the key issues raised by the striking workers is their exploitation by labor brokers (otherwise known as contractors), including a severe pay disparity. According to NUMSA, a rock drill operator (RDO) employed on a permanent basis by Implats can earn R17,000 (USD 1,062). However, an RDO employed by contractors is paid only R5,000 (approximately USD 312). According to NUMSA, these contract companies have grossly exploited workers while Implats has “shamefully washed its hands of the situation.”

As part of the ongoing strike, NUMSA has called for a ban on labor brokers.


The union stated in a press release that the strike at Reagetswe and Triple M was prompted by the management’s refusal to recognize NUMSA as a bargaining agent. Both companies have refused to engage in the bargaining process, including on the wage demands submitted by NUMSA. Reagetswe and Triple M have also refused to adhere to an order issued by the Labour Court directing them to carry out a verification to confirm NUMSA as the majority union.

NUMSA has argued that it meets the necessary threshold and has been chosen by the workers to represent them. “Management must stop interfering in the constitutional right of workers to choose which union will represent them. Once we have secured organizational rights, our members want to conclude a collective agreement based on other additional demands including wage increases, benefits, and other demands,” NUMSA said in a statement.

Soon after the strike began, Reagetswe Mining approached the Labor Court in Johannesburg in an attempt to block the action. The Court issued a temporary interdict on June 21 pending a final order on the status of the strike.


Reagetswe argued that a closed shop agreement it had signed with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) in 2014 was binding even on non-parties, including NUMSA members. NUMSA claims that Reagetswe signed another agreement with the AMCU in October 2021 “after they realized that NUMSA was demanding to negotiate salaries for its members.”

The company is now claiming that this second agreement is also binding and, as such, NUMSA members are prevented from embarking on a strike precisely because of the existence of these agreements.

NUMSA argued in court that the closed shop agreement had expired. Moreover, as per the Labor Relations Act (LRA), ballots are supposed to be held every three years to determine if workers are opposed to the closed shop agreement. NUMSA stated that no such ballot had been conducted in recent years.

It further argued that the Reagetswe management is aware that NUMSA represents 1,200 out of the 1,400 workers it employs. Despite this, the management has continued to sign agreements with the AMCU even though it is no longer the majority union. NUMSA accused the company of refusing to conduct a verification which will confirm its majority.

Given that the Court sided with Reagetswe, the strike has been temporarily interdicted. However, NUMSA stated that it hopes to return to court to prevent this order from being made permanent. Meanwhile, the strike is still active at Triple M and Newrak.

Based out of Johannesburg, Implats is the second largest producer of platinum in the world. Workers at its contracted mines have long been demanding decent wages and benefits. These include a housing allowance and medical aid. In June 2021, NUMSA organized 7,000 workers across five companies at Implats – including Reagetswe, Triple M, and Newrak. The effort was led by NUMSA organizer Malibongwe Mdazo. On August 19, he was killed in a brazen public assassination outside the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration. NUMSA had stated that Mdazo’s murder was the result of him recruiting workers at Implats, and that “his work was the reason his life was taken.”

At the time, NUMSA had approached the labor dispute resolution body over the five companies’ refusal to recognize the union’s claims of having majority membership. On the day that Mdazo was killed, the Commission was in the process of verifying NUMSA’s membership forms to determine if it had enough members to be recognized by Newrak.

While NUMSA is now a recognized union at Newrak, the company’s management has refused to grant access to the workplace. It has also been barred from representing members or holding meetings at the site. NUMSA claims that Implats does not want the union at the workplace. “We condemn Implats for interfering in the right of workers to be represented by the union of their choice,” NUMSA stated.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/24/ ... num-mines/

IMF loans continue to undermine health in Africa
The International Monetary Fund has a long history of insisting on loan conditionalities which are harmful to public services. This practice did not change even during the pandemic, with African countries being some of the worst affected

June 23, 2022 by Dian Maria Blandina

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(Photo: Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño)

Many have argued that decades of harsh International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment programs is one of the major causes of weak health systems in Africa. This was cited to be the fundamental cause for failures in disease surveillance and control that led to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-16. What’s worse is that even the COVID-19 pandemic did not lead to a change of policy inside this institution.

When COVID-19 struck at the beginning of 2020, most of the African countries were tied up in IMF loan repayments. As of January 2020, 26 out of 54 African countries were undergoing IMF loan programs that demanded austerity, leaving countries with no untied money to spend freely for emergency preparation, one of the key prerequisites for a robust COVID-19 response.

By October 2020, the IMF had given out COVID-19 loans to 81 countries, 41 of which were in Africa. At that time, many pointed out that the loans were not enough to compensate for the immediate costs of handling COVID-19, let alone for making up for the losses in the long-term. The emergency loans did little to nothing when it came to secure payment suspension for existing debts, including those from the IMF. Reports pointed out that some of the emergency funding was actually used to pay off debts instead of being used for COVID-19 response.

While the IMF is not the only creditor for African countries, it sits at the top of the pyramid of international financial institutions. Failing to meet the IMF repayment schedule would result in further direct and indirect repercussions from other creditors. At the same time, IMF loans are structured in a way that undermines the government’s ability to provide public services. The conditions and debt repayment schedule are often extremely strict. Thus, funds which are needed for, for example, health and education, are heavily cut and large portions of the collected tax are earmarked for debt payment.

According to the IMF, of the 41 African countries that requested COVID-19 loans, 17 are already either in debt distress or run a high risk of it. Other countries fall in the category of “sustainable” risk assessment, and so according to the IMF, they should have no problem paying off the loan. However, Eurodad data indicates that even these countries would have a difficult time meeting loan obligations if they didn’t make significant changes to their accounts. The unsustainability is also implied by the IMF’s demand for across-the-board fiscal consolidation/austerity measures to be implemented at the earliest possible date. A United Nations report from 2020 said that developing countries of all income categories were already heading towards a debt crisis prior to COVID-19.

Toxic conditionalities

As a rule, IMF loans come with conditionalities, meaning that governments are required to adopt certain policies if they want to receive money. Typically, the policy package involves policies of austerity, i.e. mix of cuts in governments budgets and subsidies, privatization, i.e. selling off state assets or involving private sector fully or partially in developing infrastructures, liberalization, i.e. opening the country up to foreign investors in trade and financial sectors, deregulation, i.e. abolishing or diminishing laws that protect civil and workers’ rights to create a more enticing business environment for international investors, and sometimes currency devaluation, i.e. lowering currency value to facilitate exports.

This set of policies in practice leads to reduced numbers of health personnel, reduced or frozen salaries of health workers, and higher health services fees. All these changes weaken the reach of the health system, particularly in areas which investors deem non-lucrative and wasteful, such as community primary care and rural health programs. This adversely impacts monitoring and controlling disease outbreaks.

While the IMF boasted that the majority of their COVID-19 loans contain no conditionality, an Oxfam study found that a majority of them actually suggested or demanded cuts in government spending and salaries to serve debt repayment. In Africa alone, 19 countries, including Seychelles, Cabo Verde, and South Africa (Africa’s mature or better-off economies according to the World Bank), are to start austerity measures “once the pandemic subsides” or by 2023. An additional 14 countries, including Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Guinea Bissau, were to start austerity measures as early as 2021. Incidentally, these 14 countries are considered to be among those with the weakest public health systems in Africa, and some are rife with internal conflicts.

When the loans were signed, it was obvious that these countries would not recover from the pandemic and economic crises soon enough to guarantee loan repayments. So it should not come as a surprise that by early 2022, 13 African countries were enrolled in another round of IMF programs, this time through the traditional loan mechanisms with stringent conditionalities.

Other African countries have applied for an extension and augmentation of their pre-COVID-19 IMF loans. Others are in negotiations with the IMF for new loans. It is worth noting that in most developing countries, signing a loan with the IMF is a precondition to start processes to restructure a nation’s sovereign debt. To put it simply, when countries want to negotiate with creditors other than the IMF, mostly from developed countries, the creditors demand that countries sign off loans with the IMF first. And so the vicious cycle continues. Paying off debt by taking on more debts, with long-lasting austerity for the years to come.

Bleak future for health?

Many countries, especially in Africa, are still struggling to control the pandemic and other resurgent diseases due to unequal access to vaccines and medicines. The depth of economic consequences is still difficult to predict. Coupled with austerity and privatization, this could bring further weakening of health systems in the foreseeable future.

IMF programs have been known to trigger conflicts or social unrest as governments enact cuts in jobs and basic subsidies, most often food and fuel. The phenomenon is so well known that there is a term coined for it – IMF riot! News from different regions, including West Asia and Latin America, indicate that the world is facing a widespread debt crisis. The protests often turn violent which are then dealt with harshly by the authorities, like the ongoing protests in Sudan. We are already witnessing a new wave of IMF riots, including the one in Guinea where security forces killed a protester during demonstrations against skyrocketing expenses including a 20% hike in the price of gasoline.

Verisk Maplecroft, a data analysis consultancy firm, recently reported on the 10 countries in extreme risk of social unrest. Among them are Kenya and Senegal, which have already enrolled in another round of IMF programs after receiving a COVID-19 loan. Tunisia’s negotiations have been marked by the IMF’s pressure to implement deep cuts even before the deals are signed. In the case of Egypt as well, the IMF is demanding application of austerity measures before authorizing an agreement. While the situation truly seems desperate, there is still room for governments to take corrective action both globally and nationally. People can still push governments in the direction of canceling unsustainable debts and putting investments back into public institutions which are accountable to the citizens. There should be a demand to create real progressive taxation and social measures. These are only a few on the list of possible solutions.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/23/ ... in-africa/

Belgium returns remains of assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba but what about justice?
Belgium has returned a gold crowned tooth of Patrice Lumumba to his family. However, activists point out that there has been no accountability or justice for his brutal assassination following a western-backed coup in 1961

June 22, 2022 by Tanupriya Singh

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(Photo: Nationaal Archief)

Over six decades after his assassination, Belgium has repatriated the mortal remains of Congolese independence leader and Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo presented Lumumba’s gold-crowned tooth to his family at a ceremony held at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Monday, June 20. The remains were placed in a casket and taken to the embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The casket will be flown to the DRC where a three-day national mourning period will be observed between June 27 and 30, marking the 62nd anniversary of independence from Belgium. This is an important process for Lumumba’s family, who have struggled for years to have his remains rightfully repatriated. His son, Roland, stated last week that this would mean that his family would be able to “finish their mourning”.

At the same time, Congolese activists have fiercely condemned the fact that no one has been held accountable for the assassination till date.

At the ceremony in Brussels on Monday, Prime Minister De Croo stated that Belgium bore “moral responsibility” for the killing. Earlier this month, King Philippe, a descendant of Leopold II, similarly expressed “deepest regrets for the wounds of the past.” Belgium has continued to evade its legal responsibility for its colonization and crimes against the Congolese people. It has not issued a formal apology or made any attempt to provide reparations.

Speaking to Peoples Dispatch, Congolese activist and researcher Kambale Musavuli stated, “What June 20, 2022 means for many Congolese is that this is the day that Lumumba’s executioner was exposed to the world. Lumumba’s tooth was displayed and put in an empty coffin, then a circus ensued with a procession of “honor” and speeches. On that day, Belgium took no responsibility for the killing of Patrice Lumumba. No action was taken to launch a criminal investigation into how the tooth was removed from his body and how it ended up in Belgium. No call for justice!”

He continued further, “This seems to be an attempt not only to erase the past, but to bury the one evidence we have of the brutal murder of Lumumba.”

“A Pan-African affair”: Congolese independence in the African anti-colonial struggle

Patrice Lumumba was a Pan-Africanist revolutionary and independence leader who became the first democratically-elected Prime Minister of the present-day DRC in 1960. He was a beloved icon across Africa for his role in the fight for liberation against colonialism. In what would become the last letter he wrote to his wife, Lumumba famously stated, “The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington, or the United Nations…Africa will write its own history and in both North and South it will be a history of glory and dignity.”

A leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC), Lumumba was chosen by the people to lead an independent Congo emerging from brutal colonial rule which began under Belgium’s King Leopold II in the late 19th century and killed an estimated over 10 million people between 1885 and 1908.

Lumumba had been steadfastly committed to Pan-Africanism, attending the All-African People’s Conference in newly-liberated Ghana in 1958, whose chief demands included “the immediate and unconditional accession to independence of all African peoples, and the total evacuation of the foreign forces of aggression and oppression stationed in Africa”.

As Musavuli highlighted in a previous interview, there was a sense of immediacy among the peoples gathered in Ghana to mobilize for independence immediately, to regain control of their land and resources.

This urgency accompanied Lumumba as he returned to the DRC. His election to office two years later, Musavuli stressed, took place with the support of people across the African continent, including from Chad, Cameroon, Ghana, and the Central African Republic.

“The independence of the Congo was not a Congolese affair, it was a Pan-African affair”, he stressed.

Indeed, speaking at his inaugural address in June 1960, Lumumba proclaimed, “The Congo’s independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.”

Lumumba was also determined to use the country’s natural resources, which had been subject to decades of colonial and imperialist exploitation, for the benefit of the Congolese people. The question of control over Congo’s economy and resources was a concern for the US and Belgium. So, Musavuli argued, even though these powers seemed quick to hand over political independence, they refused to give the Congolese people control over their mineral resources.

This was particularly true of the US, who at the time was exploiting Congo’s cobalt and uranium during the Cold War. Weeks after Lumumba’s speech, then US President Dwight Eisenhower stated during a meeting of the National Security Council that the Congolese leader should be “eliminated.”

Lumumba’s assassination and his enduring legacy

Sure enough, just months after assuming office, Lumumba was overthrown in a coup, arrested, tortured and then brutally killed on January 17, 1961 by counter-revolutionary forces backed by Belgium and the US. He was 35 years old at the time. In 2013, a letter addressed by Lord Lea to the London Review of Books also alleged the complicity of UK’s intelligence agency MI6 in the assassination.

The Western powers proceeded to establish a dictatorship in Congo led by Mobuto Sese Seko, who remained in power for the next 30 years. His rule was marked by brutal repression of the opposition and the plunder of the DRC’s natural resources by transnational corporations.

Lumumba was killed alongside his comrades Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo by a firing squad. However, the violence did not end there. Two days later, a group led by Belgian police commissioner Gerard Soete exhumed Lumumba’s body from a shallow grave, dismembered it, and then dissolved the body in acid. This was done to prevent any memorialization of his life and martyrdom, or as Belgian researcher Ludo De Witte stated in his book, “Not only had Lumumba been physically eliminated, his life and work were not to become a source of inspiration for the peoples of Africa either”

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Lumumba captured by Mobuto’s soldiers (Photo: africaimprescindible.org)

In a horrifying admission in 1999, Gerard Soete not only confirmed his role in the assassination, but added that he had stolen and kept two of Lumumba’s teeth and fingers “as a type of hunting trophy.” He claimed to only have a gold-crowned tooth in his possession at the time. After Soete died, it was discovered in 2016 that his daughter Godelieve had kept the remains. The revelations sparked mass outrage. Following a complaint by the Lumumba family, Belgian authorities seized the tooth. In September 2020, a Belgian judge ruled that the remains must be repatriated to the family.

Lumumba will now finally be laid to rest in the capital of Kinshasa.

“The horrific manner in which Lumumba’s body was dismembered begs the question of how the Belgians saw the Congolese and their land. Ravaged for centuries where different imperial forces came to extract humans for slavery, rubber for the tires of our cars, uranium to bomb Japan, and copper to rebuild Europe after the World Wars, Congo saw its first prime minister be dismembered, and his tooth covered in gold also extracted and [having] found its way to Belgium”, stated Musavuli.

He added further, “As the tooth will be laid to rest in Congo in the days to come, we must renew our efforts to demand that a criminal investigation be held to identify those who killed Lumumba, and pay reparations to his family, the Congolese people, and Africa!”

Ludo De Witte described Lumumba’s murder as “the most important assassination of the 20th century.” Musavuli added, “It robbed the Congo of its future, and also derailed the liberation of the African continent given Congo’s role in the construction of Pan Africanism.” However, despite the West’s attempts to erase Lumumba from the popular consciousness, his legacy has endured.

Writing from the Thysville Prison after the coup, Lumumba had stated, “I know and feel deep in my heart that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of their internal and external enemies, that they will rise up as one in order to say ‘No’ to colonialism, to brazen, dying colonialism, in order to win their dignity in a clean land.

We are not alone. Africa, Asia, the free peoples and the peoples fighting for their freedom in all corners of the world will always be side by side with the millions of Congolese who will not give up the struggle while there is even one colonialist or colonialist mercenary in our country.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/22/ ... t-justice/
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Ethnic Violence Plagues Ethiopia Near its Mighty New Dam
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 29 Jun 2022

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Candlelight vigil outside the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Mekane Selam Medhane Alem Cathedral in Oakland, California, for those who died in the massacre in Wellega, Oromia Region, Ethiopia on June 18.

Conflict in Ethiopia continues to claim the lives of many civilians, as recently happened in the Wellega region.

Ethiopians have been in shock since hundreds, possibly thousands of innocent civilians were massacred in Wellega, an Amhara populated area of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia, on June 18. Like much of the recent violence in Ethiopia, this took place in the West, not far from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam , which is the cause of tension over Nile waters between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.

In an August 2020 Brookings Institute essay, The controversy over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam , John Mukum Mbaku wrote:

“Over the years, Egypt has used its extensive diplomatic connections and the colonial-era 1929 and 1959 agreements to successfully prevent the construction of any major infrastructure projects on the tributaries of the Nile. As a consequence, Ethiopia has not been able to make significant use of the river’s waters. However, as a result of the ability and willingness of Ethiopians at home and abroad to invest in the dam project, the government was able to raise a significant portion of the money needed to start the construction of the GERD. Chinese banks provided financing for the purchase of the turbines and electrical equipment for the hydroelectric plants.”

I spoke to Nebiyu Asfaw, an activist with the Ethiopian diaspora in Denver, Colorado, who organized a Denver vigil for the victims of the Wallega massacres, one of many held in cities around the world.

ANN GARRISON: Nebiyu, first I’d like to review the opening of a program that I was a guest on yesterday on Hello Ethiopia TV :

NEBIYU ASFAW: OK.

HELLO ETHIOPIA: Welcome to Hello Ethiopia TV Friday. It is with a profound regret that we report that the death toll continues to rise in the Wellega, Ethiopia massacre. Some sources report that more than 1500 people lost their lives. The majority of the victims are Amhara. Most of them were women and children. On Saturday, June 18, the TPLF brutally massacred hundreds, possibly 1000s. The senseless killings were executed by the TPLF’s Oromo Liberation Front, also known as Shene, in the Wellega region of Oromia.

AG: I wanted to review that because I’ve been reporting here on the war that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has waged against Ethiopia in the Amhara and Afar Regions bordering Tigray, but this is the first time we’ve reported on the Oromo Liberation Front . Would you agree with this Hello Ethiopia anchor’s description of the OLF as “the TPLF’s Oromo Liberation Front,” and if so, why?

NA: Yes. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is a militant group that is undertaking an armed insurrection in Ethiopia. It was designated as a terrorist organization alongside the TPLF by the Ethiopian Parliament last year.

In August of 2021, the OLF said it had struck a military and political alliance with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and that their aim was/is regime change by ‘overthrowing the Ethiopian government militarily,’ by taking over Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

While neither group was successful in reaching Addis Ababa last year and neither sustained military victories against the government forces, the OLF has been alleged to be responsible for a series of genocidal attacks against civilians, particularly targeting Amhara communities that live in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. These include the gruesome massacre that tragically took the lives of over 1,000 innocent ethnic Amhara Muslim civilians on June 18th. We don’t know of any religious element to this, but it should be noted that most of those killed were Amhara Muslims.

AG: Some people at the diaspora vigils for the dead have demanded that Abiy step down, but I was just in Ethiopia for two months and I can’t say that’s a demand I heard then or that I’m hearing now, in conversation with people I met there, although their confidence in him is clearly shaken. What do you think of this demand?

NA: We have been noticing such demands emerging on social media, particularly in the diaspora. There have also been reports of sporadic protests in Addis Ababa and Amhara region. I believe this is a reflection of the public’s growing frustration with the government’s lack of accountability and lack of acknowledgment of the ethnic-cleansing campaigns in Western Oromia. Not only the Abiy government, but also the regional government in the Oromia region is being criticized for its failure to secure the safety of ethnic minorities within its jurisdiction, particularly the Amhara civilians who have been targets of genocidal attacks.

There has also been an allegation that OLF militants are infiltrating the regional government and security forces, and actively participating in the massacres or standing back and thereby becoming complicit.

Prime Minister Abiy confirmed the infiltration of the regional government by OLF militants in one of his recent speeches. The big question emerging is, “Why is the government not able to clean its rank and file, and execute its #1 responsibility of ensuring the safety of citizens?”

There was also an expectation that a state of emergency would be declared in Western Oromia, and that the federal military would then intervene to secure the safety of the public. While the government is currently on a counteroffensive against the OLF militants, the Prime Minister has not declared a state of emergency.

AG: Do you see a way forward?

NA: Yes, I think a lot is expected from the Ethiopian government to secure the safety of citizens, halting these targeted attacks against ethnic Amharas and other minorities in Oromia. That includes declaring a state of emergency and having the federal army take over the area and temporarily administer it with a central military command. Because at this point there’s no telling whether the worst may be yet to come. The safety of innocent citizens must be the federal government's most urgent priority.

While the federal army is conducting a counteroffensive against the rebels, people expect more from the government than business-as-usual.

A long-term solution that is not being talked about is the abolition of the ethnic federal system and ethnic politics in Ethiopia. The root cause of all this chaos in Ethiopia is the ethnic federal system and the politicization of people’s ethnicity and tribe. This system of ethnic states and ethnic identity cards is the only such system left in the world.

It's an apartheid-like winner-takes-all system that gives all the rights to the majority ethnic group of any given region without civil rights or protection for minorities. Until this system is removed and replaced with a civil system, these kinds of things are likely to continue to happen.

AG: Violence often springs up around the discovery of immense resource wealth, even if it’s not obviously caused by resource extraction interests. For example, fishing communities around Lake Albert, on both the Ugandan and Congolese sides, began to experience violence after the discovery of oil there.

And here, in 1975, at the time of the violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation that left Leonard Peltier in prison, there were mining corporations moving into the Black Hills, as described in the documentary Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story .

It's usually difficult to identify or prove a connection, but it's still worth noting. It seems that much of the recent violence in Ethiopia has taken place near Ethiopia’s central-western borders, near the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a huge hydropower resource with the potential to transform Ethiopia. Do you agree?

NA: Yes, absolutely. Water is the new oil and Ethiopia has it. The massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will produce enough clean energy to provide power to over 200 million people in Ethiopia and beyond throughout East Africa. The GERD will quadruple the amount of electricity produced in the country. Millions of Ethiopians will have access to electricity for the first time. Currently, over 66% of Ethiopia’s 115 million citizens lack power. Once operational, the dam will provide electricity to over 76 million Ethiopians.

The surplus electricity produced by the GERD, will be exported to neighboring countries, generating billions of dollars in income for Ethiopia.

Water is the new oil that will lift Ethiopia out of poverty to become a middle-income country. This will enable the transformation of the entire region and accelerate industrialization and commerce.

There have been disputes with Egypt and Sudan over water rights to the Nile. That has highlighted concerns over individual nations’ rights to water, and it points to a shift in political power on the continent. Egypt and Sudan have openly campaigned to stop the filling of the dam and even made military threats.

The fact that these unprecedented conflicts and ethnic massacres are happening in Western Ethiopia, in proximity to the GERD, is fueling speculation that the conflicts in Ethiopia are geopolitical conflicts or water wars by proxy. That is why it’s absolutely important for Ethiopians to work out political differences and stay united through this very difficult and tragic time in the nation’s history.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/ethni ... ty-new-dam

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Ethiopia Army Denies It Executed Captive Sudanese Soldiers

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Members of the Ethiopia Tigray People’s Liberation Front, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @Afropages

Published 29 June 2022

On Sunday, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) issued a statement alleging that the Ethiopian army had executed seven captive Sudanese soldiers and one Sudanese civilian.

On Tuesday, the Ethiopia National Defense Force (ENDF) rejected allegations that it executed seven captive Sudanese soldiers.

"The Ethiopian army wasn't even present in the area of the alleged atrocity and as such couldn't commit the alleged execution act. The Ethiopian National Defense Force's distinct trait is it handles any captives it has in its hands in a lawful and humane way," Getnet Adane, public relations director at the ENDF, said.

On Sunday, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) issued a statement through the state-owned Sudan News Agency (SUNA) alleging that the Ethiopian army had executed seven captive Sudanese soldiers and one Sudanese civilian.

The SAF also accused the Ethiopian army of parading the bodies to an Ethiopian public.The ENDF denied the Ethiopian allegations and accused the Sudanese military of trying to divert from its country's "political crisis" by conducting regular provocations against Ethiopia.

Adane, the Ethiopian army spokesperson, warned that the Ethiopian army won't hesitate to use force to wrest back "Ethiopian land" from Sudanese control and restore Ethiopia's "full territorial integrity" if given orders by the Ethiopian government.


On Monday, Sudan decided to file a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Ethiopia, while the Sudanese foreign ministry decided to immediately recall its ambassador to Ethiopia for consultations and to summon the Ethiopian ambassador in Khartoum to inform him of Sudan's condemnation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Sudan and Ethiopia to take concrete steps to defuse tensions and to peacefully resolve their differences over the Al-Fashaqa border area, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.

Ethiopia and Sudan have longstanding competing claims over the Al-Fashaqa border region, an area of fertile land settled by Ethiopian farmers that Sudan claims is within its boundary.

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned about the renewed clashes between Sudan and Ethiopia along their disputed border that took place on 22 June, and reportedly resulted in the death of seven Sudanese soldiers and one civilian," Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesman, told a daily press briefing.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Eth ... -0001.html

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The United States extends its military reach into Zambia

Vijay Prashad speaks with Dr. Fred M’membe of the Socialist Party about the reach and impact of the United States Africa Command in Zambia

June 29, 2022 by Vijay Prashad

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Dr Fred M'membe, President of Socialist Party Zambia. Photo: Socialist Party Zambia

On April 26, 2022, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced that they had set up an office in the US Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. According to AFRICOM Brigadier General Peter Bailey, Deputy Director for Strategy, Engagement and Programs, the Office of Security Cooperation would be based in the US Embassy building. Social media in Zambia buzzed with rumors about the creation of a US military base in the country. Defense Minister Ambrose Lufuma released a statement to say that “Zambia has no intention whatsoever of establishing or hosting any military bases on Zambian soil.” “Over our dead bodies” will the United States have a military base in Zambia, said Dr. Fred M’membe, the president of the Socialist Party of Zambia.

Brigadier General Bailey of AFRICOM had met with Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema during his visit to Lusaka. Hichilema’s government faces serious economic challenges despite the fact that Zambia has one of the richest resources of raw materials in the world. When Zambia’s total public debt grew to nearly $27 billion (with an external debt of approximately $14.5 billion), it returned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December 2021 for financial assistance, resulting in an IMF-induced spiral of debt.

Two months after Hichilema met with the AFRICOM team, he hosted IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette M. Sayeh in June, who thanked President Hichilema for his commitment to the IMF “reform plans.” These plans include a general austerity package that will not only cause the Zambian population to be in the grip of poverty but will also prevent the Zambian government from exercising its sovereignty.

Puppet regime

Dr. M’membe, president of the Socialist Party, has emerged as a major voice against the United States military presence in his country. Defense Minister Lufuma’s claim that the United States is not building a base in Zambia elicits a chuckle from M’membe. “I think there is an element of ignorance on his part,” M’membe told me. “This is sheer naivety. He [Lufuma] does not understand that practically there is no difference between a US military base and an AFRICOM office. It’s just a matter of semantics to conceal their real intentions.”

The real intentions, M’membe told me, are for the United States to use Zambia’s location “to monitor, to control, and to quickly reach the other countries in the region.” Zambia and its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said, “possess not less than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves. There are huge copper reserves and other minerals needed for modern technologies [in both these countries].” Partly, M’membe said, “this is what has heightened interest in Zambia.” Zambia is operating as a “puppet regime,” M’membe said, a government that is de jure independent but de facto “completely dependent on an outside power and subject to its orders,” M’membe added, while referring to the US interference in the functioning of the Zambian government. Despite his campaign promises in 2021, President Hichilema has followed the same IMF-dependent policies as his unpopular predecessor Edgar Lungu. However, in terms of a US base, even Lungu had resisted the US pressure to allow this kind of office to come up on Zambian soil.

After news broke out about the establishment of the office, former Zambian Permanent Representative to the African Union, Emmanuel Mwamba, rushed to see Hichilema and caution him not to make this deal. Ambassador Mwamba said that other former presidents of Zambia—Lungu (2015-2021), Michael Sata (2011-2014), Rupiah Banda (2008-2011) and Levy Mwanawasa (2002-2008)—had also refused to allow AFRICOM to enter the country since its creation in 2007.

Is this a base or an office?
Zambia’s Defense Minister Lufuma argues that the “office” set up in Lusaka is to assist the Zambian forces in the United Nations Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Since 2014, the United States has provided around 136 million kwacha ($8 million) to assist the Zambian military. Lufuma said that this office will merely continue that work. In fact, Zambia is not even one of the top five troop contributing countries to MINUSCA (these include Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Pakistan and Rwanda). Lufuma’s reason, therefore, seems like a fig leaf.

Neither Zambia nor the United States military has made public the agreement signed in April. The failure to release the text has led to a great deal of speculation, which is natural. Meanwhile, in Ghana, where a defense cooperation agreement was signed between the two countries in May 2018, the United States had initially said that it was merely creating a warehouse and an office for its military, which then turned out to mean that the United States military was taking charge of one of the three airport terminals at Accra airport and has since used it as its base of operations in West Africa. “From the experience of Ghana, we know what it is,” M’membe told me, while speaking about the American plan to make an office in the US Embassy in Zambia. “It is not [very] different from a base. It will slowly but surely grow into a full-scale base.”

From the first whiff that the United States might create an AFRICOM base on the continent, opposition grew swiftly. It was led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Defense Minister at that time, Mosiuoa Lekota, both of whom lobbied the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to reject any US base on the continent. Over the past five years, however, the appetite for full-scale rejection of bases has withered despite an African Union resolution against allowing the establishment of such bases in 2016. The US military has 29 known military bases in 15 of the African countries.

Not only have 15 African countries ignored their own regional body’s advice when it comes to allowing foreign countries to establish military bases there, but the African Union (AU) has itself allowed the United States to create a military attaché’s office inside the AU building in Addis Ababa. “The AU that resisted AFRICOM in 2007,” M’membe told me, “is not the AU of today.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/29/ ... to-zambia/

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Somali parliament appoints new prime minister

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MP Hamza Abdi Barre had to have the approval of Parliament to be the country's prime minister. | Photo: @shiinetown
Published June 25, 2022

The 220 deputies of the Somali Parliament voted in favor of the appointment of Hamza Abdi Barre as the new prime minister of the country.

Somali deputy Hamza Abdi Barre was appointed on Saturday as the new prime minister of the African country to replace Mohamed Hussein Roble, who remained in office in 2020.

The 220 members of the Somali Parliament voted in favor of Barre's appointment, according to local media reports.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud proposed Hamza Abdi Barre as possible prime minister on June 15, after several days of meetings and rumors on social media.


However, under Somali law, the 48-year-old deputy could not take office without first obtaining Parliament's approval.

During his political career, Hamza Abdi Barre has held positions in the governing party Union for Peace and Development (UDP) and in various government entities.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/somalia- ... -0009.html

Google Translator

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ON A MASSACRE AND ITS PRECEDENTS
THE SILENCED CRIES IN MELILLA
Jun 27, 2022 , 12:24 p.m.

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MEP Miguel Urbán Crespo: "The Melilla massacre has been financed with European funds" (Photo: Javier Bernardo / AP)

The media cover-up in Spain and the rest of Europe of the massacre that took place this Friday June 24 in Melilla loudly shouts the collusion between the information corporations, the political establishment and the Spanish and Moroccan monarchies.

Although crises are announced every year on the Spain-Morocco border, the tragedy experienced by African immigrants trying to reach European territory is daily and is not broadcast on any channel unless the situation goes beyond the smokescreen imposed on the informational spectrum.

In Ceuta and Melilla, two sub-Saharan cities that still constitute Spanish jurisdiction, security is high for immigration and there are generally abuses due to avalanches, suffocation, blows and shoves not only of the migrant population but also of the " porters " (women merchants of fabrics, underpaid and practically enslaved) due to the precariousness of the system established there.

The Ceuta Tarajal II border crossing, opened in 2017, for example, is considered the seventh most unequal border in the world, above the Mexico-United States passage, according to a report by El Confidencial , and according to a report prepared by the researcher Íñigo Moré, is one of the border points where human rights are most violated. Melilla is also in that line in Moré's analysis.

By 2017, smuggling in Ceuta, Melilla and Morocco had an estimated value of 1 billion euros per year (equivalent to half of everything declared in exports from Spain to Morocco). The Moroccan gendarmerie of these border points has been discovered as a vexatious and the massacre in Melilla, which left at least 30 dead according to unofficial sources , confirms this characteristic.

The governments of Spain and Morocco say that more than 500 people stormed the fence that divides their two countries, from the African city of Nabor to Melilla. This produced an irregularity that had already occurred previously, with the same violent consequences, although to a lesser extent.

Fence jumps are common despite their danger, because they are made of blades. The fence has managed to lower the number of migrants, but "at the cost of violating their human rights," activist Rafael Lara, one of the heads of the Andalusian Association for Human Rights (APDHA) , denounced in 2020 .

From 2018 to 2019, sub-Saharan immigrants to Spain fell by approximately 50%, coinciding with an increase in the number of people who died on the migratory route . It is fatal to dare to cross the Moroccan-Spanish borders towards a supposedly better future in the European Union (EU).

For the year 2020, as the aforementioned Lara points out, the pressure exerted by the Moroccan police forces in the north of the country has caused the drop in sub-Saharan immigrants, but at the same time it sheds light on why a large number of people tried to violently cross the fence of Melilla this Friday June 24:

"The area has been combed and the migrants have been massively detained and taken to the southern zone," Lara assured. This has caused, she assures, the "dismantling of the immigrant camps near the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla" where the sub-Saharans prepared their jumps to the fence of both cities. Precisely, in the surroundings of these cities, on the Moroccan side, up to a triple barbed wire fence has been installed, according to the entity, despite the fact that the Spanish Ministry of the Interior began to remove them from its land borders three months ago.

This police pressure may have caused a crisis in the migratory heart that has produced the avalanche that had an annihilating response, in the usual line of behavior of the local gendarmerie, as has been denounced.

And, according to reports from May, the drop in immigration has been having its rebound effect. Spain registered the irregular entry of 50 thousand migrants along its coasts, Ceuta and Melilla since May 2021.


The coercion of sub-Saharan migrants has resulted in an increasing number of fence jumping in Melilla:

The latest data from the Interior on this subject, which correspond to illegal entries into Spain between January 1 and March 15, 2022, place entries at 8,276, among which are the last jump to the fence of Melilla, on March 3, for which the Government showed its "concern". In this event, there were more than 800 migrants who crossed to the autonomous city, one of the highest figures recorded.

A statement signed by five Moroccan organizations qualifies that "the drama of this sad day is the consequence of planned pressure against exiles":

For more than a year and a half, the people who emigrate to Nador have been denied access to medicines, medical care, their camps have been burned and their goods stolen, their meager food destroyed and even the little Drinking water available in the camps is confiscated.

These punitive expeditions gave rise to a spiral of violence on both sides. A reprehensible violence whatever its origin, but remembering the systemic violence that migrants in Nador have suffered for years by the Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement. Practices that have been repeatedly condemned by national, regional and United Nations bodies.


The background of the massacre in Melilla is clear: it is a consequence of the migration policies between Morocco and Spain-EU. It is a failure in terms of human rights, although lucrative for European smuggling.

Let us also remember that the Spanish State (NATO country) decided to recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over the territories of Western Sahara, attacking the struggles of the Polisario Front for the independence and autonomy of its peoples.

Testimonies collected by Público in Madrid, during a protest in favor of the legalization of African migrants in Spain and in rejection of the massacre this Sunday, June 26, say they are not "surprised" by "this shame" while they lament the facts.

A migrant, activist and actor, Thimbo Samb, told the media that the migration policy of the European Union (EU) is "hypocritical, dirty and shameless" because, in his opinion, Western governments try to give "lessons" of respect to human rights while doing "the worst", suggesting that if the EU wants to curb immigration, what it must do is "stop plundering the resources" of Africa.

For Europe, the African continent has been, since the colonial era, a mine for raw materials and slave and semi-slave labor. For the purposes of this massacre, and in keeping with Spain's colonial history, the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez , thanked the efforts of "the Moroccan gendarmerie [which] has worked hard to try to prevent this violent assault."

In this way, the intention is to once again silence the cries of inequality, precariousness and violence in Africa, and by extension, in the entire Global South, at a global moment in which the North (be it American or European) seeks to crush all anti-hegemonic dissonance while taking advantage of resources via looting or financial imposition.

The bloody hand is assumed in advance in the migratory death rows from one side of the world to the other.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/lo ... en-melilla

Google Translator

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Statement by New World Mathaba: Brutal Attacks on Africans in Morocco Highlights Crisis in Africa
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 27, 2022

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STATEMENT ISSUED BY NEW WORLD MATHABA:
BRUTAL ATTACKS ON AFRICANS IN MOROCCO HIGHLIGHTS CRISIS IN AFRICA


On June 24th, approximately 2000 African migrants made a desperate attempt at a mass border crossing, climbing the iron fence separating Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Footage of African bodies piled up at the foot of the fence, many lifeless, while others were being savagely beaten by Moroccan Security Forces, went viral. To date, the number of African migrants who lost their lives has climbed to 37.

We join with those all over the world, to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this horrific attack by Moroccan security forces. However, we know that in a matter of weeks, the statements of condemnation and outrage will be buried, and the incident will simply be added to the mountain of crimes against African humanity. The question is, what is to be done?

This brutal attack on Africans, on African soil, highlights the crisis that Africa is facing. The fundamental problem is that Imperialist forces have been able to install and sustain neo-colonial regimes throughout the continent, while rolling back and destroying all attempts by the African masses to rid themselves of the Imperialist’s stranglehold, from Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe to Libya.

One of the most serious setbacks for Africa was the destruction of the Libyan Jamahirya, and the assassination of revolutionary Pan-Africanist, Muammar Qaddafi. Utilizing the situation that had arisen in neighboring African countries, Egypt and Tunisia, the imperialists seized the moment to invade and destroy Libya, and murder Qaddafi. In so doing, they were able to neutralize what was a very real challenge to their continued plunder of African resources, and their continued exploitation and genocide of African peoples.

In addition, the destruction of the Libyan Jamahiriya dramatically changed the situation with regard to African migration. The Libyan Jamahiriya was the most prosperous country in all of Africa. Border restriction for Africans were relaxed which meant that Africans from all over the continent were free to live and work in Libya. From there, they were able to send money home to their families.

When people risk their lives and the lives of their families to flee their countries, it is because of the desperate and unbearable conditions they face at home. The crisis facing Africa is worsening by the day. Numerous African countries are experiencing a surge in attacks and sabotage by heretical, Islamic terrorist groups, aided and abetted by foreign powers from Qatar to the Western Imperial nations, with the aim of destabilizing and balkanizing the continent. The US and their allies are notorious for using these groups as foot soldiers, and as a justification for the imposition of USAFRICOM, which has relations and/or military bases in almost every African country.

Africa is experiencing climate shocks resulting in some of the worst droughts in East Africa in recent history. Food and fertilizer shortages, coupled with rising prices, caused by NATO’s proxy war against Russia, are exacerbating the already dire conditions. Poverty and hunger are on the rise, and the potential risk of famine across the continent looms large. Lack of access to potable drinking water is threatening the lives of millions of Africans.

There is only one way to overcome these problems, and that is to rid the continent of foreign military, economic and political interference and domination, and the neo-colonial governments installed to manage African nation-states on behalf of these foreign entities.

We, revolutionary Pan-Africanists, must intensify our efforts to come together with revolutionary and progressive forces worldwide, to accelerate the collapse of the US Empire and its West European, Canadian and Australasian surrogates. Their decline is without doubt underway, and the world is now at a critical tipping point. Despite the overwhelming challenges that confront us, both organizationally and personally, we must organize and mobilize as never before, to hasten the inevitable implosion and destruction of all those countries that built their economies on the backs of captured Africans and the plunder of Mother Africa.

There is nothing that White Power fears more than our united efforts and a united Africa, free from foreign domination. It is the reason why they target every African leader and movement advocating this vision. They know that a united Africa would completely change the balance of power globally. A well-documented fact is that if Africa stopped the flow of all resources and raw materials to the Western nations for just one week, the United States and Europe would grind to a halt.

Almost every known natural resource needed to run contemporary industrial economies, uranium, gold, copper, cobalt, coltan (for cell phones, computers etc.), platinum, diamonds, bauxite, and especially large reserves of oil are located in Africa. Azania (South Africa) alone contains half the world’s gold reserves. Democratic Republic of Congo contains half of the world’s cobalt and 80% of the world’s known coltan reserves. One quarter of the world’s aluminum ore is found in the coastal belt of West Africa and the continent is awash in petroleum reserves. These resources must be liberated and placed in the hands of the people, so that they can live decent and dignified lives in the land of their birth.

We cannot look to or expect anything from current African regimes with few exceptions, or to the impotent African Union, most aptly described by Zimbabwean writer, Reason Wafawarova, as “a bunch of cowardly bucolic boofheads, totally mesmerized by Western donor funding…What an unthinking lot of hopeless traitors!”

Gone are the days when that fiery club, formerly known as the Organization of African Unity, was graced by great freedom-fighters, including Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Ahmed Ben Bella, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere, Jamal Abdel Nasser, Samora Machel, Thomas Sankara, Muammar Qaddafi, Robert Mugabe, Sam Nujoma, Nelson Mandela and so many other African heroes.

We must now look to ourselves in this defining moment for Africa and indeed, for all of humanity. We must, no matter what the obstacles, work tirelessly to confront the core issues at stake. We must heed the words of Muammar Qaddafi, in an address to a large gathering in Niamey, Niger in 1997:

“This is a sacred battle, concerning our moral values… We cannot accept any undermining of these values. All barriers created by the colonialist armies must be demolished…we are stronger than them in terms of our moral values and material power… the wealth of Africa must be in the hands of the African masses. To achieve this, Imperialism and Neo-colonialism must be destroyed.”

And in the timeless words of Marcus Mosiah Garvey :

“Arise Ye Mighty Race – Accomplish what you will.”



Gerald A. Perreira
On behalf of the International Directorate of the New World Mathaba


The New World Mathaba, formally established on African Liberation Day, May 25th, 2022, is a continuation of the original World Mathaba, launched in 1982 in Tripoli, Libya, by revolutionary Pan-Africanist and Martyr, Muammar Qaddafi. The word Mathaba is an ancient Afrabian word, and translates as “a meeting place, a point of convergence for people to exchange ideas and share experiences for the purpose of furthering a collective struggle for justice and that which is right.” Mathaba is more than a word – it is a profound concept. Our aim is to facilitate unity of purpose and strategy, and to coordinate our collective efforts to rid Africa, and the world, of Colonialism, Neo-colonialism, Imperialism, Racism and Zionism. Contact us at newworldmathaba@gmail.com

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... in-africa/


Russia-Africa Summit to Reconvene
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 27, 2022
Abayomi Azikiwe

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After a visit to Russia by the two leading officials of the African Union (AU), an announcement has been made that President Vladimir Putin is ready to hold another gathering to work towards key issues facing both geopolitical regions.

The last Africa-Russia Summit was held in Sochi during 2019 prior to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent impact on the world economy.

Today there is the Russian special military operations in Ukraine which has provoked the United States and their allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to engage in a failed attempt to isolate Moscow on a global scale. The current administration of President Joe Biden is cynically using the situation in Ukraine to divert attention from many other burning humanitarian and political crises.

Inflation is a major concern of working people and the oppressed while the Democratic administration and Congress are also attempting to shift the focus of the public to the atrocities committed by the former government of President Donald J. Trump. Whether the January 6 Congressional hearings will be sufficient political capital to stave off a potential defeat of the Democrats in the midterm elections remains to be seen.

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Africa demonstration in solidarity with Russia

As far as the AU member-states are concerned, there has been no enthusiasm for the efforts of the Biden administration to build support for the arming of the Ukrainian military and the imposition of sanctions against Russia. Many African states abstained from the United Nations resolutions attacking the Russian Federation while on a grassroots level, there have been expressions of solidarity for the position of Moscow.

Senegalese President Macky Sall and AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat held talks in Sochi on June 3 with President Putin. African states are facing monumental crises related to economic development, climate change and food deficits. The sanctions imposed by Washington and the EU have had a disastrous impact on the importation of agricultural products for Africa and other regions.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly stated that there needs to be a negotiated settlement to end the fighting in Ukraine. This view conflicts with Washington and Brussels which have continued to engage in vitriolic propaganda and psychological warfare campaigns against the Russian government. Efforts by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Molly Phee, to influence journalists operating on the continent failed miserably when media workers raised critical questions regarding the contradictions within Washington’s foreign policy.

One source on the upcoming summit scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the headquarters of the AU, says of the current situation that:

“A coordination council has been established under the aegis of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum (RAPF). According to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, ‘Concrete proposals for consolidating Russian-African cooperation are being worked out by three councils (co-ordinating, public and scientific ones) reporting to the Partnership Forum Secretariat. They represent ministries, agencies, business and public organizations engaged in the development of relations with the African continent.’ Moscow is poised to build relations of strategic partnership with pan-African organizations and regional integration associations, Lavrov added. Lavrov said that the two most important goals of the summit will be to sign off on a ‘memorandum of understanding between the government of the Russian Federation and the African Union on basic principles of relations and co-operation’ and a ‘memorandum of understanding between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the African Union on economic co-operation.’”

The holding of such a meeting between Russia and the AU during this period of heightened international tensions represents a repudiation of the U.S. foreign policy in Eastern Europe as well as on the African continent. There is much discontent over the failure of the U.S. to build relationships with the AU states based upon mutual interests.

Since the founding of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2008 and the creation of Operation Barkhane and the G5 Sahel groups by the French government, the overall security atmosphere in Africa has deteriorated. Armed opposition groups which claim to be allied with al-Qaeda and ISIS, both of which have their origins within U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are carrying out attacks on civilians and military personnel at an increasing rate in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, among other states.

As a result, some states such as Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR) have reached out to the Russian military services firm known as the Wagner Group. France threatened to withdraw all of its military assistance to Mali if Wagner continued to advise the government in Bamako. In turn, the military regime in Mali demanded that the French armed forces and diplomatic personnel leave the country.

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BRICS Convenes Virtual Summit Hosted by China

The Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) grouping was scheduled to open its 14th Summit on June 23. This organization founded in 2006, brings together governments which represent billions of people from South America to Africa and Asia.

Not even one of the states involved in the BRICS alliance have condemned Russia for its intervention in Ukraine. As emphasized in the June 3 talks between the AU and the Russian government in Sochi, the summit will further work towards building economic networks which are not dominated by Washington, London and Brussels.

People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping will lay out additional plans for the establishment of ambitious proposals for a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Africa is in dire need of infrastructural development projects related to healthcare, education, transportation and sustainable energy. Although the U.S. and its NATO allies have escalated their military presence in Africa, China and Russia are seeking relationships which improve the well-being of people within society.

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BRICS leaders hold 2022 Summit

Of primary concern to the White House, State Department and Pentagon are the ideas raised in April by President Xi related to a new Global Security Initiative (GSI). An article published by one mainstream U.S.-based news agency says of the role of Beijing:

“Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to seek support from BRICS for his vision of an alternative world order, which he introduced at a forum in April as his signature Global Security Initiative. The main premise of the GSI posits that seeking ‘absolute security’ is counterproductive. It opposes the building of ‘national security on the basis of insecurity in other countries.’ GSI may have a backer in Putin, who was in Beijing weeks before he launched the Ukraine invasion on Feb. 24. At the time, China and Russia signed a 5,000-word ‘no limits’ partnership aimed at challenging ‘global hegemony’ without explicitly naming the U.S.”

No one should be surprised that the BRICS states are discussing these issues in light of the crisis in Ukraine. The proxy war between the two largest nuclear powers in the world requires the intervention of other blocs. Biden’s strategy in Ukraine has resulted in the deaths and injuries of untold numbers of people. $55 billion has been pledged to continue the war as the U.S.-backed Ukrainian military is suffering tremendous losses in lives and equipment transported by the NATO states.

Many leading African scholars view the BRICS Summit along with the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which has been in existence since 2000, as avenues for the continent and its people to foster social and economic development. Prof. Ahmadu Aly Mbaye, an economist on the faculty of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, noted that:

“The BRICS can present new alternatives to financing African economies and [facilitate] better integration of Africa into the world economy,’ as African countries ‘felt excluded from the international system, ‘Mbaye said, noting that the continent has been the least funded amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mbaye stressed the importance of infrastructure in a country’s development. However, many African countries have limited access to international financing to build quality infrastructure, as international rating agencies ‘overestimate the level of risk in African countries,’ he said.”

A central focus of the Biden administration’s foreign policy has been aimed at alienating AU states from Moscow and Beijing. However, despite the horrendous humanitarian crises taking place from Eastern Europe to East Africa and South Asia, in the short term it appears as if the aggressive imperialist approach by NATO at the aegis of the U.S., has not gained any significant political traction. The fact that these international gatherings of a substantive nature are occurring portends much for the future of Washington’s waning influence internationally.

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https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... reconvene/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 05, 2022 2:25 pm

UN urges to stabilize existing political situation in Libya

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The protests in Libya are marked by the economic crisis and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic | Photo: Watchtower
Published 3 July 2022

From the UN they urged protesters and police forces not to commit actions that trigger violence.

The United Nations Organization (UN) urged the authorities and protesters in Libya to prevent any action that threatens citizen stability in that North African country.

His spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, avoided that Secretary General Antonio Guterres maintained his concern regarding the recent events and the demonstrations on July 1 in Tripoli, Tobruk, Benghazi and other cities.

In addition, the head of the global entity asked the protesters and the police forces to avoid violent events and show restraint during the expressions of disagreement, also calling for the resolution of the political conflict by both parties via peaceful means.

It so happens that this July 1, thousands of Libyans stormed the streets of the nation to demand improvements in their living conditions, even raiding the seat of Parliament, located in Tobruk.


This particular incident unleashed clashes that culminated in shots fired both inside the diplomatic headquarters and in its immediate vicinity.

The protests in Libya are conditioned by the difficult economic situation in that nation, which has aggravated political tensions with Parliament facing the Government of National Unity in Tripoli.


This situation has sparked protests in Tripoli (capital) and other areas of the nation, exacerbating the existing scenario of instability, accentuated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the fighting between the Government of National Accord, recognized by the UN, and the Libyan National Army, led by Haftar, registered at least 356 deaths and 329 injuries. Additionally, some 149,000 people fled their homes in and around Tripoli; and another 749,000 live in areas affected by the fighting.

Meanwhile, in February, the Parliament supported the candidacy of the former Minister of the Interior, Fathi Bashagha, to occupy the post of Prime Minister; while the head of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, refused to hand over power without holding elections, something that threatens the country with a new duality of powers.

Libya was divided after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and for a decade witnessed clashes between rival factions that created parallel power structures in the west and east of the country; a situation that in 2021 and after the establishment of the Government of National Unity, led by Dbeibah, intended to culminate with the duality of powers and ensure the transition until the general elections.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/onu-inst ... -0003.html

Google Translator

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Sudanese CP, Urgent Press Statement from the Sudanese Communist Party - 1 July 2022
7/5/22 1:16 PM

PRESS RELEASE

from the Sudanese Communist Party

1 July 2022 – 3.30pm

After the capital and the cities of Sudan witnessed mass demonstrations yesterday (30 June 2022), with millions of people demanding the establishment of full civil authority, the demonstrations have intensified for the second day in a row in the centre of Khartoum and the vicinity of Sharoni. Clashes are taking place between the revolutionaries and the repressive forces.

A little time ago, a security force besieged the central headquarters of our party after revolutionaries took shelter inside. It fired a barrage of tear gas and stun grenades inside the headquarters which resulted in injuries and suffocation cases among the protesters.

The siege of the party headquarters is continuing till the time of writing this press statement.

We, in the Sudanese Communist Party, condemn this barbaric act by the miliary coup authority which is plundering the resources of the country in order to protect its interests.

We wish the wounded and injured a speedy recovery.

Let us work together to build the unified centre of the Revolution

Revolution until victory

Central Information Office

Sudanese Communist Party

1 July 2022 (3.30pm)

http://solidnet.org/article/Sudanese-CP ... July-2022/

CP of Swaziland, The latest issue of LICINISO Weekly: 27 June – 3 July 2022
7/5/22 1:23 PM

The latest issue of LICINISO Weekly: 27 June – 3 July 2022 https://cp-swa.org/2022/07/05/latest-is ... july-2022/

In this issue:

1.Communist Party of Swaziland intensifies sunset rallies. The CPS led community-based rallies in Mbabane at Msunduza and Mahwalala communities, and in Manzini at KaKhoza township. This is despite increasing police repression targeted at the CPS and the mass democratic movement.

2.Swaziland celebrates 5th Annual LGBTIQ+ Pride. While the Swazi government continues to rely on colonial laws to suppress the LGBTIQ+ community, the CPS and the progressive movement continue to call for the recognition and respect for LGBTIQ+ rights.

3.CPS Commemorates first anniversary of the June/July 2021 Massacre. It has been a year since the tinkhundla regime conducted its worst crimes against the people, murdering about 100 people. This first anniversary presents an opportunity for reflections on how to organise the people along the revolutionary line to intensify the struggle for a democratic republic.

https://cp-swa.org/2022/07/05/latest-is ... july-2022/

http://solidnet.org/article/CP-of-Swazi ... July-2022/

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One year after a brutal crackdown, the struggle for democracy remains alive in Swaziland

June 29 was observed as a day of commemoration in Swaziland to honor the dozens of people killed by the forces of King Mswati III during the unprecedented anti-monarchist uprising of 2021

July 04, 2022 by Tanupriya Singh

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(Photo: Communist Party of Swaziland)

June 29 marked one year since the brutal crackdown on Swaziland’s anti-monarchist uprising in 2021. The day was observed as a commemoration of the June/July massacre, during which the armed forces of King Mswati III indiscriminately shot and killed dozens of protestors agitating for democracy in the African continent’s last absolute monarchy.

“[On Wednesday] we saw the people of Swaziland making sure that they commemorate, by celebrating the lives of our fallen soldiers, those who died for our struggle,” stated Simphiwe Dlamini, the National Organizing Secretary of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS). The CPS, which has been a leading force in the struggle for a democratic republic in the country, organized a series of actions including vigils. Public transport was shut down, with local news outlets reporting that businesses had also been shuttered in certain areas.


The People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and the Multi-Stakeholder Forum (a platform of political parties, trade unions, civil society and other groups) had also issued a call for a public holiday on June 29 and urged businesses to remain closed, even as the government maintained that it was to be a regular working day.

Meanwhile, there was heavy deployment of police and military forces in the streets, especially in the capital city of Mbabane and in Manzini, the country’s economic hub which was one of major sites of unrest in 2021. Stop and search barricades were also set up on the highway connecting the two cities to prevent any planned protest actions.

While there were no reports of violence on Wednesday, the months leading up to the June 29 commemoration were marked by rising attacks against pro-democracy forces, particularly the CPS.

On June 28, hundreds of police officers descended on the Mbikwakhe area in Mastapha, where a majority of the party’s members who are students at the University of Swaziland and Gwamile VOCTIM reside. The operation was disguised as a community raid, however, only two houses, which happened to be rented by CPS members, were targeted. Importantly, the space had been used to coordinate the party’s work in the area.

Over the course of four hours, police ransacked the houses and seized seven laptops, cell phones, and even the students’ food parcels, clothes and personal belongings. Dlamini also stated that the roads leading to the area had been lined by police. However, party members and activists were able to successfully evade arrest.

The state forces were acting out of fear of the June 29 commemoration, Dlamini explained. “What we saw yesterday [June 29] is a regime in crisis. How so? – by wanting to continue to rule over a people who have declared that enough is enough. Mswati fled the country on June 29, fearing the revolution.” He was not alone, Dlamini added that the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister had reportedly also followed suit, “You can see the desperation, their fear of the people.”

Late on Wednesday night, Dlamini stated that people had set up barricades and burned tires in different parts of the country. “If they [the people] take out picket lines, the regime will respond by butchering them, so the people put up barricades”, he stated. “They are denied their right to picket [and protest] by the ruthless regime, so the people put up barricades because they are still wanting to defend themselves.”

Mswati must fall!: the 2021 uprising for democracy
In May 2021, protests broke out in Swaziland against the alleged police killing of a young law student, Thabani Nkomonye. After days of official inaction, the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) organized the #JusticeforThabani campaign, mobilizing thousands of young people to demand an inquiry into the case. The police responded with tear gas and bullets.

In the face of this repression, the movement to demand justice for the slain student morphed into a massive wave of unrest across the country, demanding an end to the monarchy. Speaking to Peoples Dispatch at the time, Simphiwe stated that Thabani had become “the face” of the ongoing movement against the monarchy because his murder and the subsequent treatment of his family and the protestors was “typical of how the Mswati regime disregards the value of human life” in the country.

Longstanding anger over Mswati’s extravagant lifestyle, made possible by an iron-fisted control over the economy and the political system, in a country where 70% of the population was languishing in poverty, spilled over. Between May and June, people in over 40 constituencies marched to their Members of Parliament (MPs) and successfully delivered petitions raising their demands, including a push for democratization.

“The level of consciousness of the people at the time had gone up dramatically, but it was generally the demands that the people had been raising since the inception of the monarchy in 1973- that the country needs to return to a multi-party democracy, but also that the economy of the people needs to be used for the development of the people as a whole,” says Pius Vilakati, International Secretary of the CPS.

Swaziland was put under an absolute monarchy in April 1973, when King Mswati’s father Sobhuza II repealed the 1968 constitution, banned all political parties, and seized executive, legislative, and judicial powers.

During the protests, there were some sections which were demanding an election for the post of the Prime Minister. However, the CPS’s view was to demand a total unbanning of political parties in order for the country to move towards democracy. “Along those lines we were able to push the uprising to another level, where people did not want some cosmetic changes anymore, an election of the prime minister was not going to change the system. The CPS demanded a total overthrow of the tinkhundla system and the monarchy,” stated Vilakati.

The 2021 protests were unprecedented in their sheer scope, spreading even to the country’s rural areas. Vilakati argued that this was a crucial mark of the uprising – given that not only did a majority of Swaziland’s population live in those areas, but also that the control of the chiefs, who ruled on behalf of the king, was very strong there.

“The people no longer wanted the system of the chiefs’ rule, they wanted self-rule. The royal family relied on the rural areas for its propaganda that people were happy with the way things are. The fact is that people had been suppressed, gagged and muzzled, they had been victimized for standing up for themselves. But this time, people removed all the barriers, the regime was now only left with its military to defend itself now. This was also unprecedented,” he added.

The protests showed no signs of waning, even after King Mswati III imposed a ban on demonstrations on June 24. The next day, the military was deployed into the streets with a sanction to shoot-to-kill. The killings began on June 28 under a widespread internet blackout, amid reports that Mswati had fled the country. By the time things calmed down over the next few days, over 70 people had been killed and nearly 600 had been arrested, according to the CPS.

Despite the ever present threat of violence in the aftermath, the struggle for democratization remained alive in Swaziland. Sporadic protests gave way to the beginning of another wave of agitations and boycotts in September, led by students across schools and colleges to demand better quality education. Severe police repression pushed the unrest even further, with civil servants, public transport workers, teachers, and nurses also carrying out protests.

While they were raising distinct demands for better wages and working conditions, these struggles were united in their call for an end to the absolute monarchy. This was precisely because of the extent of control exercised by the King on the economy and its exploitation for the royal family’s private gains. There was a push for people to recognize that “democracy is not helpful in and of itself if you do not also own the economy,” Vilakati stated.

Building a grassroots democracy
Under Swaziland’s current political system, the King appoints the Prime Minister and the cabinet, the top jurists, two-thirds of the upper house of parliament, and 12% of the lower house. The remaining members of the legislature are chosen from constituencies, or tinkhundla, each of whom are divided into chiefdoms. Only those candidates who are approved by the chiefs are permitted to contest in the election. As such, the process of determining the tinkhundla MPs is by its very nature undemocratic, states the CPS.

Vilakati has argued that the tinkhundla elections are used by the Mswati regime to maintain its legitimacy in the international community, particularly in front of the South African Development Community (SADC). Just days after the killings of protestors in 2021, amid growing international scrutiny, the SADC met with the government of Swaziland on July 4. Two days prior, the delegation’s head, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, issued a statement saying that at least one protestor had been killed. The major undercount caused outrage, given that the Political Parties Assembly which included PUDEMO had documented the killings of at least 43 people by then.

Masisi’s statement went further, saying that “disturbances” had resulted in a “widespread destruction of property and injuries to people.” She urged “all stakeholders to channel their grievances through the established national structure.”

“The role of the SADC, for all intents and purposes, was to help the regime stabilize. They could not even condemn the security forces, or have Mswati account for the deaths, injuries and arrests,” stated Vilakati. “They have not acknowledged our struggle as a just struggle of the people. But of course, what has been inspiring is we have received solidarity and support particularly from the unions, the Communist Party of South Africa, and a huge wave of grounded solidarity actions in the form of border blockades,” he added.

On June 30, South Africa’s National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEWAHU) led a picket outside the Swazi High Commission in Pretoria to protest the “Mswati autocracy”.

Watch: Picket at the Swazi High Commission in Pretoria
Protestors also gathered outside the embassy of Zimbabwe for a solidarity demonstration, demanding an end to the persecution and brutalization of workers by the government.

The CPS has condemned the role of imperialists and international players in protecting the regime, including the US, European Union, India, and Taiwan. The party argues that international players have used their friendship with Mswati to exploit Swazi workers in factories, paying them wages that are not even sufficient for survival. (Swaziland happens to be the only country on the African continent which has diplomatic ties with Taiwan).

In this context, the CPS is focusing its efforts on the upcoming tinkhundla elections in 2023.“We need to unite and use our collective energy to render the country ungovernable. Among the things we need to do is to ensure that the regime is unable to even run its elections,” stated Vilakati. The CPS is gearing towards a Boycott and Disrupt campaign, its objectives being to weaken the tinkhundla system and to intensify the party’s own political and ideological struggle.

A key strategy has been the organization of “sunset rallies” which take place at night “to mobilize communities for the total dismantling of the tinkhundla system,” Vilakati explains. Their purpose is to “awaken the people, but also to be part and parcel with the people in the formation of Community Councils which would form a grassroots level democracy from where people can not only wage their struggle, but also defend themselves.” Dlamini also emphasized that the rallies were aimed at taking the struggle to the people, calling upon them to form local welfare and security councils to test how the people might govern themselves.

During one such sunset rally held in the Mahwalala community on June 26, 2022 the regime’s forces shot live bullets at CPS members and activists. It was the second such rally held that weekend, following one in the Msunduza township in Mbabane on June 25. CPS announced that its activists and the community were able to fight off the police, and that all people were safe and uninjured.


“We have put the tinkhundla regime on the defensive. Our goal now is to make this state permanent,” stated Dlamini. The CPS is mobilizing around key issues including the unbanning of all political parties, the release of political prisoners, and the safe return of political exiles including senior leaders of the CPS – its General Secretary, International Secretary, and Chairperson. Others are on the run, Dlamini said.

The party is also pushing to secure freedom of association, speech, and assembly. In terms of the economy, it has stressed that key industries must be owned by the people, and that properties and investments must be returned to them.

“Our struggle took a turn when the masses stood up and said that now it is us who will fight for our liberation. It was because of the questions that were raised through political schools focusing on the youth and the students. The students made a stand that they want liberation,” Dlamini stated. “The regime has responded by shutting down schools. As we speak [on June 30], the schools in the country have been shut down. And that is because the students have stood up and assumed their role in the revolution,” he added.

The student movement has been a key force of unity in the struggle for freedom, especially the SNUS, which has gone beyond just organizing students to also getting workers to come together and get involved. The union and its leadership have been repeatedly targeted and arrested on trumped-up charges. On June 28, SNUS members Bafanabakhe Sacolo and Siphosethu Mavimbela had their cases dismissed from the judicial roll.

The two had been charged for allegedly burning down a police post and holding police officers hostage in May 2021, the same day they attended the memorial service for Thabani Nkomonye. On Tuesday, the matter was removed from the Manzini Magistrate Court’s roll “until the Crown had put its house in order.”

The CPS is now urging workers to join the forefront of the struggle. Dlamini stated that the party understood that there was a role in the struggle for people across all sectors: “The people in the countryside, the peasants, have said that they cannot be ruled by the monarchy anymore. The urban poor living near towns have said ‘enough is enough’!”

He stressed that the commemoration on June 29 was to galvanize the people to continue the fight. “Our road to socialism is only through a democratic republic,” Dlamini said, and “We will continue organizing and fighting till Mswati surrenders and we are able to achieve democracy on our own terms.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/04/ ... swaziland/

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Human Rights Groups Hold Unified Protests Across Spain in Condemnation of Melilla Massacre
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 2, 2022
Sarah Babiker

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A man trying to jump the border fence in the Spanish colonial enclave of Melilla in Morocco. Photo: Javier Bernardo.A week after the death of at least 37 people in Melilla, activists and groups take to the streets to support the survivors of the border violence and demand accountability.

In the afternoon of Friday, July 1, protests were held in more than 60 cities and towns in Spain, condemning the massacre of migrants on June 24 at the border between Spain and Morocco, at the border fence of Spanish colonial enclave of Melilla. This united protest was organized by civil society and migrant groups in Madrid. The statement published by the organizers, which has the support of more than 5,400 people and more than 900 organizations, reads: “Migration policies, which have manifested as police brutality and border militarization, have caused the death of at least 37 migrants and refugees. The bodies are being buried in Nador without performing autopsies for a possible future investigation or without identifying the deceased and informing their families. Moreover, more than 300 people have been precariously hospitalized at the El Hassani hospital in Nador.”


“The objective of the demonstrations is to honor the victims, to denounce what happened and above all, to listen to the survivors, so that they can answer to what is being said about them,” stated Mar, a member of the Melilla-based activist group Solidary Wheels, who is in contact with the migrants who managed to cross the border and are now at the immigrant detention center (CETI) in Melilla. “It is necessary to stop infantilizing migrants and to listen to them tell their stories as independent people… migrants have a right to explain themselves,” Mar added. The manifesto of the protests explains that most of the 133 survivors who managed to cross into Melilla came from Sudan and Chad.

The message of the protests called for in Melilla was reproduced throughout Spain via a network of anti-racist groups and migrant movements, which had already organized protests last Sunday, June 26, in various cities.

Belinda Ntutumu, of the migrant organization Regularización Ya based in Murcia, stated that mass demonstrations in Murcia will be held until Sunday, July 3, given the fact that a large part of the local African community works in the fields and could not take part in the Friday protests. She explained how the activist collectives are expressing their outrage. “Regularización Ya is already working out a plan to respond to what has happened,” she said. “But this is no longer just about condemnation and making visible a tragedy turned massacre; rather, this is about reflecting on what is going to happen with all of this. Hence the importance of creating a united demonstration at the nationwide level.”

Current situation in Melilla

The protest were scheduled for Friday to ensure that the survivors of the massacre who are in Melilla could attend, since they have been isolated in the Temporary Immigrant Stay Center (CETI) under the pretext of keeping them in quarantine. Thus, after a long journey, the harshness of the road, the exploitation that many have experienced while crossing the continent, the loss of their friends and contact with their families, and the long waits on the other side of the border to cross, these people have now been placed in isolation. This was reported by Javier Moreno, a member of the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) team.

“This situation has generated a lot of anguish,” Moreno said. “They are people who come with PTSD, basically because of the conflict, but also because they were survivors of a massacre. All these factors are not exactly relieved by a situation of isolation.” The stress and uncertainty levels have lessened now, after they have been able to move about outside the CETI, explained Moreno.

Mar described the quarantine as an “illegal detention” because they were put in isolation even though they had been tested for COVID-19. After leaving isolation, some participated in a rally outside the CETI last Wednesday, June 29. It was a space where they could express sadness and anger at the way in which they have been treated. “The migrants said: ‘how are we going to feel safe in Spain, in the country where I have come to request protection, if it says that the treatment they have given us in Morocco is the correct treatment?’,” expressed Mar.

She also explained that what happened in Melilla is, according to the survivors, only the last stretch of a stay in Morocco where there are continuous acts of racism and dehumanization. “We know little about their life in Morocco,” she said. “One of the migrants commented that even if they had money the supermarkets don’t even sell them food.”

However, parallel to the racism experienced by migrants in Morocco, Moreno believes that Moroccan society has a certain affinity towards Sudanese people in transit, since they speak Arabic and also share the same religion. For example, people in Rabat also joined the protests, with a demonstration in solidarity with the victims.

The final objective of these migrants is not Spain; most of them are in transit to other European countries where they have family and support networks. Once they arrive in Melilla, there is concern for the people who have stayed on the other side, explains Moreno. Just like Mar, Moreno points out that the people who are at the immigrant detention center are the first to organize themselves and denounce the abuse and demand answers. The self-organization of migrants has recently been noticed by those in Melilla. A few weeks ago there was a protest by Sudanese migrants who denounced harsh treatment and aggression by the private security forces. This “illustrates the level of politicization and awareness of the rights that these—mostly Sudanese—migrants have,” Moreno explained. “Their civic education draws a lot of attention.” So much so that they have managed to improve the conditions at the CETI, since it is a space where there is “a lot of private guards and little mediation and interpreter services.”

At the June 29 rally outside the CETI, the survivors reproduced images of the bodies lying on the ground. “Some of them also told me: nobody has sent us here, nobody is telling us what we have to do. We know how to organize ourselves,” stated Mar. “We sometimes make the mistake of trying to speak for them or trying to represent them.”

The situation of those who stayed on the other side of the border, is of particular concern, given the opacity with which the Moroccan government has acted: “The information blackout is total,” explained Mar. “Our colleagues who were there a few days ago say that they were not even allowed to go near the hospital. We have very little information.”

Demands of the civil society

Denunciation of the Melilla massacre was almost immediate. Through a statement published within hours after the massacre, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH)—which also broadcast videos showing the brutality of the security forces of both countries— pointed out that the migratory policy’s security measures was the enabling framework for the massacre and accused Morocco of being complicit. AMDH also warned of the deadly nature of security cooperation between Spain and Morocco. Such bilateral cooperation, which resumed in March, has resulted in persecution and violence and, ultimately, in the intensification of the violation of human rights of the migrants.

The manifesto of the protest also asks for attention to the needs of migrants and demands the authorities of both countries to express their condolences to the families of the victims, as well as commitment of the African countries, and wants investigations to be undertaken by both Morocco and Spain. On Wednesday, June 29, the Spanish Attorney General’s Office announced that it would begin an investigation. It also requested the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior of Spain to appear before the Attorney General, but this has been unsuccessful. The United Nations, Amnesty International and other organizations have pointed to the responsibility of both governments.

“It is not just about denouncing what happened, it is also important to know what is going to be done now,” explained Ntutumu. One of the aims of the protests is to reach “the president, Minister Marlaska, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, the Hispanic-Moroccan Migration group and the spokesmen for the Interior Commission, as well as congressmen and senators from Melilla and Ceuta.”

The ILP regularization platform has also proposed other options. “A group has been created in order to respond, not only at the national level, but also at the international level, and to seek international responsibilities,” it announced. “International organizations must say something about what has happened and there has to be accountability: we need to know where the migrants have died, in Moroccan territory, or in Spanish territory. And we have to know if what the government said will have consequences.” ILP wants the United Nations to investigate in situ.

In Melilla, civil society organizations have turned to the Ombudsman once more to file a complaint, “not only regarding the deaths and the violence, but also specifically about the issue of the so-called quarantine, and the fast deportations,” explained Mar, given that there are videos showing that apart from Spanish forces expelling migrants, there have been incursions by the Moroccan gendarmerie into Spanish territory to take back migrants who had already crossed the border. Mar stated that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s statements that insisted on qualifying the jump as a violent act have resulted in legitimizing the normalization of violence by the armed forces. “That is how we felt when in March we documented three deportations and requested an investigation from the ombudsman,” she expressed. “We are still waiting. There is frustration in knowing that surely, in the end, everything will come to nothing and this can end up being a Tarajal 2.0.”

Translation by Orinoco Tribune

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... -massacre/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:04 pm

Mozambique: Gov. Will Subsidize Public Transit for Maputo

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Mozambique administration will subsidize minibus operators for the province of Maputo. Jul. 5, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@BayanoValy

Published 5 July 2022 (13 hours 34 minutes ago)

On Tuesday, the Government of Mozambique said it will subsidize minibus operators in the province of Maputo.

According to the announcement made by the Mozambican government on Monday, the country's administration will offer to subsidize minibus operators in the province of Maputo.

The decision was taken in light of Monday's strike, where minibus drivers, who serve as the public transport in Maputo, called for an increase in their fares as fuel prices have continued rising.

The Metropolitan Transport Agency of Maputo City (AMTM) was in charge of the announcement, which said that the subsidy measure would be in force for at least six months, adding that no change would be made in the current transport fares.

"The government's concern is the passenger; it's the citizen. Right now, 40 million U.S. dollars are already available to cover the costs," said Antonio Matos, AMTM Director.


Last Friday, the National Energy Regulatory Authority announced the latest price adjustment where petrol price rose to 1.36 dollars per liter from 1.32 dollars; on the other hand, diesel price rocketed from 1.24 dollars to 1.38 dollars. The cooking gas price was also up by almost 20 percent.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Moz ... -0020.html

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Algeria accuses Morocco of massacring migrants in Melilla

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The European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, considered it a priority for an investigation to establish the facts of the death of the migrants in Melilla. | Photo: PL
Published July 7, 2022 (5 hours 59 minutes ago)

The Algerian authorities specified that Morocco and Spain must answer for the murder of 23 migrants, most of them from South Sudan.

The Government of Algeria accused Morocco on Wednesday of being the main responsible for the event that occurred on June 24 at the Melilla border, where 23 African migrants were killed.

According to the special envoy of the Algerian Government for Western Sahara, Amar Belani, the Moroccan authorities continue to defend an allegedly humanistic migration management, when -he said- it is public knowledge that the vast majority of these migrants took flights from the Moroccan national airline .

He pointed out that Morocco's hands are stained with the blood of African immigrants due to its atrocious, planned and systematic attitude of human rights violations.


The official data is verified, without a definitive number of deaths and without a judicial investigation having been opened, after carrying out the autopsy of the corpses.

The massacre came after almost 2,000 people tried to enter Spain by scaling the high wire fences surrounding Melilla, one of two Spanish enclaves in North Africa.

Given this fact, the European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, considered it a priority for an investigation to establish the facts of the death of the migrants at the Melilla fence, pointing out that it is unacceptable both for people to die at the borders of the European Union and that they are violently assaulted.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/argelia- ... -0055.html

Google Translator

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Independent Algeria Soon to Be 60, Colonial Wounds Still Bleeding
JULY 6, 2022

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A crowd waving a long Algerian flag. Photo: Ramzi Boudina/Reuters.

With Algeria attaining its independence from France 60 years ago and paying dearly for it, the former colonial state still refuses to take responsibility for its atrocities.

On Tuesday, Algeria celebrates 60 years of independence from France, but the atrocities perpetrated during more than a century of colonial rule, without any responsibility upheld, continue to elicit deep diplomatic tensions.

On March 18, 1962, after close to eight years of war between Algerian revolutionaries and the French colonial army, fighting ceased after the signing of the historic Evian accords, which paved the way toward the announcement of Algeria’s independence on July 5 that same year.

Algerians took part in a referendum a few days before the announcement, with 99.72% taking part to vote on their independence, but memories of the 132-year colonization continue to sour relations with France.

The country’s authorities are planning to mark the anniversary with pomp and ceremony, capped by a vast military parade in Algiers, the first of its kind in 33 years.

Laid Rebiga, the minister for independence warriors, has also announced plans for a play at the capital’s opera theater that will “retrace Algeria’s long history.”

To commemorate “a glorious history and a new era,” the government has even commissioned a logo, a circle of 60 stars containing military personalities and equipment.

Algeria’s independence struggle resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people. Despite that, a crisis was instigated late last year by French President Emmanuel Macron, which highlighted how volatile the topic remains six decades later.

Macron reportedly questioned Algeria’s existence as a nation before the French colonization, accusing its “political-military system” of rewriting history and fomenting “hatred towards France.” Algeria withdrew its ambassador in response.

“Relations between the power system in Algeria and ‘official France’ have been punctuated by crises and pseudo-reconciliations since independence,” said Athmane Mazouz, head of Algeria’s secularist opposition party RCD. “At this point, all bets are off on whether they can establish better ties.”

The French atrocities in a nutshell
The colonial authorities committed horrific murders and massacres against Algerians. What happened in May 1945 is one of the most heinous examples of this. Algerians began organizing large-scale, nonviolent public gatherings, marches, and protests in various cities to demand independence and the release of imprisoned national leaders. The throng raised Algerian national flags. France responded with land, air, and naval forces opening fire on demonstrators and destroying entire villages and neighborhoods.

In addition to the killings, looting was a trait that accompanied the colonial state throughout its reign. The systematic plundering of Algeria’s resources under the occupation included the exploitation of gold, iron, coal mines, and other minerals to service the French economy, as well as the grant of the most valuable agricultural fields to European settlers from France, Italy, Spain, and Malta.

To this day, Algeria is still suffering from the impacts of nuclear radiation, which resulted from a series of nuclear experiments that France conducted in the Algerian desert in the south of the country between 1958 and 1962. In the region, there are high rates of birth abnormalities, cancer, skin illness, and other disorders. According to multiple credible sources, France carried out at least 17 nuclear explosions in Algeria.

Three pending files from the colonial period

The first file discusses the Algerian National Archive, which includes millions of documents, records, and maps. However, France refuses to return it.

The second file concentrates on the retrieval of the skulls of Algerian revolution leaders, which are housed in the Museum of Mankind in Paris.

Lastly, around 2200 Algerians, primarily militants and revolutionary leaders, were seized and slain by French colonial authorities but were never recorded or accounted for.

That said, France refuses to accept responsibility for its atrocities and colonial history in Algeria. In fact, the French Parliament adopted a law for “glorifying the colonial past of France” in 2005, but it wasn’t published in the Official Gazette to become effective fearing a major ricochet.

https://orinocotribune.com/independent- ... -bleeding/

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US Funds New Protests in Libya
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 6, 2022
Vladimir Odintsov

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Against a backdrop of deteriorating living conditions, electricity shortages, rising fuel and bread prices, popular unrest has returned to the streets of Libyan cities since July 1 which, with the inaction of security forces, has degenerated into disorderly acts by angry crowds, accompanied by vandalism, arson and looting. Hundreds of protesters stormed the parliament building in the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk, setting fire to official documents, offices and reception halls, according to the Libya News Agency. According to Alwasat TV, the protesters demanded the dissolution of parliament and the transfer of all electoral powers to the country’s supreme state council.

Libya’s divisions are becoming clearer, with the eastern part of Libya failing to submit to a national consensus government in Tripoli, and the UN-brokered talks in Geneva the day before on political compromise and elections in Libya making no progress.

Because of Libya’s failure to organize last year’s UN-sponsored general elections, which were supposed to unite its disparate historical regions, the North African country is now in a deep political crisis. There is a bitter power struggle between the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Abdel Hamid Dbeibeh, and the Sirte-based Fathi Bashagha cabinet, which was founded in March, contesting each other’s authority.

In addition to the two centers of power already in place in Tripoli in the west and Sirte in the east, supporters of Saif al-Islam, son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, have announced the formation of their own government in the south. It becomes the third power structure in an already polarized Libya. A video message from southern officials circulated by Al Arabiya stressed that Tripoli and Sirte, between which the main line of conflict currently runs, have for too long failed to take into account the interests of Fezzan, the south-western region. The activists therefore called for a move to organize parliamentary and presidential elections, and announced the formation of “parallel” security forces, which are likely to compete with both Tripoli troops and the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar.

The second son of the deposed Libyan leader, Saif al-Islam, declared his political ambitions in Libya in 2021, when he stood for the presidential election to be held in December. Before Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown amid anti-government unrest and subsequent foreign intervention, this young politician was seen as his successor. Amid the chaos that has erupted in Libya following the Western takeover, support for Saif al-Islam is growing in Libyan society and there have even been predictions that he could be the winner in the country’s presidential elections. At the same time, his personality is controversial in the West: given that Saif al-Islam was directly involved in suppressing unrest at the dawn of the Arab Spring, an international tribunal in The Hague issued a warrant for his arrest on two charges of crimes such as persecution and murder.

In the mass demonstrations that have started in the country, the Libyan National Army (LNA), which is based in the east of the country, has said, as Sada El Balad reports, that it is ready to support popular demands, which it recognizes as legitimate in the context of the crisis. At the same time, the army confirmed that all necessary measures would be taken to preserve the independence of Libya should it face any external attempts to influence the popular movement. The Government of National Accord (GNA) in western Libya had earlier also supported the demonstrators.

According to Libyan media and social media reports, Libyans believe that there is an elaborate plan by the US and its henchmen behind the new demonstrations taking place in Libya. Washington is said to be intent on fomenting a new revolution, destabilizing the country’s already precarious political situation in order to bring US-loyal politicians to power and thereby maintain access to revenues from the rich oil sector. As evidence of this, a photo of a table drawn up by councilor Ibrahim Daghdan’s staff in Misrata was leaked to social media, showing the payment of money to propagandists for organizing actions and other tasks related to the protest movement. According to this table, the coordinators of the protest movement were paid $2,000 each. The city of Tobruk paid $50,000 for each organized action.

Washington’s involvement in the unrest in Libya is also evidenced by the reaction of US officials to the events. For example, US Ambassador Richard Norland noted the other day that the country’s forthcoming elections are likely to be run with two governments, thus reaffirming his support for the Government of National Unity, led by the US-loyal Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, which has lost legitimacy. Stephanie Williams, advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the North African state, who is an American citizen, said about the “need to protect peaceful demonstrations”. And she had earlier claimed that the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli was allegedly unable to manage the revenue from the sale of oil products and suggested that an “interim” mechanism be set up to allow the international body to fully control the country’s energy profits. Thus, by trying to impose external control over Libya’s oil and deprive Libyan citizens of the opportunity to profit from the sale of their legitimately owned national natural wealth, Stephanie Williams clearly intends to continue stealing Libya’s oil revenues, but this time on an official level and without any cover-up.

Many Libyans believe that the undoubted blame for the current events in Libya lies with Williams’ activities in the country, which have contributed to the conflict between East and West dividing the country, which could have been resolved a long time ago. After all, Libyans have already demonstrated their willingness to hold elections in the country and elect the country’s first ever president, and not a US puppet. However, “with the assistance” of Stephanie William, the voting process was disrupted and postponed indefinitely. As a result, no one is interested in the opinion of the Libyan people today, external control and plundering of the country is underway, and through various US capabilities, this North African country continues to be embroiled in chaos and internal turmoil, which has become the new protests in the former Jamahiriya.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... -in-libya/

Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi Submits Proposal to Solve Libyan Political Impasse
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 6, 2022

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Presidential candidate Saif al-Islam Gaddafi announced yesterday, via his lawyer, what he regarded as the last ditch initiative to solve the impasse in Libya and avoid bloodshed. He called for either having an inclusive electoral law or that all political figures withdraw their candidacy and hold immediate Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

The statement signed by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, said that the “only peaceful, non-military, solution is to hold non-exclusive Presidential and Parliamentary elections in which everyone participates without exception and without selective conditions.”

“The people have to choose who they see fit to get the country out of this impasse, especially since Libyans have learned their lesson, have political experience, and acquired political skills, and therefore they will not be deceived again”, said Saif al-Islam.


He said the previous initiative he had presented of holding only Parliamentary elections, and have government selected by the new Parliament, was a half-way solution but that this idea had no traction and had to be aborted.

He therefore proposed two possible solutions out of the present Libyan “impasse”:

First choice: “A (neutral) body makes legal and administrative arrangements for the implementation of urgent and inclusive Presidential and Parliamentary elections in which everyone participates and without excluding anyone, regardless of considerations and justifications, and leaving the decision to the people without any guardian over them. This is the ideal option, even if it is highly unlikely in the current circumstances.”

Second choice: “Considering the dispute over candidacy terms for the Presidential elections, and that everyone wants to set certain conditions to exclude specific people, we suggest that such controversial personalities withdraw from the electoral process, collectively without exception, and that Presidential elections are held without them, in order to save the country as a last attempt to peacefully resolve the crisis situation without bloodshed.”


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Al Marsad

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... l-impasse/

Mali’s Resistance Continues and Inspires
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 6, 2022
Mikhail Gamandiy-Egorov

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The lifting of economic sanctions by ECOWAS against Mali should certainly not be seen as the victory of a consensus or as a sign of goodwill from the regional organization towards Bamako. The reality is that the resistance of the country’s authorities and people has proven to be effective, and is extending its influence well beyond the country’s borders.

The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), meeting at their 61st ordinary summit in Accra, Ghana, decided to lift the economic and financial sanctions adopted against Mali since January of this year.

According to Maliweb, the leaders of the regional organization were until recently divided on the issue of lifting the sanctions. Unsurprisingly, the main proponents of maintaining the sanctions against Bamako were only the presidents of Niger and Côte d’Ivoire – Mohamed Bazoum and Alassane Ouattara. This is not surprising, as they are today among the main representatives and defenders of Franco-African interests, going largely in the opposite direction of the aspirations of their own populations, and more generally of the peoples of Africa.

For its part, Senegal, whose President Macky Sall is currently also head of the African Union (AU), seems to have been one of the main interested parties in putting an end to the said sanctions, including because of the impact that this had on Senegalese economic and commercial interests, but also at a time when Dakar is progressively moving towards multipolarity, not hesitating to go as far as criticizing the question of lifting the sanctions, as was the case during the recent visit of the Head of State of Senegal to Sochi.

Obviously, during the period of the CEDAW sanctions, which according to many sources were initially largely influenced by Paris and certain other Western capitals, Mali was able to count on the support and solidarity of several African countries, without forgetting Russia and China – which did not hesitate to use their right of veto in the UN Security Council to block the French text which sought to provide international support for the sanctions.

But certainly the great merit of this success for Bamako goes once again to the very large national popular mobilization, which not only did not hesitate to give firm support to the country’s authorities, but also demonstrated a capacity to resist external pressures in a dignified and patriotic manner.

Also, it should certainly not be forgotten that Mali after years of chaos has become – under the leadership of Colonel Assimi Goïta and his team – a great source of inspiration for many other African nations and an example of effective resistance to Western neocolonialism nostalgic for unipolarity.

In general, the current events demonstrate perfectly that sanctions – one of the favorite instruments of the Western establishment and its supporters – not only do not bring the desired result for its instigators, but on the contrary, they push worthy nations to increase their efforts to counteract the difficulties that the said instigators sought to create for the sanctioned countries.

As for other African leaders, many of whom cannot boast of a popularity comparable to Assimi Goïta on the national and continental scenes, many nevertheless understand that in the face of current events, it is more than ever time to bring themselves up to date with the new global realities.

As for those who have made the firm choice to stay with the Western establishment to the end, beyond continuing their own marginalization and isolation in an Africa that is increasingly openly choosing the path of pan-Africanism and a free choice of external partners – their future is not promising. And taking refuge in the pro-Western bubble in the hope that it will save them from being swept away by popular mass mobilizations seems to be a strategic mistake by people who, like their sponsors, do not understand the multipolar international order. And what it will become.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... -inspires/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 08, 2022 1:51 pm

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CPS General Secretary Kenneth Kunene looks on as protestors march on the Eswatini High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa, on June 30th 2022 (all images Joseph Mullen, Cadre Journal)

A prologue to the Swazi revolution, one year in the making
By Joseph M. Mullen (Posted Jul 07, 2022)

1 year ago, in June and July, a massive uprising led by Communists in Swaziland threatened to overthrow the last absolute monarchy in Africa. With the help of its imperialist allies, the Swazi monarchy brutally repressed this uprising, but they have only temporarily delayed the inevitable. One year later, we can reflect on the conditions that caused the revolution, its successes and failures, the role of imperialism in tipping the scales to a comprador bourgeoisie, and changes in the year since. Studying the revolution in the making in Swaziland, and the role of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) as the representative of the proletariat, provides us critical insight into the nature of anti-imperialism and communism in the Global South today; it also shows the incredible similarities between Russia in 1917 and Swaziland today, as both fought an autocratic monarchy backed by foreign capital. The contest between the revolutionary party and the feudal-capitalist regime, as well as the contradictions within the opposition movement, show how 1917 is still being played out today across the Global South. Here, I will provide a brief introduction to the events of 2021 and what they mean a year later as the Swazi Revolution continues. Indeed, the past is prologue; last year’s events can be understood as the prologue to a new history being written. Swaziland’s revolutionaries seek to write a new history precisely because the world has condemned them to their fate. Swaziland’s history is one of collaboration by the elite feudal monarchy with settler colonialism, capitalism, imperialism and Apartheid. The monarchy’s desire to retain all the vestiges of feudal inequality and domination was supported by settler capitalists in South Africa and imperialists from the West, who understood that they could exploit labor more easily with a sympathetic comprador class. Swaziland is a classic case of neocolonialism. Its mineral and agricultural wealth has been divided between the massive privileges of the monarchy and for the extraction of the West. As a result, the Swazi people are condemned to some of the worst conditions in the world. They suffer from a national poverty rate of 63 per cent and an unemployment rate of 41 per cent; they’re subjected to wages as low as $79 (1,100 Emalangeni) a month. Meanwhile, the royal family receives a 25% cut of all the mining deals as a comprador class, and as of 2016 has a budget of $69.8 million. The King, Mswati, has a net worth of $200 million and he controls a trust worth $10 billion. Swaziland’s GINI coefficient as of 2016 was 54.6 consistently ranking in the top 5 most unequal countries in the world; in 2021 it was fourth.

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Amidst these conditions, it is no wonder the people of Swaziland revolted. All they needed was a match to ignite the fire. That came on 8 May of 2021, when a University of Eswatini law student, Thabani Nkomonye, was killed by police. “Justice for Thabani” became a slogan against the monarchy. The Swazi National Union of Students (SNUS) also marched; the largest came on May 17, when 3,000 students marched from the university to the Sigodvweni police station; police reacted with tear gas. Security forces disrupted Nkomonye’s funeral, arresting student leaders, and then announced a ban on all demonstrations. Revolutionary unrest was clear, and the Communist Party of Swaziland, founded only recently in 2011, began to mobilize with the masses, leading marches on the offices of Parliament members alongside thousands of protesters. By June 20th, the uprising seemed to be in the making. Youth in Manzini Region blocked roads and set tires on fire. Police fired live bullets, leading to protesters retaliating by throwing rocks. Soon, the slogan transformed to “Mswati must fall!” The tactics of the revolutionaries developed to produce a shutdown of economic life in the country, hoping to fatally strike the monarchy. By June 25th, in Msunduza township, near Mbabane, demonstrators clashed with police and stores were burned. A full revolution seemed to be underway; reports even began to emerge that the King had fled the country. Major cities in the country came to a halt as many main roads and highways were blocked with burning tires. Monarchy-owned businesses such as the Swaziland Beverages were torched in at least two towns on the night of June 28 to further weaken the monarchy’s stability. In Mbabane (the capital city) and Manzini city (the economic hub of the country) most shops and businesses were shut down. 30,000 garment workers were turned away by protesters on June 29 from the industrial area in Manzini city. All this became part of the Kungahlwa Kwenile, a campaign to attack properties and businesses to bleed the monarchy financially, which began on June 28. In total, 3 billion Emalangeni worth was destroyed. The revolution seemed to have been won. It appeared “that the anger of the people can no longer be suppressed by crushing protests with brute force; so [the king] seems to have fled,” said Mcolisi Ngcamphalala, the deputy general secretary of the CPS and a leader of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT).

Amidst these successes, the CPS called for a National Democracy Conference of all anti-monarchist forces. This would seek a common minimum program for the transitional period after the monarchy had been toppled. In this moment where anything seemed possible, the anti-monarchy forces were themselves deeply divided. While the CPS represented the radical force pushing for the abolition of the monarchy and the prosecution of the King, some opposition forces expressed willingness to settle for a constitutional monarchy with an elected government as a compromise. In the process, they afforded too much power to bourgeois forces, who sought simply to reform the monarchy. These forces were angling for their own power and preservation and often had little connection with the masses. With these disagreements, the CPS, desiring a united front, could only watch as the reformist forces tore themselves apart and confused the people. This significantly weakened the revolutionary potential of the moment, as a united front for abolition could have achieved a victory. Pius Vilakati, the CPS International Secretary and Spokesperson, was prescient in his foresight about the shifting momentum of the revolution when he said “even during the uprising in April 2011, the king had disappeared from public view until his security forces managed to crush the revolt”. On June 29 and 30, as the bourgeois forces bickered and the CPS and its radical allies desperately tried to push the focus back to the masses and their actions, the monarchy struck. First, on the 29th, the government shut the internet down and imposed a 6pm-5am curfew. Then, the King gave the order for the army to take over from the police in responding to the protests and unleash violence on the protestors. At least 24 people were killed during this brutal crackdown by the army. On the 30th, in the small town of Simunye in Swaziland’s eastern region, around a thousand residents from Simunye and neighboring villages held a demonstration that was fired on by security forces. The police also opened fire on children and killed a 14-year-old in the town of Matsapha. By the 6th of July, around 70 had been killed by the army’s crackdown. These killings disrupted the confidence of the people, and the army began to take back control of the areas it had lost, except in rural areas where it spread too thin and the CPS was able to keep some unrest simmering. Just how close Swaziland came to a full-fledged revolution cannot be understated. Some soldiers sympathetic to the protest movement asserted that the fuel and ammunition reserve of the army would have been exhausted within weeks if a nation-wide uprising was sustained. But instead, a variety of factors allowed the King to temporarily restore control.

Here, I wish to briefly highlight the role of imperialism and the foreign support for the Monarchy. As a comprador bourgeoisie, the monarchy has always been supported by foreign capital and other imperialist states. Among those providing arms to the regime for example, were Belgium, Israel, France, the United Kingdom, India, and the United States. France provided 3 Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopters. We can also highlight the role of Taiwan, itself a base against China for the American empire, and its role supplying two Bell UH-1H helicopters, formally handed over to the Umbutfo eSwatini Defense Force (UEDF) Air Wing on 21 February, 2020, by Vice Minister of National Defense Chang Guan Chung, received by King Mswati himself. These helicopters would play a prominent role in suppressing the uprising as they were used to fire on protestors from the air. Taiwan also helped to train Mswati’s army and the State intelligence unit. Meanwhile, the American military participates in a range of activities to support the monarchy, such as a security assistance program bringing six members of Eswatini’s security forces to the United States each year for education and training purposes, and training for emaSwati law enforcement entities in regionally based training and capacity building programs, such as at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Gaborone, Botswana, which hosts 15 emaSwati officers each year for training on specialized skills such as investigating public corruption and combatting human trafficking. Beyond the military, the regime receives support financially from the imperialist world. On May 6th, 2022, the World Bank approved a $75 million loan to the regime to help keep it afloat. In 2013, the Taiwan International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) gave a loan of E100 million ($10 million). In 2011, even South Africa, which should be aligned against the regime due to its collaboration with Apartheid in the past, conducted a 2.4bn rand ($355m) bailout of the regime in 2011. South Africa’s position on the matter has come under condemnation, as it has largely deferred from acting against the monarchy and instead enable it. On July 4 2021, a South African Development Community (SADC) delegation met the government on its visit to Swaziland, ignoring the opposition. Two days earlier, on July 2, the SADC had issued a statement saying that only one protester was killed by the security forces. The SADC went so far as to condemn the protestors, saying that “disturbances have resulted in widespread destruction of property, [and] injuries to people”. The CPS reacted to this understatement by saying that the “SADC has shown a total disregard for the democratic aspirations of the people of Swaziland”.

With this material and rhetorical support from imperialist, neocolonial, and neoliberal actors, the monarchy was emboldened to continue its brutal campaign of suppression. On September 5 2021, in the southern town of Nhlangano, where protests had continued even after the July repression, police shot and killed a cannabis farmer. This immediately triggered a resurgence in anger and unrest. At the same time, the King had launched a reconstruction fund of 1 million emalangeni to repair businesses attacked in June and July. The government announced that the fund had received a “contribution from Taiwan worth E330 million”. To strike against this, Kungahlwa Kwenile resumed; an outlet of a hardware company owned by pro-monarchy Minister Jabulani Mabuza was torched, and trucks of the Southern Star company linked to the King were torched. Protestors had already identified that anti-imperialist solidarity is needed against a regime backed by the imperialist world. In September, they argued that the international community must isolate and sanction King Mswati, and staged a protest at the UN headquarters in Swaziland. Meanwhile, students began to renew their agitation with a boycott of exams by second semester students of William Pitcher college in Manzini on September 23. The students were attacked by the police and army. Police once again fired tear gas into the campus of William Pitcher college on the night of October 9. Students from well over 50 schools participated in a boycott and protest on October 11. But on October 13, a student of Nzongomane high school near Nhlangano town was shot dead by police. This, and the killing of Nhlanhla Kunene on October 9 by police, supposedly for a curfew violation, renewed the flames of revolutionary uprising, and brought intense reaction by the security forces. On October 15, four were killed when the police and army attacked protestors. In the town of Siphofaneni even paramedics attempting to attend to a wounded protester were targeted by soldiers. In Nhlangano protesters blocked roads with burning tires, and police reportedly fired live rounds and tear gas, including into homes of people. On October 20, nurses in Mbabane Government Hospital would march, and face an attack by security forces. On November 4, they again bravely boycotted work, under the leadership of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Unions (SWADNU). SWADNU called for all nurses to refuse to treat patients who are members of the security forces. By this point, an estimated 100 people had been killed since June.

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Since this occurred, repression has persisted, with brutality and terror meeting activists in the country. This has targeted the Communist Party specifically; on March 21, 2022, 40 soldiers kidnapped two children of a National Organizer of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS), Ayanda Ndwandwe, invading his home in the rural area of Lubulini in the Lubombo Region. This was likely a reprisal for March 19 rallies in Manzini, Mbabane, Limpopo and in Lubombo. In Lubulini, security forces, attacked the small rally being led by Ndwandwe. Then, Bongi Nkambule, also with the CPS, was abducted by police from Mbabane on March 23. On April 11, students were evicted from the Kwaluseni campus of the University of Swaziland by heavily armed soldiers, as they continued to protest fees and unpaid allowances. In April, Mbongwa Dlamini, the President of the Swazi National Association of Teachers (SNAT) had his residence sprayed with a hail of bullets by a brutal unit of the police called the Operation Support Service Unit (OSSU). All this contributed to the renewal of protests on April 12, as “Defiance actions’’ were organized by the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) across Swaziland to mark 49 years since King Sobhuza II, Mswati’s father, seized absolute power in 1973. As the nation braced for tensions in June and July with the year anniversary, tensions escalated. Police shot live bullets at CPS activists who were protesting on 25 June, about 4 kilometers outside the capital city, Mbabane. On June 28, over 100 armed police stormed houses rented by CPS members who are students in the University of Swaziland in Mbikwakhe, Matsapa. These houses hosted some of the Central Committee members of the CPS, the National Organiser Cde Simphiwe Dlamini, Bakhe Sacolo, Gabie Ndukuya, Mancoba Motsa, and Mhlonishwa Mtsetfwa. The police were supported by drones, likely supplied by Taiwan. As tensions escalate, the CPS alerted the world that soldiers are being deployed to areas of unrest, and that the “soldiers’ task is to monitor the communities and brutalize those whom they suspect to be democracy activists, the same way they did during the 2021 June massacre and throughout the year”. Meanwhile, on June 29, 2022, the government readied force, with Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini saying that “the Government will not sit back and watch as terrorists intimidate emaSwati” and that the Government “will not hesitate to respond with the necessary force to protect our National security as a sovereign state.”

As these tensions continue to escalate, it is clear what is needed above all from the international community of anti-imperialist and communist allies of the CPS. We must stand in solidarity with the CPS in its struggle for revolution as it prepares for increased action in the next year. Already, many groups across South Africa and the world are making their solidarity known for the struggle. Over the last two decades, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has held many border blockades in support of the pro-democracy forces in Swaziland. The Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC), 22 major federations with a total membership of over 6 million people from 14 of the 16 SADC countries, has declared “collective solidarity and support” to people of Swaziland in their campaign for “Democracy Now!”. The shack dwellers movement of South Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo, released a statement on June 30 2021 expressing “undying solidarity with the people of Swaziland who are currently facing the repression of the absolute monarchy head on.” They condemned the army deployment as “protect[ing] the power and business interests of the king,” and criticized their own government for its ties to the government of Swaziland. “The comrades on the streets in Swaziland have our full solidarity and we are ready to support them in whatever way is deemed necessary. It is time to end the dictatorship of Mswati III,” they stated, echoing the sentiments of those mobilized on the streets of Swaziland. The South African Communist Party (SACP) also announced that it “stands in solidarity with and supports the people of Swaziland struggling for democracy, human rights, and inclusive development”. International solidarity groups like the Friends of Swazi Freedom (FSF) have made their solidarity practicable, with donation drives to build a clinic and book drives taking place to help the CPS from abroad. The FSF puts its mission in clear terms of anti-imperialism by “calling on all progressives, revolutionaries, anti-colonialists, and anti-imperialists to join us in pursuing the following commitments: Uplift and amplify the voices of the Swazi revolution, including the CPS, SNUS, and their allies in the national-democratic movement; Participate in a campaign to politically and economically isolate the king’s regime, including directed boycotts and statements of solidarity; Support political prisoners held by the regime; Stand with the Swazi people until true democracy and people’s rights are recognized through a democratic transition and multi-party elections”.

Truly, the only way forward will be through anti-imperialist global action to end the support coming to the monarchy from imperialist and reactionary countries like Taiwan and the United States. Struggle in South Africa is also particularly important, as many comrades of the CPS are in exile there and in need of rights and protections, as well as the fact of the outsized role that the South African government and activists can play in influencing developments in Swaziland. On this basis, we must continue the mission of organizing transnational solidarity with the CPS specifically, as the party most linked to the masses, and the entire democratic anti-monarchy struggle more broadly. This must be approached with a global view in mind as we sever the international props holding the monarchy up. As Simphiwe Dlamini, an activist with CPS, put it, “sabotage of the economy is a part and parcel of the struggle for democracy”. Destroying the bailout money the monarchy can receive from reactionary allies will cripple the regime. The central problem facing the comrades inside Swaziland continues to be a repressive state apparatus of security forces armed and trained by imperialist actors. But this army is stretched extremely thin, and the CPS knows this. As Dlamini notes, the CPS believes that protests should be held in multiple locations across the country, especially in the rural areas, which in the past had strong pro-monarchist sentiment which is rapidly changing as repression is experienced. Dlamini argued that this will exhaust the security forces and not allow them to concentrate power at one venue. This is the central task; attrition of the security forces will weaken the regime’s ability to cling to control. The CPS’s desire to create locally organized self-defense units with cadres developed for protecting themselves and their comrades from repression must also be pursued if the revolutionary spirit is to survive. Too many comrades are being forced into exile in South Africa, but the work on the ground in Swaziland is imperative. “It is high time we take serious measures to protect our people from the increasing violence by the King’s security forces,” Dlamini noted. The last question to note will be the relationship to the bourgeois forces in the democratic front. Critical examination of their flaws must be made to see why they have failed to galvanize the masses, but at present a united front against the monarchy is needed to create a broad front to destroy the enemy.

Though the monarchy may believe that it won the confrontation in 2021, its repression has only increased the commitment of the revolutionaries. I attended the rally led by the CPS and its allies on June 30th, 2022, when Swazi activists rallied at the eSwatini High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa. There, General Secretary Kenneth Kunene spoke, asserting that the people of Swaziland face a great enemy in Taiwan’s “colonization” of Swaziland and affirming that the revolution will not be misguided by bourgeois opportunists. South African allies like Mzwandile Makwayiba, President of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU), who decried the neocolonial post-Apartheid state for its lack of commitment to the Swazi freedom struggle. Above all, I could sense that the CPS has a revolutionary zeal and support among ordinary Swazi people and workers that attended. Its focus on imperialism and neocolonialism as the central problems of Swaziland show an understanding that the Swazi freedom struggle takes place in a global context. The CPS as the revolutionary party must continue to keep the masses at heart. There will be questions of transition and further contests with the bourgeois and right factions of the opposition. The CPS cannot give in to reformist pressures that will lose the faith of the people, and must always lead the united front in the final quest for socialism. A close study of the Russian Revolution, the position of the Bolsheviks, as well as the conditions of the end of Apartheid and the interactions of the various groups contesting for power (won out by a neoliberal faction of the ANC) must be conducted by all cadres. As the struggle continues, the CPS has been organizing “Sunset Rallies” around Swaziland. These are practical to avoid authority, but they also have a poignant meaning. They affirm that the reign of King Mswati is now in its evening, nearing its end. The revolutionary push is around the corner; the monarchy’s autocratic, capitalist rule will not live to see 50!

https://mronline.org/2022/07/07/a-prolo ... he-making/

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North Africa Becomes an Arena for NATO’s Confrontation with Russia and China
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 7, 2022
Abdelhamid Jmahri

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North Africa is now part of the area of strategic interests of NATO, as it is an arena of confrontation with Russia, writes the pan-Arab media Al Araby Al Jadeed. And Spain will play a significant role in this confrontation.

NATO’s new strategic concept has placed North Africa in the area of strategic interests of the Alliance on the southern flank. Thus, the new politico-military map of the organization has for the first time shown a front line moved southward, to the black continent, even if the declarations, documents and projects of NATO give the main role to the eastern flank of Europe, where Russia is conducting its military operation in Ukraine.

North Africa is mentioned among the regions constituting an arena for confrontation with Russia. Since the local extent of Moscow’s influence varies economically, militarily and otherwise (in Libya, Algeria and Morocco), NATO’s position vis-à-vis the region is defined by the course of the vote against Russia on the Ukraine issue.

Algeria abstained from the vote, Mauritania condemned Russian actions, while the representative of Morocco was not even present at the UN session. This showed that national interests were decisive in the decision of each state, but it did not prevent the situation from evolving or from adopting a clearer position in the impending conflict.

Spain’s role is probably one of the aspects that shed light on the future of North Africa in view of strategic events. It has become decisive because Madrid has succeeded in drafting a new Alliance roadmap and getting it adopted. Moreover, Spain did everything possible to ensure the successful organization of the summit. Its goal was to affirm the notion that the southern flank of the Alliance is just as important as the others. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, “We made sure that the southern flank of NATO was not forgotten.” Therefore, Spain’s role is an important key to understanding the current situation in North Africa and its prospects.

Spain has entered a new phase of strategic relations with Morocco and, thanks to its role in organizing the summit, has become a representative of NATO on migration and terrorism. And the advantage of the current situation with the southern neighbor is the signing of agreements worthy of the twenty-first century. Meanwhile, Mauritania has revived the ratification of the Agreement of Cooperation, Good Neighborliness and Friendship with Madrid signed in 2008.

The Spaniards are staying away from Algeria because of the Western Sahara issue, because they took a historic decision that was contested by Algiers. The tense situation between these two countries has led to the use of oil and gas as a weapon, which NATO considers prohibited towards any member country.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg mentioned in the list of crises in the African space neighboring NATO terrorism, illegal migration, the threat of using oil and gas as a weapon and the so-called hybrid wars in which the territories of North Africa are either a source or an arena for conflict and influence of external forces. This is probably the meaning of Jens Stoltenberg’s statements, which noted that member states were concerned about Russian and Chinese aspirations for political, economic and military expansion to the south of NATO. The Alliance points to the instability that could be caused by their increased influence, which is why it will persuade its partners in the region to adopt an uncompromising stance according to the principle “those who are not with us are against us”.

China is on the front line and the Alliance has decided for the first time to accuse it of creating systematic threats. While the rest of the world has become an anti-China front, especially in the Pacific region, North Africa is concerned about Beijing’s future strategic investments in the Mediterranean, in African countries south of the Sahara and in North Africa. China is expanding its influence in the region, especially in the economic sector and as a strategic partner, without having a formal and informal military presence there. Beijing has strong relations with Morocco, a NATO and EU ally. Mauritania is not giving up on the prospects of economic cooperation with China either. This is also the case with Algeria.

The near future will not be bright for countries, except for those that have managed to take a firm position in the trilateral war that occupies all the thoughts of Europe, as well as in another strategic matter that worries the NATO allies. In particular, these countries are taking a reliable and convincing approach to security. This is the fight against terrorism, i.e. a strategy to create conditions for stability and development, and political measures to defend sovereignty while building an international partnership based on national interests. The biggest mistake would certainly be to opt for a narrow view of the situation and give up any cooperation and outreach to build an effective North African coalition capable of playing a role in the establishment of a global strategic balance.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... and-china/

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My Family and Friends Are Victims of TPLF Atrocities
JULY 7, 2022

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Man with a weapon over his shoulder. File photo.

By Almaz Endeshaw – Jun 30, 2022

Exactly 41 years ago, my father and 30 other relatives and friends were snatched from their home in the Northwestern part of Ethiopia called Wolkaite. All of them were peaceful peasant farmers and were never involved in any conflict. Yet they were never to be seen again.

They were taken by a group called the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which was involved in a violent campaign to take control of Ethiopia. – a campaign which was ultimately successful.

Our town Wolkaite, is adjacent to the Tigray region in the northwest of the country, and the TPLF were trying to annex it to Tigray. I remember the day the TPLF assembled the inhabitants of the area, including my father, and told them to accept the Wolkite area as part of Tigray. But the people there don’t identify as Tigrayan, we are ethnically Amharra and we were not willing to give up that identity. My father and the others expressed their objection, and the TPLF stole them away from us for it.

What followed was years and decades of terror, violence, kidnappings, killings and atrocities. Everyone was a target of the TPLF – the elderly, women, men, children. Many in Wolkaite had their property, cattle and belongings confiscated for no reason. It was a systematic effort to erase the history, culture and language of the people of Wolkaite. All of us suffered.

Prior to the control of the area by the TPLF, the Tigray people and the neighboring Wolkite lived in peace. As the area is rich in farmland, during harvesting season, the Tigrayan people from the neighboring region used to cross the river to work in the fields and earn money after which they went back to their homes in Tigray. The large farm areas were open to Tigrayans, Eritreans and others. But TPLF wanted to have it all.

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After winning its violent campaign to take control of Ethiopia’s government, the TPLF started to settle people from Tigray in massive numbers in Wolkaite. They were so invested in trying to erase the Amharic language and culture from the area that they officially prohibited the people from speaking Amharic.

One priest I knew named Gebre Egziabher was ordered to preach in Tigrigna instead of Amharic during church services. The priest, however, declined to do so. When he declined, TPLF fighters ambushed and beat him badly as he walked to church the following night. They cut his tongue out and left him on the spot. The priest died later of the injuries.

In other instances, TPLF fighters were taking widows and forcefully marrying them. The plan was to have them give birth to their children with the intention of increasing the number of Tigrayan descendants. Without limiting themselves to one woman, the TPLF fighters were forcing several other Wolkite women to have babies. If a woman refused a TPLF man, she would be raped, and at times in public or in front of family members.

Four years ago, when the TPLF was ousted from power, it retreated to the Tigray region. Two years ago, they attacked the national defense force which had its base in Tigray for years. The Federal government of Ethiopia launched an attack in response and the TPLF had to leave the Wolkite area it has occupied for decades.

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But as usual, a TPLF youth vigilante group called Samre, rounded up non-Tigryans, mostly Amharas and committed mass murder in a place called Mai Kadra. This incident has been well documented and is released to the public. The number of people who were murdered at this place has reached 1200 and counting. Unfortunately, once again, members of my family were killed.

The reality is that there will be no justice adequate to address the TPLF’s atrocities. But in no way do I seek vengeance or further violence. For the people of Wolkite, justice would be to allow those who were displaced back to their land and homes so that they can live in peace and raise and educate their children. The TPLF has managed to hire expensive lobbyists and uses allies and sympathizers to change the narrative.

But for those of us who have suffered through TPLF atrocities and live with the mental anguish of decades of trauma, I can only trust in God that He will bring justice.

https://orinocotribune.com/my-family-an ... trocities/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 16, 2022 2:03 pm

NATO and Africa
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 13, 2022
Djibo Sobukwe

Djibo Sobukwe participated in a Canadian Foreign Policy Institute panel, “NATO and Global Empire ” on June 30, 2022. These are his remarks on NATO and Africa.

Greetings everyone,

I want to thank the organizers for this timely webinar, and for inviting me to make a contribution.

It is timely not only because NATO is concluding its meeting in Madrid as we speak, but also AFRICOM as one of the many arms of NATO is conducting its yearly military exercises called “African Lion” on the African continent at this time.

Many people on this webinar probably know the background of NATO so I won’t repeat the history.

Since I wrote my article in Black Agenda Report back in February entitled, “NATO and AFRICA: A relationship of colonial violence and structural white supremacy“, two more European countries have applied for NATO membership, Sweden and Finland and as I understand they will be accepted. This will increase their membership from the founding twelve in 1949 to now 32.

Today, NATO has become a huge global axle in the wheel of the military industrial complex which includes more than 800 US military bases around the world and bases or relationships with almost all African countries, all controlled by the US empire for the purpose of full spectrum dominance , driven by the ferocious appetites of corporate capital.

Full spectrum dominance means US military control over land, sea, air, and space which is the so-called fourth dimension of warfare “to protect US interests and investment.”

“Protect” means guarantee operational freedom.

“US interest and investment” means corporate profits.


The late Dr. Walter Rodney accurately described the early foundation of colonial Africa’s relationship with NATO which continues today in his classic book published in 1972 How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. He said,….”Needless to say, in the 1950’s when most Africans were still colonial subjects, they had absolutely no control over the utilization of their soil for militaristic ends. Virtually the whole of North Africa was turned into a sphere of operations for NATO, with bases aimed at the Soviet Union. There could have easily developed a nuclear war without African peoples having any knowledge of the matter. The colonial powers actually held military conferences in African cities like Dakar and Nairobi in the early 1950’s, inviting the whites of South Africa and Rhodesia and the government of the USA. Time and time again, the evidence points to this cynical use of Africa to buttress capitalism economically and militarily, and therefore in effect forcing Africa to contribute to its own exploitation.”

I want to highlight that last sentence “forcing Africa to contribute to its own militarization.”

It has done this in several ways; most importantly by ushering in Neo-colonial governments after nominal independence that would do the bidding of the former colonizers. Many of these colonizing countries have been part of the NATO membership since its founding, and already had some military installations in these countries. The re-colonization by way of neo-colonialism was largely successful in spite of the fierce resistance by anti-colonial liberation movements and leaders.

This class struggle also manifested itself in the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 where there were two contending groups of countries, one group that wanted a continued dependent relationship with the colonizing countries on one hand, and those that did not on the other.

Imperialism has always used its strategy of divide and rule. To enable the acceptance of the idea of a ‘benevolent’ NATO, the colonial powers knew that they had to convince and recruit a neo-colonial class of indigenous Africans who would do their bidding. This divide played itself out in the national liberation movements between those who were friendly to imperialist forces and those who wanted a real break from colonialism. Kwame Nkrumah explains in Neo-colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism, the wide array of methods employed by neocolonialism, ranging from economics, politics, religious, ideological and cultural spheres. To do this, NATO works hand in hand with other mechanisms of imperialism like the CIA[1] which was instrumental in the coup against the Nkrumah government and the murder of Patrice Lumumba .

Countries that offered organized resistance to colonialism and neo-colonialism included for example the Portuguese colonies. (Portugal was also one of the 12 founding members of NATO). The great freedom fighter of Africa, Amilcar Cabral, called Portugal “a rotten appendage of imperialism” he said, “Portugal is the most underdeveloped country in Western Europe. Portugal would never be able to launch three colonial wars in Africa without the help of NATO, the weapons of NATO, the planes of NATO the bombs- it would be impossible for them.” [2]

Cabral goes on to explain that the only reason Portugal was able to hold on to its colonies in Africa is because it had been a semi-colony of Britain since 1775 and Britain defended Portugal’s interest during the partition of Africa. Furthermore NATO, a creation of the US, uses Portugal and its colonies as part of the larger objective of domination of Africa and the world.[3] Portugal conducted a vicious war against its colonies in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique much like the US did in Vietnam. In both cases, colonizing powers used the most modern weapons including napalm and cluster bombing campaigns killing thousands, against guerilla armies that refused to bow down. The Portuguese dictator Marcelo Caetano was forced to give up economic interests in Angola to some of the NATO powers in exchange for the NATO armaments and supplies used.[4] Yet, Portugal still lost the war against the heroic anti-colonial forces.

The US/NATO role in the destruction of Libya in 2011 is important to highlight because it offers some important lessons. First, US imperialism and its western NATO lackies do not accept any country that decides to be an independent force outside of its sphere of influence. Secondly, it also demonstrates how NATO can work hand in hand with other US/western dominated world structures like the UN. In 2011 the UN (resolution 1973) gave political authorization for a “no fly zone” and blockade of Libya to purportedly to “protect” the citizens which ultimately resulted in the destruction of Africa’s most prosperous country with the highest Human Development Index. US led NATO forces launched a bombing campaign that killed tens of thousands of civilians and tens of billions of property and infrastructure damage. This shows how although US-led NATO sometimes uses the UN for political cover, it has no problem illegally overstepping its UN mandate to commit its crimes against humanity and achieve its regime change goals.

Indirect and direct cooperation between NATO, the UN the African Union (AU), and the Arab League (which includes the GCC countries ) shows the expansive and deeply woven web of the US and NATO reach.

The book The Illegal War on Libya edited by Cynthia McKinney, includes the chapter titled “NATO’s Libya War, A Nuremberg Level Crime” in which Stephen Ledman writes, “The US-led NATO war on Libya will be remembered as one of history’s greatest crimes, violating the letter and spirit of international law.”

In a just world the US, as NATO leader, and the Obama administration’s destruction of Libya in 2011 and the ongoing humanitarian crisis would be prosecuted as a war crime.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest death rate of all, with some 6 million people killed when Uganda and Rwanda, U.S. proxies, invaded that country in 1996 all to insure the uninterrupted plunder of Africa’s strategic raw materials such as cobalt, tantalum, chromium, coltan, uranium etc. These minerals are strategically important not only for cell phones but also for the technologies that drive the military industrial complex.

Those mentioned here are but a small sampling of NATO/AFRICOM’s bloody works in Africa’s past.

To understand some of the extensions of NATO we have understand the relationship between NATO and AFRICOM

AFRICOM is actually a direct product of NATO via the EUCOM (US European command) because EUCOM is a central part of NATO and EUCOM originally also took responsibility for 42 African states. In 2003 NATO started expanding; four years later in 2007 the EUCOM commander James L. Jones who was also commander of operational forces of NATO proposed the creation of AFRICOM.

AFRICOM continues to operate under guise the of “training” and “humanitarian” peacekeeping assistance.

Jihadist terrorist violence on the continent has increased since the founding of AFRICOM and NATO’s destruction of Libya resulting in civilian casualties and instability which the west has used as pretext and justification for the continued need for AFRICOM. As the Black Alliance for Peace’s AFRICOM watch bulletin reported , since the founding of AFRICOM there has also been an increase in coups by AFRICOM trained soldiers.

Consistent with what Nkrumah, Rodney and others warned of in the 1960’s and 1970’s NATO continues today in the form of AFRICOM facilitating wars, instability, and the corporate pillage of Africa.

This hypocrisy also explains why 17 African nations abstained from the March 2, 2022 United Nations resolution condemning Russia, and one, Eritrea, even voted no. Their experiences with NATO and AFRICOM ensure skepticism of self-proclaimed noble motives.

The U.S./NATO death toll inflicted on the African continent makes any claim of concern for human rights hypocritical.

The Black Alliance for Peace calls for the dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and all imperialist structures. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all peoples have a right of sovereignty, and the right to live free of domination.

Every year in October The Black Alliance for Peace organizes the International Month of Action Against AFRICOM which aims to raise the public’s awareness about the U.S. military’s existence in Africa, and how the presence of U.S. forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent. The Black Alliance for Peace also stands against the growing influence and power of SOUTHCOM, and the ever-increasing militarization of the Americas.

More information is available on the website… blackallianceforpeace.com .

No compromise no retreat.

[1] Nkrumah, Kwame, Neo-Colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism p.247

[2] Cabral, Amilcar, Return to The Source p.82

[3] Ibid p.83

[4] Fogel, D, Africa in Struggle National Liberation and Proletarian Revolution p.230

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... nd-africa/

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UN: South Sudan Leaders Must Arrange an Elections Roadmap

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UN representative to South Sudan called on the leaders to ensure the upcoming elections. July 8, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@unmissmedia

Published 8 July 2022

On Friday, the United Nations called on the South Sudanese leaders for agreeing on a roadmap for fair and credible elections.

Nicholas Haysom, the representative of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), urged the leaders of South Sudan to cooperate in paving the way for free, fair, and credible elections.

The UN representative to the African country emphasized the fact that stability has not been easy to achieve in the country, highlighting that critical months are approaching in light of the upcoming end of the transitional period.

"Now is the time for national leaders to redouble their efforts to agree on a roadmap - with clear benchmarks, timelines, and priorities - to pave the way toward free, fair, and credible elections," said Haysom in a statement.

He ratified his devotion to keeping peace in South Sudan, promising to continue on the track of promoting safety and security for the people. The UN's top official also aspires to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, and support the return of displaced families and refugees.


"Together, let us make peace gains irreversible and build the prosperous future to which all South Sudanese women, men, and children aspire," added Haysom.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/UN- ... -0021.html

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“December Revolution’s Rebirth”: Sit-ins Mark New Stage of Protests against Sudan’s Military Junta
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 12, 2022
Pavan Kulkarni

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Photo: Ahmed Elfatih

In the aftermath of the violent repression of protesters on June 30, sit-ins have been organized in various parts of Sudan even as the military junta tries to consolidate power

Revolutionary slogans and music defying the military junta continue to resonate from at least four sit-in protests in Sudan as on Monday, July 11, eleven days after security forces injured over 600 during the landmark anti-coup protests on June 30. Efforts are underway to organize a total civil disobedience campaign and political general strike.

Sudan’s pro-democracy protest movement is arguably at its strongest since the coup on October 25, 2021, and growing despite the continuing attacks on sit-ins and the custodial torture of detainees. The over 5,000 neighborhood Resistance Committees (RCs) across Sudan, which are leading the struggle against the junta, “are working hard to produce a unified political charter”, said Muaz Khalil, spokesperson of the RCs in Al Kalakla Al Quteia neighborhood of capital city Khartoum.

Currently, the two charters that have been proposed – one by the RCs in Khartoum and the other by RCs in El Gezira State’s capital Wad Madani – are being debated at the sit-ins. Once all the RCs reach agreement on a unified political charter, “we will present it to the political parties and trade unions for signature, and unite the civil bloc resisting the coup on the basis of a clear political vision,” Khalil told Peoples Dispatch.

“At the same time, the RCs will continue revolutionary actions, including processions, vigils, sit-ins and civil disobedience. We will use all the tried-and-tested methods of bringing down dictatorships,” he added.

“The multiple sit-ins represent an advanced revolutionary step,” noted the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), whose members have for long been working in the RCs, trade unions and other mass organizations. Describing the June 30 demonstrations from which the sit-ins culminated as a milestone in the resistance to the coup, the SCP observed that its significance was not only in that it drew millions to the streets, but in that it was “spread across all cities and villages of Sudan”.

You will not see a more deep rooted revolution in your life time than the Sudanese revolution. This resistance movement will not end until the military’s occupation ends #SudanCoup #مليونية30يونيو pic.twitter.com/4EDgtCmASR

— Mohanad (@MohanadElbalal) July 1, 2022


Pointing out that the mobilization “was based on diverse forces including workers, farmers and professionals, along with the RCs”, the SCP has called for the formation of a Unified Center of all mass movements to coordinate the final blow to oust the junta.

Coup leader’s maneuver

Coup leader General Abdel Fattah al Burhan is also maneuvering to consolidate his stranglehold over key state powers, after withdrawing the army from the talks with centrist and right wing parties.

All the civilians with a symbolic membership in the junta-controlled Sovereignty Council were sacked by July 6, as Burhan moved to concentrate sovereign power in the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, composed of himself and a small clique of his confidants.

Cloaking this maneuver as a demonstration of the army’s willingness to cede power to a civilian government, Burhan announced in his televised speech on June 4 that “the armed forces will not stand in the way” of transition to democracy.

He claimed that the army had withdrawn from the talks in order to “allow the political and revolutionary forces and other national components to sit down and form a government of independent (technocrats)”.

The army chief went on to call on all civilian political forces “to engage in an immediate, serious dialogue.. to form a government.” By not excluding the National Congress Party (NCP) of the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir, he has in effect called on the revolutionary forces organizing to overthrow the junta to reach a consensus with Islamists, at whose behest the coup was carried out.

“After the formation of the executive government, the Sovereignty Council will be dissolved,” he said. In its place, “a Supreme Council of armed forces will be formed from the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to take over the high command of the regular forces and be responsible for security and defense tasks, and related responsibilities.”

International actors play along

Burhan did not mention in his speech that the “related responsibilities” included controlling the country’s central bank, deciding its foreign policy and exercising authority over sovereign matters. The latter includes the authority to declare war, or to send troops to fight in others’ wars, such as the one led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the US against Yemen.

However, days before his speech, the US and Saudi Arabia, who are sponsors of the negotiation under the Trilateral Mechanism, had been informed about these “related responsibilities” of the Supreme Council in a confidential memorandum. The memorandum was also sent to the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), African Union (AU), and the seven-countries regional bloc of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which together formed the Trilateral Mechanism in March.

None of these international actors, however, indicated this knowledge in their statements after Burhan’s withdrawal from talks. Instead, they simply reiterated his call to civilian political parties to reach a consensus.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price, for instance, merely said in a press briefing on the day after Burhan’s speech, “we took note of General Burhan’s.. commitment to dissolve the Sovereign Council once a civilian government has formed.”

Referring only to Burhan’s decision to withdraw the army from political negotiations, the UN said in a press note that its “Secretary-General hopes this creates the opportunity for Sudanese to reach an agreement that ultimately leads to a civilian-led transition to democracy in Sudan.”

A protester from Omdurman opined that the word ‘ultimately’ is another indication that for this apex international body, democracy – for which Sudanese youth have been risking their lives and limbs virtually everyday since the coup – is not an immediate objective.

“With the decision of the military to no longer participate in the talks facilitated by the Trilateral Mechanism, the basis for this particular format of military-civilian dialogue no longer exists for the time being,” read the joint-statement by the Trilateral Mechanism on June 6.

“Trilateral Mechanism encourages all civilians to talk to one another to agree on a way out of the crisis,” its statement added. Analysts and protesters have pointed out that this statement complements Burhan’s attempt to portray the lack of consensus between the civilian forces as the root of the crisis in Sudan, rather than the coup itself.

The Trilateral Mechanism and its sponsors have not raised any concern that through the Supreme Council, the army is trying to legitimize its capture of the key state powers that ought to be controlled by the civilian political forces held to democratic account.

All’s not well in the military

It is of note here that the whole of the army is not unified behind Burhan’s struggle to keep power. In fact, the original purpose of the Supreme Council, the formation of which had already been decreed by Burhan in January, was to protect the Sovereignty Council, which he heads, from coup attempts by junior ranks in the army.

Sections of junior officers – who are also reeling under the economic distress – are suspected of being sympathetic to the December Revolution. In order to keep them in check, Burhan enlisted the support of the leaders of RSF – a notorious militia that carried out the alleged genocide and crimes against humanity during the civil war in Darfur region under the reign of dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Feeding on the gold under Darfur’s land from which millions of people were displaced by RSF’s atrocities, this paramilitary, under the command of General Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo aka Hemeti, grew over the last decade to become among the wealthiest organizations in Sudan.

Hemeti’s brother Abdul Rahim Dagalo owns the company Al Gunade, which has nearly monopolized gold mining in Darfur. Sudan Now had reported in January that according to Burhan’s decree, along with himself, his chief of staff, deputies and regional commanders, the Supreme Council’s members included Hemeti and his brother Abdul Dagalo.

Dagalo was the one who reportedly ordered the RSF to clear the sit-in demonstration outside the army HQ in Khartoum on June 3, 2019, leading to a massacre of over 100 people.

In the aftermath of this massacre, the centrist and right wing political parties of the coalition, Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) caved in. They entered into negotiations with the junta, which ended with a power-sharing agreement on the basis of which a joint civilian-military transitional government was formed in August 2019.

This government was overthrown in the coup of October 2021 by Burhan. Nearly eight months later, amid an escalation in protests in June after the third anniversary of the massacre and intensifying repression, the FFC met the junta leaders again.

These US-Saudi-sponsored talks under the aegis of the Trilateral Mechanism were boycotted by the RCs, which have organized protests daily since the coup, drawing hundreds of thousands to streets on many occasions.

With the slogan “No Negotiation, No Partnership, No Legitimacy,” the RCs have refused to accept a return to any arrangement where political power is shared with the army. They remain steadfast on not settling for anything less than the complete overthrow of the military junta and the prosecution of its generals for all the atrocities committed under their command.

While the FFC maintained that the meeting “was not a step towards partnership (with military rule), but to end it”, the radical components of the pro-democracy movement insisted that power to prosecute the generals cannot be negotiated away from them. They argued that participation in these talks was giving the junta a legitimacy it did not have in the eyes of the Sudanese people.

Yet, the FFC and the junta reached agreement on 80% of the issues, Volker Perthes, UNITAMS head and the UN Secretary-General’s representative in Sudan, told Al Hadath on June 29. After speaking to Burhan the same day, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee “welcomed Gen al Burhan’s commitment to direct security forces to allow the Sudanese people, across all of Sudan, to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly on June 30.”

#June30March

Violent crackdown on protesters in the vicinity of the Republican Palace.#SudanCoup #Sudanese #KeepEyesOnSudan #Sudan#Watch
Source: Al-Sahafa RCs https://t.co/EoUhgXFiTl pic.twitter.com/X7r1FY3l75

— Nada Ali (@Nmhali) June 30, 2022


On that day, Burhan’s security forces killed nine protesters and injured at least 629 in Khartoum state alone, according to the Central Committee Sudanese Doctors (CCSD). This is the highest number of injuries in a single day since the coup. Among the injuries were 58 bullet wounds, 64 head injuries from direct hits by tear gas canisters or stun grenades, and 12 eye injuries. In case of at least 10 injuries, protesters were run over by armored vehicles of the security forces.

“We are heartbroken at the tragic loss of life in yesterday’s protests,” the US embassy in Khartoum tweeted the next day. Nevertheless, “we urge all parties to resume negotiations,” it added, even as the FFC was receiving increasing flak from the protest movement.

“We assure the international community that the Sudanese people have made their decision, and their decision is that there will be no negotiation and no partnership with the military,” RC spokesperson Khalil said categorically. “We will not give legitimacy to the junta by engaging in talks with them. Those who were a part of the coup and worked to kill the protesters can never be part of the solution,” he added.

Meanwhile, the FFC appeared to backtrack. “There were no negotiations (with the coup leaders) or agreement on 80% of its agenda,” FFC leader Omer al-Dogair of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP), said in a press conference on July 3 to clarify the coalition’s position in the aftermath of June 30 violence. “The discussion (with the junta) was about the procedures according to which the dialogue will be held,” he explained.

Another FFC member, Yasir Arman, the deputy chair of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), said that the “bullets that penetrated the body of the martyrs blew up the political process.”

The bullets did not, however, force a retreat or compromise on the protest movement. Amid all the attacks by security forces in Khartoum city on June 30, the marches had culminated into a sit-in demonstration outside the Al-Jawda hospital.

“A dagger in the hearts of the enemies of the revolution”

“The June 30 march is a turning point in our efforts to overthrow the coup authority, and there are no words to adequately describe the bravery exhibited by our people’s revolutionaries since yesterday,” the Khartoum RCs said in a statement on July 1. “The only description of what transpired is that it is the December Revolution’s rebirth.”

“All revolutionaries” were urged “to support the sit-in at Al Jawda Hospital.” This sit-in demonstration, which was the first to continue overnight since the coup, grew in size.

ساحة الاعتصام من منظور اخر #اعتصام_الجودة #اعتصامات_مدن_السودان pic.twitter.com/2xtke7w8Jr

— إعتصام الجودة (@AlJawdaSitin) July 5, 2022


More sit-ins quickly followed, and their total number had grown to six when Burhan gave his speech on July 4. In addition to Al Jawda hospital, two sit-ins were organized in Omdruman and Khartoum Bahri (North) and one in Madani,

By then, at least 114 protesters had been killed by the security forces since the coup on October 25. More than 5,400 were injured in the protests in the eight months since, averaging over 21 injuries per day. Over 450 of the injured are still undergoing treatment. 36 have lost limbs or organs and eight are paralyzed, according to a compilation published by the Hadreen Organization.

Like his previous announcement on May 29 about lifting the state of emergency, Burhan’s announcement on July 4 about the army’s willingness to cede power to a civilian government has made no difference to the pro-democracy protesters on ground, who continue to come under attack.

Within about an hour of Burhan’s speech, his security forces attacked three sit-in demonstrations, including the one outside Al Jawda, causing further injuries. Despite having to retreat from some of the sites under attack, protesters have been quick to regroup and re-occupy them.

On July 8, however, the Khartoum RCs decided to voluntarily lift the sit-in outside Al Jawda to avoid inconveniencing the hospital.

“The sit-in was a dagger in the hearts of the enemies of the revolution – claiming lands, roads and arenas to express the rejection of the regime. The sit-in served as a forum for revolutionary discussions.. and the exchange of opinions on the future of the revolution and its challenges,” the Coordination of RCs in Khartoum city said in a statement.

Subsequently, on Monday, July 11, the RCs in Omdurman decided to lift one of the two sit-ins in the city in order to focus work on the upcoming marches and civil disobedience actions, including public barricading.

The other four sit-ins continue protesting amid reports that their comrades under detention are being tortured and denied of medical care. Hundreds were detained or went missing on June 30 alone.

CCSD reported on June 8 that one of them, after being assaulted in custody, was inflicted with second and third degree burns with a lighter along the length of his arm and the side of his back. Instead of transferring him to a hospital, he was held in police custody for a week without medical care, before Emergency Lawyers secured his release. Only two months before the coup, Sudan had ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).

This was not the first or the worst case of torture since the coup. Protesters risking death and torture everyday know that it will not be the last. But “the blood of martyrs and precious sacrifices will not be wasted by the masses,” assured SCP’s Political Secretary, Mohamed Mokhtar Al-Khatib.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... ary-junta/

Ilhan Omar’s Meddling in Horn of Africa Earns Boos at Somali American Concert
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 15, 2022
ANN GARRISON

Image

Framed by Republican media as a backlash against Ilhan Omar’s “woke” politics, the boos of a Somali American crowd expressed growing anger over the congresswoman’s role in US meddling in the Horn of Africa.

Ilhan Omar was greeted with vigorous booing during a July 2 Minneapolis concert featuring Somali singer Suldaan Seeraar in Minneapolis. The booing was so profound and so sustained that it was impossible to mistake it for cheering, or all the thumbs down for thumbs up. It reportedly went on for ten minutes or more, punctuated with, “Get out!” and “Get the fuck out of here!”

Ilhan smiled, gesturing at the crowd to tamp it down, as though the adulation was just too much. Her husband, Tim Mynett, stood at her side looking awkward and confused, then someone who seemed to be a concert manager gestured at the crowd more emphatically to tamp it down. Some say the booing went on even longer while Ilhan went through the process of presenting Suldaan Seeraar with some sort of award.

The singer shifted uneasily from one leg to another, seeming startled and unsure what to do, then reached out to gesture at the crowd, also asking them to tone down their gestures of disapproval. This seemed to be more than he had bargained for when he agreed to share the stage with the congresswoman.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was booed last night by thousands of the Minneapolis Somali community last night at a Somalia Independence Day celebration concert.

“Go home! Go home!” pic.twitter.com/40TPX4M4NA

— Rebecca Brannon (@RebsBrannon) July 3, 2022


Seeraar is extremely popular in the Somali community and was playing to a packed house; he’s unaccustomed to boos. This was his first concert in North America and he’s likely unfamiliar with Ilhan’s record in the House and on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights, where she serves as vice chair. (Karen Bass currently chairs the subcommittee, and vice chairs the National Endowment for Democracy, the regime change wing of the US government, and is all but certain to become the next mayor of Los Angeles come November.)

Ilhan, an African immigrant and the only Black person on the subcommittee besides Bass, is a shoe-in to become chair if Democrats hold onto the house, unlikely as that may seem.

Many Africans shudder at the thought, however –– not only in Somalia, her country of origin, and the rest of the Horn of Africa, but also in the African Great Lakes Region and in diasporas from both regions.

When I organized a Twitter space discussion with Somali American activists on Ilhan’s record, I heard an outpouring of anger not only over her perceived neglect of her district, where violent crime is surging, but also over her role in the removal of Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and her support for a candidate affiliated with her personal clan. This was but one of examples of the congresswoman’s role in advancing US meddling in the Horn of Africa.

Ilhan Omar meets with Kagame and Tedros as they plot against Ethiopia

In October 2021, Ilhan traveled to Rwanda as a guest of its authoritarian president and war criminal Paul Kagame, a darling of global elites. She then proceeded to vote against a House resolution to call on Kagame to free political prisoner Paul Rusesabagina.

In Rwanda on a private visit, Congresswoman Mrs @IlhanMN stopped by our offices today, for a presentation of the Foundation and other programmes, initiated by Our Chairperson @FirstLadyRwanda. pic.twitter.com/HNQBffJDy1

— Imbuto Foundation (@Imbuto) October 9, 2021


David Himbara, a former economic advisor to Kagame, and Tom Zoellner, author of Rusesabagina’s biography, slammed Ilhan in a Minnesota Post op-ed, writing that her relationship with Kagame threatened “to throw her entire stance on the U.S. criminal justice system into a light of hypocrisy.”

With regard to the Ethiopian civil conflict, Ilhan has directed her criticism squarely at the government, even as it defends Ethiopia from attack by the US-backed Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ruled the country brutally for 27 years, from 1991 to 2018, and waged war against Eritrea.

On April 7 of this year, the congresswoman met with former TPLF Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to “discuss global health security challenges, including the status of the global COVID response, the global hunger crisis, and ways to improve digital technology to broaden healthcare access.”

Yesterday, we met with @DrTedros to discuss global health security challenges, including the status of the global COVID response, the global hunger crisis, and ways to improve digital technology to broaden healthcare access. pic.twitter.com/VfifvVrcSL

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) April 7, 2022


Tedros has relentlessly abused his global platform as Director of the World Health Organization, in violation of UN rules about political neutrality, to advocate for Tigray — home of the TPLF — as though it were the only Ethiopian region suffering the consequences of the war. He never mentions the immeasurable suffering caused by TPLF invasions of Amhara and Afar Regions, both of which I traveled through in April and May.

After Ilhan’s meeting with Dr. Tedros, members of the Ethiopian community unsuccessfully demanded that they release the minutes of the meeting.

On several occasions, Ilhan has asked the State Department for “legal determinations” as to whether the Ethiopian government is guilty of atrocities. Meaning, in fact, illegal determinations, because the assumption she has advanced is that the US has the right to rule that international crimes — most of all genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity — have been committed and action must be taken, as in Libya and Syria. According to international law codified in the UN Charter, only the UN Security Council can do that.

On December 21, 2021, while questioning Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, Ilhan requested an illegal “legal determination” regarding Ethiopian atrocities, called for an arms embargo on Ethiopia, which would make it unable to defend itself, and proposed a “carrot and stick approach” to bringing Somalia to heel.



Ilhan Omar backs Cold War-style measure to bully African nations into submission

On April 27, Ilhan voted to pass H.R. 7311 – Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, along with all the rest of the House Democrats and all but nine Republicans. H.R. 7311 directs the executive branch to bully African nations with sanctions and withdrawal of foreign aid if they get too close to Russia, and to “invest in, engage, or otherwise control strategic sectors in Africa, such as mining and other forms of natural resource exploitation.”

The House passed H.R. 7311 roughly two months after 17 African countries either voted to abstain or did not vote on a UN resolution condemning Russia for invading Ukraine, and Eritrea dared to vote no. The African states voting no comprised just over half of the 35 UN member nations that opposed the measure.

House Resolution 6600, a harshly punitive bill that would sanction Ethiopia and Eritrea, is now pending in the House Foreign Relations Committee. According to Ilhan’s constituents, she has not spoken out against it, although she did make a splash by voting against the embargo on Russian oil.

Why was Ilhan Omar booed at Suldaan Seeraar’s Minneapolis concert?

This writer joined a July 6 Twitter space opened by Somali American community organizer Abdirahman Warsame; 294 Somali Americans and a few Somalis — despite the distant time zone — joined the space. Many of the Somali Americans participating were from Ilhan’s Minneapolis district, and some of the younger ones had attended the concert.

Abdirahman told me that activists with the #NoMore Global Movement for Solidarity in the Horn of Africa had planned to get a few front row seats at the Suldaan Seeraar concert to boo Ilhan and that once they started, it was like a match in a haystack.

Everyone in the Twitter space was furious because Ilhan did her best to help the US displace President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, aka Farmaajo, whom they described as a decent, responsible, corruption-fighting anti-imperialist.

Farmaajo had joined Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in signing the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, which ended the long-running war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and promised a new day of regional cooperation between the three largest nations in the Horn of Africa. It said:

“Considering that the peoples of Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea share close ties of geography, history, culture and religion as well as common interests, the three countries shall build close political, economic, social, cultural and security ties. The three governments hereby establish a Joint High-Level Committee to coordinate their efforts in the framework of this Joint Declaration.”

That, however, was more peace and independence than the US government could tolerate, as many on the Twitter space angrily confirmed. Now, with Farmaajo out of office, the alliance is considerably weakened. The peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea still stands, although the US-backed TPLF keeps skirmishing with its troops on their common border, and Eritrea is helping Ethiopia in its civil war with the TPLF in Welkait.

Ilhan put an enormous effort into getting rid of Farmaajo in a parliamentary election, which many in this Twitter space said was actually clan-based and manipulated by bribery.

Last year, on December, she quote-tweeted a State Department threat to take action if Somalia did not hold elections immediately, stating: “Farmaajo is a year past his mandate. It’s time for him to step aside, and for long overdue elections to proceed as soon as possible.” Her comment was widely republished to make the case against Farmaajo in the US press.

Farmaajo is a year past his mandate. It’s time for him to step aside, and for long overdue elections to proceed as soon as possible. https://t.co/f08bSjOJrm

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 27, 2021


Both the president and the parliament were at that time in office past their constitutional terms. That made Farmaajo interim president, but the states of Puntland and Jubaland refused to recognize his authority. Elections had been repeatedly planned but postponed due to disagreements between parties and lack of election infrastructure. In addition, the Islamist Al-Shabaab was continuing to oppose the existence of a secular Somali state, and the US was still bombing on occasion.

According to those in the Twitter space, Farmaajo had been fighting to establish a direct, one-person-one-vote electoral process to replace the corrupt system of parliamentary election. They said he would have won in a landslide had he succeeded.

As soon as Farmaajo was defeated on May 15 — even before the formal transfer of power — Biden announced a plan to reintroduce troops to Somalia. The New York Times reported the news without raising an eyebrow, but the fury expressed in the 194 reader comments was palpable.

Most commenters were Americans outraged that the US would be introducing more troops anywhere after the Afghanistan debacle, but they also included this response by a Somali American (edited very slightly for punctuation and grammar):

Shakur Abdull

Columbus, OH May 17

Somalia’s federal government just re-elected former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud less than 48 hrs ago.

The former president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, who was previously a US citizen and resident of Buffalo, NY, has lost the election due to parliamentary bribery, corruption, and foreign nations’ interfering, spending millions of dollars to overthrow Farmaajo. Those nations included Kenya, U.A.E., & others.

It’s not surprising news to witness the Biden administration seeking to have US military presence in Somalia, since Hassan Sheikh’s election because President Farmaajo would’ve opposed it. Furthermore, this move will only increase security risks and destabilize the Horn of Africa. Sending US military troops now to Somalia is unnecessary, and those troops will be viewed as enemies to the nation and its serenity.

The Somalia army has been fighting Al-Shabaab and all terrorist activities within the region. The army are well trained by the US, Turkey, Eritrea, and so on, but the Somalia government is faced with an arms embargo which limits its abilities and its operations. If President Biden wanted to offer solutions or a hand, then the approach would’ve been totally different than resending American troops back into a hostile situation. Former US President Trump’s hands-off position in foreign affairs was exceptionally appreciated.

Also as soon as Farmaajo was gone, and even before the formal transition of power, an oil and gas extraction contract with a US corporation that Farmaajo had blocked was back in play.




The July 6 Twitter space on the booing of Ilhan Omar contained similarly angry commentary by Somali Americans about her imperialist foreign policy positions. After the discussion, several participants sent over the following pointed statements:

Deeqa, @Deeqa_lulu

I am a Somali woman and I think I would have obtained my rights and my future would have been better in Somalia if I had the opportunity to vote for President Farmaajo, but we didn’t have the one-person-one-vote system that he was trying to put in place. Ilhan Omar is originally from Somalia and she has a daughter my age who can vote for her own president in America. She says she believes in democratic principles and she’s a member of the Democratic Party, but she didn’t support a very important right for me, the right to vote in a one-person-one-vote election.

Is this about the Democratic Party or about US foreign policy toward Somalia? Either way, I feel bad and frustrated that she hasn’t changed that. Why would I expect Joe Biden to understand my problem if Ilhan Omar doesn’t? I contacted my family in America and told them not to give their votes to the Democratic Party or to Ilhan. Our 2022 election here in Somalia was eye opener for us about the Democratic Party policy toward Somalia.

We want to vote here in Somalia. That’s one of my biggest dreams now. –Deeqa

Mohammed Caanogeel, @MCaanogeel1

Ilhan Omar is being used by the Democratic Party, whose foreign policy has been aggressive and counterproductive towards Somalia.

She got booed at the concert for two reasons:

Domestically, she promised the East African community help with gun violence and drugs in our community and she hasn’t helped us with that at all.

Internationally, she undermined our sitting Somali president, President Farmaajo, by tweeting and making speeches that he was no longer the president of Somalia even though the constitution of Somalia gave him legitimacy to continue until another president took over. She was helping the US government undermine this president who had captured the hearts and minds of all Somali people.

Farmaajo enjoyed 90% popularity for good governance. This president introduced reforms into the economy to win debt relief from the IMF and World Bank, but Ilhan voted against debt relief here in the United States.

Farmaajo asked the US to lift the arms embargo so that our army could fight the Al-Shabaab fundamentalists, but Ilhan refused to vote for that.

President Farmaajo was loved for his stability, transparency, and fairness. He made us proud by building the military and making our intelligence one of the top 10 in Africa. He built institutions back after 30 years of war, invited foreign embassies into Somalia, and established embassies abroad.

He became such a role model president that the Somali people bought him a home, library, and offices for future campaigns. Even poor people loved Farmaajo so much that they gave to this fund drive for him.

Ilhan joined US policymakers in rejecting all his good deeds, rejecting what the Somali people wanted, rejecting one-man-one-vote, and instead threatened to cut off aid. She and the rest of the US government seek only the worst for Somalia. As we write to each other, the US military has overtaken Berbera Airport and brought a warship to Berbera shores. -Mohammed Caanogeel


Ilhan ignores the boos in a safe blue district

After the booing episode, Fox gleefully hosted Ilhan Omar’s Republican challenger Cecily Davis to mouth meaningless platitudes about how her opponent is “out of touch with her constituents,” claiming “they are ready for change and are seeking someone who represents their conservative values.”

Davis appeared to be completely ignorant about why an audience of Somali Americans might boo their Somali American representative. The same was true of other right-wing outlets who framed the booing as confirmation that Ilhan’s woke identity offends her own community and that their candidate was therefore a serious contender.

Shukri Abdirahman, a conservative Republican who previously ran to unseat Ilhan, also highlighted the congresswoman’s “woke” positions on social issues as a source of local resentment, but also made sure to point to Ilhan “becoming an election-meddling dictator in the foreign affairs of Somalia – a sovereign nation.”

🧵 Understanding The Booing

Ilhan Omar getting booed and being told to get the f*ck out by our Somali community is not just a revolt against Ilhan selling her soul to the devil and becoming an election-meddling dictator in the foreign affairs of Somalia – a sovereign nation. 1/3

— Shukri Abdirahman (@ShuForCongress) July 5, 2022


Abdirahman Warsame (no relation to Shukri) told me that some culturally conservative Somalis had told him they were uncomfortable with Ilhan’s defense of abortion and LGBT rights, but no one expressed that discomfort in the Twitter space.

Minnesota’s 5th District is the bluest in the state, so the incumbent merely has to win the August primary to win the election, and she is expected to, though perhaps not by the margin she’d like. However, the House is all but certainly turning red, so the next chair and vice chair of the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee will in all likelihood be someone other than Ilhan Omar.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... n-concert/
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Post by blindpig » Thu Jul 21, 2022 2:23 pm

Swaziland: Regime Fears Upsurge in Resistance, Intensifies Persecution of Leaders
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 16, 2022
Pavan Kulkarni

Image
Protests by Communist Party of Swaziland activists. File Photo

The police attempted to arrest CPS member Bongi Nkambule, who was abducted and tortured by the police in March. When they failed to capture him, they took his wife into custody and beat her up in the police station. There has been an upsurge of resistance in Swaziland recently

Early on the morning of Wednesday, July 13, King Mswati III’s police raided the home of Bongi Nkambule, a member of the Communist of Swaziland (CPS), which is banned along with all other political parties in Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

Nkambule, whom the police identify as a key organizer of the pro-democracy movement locally, had already been tortured in custody less than four months ago. When around 30 heavily armed policemen “invaded” the Msunduza township on the outskirts of capital Mbabane at about 6:30 in the morning, he knew he was the target.

“They were misled in the wrong direction when they asked for me. That gave me just enough time to get out of the house and make a run to the forest to escape,” Nkambule told Peoples Dispatch, speaking on phone from a hideout.

“Without showing any search warrant to my wife who demanded it, they then broke into my house and ransacked the whole place. Then they arrested my wife and dragged her to the police station at around 8 am. She was held there in custody, and beaten and harassed for several hours before she was released by 2 in the afternoon,” he said. “She is not safe, they have threatened to come back and kill her.”

The couple have two children – one aged 11 and the other a two year old infant. Nkambule used to support his family, laboring as a painter. He had been struggling over the last four months to make ends meet on losing his regular job when his employer got intimidated after he was picked up by the police without a warrant on March 23.

At that time, the police assaulted him for several hours in custody, and then, without pressing any charges, dumped him just outside the capital, with injuries to his arms, legs and head.

Sunset Rallies to symbolize the monarch’s nearing end

“Since then Comrade Bongo had been under continuous surveillance,” CPS International Secretary Pius Vilakati told Peoples Dispatch. Nevertheless, even under surveillance, “he had continued his work as a community organizer in Msunduza and was playing an important role in organizing the Sunset Rallies there.”

To signify to the communities the nearing end of the monarchist reign over Swaziland, which the King has arbitrarily renamed Eswatini, the CPS started organizing what it calls Sunset Rallies in March. Soon after, Nkambule was abducted by the police.

In the four months since, Vilakati said, these rallies have almost become a weekly event. Marches have been held in the townships of Msunduza, Maphala in Mbabane and KaKhoza in Manzini city, the commercial hub of Swaziland. For now, these rallies remain relatively small, mobilizing a hundred or so community members each time.

Nevertheless, Mswati, who had fled his kingdom briefly amid an unprecedented country-wide pro-democracy uprising mid-last year, appears rattled by this increasing willingness of local residents to raise the red flag and call for his overthrow. Slogans “Mswati must Fall!” and “Democracy Now!”, which were promulgated by the CPS years ago, have become a mass cry in the country.

The Msunduza township has attracted much police attention after residents took part in three Sunset Rallies here. Most of the residents are informal laborers who travel to the capital daily in search of work. During the raid on Wednesday, the police also broke into houses of several other community members, claiming to be in search of weapons. As in the several other raids in the recent past, no weapons were found, Vilakati observed.

“While the police claimed to be looking for guns and grenades, ostensibly to be used in an impending armed revolution against Africa’s last absolute monarchy, the true reason for the raid was to instill fear among community members and victimize political activists,” CPS said in a statement.

However, the rallies have not only continued despite these raids, illegal arrests and torture, but have also grown increasingly assertive in the nature of the speeches made publicly at them.

Community-based Security Councils to defend against police ‘invasion’

Addressing a Sunset Rally on June 26 in KaKhoza township in the city of Manzini, the commercial hub of the country, CPS National Organizer Simphiwe Dlamini called for the formation of community-based “Security Councils”. These councils, he said, should inspire “intense fear” in the police “whenever they think of invading communities. The minority regime should not be allowed to rule over us any longer. We’re the majority.”

Speaking to Peoples Dispatch over phone on Friday, June 15, while en route to another Sunset Rally in Macambeni township, about 45 kilometers from the capital, on the outskirts of Piggs Peak town in Hhohho region, Dlamini explained: “What is happening in the country today is that the police never respond to distress calls by people faced with crimes or violence. The only task they undertake in the country is to attack the pro-democracy movement and the communities in which this movement is rooted.”

“The police”, he added, “is no longer a force from which people can expect any security. They are left to defend themselves. So the cadres of the Communist Party, the vanguard of the struggling masses, are working in the communities to unite them and organize to form Security Councils.”

A key task of these Councils, he explained, will be to ensure that “at least one person from every family is on the frontlines of the revolution. Because when police invade communities, they are primarily targeting a few households from which members have taken to the frontlines. It is time now for every household to respond by contributing at least one member to the frontlines to overwhelm the police with numbers.”

Cops? Whistle!!!

The other important task is to organize an alarm and response system. One proposal on how to implement this has received a very positive response from communities, Dlamini explained: “The Security Council should ensure that all community members are carrying whistles. The first person to see armed policemen approaching the community will raise an alarm by blowing his whistle and everyone hearing it will follow up with their own whistles, and it will continue so on.”

This chorus of whistles, he explained, should in itself be a deterrent “because the community is telling the police even before they have arrived that we know you are coming, and we are ready. The police are afraid of this. That is why in all of the recent raids, they avoided detection till the last moment and caught the households they were targeting by surprise. We should not let them have it easy anymore.”

What if the police proceed, undeterred by the whistles? Then the dozens of heavily armed and armored men will not find themselves confronted by one lone woman with an infant, demanding to see the warrant with a furiously waving fist as she is dragged off for custodial torture.

“On each raid, the police will then have to fight off members from all households of the community, organized and ready to defend each other and fight back against police brutality,” he said, confident that such readiness is already in groundswell among the masses. “The task now is of organization,” he said.

‘A basis to build democracy after the King is overthrown’

Along with Security Councils, the CPS is also at work in communities to organize Welfare Councils, Dlamini explained. The monarchy, he argues, has virtually abandoned the people to fend for themselves in a country where up to 70% of the population eke a living on less than a dollar a day.

With the bulk of the economy owned by the King and run to sustain his indulgences – palaces, private jets, a fleet of Rolls Royce cars, million-dollar parties etc – his government is unable even to pay the wages of its public servants. Little can be expected from the government by the people living in the countryside.

“The only way forward is for the communities to organize themselves for their needs of education, housing, health, food and all the basic needs the government cannot fulfill,” he said. By undertaking these tasks of catering to their own security and welfare through grassroots organization, Dlamini argues, the communities in the countryside can decide how to govern themselves and totally defy the authority of the chiefs, who are the King’s local representatives.

“When we overthrow Mswati, these community-based councils will provide the basis to build a bottom-up democracy in Swaziland.”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... esistance/

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South African CP, SACP 15th National Congress Declaration, adopted on 16 July 2022
7/19/22 1:03 PM

South African Communist Party

15th National Congress

Boksburg, 13 to 16 July 2022

Declaration, adopted on 16 July 2022

Together, let us build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor



We, the 400 voting delegates representing approximately 340,000 members of the SACP, as well as members of the Young Communist League of South Africa across the country, met from 13 to 16 July 2022 in Boksburg, constituting the historic 15th National Congress of our Party.

In attendance were our Alliance partners, the ANC and COSATU, and formations of the mass democratic movement, as well as other fraternal organisations and distinguished guests from our country.

Also in attendance were representatives of communist and other anti-imperialist fraternal organisations from other countries in Africa, South America, North America, Europe, and Asia.

We met in the centenary year of the Young Communist League of South Africa and as we complete the Communist Party’s hundred years of unbroken struggle to advance, deepen and defend the national democratic revolution and an advance towards socialism. This has been a centenary of communist struggles to educate, organise and mobilise the working-class and its allies against a system that puts profits before people, a system that puts private accumulation before the environment, the crisis-ridden system of capitalism. It is this exploitative system that breeds the crisis-levels of racialised and gendered mass poverty, unemployment and inequality, as well as the associated crises of social reproduction and rising cost of living.

We met against the background of nearly 30 years since our April 1994 democratic breakthrough, which marked the end of decades of white minority rule and three hundred years of colonialism in our country. The April 1994 democratic breakthrough opened the prospects for a new, radical phase of the national democratic revolution, our strategy for democratic transformation and development towards socialism.

Many political and social gains have been made by the working-class majority over the last 30 years, but so have many opportunities been lost in deepening a radical structural economic transformation in favour of the workers and poor.

The country’s economy remains dominated by monopoly capital, with the continuing colonial and apartheid legacy deepening its multiple systemic crises, including inequality, unemployment, poverty, and the associated rise in cost-of-living. This situation has now been worsened by the crises of health pandemics, such as the deadly COVID-19 virus, and climate change.

Major aspects of working-class lives are in a crisis, mostly hitting women and youth the hardest, as the income of workers and poor sharply decline because of the crisis of rising cost-of-living.

In the circumstances, the main question that Congress focused on is what is to be done?



Roll back the neoliberal macroeconomic framework



Our national democratic revolution is threatened by the very things it seeks to overcome—the monopoly capitalist domination of the economy, its colonial and apartheid legacy, including the reproduction of crisis-high levels of inequality, unemployment, and poverty. Related to this, the financialisation of our economy undermines our ability to advance the programmes that the workers and poor need, such as industrialisation, a major infrastructure development programme, a universal basic income grant, and a National Health Insurance.



The working-class or proletarian communities—mainly in urban townships and informal settlements, as well as in former bantustans—are torn apart by the daily struggles for survival. The increasingly exploited and unemployed workers and poor are more and more becoming disillusioned with electoral politics because of the impact of policy failures, the impact of neoliberalism and the consequences of corruption.



Therefore, the SACP rejects the call for a “social compact” that is aimed at co-opting the working-class to advance neoliberal policy reforms originating from the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, imperialist credit rating agencies and other supranational bodies controlled and wielded by the US-led imperialist forces. Such a “social compact” excludes the crucial imperative to change the macroeconomic framework under which South Africa failed to reduce unemployment, eradicate poverty, and bring down the astronomical levels of inequality.



For the past 26 years, since the government imposed the neoliberal economic policy called Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), the SACP and other militant working-class formations have been calling for a change in the macroeconomic framework. Without a fundamental shift in the macroeconomic framework, South Africa will continue to experience the problems of the crisis-high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality that it has failed to address since 1996 after the government-imposed GEAR. The persistence of these problems directly results from GEAR and its lasting legacy, including its shock therapy, besides the persisting legacy of colonialism and apartheid, and the impact of global capitalist crises.



Emerging from the 15th National Congress of our Party, we will intensify this struggle for a change in policy content and direction, most especially challenging neoliberalism.



The SACP rejects the dogmatic and widely discredited neoliberal macroeconomic framework and other policy measures which undermine our efforts to drive democratic transformation and developmental programmes of benefit to the workers and poor.



We reject the agenda of neoliberal austerity pushed by the National Treasury, which has meant massive budget cuts spending on public services and goods, resulting in a social crisis in working-class communities and affecting working-class women and youth, mostly black.



The SACP says no to the hyper-financialisation of our country’s economy. Financialisation has shifted financial resources away from the productive economy and social investments to speculative investments in the casino economy, the financial markets. These resources include retirement funds and other financial assets held by the banks and financial institutions, and many are controlled by financial services “providers”.



Workers need to assert their control over investments by their pension funds. Investing in the productive sector to drive major industrialisation and infrastructure development programmes towards expanding access to work for all should be an apex priority. This is one reason the government, with mobilised working-class support, needs to enforce prescribed assets on financial sector investments through legislation. This should include investments in areas of critical public developmental importance, such as a just, green transition.



It is critical to strengthen public financial institutions—the DBSA, the IDC, the Land Bank, the PIC, the Postbank, and provincial financial entities—to play a developmental role. This should be guided by a clearer mandating of the South African Reserve Bank to support the public development finance institutions.



In intensifying our campaign for a fundamental change in economic policy, including macroeconomic policy, we will push to dislodge neoliberalism in our national economic and social policy space. Without such a change, the masses of young people and women, who are black in their majority, will continue to be devastated by the high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and the crisis of social reproduction, and South Africa will not turn the tide against de-industrialisation.



To advance our policy objectives, we will build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor, guided by the 2022 iteration of the SACP programme titled The South African Struggle for Socialism, inclusive of our Strategic Perspectives and Tasks. Immediate key priorities of our programme in the face of the catastrophic and unsustainable reality confronting most South Africans and around which we need to prioritise our mobilisation of the workers and the poor include:

A powerful, class conscious trade union movement



SACP reaffirms its support for democratic worker control of trade unions, trade union resources and workers’ funds. We will work to build the unity of workers in action, across trade unions and across federations.



The SACP says to the workers, together:



“Let us build workers’ powers in the workplace and in the economy at large.”



“Let us fight outsourcing in the economy.”



“Let us fight labour-brokering in the public and private sector and build the unity of workers in the formal and informal sectors.”



“Let us build worker-controlled co-operatives in all sectors of the economy as an instrument of structural economic and social transformation and development.”



Working-class and popular power in our proletarian communities



Proletarian communities are the historic sites of militant class struggles. However, over the past three decades, they have been ravaged by neoliberalism. We will continue to deepen our campaigns in working-class communities to win the following demands.



o The struggle for a universal basic income grant, which should lift working-class households out of absolute poverty and help build capacity for the broad working-class to become the collective agents of fundamental change.



o The struggle for the right to work for all—beginning with the massive expansion of public employment programmes: where the work is not just temporary, but ongoing; where we care for infrastructure that makes our communities cleaner and safer places to live; where collective work rebuilds social cohesion and overcomes the huge despair and sense of alienation amongst millions of unemployed youth; where public employment work is productive and addresses the crises of social reproduction and poverty. This will include campaigning for an expansion of public employment in the caring economy, in early childhood learning, in the provision of collective food gardens and food kitchens, in sustaining places of safety for women and children.



o Build and strengthen the networks of community-based co-operatives, including organising community-owned stores and community-owned banking institutions, savings and burial societies.



o Active working-class involvement in the many institutions of participatory democracy, such as the community policing forums, school governing bodies, neighbourhood watches and street committees.



o Rebuild trade union locals in our communities as key points of focus from which we can help co-ordinate popular activism and rebuild workplace–community solidarity.



o Support government efforts directed at the township and village economy and the District Development Model, ensuring that these programmes impact positively on the lives of the working-class and poor.



Land reform for urban and rural transformation



South Africa needs radical land reform for both urban transformation, where 70 per cent of our people now live, and for rural development and transformation. Besides rural areas, and mainly the bantustans, the working-class and poor remain largely confined to peripheral townships and informal settlements that were designed as dormitory locations for the reproduction of cheap migrant black labour. Apartheid legislation has been removed, but now the financialised property market acts with equal brutality in forcing the majority of workers and poor to live on the margins, in poverty traps far away from resources, amenities, and recreational facilities. While we seek to transform the reality within these settlements, we will equally strive to transform the overall spatial design of our towns and cities.



Land reform in our rural areas must be guided by the Freedom Charter’s clarion call for land to be shared among those who work it. Rural land reform, development and transformation must be directed to the population still living in the former bantustans as a priority.



The SACP will campaign for:



o A land reform programme which focuses on providing infrastructure, water rights, agricultural extension officers and veterinary services to the most marginalised.



o Security of tenure for small and subsistence farmers, giving full recognition to a variety of tenure, including communal land tenure rights.



o Unscrupulous evictions of farmworkers and their families from farms to stop.



o The evictions of labour tenants and their families from farms on which they have lived and worked to cease. These evictions are nothing less than an ongoing colonial expropriation. As the SACP we say: “EXPROPRIATE THE EXPROPRIATORS…and without compensation! Return the former labour tenants as rightful owners to what are, in reality, their OWN farms.”



A radical transformation of the financial sector

In the 2000s, the SACP launched the Financial Sector Campaign as part of its Red October Campaign. Through the campaign, the SACP successfully mobilised over 50 other formations.



The Financial Sector Campaign culminated in a Financial Sector Summit, convened by the government. Its most important achievements are those that immediately impacted positively on the working-class and the precarious strata of the middle class. These include transparency and regulation of credit bureaux, access to banking facilities, and the regulations of loans, clamping down on reckless and predatory lending practices, and addressing unregulated and unscrupulous home repossessions by the profit-driven exploitative commercial banks.



The National Credit Act and Regulator (now the Financial Sector Conduct Authority), which cushioned South Africa from the impact of the 2008 global crisis, were the direct achievements of the SACP-led Financial Sector Campaign. We also drove the passing of legislation on co-operative banking through the campaign.



The time has come to intensify the Financial Sector Campaign. But this time, while mobilising based on financial consumer issues (for debt relief, against repossessions, and against the high transactional costs charged by the banking oligopolies), we will more militantly address the larger structural issues. The SACP, together with other working-class formations, community organisations, sectoral organisations, among others, will:



o Campaign to stop the massive illicit flows of capital from South Africa. The SACP will deepen the campaign for tight regulation of the capital account, cross-border capital transitions, and to roll back the erosion of exchange controls to protect our economy against exposure to the unbridled volatility of the dog-eat-dog insatiable pursuit of private wealth accumulation. Our efforts will include measures to direct investment into the productive sector to industrialise our economy, create employment, drive poverty eradication, and tackle inequality and uneven development. The South African Revenue Services, the South African Reserve Bank and other key state institutions in the financial sector must up their game.



o Campaign for the enforcement of prescribed asset requirements on the banks and financial institutions, to ensure that a significant proportion of their investments goes to the productive sector to build national production and create employment and infrastructure development.



o Campaign for the consolidation of a strong, developmental public banking sector, comprising national, provincial and sectoral state-owned banks and financial institutions, which the South African Reserve Bank MUST actively support. In terms of articulation, this will be buttressed by the national democratic revolutionary imperative to achieve the Freedom Charter’s vision of the state banking sector—the common property of all—to breakdown the monopoly of profit-driven, commercial banking interests.



o Campaign for the mandate of the South African Reserve Bank to target inclusively economic growth and moderate interest rates.



o Campaign for a thriving co-operative banking sector at all levels, national, provincial and local.



Dismantling the networks of state capture and clamping down on other forms of corruption



As the SACP 15th National Congress, we welcomed the submission made by the Central Committee to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, the “fraudulent alienation of the state”. In campaigning to dismantle the networks of the fraudulent alienation of the state and to clamp down on other forms of corruption, the SACP will strengthen its capacity to advance the way forward proposed in the submission.



We mandate the 15th National Congress Central Committee of the Party to complete studying the entire text of the commission’s report, its orientation, findings and recommendations, to produce a comprehensive political and strategic response, to contribute to the programme of action required to dismantle the networks of the state capture corruption and to ensure that state capture does not rear its ugly head again.



We reiterate the Party’s call, for the state to move decisively with prosecutorial investigations to hold those who were involved or complicit in the state capture corruption to account, to the full extent of the law. We expect prosecutions and maximum sentences. In addition, holding to account those who were involved or complicit in the state capture must include using asset forfeiture processes to seize the assets, the proceeds, the ill-gotten wealth that they gained from the corruption



Workers of the world, unite for peace and development



We express our solidarity with the people of Swaziland struggling for democracy, against the repressive monarchy, with the people of Zimbabwe who are facing human rights violations in a country devastated by virtual economic collapse.



We denounce imperialist aggression by the blood thirsty and trigger-happy United States-dominated NATO. The expansion of NATO, which is an instrument of war, represents the greatest threat to world peace and equality in our time. At present, this is manifesting itself through the NATO-provoked war in Ukraine. The impact of the war, including NATO’s weaponisation and wielding of extraterritorial sanctions, includes the global cost-of-living crisis.



We reiterate our call for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and for an end to the war on all fronts.



We pledge our solidarity with the people of the world amidst the United States imperialist aggression and foreign occupation, including but not limited to the people of Palestine, Western Sahara, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.



The SACP reiterates its support for the Cuban people and government in their struggle for the United States to lift its unilateral and illegal blockade against Cuba and unconditionally end its occupation of the Cuban territory of Guantanamo Bay. The United Nations General Assembly must make its voice consistent and louder, once again, by voting for the lifting of the blockade.

Build the SACP as a vanguard party of the working-class for socialism



We will strengthen the vanguard character of the SACP in this extremely challenging national and global context. Over the years, the Party has grown in membership from around 10,000 members in 1998 to approximately 340,000 by July 2022.



Over the next five years, we will deepen our work to build and strengthen the independent voice of the SACP and strengthen our political, ideological and organisation capacity to mobilise popular forces and build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor. This will include deepening political education within the ranks of the Party, to ensure that its membership growth is accompanied by a qualitative growth. We will build the SACP as a campaigning Party of the working-class and poor for socialism.



As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels state in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, “the first step in the revolution by the working-class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy”, to build the supremacy of the proletariat, and to organise the proletariat to become, and afterwards as, the ruling class. The questions of the class character and leadership of the state, and the societal power concentrated, organised and exercised in the state, are crucial to every working-class revolution, including the national democratic revolution, our advance to socialism.

Therefore, we directed the newly elected Central Committee to consolidate and strengthen for finalisation by the next Augmented Central Committee the roadmap of the Party on building working-class leadership of society and hegemony over the state. In carrying out this task, the Central Committee must pay particular attention to the strategy and tactics suitable for active engagement in the electoral terrain of the class struggle. This work must be guided by the key task of the SACP arising from the Congress, “Together, Let’s Build a Powerful, Socialist Movement of the Workers and Poor”: SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE—BUILD IT NOW!


SACP 15TH NATIONAL CONGRESS CENTRAL COMMITTEE

General Secretary – Cde Solly Mapaila
National Chairperson – Cde Blade Nzimande
National Treasurer – Cde Joyce Moloi-Moropa
1st Deputy General Secretary – Cde Madala Masuku
2nd Deputy General Secretary – Cde David Masondo and
National Deputy Chairperson – Cde Thulas Nxesi

http://solidnet.org/article/South-Afric ... July-2022/

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Saharawi Liberation Army launches attacks against Moroccan troops


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Hostilities continue for 20 consecutive months and cover 170 conflict zones since the ceasefire was broken in November 2020. | Photo: Ecsaharaui
Published 18 July 2022

On the last date the hostilities have been concentrated in Mahbes, a town occupied by Morocco and close to the border with Mauritania and Algeria.

The Saharawi Liberation Army launched this Saturday a "massive missile attack" against several enclaves in the north and southeast of Western Sahara occupied by Moroccan troops.

Local media indicate that the Saharawi commandos neutralized a series of military points belonging to Morocco; Counting during the last day, at least five Moroccan entrenchments have been hit, and two other alert points on the wall have been neutralized.

In this regard, the Saharawi Ministry of National Defense stated in a statement that its offensive has caused "innumerable losses of life and equipment among the ranks of the Moroccan Army"; concentrating on the most recent sessions in Mahbes, a town occupied by Morocco and close to the border with Mauritania and Algeria.

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In addition, the attacks have also been directed against the northern region of Farsía, and Guelta Zemmur, in the center; the latter of great importance due to the wealth of resources it possesses, fundamentally associated with fishing and phosphates.

Saharawi media deepened that the armed conflict continues for the twentieth consecutive month since the breakdown of the ceasefire in November 2020; and extends to a total of 170 zones.

In November 2020, the president of the self-proclaimed Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali, issued a presidential decree announcing the end of the ceasefire commitment signed between the Polisario Front and Morocco. in 1991.


The origins of the resumption of the conflict refer to the construction of a road through Morocco to facilitate transit to Mauritania, although the Polisario considered that it was an illegal infrastructure under the 1991 ceasefire agreement.

The Spanish colony of the Sahara was occupied in 1975 by Morocco and Mauritania after the signing on November 14 of the Tripartite Agreements, which ceded the sovereignty of said territory held by Spain to these two countries.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/ejercito ... -0008.html

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Ghana’s unions and left reject bailout talks with the IMF as economic crisis spirals

Ghana has initiated talks with the International Monetary Fund to seek a potential bailout amid a major economic crisis. This has been rejected by the Socialist Movement of Ghana and trade unions who argue that this will do nothing to alleviate the structural problems in the economy

July 20, 2022 by Tanupriya Singh

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The government of Ghana has initiated talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a potential bailout program. A delegation of the IMF concluded a week-long visit to Accra on July 13 and met with officials including Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. The proposal has been severely criticized by the Ghanaian left, especially the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG), and trade unions.

In a statement released after the visit, IMF Mission Chief Carlo Sdralevich stated, “The IMF team held initial discussions on a comprehensive reform package to restore macroeconomic stability and anchor debt sustainability…The discussions focused on improving fiscal balances in a sustainable way while protecting the vulnerable and poor; ensuring credibility of the monetary policy and exchange rate regimes; preserving financial sector stability; and designing reforms to enhance growth, create jobs, and strengthen governance.”

The IMF has said that it will continue to engage with the Ghanaian government on the formulation of an Enhanced Domestic Program that could be supported by an IMF arrangement. According to reports, negotiations could result in Ghana being eligible for up to USD 3 billion under the Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility. The programme could extend over three years, the support being conditional on the government meeting certain economic and policy targets.

“The high cost of living is killing us”

Talks were held just days after Ghana witnessed another round of protests against the spiraling economic crisis. The action was organized by Arise Ghana, which identifies itself as a pressure group, at the end of June to protest the “persistence and astronomical hikes in fuel prices by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government”, the “grabbing of State lands” by government officials, “increased rate of police brutalities and state-sponsored killing of innocent Ghanaians”, and the introduction of a 1.5% tax levied on all electronic transactions.

Protestors also demanded a full, bi-partisan parliamentary probe into COVID-19 expenditures and the cancellation of the controversial Agyapa Royalties Deal.

Official figures show that the inflation rate in Ghana hit 29.8% in June, the highest since 2004. The price of food has shot up by 30.7% over the past year, with inflation of 59.3% in the price of vegetable oil and 65% in wheat flour. Housing, which includes electricity, water and gas, has registered an inflation of 38.4% and commuters are paying over 40% more for transport, with an inflation of 99.7% in diesel prices and 69.4% for petrol.

The country’s currency, the cedi, has lost 23.5% of its value against the dollar since the start of 2022. Speaking on July 8, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated that the government had sought the collaboration with the IMF “to repair, in the short run, our finances which have taken a severe hit…while we continue to work on the medium to long term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal to create the Ghana beyond aid, that is building a resilient, robust, Ghanian economy.”

A crisis decades in the making: Socialist Movement of Ghana rejects IMF engagement

The government’s move has been strongly opposed by the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG). A statement by the movement read, “The crisis the Ghanaian economy has been plunged into is only a symptom of the collapse of the neoliberal order which has been diligently enforced by the IMF, the World Bank, the centers of power in the colonial metropolis and neo-colonial regime spread across Africa, Asia, South America, and elsewhere.

“The enforcers of this order have insisted over the last 30 years or more that the path to economic recovery lies in the unbridled and doctrinaire privatization of state enterprises, the withdrawal of subsidies on social services, reckless devaluation of national currencies, and the massive retrenchment of labor in the public sector.”

The movement stated that Ghana is currently spending 128% of its total national revenue on public sector emoluments and debt servicing. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is reportedly at a shocking 97%.

Meanwhile, according to the SMG, food prices have skyrocketed by more than 400% in the past two years. The real value of wages and salaries is reported to be only around 40% of what it was six years ago. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the crisis as they form 36% of the country’s population. By the end of 2021, young people formed approximately three-quarters of unemployed adults in Ghana.

The SMG has rejected the government’s claims that the current situation has arisen out of external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. The movement has pointed out that the total COVID-19-related expenditure, as confirmed by the Finance Minister, was less than GH₵25 billion out of more than GH₵200 billion. The Country Director of the World Bank in Africa had stated last month that while “COVID did not help”, the signs of a crumbling economy had been visible long before the pandemic. The SMG also argued that the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on Ghana’s economy had not been that profound.

“The IMF is anti-worker”

The impact of the crisis is also manifest in the wave of labor unrest in the country. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Teachers and Educational Workers Union of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Concerned Teachers Association of Ghana went on strike on July 4. They were demanding that the government pay a Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) amounting to 20% of their basic salary.

The work stoppages were on the verge of spilling over to other sectors including health, where the Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives, Health Services Workers’ Union and others had announced strikes. Over 27,000 workers in the public sector were also set to walkout as the Public Services Workers Union announced an industrial action on July 19.

Back in 2021, the Ghanaian government had reached a compromise with the TUC for a 4% increase in the base pay in 2021, and 7% in 2022. However, this was conditional on the government maintaining the rate of inflation below 8%. The government had also agreed to not declare redundancies in the public services and to continue to employ young people in the public service.

However, in the beginning of 2022, official figures showed that inflation had hit 27% and the prices of goods and services had tripled, according to Public Services Workers Union leader Ken Tweneboah Kodua. “Anyone earning an income in this country could tell you that their current pay could not buy two-thirds of a basic goods basket, that is a wage loss,” he said.

After the government refused to engage with the workers and respond to their demands, the unions began organizing for industrial action to demand a 20% COLA. Though the increase itself would not have been enough, it would at least be a gesture, argued Kodua, to provide a cushion for the workers. On July 12, the Finance Minister reportedly told organized labor that he would only meet with unions that were not on strike. All unions walked out in solidarity.

After some unions had been on strike for over a week, the government finally agreed on July 15 to provide a 15% COLA allowance to all public sector workers effective from July 1.

However, the struggle may not be over yet. The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has already declared that it will “not tolerate any IMF conditionality that negatively impacts the existing agreements between the Government and the Association to improve the conditions of service” of its members.

The TUC has also condemned the government’s decision to approach the IMF as a “tragic mistake and a sad one for Ghana.” A statement by Secretary General Dr. Yaw Baah asserted that handing over the management of the economy to the IMF was not the solution: “These IMF programs have only imposed unnecessary hardships on Ghanaians with practically nothing to show for them. The solutions proffered by the Fund are not appropriate for our economy. They scratch the edges of the problem without tackling the fundamental issues…”

“The IMF has ruled us for some decades now, history will tell you that in all the programs they have had, those who have tended to suffer the most are not only the workers but the potential workers. The IMF doesn’t come for the workers…their policies are anti-worker…all their programs tend to decrease the real income of the employees and tend to cut down the compensation for public service– its as if they just don’t care about the public worker- this worker who is the engine of the government, you tend to hold or slash his income,” stated Kodua.

The need for a transformation of Ghana’s economy

The latest round of talks is at least the seventeenth time that the West African country has approached the IMF. The first time was after Ghana’s first Prime Minister and President – socialist and Pan-Africanist revolutionary leader Dr. Kwame Nkrumah – was overthrown in a CIA-sponsored coup in 1966.

By 1971, the Ghanaian cedi was devalued by 44%. The next few years witnessed major political and economic crises and instability, including two military coups in 1972 and 1979. By the early 1980s, the situation in Ghana had become dire, with inflation soaring to 123% and a widespread famine caused by prolonged drought and bushfires.

In 1983, under the leadership of Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings, the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) implemented a structural adjustment and economic recovery program sponsored by the IMF and the World Bank. This paved the way for neoliberal reforms including the liberalization of prices, privatization, and financial and public sector restructuring.

In the span of one year, 300,000 public sector workers lost their jobs. Meanwhile, the workforce at the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) was slashed from 100,000 to 10,000, according to Kodua. Subsequently, subsidies were removed from social services including health, and a Cash and Carry system was put in place which required people to pay beforehand when seeking care at facilities: “access to healthcare became largely dependent on how deep your pocket was,” said Kwesi Pratt Junior, General Secretary of the SMG.

“One of the conditions they [the IMF] gave us was that we should sell state enterprises, they told us that these enterprises are wasteful. Of the 400 factories that Nkrumah built, by 1992, we had sold more than 300. Out of all the enterprises and factories that we sold, only two appear to be working now. The others simply collapsed,” he added.

The IMF also pushed for Ghana to devalue its currency. According to Pratt, cumulatively between 1982 and now, the Ghanaian cedi has been devalued by 38,000%.

Ghana would continue to approach the IMF over the following decades.The most recent program was part of a three-year Extended Credit Facility arrangement signed with the IMF in 2015 under former President John Mahama. In exchange for a loan of USD 918 million, the government imposed reforms including cuts on energy subsidies, a 17% hike in fuel prices, and a freeze on jobs in the public sector. The nominal increase in the total wage bill was also restrained to 10%.

Ghana exited the IMF program in 2019 (after it was extended by one year), this time under the administration of President Akufo-Addo and his right-wing New Patriotic Party.

“What we got in return was an economy still overly dependent on production and export of raw materials and import of manufactured products. Most of our productive sectors such as mining, petroleum, and telecommunications are still being controlled by foreign companies,” argued the TUC.

Despite being one of the world’s largest exporters of gold, a report by the Bank of Ghana found that less than 1.7% of the returns from gold made it back to the government. Between 1990 and 2002, the government received only USD 87.3 million from the USD 5.2 billion worth of gold produced.

As the government prepares to take the next steps, the SMG has stated that its expectations from the process are “not optimistic”, arguing that there is “no evidence that any country, anywhere in the world, has managed to improve its economic fortunes as a result of the implementation of measures under the marching orders of the Bretton Woods Institutions.”

“The current crisis in the neo-colonies after 30 years of the rigorous implementation of the Economic Recovery and Structural Adjustment Programmes is the clearest indication that these measures have failed to address the crippling conditions imposed on working people,” SMG said. There are concerns that a new agreement will lead to further austerity measures, given that the IMF has already pushed fiscal consolidation for Ghana as part of its COVID-19 recovery strategy.

“One thing is very certain,” argues the TUC, “the eighteenth IMF program will not solve our problems. Therefore, we should be prepared for the nineteenth, twentieth and more programm in the next few years, even though it is so obvious that IMF programm pay practically no attention to the removal of structural constraints to sustainable growth and development.” The TUC has called for policies and programs aimed at ending the domination of foreign companies in the most productive sectors of the economy, minimizing dependence on natural resources, and building a robust manufacturing base.

“The IMF is not here to bring down prices, they are not here to ensure that we construct roads– it is not their business and they simply don’t care. They are not here to ensure that we expand access to social services like education and healthcare…The IMF’s primary concern is to make sure that we build the capacity to pay our loans, not to develop,” Pratt stated.

The SMG has argued that removing Ghana from its current state of dependence will only be possible through a fundamental restructuring of the economy, hinged on socialist transformation. “We need to focus on building an economy in which the resources of Ghana are owned by its people and are exploited for their own benefit.” The organization has argued that referring to Dr. Nkrumah’s model of development based on massive industrialization could become a key factor.

Under the current conditions, Pratt argued that “the government must listen to organized labor, and begin to build a national consensus so we avoid the calamity which is looming on the horizon.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/20/ ... s-spirals/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:02 pm

Russia, African Countries Prepare a Second Russia-Africa Summit

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Lavrov recalled that the first Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum was held in the Russian city of Sochi, from October 22nd to 24th, 2019, under the motto “For peace, security, and development”. | Photo: Twitter @BaracoaRadio

Published 23 July 2022

Russian FM Sergei Lavrov stressed that the development of a comprehensive association with African countries continues to be one of the priorities of Russia’s foreign policy, as they are open to further expansion of mutually beneficial ties.


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that the Russian authorities are working together with their African counterparts on the agenda of the second Russia-Africa summit.

“The task of bringing Russian and African economic operators closer to their respective markets and encourage their participation in large-scale infrastructure projects is coming to the fore at the next meeting,” Lavrov said.

The Foreign Minister detailed in an article for the African media that said meeting is scheduled to take place in 2023.

Lavrov recalled that the first Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum was held in the Russian city of Sochi, from October 22nd to 24th, 2019, under the motto “For peace, security, and development”.


The foreign minister also stressed that the development of a comprehensive association with African countries continues to be one of the priorities of Russia’s foreign policy, as they are open to further expansion of mutually beneficial ties.

He stressed that Russia “does not impose anything on anyone, does not educate the lives of others, and has great respect for the sovereignty of African states, their inalienable right to determine their own paths of development. We are firmly committed to the principle African problems – African solutions,” he said.

Lavrov emphasized that such an approach to the development of interstate relations is different from the master-slave logic imposed by the old metropolises, which reproduces the obsolete colonial model.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0001.html

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Africa taken for ‘neo-colonial’ ride
By Anis Chowdhury, Jomo Kwame Sundaram (Posted Jul 26, 2022)

Originally published: JOMO on July 25, 2022 (more by JOMO) |

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR. Like so many others, Africans have long been misled. Alleged progress under imperialism has long been used to legitimize exploitation. Meanwhile, Western colonial powers have been replaced by neo-colonial governments and international institutions serving their interests.

‘Shithole’ pots of gold

U.S. President Donald Trump’s “shitholes”, mainly in Africa, were and often still are ‘pots of gold’ for Western interests. From 1445 to 1870, Africa was the major source of slave labour, especially for Europe’s ‘New World’ in the Americas.

Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa noted “colonised Africans, like pre-colonial African chattel slaves, were pushed around into positions which suited European interests and which were damaging to the African continent and its peoples.”

The ‘scramble for Africa’ from the late nineteenth century saw European powers racing to secure raw materials monopolies through direct colonialism. Western powers all greatly benefited from Africa’s plunder and ruin.

European divide-and-conquer tactics typically also had pliant African collaborators. Colonial powers imposed taxes and forced labour to build infrastructure to enable raw material extraction.

Racist ideologies legitimized European imperialism in Africa as a “civilizing mission”. Oxford-trained, former Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson–an unabashed apologist for Western imperialism–insists colonialism laid the foundations for modern progress.

Richest, but poorest and hungriest!
A recent blog asks, “Why is the continent with 60% of the world’s arable land unable to feed itself? … And how did Africa go from a relatively self-sufficient food producer in the 1970s to an overly dependent food importer by 2022?”

Deeper analyses of such uncomfortable African realities seem to be ignored by analysts influenced by the global North, especially the Washington-based international financial institutions. UNCTAD’s 2022 Africa report is the latest to disappoint.

It does not guide African governments on how to actually implement its long list of recommendations given their limited policy space, resources and capabilities. Worse, their proposals seem indistinguishable from an Africa-oriented version of the discredited neoliberal Washington Consensus.

With 30% of the world’s mineral resources and the most precious metal reserves on Earth, Africa has the richest concentration of natural resources–oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, tropical hardwood forests and fruits.

Yet, Africa remains the poorest continent, with the average per capita output of most countries worth less than $1,500 annually! Of 46 least developed countries, 33 are in Africa–more than half the continent’s 54 nations.

Africa remains the world’s least industrialized region, with only South Africa categorized as industrialized. Incredibly, Africa’s share of global manufacturing fell from about 3% in 1970 to less than 2% in 2013.

About 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa. A net food exporter until the 1970s, the continent has become a net importer. Structural adjustment reform conditionalities–requiring trade liberalization–have cut tariff revenue, besides undermining import-substituting manufacturing and food security.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 24% of the world’s hungry. Africa is the only continent where the number of undernourished people has increased over the past four decades. About 27.4% of Africa’s population was ‘severely food insecure’ in 2016.

In 2020, 281.6 million Africans were undernourished, 82 million more than in 2000! Another 46 million became hungry during the pandemic. Now, Ukraine sanctions on wheat and fertilizer exports most threaten Africa’s food security, in both the short and medium-term.

Structural adjustment
Many of Africa’s recent predicaments stem from structural adjustment programs (SAPs) much of Africa and Latin America have been subjected to from the 1980s. The Washington-based international financial institutions, the African Development Bank and all donors support the SAPs.

SAP advocates promised foreign direct investment and export growth would follow, ensuring growth and prosperity. Now, many admit neoliberalism was oversold, ensuring the 1980s and 1990s were ‘lost decades’, worsened by denial of its painfully obvious consequences.

Instead, ‘extraordinarily disadvantageous geography’, ‘high ethnic diversity’, the ‘natural resource curse’, ‘bad governance’, corrupt ‘rent-seeking’ and armed conflicts have been blamed. Meanwhile, however, colonial and neo-colonial abuse, exploitation and resource plunder have been denied.

While World Bank SAPs were officially abandoned in the late 1990s following growing criticism, replacements–such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers–have been like “old wine in new bottles”. Although purportedly ‘home-grown’, they typically purvey bespoke versions of SAPs.

With trade liberalization and greater specialization, many African countries are now more dependent on fewer export commodities. With more growth spurts during commodity booms, African economies have become even more vulnerable to external shocks.

Can the West be trusted?
Earlier, G7 countries reneged on their 2005 Gleneagles pledge–to give $25 billion more yearly to Africa to ‘Make Poverty History’–within the five years they gave themselves. Since then, developed countries have delivered far less than the $100 billion of climate finance annually they had promised developing nations in 2009.

The Hamburg G20’s 2017 ‘Compact with Africa’ (CwA) promised to combat poverty and climate change effects. In fact, CwA has been used to promote the business interests of donor countries, particularly Germany.

Primarily managed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, CwA has actually failed to deliver significant foreign investment, instead sowing confusion among participating countries.

Powerful Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development governments successfully blocked developing countries’ efforts at the 2015 Addis Ababa UN conference on financing for development for inclusive UN-led international tax cooperation and to stem illicit financial outflows.

Africa lost $1.2–1.4 trillion in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009–about four times its external debt in 2013. This greatly surpasses total official development assistance received over the same period.

Africa must unite
Under Nelson Mandela’s leadership, Africa had led the fight for the ‘public health exception’ to international intellectual property law. Although Africa suffers most from ‘vaccine apartheid’, Western lobbyists blocked developing countries’ temporary waiver request to affordably meet pandemic needs.

African solidarity is vital to withstand pressures from powerful foreign governments and transnational corporations. African nations must also cooperate to build state capabilities to counter the neoliberal ‘good governance’ agenda.

Africa needs much more policy space and state capabilities, not economic liberalization and privatization. This is necessary to unlock critical development bottlenecks and overcome skill and technical limitations.

https://mronline.org/2022/07/26/africa- ... nial-ride/

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South Africa’s energy crisis escalates
Behind rolling power cuts in South Africa loom deep-seated socioeconomic issues worsened by the rich countries of the world

July 22, 2022 by Brian Kamanzi

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Photo via World Bank Photo Collection

On the morning of June 27, 2022, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) shop steward David Fankomo joined his fellow members at the picket line outside Eskom’s Emalahleni office in the heart of South Africa’s coal belt. Workers at Eskom, the nation’s state-owned electricity utility, have been embattled in four rounds of wage negotiations with the executives since April 2022. South Africa is rich in energy but is in the midst of cascading energy shortages. Fankomo’s union is at the heart of this crisis: the workers bring the coal out of the ground but live with barely enough of its energy.

On June 28, Eskom announced that it was going to implement “Stage 6 load shedding” due to “unlawful industrial action.” “Load shedding” is defined as a rationing measure to reduce the demand for electrical energy by imposing rotational power outages when the supply from power plants is severely constrained. South Africa’s load shedding schedule ranges from stage 1 to 8. Stage 8 represents a full-scale collapse of the grid. Stage 6 has left parts of the country with no power, in the middle of winter, for up to eight hours a day. Load shedding has become part of the everyday vocabulary and one of the defining symptoms of post-Apartheid state decay and political dysfunction.

Gearing up for a collapse

Eskom’s crisis offers insight into the failures and trajectory of the ruling African National Congress’ National Democratic Revolution. The 1996 implementation of GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution), a macroeconomic framework adopted by former President Thabo Mbeki, laid the groundwork for the expansion of public-private partnerships as a model for service delivery. This policy spurred reforms that initiated a mass rollout of prepaid electricity meters as a more aggressive means to collect residential electricity payments. These changes were forced even with steadily rising electricity costs, which compounded to introduce new barriers to access for working-class users. In response, resistance came from labor and civil society, both of whom demanded an end to privatization.

Since GEAR, there has been a chronic lack of investment in new public generation capacity, leaving Eskom reliant on aging and poorly maintained coal-fired power stations.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA)’s spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola told me that her union holds “Eskom accountable for the rampant waste of taxpayer money spent on bloat coal costs, diesel and Independent Power Producers, while attempting to cut workers’ benefits.” Hlubi-Majola has insisted that workers at Eskom have yet to receive a meaningful wage increase in four years, but in the same period, primary energy costs have sharply risen. As the negotiations reached a deadlock at the end of June 2022, a number of workers embarked on protest action, independent of a union sanction, to communicate their anger and dissatisfaction.

No lights at home

South Africa’s government reports that more than one in three workers are now unemployed. This comes at a time of skyrocketing fuel and energy prices. “Electricity is going off at times when workers are coming home,” says Kashiefa Achmat, chairperson of the Housing Assembly, a local civil society organization leading a campaign for “decent housing for all.” She adds, “Even the food we have bought goes off very quickly. Where we live, when the cuts are at night, it’s very dark and dangerous to walk around, especially for women. Gangsters are waiting for these opportunities; even cables are being stolen. Our phone networks also become slow when load shedding happens.”

The use of wood and paraffin in urban households is common due to high costs of electricity or a lack of electrical connection altogether. This is particularly prevalent in townships due to a lack of secure land tenure of recently expanded informal settlements.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the April 2020 lockdowns, South Africa has been defined by hundreds of land occupations and service delivery strikes. Working-class communities have taken to the streets in continued efforts to force the government to deliver on its basic mandate, only to be faced with police repression and opportunistic use of special pandemic-related regulations to evade engagement.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

Under the existing financing model for local government, municipalities are forced to generate profits off the provision of basic services to fund their operations, invest in new infrastructure and pay off existing debt. As of 2021, outstanding municipal debt owed to Eskom stood at over R35 billion, with at least 20 municipalities defaulting on payments. This trend is largely a byproduct of the flawed system of municipal financing and not the result of individualized instances of bad behavior from users.

Eskom’s own debt levels have skyrocketed to about R400 billion. In a study produced in support of the trade union movement, Eskom Transformed, the roots of the debt were sourced from three key areas. Predatory loans granted by the World Bank and IMF for the mega-coal projects Medupi and Kusile both incurred irregular expenditure and overruns. Increases in the cost of primary energy came largely due to shifts to purchase expensive energy from private generators. The debt levels also came from dramatic increases due to the cost of coal from local suppliers.

Just transition

Against the backdrop of this crisis, South Africa’s energy transition plans have caught international headlines in the wake of the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow. The UK, France, Germany, and the United States have proposed a Just Energy Transition Partnership agreement with South Africa valued at $8.5 billion, consisting of a still-to-be-negotiated blend of grants and loans. The financing plan, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, is aimed at accelerating the closure of South Africa’s coal fleet and developing enabling infrastructure for rapid deployment of renewable energy systems. The plan has been closely tied to another round of aggressive reforms aiming to restructure the national energy system enabling increased use of private power plants. These projects are already dominated by multinational energy utilities, together with shareholdings by private equity holdings, both largely located in Europe.

Komati power station, a 1960s-era coal plant based in Mpumalanga, is the first generator due for decommissioning under the proposed plans. The station has been earmarked to be repowered to make use of solar photovoltaic arrays, gas turbines and battery storage. NUM’s Fankomo, based on this very site, has issued concerns to the media over a lack of worker consultation and uncertainty about the future ownership of the plant despite the imminent closure date of September 2022.

Two paths lie ahead. One is that liberal technocrats will provide a market-driven solution, whose efforts have failed for the past quarter-century. The other is that the unions can channel the building discontent to force a new social compact. The unions have called for the building toward a mass campaign for a general strike demanding an end to privatization alongside a broad list of historical demands to bring the economy under shared ownership and control.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/22/ ... escalates/

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What is the controversy around Tunisian President Kais Saied’s draft constitution?

Fadil Aliriza, founder and editor-in-chief of Meshkal, talks about the draft constitution presented by Tunisian president Kais Saied for a referendum and talks about why there is dissatisfaction about the document

July 21, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch



On July 25, a national referendum will be held in Tunisia to vote on the draft of a new constitution being presented by President Kais Saied. The move has faced criticism from political players representing workers’ voices in Tunisia, with numerous parties calling for a boycott of the upcoming referendum. Why is the constitution facing such criticism? Fadil Aliriza, founder and editor-in-chief of Meshkal, answers this and more.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/21/ ... stitution/

Low turnout in referendum on new constitution in Tunisia

Preliminary numbers indicate a very low voter turnout in the referendum which was held amid boycott and protests by major opposition groups

July 25, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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The large protest against Kais Saied's referendum was met with heavy police repression. Photo: Chahd Lina Belhadj/ Meshkal

One year after President Kais Saied sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, the Tunisian people were invited to vote in a referendum to adopt a new constitution for the country on July 25. The voting occurred amid widespread calls for boycott of the referendum by major political parties and civil right groups.

According to reports, turnout in the referendum within Tunisia was only 13.6%. On Saturday, Tunisia’s election commission reported that only 4.5 to 6.5% of Tunisians living abroad had voted in the referendum so far, TAP reported.

The new constitution, drafted after a so-called national dialogue, would replace the existing one formulated in 2014 following the Tunisian revolution of 2011. A draft of the new constitution released earlier this month gives the president more powers over legislation and the judiciary than the existing document. The draft has further enraged the opposition, who claim that it is an attempt to create an absolute presidency and individual rule for Saied.

Parties such as the Islamist Ennahda, Democratic Progressive Party, Free Destourian Party, and the leftist Workers’ Party of Tunisia, among others, have been leading various campaigns asking the people to boycott the referendum, claiming that the process through which the new constitution was drafted is not democratic but illegitimate.

Large-scale protests have been going on in Tunisia since the president’s power grab last year. Last Friday and Saturday, several thousands took to the streets in capital Tunis against the referendum. The police forces tried to brutally suppress the demonstration and arrested scores of human rights activists and members of the Workers’ Party of Tunisia.

The proceedings of the committee which drafted the constitution have also been questioned on the grounds that its appointment was arbitrary. The committee was not allowed to consult any political party while drafting the constitution. Tunisia’s largest trade union, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), also boycotted the consultation with the committee despite being invited. It claimed that the so-called national dialogue was unilateral and arbitrary.

The committee was headed by Sadok Belaid, a law professor. The opposition claimed that he was handpicked only because he is one of Saied’s confidants. However, even Belaid claimed that the draft he submitted to the president was edited by Saied and “contains considerable risks and shortcomings” which could pave the way for “a disgraceful dictatorial regime,” Al-Jazeera reported.

According to the latest reports, voting on the referendum began early on Monday and the voter participation rate is expected to be low.


President Saied had dissolved the parliament last year and suspended the 2014 constitution. He also sacked a large number of judges after accusing them of inefficiency and harboring terrorists. He has been accused by the opposition parties of carrying out a coup against the 2011 revolution in order to establish his personal rule. Saied had alleged that most of Tunisia’s ruling class is corrupt and inefficient. He cited COVID-19 mismanagement and the deteriorating economic condition as examples of their inefficiency.

Saied has now claimed that low turnout will not affect the prospects of the referendum. He accused the opposition parties of using corrupt means to scuttle the referendum process and asserted that “we will not let Tunisia fall prey” to those tactics, Al-Jazeera reported.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/25/ ... n-tunisia/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:18 pm

Blood-letting in the Blue Nile: ‘Tribal wars’ triggered for the survival of Sudan’s military junta?

The junta in Sudan is deliberately dragging the country toward civil war by provoking tribal conflicts across the border States, warn communist activists and members of resistance committees

July 25, 2022 by Pavan Kulkarni

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Displaced from their houses during the violence that was largely in Roseires, many have arrived in Blue Nile's capital Damazine. (Mohamed Mustafa/Twitter)

Demonstrations were held in different cities of Sudan all of last week calling for peace in the country’s restive border States. The protesters also condemned the military junta and its ally, a former armed rebel group, for provoking violence between two ethnic communities – Funj and Hausa– in the southeastern Blue Nile State.

A young protester, Abu Bakr Ismail, died during the country-wide actions on July 21. He was hit in the chest when security forces fired live bullets to disperse a demonstration in Omdurman city in Khartoum State.

He was the 115th protester to be killed since the military coup in Sudan on October 25, 2021. His lawyer, Saleh Bushra, who sought an autopsy into his murder, was harassed and interrogated by the security forces who ostensibly suspected him of being Ismail’s killer. Another protester, 21-year-old Hussam Al-Sayadh, who was “kidnapped” by the security forces, is feared to have been forcibly disappeared.

The security forces also injured several protesters by firing rubber bullets, shooting tear gas canisters directly at the protesters’ heads, and attacking them with stones and batons, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) reported on July 23. Live bullets and tear gas were also used on Sunday, July 24, against the demonstration in Omdurman.

At least 105 killed in Blue Nile, almost 20,000 displaced

In a stark contrast to this crackdown on anti-coup peace demonstrations, the army is accused of standing back and allowing armed violence to unfold for three days, from July 14-17, in the Blue Nile State bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan. Roseires, Blue Nile’s largest city along the Ethiopian border, was the epicenter of the violence. Clashes were also reported from the town of Quainsan and the State capital Damazine.

The official death toll acknowledged by the Federal Health Ministry rose to 105 on July 20. According to the Coalition of Medical and Health Organizations in Blue Nile, 242 people have been declared dead in the Teaching hospital in Damazine, and 41 others in Roseires.

By July 16, the CCSD had reported that these hospitals were running short of even basic prescription medicines and emergency drugs. Several of the injured are in a critical condition and require surgeries. “Doctors and health personnel are working under complex conditions in the complete absence of the state’s health ministry,” added the CCSD statement.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated on July 22 that at least 19,500 were displaced in this violence. 1,500 of them are in Roseires and Geisan, 14,000 in Damazine, and another 4,000 have fled north to the neighboring Sennar State.

The local Resistance Committees (RCs) in these areas have been on the frontlines of organizing aid and relief for the displaced, while those in other regions have been raising funds from their respective areas. A network of over 5,000 such committees, organized in neighborhoods across the country, have been the backbone of Sudan’s pro-democracy movement with protests organized nearly every day for the past eight months since the coup.

The pro-democracy movement has observed that confronted by these protests that threaten its grip over power in the center, the junta has been pushing all the peripheral regions of Sudan, rich in mineral wealth and fertile lands, into the throes of manufactured tribal conflicts as another resort to divide-and-rule.

The RCs have also acknowledged that promoting peace and harmony between tribes and diffusing tensions provoked between them is imperative to defeat the junta by disarming it of the key weapon in its arsenal. Hence, they have been directing all their anti-coup activities towards this end.

The security forces injured at least 94 protesters, including by running several of them over with armored vehicles, during the peace demonstrations on July 17. The ‘March of Millions’ – which has been taking place country-wide several times every month since the coup – on that day focussed their central message on calling for brotherhood between tribes. Placards hailed unity against the junta which benefits from “tribalism”.

Slogans were also raised against the 2020 Juba Peace agreement. Without addressing the disputes over land and resources or the rehabilitation of millions who have been displaced in the war, the agreement, critics say, was merely a power-sharing deal between the leaders of armed rebel groups and the army. These leaders went on to support the military coup.

Instigation by former rebel leader Malik Agar, now an ally of the junta

Among the leaders who supported the coup is Malik Agar, who heads a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). Given control over Blue Nile after signing the Juba agreement, Agar has since been sharing power with the coup leaders in the Sovereignty Council, the highest body under the junta’s regime.

The Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), which is a key component of the grassroots resistance to the junta, has accused Agar of being the main instigator in this spate of violence between the Hausa and Funj tribes.

“The Funj tribes are regarded as natives of the Blue Nile region, while the Hausa migrated here in different periods over the centuries from West Africa, predominantly from Nigeria,” said Osama Saeed of the SCP.

“However,” he added, “there is no history of such clashes between the two. The Hausa largely kept to themselves and their agriculture. Fissures between the two began to appear only under (the rule of former dictator) Omar al Bashir, when the sections of Hausa were recruited into security forces to put down the rebellion by the Funj tribes.”

Fathi Elfadl, national spokesperson of the SCP, said, “While Bashir’s regime played on the contradictions due to competition over land and resources between the migratory and native tribes, the tensions between the Hausa and Funj had never before escalated to the point of such bloody clashes. This violence was instigated by the Agar faction of the SPLM-N who tried to set his former rivals against his own people who were withdrawing their support from him.”

The Funj people had supported the united SPLM-N since its formation in 2011. It was among the many armed rebel groups in the war against Bashir’s Islamist regime under which tribes in border regions of Sudan felt marginalized.

In 2017, SPLM-N split into two factions – one led by Agar and the other by Abdelaziz al-Hilu. The December Revolution, which started in 2018, forced Bashir out of power in 2019. Following these events, Agar’s faction signed the Juba peace agreement, while Al-Hilu’s faction refused.

“Ever since, Agar has been losing support of the Funj. They are increasingly opposing his administration over Blue Nile, especially after the coup,” Elfadl explained. He told Peoples Dispatch that in a desperate attempt to now woo the Hausa into supporting him, Agar instigated the Hausa leaders to claim chiefdom in a territory that had hitherto been under the administration of the Funj.

Earlier this year, Agar arbitrarily appointed his relative as the supreme chief of all the Blue Nile tribes. The latter, in turn, appointed a Hausa chief and drew up the geographical boundary of the land that was placed under his administration, reported a Darfur-based news page.

In May, the chief was reportedly imprisoned by the King of Blue Nile tribes after he banned Hausa girls from working in the market and his enforcers beat up several of them at checkpoints. Following his imprisonment, sections of the Hausa tribe supporting the new chief were extremely agitated. Fear that violence could breakout anytime was palpable in the State, according to several reports.

Instead of taking measures to diffuse these tensions, the junta allegedly pumped weapons to the Hausa tribe. When a Hausa youth was killed in Roseires on July 14, armed attacks followed. The Al-Hilu faction of the SPLM-N retaliated on the side of the Funj, and an armed conflict erupted.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) collaborating with Malik Agar?
On July 18 and 19, in the aftermath of the three-day long blood-letting, several members of the Hausa tribe went to the army base with weapons that they sought to hand over. They explained that they did not want war and were given these arms by Agar.

“It is well-known that the source of these weapons was the Rapid Support Forces (RSF),” said Saeed. The RSF is a notorious militia that was cultivated in Darfur under Bashir to suppress the armed rebel groups of marginalized tribes in this region in Sudan’s northwest. The RSF operates outside the official Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its commander, General Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemeti, is the military junta’s deputy chairman.

By committing an alleged genocide and war crimes in Darfur, the RSF forced the displacement of millions from their lands and took control over the bulk of the gold in the region. “The Blue Nile is (also) very rich in gold, chrome and other minerals, and Hemeti, wherever he finds gold, he must have a foothold,” observed Darfur News.

“Hemeti and his group are buying lands up and down the whole country,” said Elfadl. He added that different tribal leaders are being used at different times in different places by Hemeti in pursuit of his “interest in controlling land – especially farming lands and the farmers he is trying to turn into supporters of RSF.”

The people of Darfur – who have suffered the most under the RSF, whose uniformed and armed men are accused of continuing to loot, kill and rape in the region – have held demonstrations calling for peace in Blue Nile and cautioning fighting groups against falling prey to Hemeti’s machinations.

Peace demonstrations started in El Obeid, capital of North Darfur State, on June 19. On July 21, demonstrations were reported from El Geneina, capital of West Darfur State which in April had witnessed the massacre of over 200 people along with the displacement of about 100,000. Involvement of the RSF in this massacre, which was also declared as a “tribal conflict”, is well-documented.

Sudan at risk of territorial disintegration

While the SAF remains preoccupied in its crackdown on unarmed pro-democracy protests against the coup leaders attempt to retain power by pitting tribes against each other, the RSF has been deployed in the Blue Nile, ostensibly to prevent “tribal clashes.”

While an uneasy and fearful calm now hangs over Blue Nile, RCs in Roseires said in a statement on July 23 that the city is suffering from “lack of emergency medications, medical personnel, and food supply, as well as a total absence of hospital security, which has caused many medical personnel to withdraw.. out of fear for their lives.”

Further, with an electrical transformer burnt down, Blue Nile faced massive power outages since July 21, impacting other utilities, “such as drinking water supply, mills and other services, which has made life in the state.. unbearable for its residents,” the statement noted. While the fighting has stopped, many pro-democracy activists, in no way connected to the violence triggered by the ruling powers, have been arrested by the security forces deployed to stop the violence.

What is happening in Blue Nile is the same as what is unfolding in all the peripheries of the country – “in the East, in the North, in Darfur and elsewhere. I have never seen security deteriorate across the country to the extent it has in the eight months since the coup last October,” said the 80 year-old communist veteran.

“Sudan is witnessing a very destructive wave of killings that is gradually dragging the country into a civil-war. This will make way either for a more brutal Islamist dictatorship, or for the disintegration of the country. Division of the country into three main planks – the East, the Center and West – is already being advocated by the imperialist forces,” he warned, in a reference to the US-Saudi-sponsored negotiations. The interests of the regional forces – the armed former rebel groups now in alliance with the army and the state-sponsored tribal chiefdoms – are also in confluence with such a division, he added.

Under these circumstances, Elfadl argues, “it is the primary task of all forces which agree at least on the defense of the country’s territorial integrity to firstly organize to stop this bloodshed, and secondly to direct all its strength to overthrow the military junta and make way for a civilian transitional government.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/25/ ... ary-junta/

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Western Sahara: The War Morocco Denies
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 26, 2022
Carlos Aznárez and María Torrellas

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Alísalem Babeit acts as a representative of the Polisario Front in Cantabria (Spanish State) and is one of the many Saharawis who are convinced that the war they are waging against the Moroccan monarchy is just, as they have left their people no other choice.

For years they have been seeking a referendum, but neither Spain, nor France nor the UN have collaborated for that instance, hence now only weapons speak.

–Can you give us a picture of the current state of the war between the Polisario Front and Morocco?

After so many provocations by Morocco and the breaking of the cease-fire by that country, while the UN mission continued to look the other way, the Saharawi president Brahim Galli issued a decree and from then on they began to carry out punctual attacks. That was almost two years ago and today this struggle continues.

Of course, neither Morocco nor its allies are interested in making this information visible. Spain tried to send a delegation of journalists, so that they would be the first, after a year, to bring to light the fact that there is a war.

–A war with all its consequences?

-There is a real war, it exists, every day our fighters are attacking strategic points of the enemy, both to the south and to the north, this appears every day in our press with military balance sheets. The war is there although Morocco tries to hide it, together with its lackey media. It exists, there are daily casualties, there are attacks in areas where they have concentrated a greater number of bases and troops. They are subjected to daily bombardments, to artillery attacks and for the moment no major operation has been carried out, but with time our military strategists will surely know how and when to do it. This is in their hands.

Regarding information, our enemies try to deny it, practically all the western media neither want to mention it nor mention what is really going on. The war is a fact, if someone would like to prove it with evidence, they can come to the camps and the Polisario will take them to the front to see it and document it. As it was done with the delegation that left Madrid with our central delegation.

–There is an issue that is not clear to me in this war: Morocco has airplanes, helicopters, everything that the Polisario Front does not have, how do they manage to evade the military air offensive, how do they manage to move in the desert in front of this type of objectively superior weaponry?

-Our guerrillas, our fighters are experts in this geographical environment, but Morocco only attacks civilians, the drones are used against civilians. They rarely attacked areas where we did not have anti-aircraft defense, so we have had casualties because they were outside the defense zone of our army. But we do have good anti-aircraft defense, so far they have attacked the border with Mauritania, leaving many civilian casualties.

Our troops are safe because they are self-defense and they have their defense to avoid those attacks, however, Morocco attacks Saharawi civilians and they have also attacked Mauritanians and Algerians. They have attacked Algerian trucks, they have burned the trucks of civilians who were traders, but in our area, next to the wall, so far, they have not been able to attack our army units. That is why our army moves and controls to attack, when and where.

–Has the Polisario Front ever thought of taking the war inside Morocco, and moreover, how is this war experienced in the occupied Saharawi areas, such as El Aaiún and others like it?

-I can’t really answer you about going into the interior, because it is in the hands of the military strategists, and that is decided by the Saharawi government. But it is not impossible. They have done it in the past, they are capable of doing it, the wall does not prevent the penetration of the Saharawi soldiers, of the guerrillas. Respect of the Saharawi citizens in the occupied zone, the way to resist, as you have seen the case of Sultana Jaya who has been locked up for more than 500 days in her own house.

There have been other cases where they are threatened, imprisoned, and despite this, they always find ways to demonstrate against what they are doing to them, through some media and in the demonstrations that take place in the streets. There is an organized resistance in the interior, and there are activists who communicate the things that are being done, through some journalists who pass us the information of the demonstrations and demands. But once there is contact with delegations coming from abroad, this degree of resistance has always been expressed through witnesses.

There is the case of the Americans who were with Sultana, who saw with their own eyes what was happening to her, and Sultana Jaya is one of the thousands of cases that are happening. She was more visible to the world of activism, of human rights, but there are many similar cases, including others who are imprisoned just for the fact of expressing that they are Saharawi, and that is the condemnation that our people live in the occupied zone.

–Let’s talk a little bit about the refugee camps, and we will explain that the exodus from the Saharawi territories, from Western Sahara to Mauritania and Algeria began many years ago, when these camps were formed.

Then there was a pause in the war waiting for a UN referendum that never happened, and now there is war again. We know the situation is difficult after the pandemic, after the borders were closed.


-The situation in the camps is difficult because there is a lack of food and medicine. After the opening of the borders we started to recover a little, but there is really a lot of shortage, when the war starts, the attitude changes, the movement changes, absolutely everything changes. Now we are in a war scenario, therefore, terror returns to our women, the men are going to the front and that is the situation, we are going back to the years of the beginning of the exile.

Of course, now women are playing a fundamental role in the camps, in food distribution, water distribution, disease control, since there is a sanitary commission and they have been reactivated and they are the ones who take all the steps related to the camp.

–As in the 80’s when the war was going on?

-Yes, we are back to the situation of the 80’s, there is a kind of national alert, everybody is prepared for the war.

–How has the decision of the Spanish ruler Pedro Sanchez to leave aside the Polisario Front, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, and return to carnal relations with Morocco had an impact?

-The first step taken by the Polisario Front was to break off relations with the current government of Spain. That is to say they have broken, they made a break with international law. That is to say, Sanchez has turned his back on international law and with all the nerve in the world he starts talking about Ukraine, he talks about international law, that Ukraine needs weapons to defend itself. However, to us, they sell arms to Morocco, they equip Morocco and it is an absolute hypocrisy, it is the most hypocritical and cynical politician of the policies of the Spanish State at the present time.

–Now, has this had any negative repercussions on the solidarity groups that are active in Spain?

-No, there has been a reaction of the population against what the Government has done, even the two chambers are against what Pedro Sanchez has proposed, because he did not consult his party or the chambers. The Upper House and the Lower House, the Senate and the Congress, were not even consulted. Therefore, it is a unipersonal, unilateral decision and it will have consequences. The same is true of Algeria’s reaction: there was a twinning agreement in favor of Spain, as long as international law is respected. When they broke off, when they turned their backs on international law, Algeria froze all relations, because this agreement is based on international law. Of course, right now they are paying the price for having turned their back on international law, everyone is criticizing them, all the parties, all the autonomous communities, the whole solidarity movement, and they are between a rock and a hard place. But Sanchez has not reacted, as it is said by many media, it is not known why he has taken this bad stance or position.

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–There is a permanent blackmail by Morocco to open or close the door to the arrival of migrants to Spain. Recently, very serious events occurred in Merilla. I would like you to give us a reflection on what happened there.

-This is not new for Morocco, and it has been doing it for many years, as long as the Spanish government gives them something, they slow down, when they receive subsidies, they slow down, when they are supported with weapons, they slow down a little, but then they launch. It is a way of colonizing their own subjects, as I do not call them citizens. For all Moroccans the king is their owner and many people do not understand that, they make a royal contract for the Moroccan royal house, they belong as property to the king of Morocco, he commands them, he orders them, he does and undoes whatever he wants and there is no rule or law that prevents him from doing that.

Therefore, if a feudal society is guided by that, you have to pay the consequences of dealing with it. Therefore, the Spanish State has to pay that bill. If it does not, Morocco sends to the Canary Islands, as it happened in 2020, more than 20 thousand migrants, people with new passports. It was an intentional fact, after Trump’s statement it was the first threat, then, when our president Galli arrived in Spain to be treated for Covid, they started to accuse Spain of receiving the leader of the Polisario, that is the usual blackmail. More immigrants, that solves the problem for them as a country, to send and take out people who then revert in wealth for them, money that comes from migrant labor in Europe.

–Who is responsible for the recent massacre in Melilla, Morocco or Spain, or both?

-Both countries are responsible, that is in exchange for the famous letter of Sanchez, the agreement reached by Sanchez is that they do not send him more immigrants and that was precisely the reaction of both. I can’t tell you in detail how it happened, but an investigation has to be made. It was both police from both sides and it was an action against defenseless people, causing the death of more than 30 people. It was a crime against humanity.

–Now that the European summer has begun, the humanitarian and solidarity mission that has been carried out since the 1980s is coming back to Spain and the Basque Country. Can you tell us about the objectives of this campaign?

-It is a practice that is part of solidarity movements. Since Covid started two summers it could not be done, but this time an effort has been made and despite what happened with the government of Pedro Sanchez regarding the Sahara issue, the publication in the official gazette of the state was delayed. From then on, the visas began to be issued and I believe that this week they are going to arrive.

–What does it mean that they come to spend their summers with a family from these lands?

-First of all, as we have few means to check the children’s health, they come here and have a medical check-up. Most of the children suffer from eye problems, it is an endemic disease in the desert where we live, and here it is avoided, so they are checked and followed up, they are given glasses, they are also checked if they have another disease.

There is a control, there is a follow-up throughout the arrival of the children, in the first 15 days, then if they have any disease and it is necessary for them to stay, the treatment is done. If they need annual check-ups, when they return, they also return the following year and stay with their families. We have created bridges between the families. Because living with Spanish families, Christian or not, from another culture, of another color, gives the children a different global vision of the world. Coming from the desert opens their minds in every sense.

–You were also telling us that some of the boys and girls who are already teenagers stay to study and then travel to spend the summers in the camps and then spend time with their families and their culture.

-Yes, we also do a program the other way around, with the arrival of children from the camps, we organize children who study throughout the year in Spain, and travel to the camps, they are with their biological parents to live in situ the reality of the refugees, they live the lack of water, food, those two months they are there living the reality and that makes them reflect and take advantage when they return, to study well and live up to the expectation of life of the Sahrawis.

–Finally, what message would you like to send to Telesur’s audience: what would you tell them about Western Sahara and the struggle for independence from the last colony in Africa?

-Indeed, we are the last colony of Africa, the last residue, the scourge of colonialism, but, in spite of that, they don’t want to let us choose our destiny. What we are asking is that people become aware that we Saharawis want to decide for ourselves. Nobody should decide for us, not Sanchez, not Trump, not anybody, we are the owners of our destiny and we want to choose what suits us. We are a very rich country but we are also a country that appreciates the diversity of peoples. We fight for that diversity, so that they have opportunities and are not pushed into poverty.

We oppose neocolonialism, this neoliberalism that is crushing the peoples, that is creating wars, that has destroyed Iraq and Libya, has tried to destroy Syria, and is crushing the Palestinian people day and night and nobody says anything. They are crushing us, they have forced us into a war, they are forcing us to live in the middle of the desert to see if we let our guard down. But we go on, we are born fighters, we are long-distance runners, we know the ideals of Che and other popular heroes, we carry ideals to which nobody can put a barrier.

They cannot prevent us from moving forward and achieving our goal, which is to live in our independent Sahara, and to help the people who are in the same situation as we are. We want to share our wealth with all those who need it. We are generous by nature, we are hospitable, we are men of the desert.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... co-denies/

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Protests Against UN Mission in Congo Result in Fatalities

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Protesters demand the departure of the MONUSCO mission claiming that peacekeepers have failed to protect civilians against militia violence. Jul. 26, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@GazetteAfrica

Published 26 July 2022 (13 hours 2 minutes ago)

Protests in the eastern DRC cities of Goma and Butembo in North Kivu province against a UN mission have left three UN peacekeepers and twelve protesters dead, with around 50 injured.

The protests began on Monday, as hundreds of people attacked and looted a UN warehouse in Goma, calling for the MONUSCO mission to leave the country. On Tuesday, protests broke out again and spread to Butembo, 200 km north of Goma.

On Monday, hundreds of hostile protesters surrounded the peacekeepers' base in Goma, shouting slogans before attacking the facility.

In the beginning, the protesters were peaceful but turned violent once some picked up tear gas grenades from the ground and threw them at the MONUSCO warehouse.

UN security personnel fired tear gas to disperse the crowd while helicopters removed UN staff from the base. According to reporters, the group later broke windows, vandalized the facility, and even burned down the entrance gate.


Butembo police chief Paul Ngoma said protesters attacked the MONUSCO base with stones and gunfire. For his part, Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said "warning shots" had been fired by security forces at the mob to stop the attacks.

Al Jazeera reports that the protest was organized by a faction linked to President Felix Tshisekedi's ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party.

Protesters demanded the departure of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), accusing the peacekeepers of failing to protect civilians against militia violence.


Fighting has recently resurged in North Kivu province in eastern Congo. The government blames the March 23 militia (M23), one of the more than 100 armed groups active in the region.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Pro ... -0011.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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