Africa Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic

VARIOUS STATES HAVE ORDERED LOCKDOWNS WHILE ECONOMIC TOLL CONTINUES TO MOUNT

April 25, 2020
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2020/04/25/africa-responds-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/

There are 55 member-states within the African Union (AU) where 1.2 billion people reside.

Governments throughout the continent have taken initiatives to reduce the threat of COVID-19 cases which have been confirmed in a majority of countries.

The Republic of South Africa, the most industrialized state with a population of 60 million, has the second largest number of confirmed cases within the AU. President Cyril Ramaphosa during late March ordered a lockdown to prevent further community transmission of the virus.

On April 22, the Minister of Health, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, reported to the media that there are 3,635 confirmed cases inside the country resulting in 65 deaths. Mkhize said that 134,000 tests had been administered with nearly 6,900 carried out over a 24 hour period.

Ramaphosa has deployed 3,000 members of the South African National Defense Forces (SANDF) to assist medical and security personnel in the implementation of the lockdown. The government has established quarantine centers utilizing sports stadiums to contain people who may have violated the social distancing protocols placing themselves at risk for exposure and infection.

These measures have created additional problems both socially and economically.  Many people living in various areas of the country cannot shelter-in-place due to the necessities of earning a living. Others live in crowded households where there is not enough space to effectively minimize distancing.

Ramaphosa announced on April 22, that 73,000 SANDF troops were being placed on standby as he prepared to make announcements about the status of the COVID-19 prevention policies in effect now for four weeks. The escalation of military preparedness could be in response to the reports of attacks on delivery trucks carrying food and the unsuccessful attempt by some people to break into stores at a shopping mall in Mitchell Plains near Cape Town.

People who cannot work from their homes are suffering due to the lack of income. Desperation has increased for the marginalized sectors of the working class already subjected to an official unemployment rate of 29%.

South African Minister of Defense Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula commented on the decision to deploy and place on standby tens of thousands of troops, saying:  “If you look at the numbers and the rate at which the infection has gone up, you will realize that at some point we may actually need the kind of human deployment which has never been seen before.”

In light of the economic impact of the pandemic and the subsequent closing of the economy, Ramaphosa has announced the enactment of a stimulus package which could assist people in coping with the uncertainty. The package, worth $US26 billion, is designed to bolster businesses and provide income for three million workers.

Kenya Maintains Emergency Measures amid Pandemic

Kenya, the largest economy in East Africa, has been under a state of emergency for the last month. President Uhuru Kenyatta has addressed the country on a regular basis to encourage compliance with the restrictions on gatherings and movements.

The Kenyan Health Ministry is providing regular updates on the number of infections and deaths from the pandemic. The country which relies heavily on tourism, agricultural and light industrial production has experienced a rapid decline in its national income.

As of April 22, Kenya has confirmed over 300 cases among the 15,000 people tested. 14 people have died from COVID-19 and 83 reportedly have fully recovered.

Healthcare officials are concerned about the high rate of asymptomatic infections. A report in the Daily Nation noted this phenomenon in the case of one patient noting that: “Mr. Kevin Aura, 26, is one of the patients considered to be asymptomatic, who now account for almost half of the confirmed cases in Kenya. As daily numbers of confirmed cases rise, the ministry says there is evidence of asymptomatic cases, sparking fear of unwitting community transmission.”

Nigeria Takes Action to Protect Africa’s Most Populous State

Lagos, the commercial capital of the West African state of Nigeria, whose national population is 206 million, has been under a lockdown since late March when President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation on the current impact of the virus on this oil-producing state.  Since the first case was detected on February 27, the federal government has halted all international and domestic passenger flights, shuttered educational institutions while expanding the lockdown to Abuja and Ogun states.

Buhari announced on March 29 that the country was working with the People’s Republic of China to develop measures for containing the spread of COVID-19 and the treatment of patients. The president emphasized the need to follow the guidelines developed by medical professionals in Nigeria.

In his speech on March 29 Buhari said: “Indeed, the Director General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) was one of ten global health leaders invited by the World Health Organization to visit China and understudy their response approach. I am personally very proud of Dr. Ihekweazu for doing this on behalf of all Nigerians. Since his return, the NCDC has been implementing numerous strategies and programs in Nigeria to ensure that the adverse impact of this virus on our country is minimized. We ask all Nigerians to support the work the Federal Ministry of Health and NCDC are doing, led by the Presidential Task Force.”

As of April 20, Nigeria’s health authorities had confirmed 86 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily increase since the outbreak bringing the total number of cases to 627. Statistics compiled by the NCDC illustrates that the epidemic is spreading at a more rapid rate over the last month.

Nigeria has confirmed 21 fatalities while 170 people have been released from hospitals after making a full recovery.

Egypt Confronts Pandemic and the Economic Impact

As of April 22, Egypt had the highest number of COVID-19 cases on the African continent. The ministry of health reported 169 new coronavirus illnesses and 12 additional deaths.  These figures brought the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Egypt to 3,659 while the number of deaths climbed to 276. The health ministry also announced that 935 people had recovered from the disease.

The pandemic has influenced the way in which the Egyptian parliament conducts its business. A session of the House of Representatives designed to enhance the authority of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to take measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 was conducted with limits on the number of people present in the chambers.

Al-Ahram, the state-sponsored daily newspaper, reported on the amendments to several articles of the constitution, saying: “The 17 new powers include the right to close schools and universities, shut down certain ministries, authorities and companies entirely or partially, postpone the payment of water, electricity and natural gas bills entirely or partially, and compel Egyptian expatriates returning home to undergo necessary health and quarantine measures.

The powers also give the president the authority to allocate cash and in-kind assistance to individuals and families, offer financial support for medical research, provide financial and in-kind support to damaged economic sectors, postpone the payment of certain taxes, and turn schools and youth centers into field hospitals.”

As Ramadan approaches, the way in which the Islamic season is celebrated has drastically changed in Egypt. Houses of worship have been ordered closed due to the pandemic and gathering of large numbers of people are prohibited.

AU Encourages Continental Effort to Eradicate Pandemic

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is the headquarters of the AU Commission which has been monitoring the spread of COVID-19 across the region. Figures published on the AU website indicate that 52 countries are reporting 21,096 infections and 1,055 deaths. Some 4,974 people have recovered from the disease.

Two AU member-states, the Union of Comoros and the Kingdom of Lesotho, have no confirmed cases. Lesotho has been under a lockdown for several weeks. The country is completely surrounded by South Africa, which has over 3,600 cases. Both Lesotho and the Union of Comoros are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is a regional affiliate of the AU.

Daily reports are being issued by the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), an agency within the AU. According to its website: “Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is a specialized technical institution of the African Union established to support public health initiatives of member states and strengthen the capacity of their public health institutions to detect, prevent, control and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats. Africa CDC supports African Union Member States in providing coordinated and integrated solutions to the inadequacies in their public health infrastructure, human resource capacity, disease surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, and preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters.”

These objectives are closely linked to the social, political and economic capacity of AU member-states to address healthcare concerns on the continent. The AU Commission has acknowledged the economic impact of the pandemic on the various economies throughout the region.

A Voice of America (VOA) report noted in early April that:

“Researchers at the AU now believe the continent will slip into a recession this year due to the impact the coronavirus is currently having on trade, remittances, tourism and a huge fall in global oil prices.  An AU report seen by VOA estimates governments will lose around $270 billion from lost trade. The report, first published by Reuters, also says governments will need at least $130 billion in additional public spending to fight the virus.”

The advent of COVID-19 will surely bring into existence a deeper discussion on the future economic policies for AU member-states.

Priorities related to centralized planning, the empowerment of working people, women, youth and farmers, the necessity for the training and retention of healthcare professionals, are all essential for the strengthening of Africa in order to confront the present crisis and those which will surface in the future.

United States Continues Imperialist Policies Despite COVID-19 Pandemic

BOMBINGS IN SOMALIA AND THE INTENSIFICATION OF DESTABILIZATION EFFORTS AGAINST VENEZUELA, ZIMBABWE AND IRAN FURTHER EXPOSES THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WAR CRIMES

April 5, 2020
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2020/04/05/united-states-continues-imperialist-policies-despite-covid-19-pandemic/

Countries throughout the globe are focusing on the eradication of the COVID-19 pandemic which has infected nearly a million people and killed over 45,000. During the early phase of the detection of the virus in the People’s Republic of China, the United States administration of President Donald Trump dismissed the threat of COVID-19 and refused to implement emergency measures on a national scale.

By early April, the crisis was evident for all to witness. Millions were rendered unemployed in the U.S. where the official propaganda of the state and corporate community is that the economy was expanding at a rapid rate with no threat of recession.

At present the threat of another Great Depression on the scale, or exceeding, the downturn of 1929-1941, which only mass resistance and the implementation of the New Deal were able to ameliorate during the 1930s, is within the realm of possibility. It was only the advent of the second imperialist war of 1939-1945 which pulled the U.S. out of the Depression.

On a domestic level with the U.S. discourse very much centered on the level of benefits being given to various sectors within the economy as relates to the $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress and the president, while the role of foreign affairs has escaped public scrutiny. Healthcare workers, rightly concerned, are demanding personal protection equipment to prevent the outbreak from further spreading among physicians, nurses and other employees.

The bulk of the allocations mandated by the stimulus package will go towards maintaining the profitability of the largest corporations in the world. Undoubtedly, millions living inside this country will suffer social and healthcare challenges for months if not years to come.

However, on an international level, the Pentagon and State Department are continuing their imperialist policies towards the nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America. These military and economic attacks on various geo-political regions defy the general international atmosphere of seeking cooperation in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres made an appeal to all those involved in military conflicts around the world to immediately ceasefire. The motivating factor in his statement was designed to mobilize all necessary resources to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guterres said in a statement on March 23 that:

“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lock-down and focus together on the true fight of our lives. Silence the guns; stop the artillery; end the airstrikes.”

Nonetheless, the White House has not announced any disengagement or withdrawal initiatives related to the numerous military actions the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are involved in around the globe. Quite to the contrary, nations such as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, among others, remain under active threat by Washington.

Bombing Operations in Somalia amid Intensified Attacks on Iran, Venezuela and Zimbabwe

The U.S. has been interfering in the internal affairs of the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia for many decades. Numerous aerial strikes have been conducted against Somalia for more than a decade.

In recent weeks, many Somalians condemned an airstrike which killed civilians under the guise of anti-terrorism operations during February. These purportedly precision bombings often massacre people who are designated as “terrorists” by the Pentagon. In Somalia there is an ongoing guerrilla conflict between the al-Shabaab Islamist organization which Washington claims is backed by Al-Qaeda and the U.S. supported Federal Government based in the capital of Mogadishu.

Consequently, any attack is justified by claiming that the targets of these unannounced bombings are terrorists. The U.S. is backing thousands of African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) troops who have been inside Somalia since the late 2000s. AMISOM is in Somalia to provide security for the central government in Mogadishu. Irrespective of AMISOM’s presence, the efforts to eliminate al-Shabaab have not been successful. In addition to providing weapons and training for AMISOM and the Federal Government in Mogadishu, the Pentagon has deployed soldiers from the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

An article  published on the Intercept website says of the Somalia situation:

“A U.S. Africa Command press release issued the day of the strike near Janaale, a town about 60 miles south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, said that five ‘terrorists’ were killed and that there were no civilian casualties. But Farhan Mahmoud Mohammed, a resident of Janaale who spoke to The Intercept by phone last Friday (March 13), told a different story. Mohammed’s 13-year-old son Abdi Farhan Mahmoud was on his way to school when a U.S. missile struck a minibus taxi he was riding in. Mahmoud was decapitated in the strike, his father said.

He could hardly bear to look at the boy’s charred face. Another passenger in the minibus, 70-year-old Abdirahman Ali Waadhoor, was also killed in the attack, according to his son Abdullahi Abdirahman Ali. ‘My father is a disabled man. He never had a problem with anyone.’ said Ali, who lives in London and saw pictures of his father’s corpse on his phone.”

In response to the criticism of the airstrikes in Somalia, AFRICOM is now saying they will provide a quarterly report on civilian casualties. Such a statement implies that the military operations in Somalia will continue indefinitely.

The South American state of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been targeted for regime-change for over two decades since the beginning of the Revolution. 2019 saw a heightening of destabilization efforts against the administration of President Nicolas Maduro when an opposition figure with a questionable following was recognized as the head-of-state by the U.S. and its allies.

On April 1, there were reports of the deployment of a U.S. Naval warship close to the Caribbean shores of Venezuela ostensibly to guard against the trafficking in illegal drugs. Without any evidence the U.S. government has charged President Maduro with being involved in the importation of cocaine into the country. The Trump administration went as far as to put a $15 million bounty on the head of the Venezuelan president.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been an epicenter for the spread of COVID-19. Yet the Trump administration maintains draconian sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation preventing the government from acquiring much needed medications and healthcare equipment.

Members of Congress have sent a letter to the State Department calling for the lifting of sanctions against Tehran. An article published by Press TV reported that:

“In a letter sent on Tuesday (March 31) to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, over 30 members of Congress — including Senators Bernie Sanders and Edward J. Markey as well as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar — urged the Trump administration to step in with humanitarian aid rather than worsening the situation.”

Language from the letter says:

“Rather than continue to invoke new sanctions in the Iranian people’s hour of need, we urge you to substantially suspend sanctions on Iran during this global public health emergency in a humanitarian gesture to the Iranian people to better enable them to fight the virus. Additionally, we encourage the US to find a way to deliver aid directly to the Iranian people to support the Iranian people’s fight against Coronavirus. By targeting an entire economy that supports more than 80 million people, US sanctions make it harder for ordinary Iranians to obtain basic necessities like food and hygienic supplies essential to stemming the pandemic and that are basic to survival.”

In the Southern African nation of Zimbabwe the U.S., Britain, the European Union (EU) and their allies imposed sanctions against this country some twenty years ago. Recently the UN Secretary General appealed to the imperialist states to lift sanctions against Harare.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported on April 1 noting:

“Government has welcomed recent calls by top United Nations officials for the removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe and other countries in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic that is ravaging the world. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet last week called on the international community, principally the US, to roll back sanctions imposed on many countries, with Zimbabwe being one of them. They said such embargoes were hampering the fight against the pandemic that has so far killed over 36,000 people and infected at least 800,000 worldwide.”

The Struggle Against COVID-19 is an Anti-Imperialist Effort

Consequently, the U.S. ruling class cannot argue honestly that it is seriously committed to battling the COVID-19 pandemic while continuing its war policies around the world. Any escalation of military interventions will only worsen the overall global health situation.

Progressive forces in the U.S. must condemn these acts of destabilization and conflict engineered by Washington. Only the revolutionary transformation of capitalist society can provide long term solutions to the problems of the world.

Lectures by Walter Rodney Presents an African Perspective on the Russian Revolution

AFTER BEING IN THE VAULTS FOR MANY DECADES THE MARTYRED SCHOLAR’S LECTURES IN TANZANIA PROVIDE A GLIMPSE INTO HIS THINKING ON SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATION - AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH SERIES NUMBER 4 BOOK REVIEW

March 2, 2020
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2020/03/02/lectures-by-walter-rodney-presents-an-african-perspective-on-the-russian-revolution/

Title: The Russian Revolution: A View From The Third World
Author: Dr. Walter Rodney
Publisher: Verso Books, 2018

During the late 1960s and the 1970s, the University of Dar es Salaam in the East African state of Tanzania was a center of Marxist thought on the continent. After the overthrow of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) of Ghana on February 24, 1966 which was founded and led by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the ideological thrust of the African Revolution shifted to other geo-political regions. Nkrumah’s emphasis on African unification and socialism had drawn the ire of United States imperialism and its allies.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was able to coordinate and facilitate a military and police led coup against the CPP installing a pro-western regime which brought Ghana back into the sphere of world capitalist system both ideologically as well as politically. During that same year, Dr. Walter Rodney, having completed a Ph.D. in historical studies at London University, took a teaching position at University of Dar es Salaam where he researched and wrote his most famous work, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, published in Tanzania in 1972.

With so much interest in Socialism and Pan-Africanism, the origins of the world movements against capitalism and imperialism would be an important topic pursued by young scholars and their students. Consequently, a coterie of intellectuals and students in Tanzania debated fiercely the character of the struggle for socialism during this period and the character of the Ujamaa system inside the country itself.

President Julius Nyerere was given the Kiswahili name of “Mwalimu”, meaning “teacher.” This had been his occupation prior to leading the independence movement in Tanzania to independence in 1961. Nyerere realized that it was not enough to just become an independent state that the society had to be liberated from the economic and political legacies of colonialism. In 1967, the Arusha Declaration was issued by the ruling Tanzania African National Union (TANU) which outlined the need to build socialism in the largely agricultural country. (https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nyerere/1967/arusha-declaration.htm)

The Arusha Declaration was widely read and analyzed in this era. Its very existence was bolstered by the presence of organizing and educational structures established in Tanzania by the leading national liberation movements on the continent such as the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), African National Congress (ANC), among others.

Rodney, who was born in the South American nation of Guyana in 1942, had grown up in a progressive working class family which was committed to educational achievement. He would attend the University of the West Indies and later travel to London to research and write his dissertation on the impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade in West Africa’s Guinea coast.

Lectures Series Addressed Broad Scope of Russian Revolutionary Historical Questions

The existence of these lectures had been spoken of by former students and instructors at the University of Dar es Salaam for many years. Those who lived through the early 1970s when the lectures were delivered awaited their official publication by the Walter Rodney Foundation in 2018.

Rodney’s daughter, Asha, writes in an introductory statement to the book that:

“Most dedications are written by the author to someone or something that was important to the book’s creation. Who or what Walter Rodney would have written here was taken from us when his life was violently snatched from us at the age of thirty-eight. It has taken us the sum of his lifetime, another thirty-eight years, to publish this book. So, given this task, I dedicate this book to Walter Rodney, who brilliantly penned these lectures; and to his immeasurable mind and thirst for knowledge that made this work possible.”

These lectures are divided into nine categories with the first being “The Two World Views of the Russian Revolution” where the author examines the historical approaches to the Bolshevik Party which are either sympathetic and supportive or condemnatory. He raises the question as to why should African people be hostile to the revolutionary tradition when objectively they have faced similar problems which engulfed Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Rodney states in this introductory lecture:

“As it is, we know for a fact how prejudiced and distorted Europe’s view of Africa has been. We know that European capitalism and imperialism continue to have our exploitation as their main objective. There is, therefore, every reason to be suspicious of the Western European (and American) view of the Soviet Revolution, and there is every reason to seek an African view.” (p.3)

Later in parts two and three, he reviews “The Russian Regime and the Soviet Revolution” along with “Marx, Marxism and the Russian Left.”

Marxism as a revolutionary body of intellectual work and political practice had existed since the mid-to-late 1840s when Karl Marx and Frederick Engels joined forces during a period where industrial capitalism was emerging as the dominant mode of economic production.

Citing Marx and Engels in their writings on Western Europe and Russia, Rodney concludes that the bourgeois historical critique which argues that what became Soviet society was not conducive to the building of scientific socialism is refuted by the actual writings of the two activist-scholars. Simply because the proletariat and capitalist classes did not constitute the majority in Russia in 1917 and in subsequent years during the early phases of the revolution does not mean that the general principles of historical and dialectical materialism are not applicable.

An entire chapter of the book of lectures examines Leon Trotsky as an historian of the Russian Revolution. Later Rodney discusses the concepts of democracy and its application to the Bolshevik revolutionary seizure of power in late 1917.

These chapters serve as a means for chronicling the intellectual and political attacks on the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. A comparative analysis is put forward on the views of V.I. Lenin, the main architect and organizer of the revolutionary seizure of state power in Russia, Karl Kautsky, the German theoretician and literary executor of Marx and Engels, along with Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish and German left social democrat and later communist who debated with Lenin for years over the right of nations to self-determination, land redistribution to the peasantry and issues related to revolutionary democracy such as the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly  by the Bolsheviks.

Kautsky of course, received a scathing attack by Lenin when the German writer charged the Bolsheviks with undemocratic practice and extended his support to the Mensheviks. Rodney’s views on these important historical questions indicate a position quite sympathetic to Lenin and the developing Soviet state.

The final three chapters are of extreme importance in relationship to the lessons of the Russian Revolution and their significance to developments in Africa during the later decades of the 20th century when many of the national liberation movements and post-colonial states adopted Marxism-Leninism as methodology and ideology which could provide guidance in both defeating colonialism, settler-colonialism and imperialism as well as constructing a socialist society.

These final lectures are entitled: “Building the Socialist State”, “The Transformation of Empire” and “The Critique of Stalinism.” Rodney explains in his evaluation of the historical treatment of the peasantry in the Soviet Union under leader Joseph Stalin by western oriented capitalist scholars, noting:

“Underlying bourgeois historical writings on this issue is the assumption that the capitalist system is infinitely superior. Indeed, at most points of the evaluation, there is the implied comparison, especially since the whole object of the Cold War propaganda was to set up the capitalist system as a superior one. It is therefore very relevant to inquire how capitalism treated peasants. The answer is quite revealing. In Eastern Europe, the peasant was bounced off his land….. Outside of Europe, wherever Europeans established capitalist farming, they did so by expropriating the land of the indigenous peoples and often they virtually committed genocide. The latter applies with most force to the United States, while examples of crude treatment of the indigenous landowners are also to be found in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya and Algeria.” (p. 123)

Relevance of the Russian Revolution Today

It has been over a century since the advent of the Bolshevik Revolution. The Russian and Soviet Revolutions were instrumental in providing political models and material assistance for other popular upheavals and socialist transformations in Korea, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Ghana, Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, among other geo-political regions.

Since the collapse of the socialist states in Europe and the Soviet Union during the late 1980s until 1991, bourgeois scholars and political figures have utilized this phenomena to attack the theoretical underpinning of Marxism-Leninism as being inherently undemocratic, impractical and even contrary to human nature. Socialism in China, Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are often castigated for the purported lack of individual freedom and prosperity.

Yet capitalist societies have become more unequal in the 21st century with the broadening gap between the wealthy and the working class.

Imperialist wars throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America have created enormous social dislocation while creating the conditions for unprecedented environmental degradation which endangers the very existence of the planet and humanity. The advances made in Cuba, Venezuela, China, the DPRK and Vietnam are routinely overlooked while the ideological Cold War propaganda against these societies continues unabated.

The publication of these lectures so many years later makes a profound contribution to the historical evaluation of the Russian Revolution and its importance in the modern period.

Renewed Examination of the Assassination of Malcolm X 55 Years Later

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH SERIES NUMBER 2

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Reprinted from Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2020/02/29/renewed-examination-of-the-assassination-of-malcolm-x-55-years-later/

February 21, 2020 marks the 55th anniversary of the martyrdom of Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik Shabazz) who was 39 years old at the time of his untimely death in New York City.

Malcolm was on the verge of delivering an address at a mass meeting at the Audubon Ballroom on that fateful Sunday afternoon when at least three people rose from their seats to fire numerous bullets into his body.

Since March 1964, when Malcolm X had officially announced his departure from the Nation of Islam (NOI) where he had been indefinitely suspended since early December 1963, the activist had formed two groups aimed at pursuing what he perceived as a more effective and relevant approach to the liberation of African Americans. The Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious grouping designed to provide orthodox Islamic instruction to potential adherents in New York, was founded in the immediate aftermath of his resignation from the NOI.

Some three months later, after a six week tour of Africa and the Middle East, which included a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Malcolm would form the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), which he described as being partially inspired by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on the continent.

After the formation of the OAAU on June 28, 1964, Malcolm embarked upon another trip to Africa and the Middle East which lasted for over four months. His ideological and political orientation by this time was largely secular and sought to build a broad-based united front among African Americans, Africans and other oppressed groups for the purpose of liberating the Black people in the United States and all the downtrodden from imperialism.

During the time of his active political life (1952-1965) after emerging from a six year prison term (1946-1952) for burglary in the State of Massachusetts, Malcolm was under constant surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), local police agencies around the country including New York City, among other government agencies.

The corporate press portrayed Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, then headed by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, in an extreme negative light, describing the organization as a hate-mongering and violence prone cult generating racial controversy at variance with other Civil Rights organizations which advocated a nonviolent approach to the  African American struggle.

The fact that Malcolm left the NOI under terms that were less than favorable with recriminations related to the personal life of Elijah Muhammad and allegations of disloyalty by him as the former minister of the New York City mosque, was seized upon by the mainstream press to create an image in the public mind that the assassination was a direct result of differences which emerged between martyred leader and his former organization.

In fact there had been death threats against Malcolm in the Muhammad Speaks newspaper which was circulated nationally during the early 1960s. Several incidents of Malcolm and his followers being pursued by NOI members were well documented. However, what has never fully been taken into consideration by the New York District Attorney’s offices and the U.S. Justice Department is the extensive surveillance of Malcolm X by the FBI and other federal investigative and law-enforcement agencies.

Tens of thousands of pages of FBI files on Malcolm X have been declassified since the 1970s. These files provide proof of the hostility towards the Muslim leader by the state. Despite the avoidance by the New York City police and the Justice Department related to a state conspiracy being behind the assassination, many publications and researchers in the African American and Left communities have alleged since 1965 that the federal government and local law-enforcement were involved in the plot to kill Malcolm.

Documentary Reopens the Question of a State Conspiracy

The Netflix documentary series is once again looking into the issues of a potential conspiracy extending beyond the NOI. Nonetheless, this is by no means a novel idea. The federal government had every reason to want Malcolm assassinated in 1965.

At the time of his death, Malcolm had internationalized the African American movement for human rights and national liberation. His journeys to Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe in 1964-65 had resulted in exposing the failure of the U.S. Congress and the administration of the-then President Lyndon B. Johnson in protecting lives and interests of the African American people even though a Civil Rights Act had been passed and signed by the head-of-state in July 1964.

Malcolm had advocated petitioning the United Nations to take up the cause of the African American people. His trips abroad had been both educational and geared towards winning support for the view that the U.S. government should be sanctioned by the UN for its violations of the human rights of Blacks in a nation which professed to be the citadel of democracy and equal protection under the law.

According to a review by the Guardian of the Netflix documentary series, “Three men were jailed for the 1965 murder of the activist, who in his campaigns for Black empowerment dismissed the nonviolent ideology of contemporaries such as Martin Luther King. Malcolm X had been a member of Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam until an acrimonious split in 1964. Another member, Talmadge Hayer – later known as Mujahid Abdul Halim – admitted his part in the killing, while two other men, Norman 3X Butler (who later became Muhammad Abdul Aziz) and Thomas 15X Johnson (who took the name Khalil Islam), maintained their innocence. Aziz was released on parole in 1985; Islam was released in 1987 and died in 2009; Halim was released in 2010.”

However, since the time of the arrests and later trial of the three members of the NOI in 1965 and 1966, innumerable suspicions of a broader conspiracy have existed. Obviously the widespread surveillance of Malcolm and his associates utilizing wiretaps and infiltrations of both the NOI and the groups subsequently formed after the split, the MMI and OAAU, the law-enforcement community was well aware of the criminal plots aimed at his assassination.

The same article published in the Guardian goes on to note: “The documentary examines various theories surrounding the killing, including that it was set up by the FBI and was carried out by white nationalists. Crucially, it emphasizes the lack of evidence against Aziz and Islam, and the fact that Halim said that neither man was involved. The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, has also claimed that a civil rights lawyer, William Kunstler, obtained FBI documents supporting Halim’s version of events and naming other co-conspirators.”

New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance has announced a reexamination of the case. Nonetheless, this is not the first time that attempts have been made to reopen the investigation into the assassination utilizing the evidence which exist related to government and police operations surrounding Malcolm and his associates. When President Barack Obama was elected and took office in 2009, his Attorney General Eric Holder was requested by African American activists to review the case. Unfortunately, nothing concrete emerged from the Justice Department.

After over five decades the trail is quite cold. What is known is that one of the alleged gunmen who escaped the assassination scene on February 21, 1965 had been living in Newark, New Jersey unscathed for many years. William Bradley, who was identified through archival film footage by researchers as being present outside the location of the assassination, is suspected to have been one of the gunmen who utilized a shotgun in the murder.

Bradley, later known as Almustafa Shabazz, denied any involvement in the killing of Malcolm X. He died in 2018 having never been questioned by law-enforcement in regard to the case.

Significance of Investigation and Remaining Unanswered Questions

There are three others identified by Hayer (now Halim) as co-conspirators in the assassination who are now deceased as well. Even if the Innocence Project can clear the name of Aziz (formerly Butler) it does not answer the key questions related to state involvement.

Other African American leaders during the 1960s, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, among others who were assassinated, were clear targets in the efforts to thwart the African American freedom movement. The issue of political assassination emanates from the nationally oppressive and class character of the U.S. capitalist and imperialist system.

Ultimately, a revolutionary struggle to transform the exploitative system is at the root of resolving these ongoing open cases of state-sponsored conspiracy and murder. The U.S. remains an unjust society and until the existing oppressive apparatuses of the state are eliminated no African American leader seeking fundamental social change will be immune from unjust persecution and assassination.

The Struggle to End Imperialist Militarism in the 21st Century

January 29, 2020
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Reprinted from Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2020/01/29/the-struggle-to-end-imperialist-militarism-in-the-21st-century/

Note: This address was prepared and delivered at a Communist Workers League (CWL) class on United States Imperialism and the War against Iran which was held on Saturday January 25, 2020 in Detroit. The event featured Randi Nord, the editor of Geo-politics Alert website which covers events related to international affairs with a special focus on West Asia, Latin America, U.S. foreign policy and developments in Europe. Also addressing the class was Yusuf Mshahwar, an observer of West Asian affairs and a student at Wayne State University. Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor and writer for various publications, discussed the relationship between imperialist interventions in North Africa and related occurrences in West Asia and other geo-political regions within the international community.

As we enter the third decade of the present century, it is important for anti-imperialists to take stock of events over the previous ten years.

Since 2010, the role of United States imperialist militarism has been just as disruptive, destabilizing and deadly as in previous eras.

Of course there was some initial hope when uprisings erupted in Tunisia and Egypt during late 2010 and early 2011. Nonetheless, neither of these popular rebellions against the neo-colonial dominated regimes in Tunis and Cairo developed into a revolutionary transformation of society.

In Tunisia and Egypt, it was only the military and security apparatuses which proved capable of seizing state power and ushering in a transitional process. Tunisia seems to have been the most pliable in regard to stabilizing a bourgeois democratic system. However, Egypt after the election of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which was dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, was the scene of continued unrest and the eventual well-planned takeover in July 2013 by the military.

Former Field Marshall Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, soon stepped down from the military and won two successive terms as president. At present, Egypt is the Chairman of the continental 55-member African Union (AU).

The situation in neighboring Libya clearly exposed the dangers of fomenting unrest absent of a revolutionary character. In fact developments in Libya since February 2011 represent a counter-revolution against not only the people of that oil-rich North African state but also influencing the impact of the constantly deteriorating situation on other regional nations and the international community in general.

At present a conference in Germany on January 19 discussed the future of what was Africa’s most prosperous country under the Jamahiriya led by Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Turkey has sent troops into Libya in an effort to bolster the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj which was imposed by the United Nations Security Council four years ago amid internecine conflict and dislocation.

The only announcement to emerge from the Berlin Summit was a vague commitment to honor an arms embargo on Libya. Yet, the initial arms embargo was imposed by the UN Security Council through two resolutions (1970 and 1973) passed during March 2011. Those resolutions were utilized by the imperialists to provide politico-legal cover for the massive bombings and ground operations carried out by the Pentagon and NATO along with its allies in the region which destroyed the country.

Neither the GNU nor the Libya National Army (LNA) of renegade General and longtime Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, Khalifa Hafter, embodies the capacity to rally the people of Libya around a program of unification and national development. Libya, under Gaddafi, had played a leading role in the campaigns to reform the AU and to build structures of continental integration on the military, economic, cultural and political levels.

Today just the opposite reality in Libya and North Africa is in existence. The Pan-African foreign policy of the Jamahiriya has been replaced with a defensive posture of attempting to ensure the recognition of the GNU. Nevertheless, the imperialists had placed their hopes on  the ability of the LNA to tear down the defenses of the militias providing security to the UN-recognized administration in Tripoli. Since April 2019 this has not been the case. The GNU and its supporters have maintained control of the capital and with Turkish political and military intervention the city will become even more fortified.

Oil has become a weapon unsurprisingly for those in the East backing Hafter and the often unheard Southern communities. Libya has the largest known petroleum reserves in Africa therefore its economic and political trajectory is of profound interest to the Western capitalist countries. The rise in oil prices over the last few weeks in response to the targeted assassinations of Islamic Republic of Iran Lt. Gen. Qassem Suleimani and Iraq Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) Deputy Commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the Pentagon, illustrates clearly the significant role of oil production inside the country.

An article published by Middle East Eye on January 25 says of the oil situation in Libya that: “Libya’s oil production has plunged by about three-quarters since forces loyal to eastern military leader Khalifa Haftar began a blockade a week ago, the National Oil Corporation said on Saturday (Jan. 25). The decline, from 1.2 million barrels per day to just over 320,000, has caused losses of about $256m since the closure of major

oil fields and ports in the east and south of the country, the NOC said in a statement cited by AFP. Haftar, who controls the east and large swathes of the south, began an offensive in April last year to seize the capital Tripoli from the UN-recognized Government of National Accord. Pro-Haftar forces blockaded the main oil terminals in eastern Libya the day before a summit in Berlin on 19 January that called for the end of foreign interference in the conflict and a resumption of the peace process. The move to cripple the country’s main income source was a protest against Turkey’s decision to send troops to shore up Haftar’s rivals.”

According to Oilprice.com, the U.S. responded immediately to the oil flow blockages by emphasizing: “The U.S. Embassy in Libya said on Tuesday (Jan. 21) that the country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) should be allowed to immediately resume oil operations that were suspended over the weekend after groups loyal to General Khalifa Haftar blocked virtually all oil production and exports from the African oil producer…. On Sunday, 800,000 bpd—more than half of Libya’s oil production of around 1.4 million bpd—was taken offline

after forces loyal to Haftar blocked the oil ports in eastern Libya which are under the control of Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA). The move came ahead of an international conference in Berlin between Haftar and the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is backed by the UN.”

The question of energy resources is paramount within imperialism. The western capitalist states want to maintain control over the flow and prices of petroleum and other important energy commodities.

All of these developments in North Africa and the role of Turkey and other NATO countries, portend much for U.S.-Iran relations. The focus on Iran is about oil as well as strategic positioning in regard to international trade. The Straits of Hormuz are significant in the shipping of strategic resources including military dynamics.

Iran and its growing alliance with Syria, Russia and China, among other states, is important in analyzing the current hostility emanating from Washington. Trump is using the Iranian situation to bolster his status among the Republican base and to deflect attention away from current impeachment proceedings in Congress.

Iran and the Revolutionary Struggle in West Asia

It has been 41 years since the triumph of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The previous monarchy of the Shah was installed and supported wholeheartedly by the U.S. and other imperialists governments from 1953-1979.

Since 1979, Iran has made tremendous strides in providing educational, social and political rights to the majority of the population. Iran has also been active in the field of international relations seeking out relationships with countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America.

Efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with Washington have proved futile. Successive U.S. administrations continue to maintain this hostile attitude towards Tehran.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) represented a milestone in a negotiated process designed to normalize diplomacy and to lift the draconian sanctions against the Iranian people. Besides the U.S., France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China were party to the landmark agreement signed on July 14, 2015. However, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump literally tore up the JCPOA and imposed further sanctions.

Then during early January, a targeted assassination of two prominent leaders of Iran and neighboring Iraq prompted the outrage of progressive forces internationally.  Demonstrations were held in capitals throughout the world where the actions of the Trump administration were roundly denounced.

Since the martyrdom of Suleimani and al-Muhandis, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has shelled a U.S. military base in Iraq. During the same period, a Ukrainian airline was brought down inadvertently by the IRGC killing over 100 people. Now this incident is the subject of an internal and international investigation.

Many are encouraged that full-scale military conflict between Washington and Tehran has not erupted. However, these two incidents, the martyrdom of Suleimani and al-Muhandis  and the subsequent retaliatory measures by Iran, represents only the beginning of an ongoing military engagement which could result in the deployment of far more troops by Washington to the Persian Gulf.

The Role of Anti-Imperialism in North America

Those inside the U.S. and Canada who oppose further imperialist engagement in West Asia must remain committed in the struggle to end Pentagon intervention in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, along with other states within the region. Our activities must be consistently aimed at building solidarity with the Iranian Revolution and other progressive movements throughout the region.

Even though now the focus in the U.S. appears to be centered on the Senate impeachment trial, the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon, are moving ahead in carrying out its aggressive policy towards Tehran and other states. The presidential and Congressional elections of 2020 should be utilized as a forum to raise these important issues before the workers, youth and nationally oppressed. We utilized this approach in July and August during the Democratic Party debates held at the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit.

We were there with banners, placards, broadsheets and cadres in order to point out that racism, national oppression, capitalism and imperialism are not just the policies of the Republican Party. The working class in actuality needs its own party which can speak in the fundamental interests of the masses of workers, youth, farmers and oppressed nations.

Literature can be developed which clearly articulates the history and contemporary political exigencies involving Iran and U.S. foreign policy in the Persian Gulf, West Asia and North Africa so that people will not be goaded into lending political support to another failed military intervention in West Asia. Through our antiwar actions we can emphasize our maximum solidarity with the people of Iran and the entire region of West Asia.

It is essential that whichever candidate for the Democratic Party is selected to face off in the November elections, we should make it clear that a violation of the independence and sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran will evoke the wrath of the peace movement in North America. Such a principled position will guarantee that our organizing work links the struggles of the U.S., West Asia and the international community as a whole.

ZANU-PF Holds 18th National People’s Conference with a Focus on Economic Revitalization

DELIBERATION AND RESOLUTIONS FOCUS ON ENDING SANCTIONS, ENHANCING DISCIPLINE AND ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION

January 8, 2020
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Reprinted from Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2020/01/08/zanu-pf-holds-18th-national-peoples-conference-with-a-focus-on-economic-revitalization/

Southern African Development Community (SADC) states are facing monumental challenges in the coming decade. Sixteen member-governments in the sub-continent have adopted strategies aimed at economic growth and sustainable development, which are connected with solving problems created by climate change and the continuing impact of the legacy of settler-colonialism.

The Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been the ruling party inside the country since its independence from the British racist regime headed by Ian Smith in April 1980. This coming year will represent 40 years of liberation in a nation where Africans were deprived of land and self-determination for nearly a century.

2020 will also mark the 20th anniversary of the sweeping land redistribution program where many European-controlled farms were seized and turned over to the African people. Land was the major issue during the war of liberation during the 1960s and 1970s and the ZANU-PF government maintains that the reform policies will remain intact.

ZANU-PF held its 18th Annual National People’s Conference (NPC) from December 11-13 where the primary focus of the gathering was to discuss and reinforce strategies aimed at rebuilding the beleaguered economy. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been in power since November 2017 having taken over in the aftermath of the resignation of the late head-of-state President Robert G. Mugabe, who passed away earlier in September at the age of 95.

Since taking office as a direct result of an internal power struggle within ZANU-PF which culminated in November 2017, President Mnangagwa, affectionately known as ED, has set out to create the conditions for greater political transparency and the intensification of the battle against corruption within government. Under the theme of “Mechanize, Modernize and Grow the Economy Towards Vision 2030”, the conference provided a sober assessment of the difficulties and the need for renewed energy and focus on social reconstruction.

Mnangagwa opened and closed the conference with major policy addresses. The president emphasized the need to build upon the re-introduction of a national currency and the intensification of attracting foreign investment in key industries such as agriculture, information technology and mining.

In relationship to the overall focus of the NPC, ZANU-PF Publicity Secretary Simon Khaya Moyo noted: “The agenda and program were followed with strict discipline and seriousness of purpose, so were the thematic discussions in various committees and the resolutions which ensued and were unanimously passed by the conference. It was indeed a milestone conference reflective of a people’s party as evidenced by the discipline and enthusiasm of delegates from all the 10 provinces.”

Political decisions related to the next general elections scheduled for 2023 were also discussed and agreed upon. Mnangagwa was selected to be the sole presidential candidate for the party in four years and the conference set as its goal to obtain five million votes for its leader. Making a firm decision about the 2023 elections was viewed by NPC delegates as essential in guiding the country in its “re-engagement” approach with other states. The party believes that stability is essential in building the national economy internally and with the eliminating uncertainty about the political future of Zimbabwe.

Mnangagwa spoke to the seriousness of the contemporary period for the ruling party, stressing: “These conferences are not talking shows. We must deliver on our promises. To this we must remain focused, united and guided by our party constitution.  We have reached the end of this conference. This conference is the biggest conference of any political party that may come into your mind, if there is any, please tell me. I exhort you to be vigilant in the coming year and going forward. Keep your eyes and ears open.”

Western Economic Sanctions and the Imperatives of Regional Development

The leading impediment for economic reconstruction and social stability is the ongoing imposition of draconian sanctions by the western imperialist states. Despite the monumental efforts by the ZANU-PF government under Mnangagwa to re-engage with the capitalist nations, sanctions remain in force.

Consequently, unemployment remains astronomically high and the value of the re-introduced national currency is subject to fluctuations in actual value. Until the sanctions are lifted particularly by the former colonial power of Britain and the United States, there is the potential for further fiscal problems including shortages of consumer goods and inflationary pressures in the energy sector.

Just two months prior to the NPC, the entire SADC region was mobilized in their demand for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe. A Day of Action for the lifting of sanctions during October, which was endorsed by all member-states in the SADC region, illustrated the unity of purpose in solidarity with Zimbabwe.

As a follow-up measure taken just days after the ZANU-PF NPC on December 15, a regional meeting in Swakopmund, Republic of Namibia, discussed again in detail, the imperatives of removing economic sanctions on Zimbabwe. This gathering of the SADC 46th Plenary Assembly of the Parliamentary Forum, stressed the economic impact of sanctions on both the people of Zimbabwe and the entire region.

A motion submitted by Angolan parliamentarian Josefina Perpetua Diakite and seconded by representatives from Malawi, noted the role of sanctions as a major roadblock in the implementation of sustainable development goals including universal health coverage set for 2030. The program has set as its objectives the raising of national incomes through enhanced regional industrialization and self-sufficiency in agricultural production.

The Angolan parliamentary representative said that sanctions are stifling “people’s livelihoods, economic development and access to health, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable populations, including young girls, women, children, the disabled and the elderly. The economic sanctions are a violation of the human, economic and social rights of the people of Zimbabwe and have a negative impact on the government’s efforts to leverage the economy and boost the living standards of the Zimbabwean people.”

In seconding the motion, Malawian Member of Parliament Dennis Namachekecha, stressed the regional manifestations of western imperialist policies towards Harare, saying: “The sanctions are undermining Zimbabwe’s efforts to attract investment and the country’s ability to realize its national, regional and international development is also curtailed. We are each other’s keeper and we cannot ignore the pain that the people of Zimbabwe are enduring. This motion requires that we unite just as we united against colonialism and the apartheid regime of South Africa to speak with one voice against the continued unjustified sanctions. Today it is Zimbabwe. Tomorrow it can be any member of SADC.”

U.S. Foreign Policy Maintains Leading Imperialist Role Internationally

Sanctions against Zimbabwe have been renewed by successive U.S. administrations both Democratic and Republican. Such a foreign policy posture illustrates clearly the role of Washington in the continuing national oppression, economic exploitation and consequent underdevelopment of the African continent.

These sanctions are an act of war. They are designed to influence the political character of the Zimbabwean state through the deliberate attempts to overthrow the ZANU-PF government utilizing economic pressure specifically designed to turn the masses away from their elected administration.

At the same above-mentioned 46th Plenary Assembly of the Parliamentary Forum in Namibia, the Republic of South Africa Parliamentary Speaker Thandi Modise emphasized that her government stands in solidarity with Zimbabwe, emphasizing that: “We do so because we understand that without South Africa standing up with other neighbors, the economic progress of the region will be retarded. The issues of child mortality and hunger would continue to besiege the region. This is not Zimbabwe’s problem. This is a regional problem. We stand behind you. We call for the removal of these sanctions. We want Zimbabwe to be able to enjoy her mineral wealth, to go back to being the food basket of our region and to walk tall amongst the countries of Africa.”

Anti-imperialist forces in the West and throughout the international community should adopt the principles enunciated by the SADC member-states. The U.S., Britain and the European Union (EU) have no right to impose this economic war on Zimbabwe and the Southern Africa region. All of these western powers must be held responsible for their role in maintaining neo-colonialism in Africa.

Solidarity with Zimbabwe and the SADC is an important aspect of the contemporary struggle against western arrogance and domination of the peoples of the world. The interests of the working class and nationally oppressed in the imperialist countries are inextricably linked to the realization of the total liberation of Africa and its people.

Sudanese Transitional Government Faces Profound Challenges

ADMINISTRATION HOLDS DISCUSSIONS SEEKING TO RESOLVE CONFLICT AND NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH THE WEST

December 14, 2019
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Reprinted from Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers League (CWL)
https://fighting-words.net/2019/12/14/sudanese-transitional-government-faces-profound-challenges/

Interim Prime Abdallah Hamdok of the Republic of Sudan visited the United States during early December seeking to have sanctions lifted against his newly-created administration.

In meetings with members of Congress and the National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, Hamdok requested the removal of Sudan from the list crafted by Washington of those states ostensibly involved in supporting “terrorism.”

These events come in the aftermath of a series of negotiations with internal opposition groups inside Sudan. Some of these groups are armed and have been engaged in military operations against the former administration of the ousted President Omer Hassan al-Bashir.

Al-Bashir was overthrown in a military coup on April 11 amid ongoing mass demonstrations and rebellions which had spread throughout the oil-rich nation. The protests began during December 2018 over the rise in food prices and soon escalated into demands calling for the removal of the National Congress Party (NCP) government.

With the removal of al-Bashir, a new Transitional Military Council (TMC) was established in an effort to end the unrest. After the continuing post-coup demonstrations and a massacre of civilian protesters in June outside the defense ministry headquarters where a sit-in was being held, the TMC agreed to the creation of an interim coalition administration composed of the Forces for Freedom and Change movement (FFC) and the military junta.

The new Prime Minister Hamdok is attempting to reconfigure the posture and image of the Sudanese government. He has opened up negotiations with the political parties and coalitions which created the FFC movement and the TMC as well as seeking to resolve the conflicts led by several groups within the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) based in Darfur, North Kordofan, South Kordofan, Blue Nile and other regions.

New Prime Minister Makes Further Overtures to Washington

While in the U.S., Hamdok addressed the Atlantic Council in Washington requesting the removal of sanctions and the delisting of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. He emphasized that the presence of leading military figures in the transitional government should not deter the Trump administration from normalizing relations with Khartoum.

His address pointed out that the civilian and military forces are working together to create a new political dispensation. Nonetheless, the prime minister noted that doubts remain in the U.S. among leading officials that a genuine transition is still not assured.

An article published by the Sudan Tribune on December 6 says that: “Hamdok disclosed that he has a negotiating team in Washington that is conducting talks with the American administration on the delisting process. The direct and frank style that Hamdok adopted during the event shows an increase of confidence on the SST’s (State Sponsored Terrorism) rescission as he used in the past to make low-profile statements. The lifting process requires a formal review for over six months.”

National Security Advisor O’Brien said in a public statement that the U.S. administration is willing to delist Sudan from the SST. There were however, outstanding issues related to removing Khartoum from the list as these were compensation to families of those killed in an attack on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the destruction of USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000 and the commitment by the interim government to assist the U.S. in its war against terrorism.

The previous NCP administration of President al-Bashir had denied any culpability in the attacks on the USS Cole warship or the embassy bombings in East Africa which killed hundreds of people. In addition, the NCP government had categorically rejected any responsibility for funding or training those organizations such as al-Qaeda, which have been the propaganda target of Washington in its so-called anti-terrorist campaigns internationally.

Hamdok went as far as to pledge support to the Trump administration in carrying out joint operations against alleged terrorist groups operating in the North and West Africa region in recent years. The prime minister reiterated this position in a quote published by the Wall Street Journal stressing: “When it comes to combating terrorism, we would like to benefit from U.S. experience, not only of training but intelligence sharing, gathering, equipment, training.”

Revolutionary Transformation Stifled by the Neo-Colonial Status Quo

Such statements from Hamdok shed light on the political outlook of the interim government now operating in Khartoum. How does this foreign policy posture towards Washington differ fundamentally from what was being pursued under former President al-Bashir?

The NCP government had been cooperating with the U.S. in its war against Yemen since March 2015. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have engaged in massive bombing and ground operations in Yemen under the guise of preventing the Ansarullah (Houthis) Movement from taking control of the entire country, the most underdeveloped in the Middle East region.

U.S. warplanes guided by the Pentagon’s targeting and refueling technology have facilitated the war against Yemen which has killed thousands and displaced many more. The social impact of the war on Yemen has been designated as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Although Hamdok announced after returning to Khartoum from Washington that Sudan had reduced the number of troops serving in Yemen from 15,000 to 5,000, he restated a commitment to maintaining his government’s participation in the continuing war which is in line with U.S. foreign policy towards Iran. The Ansurallah is accused of receiving military and political support from Tehran, a claim the Iranian government has denied.

Since the military coup against al-Bashir, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pledged $3 billion in assistance to Khartoum to prop up the interim administration. Just recently, the Sudan Tribune reported that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had conducted joint exercises with Qatar. The Sudan Tribune article reports that: “According to a statement by the Qatari Defense, the military exercise was attended by Major General Rashid bin Nasser, Head of Qatar’s Authority of Military Institutes and Colleges, and Major General Hafez al-Taj Makki the Red Sea Governor.

Al-Nasser praised the military training of the Qatari officers saying it would enable them to carry out their duties. However, he did not speak about the duration of the training of the exercises. The Sudanese army did not issue a statement about this exercise. On 29 November, the Eritrean government issued a statement accusing Qatar of continuing to provide military support to the opposition groups.

Asmara did not accuse the Sudanese transitional government of taking part in this plot but stressed that Qatar uses Sudan as a springboard for its subversive activities.”

Of course states such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar operate within the imperialist sphere of influence and not only in the Middle East. There are numerous interventions through their military operations by these Gulf monarchies in the internal affairs of African nations such as Djibouti and Eritrea.

The Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) has been highly critical of the role of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent developments involving the interim government under Prime Minister Hamdok. Their criticism was so severe that it prompted a response from the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash.

In an article published by the Middle East Monitor reveals: “Gargash explained that Al-Khatib’s comments: ‘are based on used and abused ideological concepts associated with his party.” He continued: ‘Our relationship with Khartoum is historic, and the Arab role in supporting Sudan in its current circumstances is necessary.’ It is noteworthy that Al-Khatib delivered a speech in the Omdurman region, last Friday, accusing the UAE and Saudi Arabia of ‘quick intervention during the first days of the uprising’ in Sudan against Al-Bashir regime.”

The SCP in October called for mass demonstrations demanding the dismantling of the former governing party the NCP. The Communists have rejected the political agreements between the opposition FFC and the TMC.

Consequently, the direction of the foreign policy of the interim government is clearly reflective of its class politics related to the domestic situation. The Sudanese people will not be fully liberated within the context of imperialist domination. A struggle for genuine revolutionary democracy and self-determination is the only solution to the current crisis of governance and economic instability.