Africa 2011: Year of Mass Upheaval, Imperialist Interventions, Part III

LeiLani Dowell of FIST, Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire and Monica Moorehead, Managing Editor of Workers World Newspaper, at a study forum on African history in New York City on July 11, 2008. (Photo: John Catalinotto)., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Africa 2011: Year of Mass Upheaval, Imperialist Interventions, Part III (Conclusion)

From the Durban climate change conference to the ZANU-PF Conference, Africa seeks a way out of global crisis

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

A very important conference on climate change took place in Durban, South Africa during early December. COP 17 was sponsored by the United Nations and was billed as an event that would bring all states and regions together to hammer out a new agreement for limiting the rapid pace of global warming which many cite as the cause of the escalating problems of natural disasters, droughts and the mounting food deficits.

On December 11 it was announced that a new agreement had been reached but that it would not be clearly spelled out until 2015 and not implemented until 2020. This outcome of the Durban conference was almost predictable considering the conflicting interests of the industrialized capitalist states and the newly-emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, among others.

What was generally not covered in Durban was the mass mobilizations led by trade unionists, community activists and youth who held a “counter-summit” in what was called a “People’s Space” on the hill at KwaZulu-Natal University. It was from this location that the Global Action Day demonstration was organized which marched to the COP 17 Conference to take a grassroots agenda related to the social concerns of working people and the oppressed.

This “People’s Space” took up the question of mass unemployment and related it to the need to save the environment. A large number of youth with university education attended in an effort to get a clearer understanding as to why they have been rendered to joblessness and low-wage employment.

According to Mike Loewe in relationship to the atmosphere prevailing in the discussions held outside the official COP 17 deliberations, “The issue of climate change is in the air that moves the room. It links everyone and everything. Nobody is allowed to get into their technical box; this is about capitalist psychos, that one percent of greedy, corporate polluters who laud it over the 99 percent, who lobby and bully to prevent any deviation from the keeping their hands on that filthy lucre.” (RDNA, Dec. 4)

The conclusion of the “People’s Space” discussions was that the transnational corporations and the western capitalist states are to blame for the destruction of the environment and its consequent social impact. Lowe says that the activists have noted “Until the masses of people—that 99 percent of humanity—rise up and demand at least one million climate change jobs, the corporates will simply carry on.”

This same article continues pointing out that “The COP 17 conference is dismissed as a done deal, sealed long before the leaders arrived in Durban. Corporate lobbyists and weak or collaborative political leaders have already happily agreed to ‘do nothing at all’ for at least a decade.”

The conference in Durban once again raised the issue of creating a fund of billions of dollars that will assist the developing countries to work toward cleaner energy sources. Yet no firm targets were established and as a result if things do not radically change, Damian Carrington of the Guardian predicts that the failure to act “ensures beyond doubt that our children will be worse off than we have been.” (theweek.com, Dec. 12)

Impact of Climate Change on the Continent

In East Africa there has been drought that created famine in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. These problems of food deficits have escalated tensions inside of all of these countries prompting a Kenyan and Ethiopian invasion of Somalia that is supported by the United States, France and Israel.

In West Africa trees are dying due to lack of rainfall and this impacts water resources, agriculture, food production and distribution. One of the hardest hit areas is the Sahel, which was the focus of a recent study that will be published on December 16 in the Journal of Arid Environments.

Patrick Gonzalez, the lead author of the study, says that “Rainfall in the Sahel has dropped 20-30 percent in the 20th century, the world’s most severe long-term drought since measurements from rainfall gauges began in the mid-1800s. Previous research already established climate change as the primary cause of the drought, which has overwhelmed the resilience of the trees.” (eurekalert.org, Dec. 12)

In this region people need trees for their very survival. Gonzalez notes that “Trees provide people with food, firewood, building materials and medicine.”

The author of this forthcoming study who is based at the University of California at Berkeley, also points out that “We in the U.S. and other industrialized nations have it in our power, with current technologies and practices, to avert more drastic impacts around the world by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Our local actions can have global consequences.”

Nonetheless, Africa’s climate change negotiator at Durban, Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, stressed that “We don’t want Durban to be the graveyard of the Kyoto Protocol,” that set standards for the reduction of pollutants which had been rejected by the U.S. “One billion Africans are suffering from the climate change phenomenon, to which they did not contribute.” (ethjournal.com, Dec. 9)

Yet the conference in Durban created a separate agreement that will allow the Kyoto Protocol to expire in 2012. The problems associated with climate change can only be addressed through mass political actions that hold the corporations and governments accountable for their actions.

One new development is that South Africa will host the first climate change observatory scheduled to open in 2014. The observatory is being constructed in Cape Town and will monitor and “present complex information about global climate change in a relevant, accessible and understandable manner.” (esi-africa.com, Dec. 12)

People in Africa are very concerned about this and are willing to take action. Nighat Amin, who is the vice-president of the International Polar Foundation, that educates the public on polar science and research, says that “There is a willingness here to actually do something about climate change. In other parts of the world there were vested interests, but in South Africa we found that people want to get involved.”

Zimbabwe Fights Sanctions With Mobilization and Nationalization

In neighboring Zimbabwe this Southern African state has been battling U.S., U.K. and EU sanctions for over a decade in response to a massive land redistribution program that returned white-owned farms to indigenous Africans who were colonized beginning in the late 19th century. The ruling party which led the nation to national independence in 1980, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) held its annual National People’s Conference in Bulawayo between December 6-10.

The outcome of the conference in Bulawayo was to enhance the process of “indigenization” which allows the government to seize land and other resources for the benefit of the majority of the population. A December 10 article in the state-owned Zimbabwe Herald stated that “According to the Central Committee report presented by President Mugabe on December 8 to the party’s 12th Annual National People’s Conference here, there are 198 white-owned farms which the department (Land Reform, Resettlement and Agriculture) wants gazetted.” (Herald)

This Central Committee report indicated that “land redistribution was a continuous process and “the Government must continue the process to address the needs of deserving people.” Also the Herald reported that “there were still some white former commercial farmers who were refusing to vacate gazetted land.”

ZANU-PF is preparing to hold elections next year on the future of the country. As a result of the sanctions imposed by the imperialist states, the party formed an inclusive unity government with the western-backed Movement for Democratic Change factions in 2008.

However, the holding of national elections will eliminate the Government of National Unity now in place in Zimbabwe. ZANU-PF feels it is in a position politically to sweep the elections based on its land redistribution program that provided farms to 400,000 families.

The country has endured the sanctions and other destabilization efforts through its close working alliance with South Africa which has refused to blockade the country and deny energy resources as demanded by the West. Also Zimbabwe has close ties with the People’s Republic of China that has defended the government within the United Nations Security Council in the face of additional threats of sanctions.

ZANU-PF foreign policy is centered on the notion of “Look East,” which is designed to increase trade relations with countries in Africa and Asia. Zimbabwe has some of the largest deposits of diamonds in the world and there has been a struggle with the imperialist states who have attempted to block the nation from selling its gems on the international market.

Imperialist Interventions Cannot Bring Development and Democracy

U.S. imperialism and its allies often claim that they are intervening in Africa to protect civilians and to foster security and democracy. Nothing could be further from the truth since the history of colonialism and neo-colonialism has served to suppress the legitimate aspirations and needs of the majority of people within society.

Any development project initiated or supported by the imperialist states is only designed to make profit for the capitalist class. The U.S. has never supported any genuine liberation movement in Africa and has always worked to prevent the right of oppressed peoples to self-determination and sovereignty.

Two excellent examples during 2011 are the destabilization efforts in Ivory Coast and Somalia. In Ivory Coast, the U.S. supported the French plan to remove Laurent Gbagbo from political office and the deportation of this African leader to the Netherlands to stand trial on trumped-up charges of war crimes.

Although Ivory Coast held parliamentary elections on December 10, the polls were boycotted by the party of ousted President Laurent Gbagbo. The situation inside this country, which is the world’s largest producer of cocoa, remains volatile.

In Somalia, under the guise of fighting “terrorism,” the U.S.-backed governments in Kenya and Ethiopia have invaded the country. Shabelle Media Network noted on December 10 that “Fighter jets were reported to have hit an Islamist militant stronghold town located in the southern-war ravaged Somalia on December 10.” (Shabelle)

U.S. drones and French bombs will not bring peace and stability to Somalia or Ivory Coast. Even the Council on Foreign Relations author Bronwyne E. Bruton wrote in an essay advocating for the withdrawal of the West from Somalia said that it was “Utterly unsurprising that Kenya and /or Ethiopia would want to get in on the act. The international war against the Shabaab could provide them with a handsome Western subsidy for setting up shop in the country and—one assumes—forcibly setting up their proxies.” (New York Times, Dec. 9)

Nonetheless, Africa has a long history of resisting slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism and the current wave of U.S. and French military interventions will be met with fierce resistance and the failure of the imperialists and their allies to achieve victory. In relationship to Kenya, the military debacle in southern Somalia has prompted the government to join in with the efforts of AMISOM which has been fighting to prop-up the puppet Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu.

Africa must break with world imperialism and build societies that place the interests of the people above those of the transnational corporations and the western-based financial institutions. It is through this process that genuine peace, development and security will be realized.